Week 49 Tips for the Zone 9 Garden

Posted on December 11, 2015 by Jay White

I hope you have been able to get outside and take advantage of this unseasonably gorgeous weather. Last Saturday, Sally and I took a little horticultural get away to our state’s capital. We had a lovely visit with co-blogger Patty Leander. We toured her amazing garden (she is growing peanuts!) and the extremely well done garden of long-time reader Harry Cabluck. We also took time to visit the new “Lucy and Ian Family Garden” at the Ladybird Johnson Wildlife Center. If you have never been to the Wildflower Center you really need to go. It has always been an awesome place for adult gardeners, landscapers and nature lovers. Now, with the addition of the family garden, the wildflower center is the perfect weekend trip for the entire family.

There has never been a better time to visit the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin. The recent addition of the Lucy and Ian Family Garden ensures your kids or grandkids will enjoy the trip as much as you do.

VEGETABLES/FRUITS

Plant Onions – Last weekend I planted my onions (read how I do it here). I ordered my onions from Dixondale Farms. Dixondale has been growing onion sets in Texas for almost 100 years. Their website is a great resource for onion growers. Not only can you order you plants, you can find recommendations on how to grow them, when to plant them and which varieties to use for your area.
Plant more greens – It is still possible to plant arugula, collards, mustards, lettuce and spinach. In fact, I just planted a container with red lettuce, arugula and spinach last weekend. I love growing greens in containers and keeping them close to the back door. This way my wife and I have ready access to fresh and fabulous salads all weekend
Plant strawberries – December is a great time to plant strawberries. Plant them in full sun and in soil that drains well.
Get row cover ready– Believe it or not, it really is going to freeze sometime soon. Get ready by digging out your row cover and getting moved to your garden.
Spray fruit trees with dormant oil – Dormant oils smother scale insects and other sucking insects that plague peaches, plums, pears and apricots (and crepe myrtles too) in the spring. Most of these are refined petroleum products but you can find dormant oils that come from plants oils. Organic dormant oils should carry the Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI) seal.

Last year I had cauliflower, shallots and spinach sharing space in my potager garden. You can still plant spinach in your Zone 8 and 9 gardens.

ORNAMENTALS

Plant flower bulbs – My 16 month old grandson is visiting. This afternoon I am going to get him to help me plant 50 daffodil bulbs. If you want spring blooms of narcissus, daffodils, jonquils or luecojum you need to plant them now.

Flowers – After Roger and I finish planting our daffodils we are going to plant larkspur. I put out larkspur seeds in a broadcast manner. You can also plant poppies in the same way. December is also a great time to plant dianthus, pansy and violas from transplants

December is a great time to plant pansy and violas (Johnny Jump-Ups) from transplant

I share these posts on Our SimpleHomestead Blog Hop. Be sure to stop by. The “hop” has tons of great information from gardeners and homesteaders all over the world!

Week 46 Tips for the Zone 9 Garden

Posted on November 14, 2015 by Jay White

Thanks to the generosity of a friend, the “dream I dreamed” for my vegetable garden is now very close to completion. Danny Hartley came down last weekend and sloshed around in the sticky, muddy clay and helped me install my irrigation system. It was a big job and I simply could not have done it without his help. Next spring, my garden will consist of 12 rows of herbs, flowers and vegetables that are watered by a soaker hose irrigation system that is feed by my six new water spigots! Thanks so much Danny!

This weekend I will finally get to pull up my okra, tomatoes and cucumbers. One row will be reserved for my onions. The other two will be replanted with beets, turnips, collard and mustard greens. Below are some more things you can do this weekend in your yard and garden.

Thanks to Danny Hartley my dreamsof a “Southern Living” quality garden is one step closer!

VEGETABLES

Plant – One of the great things about gardening in Zone 9 is the ability to plant year round. Even though it is the middle of November you can still plant lots of things. This weekend I will be putting out more beets, turnips, collards and mustard greens. You can also plant sugar snap peas, radishes, lettuce, spinach, Asian greens like bok choi, kale, chard and so much more!!! Do not forget to check out Patty Leander’s Planting guide to see what else you can plant in your November garden
Harvest – If you have things ready for harvest I would suggest that you bring them in. We are fast approaching our average first frost date. While many of our fall veggies can take a light freeze, squash tomatoes and cucumbers cannot.
Fertilize –Heat increases the metabolism of all living things. Because of this, the nutritive value of the compost is “used up” more quickly in the warmer months of the year. If you compost now the cooler temperatures will make your compost “last longer”. Basically, a good heavy application of compost now means you will not need to feed your soil again until April or early May.

ORNAMENTALS

Plant – You can still scatter poppy and larkspur seeds for the next week or so. I have tons of these two flowers and I love them both. They come in several colors so they work in every landscape AND they reseed with abandon. Plant some now and you can realistically have them forever
Prune – It is still too early to prune trees. However, it is a great time to prune ever green shrubs. Since the cool temperatures slow their growth rate for the next few months a good shaping now will keep them looking great until Spring
Fertilize – Just like your in the vegetable garden, an application of compost to your yards will gently feed your lawns until the grass begins actively growing in the spring
Move – If you have made any landscaping mistakes now is a great time to correct them. November is the best time to move (or plant) perennials.

Chicken and Asparagus! Our girls like the fall garden almost as much as Sally and I do.

I share these posts on Our SimpleHomestead Blog Hop. Be sure to stop by. The “hop” has tons of great information from gardeners and homesteaders all over the world!

Week 41 Tips for the Zone 9 Garden

Posted on October 9, 2015 by Jay White

Well, summer is refusing to leave. It is hard to believe that after the record rainfalls of spring, we are slowly slipping back into a drought situation. Because of this, take time this weekend to do some deep watering of your trees, shrubs and other perennials. Below are some more things you can do in your yards and gardens this weekend.

Now is a great time to plant lettuce from seed and shallots. I grow them together in the beds of my potager.

VEGETABLES

Plant greens – Now is a good time to plant spinach and lettuce from seed. I use my Cobrahead Hand Hoe to make a shallow furrow in soil that has been well worked with compost. I spinkle the seeds and then cover lightly. Most greens need some light to germinate os do not plant too deeply or compact the soil too tightly after planting. Keep the soil moist until the plants are at least 1 inch high.
Plant shallots –. While it is still too early to plant bulbing onions, you can plant shallots now. I grow three varieites of shallots. These keep us in onions through the winter and we use their tops in in soups and salads.

My “Crimson Glory” roses are putting on their fall show. Feed your roses now with high phosphorus fertilizers

ORNAMENTALS

Feed your roses – Most of my roses are putting on their fall show. Feed them now with a high phosphorus fertilizer and give them regular water until the first freeze
Gather seeds – My wife loves saving seeds. By this time some of our zinnias and bachelor buttons are beginning to look pretty ragged. Sally pulls up the entire plant, ties them in bundles and then hangs them upside down in our garage. Once they are dry she crushes the seed heads into paper bags, lables them, and them places them in the refrigerator to be used next spring.
Plant poppies – Thanks to my wife’s efforts we have lots of poppy seeds saved from last year. Scatter them on the ground and then drag a rake over them. Water and then forget them. Wait until April and enjoy one of the most prolific and showy flowers of the spring garden
Divide Daylily and iris now – I dig up the entire clump and then beak them up into individual plants. I space my daylilies about and iris about a foot apart.

This weekend is a great time to divide day lilies and iris.

I share these posts on Our SimpleHomestead Blog Hop. Be sure to stop by. The “hop” has tons of great information from gardeners and homesteaders all over the world!

Tip of the Week – Week 5 in the Zone 9 Garden

Posted on January 27, 2015 by Jay White

Between the threat of rain and the Super Bowl it may be hard to get out into the garden this weekend. However, Thursday is supposed to be gorgeous and Friday will be nice. If you can get outside on those days here are some tasks that can be done now:

Vegetables

Right now is a great time to plant your salad fixings. While lettuce (check out my in depth discussion of growing lettuce here)and spinach are the stars, don’t forget that the supporting players like radishes, beets, carrots, kale and mustard greens also can also be planted now. These quick growing greens will be ready for harvest in about 45 days. At that time you will be ready to thin your onions and use them in the salad.

Now is a great time to replant lettuce. My favorites are buttercrisp and black seeded Simpson

Right now is also a good time to start adding compost to your beds. I sprinkle a couple of inches over the areas I am going to plant in March and cover with spoiled hay. It is not warm enough for the compost to start breaking down. However, in conjunction with the hay, it acts as a great mulch that will suppress many spring weeds. It will also feed the worms that will begin taking it down into the soil for you.

Ornamentals

As you know I am a big supporter of field grown flower farmers. Right now my friend Mike at Prickly Pair Farm is planting ammi, stattice and dianthus under cover. You can start the same flowers indoors now. Growing from seed is the best way I know to have a ton of flowers for spring planting without spending a ton of money.

Right now is a great time to begin adding compost to the beds that you will be planting in the March

Lawns

I have a couple hundred daffodils planted in my yard. As I walked around yesterday looking to see if they had broken ground I noticed lots of some very bad weeds beginning to make a stand. Dandelions and thistles are beginning to come on strong. These are easy to take care of with a good sharp hoe. However, my true weed nemesis is Queen Anne’s Lace. Queen Anne’s Lace is actually wild carrot. Right now it is forming its cluster of leaves on the ground. I leave it alone until it sends up its flower stalk then I pull it up, white carrot root and all.

****Be sure to check out my friend Bart’s blog (Our Garden View) for more great tips for the Central and South Central garden!

This post has been shared on the HomeAcre Hop. Be sure to stop by the hop. Tons of great information from gardeners and homesteaders all over the world!

Brassicas Rule, Cannas Drool by Patty G. Leander

Posted on January 20, 2015 by Jay White

Cannas may be beautiful in the summer time, but they sure aren’t very pretty after a freeze. Mine bit the dust right around Christmas, when Old Man Winter showed up and decided to stick around for awhile. Of course my small bed of canna lilies dies back every year yet every year I am amazed at the contrast of the gloomy canna skeletons against the vibrant greens, purples and reds of the brassicas that shrug off the cold weather and keep on growing, proving once again that they deserve a prime spot in the winter garden.

Canna lilies would prefer to spend their winter on a tropical island (me too!) but they’ll be back this summer. Photo by Bruce Leander

Seasoned gardeners are well aware of these gems of the winter garden, but for novice gardeners and those who have been on the fence about a winter garden, I’d like to share a few easy-to-grow vegetables to consider planting next fall.

Mustards, kale and Chinese cabbages love the cold weather. Photo by Bruce Leander

I usually plant sugar snap peas twice a year, mid-September and late January. This year I planted a vining variety from Seed Savers Exchange, called ‘Amish Snap’, on September 17. I started picking on November 11 and plants were still producing in December even after several light freezes. On January 8^th we experienced a freeze with temperatures that fell into the low 20s; the plants survived but the peas took a hit (Note: a more diligent gardener would have harvested the pods before the arrival of a predicted hard freeze!). The outer pods were damaged but many of the peas inside were perfectly edible, with a flavor slightly reminiscent of, well, frozen peas. Since the vines are healthy and the weather is mild, I’ll leave the vines for now to see if I’ll get a another flush of blooms and pods, but in the meantime I’ll seed another round of peas for a spring harvest.

‘Amish Snap’ peas: planting seeds in September, ready to harvest in November, freeze damage in January. Photo by Bruce Leander

Swiss chard, beets and spinach do not belong to the brassica family but they are ideal specimens for a winter garden.

Beets that were seeded in September have provided roots and lovely greens all winter long. Photo by Bruce Leander

Other stalwarts for the winter garden include onions, spinach, carrots and almost every herb you can imagine, except basil. We still have cold winter days ahead and any of these vegetable or herbs could be planted this month to bridge the gap between winter and spring.

Multiplying onions look grow so well in the winter garden, and they look great too! Photo by Bruce Leander

Brighten up your winter meals with the fresh flavor of multiplier onions, mint, dill and oregano.