Texas Veggie Gardeners!! Stories, Tips and ADVICE!

[galanie]

Galanie - where is the place that has cheaper chicken food? 

Ya'll stay dry!

It's Parkway Feed wayyyyyy out on C.E. King Parkway sorta half between Hwy 90 and Tidwell. Quite a drive for me but I go visit my friend out there at least once a month anyway to help her out, she doesn't have a car, so that way I can save a little plus have more reason to go by there. Their Grower food was $14.50 when everyone elses was $16.75. Don't know what it is now, probably the same.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Thanks! Probably too far out for me but I appreciate the info. I'm always looking for a bargain, but with the price of gas probably not much of a bargain.

Anybody ever raise a chicken garden?

 

[yinepu]

The clay is the biggest challenge here too, along with all the tannic acid from the live oaks. I use old hay and various manures to make my compost too - in fact that's on the agenda this weekend, to put down a good layer in the garden and in my pots! I'm determined to stay ahead of the game!

I read about adding greensand to alkaline soils, does anyone do that? If so, how much and when?

ALL of our soil is alkaline (there are several limestone mines nearby).. so we have to add lots of organic matter and sulphur. If we don't then the garden plants have problem utilizing nitrogen, yellow and die

 

[hippiehen]

Well, my lettuce garden has kept my chickens happy all winter, but it didn't do much for my husband and I! I didn't know what to plant so I went with black seeded simpson because it is supposed to be easy to grow, which it is... only they don't tell you it's flimsy and nasty! lol so I have a garden full of chicken, duck and turkey greens!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Okay - tell me that everything in nature isn't confused by this weather! I came home from work early and got a jump start on the outside chores. I was piddling in one of the garden areas and lo and behold there is okra volunteering right now. It's tiny and it's a little pale, but it's okra! I doubt it'll make it through this (so-called) winter, but I'm just amazed that it even germinated this early.

Fast forward about an hour - I was in another one of my garden spots and was bent over and pulling some old mulch back from a pea trellis in preparation to plant, and lo and behold (again) I find peas already growing under the trellis. Now, I'm not going to call them volunteers because they are too neat and in a perfect little row right under the netting, but they are there. I refuse to admit that I'm too old to remember planting them there earlier in the fall. Maybe that was the day I took beer to the garden to bait for slugs and drank the rest of it? Whatever the case, I've peas coming up.

I love Mother Nature!

 

[texas75563]

I have a small garden area guessing 40' x 100'. A couple different peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, green beans, squash, carrots, raddishes, onions, cabbage, potatoes, and dill was what I planted this last year.

Of course I let the dill go to seed for using to make pickles. Plus some seeds fell off. Dill crop increased. I let a few carrots seed, have new carrots coming up. Radishes make pods that look like beans with seeds inside. I just let them fall off, will see if any come back up. I let picked about 6 onion heads and put on a shelf on porch. Evidently wind blew alot of seeds to the yard. I have dug up over 100 onion plants and that many more to dig up. I cut my cabbage off just under the base of the head. They all look good and will make heads again.

I saved seeds from everything else, except potatoes. I will start my seeds here in the next few days. Then I will transplant to garden during the week following Easter.

My only advice to anyone would be if a plant makes seeds, leave a few and let them. Save a few each of your vegetables for seeds for following year.

 

[urban escapee]

I go to Wabash Feedstore too, though not always since I've found a place close to a friends house on the east end that is cheaper for chicken food. I love Wabash's selection of heirloom tomatoes in the spring, the plants I mean. Now just to find one that I like. I have a few varieties in mind I want to try, I just hope they have the plants for them this year. They told me the same thing on the ants but the jury is still out on that. I think the dried molasses is supposed to kick start the soil microorganisms (molasses and brown sugar are used to make IMO and EM - it feeds the microorganisms they want to grow) which will then somehow improve the soil flora enough for.. I don't know. They are not active right now anyway.

the Molasses worked on the ants for me. My garden in an area that was covered up with brush and trees...actually everywhere was covered and most still is LOL. So we are literally starting from scratch here. Right after I planted my garden the ants moved in and ate a lot of my plants, tossed the molasses out and they were gone. The plants love the carbs from it and for some reason the ants hate it.

 

[galanie]

I actually did buy some of that dried molasses stuff and will put more of it out when I see ant activity. So far there isn't much but since my entire back yard was a fire ant playground last summer, I'm sure I'll see some more soon.

Talk about messed up weather, I have apples on my apple tree. It's a dwarf Red Delicious that has had a hard life and the squirrels always ensure that I never get a harvest, but I just hate seeing those apples on there now.

I'm just glad I don't have slugs so I don't have to share my beer with them!
Loved sharing it with my roo though, miss that guy.

 

[urban escapee]

LOL I went by my old house the other day to pick up a few more things, and the Citrus trees had new oranges on them and the lemon was in bloom. Of course they bloomed in the right time last year but we had no fruit due to the weather. Gotta love TX

 

[yinepu]

I have seed coming within the next week or so for "heat tolerant" tomatoes..

White Beefsteak
Thessaloniki Greek
Arkansas Traveler
Costoluto Fiorentino

hopefully they do well with our heat

I was looking into a few others.. but they seem to be a bit harder to find and one has been "discontinued"
*sighs*