From a Houston garden to the table

Archive for the ‘Gardening’ Category

A garden is always moving forward in unexpected ways, but looking back helps us to understand the way forward.

Do you look back at what worked and what failed for you? I review my year, maybe because I am going paperwork and creating end of year reports. I have not really done this with my garden though. I remember what worked, what did not, and I have ideas for the future. I am considering the drought and its effects on my garden this last summer, so I want to think about how I should proceed in a better way. I am viewing my failures, since we can learn so much more from them than a success.
    My biggest failure was the design for the spinnable compost bin. My design worked well with a small amount of kitchen waste, but when I loaded the bin with yard waste, the bin collapsed. I came up with a plan to repair the bin, but I went in a different direction. The problem is space. I had a good deal of wood, so I made this compost/recycling/work center behind my shed. The spinnable bin worked well for kitchen waste, but I wanted a larger compost production method, which for me meant the standing bin. The space where the spinnable bin was located could be used for planting.
    Giving more of my yard over to garden beds was a good decision for me. I have mentioned the trend away from lawns, and we each have to discover what is best for our lifestyles. I know that some people lament the loss of the American lawn, but I did not want to be a grass farmer. I am going to slightly extend the current layouts of garden bed to lawn, yet I feel that I have achieved a good balance. The children have play areas, and many of the plants did better than the grass.
    Another failure of sorts was planning out plantings. For the most part this did work out; however, I should consider plants that do well in droughts, or when I plant. I began focusing more on sowing seeds, which is more economical. Established plants going into the garden have done better, so next year I want to do better with starting seeds in flats, then moving them into the garden.

    I also had mixed results with my vertical garden. Again, the problem is starting plants from seeds. During the hot summer months, the seeds sprouted, but the plants had a hard time. Even though our autumn was warm with little rain and water restrictions still in place, the nasturtium started from seed enjoyed my vertical garden. I want to try more vertical gardens next year.
    Did I actually save money by growing my own vegetables? I think that I broke even. The drought caused me to water more, which was an expense, and as I said, I wasted money on plantings that failed due to a lack of watering. I did obtain most of my vegetables from my own garden. My method of gardening has allowed plants to return from seeds. Each winter I find cilantro popping up. Each spring brings spinach. My winter vegetables are producing food again. To be more successful, I have to plan out ways to save on water while producing vegetables.
    Reviewing my problem areas gives me ideas for the coming year. I really should sit down in January to create a plan. Part of this plan has to include preserving produce. I prefer to eat seasonally, but traditionally in Texas, the later months of summer are not good for vegetable production, and preserving vegetables was how families fed themselves.

Do you have too many leaves to handle? Composting does not need to take place in a bin, leaving the leaves on the ground will allow them to decompose. Here is a method for people with limited space.

The forest floor is a lush place, which is achieved through composting, the natural way. The trees drop their leaves. Rain waters the leaves. Animals step on them to help in the breaking down process. Insects and earthworms take from the leaves to further the decomposition. For the next growing season, the tree has a ready source of nutrients. We sweep our leaves away to keep the maintained look of our homes. Well, most of us do. I use leaves as a mulch in a few of my garden beds that are not in the obvious line of sight of my visitors, yet with so many leaves, I had to find other locations, which was not always with my wife’s approval. I had an idea last fall where I could use the leaves as a mulch path along the side of the house. I was not sure how this would work; however I am reaping the rewards of this compost for my late fall garden.
    The experiment was simple:  lay the leaves that I collected onto a path as a mulch. My wife was dubious. The leaves by themselves were not too attractive, and there was quite a pile. To improve the appearance, I applied a layer of wood chip mulch. My wife approved of this look. The path was a bit springy/soft for the first few weeks. This is a well traveled path, and it is located through garden beds where I frequently work. During the course of the year, I did not add to the path. I had to weed a few times. By summer, this was a well worn path.
    The result of this easy compost was revealed over the past few weeks. I needed mulch/compost for a new garden bed, so I began to dig up the path. Leaves were beginning to fall from the trees, so I knew that I would have a replacement path covering. I found a rich compost mixture below. This was compacted material though. I broke the mixture apart, and now it is in the garden beds. The wood chips are still present, but I find that I will find large wood chips i compost bags that I buy from garden centers. I could sift the compost for a finer material, but I felt that this would be great as a top layer in a garden bed.
    I have a shredder for chopping up the leaves and other prunings; however, I have been not been using this device. I could use this to make the wood chip mulch for the path, but I admit to buying cedar mulch for my path. Cedar repels unwanted pests, which is desired near these beds. The path is a little more than three feet wide and about twenty-five feet long. I am taking a little material out at a time, to be replaced with leaves as they fall. I am relying on my other composting systems for a finer grade of compost. No one realized that they were walking on the compost, and I water this ground when working on the beds. I did not add manure, but otherwise this method mimicked the natural composting method.
    I was happy with the result of this experiment, and I want to see how I will fare next year. The benefit for me this year has been that I have a good deal of material for new garden beds, which I have been casually doing these last few months. I see neighbors who have ripped out their lawns in favor of simple beds. My vegetables have been quite attractive, and many a passer-by has not been able to separate vegetable from ornamental. I am sure to report on this experiment next year.

Some plants need that first bite of cold weather to produce the flavors we love. My ginger told me the time was right to harvest in Houston.

I love gardens with some character. I have performed a few new construction home inspections recently, and I am always impressed at how quickly the bare yard is transformed into a garden. My only problem is that these scenes have been standardized, and I realize that I should not expect something else. In between inspecting two new homes, I concentrated on my meditation garden. This is the space that my wife and girls want based upon a little garden by a church. I moved the current landscape out of the way to begin making the path in a shape of a cross. The children and I began working on making decorations for a tree in the front yard that we want to look like a Christmas tree. With all of this going back and forth through the gardens, I noticed that the ginger was receding. The few Houston cold snaps had convinced my ginger to go dormant, which means that harvesting was in order.

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The drought brought an end to many Houston gardeners, but with freezing and near freezing temperatures arriving, what little gardening activity we had seems to have come to a stop.

Each morning I pass my antique roses on the way to the car. Katya wants some cut flowers to give to her teachers. Sakura wants to stop to enjoy the fragrance. I am reminded that there are many plants which give us a bounty of colors in late fall through winter. I planted geraniums yesterday. Violets were planted the day before yesterday. A few chrysanthemums still are putting on their show. I have bought pansies as well. I have been sitting in the garden, watching the children play. However, I noticed tat a few neighbors who began to improve their gardens with the cooler weather have now stopped, due to the freezes. This is a great time to garden in Houston, and we have a chance for winter vegetables.
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The drought is not done, but we may be dealing with the effects sooner that you realize. Large dead trees threaten our homes.

He looks across to his neighbors yard, and asks me if that tree is dead. This was a smaller tree about twenty feet tall. Leaves were a tan/brown. All the leaves were that color, and they were all on the tree. Yes, it was dead. That guy does not take care of his yard, was the response. True, but I have noticed this with more homes. I was at a short sale home doing an inspection, noticing that many bushes were dead. A dead bush or a smaller dead tree may not be a threat to the home, but they are a cost. New owners will have to replant or at least take these dead specimens from the yard. Where I begin to worry is the much larger trees.

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Maybe we should be thinking about which flowers, but attracting bees may help your vegetable production.

I have been confronted with the argument that if I am serious about vegetable production in my yard, then I should not grow anything that is not edible. I have been told to focus only on natives; imitate nature; improve on nature; and mix everything up when it comes to plantings. Reality sets in though when you are a gardener in an urban environment. Your neighbors may tolerate vegetables, but they may not tolerate your home looking like a farm. Someone noticed me planting chrysanthemums in my yard, and asked if they were edible? Not to my knowledge. They do have a nice light fragrance though. So why was I planting them? I like them, and my daughters enjoy flowers. What attracts me to garden mums is the display that they will put on each year. The plant is a perennial, so I leave them in the ground, instead of ripping them out like annuals after their prime. I like annuals, but I like the fact of not having to buy new plants each year as well.
    Can I justify valuable garden space to a non-vegetable? I like how my garden is evolving. The one, long bed on the other side of the driveway holds many vegetables, but to me it is almost looking like one of those English perennial hedges. I enjoy wandering into the bed to find something for dinner, but I am happy to be able to relish in the view of this bed. I may not make some urban farmers happy, but I think the permaculturist would be. Mixing the plant environment between edibles and non-edibles does fit in with a more natural plan, and one that I hope will reap some benefits: less pest damage. However, I began to consider are there other benefits to adding seasonal flowers into the garden? During the heat of summer, when many of my flowering plants were wilting, I did have a few vegetable plants attempt to produce. I did not harvest much. This may be in part due to the lack of bees. My youngest daughter and I were having lunch in a little garden seating area, watching the bees humming around the basil. We had been doing this for days, so we had observed how this frenzy of bees began with one bee. After a couple of days, we thought that we picked up on three distinct bees. On the fifth day, I am not sure how many bees were watching. The bees were not just focusing on the basil at this point. They were perturbed that we were sitting near the squash blossoms. They also hovered around the cucumber vine. 
    Vegetables near a mint that was in full bloom also saw more bee activity. The squash near my rose, which only seems to produce one flower a week, did not see much activity from the bees. I have to study this idea more, but I think the type of flower does play a role. My older garden mums are in their full prime of flowering, and I have not seen them attract to many bees. I have seen bees, but they prefer the flowers of herbs in my garden. Oh, I will find them en masse around the azaleas in spring, so I know herbs are not their only interest.  My field of pansies do not hold the interest of the bees. The thought gives me a reason to sit quietly in the garden for hours on end. I can start taking notes which plants will bring in the bees to help the vegetables produce. In the mean time, my daughters can pick the mums to scatter around the house as they always see fit.

If you are growing many plants from seeds, you may want to obtain a greenhouse. This will protect the plants, while making the seed starting process easier.

I am growing more of my plants from seed this year. This makes sense for gardeners on a budget who want many plants. You may have seen those plastic trays that have the clear plastic cover. I have used them, but these mini-greenhouses break down on me. They are not too expensive, but I did not like buying something that I knew would be thrown away after a few years. This past year I ad success with using mulch bags. I previously mentioned this technique, but I am currently having a problem. Well, there are two problems: my two year old; and squirrels. A greenhouse was in order.
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What inspires you to create a garden space? Have you considered creating a garden for contemplation? You may find that your church has thought about creating such outdoor spaces, and they may inspire you.

I was working all weekend, so my wife and children went to spend time with my wife’s sister. They went to her church on Sunday, where my daughter’s discovered a garden where they wanted to stay. Upon coming home, I was greeted by my older daughter with the request that I had to watch a video. “Do you like it?”, she asked. “Yes, I do.” “Well, you need to get the paint right.” “The paint?” “Oh yes, for the statue that you are going to make of Jesus’ mother.” I had been conscripted into re-creating this garden in our own home. Our already crowded yard may not hold another garden room (was my thought). However, I agreed as my girls discussed their plans on how to design this garden.
    Many gardeners will add spaces for contemplation. I noticed in one garden center that they had various objects of a more oriental flavor to meet this gardening need. For some people, these spaces can be little garden nooks. Others can fill the entire garden. I have to look as to how I can create room for this space, but I think that I have an idea. For the girls, the important part is having the stone mulch path in the form of a cross, a statue of the Virgin Mary, the roses, and a bench for sitting. A contemplation garden may be a great room to have. Everyone needs time to sit down to meditate on the day.
    Garden inspiration can be simple. You may find a landscape that fascinates you, so you can find a way to replicate the space in your own yard.

The children and I are planting seeds, a lot of seeds. I would love to have one of those mini-greenhouses, considering how many flats of seeds we have been starting, but sometimes you can make do with what you have.

My wife is not always happy when she sees me setting items aside to save. I have been saving the containers from plants that I purchased. They are not recyclable. My daughters have played with them, but I had another goal in mind. She really began to wonder why I was saving the bags for the mulch. I kept telling her that they would be useful. She thinks that I hoard items just for the sake of keeping them. Maybe I am trying to reuse to much; however, this time I had a plan that worked out well.
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How does your family cope when there is no money to buy food? What if you have money, but you cannot afford the ingredients for a healthy meal? Maybe you ave suffered from a natural disaster, can you prepare a meal. An edible landscape can be one method of providing food.

    My children and I are each preparing a flat for more seeds. This process has been happening every day for the last three days. I do save time by purchasing vegetables in pots, but that habit can be expensive for all of my vegetable needs, and I do not always find the variety of vegetables that I want. An herb farmer mentioned that he had to be planting almost every day to keep up his supply, and I almost feel that I am doing the same. Late August was rough on my vegetable plants, and I did not harvest as much as I desired. When I scan the garden beds now (not long after August), I discover a great deal to use in my meals. A series of questions and conversations caused me to wonder about the availability of healthy food.
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