Texas Spring/Summer Thread

bigbull338 · Jun 24, 2012

well to me maters are cheaper to grow than they are to buy from the stores.i think i spent less than $30 putting in the garden.an prolly got over $300 in produce out of it so far.

jinman · Jun 24, 2012

bigbull338 said:
well to me maters are cheaper to grow than they are to buy from the stores.i think i spent less than $30 putting in the garden.an prolly got over $300 in produce out of it so far.

Congratulations! I mean that sincerely. If you have a place where you can drop in a garden and not spend hours and dollars tending it, then you are a lucky man. I'm not poking fun here. The place where I grew up had soil that just about grew anything we planted. All it needed was the attention of a couple of teenage boys with hoes to keep the weed population down. My current place is just not like that. I've got the $25k tractor with the $2k tiller just to prep the ground. I had to haul in about 300 yds of material just to build my garden on top of clay. We have a deer fence around the garden that was about $250 and 12 soaker hoses at about $15 each. Add to that the mulch, fertilizer, compost, and insecticide and you are pushing another $100 in cost. That doesn't count the time my wife and I spend watering, hoeing, and picking. Considering time is money, I think we are producing some very expensive veggies. Last year's production was a little over 1,000 lb for our garden, so we are definitely getting some payback, but we gave 2/3 of the stuff away, so those on the receiving end were the real benefactors.

Now, don't get me wrong. I love to garden and I'm happy with the results. It's just that in my own personal experience, we could do better by just buying local grown at the local produce market. At some point over the years, I'll reach the break-even and go-ahead points on garden expenditures, but I'm a long way from that at this point even though I'm not even close to giving it up.

pacerron · Jun 24, 2012

Maybe it's just psychological but to my wife and I, it just tastes better when picked ripe a few minutes or the same day it is eaten.
Her canned veggies tomatoes, pickles, pears etc, and frozen blueberries are much better than store stuff.
And we know what kind of pooh and chemicals are used on them.

Alien · Jun 25, 2012

I am not a gardener. I found that out. My potatoes sort of grew and I managed a feed off them. My beans did grow, but no pods. My peas grew but not enough to bother picking. Just ate what was left off the vines. (about 6 of them) Silver beet got eaten by bugs. My corn got eaten by the horse who leaned over the fence. Pumpkins, what pumpkins? Nup, never again, all I did was harvest weeds every week.

NativeSon · Jun 26, 2012

100* yesterday at 2 pm, finally dropped below 100* about 5pm. They've put out heat alerts for today from 11am till 9pm. Forcasted high today is 103* and highs will be 100 or above through Fri.

I'm going to try to get some mowing done and the garden watered this morning and quitting time today will be about noon. It'll be too hot to sit out on the deck even if you have a lot of the appropriate beverage.

Ya'll try to stay cool. When it gets this hot you have to be very careful.

Charlie

bindian · Jun 26, 2012

Going to work thru downtown Houston at 8:15 last night. Outside air temperature gage read 102. 101 after getting thru downtown........ and 99 at Hobby Airport at 8:30.
hugs, Brandi

Western · Jun 26, 2012

105* here today. Got up early and started "dragging hoses". No wind and high heat made for a nasty day. Cool down coming Friday, high supposed to be 99*. Nice to be home, but the wife and daughter are flying out in the morning to visit her dad near Ft Bragg. So I'll sit here and "simmer" for 10 days:laughing:

Bird · Jun 26, 2012

Dennis, it was 104 for a long time this afternoon, supposed to be about the same tomorrow and I need to mow, edge, and trim the yards. I plan to start early and hope to survive the heat.

Western · Jun 26, 2012

Bird said:
Dennis, it was 104 for a long time this afternoon, supposed to be about the same tomorrow and I need to mow, edge, and trim the yards. I plan to start early and hope to survive the heat.

Early is the only way to do it, still a bit warm in the evening. I thought the humidity was high, at least thats what it felt like, but the weatherman said it was under 50%. It was just plain hot ..