Texas Spring/Summer Thread

[jinman]

My wife and I got out and covered all our tender veggies. I've also been busily cultivating and weeding my onions yesterday and this morning. Actually, the only weed is nutgrass. The ground is really crusty, so I'm breaking it up and tilling to aerate. I planted my onions on a raised bed and the darn rain is washing the soil away from them. I get it good and tilled and pull it back around to cover at least up to where the leaves separate from the bulb/stem. I found some pretty dry spots where I added sand and didn't get it completely mixed. I'll have to water more in those areas because the sand drains so quickly.

I cultivated around each tomato plant and pepper plant as we covered them. Everything is well cultivated. I've found that if I don't keep the soil loose, rain seems to pound and solidify the surface so it is really crusty. That's probably just my soil.

My wife cut asparagus spears while I tilled. She cut about 30 spears and I made more asparagus roll-ups to have as snacks when my grandson gets off the bus. The ones I fixed to take to my daughter's house turned out delicious. I gotta go put them into the oven.

Oh yes. . . I cut some spears into 1-1/2" chunks and dropped them into some left-over pickle vinegar. After a week, they were quite tasty. Who would have guessed that you can pickle asparagus?

 

[Bird]

Who would have guessed that you can pickle asparagus?

Jim, I've had pickled asparagus and it's delicious. We're still good friends with a couple who used to live next door to us in the late 70s, early 80s. And she had a sister who was a school teacher somewhere in the state of Washington. That sister had a boyfriend who was a commercial asparagus farmer. So when she came to visit she'd bring some canned, pickled asparagus with no labels on the cans, so I don't know where they had it canned. That's the only asparagus I've seen pickled, although I see that Amazon.com sells more than one brand.

 

[farmgirl19]

Can I come and eat with you?.. sound like your dogs eat better than I.:laughing:. Lou

Of course, Lou! I grow most of my own food, and love to cook, freeze and can. I am a long drive from the gulf coast though. And if we set record low temps tonight, I don't think anyone will want to be around me much, any time soon!

 

[pacerron]

My wife and I got out and covered all our tender veggies. I've also been busily cultivating and weeding my onions yesterday and this morning. Actually, the only weed is nutgrass. The ground is really crusty, so I'm breaking it up and tilling to aerate. I planted my onions on a raised bed and the darn rain is washing the soil away from them. I get it good and tilled and pull it back around to cover at least up to where the leaves separate from the bulb/stem. I found some pretty dry spots where I added sand and didn't get it completely mixed. I'll have to water more in those areas because the sand drains so quickly.

Jim,
It has been cold up here too. Our little onion patch is starting to pop though. Been in about 2-3 weeks now. You won't believe it but there are 850-1000 onions in this little spot of old used potting soil.
Been doing it that way for years. Way to early to plow the garden.
My wife quit counting at 400 but had more than half left to plant. I think 8 pounds of onion sets in all. There are more to come up. We weed them by eating lots of them everyday as soon as they barely start to form a round head on the bottom. We usually consume them all in a month or+1/2. Rest of the year, big round store bought onions, but our favorite in the winter are #4166 from the Andes mountains. We buy about 1/2 bushel as soon as they come to the store in about January.
Asparagus patch is just starting to produce this year, so you guys are way ahead down there, even though you have been cold. We don't dare plant tomatoes till the 20th of May and even then we could have a frost problem, but not usually.
Ron

 

[texasjohn]

55 degrees now, breezy, low flying clouds from horizon to horizon, winter is back!

 

[jinman]

Jim,
It has been cold up here too. Our little onion patch is starting to pop though. Been in about 2-3 weeks now.
Ron

I got my onions in the 1st week of March, so I'm ahead of you just a little. Most of my onions are exactly the same size as yours. I'm sure that potting soil is the perfect medium. It must allow great root formation. Tell your wife that I said it looked like she was wasting space. Can't she plant them a little closer? :laughing:

Bird: I first experimented with left-over green olive vinegar. It seems much more salty than regular pickle vinegar. By cutting the spears into sections, the pickling vinegar seems to really be easily absorbed. I'll have to look on Amazon for some.

 

[pacerron]

I got my onions in the 1st week of March, so I'm ahead of you just a little. Most of my onions are exactly the same size as yours. I'm sure that potting soil is the perfect medium. It must allow great root formation. Tell your wife that I said it looked like she was wasting space. Can't she plant them a little closer? :laughing:

Yes the soil is great. I mixed sand with the clay there many years ago which was ok, but when I caught her tossing the potting soil from the deck rail petunia baskets and other hanging pots over the hill, I made a strong suggestion....
So it has a lot of years of her homemade mix of peat, vermiculite, and potting soil mix tilled into it. Snap peas also love it, but your white tailed friends eat them off to the ground. I guess I should put some your famous deer fabric around that spot too. We really love that stuff. I left the T posts in the ground and was able to plow around them last fall, so putting it back up will take about 30 minutes of unrolling from the plastic pipe we use as a gate end and tying it to the posts with used plastic baling cord.
Ron

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Jim, I know you've stated in the past that "if you just keep weeding nutsedge, eventually the roots will die". How long do you have to do this? Nutsedge has taken over my garden. I think how deep I tilled may have something to do with it? I scraped off about a foot of soil with my boxblade and then put it back after a few days to air out. Added some lime, fertilizer and ashes to the top and tilled it in about 6-8" deep. I hate nutsedge...I hate nutsedge....I hate nutsedge. (wish I could afford one of those little baby honda tillers, but I'd still have to weed close in to the plants). I have planted my rows about 3 feet apart so I can till with my 24" tiller in between. Wastes a lot of space.

Planted about 30+ of sweet corn seeds and only about 5 or 6 germinated....bought seed at TSC.

 

[txdon]

Kyle, the best seeds in Giddings are in the Ace Hardware bins.

 

[Bartcephus]

Good Morning All, 41 Cool spring degrees this morning and cloudy. I can't complain about the weather as far as the garden goes, I have been unable to plant because I am moving from my 1/2 acre city lot to 10 rural acres. Still serviced by city (rural) water, (read no well to maintain.) but does have septic. I have tilled up a garden spot, but I have not had time to plant anything. A neighbor (at the old place) and I built a green house, but the temp drop under 32 around the end of March made us start over. (No the GH is not heated.) I can hardly wait to get seeds in the soil. The rains have hampered the ability to get in the garden AND moving. With these colder temps... I don't think I am too far behind my neighbors. Have a great day all!

 

[Bird]

34 degrees this morning and we got about .06" of rain last night just before midnight. But a clear sunny day this morning.

 

[jinman]

Well, I think this is a record for late cold weather. I have two thermometers and they both say 30.5 F this morning. There's no frost out there though. I guess the air must be too dry. I just hope my Bush beans didn't freeze. I've pretty much written off my blackeyes, but I'm hoping the beans hang in there. I don't think my sweet peas will have any problem. It's supposed to warm up to 61 this afternoon.

Ron: Since you are picking your onions so early and not letting them mature fully, I don't see any problem with putting them as close together as you can get them. I'm surprised the deer have not found your onions. I thought they liked wild onions. . . maybe not. That deer fence stuff is great, but it won't stop 'coons. I saw a 6" hole in my netting about 10 days ago. It had just rained and there were 'coon tracks outside and just inside the hole. I also have some firewood stacked on my deck that the 'coons like to use for an outhouse. Like dogs, they seem to come back to the same spot. My grandson found it and there is probably half a dozen 'coon poop piles on the logs.

Kyle: I think I've said you could kill out poison ivy and greenbriars by repeatedly cutting off the tops, but not nutgrass. After a nuclear holocaust, the only things left will be roaches and nutgrass. You may be able to slow it down by pulling it, but even when you get the nut (tuber) out, you have to burn it and haul the ashes out 10 miles into the ocean to dump them to keep it from coming back. I had luck this last fall with using roundup. It just looked like it stunned the nutgrass, but this spring where I sprayed it has not come back or there are only a few sprigs. The place where I have the most is where I brought sand from the sandbar in the lake to fill and mix into my garden. If I don't weed those areas, I'll have beautiful nutgrass and cockle-burs growing everywhere. Roundup in the fall and control during the growing season should help me keep the noxious weeds/grass under control.

BTW Kyle, check your ground temperature and the germination temperatures for your seed by searching online. I've planted okra twice and can't get a stand because it has not been warm enough. Okra needs the warmest ground temperature to germinate. It would be happy to germinate when the temperature is above 90 F and the sun has the ground even hotter. Blackeyed peas like soil temperatures in the 80s. I got mine to come up during a warm spell, but the cold has just about frozen them out. I'm not sure about corn, but I'd bet it's a combination of temperature and planting depth.

 

[Lou66]

Jim, I know you've stated in the past that "if you just keep weeding nutsedge, eventually the roots will die". How long do you have to do this? Nutsedge has taken over my garden. I think how deep I tilled may have something to do with it? I scraped off about a foot of soil with my boxblade and then put it back after a few days to air out. Added some lime, fertilizer and ashes to the top and tilled it in about 6-8" deep. I hate nutsedge...I hate nutsedge....I hate nutsedge. (wish I could afford one of those little baby honda tillers, but I'd still have to weed close in to the plants). I have planted my rows about 3 feet apart so I can till with my 24" tiller in between. Wastes a lot of space.

Kyle the Master Gardeners of Brazoria county had an article about nut grass/ nutsedge a couple of years ago,, that I found interesting,, what they said,, if I remember correctly the root of the nut grass extensive into the ground a couple of feet,, and this root has a nut/nodules every few inches,, if you pull the sprout or shoot another one will take its place on the top and on the bottom.. no winner.. I have had some luck in killing them out,, well slowing it down.. Here is what they have to say about it.. use sugar and sifter, wet your garden then walk around with a sifter and few pounds of sugar,, I tried it and it worked takes a couple of months but it did work,, you can use it on your garden in the spring or lawn.. once you get the sugar on the ground again water it down.. but not to the point of washing it down the drain.. anyway good luck.. plus if you have an organic garden it痴 still organic.. Lou

 

[pacerron]

Ron: Since you are picking your onions so early and not letting them mature fully, I don't see any problem with putting them as close together as you can get them. I'm surprised the deer have not found your onions. I thought they liked wild onions. . . maybe not. That deer fence stuff is great, but it won't stop 'coons. I saw a 6" hole in my netting about 10 days ago. It had just rained and there were 'coon tracks outside and just inside the hole. I also have some firewood stacked on my deck that the 'coons like to use for an outhouse. Like dogs, they seem to come back to the same spot. My grandson found it and there is probably half a dozen 'coon poop piles on the logs.

.

Jim,
We have other methods to control coons up here:wink:

 

[farmgirl19]

My okra sprouted 9 days after planting, but the last 2 weeks of having frosts, have killed about half of it, and sure stunted the other half. I'll see how it all looks on Sunday, and decide if I am going to live with what I have, or replant all of it. Of course, if I replant, I'll be making sure another frost isn't predicted for next week.

 

[Bird]

Well, we'll hope we've just had the last of our cold weather. This weekend Muenster, TX, has their annual Germanfest. We went 2 years ago with a daughter and son-in-law and hope to go again this Saturday.

 

[Lou66]

I got two rack of pork ribs,, about 6 pound each,, I will be smoking them today.. one of my grandson brought them to me.. they have a couple of hogs hanging in the cooler and they wanted to make room for a couple of more.. their small chiller my good luck,, nice and cool outside,, a good day for some cold beer and a pig on the grill.. I like being retired.. Lou

 

[ronjhall]

Went to the Germanfest with Jim. Had a great time.

Sent from my iPhone using TractorByNet

 

[farmgirl19]

a good day for some cold beer and a pig on the grill.. I like being retired.. Lou

Every day is a good day for pig on the grill and cold beer!

 

[Lou66]

Come on down farmgirl,, they should be ready time you get here,:licking:, beer maybe gone tho.:confused3:. Had to move my smoker in on the patio,, looks like rain.. rain in a good thing,, Lou