Good
morning, Next Tuesday In Marfa I have been asked to give a
presentation on spring garden preparation. Due to an unforeseen
circumstance I have also been asked to do a garden bug presentation.
I believe today is the cutoff day if you would like to attend. Follows is a dated anounceement but the contact info is correct.
Far
West Texas Tri-Community Horticulture Program slated for March
3
AgriLife
Extension Program set in Marfa’s Hotel Paisano Ballroom
MARFA–
The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service will conduct the
Tri-Community Horticulture Program from 8:30 a.m.- 4 p.m. March
3 in the Hotel Paisano Ballroom, 207 N. Highland St. in Marfa.
“With
the temperatures bouncing from the 70s one day then plunging into the
30s the next, even our landscape plants are having trouble deciding
what season it is,” said Jesse Lea Schneider, AgriLife Extension
agent in Presidio County. “But as crazy as this winter has been
weather-wise, one thing’s for sure and that’s spring will be here
before you know it. With that in mind, the goal of this program is to
ready our gardeners to take full advantage of what’s shaping up to
be a wonderful gardening year.”
The
tri-county effort is being conducted by the AgriLife Extension
offices in Presidio and Brewster/Jeff Davis counties. Individual
registration is $10 due upon arrival. RSVP by Feb. 26 by calling
either the AgriLife Extension office in Presidio County
at 432-729-4746,
or in Brewster/Jeff Davis counties call 432-837-6207.
More information is also available by calling those numbers.
Topics
and their presenters will include:
– Garden
Protection: Spring Frost, April Wind, and May Heat!, Mark Foster, the
“Dirt Farmer,” professional gardener, Alpine.
– Common
Garden Pests: Whiteflies, Flea Beetles, Aphids, Earworms, OH MY!,
– Tomato
101, Selection and Type, and Earth-Kind Practices, Denise Rodriguez,
AgriLife Extension horticulturist, El Paso County.
– Ice
Storm Tree Damage and Repair and Trans Pecos Champion Trees, Oscar
Mestas, Texas A&M Forest Service, regional urban forester, El
Paso.
Marfa
Rainfall Regime and Estimating Wetting Depth And Moisture For A Given
Rainstorm, Dr. Alyson McDonald, AgriLife Extension range specialist,
Fort Stockton.
“We’ll
end the day with an evaluation of the day’s proceedings,”
Schneider said. “But for those who are interested, Oscar Mestas
will present a live demonstration on how the Texas A&M Forest
Service measures a champion tree, a practice they use when adding a
tree to their Big Tree Registry program. The program locates and
recognizes the largest known species of its kind that grows in
Texas.”
This
week I would like to start off with a quote from W. Edward Deming.
“It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory” He was
a very interesting fellow. Check him out
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Edwards_Deming
Since
moving to Alpine in 2003 I have been on a steep learning curve with
Southwest arid gardening. It has been very challenging. I thought I
was an experienced gardener before moving here. Was I ever naïve!!
I
have tried to adapt to the environment instead trying to adapt it to
me. The latter would be a very laborious with few if any rewards.
When
I first moved here I thought I had gardened in an ARID climate.
Central Oregon was only a lower case kind of arid. I have been
humbled here. Especially when we had the angry months of May and
June in the Spring of 2011. It is really hard to comprehend how
difficult it is to keep plants alive and growing with 0 percent
humidity and 100 degree heat. This is a formidable foe. No
compromise. It is “its way or no way” kind of weather.
Luckily
I had some learning years from 2003 up until the 2011 drought, this
was very important. It took a few years of watching the seasonal
weather changes and adapting planting schedules to help me adapt to
this area. The growing season here is very different from anywhere
else that I have lived. I feel one of the biggest adaptions for
myself was to define the seasons and at what times of year these
occur. This helped me to determine the best veggie varieties to plant
or sow for the best likely out come. I have been reasonably
successful at gardening in our ARID climate, but I feel there is so
much more to learn.
Maybe
because this is the first place where I have had a year round garden,
but I have been acutely aware that no two years have been the same.
This has been a real challenge in and of itself. I always have been a
weather forecast watcher but even more so now. I have come to rely on
two different weather sites that tend to be more accurate than others
that I have followed. But probably just paying attention to what is
actually happening on the “farm” is the most useful.
The
use of agriculture fabric has really helped level this playing field.
The use of this fabric, a drip irrigation system along with mulching
the beds has helped with moisture retention.
The
fabric has also been invaluable with pest control as an exclusion
barrier. Yes I do remember my first years down here and discovering
that there is a huge hoard of insects ready to help themselves to my
offerings. I was clueless! A horn worm outbreak up in Central Oregon
was one worm for the entire year! Oh what a rude awakening.
After
12 years of around the calendar growing I have been reasonably
successful. I dare not get too cocky because Mother Nature could ever
so easily pummel me with no remorse. Sooo the learning curve
continues but maybe not as steep as it once was.
Mother
Nature continues to have hissy fits. One week the weather is warm
enough and garden gets ready to boogy and the next week is an ice
water shower. I am getting succession plantings in. I hope that
maturing will coincide with crops finishing. The transition months
are always dicey. Nothing like a little spice for life. Sadly the
cauliflower parsnips, asian greens, broccoli raab and broccoli are
finished. Peas are blooming, beets are fattening up, can't keep the
chard or kale down. Cabbage just might make, although I do not think
the heads are very solid but still tasty. And the kohlrabi continues
to enlarge. There still is 9 ft of sun chokes to go. Bags should have
variety but if push comes to shove there may be duplicates.
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