June 28, 2018

Good morning, to say it has been a challenging year is really an understatement. Everything started out fine but I think the wind was over the top. This has been my nemesis for both of the times I have had set backs. The first time was when it was blowing all day for a couple of days and I neglected to completely cover some beds with a second layer of fabric. This allowed a convection freeze to really to travel through the fabric into the plants and set my early tomato bed way back. Then there was the 60-70 MPH wind storm that preceded profuse pea gravel sized hail storm that proceeded to eviscerate the portion of the garden that the wind had blown off my covers. All the beds that did remain covered were severally bruised. One blessing was that I was able to clean up all the damage before any insect hordes arrived. Then came many consecutive days of triple digits. I was able to keep everything hydrated but I did notice the lower fruiting wood on my indeterminate toms got nailed just like in 2011 thus destroying the first crop. I was thinking since I had a drip this time all would be well. I evaluated the errors of my ways and have added another 2.5 hours of watering time to them. I hope this corrects that problem. As we all know it was a very dry start to the year and this really effected my onion crop as far as how large the bulbs got to be. This in reality was a two phased problem. Last fall was a very warm one and all the harvester ants remained active pretty well into early winter. We did have a brief chill down and I thought yes, they have gone to nest for the winter. This was not to be. I sowed my onion seeds for bulb onion transplants during this chill down only for another heat wave to arrive.  Just as the seed was germinating the ants came in and harvested the majority of my seeds. Normally I bury the edges of my onion seed beds to prevent them from doing this, I was lulled into their temporary absence. I did re-sow the bed but the new plants were so much smaller than the first planting. This may not have been a problem if it had not been also such a dry spring.

I have always known during extremely dry springs that the native thrips population that thrives in the grassland around my garden migrates into the garden because it is the only thing green for them to feed on. I have found that permanently covering onions forces them to mature way to early and therefore except for extreme chill downs they remain uncovered. Likewise, with the garlic. Due to the extremely windy conditions I was unable to effectively start a spray program to squelch them and thus they got a foot hold into the garden. With extreme diligence I have turned the corner on them. They are a formidable adversary.

I must say even with all the challenges the garden is doing quite fine even though there were some real setbacks. As I say if agriculture was easy, everyone would be doing it.

Follows is a list of what I am growing, please email as to availability and prices. Chard, kale, green onions, carrots, lettuce, okra, tomatoes, chilies (several varieties), eggplant, butternut squash, garlic, beets, bulb onions, cucumbers, summer squash, sweet potatoes, and beans. Also, there is volunteer basil and dill.

June 21, 2018

Good morning, last Sunday’s rain was just a little touch of heaven. It also appeared to be a general rain for the area. I was noticing that the native grass on the property was just showing the signs of drying out and sure enough everything got a nice boost of moisture. I was so glad that there was no hard water with this storm.

Looking ahead Saturday is supposed to hit the century mark. Sunday was too but it looks like there may be a reprieve and Sunday may only get to 99. Somehow, not sure why, but saying 100 makes my gray cells want to flow. NOAA hasn’t mentioned yet but Underground is showing rain chances from Monday on. Ah, forecasts are just that, we will cross our fingers and hope their “crystal ball” is based in reality. A moist summer would be nice or even a bi-weekly 1-inch rain storm would be very welcome.

The garden has shown its appreciation for this “mana from heaven” and the growth has been very nice. The heat and moisture are suiting the okra well, more of the okra is maturing each day. With 5 beds I hope to have plenty for the table, enough for Deb to dehydrate and plenty for me to pickle. Finally, the sweet potatoes have filled their beds and give me hope that the harvest will start in August, some of the butternuts are starting to mature. They seem to me to have made the greatest come back from the hail. I did have half a bed give up the ghost and I had to replant. But the rest has filled in nicely. I have been fighting a little iron chlorosis in the new chard/kale bed. This is because there are mature plants mixed in with seedlings that replaced hail thrashed ones. Due to the shallow roots seedlings need to be watered more frequently than the mature plants and thus the iron problem. This will soon pass. Finally, the strawberries are sending out runners. This should fill the bed in nicely. These should give me enough to extend the bed and with any luck start producing strawberries.

The battle with thrips, spider mites, and cucumber beetles continue. It is a little early but I may be winning.

On soooooo many fronts this has been a n extremely challenging year but I am still holding out hopes that the finish will be nothing bur awesome!!! I have been filling some of my canned goods coffers and hope to be offering several veggies soon. Both the onions and garlic have cured and are being cleaned to be put on the table soon.

June 14, 2018

Good morning,  as it stands NOAA is saying by this weekend we should  be enjoying the remnants of a hurricane that has hit the west coast of Mexico.  with the best chances being Saturday night and Sunday. Remnants give us some of our best rainstorms. They are calm storms that hang with us but leave behind  lots of moisture. Lets hope that this is the case. I have been fortunate to have received moisture but there are so many places in West Texas that haven't. This could possibly end our fire season. We can only hope.

The garden is doing well. I think I may have thwarted the spider mite and thrips infestation. They quite frequently migrate into the garden from the surrounding range land. What with the heat of late their populations can very easily explode. I hope to have dodged this bullet. I haven not experienced the Harlequin bug infestation  that a lot of other folks have although I noticed an increase of cucumber beetles along with a few squash bugs. Spraying for thrips and spider mites should bring these guys into check also. Even with the winter chill we received there seems to be plenty of bugs to go around.

June 7, 2018

Good morning, two weeks on from the hail event and the garden is mostly back to where we were before the event. There are exceptions such as my new chard bed and the second bed of okra. These two beds were hailed back to the stone age and needed to be sown once again. All things considered, I really dodged a bullet. The event set me back but didn’t take me out. Gotta love fabric.

I am starting to get cherry tomatoes; some okra and it looks like some green chilies are maturing. It is time to harvest some serrano peppers. First eggplants will be harvested next week. My second planting of beans are 6 plus inches tall. Some beans in the portion that got hailed look to be making a comeback while the rest of the bed is doing fine. I was planning to pickle some beans but will have to wait until the new bed is being harvested.

The onions and garlic are hanging and should be ready for sale soon what with the hot weather.