Rob the Fiddler

Archive for the 'Gardening' Category

Magic Beans - Ranch Report Sept 209

Tuesday, September 29th, 2009

The fall garden has been touch and go it seems. Dallas has had a ton of rain, so too much water has been actually a problem. I think its a combination of that and some kinda bug (and aphids) that have killed off just about everything that resembles a winter squash. Cucumbers and summer squash just seem to be battling the aphids. I now see why they say you should plant squash on hills now. Cucurbits hate wet feet

I have one lone cantaloupe. Creatures seem to take them in the night. The basil is going crazy and the green beans are rocking.

I planted several purple beans this time. These are pretty fun to cook because they turn from purple to green when cooked. Its explained here.

Purple bush beans in a pot.

Sliced and ready to cook (with a regular one too)

In under a minute, they turn all green. I usually just cook them enough to be crunchy and then finish them in a pan with a bit of olive oil and black pepper.

Little lettuce….heartbreaking to have to thin them out.

8 ball squash - its ready to eat.

Cantaloupe with bite marks. Hope this does not get taken by the creatures. Kinda strange looking fruit huh?

Posted in Gardening | No Comments »

Its tomato time again

Sunday, April 1st, 2007

Found an article that describes perfectly how I need to be approaching this growing season.

July is pretty much too hot for tomatoes. The big problem is that they will not set fruit when its too hot, so that gives us two quick growing seasons. Last year I left my plants out all summer hoping that they would produce, but they just kinda hung out in a diseased state. Being that most plants are like 70 days till maturity….that puts a maturity date of mid-june back to planting in April….which is now.

This year I grew WAY to many plants from seeds. I started in mid January and they were getting kinda lanky, but the ones I have in the ground now look pretty good. Pics to follow.

Heres the article.

RE: advice on tomatoes for a rookie in North Texas

clip this post email this post what is this?
see most clipped and recent clippings

Posted by feldon30 N Houston (8) (My Page) on
Mon, Jul 10, 06 at 15:07

Manny,First, I’m pretty sure you are actually in growing zone 8a, not 7.

I’m guessing you started at least a month too late. It’s a common mistake. Once daily high temperatures stay in the 90-100 range, tomatoes will not set fruit! So we must plant very large transplants as early as possible. Instead of planting the little 5″ transplants in 6-packs from Home Depot sometime in April, we really need to plant 12″ tall transplants on March 1st if we have hope of getting lots of tomatoes. You have to watch weather predictions like a hawk. If you grow tomatoes in 5-10 gallon containers (use potting mix or potting soil NOT garden soil), then you can move them inside if an overnight frost (under 35 degrees) is predicted.

Tomato plants will not generally set fruit unless the daily high temperatures stay below 85 for a few days. This is unlikely to happen in July-August around Dallas, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio. We really have 2 frustratingly short tomato growing seasons interrupted by a 2-3 month inferno that produces 0 fruit and tons of diseases, insects, and problems.

Most S.E. Texans have pulled their tomato plants by the end of June or mid-July and have already got seeds started indoors for the fall crop. Even if you could nurse an unproductive tomato plant through July, August, and September, by the time it starts producing tomatoes again, they wouldn’t be very good. I started seeds June 5th and will be putting my second wave of tomato plants in the ground at the end of July.

I’m sure there are small nurseries (not the big box stores like Home Depot, Lowe’s, Wal-Mart, etc.) around Wylie, Dallas, Plano, etc. that will have tomato transplants in the coming weeks. There are at least 2 nurseries in Houston that are supposed to have tomato transplants in 2-3 weeks.

Note that Dallas gets frost a little earlier in the fall than Houston (we sometimes don’t get a frost til January) so you really want to focus on smaller-fruited varieties for the fall. Once frost hits, it’s all about fried green tomatoes since they won’t ripen anymore.

Posted in Gardening, Uncategorized | No Comments »

First Tomatoes of the Season!!

Tuesday, May 30th, 2006

So I got to pick the first tomatoes of the season on Memorial day. This is usually turned into a BLT as soon as possible. The first ones were from a cherry tomato plant I bought at Walmart of all places. Its a strange one in a small pot, but very prolific (and sweet). The bigger ones are from patio variety.

I have tons of basil too. Food is good.

Check out this basil. Its as big as a leaf of lettuce. Is called
Neapolitan Basil

So the BLT pita was gooooood. Paired with grilled sweet corn and zuchinni…mmm. Im sure a red wine would have been great, but after the weekend in Pine Mills, I dont think I could stomach a drink for a while.