Looking forward to fall!!
Here is an excerpt from a really good article in the August edition of Texas Co-op Power Magazine - View the entire article here: http://www.texas-ec.org/texascooppower/current_month/system/feature1.aspx
Enjoy!!
Ty
Dig In
Fall Vegetable Gardening in Texas
Americans around the country—rural, suburban and urban—are responding to our country’s economic and environmental challenges by looking for solutions in their own backyards, or front yards. More and more grassy lawns are being replaced by vegetable gardens. More communities are establishing farmers markets. Locally grown is becoming the gold standard for produce.
We took this to heart at Texas Co-op Power and persuaded several staff members, whether experienced or not, to plant fall gardens and let us know what happened. We do confess that one staff member let his neighbor do the dirty work, but she’s a co-op member so that’s OK.
Our modest labors have helped us develop a profound appreciation of the many genuine farmers who receive this magazine. So bear with us as we tell you what happened when veggies went into the flower bed, and front yards sprouted entirely too much broccoli. FROM A HUMBLE HOME, A VERDANT FEAST
Our vegetable gardens—both are the raised-bed variety—are hardly works of art. One is rimmed by old cinder blocks left behind by our home’s previous owners. The other one my wife, Lisa, and I built using rot-proof landscape borders made from recycled automobiles with a few old cedar porch posts filling in the gaps.
We had to build the raised beds and haul in our own garden soil because where we live, a few miles southwest of Austin, we have only a few inches of topsoil. Underneath is a rocky underbelly of limestone.
We surrounded our gardens with old pieces of cardboard topped by spoiled hay. It keeps the weeds down and gives us nice footing around the beds. A plastic deer fence has kept the hungry white-tails from feasting on our plants.
What the garden lacks in aesthetics, it more than makes up for in production. In the summers, we enjoy bushels of tomatoes, baskets of squash, spicy radishes, okra and peppers.
A couple of years ago, we tried our first fall garden, pulling up the spent summer plants and adding tomatoes, a lettuce patch, a bed of spinach and root vegetables like green onions, carrots and even a few potatoes.
After nursing them through a warm September and October, the plants, the ones that survived, were stable. A few crops were wildly successful. We had spinach coming out of our ears and enough lettuce to enjoy a salad nearly every day.
Last year, a particularly hot and dry summer and our decision not to run up our water bill left us with a disappointing summer harvest. By the time the last few sad little tomato plants were toast, our fall garden planning was in full swing. The spinach and lettuce made return appearances and were joined by parsnips, broccoli, cauliflower, Swiss chard and Napa cabbage.
The vegetables were surprisingly hearty. When the forecast was for 33 or 34 degrees, Lisa and I found ourselves out in the evening gloom armed with a ragtag collection of old blankets and poly sheeting, propping the materials above the plants to form an insulating pocket of air.
Again, the greens seemed to be the biggest successes. The spinach thrived and the cabbage grew into huge, oval heads, which were sweet and tasty both stewed and in slaw. The broccoli never formed those great big heads like you’d see in the grocery store, but it was the sweetest I’d ever tasted. The chard made it through the winter and thrived even when hot weather returned.
Now that we know what works, we’ll plant more this year—plus give one or two more things an audition.
Putting in a fall garden for the first time can be intimidating, but once you see the products of your labor, you’ll be hooked.
Kevin Hargis
Food Editor
Enjoy!!
Ty
Dig In
Fall Vegetable Gardening in Texas
Americans around the country—rural, suburban and urban—are responding to our country’s economic and environmental challenges by looking for solutions in their own backyards, or front yards. More and more grassy lawns are being replaced by vegetable gardens. More communities are establishing farmers markets. Locally grown is becoming the gold standard for produce.
We took this to heart at Texas Co-op Power and persuaded several staff members, whether experienced or not, to plant fall gardens and let us know what happened. We do confess that one staff member let his neighbor do the dirty work, but she’s a co-op member so that’s OK.
Our modest labors have helped us develop a profound appreciation of the many genuine farmers who receive this magazine. So bear with us as we tell you what happened when veggies went into the flower bed, and front yards sprouted entirely too much broccoli. FROM A HUMBLE HOME, A VERDANT FEAST
Our vegetable gardens—both are the raised-bed variety—are hardly works of art. One is rimmed by old cinder blocks left behind by our home’s previous owners. The other one my wife, Lisa, and I built using rot-proof landscape borders made from recycled automobiles with a few old cedar porch posts filling in the gaps.
We had to build the raised beds and haul in our own garden soil because where we live, a few miles southwest of Austin, we have only a few inches of topsoil. Underneath is a rocky underbelly of limestone.
We surrounded our gardens with old pieces of cardboard topped by spoiled hay. It keeps the weeds down and gives us nice footing around the beds. A plastic deer fence has kept the hungry white-tails from feasting on our plants.
What the garden lacks in aesthetics, it more than makes up for in production. In the summers, we enjoy bushels of tomatoes, baskets of squash, spicy radishes, okra and peppers.
A couple of years ago, we tried our first fall garden, pulling up the spent summer plants and adding tomatoes, a lettuce patch, a bed of spinach and root vegetables like green onions, carrots and even a few potatoes.
After nursing them through a warm September and October, the plants, the ones that survived, were stable. A few crops were wildly successful. We had spinach coming out of our ears and enough lettuce to enjoy a salad nearly every day.
Last year, a particularly hot and dry summer and our decision not to run up our water bill left us with a disappointing summer harvest. By the time the last few sad little tomato plants were toast, our fall garden planning was in full swing. The spinach and lettuce made return appearances and were joined by parsnips, broccoli, cauliflower, Swiss chard and Napa cabbage.
The vegetables were surprisingly hearty. When the forecast was for 33 or 34 degrees, Lisa and I found ourselves out in the evening gloom armed with a ragtag collection of old blankets and poly sheeting, propping the materials above the plants to form an insulating pocket of air.
Again, the greens seemed to be the biggest successes. The spinach thrived and the cabbage grew into huge, oval heads, which were sweet and tasty both stewed and in slaw. The broccoli never formed those great big heads like you’d see in the grocery store, but it was the sweetest I’d ever tasted. The chard made it through the winter and thrived even when hot weather returned.
Now that we know what works, we’ll plant more this year—plus give one or two more things an audition.
Putting in a fall garden for the first time can be intimidating, but once you see the products of your labor, you’ll be hooked.
Kevin Hargis
Food Editor
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