Ty Mellon's Comments

Ty, thanks for welcoming me into your group; thanks for coming up with it in the first place. I like your photos; quite the inspiration. Count me as one more who is doing everything I can to spread the gardening thing as well as local consumption, farmer's markets in urban areas, etc etc . . .

Ty, just wanted to say hi. I'm glad you guys started FOOGS; it is and will be a great Green source.

Great concept, Ty. I'll bring you some basil when we meet.

Hi Ty, the book was a good read (The Backyard Homestead). It was a good introduction to backyard gardening and helping me decide what I want to plant. Now I'm reading Texas Organic Vegetable Gardening, by the Dirt Doctor Howard Garrett. This is more specific to Texas and has a lot of organic solutions for fertilization and pest control that the other book did not.

I did plant some basil and fennel in some pots and they have just started to sprout, so I'm excited. After speaking with somebody at work who has years of experience in gardening I've decided to do raised beds. Better drainage, easier to control soil pH in separate beds, able to jimmy up some pvc pipe to allow oxygination of the soil, etc.

Sorry I haven't posted any picks, yet. I'm not going to lie and say I didn't have time, but it just hasn't made it to the top of my priority list yet. Looking forward to the marketplace! I guess my one comment on the site is that it's a bit difficult to follow what comment attached to which message. Maybe it is simple and I just haven't looked at it closely enough yet.

Greg

Thanks, Ty - good luck and thanks for starting/chairing this group.

I answered an inquiry re: planting in Austin. Thought I'd share it with you and ask you to share all of it or parts of it with all of your Austin/C-TX audience - esp. the Local Food Graduation Potluck on Dec. 3rd at the Barr Mansion - all are invited and it will be a major Local Food event and gathering. And, the next events come on fast in January. If you can distribute the message below it would be appreciated. Thanks.

Welcome to gardening in Austin. Several quick things for you:

-Good news, not so good news - not so good: Fall planting is really in Sept - harvest is Oct/Nov. Good news - there's plenty of great produce at the Farmers Markets; I found prices quite reasonable today (or, it may be that HEB is getting pricey). Good news #1 - there is still plenty of stuff to plant, probably from starts not seeds, like garlic, greens, kale, lettuce, mustard, radish, shallots, spinach, turnip. Most of these will produce all winter - maybe with some cover on real frosty nights.

-Good news #3 - Spring planting starts soon - on Jan 15 with onions, then a whole bunch in late Jan, more in Feb, still more in 1st half of March. Important to plant early and get produce before it's too hot by early June. It's unusual here but very straightforward - just follow the Master Gardener schedule - http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/travis/docs/VegetablePlantingCalendar2009.pdf.

-Good news #4 - you can take one of the 5 ten-hour Citizen Gardener Courses - they start on Jan 16 and run through mid-March. They are specifically scheduled only during the planting season, so that you can learn it in the AM, go home and build/plant your own garden on Sat PM/Sun, and come talk aboutr it and show pictures at the Wed evening session - lots of folks do just that. You can see the schedule and enroll on www.citizengardener.ning.com

-And, #5 - Permaculture Design Course starts on Jan 30 for 10 weekend days over 9 weeks. It will take the mystery out of C-TX soils, water, climate, weather, rainfall and give you a solid base of design principles and hand's on activities - gardens, farms/ranches, energy, Green/natural building, Nature's patterns, sustainability, urban/rural design, hardscapes, plants, trees, and more.

-Finally #6 - please come and meet a whole bunch of Gardeners, Permaculture Folks, Farmers, enviro-friendly folks at the Thurs, Dec. 3 Local Food Pot-luck and Graduation Celebration at the super, super Barr Mansion. All are invited. Bring a dish for 6-8 servings using [mostly] Local Food and beverages of your choice. All are welcome - there will be an evite link on C___G___.ning.com to RSVP shortly. Please pass the word

SUPER EXCITE! Thanks for including me :)

Ty is my hero =)

Thanks for the welcome, Ty. I'm literally just starting to get involved with the gardening thing - I laid my tarp out 2 days ago to kill my grass for a spring garden. Right now I'm taking in The Backyard Homestead. Good book so far with lots of good info. Looking forward to it!

Chili Spray? Very interesting...sounds cheaper than the $6 bottle of eco-spray we bought. Now that I' paying attention I'm seeing bugs everywhere : (

Good Morning Ty, good to hear from you. It's been a very busy summer. I've sold all but two of the Guinea babies, but still have one sitting eggs behind the garden...any day now! The Barred Rock chickens don't sit their eggs, just lay them. However, we do have two chicks that hatched out of a guinea clutch....I guess one of the chickens layed eggs in her nest. I'm raising them in the garage now. We also have five new Melanistic pheasants...two roosters and three hens, about two months old. They will be absolutely beautiful. Our summer garden is finished. The only thing that remains is my blackberry bush. It was great having our own squash, carrots, onions, collards, lettuce, tomatoes, chilies, sweet potatoes, etc. The garden is ready to be retilled. Not sure yet what is on tap for the winter garden. The big deal right now is our monster composte pile. We got together with a neighbor who also has a garden and raises horses. We decided to build a community composte pile using both our resources. The pile takes up a 15 X 20 foot area and is currently about 6 or 7 feet tall. We built a semi-circle of wood pallets wired together to hold everything in. As I said, we've been busy!!! Hopefully I'll have time to go to the farmer's market in Medina this coming Saturday....I want to spread the word about FOOGS and meet more of my neighbors. I'll upload some photos as soon as I figure out how to do it!! Come on by anytime you are in the area.

They appear to have eaten them, which I can only assume is SUCCESS! The growing season will start coming to an end soon for such things, but the little farmer's market in my hood is going strong on wednesdays. They keep it open until Thanksgiving for the pumpkins. It's not as grand as the one in NYC, which is awesomely gourmet, but it's fine for this humble neighborhood.

Thanks, Ty! Chris is in the backyard getting our garden area started as we speak. We bought some different pumpkin seed varieties today. Might be a little late to have them by Halloween but we'll have some by Thanksgiving. I'll take photos and post them as the project moves along. We're excited to grow tomatoes, jalapenos, etc next season. I'll check out the main "Welcome" page and will most certainly use this site as a resource. Proud to be the first Oklahoman on FOOGS! I'll make sure and spread the word! Gabby

Thanks Ty.

Going to try to do a fall garden. Wish me luck.

We haven't started yet... :-(
We went to get plants, but they said that it was too late in the season - and we couldn't find seeds either. So we are hoping that we can start in fall. I totally have a spot in the back yard ready for it. I will totally take pictures and post them of us doing it and when it start growing.........promise!!

My interest in gardening is there, however, my talent is not. Glad to be a part of this.

Ty, though we may have different political views, I think this is a great idea. Have you thought about having regional sections for your site. We have a good size, small farming community in West Texas that I am sure would be very interested in this. Unfortunately it is illegal for us to have live chickens on our property in the City of Midland. Hopefully they won't outlaw tomatoes!!!!

I just saw that the fire dept near me is growing those upside tomatoes behind the firehouse.