The Education Station currently has five vegetable gardens. Many planted vegetable varieties are established favorites, needing no testing to prove their productivity and hardiness. Other less familiar varieties and new introductions need several years of testing to understand how they with stand pest and climate variations.
Goals:
- Demonstrate which vegetable plants grow well in the Brazoria County growing conditions with minimum care and water
- Provide space to grow feedstock for plant sales.
- Create a place for members who do not have garden space at home to grow their favorite vegetables or experiment with new ones.
Vegetable Gardens Committee Guidelines:
- Vegetable gardens are trial gardens
- Records must be kept so we can educate the public on the best varieties to grow in Brazoria County
- Develop materials and methods to document trials
- Map out the beds – keep records of what is planted where
- All plants must be labeled
- Record when plants are put into the beds, when they began bearing and when they are pulled out
- Record when you water or if it rains, how much rain fell
- Record when, what and how much fertilizer is used
- Record any insect or disease problems and the approved treatment method
- Produce from each variety of plant must be weighted separately – or counted
- At the end of a trial, summarize the data so that it can be made available to the public