The weekly vegetable harvest from our gardens includes:
Tomatoes— 176.1 pounds
Cucumbers— 30.4 pounds
Green Beans— 3.4 pounds
Yellow Squash— 52.3 pounds
Eggplant—0.3 pounds
Peppers— 1.6 pounds
Leeks—2 pounds
Okra—0.37 pounds
Carrots—3.4 pounds

A total of 270 pounds of produce was harvested this week. Approximately 180 pounds of these vegetables were donated to the Caring Place and the Round Rock Area Serving Center this week. The remainder of the harvest was shared among the Extension Office staff.  To date, the Williamson county master gardeners have donated over 1,710 pounds of demonstration garden produce to local charities!

Measured rainfall: no rainfall was measured the week ending 7/12/2015.

Activities in the garden
Garden maintenance activities continued this week. Weeding and fire ant suppression were among the primary objectives. Irrigation repairs and herb garden maintenance in both areas were undertaken. Loofah and melons were planted in the trellis row. On Friday, yard long beans were planted in the trellis row. Perkins okra was planted in the east end of the okra row. The fruit orchard was weeded and composted

 

Additional compost was layered over the sick cypress tree drip line. Volunteer sweet potato transplants were relocated to the sweet potato row. Pomegranate flowers are developing fruit in the orchard.

Mourning dove hatchlings and the mother dove were spotted in their nest this week A garden bulletin board sign was erected.

The Rose Garden in Bloom
Earth-Kind roses are very hearty in the central Texas climate and enjoy 8+ hours of full sun each day.  Earth-Kind roses thrive in a variety of soil types, ranging from well-drained acid sands to poorly aerated, highly alkaline clays. Once established, these cultivars have excellent heat and drought tolerance. The use of Earth-Kind roses limits the use of fertilizers, pesticides, and water while providing season long enjoyment of these beautiful flowers.

July Gardening in Central Texas:
The Texas A&M Agrilife Extension vegetable garden planting guide has several suggestions for July planting. Warm season greens can be planting through mid-August. Eggplant and pepper transplants are also suitable for summer gardens. Okra and corn can be sowed directly through July. Summer squash can be sown through August. Now is the time to plant fall tomatoes. Transplants are best and may need shade cover if placed in an area with direct afternoon sun.
Come and see us!
Our demonstration garden is located beside the Williamson County Extension Office driveway at 3151 SE Innerloop Road, Georgetown, Texas. Master gardeners are usually at work in the vegetable garden on Tuesday, and Friday mornings from 9:00 to 11:00 weather permitting. Anyone is welcome to stop by to see the garden or to ask questions of the master gardeners.
Click here for location on Google Maps

The weekly vegetable harvest from our gardens includes:
Tomatoes— 84.54 pounds
Cucumbers— 44.9pounds
Green Beans—1.4 pounds
Yellow Squash—47.8 pounds
Eggplant—5.69 pounds
Peppers—21.7 pounds

A total of 206 pounds of produce was harvested this week. Approximately 102 pounds of these vegetables were donated to the Caring Place and the Annunciation Maternity Home on Tuesday of this week. On Friday, 103.6 pounds of produce were harvested. All charity organizations were closed on Friday so the master gardeners distributed the harvest among themselves. To date, the Williamson county master gardeners have donated over 1,530 pounds of demonstration garden produce to local charities!

Measured rainfall: 1.25 inches the week ending 7/05/2015.

Activities in the garden
In this holiday short week, master gardeners worked on garden maintenance, irrigation repairs, and planting brown crowder peas in Row 9. Failure to thrive was noted among small plants in the keyhole garden so liquid fish emulsion fertilizer was added. Peppers were also fertilized with fish emulsion. In the raised bed areas, trellises were installed for beans to climb.   Red lima beans are proliferating.

The cucumber crop is just awesome!                                   Figs are ripening nicely.

A new rain gauge post was installed. Row marker signs were made for the herb garden. Of course, the ongoing task of weeding continued throughout the week.

Rain in the drought-tolerant garden
June was another very wet month in Central Texas. Our drought-tolerant garden experienced some plant loss but most of the natives are surviving the wet weather.

A lush gaura greets visitors to the drought-tolerant garden. The biggest challenge for the drought-tolerant garden area is drainage. The garden is situated at the base of two sloping landscape berms. Consequently, this area collects and retains more moisture than other gardens. The plumbago and blackfoot daisies succumbed from wet feet. Those plants situated well-drained locations tolerated the rainfall. Native grasses, for example, are thriving in the garden 

The team is considering various options to improve the landscape topography.  Plan to stop by the drought-tolerant garden and admire the butterfly plant,  purple heart, turks cap and other Texas native beauties!

July Gardening in Central Texas:
The Texas A&M Agrilife Extension vegetable garden planting guide has several suggestions for July planting. Warm season greens can be planted through mid-August. Eggplant and pepper transplants are also suitable for summer gardens. Okra and corn can be sowed directly through July. Summer squash can be sown through August. Tomato transplants can also be planted during the first half of July.

Come and see us!
Our demonstration garden is located beside the Williamson County Extension Office driveway at 3151 SE Innerloop Road, Georgetown, Texas. Master gardeners are usually at work in the vegetable garden on Tuesday, and Friday mornings from 9:00 to 11:00 weather permitting. Anyone is welcome to stop by to see the garden or to ask questions of the master gardeners.

Click here for location on Google Maps

The weekly vegetable harvest from our gardens includes:
Tomatoes— 99 pounds
Cucumbers— 43.2 pounds
Green Beans—2.3 pounds
Yellow Squash—36 pounds
Eggplant—5.6 pounds
Sweet Peppers—1 pound

These vegetables were donated to the Caring Place and the Annunciation Maternity Home this week. A total of 187 pounds of produce was harvested this week. To date, the Williamson county master gardeners have donated over 1,428 pounds of demonstration garden produce to local charities!

Measured rainfall: 0.95 inches the week ending 6/28/2015.

Garden Activities
Much of our energy this week focused on weeding, harvesting, and repairing irrigation lines. We picked over 30 pounds of tomatoes from more than 50 plants in the row garden, painstakingly counted the fruit from each plant, and weighed the yield per plant.

One of our cherry varieties yielded over 200 tiny tomatoes! A zipper spider enjoyed the shade of our tomato plants while a family of toads scampered out of a weed pile.

The bean trellis is in bloom with several types of climbing beans—we expect a full harvest.  Several herbs were replanted in the large herb garden.

Pink eye crowder peas were sowed in Row 9. It seems the fire ants and the weeds continue to thrive and reappear despite our efforts to eliminate them!

Juliet–A Prolific Producer

We did pick lots and lots of Juliet tomatoes.  Some gardeners refer to it as a mini Roma because of the shape. Juliet plants bear delicious, sweet fruit on indeterminate vines. The wonderfully sweet fruit are crack resistant and remain in good condition on the vine longer than most cherry tomatoes. The fruit are as soft and juicy as cherry tomatoes and have a longer shelf life so you can keep them on the kitchen counter longer. The vigorous vines set lots of fruit on long vines and keep setting fruit throughout the summer. They tolerate the central Texas heat and are one of the longest-lasting tomatoes in the garden.

Come and see us!
Our demonstration garden is located beside the Williamson County Extension Office driveway at 3151 SE Innerloop Road, Georgetown, Texas. Master gardeners are usually at work in the vegetable garden on Tuesday, and Friday mornings from 9:00 to 11:00 weather permitting. Anyone is welcome to stop by to see the garden or to ask questions of the master gardeners.

Click here for location on Google Maps

The weekly vegetable harvest from our gardens includes:
Tomatoes— 88.77 pounds
Cucumbers— 50.2 pounds
Green Beans—5.72 pounds
Yellow Squash—40.9 pounds
Eggplant—4 pounds
Leeks—4.7 pounds
Sweet Peppers—7.2 pounds
Hot Peppers—2.5 pounds
Beets—0.6 pounds
Carrots—1.3 pounds

These vegetables were donated to the Caring Place this week.  A total of 205.89 pounds of produce was harvested this week. To date, the Williamson county master gardeners have donated over 1,241 pounds of demonstration garden produce to local charities!

Measured rainfall: 3.25 inches this week.

Garden activities
The master gardeners limited Tuesday’s work to harvesting as much as possible before the rain arrived. On Friday, the group faced a daunting forest of weeds! Weeds everywhere. Amongst the weed patch, we found a volunteer tomato plant full of ripe fruit. On a positive note, the rains held off on Friday. Irrigation to the pizza garden and keyhole garden was completed. Pre-planting preparation on row 9 was finished, including amending the soil, for sowing southern peas next week. Of course, it wouldn’t be summer without fire ants and they found us before we found them! Our Friday harvest was diverse and plentiful.

Rain, rain and more rain..
In addition to harvesting a sizable veggie crop, we discovered a feathered visitor near our rain gauge . This mourning dove decided to build her nest in between two mailboxes and next to our rain gauge. Mourning doves build their nests from twigs or small branches and lay 1-2 eggs. This mom is incubating two eggs and posed for her portrait!  In the meantime, we’ve relocated the rain gauge until the eggs hatch and the fledglings leave the nest!

Birds love red ripe tomatoes…and red, hot chili peppers!
This week our gardeners observed large tomato morbidity due to birds sampling our ripe fruit. Birds have a keen sense of smell and somehow know just when they can take a peck or two at our beautiful, on the vine, red tomatoes!

No matter how large or small the fruit, birds have a hankering for ripe tomatoes. Birds will also do the same damage to red hot peppers —the hotter, the better!! Why? Birds lack the receptors for capsaicin, the protein that makes peppers hot. So, it makes no difference to a hungry bird where to feast!

This is a common dilemma for home gardeners: what can I do to prevent bird damage to my tomatoes? There are a variety of options to consider for those who cherish a succulent, fresh summer tomato! To thwart the birds, some folks pick tomatoes just as they begin to turn red and place them in a brown paper bag on the kitchen counter. Then, close the bag with a clip and check the tomato’s ripening progress daily. Ethylene is produced by ripening tomatoes and is contained in the bag. Other gardeners resort to placing a physical barrier such as bird netting or a light-weight row cover over their tomato plants to prevent bird damage. Either way, it’s important not to block the plant’s sunlight with a physical barrier. Aluminum pie pans can be strung together in necklace fashion then attached to a row of tomato stakes. The motion of the plates is thought to deter our feathered friends from attacking the garden. Others dot their garden with plastic snakes, hawk and owl decoys to scare birds away. Be careful not to scare yourself when harvesting those tomatoes!

Come and see us!
Our demonstration garden is located beside the Williamson County Extension Office driveway at 3151 SE Innerloop Road, Georgetown, Texas. Master gardeners are usually at work in the vegetable garden on Tuesday, and Friday mornings from 9:00 to 11:00 weather permitting. Anyone is welcome to stop by to see the garden or to ask questions of the master gardeners.
Click here for location on Google Maps

The weekly vegetable harvest from our gardens includes:
Tomatoes—40.35 pounds
Cucumbers—29.6 pounds
Green Beans—15 pounds
Yellow Squash—7.2 pounds
Eggplant—1.8 pounds

These vegetables were donated to the Caring Place, the Annunciation Maternity Home, and the Round Rock Area Serving Center.

To date, the Williamson county master gardeners have donated over 1,036 pounds of demonstration garden produce to local charities in 2015!

Routine garden maintenance this week:
Many of our activities this week were focused on general garden upkeep including weeding, mulching, preparing planting areas for new crops. Okra, zucchini and tatuma squash seed were sowed in rows 4 and 6. These vegetables tolerate humid central Texas heat and are bountiful.

A bald cypress tree on the grounds (used for shade in the summer heat) appeared stressed this month. A “sick tree” mixture of cornmeal, cottonseed meal, and molasses was applied around the drip line of the tree. Compost was then layered over the amendments. This treatment surface was thoroughly watered.

Herbs are a gardener’s helper:
Herbs are most welcome in our gardens and have culinary and medicinal properties. In central Texas, many herbs tolerate drought conditions overwinter without damage. Flowering herbs such as basil and thyme planted in or near vegetable gardens attract pollinators, facilitating fertilization. We have several African blue basil planted in the gardens.  This summer squash row has been producing prolific yields of yellow squash this month thanks to our basil and our pollinators!

Other herbs including parsley and dill serve as host plants to Black Swallowtail butterflies. Recall their life cycle: egg, larvae, chrysalis and butterfly. This mature dill plant has yet to see any butterfly visitors!

Our keyhole garden:
A keyhole garden is a unique raised-bed planter found in many sizes and shapes. It is often constructed in a circular fashion measuring about 6-8 feet in diameter, stands waist-high and is notched like a pie with a slice cut out. A hole in the center holds “the basket” that moistens and nourishes the soil with decomposing organic matter. Our keyhole garden is also an effective recycling tool for organic garden debris and overripe vegetables.

The “to do” list for June gardens:
Mulch, mulch and mulch your summer garden! Apply mulch or a mixture of compost and mulch at the base of each plant. This layer provides a moisture layer as well as a nitrogen source for your summer vegetables. Trim and clear away garden waste as quickly as possible. Consider starting a compost pile, if you already don’t have one in your yard, and put it to work for you! Vining indeterminate tomato plants can be pruned back and re-staked for new fruit. Determinate tomato plants can be removed from the garden, after they finish bearing, and a new summer crop planted. Integrated pest management in the summertime is also a key element to sustaining a healthy vegetable garden!

Come and see us!
Our demonstration garden is located beside the Williamson County Extension Office driveway at 3151 SE Innerloop Road, Georgetown, Texas. Master gardeners are usually at work in the vegetable garden on Tuesday, and Friday mornings from 9:00 to 11:00 weather permitting. Anyone is welcome to stop by to see the garden or to ask questions of the master gardeners.
Click here for location on Google Maps