The veggie garden team has been trying to keep cool during these triple digit days. Here’s what we did in the garden this week.

We had a very small harvest from both the row garden and raised beds. For the most part we picked tomatoes and a few squash.

The row garden team planted pumpkins, straight-neck summer squash, a second planting of okra and cantaloupe and spent some time weeding and cultivating the rows. We also worked on a leak in the row garden irrigation system. Most of the row garden is in good shape. The bush beans are about done. We made a pass at harvesting them, but there were very few beans left. We’ll pull them out next week. The watermelons are beginning to produce, although the vines are spreading all over the garden. We’ve tried to rein them in a bit, but they are pretty vigorous. The Top Pick southern peas are doing well. They already have long pods on them but the peas need to get a bit bigger before we can pick them.

We are still experiencing insect problems in the raised beds. We have been treating for them and cutting back the dead foliage to keep the beds cleaned up. The hot, dry weather has been a problem in the raised beds as well. In one of the beds our Malabar spinach had started to go to seed without producing the vines we need in order to harvest leaves. Since that is nearly always a problem of insufficient water, we reworked the irrigation lines to deliver more water to that area and cut off the seed heads in hope that the plants will begin to put out new growth. We also added another drip line to the culinary herb bed because the herbs along one side of the bed were dying from lack of water. The Japanese Trefele tomatoes have all developed blossom end rot. Since it is too hot for most varieties of tomatoes to set fruit now, we decided to remove that plant from the bed.

We put hinged lids on the three-bin compost system so that we can begin to put clean kitchen scraps in them in order to start the compost working without attracting varmints. We still have a bit of work to do on them before we are ready to try to kick-start the compost.

Since some of the raised beds are having trouble holding water we have purchased some coir (coconut fiber) to amend the soil in those beds in an attempt to get them to retain moisture better between waterings. We also plan to change the drip lines to a larger diameter in order to deliver more water to the beds.

We’ve reached the point where there isn’t a lot of actual weeding and feeding to do in the garden so the next several weeks we will spend some time maintaining the beds and checking the irrigation system.

The demonstration garden is located north of 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 mornings from 9:00 to 11:00. Anyone is welcome to stop by to see the garden or to ask questions of the master gardeners.

Here’s what we’ve done in the demonstration veggie garden over the past week.

We harvested beans, tomatoes, eggplant and tomatillos from the raised beds and several kinds of tomatoes from the row garden.  We shared some of the produce among the team and the Extension Office personnel and made two deliveries to The Caring Place.

The row garden team has spent much of the week weeding, tilling and fertilizing.  The raised bed folks cut back some dead foliage caused by insects, blight and the watering problem we had the previous week.  We are still experiencing problems with squash bugs, squash borers, cucumber beetles and now stink bugs.  We treated the bugs we could see with our vegetable oil/dish soap mixture, spread some spinosad bait to get rid of an ant hill in one of the beds, and sprayed spinosad on the beds that have been experiencing problems with sucking insects.  We also used a foliar feeding of sea tea on most of the plants in the raised beds.

Some of the tomato plants are still flowering. However tomatoes quit setting fruit when the nighttime temperatures are consistently warmer than sixty degrees and we have reached that point. So the green tomatoes that we have on the plants now are all we will have until the summer heat has passed. This is one of the reasons that many Central Texas gardeners pull the spring tomato plants out in July and replant with new transplants for the fall gardening season. If you do that, however, it is a good idea to shade the transplants for the first week or two until their roots become firmly established.

The southern peas in the row garden like the hot weather and they are flowering quite a bit now. So we expect to have a good crop of peas this season.

We have been kind of mystified about the performance of our tomatillo plants. We have two in the raised beds right now: a low-growing pineapple tomatillo and an upright, bushy purple tomatillo. We have harvested scads of the pineapple tomatillos, but although the purple tomatillo bush has been a vigorous grower and has produced abundant flowers, which have been visited by the bees, it hasn’t produced a single fruit. After a bit of research we think we have discovered the problem. It seems that tomatillo plants are self-incompatible, which basically means that, no matter how many pollinators visit the plant, it will not produce fruit if it is only fertilized with pollen from itself. For some reason this does not seem to be a problem with the pineapple tomatillo, but the purple tomatillo seems to need another plant as a pollinator. If we plant it again next year, we will see what happens if we have two plants of the same variety.

We had a discussion this week about our compost system.  It is not producing right now.  This is probably at least partially because of the heat.  However, we think we might be able to get it going again if we give it an injection of some fresh green materials and feed it with some organic fertilizer or soil conditioner.  So we will soon put covers on the bins to keep varmints out and then add some green garden clippings and kitchen refuse to try to get things started.

The demonstration garden is located north of 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 mornings from 9:00 to 11:00.  Anyone is welcome to stop by to see the garden or to ask questions of the master gardeners.

The weather and insects have been taking a toll on the garden.  Never-the-less, this week we harvested bush beans, zephyr squash and tomatoes from the row garden and donated them to The Caring Place in Georgetown.

From the raised beds we harvested a few zucchinis and one patty pan squash, four types of bush beans (Contender, yellow wax, Dragon Tongue and burgundy), asparagus and Kentucky Wonder pole beans, pineapple tomatillos, Green Goddess and Rosita eggplant, Sun Gold, Black Cherry and Snow White cherry tomatoes, green sausage tomatoes, red and white onions and two ears of bi-color corn.

We pulled out the last of the parsnips in bed L.  The tops were doing well, but they haven’t made any roots.  We also harvested two white eggplants from that bed, but they were past their prime and went into the compost bins.

As we do every week, we cut back several of the culinary and fragrant herbs.

Apparently someone inadvertently turned off the water supply to the hose timer in the raised bed area that supplies water to eight of the beds.  Judging by the damage to the beds, it had probably been turned off for most of the last week.  So we had to cut back a lot of dead foliage.  This was an especially bad hit to the squash in those beds as they had already been damaged by squash bugs and squash borers.  Most of them still had some blossoms, though, so we covered the part of the vine that had been damaged by borers with some fresh dirt in hopes they might make more roots.  The lack of water killed most of the plants in the Three Sisters bed though.  We had to pull out all but one stalk of corn and two squash plants.  All of the pole beans in that bed died.  After we cleaned them up as best we could we watered all eight beds by hand.  We also wrapped electrical tape around the valve for the timer in hopes that that would make it clear that that valve is not to be turned off.

The cantelopes are sprouting in the row garden but the row was checked onMonday and it was pretty dry.So we added fifteen minutes of run time to the zone for that row.  The watermelon is doing well.  We have two small fruits already.  Unfortunately, the watermelon plants are growing into the okra row.  Only about 50% of the okra sprouts made it, so we pulled the watermelon back from that row in hopes that the okra will get more sun and grow a little faster.

We spent a good bit of time weeding and cultivating in the corn patch in the row garden and fed it with fish emulsion.  The corn looks good.  It is about knee high right now.

The compost in the three-bin system isn’t making.  The heat is probably part of the problem but there is also a lack of green material.  We plan to make covers for the three bins so that varmints can’t get into them and then bring green garden refuse from home to try to get things working again.

Here’s what’s been happening in the demonstration veggie garden over the past week.

We’ve been tweaking the watering schedules and times to abide by the local watering restrictions and deal with the lack of significant rain over the last month or so.  This activity has revealed a problem with insufficient water retention in some of the raised beds.  We will have to address this problem by the time of fall planting, probably by adding additional compost or perhaps something such as coir (coconut fiber) or peat to the beds that are having problems.

Someone appears to have stepped on the row garden timer, so we replaced it and mounted the new one on a post so that it cannot be stepped on.

There are some fairly new seedlings in some of the raised beds, and the row garden as well, so we have had to hand-water them until they are able to get by on the water from the drip system.

The blackberries are still making and we harvested them again this week.

In the row garden:

• We harvested beans, zephyr squash and a few tomatoes and donated them to The Caring Place.
• We planted cantelope.

In the raised beds:

• Much of the squash has been damaged by both squash bugs and squash borers.  We are still getting some production, but we had to pull some of the squash out.  In addition we pulled out some cucumber plants that have suffered both from insects and inconsistent watering as we tweaked the drip systems.  We also harvested the remaining root crops because they do not like our hot Texas summers.
• Most of the herbs in the culinary and scented herb beds like our hot, dry weather, so we have had to cut them back weekly to keep them under control.  We have also had to dead-head some of them.  The caraway had gone to seed so we pulled it out.  The lime scented geranium is not looking good.  If the watering changes we made this week don’t bring it around we will probably pull it out next week.
• We harvested: quite a few tomatoes (both cherry and slicing), pineapple tomatillos, several varieties of eggplant, several varieties of squash, most of the remaining onions, bush beans, and asparagus beans.
• As always we pulled weeds and trimmed off dead leaves in all the beds.

The asparagus beans, which are also called yard-long beans or snake beans, are an interesting crop that we have not grown before this year.  They are basically pole beans similar to the more familiar varieties such as Kentucky Wonder, however they do not get very thick but they do get up to a yard long.  They are best harvested when they are still fairly thin and between 12 and 20 inches long.  They can be used in stir-fry dishes and are good when paired with peppers or other spicy ingredients.  They will easily climb a trellis, so they don’t take up a lot of space and are not finicky as far as soil is concerned.  If you have never tried asparagus beans, this might be a good time to do it.

 

 

 

 

Date:    05/01/12    Time:    10:00 AM

• Harvested patty pan and zucchini  squash from bed E-east.
• Harvested chard and onions from beds D and H.
• The Pineapple tomatillo is making well in Bed I.
• The Purple tomatillo has lots of blossoms but no fruit.
• Harvested Holy Mole peppers from Bed I.
• The Green Sausage tomatoes are bearing well but they are hard so are probably not ripe yet. Lots of green tomatoes on all vines.
• Green peppers on Yellow California Wonder in Bed I and Hungarian Wax in containers.
• Pole beans up and doing well in Beds K and L.
• Planted Clemson Spineless okra and nasturtiums in Bed C.
• Replaced the drip hoses in Bed D.
• Promoted the compost in 3-bin system.  Need more green stuff to keep it working.
• Tilled green manure space in row garden for second time.
• There is chlorosis on some herbs in Bed A.   We suspect a water problem.

Date:    05/04/12

• Planted pumpkins in the row garden:
• Large White,
• Musque-De-Provence,
• Marina DeChiogga and
• Knucklehead.
• Added drip line for two more rows in green manure area.

Date:    05/09/12    Time:    10:00 AM

• Reorganized small storage box.
• Sprayed spinosad on squash in raised beds because of squash bug nymphs.
• Planted Purple Hull and Crowder southern peas in row garden.
• Harvested bush beans and Zephyr squash from row garden.
• Sprayed BT on beans in row garden.
• Potatoes in row garden will be ready next week.
• Harvested raised beds:
• squash from Beds G, H and E-east;
• cukes from Bed H;
• onions from Beds H and D;
• carrots and bush beans from Bed F;
• Sun Gold tomatoes and Pineapple tomatillos from Bed I;
• Sprite tomatoes from container;
• artichokes.
• Pulled several oregano plants from Bed A.   Also in Bed A:  trimmed salvia Officawalis and rosemary and planted lavender Grosso.
• Trimmed scented geraniums in Bed E-west.
• Added a drip line to Bed A.
• Cucumber beetles are getting real bad and squash bugs are doing sigificant damage. Smashed eggs and sprayed nymphs with spinosad. Need to find something better.

Date:    05/10/12

• Planted in row garden
• 4-Row block of bi-color corn.
• One half row of okra.
• One half row of southern peas.

Date:    05/11/12

• Planted Genovese basil in Bed A.

Date:    05/16/12    Time:    10:30 AM

• Harvested Contender bush beans and Zephyr squash from row garden. Donated to The Caring Place.
• The blackberries are beginning to ripen.
• There are still some ripe strawberries.
• Treated squash bugs with mixture of water, liquid dish soap and canola oil. It killed the nymphs.
• Harvested Sungold and Black Cherry tomatoes from Bed I.
• Harvested zucchini from Bed E-east.
• Installed hose hanger for hose near raised beds.
• Re-programmed raised bed timers  to water three times/week.
• The person in charge of the overall irrigation system marked the zones from old turf test irrigation system that are coming on in the veggie garden area. She will have these heads capped.

Date:    05/18/12

• The planting table seems to be very dry.  Not sure if the problem is that the drip irrigation system is delivering insufficient water because of the fact that the table surface is over three feet off the ground or if the planting medium isn’t holding enough water.
• It appears that someone has stepped on the timer and back flow valve for the row garden.  We will need to replace them.  The timer needed replacing anyway because it cannot be programmed to match the local watering restrictions.
• Squash bugs continue to be a problem.  Squashed some and sprayed the rest with a mixture of canola oil, dish soap and water.  There seem to be fewer of them now.
• Fire ants are starting to be a problem again.  Hills have popped up in the row garden, pizza garden and raised bed area.  Treated them with Anti-fuego.
• Hand-watered bed M.
• Weeded several beds and cleared dead leaves from squash in bed E.
• Harvested:
• cherry tomatoes from the planting table;
• Sprite grape tomatoes from the manure bag;
• patty pan squash and zucchini from bed E;
• bush cucumbers and Yellow Crookneck squash from bed H;
• Contender bush beans from the row garden;
• red onions from bed D;
• Sun Gold tomatoes and Pineapple tomatillos from bed I;
• strawberries from bed L;
• Yellow Crookneck squash from bed K;
• blackberries
• Gave some of the harvested produce to the ag office staff.

Date:    05/22/12    Time:    10:00
Observations:    It appears that the unneeded pop up sprinklers have been capped.

• Tried to buy a suitable timer for the row garden irrigation.  Wasn’t able to find one so we pulled the broken timer, replaced the broken back flow valve and set it up to run manually until the sprinkler is replaced.
• Gathered all of the irrigation fittings out of the several cardboard boxes they were stored in and sorted them out into a parts box bought for that purpose.
• Harvested 108pounds of potatoes, Zephyr squash and Contender bush beans from the row garden and donated them to The Caring Place.  The potatoes were mostly Red Lasota.  They bore well.  The Yukon Gold were a big disappointment.  They were mostly small and mushy and not suitable for anything.
• Harvested the raised beds:
• Yellow Crookneck, patty pan and zucchini summer squash;
• red onions;
• Green Goddess, Snow White and Rosita eggplant;
• Pineapple tomatillos;
• Bush cucumbers;
• Holy Mole and Hungarian Wax peppers;
• Several types of tomatoes, mostly Sun Gold;
• Blackberries
• Cut back several of the herb plants in both the scented and culinary herb beds as well as the African Blue basil in bed I.
• Sprayed and squashed some squash bugs.  There are fewer of them but they have caused a lot of damage to the summer squash in bed E.
• The purple tomatillo plant is still covered with blooms but still has not produced a single fruit.
• The Green Sausage tomatoes still seem too hard to harvest.  They are a 65-80 day paste tomato and were planted from transplants the first week in March, so they should be ripe by now.

Date:           05/24/12

• Hand-watered cucumber seedlings in bed D and tomato plant in container.

Date:     05/25/12     Time:     09:45 AM

• Installed new hose end timer for row garden.
• Lots of squash bugs on squash in bed H.  Sprayed some with dish soap / canola oil mixture.  Smashed the rest and trimmed off affected leaves.
• Harvested a few Snow White, Black Cherry and Sun Gold tomatoes from bed I.
• Harvested some blackberries.

Date:     05/26/12

• Hand-watered new seedlings in bed D.

Date:     o5/29/12     Time:     10:00 AM

• Harvested
• From the raised beds and containers:   many different tomatoes, Pineapple tomatilloes, zucchini and Yellow Crookneck squash, cucumbers, TAM jalpenos, and blackberries.
• From the row garden: red, yellow and white onions, green beans and Zephyr squash, all of which we donated to The Caring Place in Georgetown.
• Sprayed tomatoes for early blight using a home-brew organic fungicide made up of one tablespoon each of baking soda, vegetable oil and mild dish soap in one gallon of water.
• Trimmed back several herbs in the fragrant and culinary herb beds.  Several of the herbs in the culinary bed and one scented geranium in the fragrant bed are not looking too good.  Looks like the culinary bed has an irrigation problem but the fragrant bed does not.
• The purple tomatillo still has lots of blossoms but not a single fruit while the pineapple tomatillo is covered with fruit.  There are lots of bees drawn to the African Blue basil planted next to the purple tomatillo but they don’t seem to be pollinating it.
• The Yard-long beans are starting to make but we’re not sure what they look like when they are ready for harvest.  We’ll have to research that soon.
• Irrigation
• Replaced one of the small drip lines in the culinary herb bed because the emitters were clogged with calcium and not much water came out.  Also fixed a break in one of the lines.
• Increased the watering time on all raised bed zones from 20 to 45 minutes because there hasn’t been much rain the last week or two and it doesn’t look as though there will be a significant rain in the near future.
• Split the row garden drip system into two zones and reprogrammed the timer to accommodate them.  We decided that we need to put in a post and a standpipe on the supply to this timer to keep it up where it won’t be stepped on and won’t be damaged by rainwater.
• Contacts
• We had three people stop by the garden while we were there today.  One was a master gardener from outside this area; another was someone who has recently moved into a new house and was interested in knowing what plants did well in this area; the third was someone with a child who is involved with JMG and wanted to show the garden to the child.  We gave them a tour and showed them the things we are experimenting with as well as the JMG bed and the row garden.

 

Date:    04/03/12    Time:    10:00 AM

• Removed plastic from solarized area.
• Put tomato cages on some tomato plants in bed I.
• Pulled lettuces from beds D and G.

Date:    04/05/12    Time:    10:00 AM

• Pulled carrots from bed K.
• Replanted bed K with “three sisters” and watered them in with Sea Tea:
• Sweet corn
• Yellow Crookneck squash
• Kentucky Wonder pole beans
• Cut back sage and rosemary in bed A.  Pulled out one big salvia officianalis and put it in the compost bin.
• Drenched a persistant fire ant hill in bed A with Anti-fuego.
• Harvested red oakleaf lettuce from bed K.
• Removed “walls of water” from tomatoes and tomatillo in bed I.
• Built cages from bamboo poles for indeterminate tomatoes in bed I.
• Lost the Reisentraube tomato from bed I.  Can’t tell for sure what killed it but it looks like it might have been a fungus or perhaps a virus.
• Treated onions in row garden with fungicide/pesticide.
• Weeded row garden.

Date:    04/06/12    Time:    2:00 PM

• Watered seeds in bed K.
• It looks as though we are about to lose the Cherokee Purple tomato adjacent to the spot where the Reisentraube tomato died in bed I.  It looks like the Reisentraube did before it died.

Date:    04/10/12    Time:    10:00 AM

• Made a tomato cage from remesh for an indeterminate tomato in bed I.
• Tied up the Purple tomatillo in bed I.  It has a very different posture than the Pineapple tomatillo.  The Purple is upright and looks like an indeterminate tomato plant.  The Pineapple is low-growing and sprawling like a Crookneck squash vine.
• The Malabar spinach has come up in bed I.  it isn’t growing very quickly but all the seeds have come up.  We will have to thin them before long.
• Pulled the peas out of bed L.  They just didn’t make.  Might have planted them too late.  Raised the trellis three feet.  Amended the soil with Revitalizer compost, homemade compost and Ladybug fertilizer.  Planted half the bed with Kentucky Wonder pole beans the other half with Yard Long pole beans,  Replaced most of the ¼-in dripline in this bed.
• Pulled the fennel and all the root and leaf crops from bed B.
• Pulled all but one dill plant and all winter veggies from bed F.
• Harvested all root crops from beds C and G.
• Planted Contender and Yellow Wax bush beans in bed G.
• Weeded beds D and H and put shade cover on east side of bed H in preparation for transplanting some fairly large yellow squash plants.

Date;    04/13/12

• Transplanted some yellow squash in bed H from interior of bed to east end.
• Put powdered BT on Pineapple tomatillo in bed I because of insect damage.

Date:    04/17/12    Time:    10:00

• Lost a fairly mature California Wonder bell pepper plant in bed I.  It broke off at the soil line.  It looks as though it may have rotted and strong winds over the weekend may have blown it over.
• Made a cage out of remesh and put it around an indeterminate tomato in bed I.
• Pulled half the Tendergreen mustard, all of the parsnips and some onions from bed M.  The parsnips were planted in the open pockets in the concrete blocks around the edge of this bed.  There was no irrigation to that space.  The parsnips produced tops but the roots were real short.  Oh well.  That experiment didn’t work out.
• Most of the squash and cukes that were planted in bed M have died.  Replanted with the following:
• Black Beauty zucchini
• Early Butternut squash
• Delicata squash
• Some variety of patty pan squash
• Wax bush beans
• French Breakfast radishes
• Easter Egg radishes
• There is a bad fire ant problem in bed M.  They are building hills under the flat concrete blocks that we use as seats in this disability-enabled bed.  Drenched them with Anti-fuego, which seems to work better for treating ants in the beds than either spinosad bait or orange oil drench.
• Planted malabar spinach at east end of bed M.
• Weeded row garden and removed row cover from half of the tomato cages.  The tomato plants in the row garden are not as robust as those in raised bed I and we are trying to see if the problem is caused by reduced light due to the row cover wrapped around the cages.
• Made accurate measurements of all the beds, the distances between them and the distances to nearby trees in order to create an accurate map of the current demo garden, including the rose garden, so that the garden expansion workgroup will have a baseline to work from.
• Harvested strawberries from bed L.
• The beans have sprouted in bed L.
• The corn, beans and squash have sprouted in bed K.

Date:    04/24/12    Time:    10:00 AM

• Tied up tomatoes in bed I.
• Planted the Lemon Cucumbers, Heirloom Watermelon radishes and the following bush beans in bed M:
• Dragon’s Tongue
• Royal Burgundy
• Black Wax
• Planted two gray Santolinas in the un-irrigated concrete block pockets in bed M.
• Planted Yellow Crookneck squash in bed B.
• Amended bed C and planted Gold Rush Wax bush beans and Armenian cucumbers.

Date    03/06/12    Time:    10:00 AM
Observations:  Very windy.

• Planted the following from transplants in bed I:
• Cherry and indeterminate tomatoes along north side; 1 each of:
• Black Krim
• Sweet Million
• Snow White
• Black Cherry
• Riesentraube
• Cherokee Purple
• Tomatoes in middle row; 1 each of:
• BHN589VFFT
• Aunt Ruby’s German Green
• Celebrity
• Cream Sausage
• Chico III
• Sweet Gold
• Japanese Black Trifele
• Planted one transplant of African Blue basil in middle row to draw pollinators.
• Planted 1 each of the following in the the south row:
• Pineapple tomatillo
• Verde Puebla tomatillo
• Costeno Amarillo pepper
• Golden Wonder pepper
• California Wonder pepper
• Holy Mole pepper
• Planted the following herbs from transplants in the west half of bed E:
• Scented geraniums
• Citronella
• Coconut
• Peppermint
• Lime
• Lemon
• Ginger
• Robert’s Lemon Rose
• Atomic Rose
• Curry plant
• Lemon Balm
• Penneyroyal
• Peppermint
• Green Santolina
• Pineapple sage
• Caraway
• Planted the following herbs from transplants in bed A:
• Stevia
• Cilantro
• Curly parsley
• Lemon thyme
• Leaf celery
• Salad burnet
• Onion chives
• Italian parsley
• Planted the following in the east half of bed E:
• 1 each of the following eggplants from transplants:
• Green Goddess
• Prosperosa
• Pingtung Long
• Listada De Gandia
• Two hills of each of the following summer squash from seeds:
• Renee’s Garden Summer Scallop Trio
• Renee’s Garden tri-Color Zucchini
• Planted “three sister” in bed K; all from seed:
• Sweet corn
• Kentucky Wonder pole beans
• Yellow Crookneck squash
• Planted the following in bed M:
• 1 each of the following eggplants from transplants:
• Rosita
• White Lightning
• 2 hills of each of the following from seeds:
• Spicemaster bush cucumbers
• Early Butternut winter squash
• Delicata winter squash
• Pulled greens that had bolted from beds C and G.
• The wind was so strong that we had to use row cover and pots with the bottoms cut out to shelter the transplants from the wind.
• We fed all of the transplants with Azomite, Revitalizer compost and Sea Tea.
• Weeded the row garden and tilled up a new row.
• Cut weeds in the compost bin area.

Date:    03/09/12    Time:    12:30 PM
Observations: Rainy and very windy

• Closed the row cover over the ends in bed I and jury-rigged another row cover over the plants on one end which had been left uncovered earlier in the week because the strong wind was whipping the ends of the row cover around and had damaged several plants.
• Covered bed M and the east end of bed E with row cover because the wind was heeling the transplants over.

Date:    03/11/12    Time:    1:00 PM
Observations: Sunny and calm

• Removed row covers from bed I and assessed wind damage:
• At least three tomatoes are gone or damaged.
• The Verde Puebla tomatillo is dead
• Put “wall of water” around several tomatoes in west end of bed I.

Date:    03/13/12    Time:    10:00 AM

• Planted the following tomato transplants in the row garden:
• Juane Flamme
• Cherokee Purple
• Sun Gold (2)
• Celebrity
• Champion II (2)
• Juliet
• Momotero (2)
• Viva Italia
• Persimmon
• Made cages for tomatoes in row garden from 5-foot remesh.
• Harvested asparagus.
• Replaced the damaged plants in bed I:
• Replaced Verde Puebla tomatillo with a Purple tomatillo transplant.
• Replaced the Cream Sausage tomato that had suffered severe insect damage with a Green Sausage transplant.  These sausage tomato plants are very droopy and trail on the ground.  So we put a collar around this one to try to stop the insect damage.
• Replaced the Chico III tomato, which appeared to suffer insect damage, with a Black Krim transplant.  Tried to determine what insects had damaged the Chico II but couldn’t see anything on it except for pill bugs and fire ants.
• Treated many fire ant mounds within and without the raised beds with Green Light Fire Ant Killer with spinosad on a grain bait.
• Planted Armenian cucumber at east end of bed E.
• Replanted radishes in bed D.
• Painted planting table and moved it to south of bed D near driveway.
• Made planting medium from:
• Gardenville dirt
• Natural Gardener Revitalizer compost
• Our homemade compost
• Gardenville Vulcanite
• Expanded shale
• Positioned seven large containers at east end of beds E and I and filled them with our homemade planting medium.  Put the excess in the planting table.
• Planted transplants in five containers:
• TAM jalapeno peppers
• Hungarian Wax peppers
• Better Bush tomato
• BHN589VFFT tomato
• Fairytale eggplant
• Planted two containers with seeds:
• Romanesque zucchini
• Spicemaster Bush cucumbers
• Planted 2 tomatoes in a bag of Black Kow composted cow manure using 1 tablespoon of Epspm salts per transplant:
• Sprite
• New Big Dwarf

Date:    03/16/12    Time:    10:00 AM

• Caged row garden tomatoes using the remesh cages we made on 03/13/12.  Fed them with Gardenville Sea Tea and wrapped the cages with row cover as a windbreak.
• Ran drip irrigation to containers and planting table.
• Checked JMG pizza garden irrigation.  Most of the emitters are clogged with lime.  Need more small diameter drip line to fix.
• Spinosad doesn’t seem to be working on the fire ants.  Sprinkled the hills outside the garden beds with Amdro.  Drenched the hills inside bed I with orange oil.
• Something is attacking the tomatoes in bed I.  It looks like spider mite damage but it is really too cool and early in the season for them.  A close examination of the leaves didn’t reveal the culprits.

Date:    03/18/12    Time:    2:30 PM

• Sprayed liquid spinosad on tomatoes and peppers in bed I and eggplants in beds E and M because of insect damage.
• Replaced dead BHN589VFFT in bed I with a Mortgage Lifter transplant.
• Planted Malabar spinach in east end of bed I.
• Began erecting a cattle panel trellis on the north side of bed I.
• Assisted JMG group with planting of pizza garden.

Date:    03/20/12    Time:    1:00 PM
Observations: 2.6 in of rain fell since the evening of the 18th.

• Yesterday’s storm caused some damage:
• A “wall of water” (WOW) blew over in bed I taking a tomato plant with it.  Removed WOW, staked the tomato plant and the remaining WOWs.
• Six tomato cages blew over in the row garden.  Righted and re-staked as best as possible without tools.  Looks like at least two plants were lost.
• Used orange oil drench on fire ant hill in bed I again.
• Used spinosad bait for fire ants in beds I and D.
• Spread Amdro on ground at base of beds.
• Discovered that there is a popup sprinkler coming up in one section of the pizza garden.

Date:    03/21/12    Time:    10:00 AM

• Replaced T-stakes in row garden with longer ones in order to keep cages from blowing over and wiping out more tomato plants.
• Replaced drip hose in pizza garden.
• Removed the rest of the row cover from the raised beds.
• Treated for fire ants again.
• Fed tomatoes, tomatillos and peppers in bed I and eggplant and squash in bed E-east with Ladybug fertilizer.
• Spread mulch in beds I and E-east and between rows in the row garden.
• Finished cattle panel trellises on north side of bed I.
• Planted the planting table with a variety of summer veggies.

Date:    03/23/12    Time:    10:00 AM

• Moved mulch from next to rose garden area to row garden and bulk amendment storage area.
• Covered potatoes in row garden with leaves.
• Had to re-do tomato cages in row garden again because the wind was making them pivot on the t-stakes.
• Erected trellis frame at east end of bed I.
• There is still a large fire ant hill in the east end of bed I.  Drenched it with Gardenville Anti-fuego and put Amdro on the ground outside the bed at the end where the hill is.
• Put Amdro on the remains of the mulch pile near the rose garden because it is so full of ants that we can’t move the remaining mulch to the bulk amendments storage area.
• The mulch on the planting table was too close to the plants so they got a lot of insect damage.  We will probably have to replace most of them.

Date:    03/26/12    Time:    1:00 PM

• Assessed damage to plants in planting table: lost eggplants and cukes to what appears to be cutworms.  Will buy replacement transplants and re-plant.

Date:    03/27/12    Time:    10:00 AM

• Replaced pickling cukes and Black Beauty eggplant in planting table with new transplants.  Watered in with Sea Tea.
• Erected trellis at east end of bed I for Malabar spinach, which is just beginning to sprout.
• Fed plants in all raised beds.
• Weeded all beds.
• Policed area.

Date:    03/29/12    Time:    1:00 PM

• Placed metal markers on all raised beds for Plant Fair.
• Treated fire ants in northeast corner of bed I with Anti-fuego.

Date:    03/31/12    Time:    7:00 AM

• Garden Fair day.
• Placed signs on posts in row garden and fruit tree areas.
• A three-foot rattlesnake showed up in bed A during the fair.  Called the Sheriff to kill it but it crawled under the sage and could not be found.

Date:    02/02/12    Time:    10:30 AM

• Harvested cauliflower from beds K and M.
• Fertilized onions in row garden with Sea Tea.
• Melting Sugar Snap peas in bed L didn’t make.  Replanted with Ferry-Morse Alaska Wilt Resistant peas (58 days to harvest) and Ferry-Morse Melting Sugar peas (72 days to harvest).

Date:    02/03/12    Time:    10:00 AM

• Harvested cauliflower from bed M.
• Harvested greens from bed C.
• Harvested turnips from bed G.
• Planted bed D with:
• Transplants
• Red Southern Belle and White Bermuda onions
• Onion chives
• Bright Lights chard
• Green Oakleaf lettuce
• Red radicchio
• Red Fire lettuce
• Firecracker lettuce
• Red Sails lettuce
• Fordhook Giant chard
• Seeds
• Purple Top and Tokyo Cross turnips
• Planted bed H with transplants
• Red Southern Belle, White Bermuda and Yellow Bunching onions
• Garlic chives
• Green Bibb and Buttercrunch lettuce
• Planted bed K with Red Oakleaf lettuce transplants

Date:    02/07/12    Time:    10:00 AM

• Harvested cauliflower from bed M.
• Planted bed M with:
• Transplants of red and white onions
• Tendergreen spinach mustard from seed

Date:    02/14/12    Time:    10:00 AM

• Harvested cabbage from beds K and M.

Date:    02/17/12    Time:    10:00 AM
Observations:    Received .3 in of rain as of this morning.

• Planted Burpee Early White Vienna and Purple Vienna kohlrabi from seed in bed D.

Date:    02/21/12    Time:    10:00 AM

• Beds K & M
• Harvested the last of the broccoli and cabbage from these beds.
• Pulled all remaining cruciferous veggies from these beds.
• Pulled all bolting greens from beds C and G.
• Mowed Alban rye in green manure area.
• Started fresh compost in first bin of 3-bin system using the mowed Alban rye, garden waste and horse manure.
• Removed some sage and other plants from culinary herb bed A to make room for new plants.
• Sorted out amendments and other supplies and rearranged them across old and new storage boxes.
• Painted disabled gardener-enabled planting table.
• Mowed, moistened and re-covered solarized area.
• Worked on leaks in 4-zone hose timer area.  Need parts to fix.

Date:    02/28/12    Time:    10:00 AM

• Fixed leaks in 4-zone hose timer area.
• Planted Malabar spinach from seed.
• Planted zucchini from seed in bed G.
• Planted Rene’s Garden Summer Scallop Squash Trio from seed in bed G.
• Harvested asparagus.

Date:    01/17/12    Time:    10:00 AM

• Planted Melting Sugar Snap and Burpee Sugar Daddy peas in bed L.
• Transplanted artichokes from bed E to small beds in fruit tree/berry area that had been used for potatoes last year.  Installed small diameter drip irrigation to the small beds.
• Transplanted red and green Romaine lettuce seedlings (started from seeds in greenhouse on 11/12/11) into bed H.

Date:    01/24/12    Time:    10:00 AM

• Planted potatoes in row garden:
• 1 60-foot row or Red Lasota
• ½ row (30 feet) of Yukon Gold
• ½ row (30 feet) of Kennebec

This is the garden diary for the Williamson County Master Gardener Vegetable Demonstration garden.  The diary was previously maintained in hard copy but has been brought online in mid-2012.  There is one entry for each month for the months prior to when the diary came online.  After that time there is one post for each day that work is done in the garden.

The garden diary documents the vegetables that are planted and harvested.  It also documents the activities necessary for preparing the beds and for maintaining the garden from planting to harvest.  The veggie garden team’s hope is that the data here might help to guide vegetable gardeners throughout the county.