Vegetable Demonstration Garden
The last period’s harvest includes:
Spinach—0.91 pound
Leaf lettuce—37.3 pounds
Carrots— 0.4 pound
Chinese cabbage—10 pounds
Kohlrabi—2.5 pounds
Canned vegetables—30 pounds
Canned tomatoes—15.7 pounds
Canned fruit—8.8 pounds
A total of 51.11 pounds of fresh produce was harvested last week. This produce was donated to Heaven’s Harvest Food Bank and the Caring Place. A total of 54.5 pounds of canned goods were collected and donated to the Caring Place. To date, Williamson county master gardeners have donated a total of 318.428 pounds of demonstration garden produce and canned goods to local charities.
Weekly rainfall: 0.84 inch of rainfall was measured the period ending 03/26/2017.
Summary of garden activities
During the past 2 weeks, master gardeners have been clearing the row and trial gardens, amending soil, planting new crops, engaging in pest control, weeding and managing the compost piles. Elbon rye was cleared from the trial beds and tomato plants placed (left pic). Row cloth covered tomato cages were installed over plants in the trial beds (right pic) and row garden.
Potato plants were hilled and weighed down with mulch as depicted below. A grow bag was planted with potatoes.
The row garden was weeded and fertilized with fish emulsion. It’s looking great, isn’t it?!
The container garden was cleared of Bermuda grass. Containers were planted with zucchini and red lima beans. Raised bed gardeners harvested spinach, kohlrabi, lettuce, and carrots. Thyme, basil, tomatoes, hot peppers and bush beans were planted in raised beds. Raised beds were also weeded and fire ants treated with orange oil. Raised beds are producing a wide variety of crops as shown below.
Bush beans and pole beans were planted in the round trellis garden and in the raised bed gardens. Straw bales were prepared for planting, fertilized and watered down as illustrated below. Cucumbers and bunching onions were planted in the bales.
Compost piles were turned (pic below). Temperatures in the bins stayed below 110 degrees F during this period.
Row 3 was composted and leveled. A string trimmer was used to weed the peach orchard. The Red Baron peach tree shown below is blossoming!
The row garden also had some new visitors this week. Rabbits moved into the row garden to be closer to the salad bar. They were discovered under a wheelbarrow in row 3 (left pic). Can you blame them? WOW–look at this 8 pound (right pic) Chinese cabbage!! It’s the “One Kilo Slow Bolt” variety in case you want to try it in your garden.
The irrigation system was checked for leaks and repaired when diagnosed. Our next blog will be posted April 10. Please check back on our progress then!
March Gardening in Central Texas
The Texas A&M Agrilife Extension vegetable garden planting guide suggests the following vegetables for early spring planting:
Beans, snap and lima
Cantaloupe
Swiss chard (seeds or transplants)
Corn
Cucumber
Eggplant (transplants)
Warm season greens
Lettuce (seeds or transplants)
Mustard (seeds or transplants)
Pepper (transplants)
Pumpkin
Radish
Summer squash
Winter squash
Tomatoes (transplants)
Turnip
Come visit us!
Our demonstration garden is located beside the Williamson County Extension Office driveway at 3151 SE Inner Loop Road, Georgetown, Texas. Master gardeners are usually at work in the vegetable garden on Tuesday and Friday mornings from 9:00 AM to noon, 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