We had to upgrade the irrigation lines on one of our 5×20 beds this week so last Tuesday morning we ran a little impromptu hands-on class in drip irrigation for some of the veggie garden team members who wanted to get more experience in that area. It was a little chilly for plumbing work, but all who were interested got to lend a hand in the upgrade and we all felt that it was a positive experience despite the weather.
We worked in the garden Friday morning too, but the cold weather kept the crew to a minimum of hardy souls. Despite the relentless cold north wind that assaulted us all morning we got quite a bit done. In the row garden we started installing trellises made of cattle panel held up with t-stakes. They are sturdy and we will use them to grow viney crops so that we can get more plants in less ground space than we would if we let the vines sprawl. Hopefully that will allow us to donate even more produce this year than we did last year.
In the raised bed area we harvested the last of the collards to make room for new plantings to mature in time for our garden fair on April 6th. To that end also we prepared a bed for tomatoes and began planting veggies in the 5×20 bed where we had installed the new drip lines earlier in the week. We planted Asian greens, baby pak choi, Jewel Tone beets, Tokyo Cross and Purple Top turnips and mache. That last item is a winter green (also called “corn salad”) that we have never planted before. Like chard, mache is supposed to last longer into the warm weather than greens like lettuce and kale. We decided to try it to see if that is true. We also planted some additional veggies from seed in the other 5×20 bed. We already had chard transplants there but we added two additional varieties from seed: Scarlett Charlotte and Pot ‘o Gold. We also planted Red Russian and Tuscan kale. Then we added two kinds of mizuna and some Purple Osaka mustard. The strong winds of late will make it a challenge to keep the seeds damp until they have sprouted and have sufficient roots to reach the water from the drip lines, so we put some row cover on the north side of the bed to act as a wind break.
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 and Friday 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.
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