Vegetable Demonstration Garden
This week’s harvest includes:
Tomatoes—22.83 pounds
Okra—9.68 pounds
Cucumbers—35.38 pounds
Armenian cucumbers—11.2 pounds
Lemon cucumbers—5.46 pounds
Sweet peppers— 4.09 pounds
Hot peppers—1.6 pounds
Eggplant— 4.99 pounds
Crowder peas—2.38 pounds
Butternut squash—52.5 pounds
Yard long beans— 0.37 pounds
Mexican sour gherkins—5.65 pounds
Melon—2.1 pounds
Golden Crispy melon—5.3 pounds
Yellow squash—1.85 pounds
A total of 165.38 pounds of produce was harvested last week. These vegetables were donated to the Caring Place and the Round Rock Area Serving Center. To date, Williamson county master gardeners have donated a total of 2,713.365 pounds of demonstration garden produce to local charities.
Weekly rainfall: no rainfall was measured the week ending 08/07/2016
Summary of garden activities
What a huge assortment of veggies in this week’s harvest! Let’s get the compost metrics first thing:
Compost pile readings: Tuesday Friday
Old pile 92 95 (in degrees F)
New pile 103 110 (in degrees F)
On Tuesday, the old pile was screened and used to amend the east end of row 9. The new pile was turned and more material chopped into it. On Friday, the old pile was screened again, down the the last 2 inches, and compost added to row 5. More green material, kitchen scraps and alpaca droppings were added to the new pile. Mulch was added to the tomatoes in row 10. Some of the tomatoes appeared heat stressed so the drip tape and row cover were rearranged for better irrigation coverage! The east end of row 9 was broad forked, weeded, and compost added. Then, four tomato plants were planted, mulched, caged and row covered. On Friday, one of the distressed tomato plants from Tuesday’s observation died and was replaced. Two additional tomato plants were placed in the east end of row 9. Rabbit fencing was removed from row 5 and transferred to cover squash plants in row 3. Irrigation zones 20-23 were tested for leaks and none were identified. The irrigation repair to zone 23 was successful so the area was filled in. Raised bed gardeners performed their general maintenance including weeding and hand watering the beds. Weeds were successfully sprayed out in the Peach orchard.
Butternut squash (left pic) and southern peas (right pic) are flourishing in the summer heat!
Master gardeners harvest beans (left pic) and hand water plants (right pic).
August Gardening in Central Texas
The Texas A&M Agrilife Extension vegetable garden planting guide suggests the following vegetables for summer planting:
Warm season greens
Beans, snap and lima
Cucumber
Corn
Summer squash
Winter squash
Eggplant transplants
Tomato transplants
Pepper transplants
Irish potatoes
Come and 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 8:30 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