Most of this week’s activity was focused on the row garden. We have been hand-watering the new seedlings because their roots aren’t yet big enough to reach the water from the drip system. We continue to prepare rows for planting by adding fertilizer and compost and tilling them into the soil. We’ve used so much compost that we had to get another load. This week we planted four kinds of garlic and added mulch to the fall tomatoes we had planted a couple of weeks ago. We are still harvesting okra, but it’s about done.
Cabbage loopers have become a problem on the cruciferous crops (cabbagey things) in both the row garden and raised beds. We have been hand-picking them as well as spraying them with spinosad, which is an organic pesticide that kills only insects that eat the crops it is sprayed on. Unfortunately, being organic, it doesn’t last long in the open air, so we will have to continue to spray throughout the growing season.
We continue to plant a few things in the raised beds and containers. Many of our strawberry plants died this summer, despite the fact that we intentionally planted them where they would be shaded by pole beans. So this week we worked some fertilizer into the soil, planted some replacement strawberries and mulched them well. Hopefully they will bear next spring. Every week it is necessary to weed the beds and to cut back those things, like the Malabar spinach, that have been a little too aggressive. This week was no exception. That always makes us happy.
We were able to harvest some okra and eggplant from the raised beds this week and to donate them to The Caring Place.
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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