It seems like I'm always trying to learn more about something. Lately I've been pretty focused on learning more about gardening and yard care; gardening methods, gardening tips, landscape design, perennial plants that are drought hardy for the Texas area, and natural pest control. My goal is to garden and take care of our yard using natural and organic methods. I also want to provide our favorite veggies and herbs so that they will be on hand when I want to use them, they will taste better, they will be healthier for our family and eventually (after the initial cost to setup the garden) they will save us money at the grocery store.
I began my journey into gardening with several pots and my husband built up a retaining wall for a raised bed on either side of the sidewalk leading up to our house. I had great success with tomatoes, peppers, rosemary and mint in the raised beds and success in pots with basil, chives, rosemary and lemongrass. I've tried my hand at making our own earthbox. This method just didn't work. I may try it again with some amendments, but maybe only one box instead of several. Last year, I had slightly raised beds utilizing some wooden shelving that had been in our garage to hold videos. They made neat rows and gave me some structure to get started. Around this time my husband and our sons worked to build a fence around the garden area to keep out the chickens and to eventually provide a nice place to sit and enjoy the plants.
2008 Garden - Here are a few pics of the raised beds with the video shelves and plants in pots.
Homemade Earthbox type container. There is another bin under the soil. It is upside down with the top 2/3's cut off and holes drilled through. The center of the bin below is cut to fit a pond basket. The soil fills in the pond basket and is supposed to help wick the moisture to the roots. I followed online directions but did not have much success with the plants. May try again with better soil amendments. Then again, maybe not.
Slightly raised beds. These were set in the fall of 2008 but not truly implemented until 2009. The wood had been used for video shelves on the wall of our garage when our non-profit library was housed there. The soil here is a mix of compost (partially unfinished) and native soil. Plants in this mixture did pretty well. Would have been much better with a better regimen of fertilizing, mulching and watering. These are elements being implemented now, in addition to building greater soil and utilizing natural disease and insect cures/repellents.
First shot of the potted plants in 2008. Lantana and Basil.
I later learned how to properly care for basil, prune after every (or most) 2 sets of leaves on a stem. This way the basil grows bushy and large. Without the pruning it will get tall and spindly.
The Lantana did not survive the final shot of TX heat in this container. Will try again when I have a place to put on in the ground, or possibly another larger container.
Cilantro, sage, basil and Roma Tomatoes. After trying cilantro for a couple of years I found out that in needs to be planted in the fall. It is a cool season herb and will bolt when the heat hits. So...they sell it in the spring. Why? Things that make you go hmmm.....
This picture was taken in October. The basil got woody and the Roma's had hardly any fruit mature through the summer. I started too late for one thing. A week or so later my husband picked all the green tomatoes and they ripened in my window sill over the next few months. I was amazed at how long some of them lasted.
Lemongrass, more Roma Tomatoes and more basil. The Lemongrass died last fall or winter. I am hoping to get new transplants but missed the window for doing so this year.
Finally, the beginning of our compost piles. The cinder blocks are straighter now and are filled with dirt. Every year we get tomatoes that grow up all over the place. In the prepared beds where compost was used, in and around the compost pile and even in the cinder block holes or near by just coming up out of the ground.
Here are some cherry tomatoes that just grew up out of the ground near the compost pile, behind our shed. They got tall and were falling all over the place so we grabbed miscellaneous pies of wood and string to try and hold them all up. That didn't work too well but we had plenty of cherry tomatoes! We had also had a cantaloupe plant growing out of the compost. Unfortunately, the one melon we got from it was disgusting in taste.
2009 Garden - Tomato, cantaloupe and zucchini plants planted in the shelving raised beds. We had to try to keep our backyard chickens out of the veggies. They still got in as they pecked their way through the plastic and they ate up the melons, squashed and destroyed the plants and were an overall menace. The peppers last year gave me only a couple of very tiny rewards. Also, as you can see, Bermuda grass is a horrible weed. It is what our lawn is and it invades with a voracious appetite.
Most of this area got fenced in. It was a mess trying to find scraps to cover and kill the grass. However, in the back, along the fence, you can see several tomato plants along the fence. Lots of green but little to no fruit. What fruit we did get was eaten by birds.
NOTE: Plant tomatoes in FULL SUN. These were too shaded to produce fruit. I've experienced before so I don't know why I thought that location would work for them last year. Will not try that again.
Finally, my loving and darling husband worked with our wonderful sons to build this fence around the garden area to keep the chickens out. The door needed to be finished here and the taller segment will be part of what will be a covered sitting area. Unfortunately, we would later find out that the chickens would find a way in by getting under the shed. This led to another problem with them roaming all of our backyard. Just a couple months ago my husband penned them so we don't have that issue anymore. However, I do have a beautiful garden area to work with now!
