More from Magoo - July

The last time i posted i was going to have potatoes for the 4th of July, but they were not ready yet. We did have tomatoes, onions and peppers-not much else going on. I had my family do a tomato taste test - i obtained 2 organic seed grown tomato plants from a fellow veg head. The results were hands down, my daughter-in-law said the organic grown ones were much zestier...interesting. In 2007 i entered my veggies at the DCMGA Fruit, Veg, Herb and Flower Show and surprisingly they did okay---

Well, it is with a sad heart that i wont be contributing to the blog til next spring arrives and it is time to plant again. I was called away on an emergency and when i arrived home after a 2 week absence my veggie garden had withered away in the 100 degree plus temperatures with no rain. I had looked for a timer to put on my soaker hoses but they were all sold out. I didn't want to put the burden of asking my pets' caregiver to turn the soakers on and remember to turn them off, so instead of a plush green veggie garden, I now have a sad looking shriveled garden! Maybe i will try a winter veggie garden, i plan to attend the DCMGA Garden InfoFest on Oct 3rd at Upper Trinity where demonstrations for Winter Vegetable Gardening will be featured. I was a virgin blogger before this and don't know if i am doing it right, i still haven't figured out that 'my spacebook' thing yet...but i will share this story with you before i go even though it isn't veg gardening related- Behind my waterfall there has been a critter hole there for about 5 years...when i first noticed it i peeked in there and didn't see anything so i pushed the soil back in place...the next day it was dug out again---i have just ignored it since then, but signs of something habitating the space have been noticeable. The other morning i went back to the greenhouse to get some pruning shears, we were just starting to get some daylight and i noticed something waddling across the back of the yard toward the waterfall---and my dog took off after it! - i yelled 'leave it' and believe it or not my dog backed off. (and for those of you who know my dog find that a story unto itself, he probably stopped from fear of the critter more so than from my command!) ..it looked like the shape of an armadillo (rounded back), but i couldn't hear it rattle so i think it is a opossum. So i know there is a creature back there, but the mystery remains what it is exactly...take care til next time...

A Post from Peabrain

This is my first venture into vegetable gardening, so you can enjoy all our mistakes. My husband and I were inspired by Mel Bartholomew’s Square Foot method of vegetable gardening. This was attractive because our soil is poor, and frankly, in the sunny spot we had available, nothing will grow except weeds. However, the original square foot method calls for 6-inch high beds, and we did not think that would be deep enough for Denton because of the extreme summer heat. My husband built two raised 4x8-foot beds. One is two feet deep, and the other is one foot deep. He filled them with Dyno Soil from the City of Denton, and in late March we planted about 20 tomato plants that we grew from seed. I complained that the plants were too close together, would get fungus, would compete for nutrients, etc. etc. But I planted them where he told me to plant them because he hasn’t listened to me in 15 years. The plants sat there inert for several weeks, and we finally decided the soil did not have enough nutrients. We should have had the soil tested (soiltesting.tamu.edu), but being a lazy gardener, it was easier to add fertilizer. I made manure tea from llama manure; a few weeks later I added a commercially-available organic fertilizer made from chicken litter. Our little plants began to grow and bloom.

We went out of town for a few days at the beginning of June, and when we returned, all of these lovely tomatoes were waiting for us. Considering we have salty well water and do not use pesticides, I think they look good, but I will admit they do not taste as good as the tomatoes I remember from my childhood. Memory being as slippery as it is, I’m not certain whether Daddy’s tomatoes really tasted that much better or not. At any rate, I started thinking about what determines the flavor. Being the complete research nerd that I am, I looked it up. This is what I found from Oxford University’s Journal of Experimental Botany: Fresh tomato fruit flavour is the sum of the interaction between sugars, acids, and a set of approximately 30 volatile compounds synthesized from a diverse set of precursors, including amino acids, lipids, and carotenoids. Some of these volatiles impart desirable qualities while others are negatively perceived. Well, I’m certainly glad I looked that up. Lipids? Acids? Should I give them Lipitor or Tums?

Does anyone recognize the lobed tomato at the front? I remember seeing similar ones in France last year. Unfortunately, in transferring seeds to cups, then pots, then outdoors, then indoors and back several times, we did not successfully transfer the seed packets. (Note to self: Next year, mark the pots.) In addition to being lazy, I am also disorganized.

More Magoo

Well, the heat is very disturbing - but my veggie garden is holding its own...I am ready to dig up some red potatoes to enjoy over Independence Day weekend with the family. I planted them late, i think the rule of thumb is to have them in by St Paddy's Day (March 15th), but i waited til Uncle Sam's Day (April 15th) to plant my veggie garden. I had to do my homework (taxes) before I could go out and play (plant my garden) and it worked out well, cause i missed some cold snaps that others experienced. I went ahead and added some dino dirt around the veggies today to give them a little boost, I dont fertilize except in the Spring, but about now they need some help to get thru this heat. Tomorrow in the cool of the day (about 6am) I will make some repairs to my soaker hose, a hole popped right in the middle of the potatoes and I need to fix one of the ends that has a bit of a leak...I wonder if there isnt a soaker hose nymph that comes in the middle of the night and plays with the hoses...amazing how these leaks appear. I havebunches of tomatoes, a couple of peppers, but the squash, cucumbers and egg plant just have blooms, no fruit set yet -

Welcome to Magoo

I am an Air Force brat but grew up mainly in middle Georgia, which has hot temperatures, soil is Georgia red clay, and not enough rain...a lot like here - i started gardening when my dad handed me a packet of seeds and pointed to a corner in our yard and said "that spot is yours, take these and see what you can do" - I was about 7...and I have not stopped since-
I have an acre and i am slowly but surely removing the turf and putting in loads of gardens with tons of natives. I have 2 small raised beds, about 8ftX8ft, that are my vegetable gardens. I don't do a lot of veggie gardening cause i don't cook, don't really like a lot of vegetables (i am a junk food junkie from birth) and most of the time it is just me...but i love growing veggies and like to share my veggie stash. Half of one of the beds is 3 ft high and this is my favorite-the pot roast veggie bed - in this bed I grow red potatoes, onions, peppers, garlic and carrots. The other veggie bed has lettuces, cucumbers, squash, tomatoes, beans, gourds and this year I am trying eggplant - only cause the color purple is one of my favorites...I have another 8ftX8ft raised bed that i grew corn in (to go with my pot roast), I would plant sunflowers in with the corn and it is one of the prettiest veggie beds around, but water is a premium in this area and we don't have a well, so i gave up the corn and made it a wildflower patch.

My neighbors all suggest I put in a well, but i am holding out to put in a rain harvesting system,
which I hope will be within the next year. I just cant decide where i want to put a huge container that will hold enough water to handle an acre of gardens. A cistern sounds good, but i have tons of trees and don't want to disturb their roots, if i put it above ground i need a spot that wont disturb the neighbors!

I am an avid composter, very proud of my 16ftX8ft compost bin, (we had some extra trellis laying around and it made the perfect composter). EVERYTHING from my garden goes in my compost bin. I do have a shredder and when it is working I use it...but usually all the yard clippings go in as is. It is a lazy man composter and took a good 2 years to get some soil from it, but well worth it. I also have a little 2ftX2ft compost bin that i layer leaves and grass clippings in and can turn that one over pretty fast.

We have a pond with Koi fish, tons of bullfrogs and it makes the best fertilizer around---pond scum, i call it. The only other fertilizer that i use is alfalfa and molasses twice a year on the lawn and the gardens. I use corn gluten meal as a pre-emergent.

We filled in our ditch about 6 years ago and put in Zoysia Palisades instead of St Augustine and Bermuda, which the lawn was originally set up with. It is a really lush grass, nice and soft, and a glorious gold color in the winter. It is a very thick grass and keeps out the weeds, while the parts of the lawn with St Augustine or Bermuda struggle to keep up and has proven to be as drought & heat tolerant as the Bermuda.

I hope to learn a lot about growing vegetables being a team player in the Veg Heads, I am especially interested in a fall vegetable garden and once I get the rain harvesting in I will once again enjoy Silver Queen corn with my pot roast.

Stay tune and one day I will tell you all why I named my gardens 'Magoo'...

Welcome a Transplant!!

This blog is for all you transplanted people who now live in the great state of Texas.

I grew up as a southern Indiana farm girl and married a local farm boy. We moved several times around IN and IL and I planted gardens at all the places we lived, from a few acres in the country to lots in the suburbs. After about 25 years of gardening I was confident of my ability to grow a sustainable, edible landscape.

Then…. we moved to Texas.

There were hints that like Toto and Dorothy, we weren’t in Kansas (or IN or IL) anymore. The first hint was about the soil. The builder of our house told us we should keep the ground around the house watered. I thought he was kidding. We have to water the house? I laughed when I asked him that question.

All long time and native residents of north Texas may find my ignorance to be unbelievable, but fellow transplants I want you to be encouraged. After almost 4 years of living in Texas there are once again veggies growing in our back yard. In future blogs I will tell you what I learned about how to (and how not to) garden in Denton County, Texas. h.t.

Pig's Fly Ranch Post May 27, 2009

My entry for May 27, 2009 Memorial Weekend was busy with guests running in and out, cooking (something that doesn't happen around here much) and some garage sale shopping. I had two garage sale finds (total cost 75 cents) that resulted in a tremendously cute toad house for the garden.

I was looking for plates and china to break and use for mosaics when I came across a seafoam green votive holder (circa 1990) for 25 cents. I figured I could use that somewhere. About an hour later at a different sale, I found a dessert plate that looked like a daisy (50 cents). When I got home, I looked at the pair and said, "there is a toad house here somewhere."

Using Loctite quick set epoxy, I glued the bottom of the daisy plate to the bottom of the votive holder. This product claims to set in 5 minutes ... but 30 hours might be a better estimate. Also, I had to use A LOT of the product, but eventually, the two pieces bonded together.

Now I am going to bury the new toad house upside down in the flower bed (needs to be in a shady, moist spot) about three inches deep. I need to bring soil up and over the "doorway" and fill the inside of the votive holder with enough soil to make a level dirt floor. I don't want any toad who finds this thing to hop inside and think he fell down an elevator shaft.

Why would anyone want a toad house in the flower bed? Toads provide excellent pest control by eating up to 100 slugs, flies, cutworms and grasshoppers per night. A toad house gives them a comfy daytime resting place out of the sun. If you'll search the Internet, you can find chi chi toad houses that sell for around $40 each. I feel clever that mine is every bit as adorable and about $39 less.

M&G's Backyard Garden

Spring, 2009, has been a very weird season. Two late frosts, lots of wind, and very wet. Nonetheless, things are growing. Have harvested two plantings of radishes, spinach, mustard greens, and are currently eating string beans, onions, elephant garlic, strawberries, potatoes, and lettuce. Corn is growing and okra is planted. Tomatoes and peppers are starting to flourish.

This week, we will plant melons – watermelons and cantaloupes. We have six rain barrels set up and catching water off the roof. Trying to figure out a pump system to get water uphill to our garden from the house.

Our new asparagus bed is doing great! We built it using cinder blocks and dyno soil. The feathery fronds sway gracefully in the wind and are several feet tall. Really beautiful. Our new J&P roses are flowering and bringing us lovely fragrances and beautiful blooms.

On a side note, we are xeriscaping our lawn little by little. Yuccas and blue rug juniper for the hill. No more mowing or watering that area. Plans are in the works for an island in the front yard cut out of the St. Augustine, mulched, with native plants. Also, a rock garden on the south side of the house so we won’t have to mow that either. We have almost a half an acre and there is a lot of potential.

Will update as more veggies come in. Would love to hear what is going on with you!

Photo is of our “Circle of Fire” from last year – jalapenos, habaneros, scotch bonnet, cayenne. Wonderful!

ZGarden's Garden

We planted 8 tomato plants after March 15. There was a freeze after we planted the tomatoes, so we covered them with plastic buckets to protect them. Fortunately, all but one plant survived. At the March Master Gardener monthly meeting, the speaker was George Kragel who spoke about growing tomatoes. He recommended taking off all the branches of a new tomato plant but the top 2 and planting the plant to the level of the second branch. He said that planting technique encourages the plant to grow extensive roots. I don't know whether to credit the planting technique recommended by George or all the rain Mother Nature has provided this spring, but I have the best tomatoes I've ever had. My first tomato is ripening on the vine this week (week of 5/18), and I have many more to follow. It's pretty exciting.

I am growing squash so I can have squash blossoms for soup, quesadillas and other Mexican dishes. It's fairly common to see squash blossoms in Mexican markets, but you never see them in the stores or markets in our area. I have to pick them pretty quickly because they become squash in only a couple of days. Of course the squash are nice to have too.

I'm a cook so I enjoy growing herbs to use in the kitchen. One of my favorites is epazote which is used in Mexican cooking. (Is there a theme here?) Once you have epazote in the garden, you have it forever. It grows like a weed. It's a warm weather annual that comes back from seed, and it comes up everywhere. If you decide to grow it, you'll want to take off the flower heads to try to avoid having epazote everywhere--beds, sidewalk cracks, flower pots. My favorite recipe for beans uses epazote. It enhances the flavor of the beans and they're delicious. I understand from Mexican cooks that it also decreases the gassy quality that beans can have, and I would agree with that.

Here goes: Heat a small amount of oil in a Dutch oven. Chop one onion and add to the pot. Cook onion until it starts to brown. Add a package of dried pinto or black beans and cover with water. Allow to come to boil and reduce heat to simmer. Continue to add water as beans cook until they are soft. This usually takes a couple of hours. Season to taste with salt and add a sprig or 2 of epazote. Continue to add water and cook until beans are the desired consistency. I like to cook them until they're really creamy. Delicious! Be sure to check your beans occasionally while they're cooking. I burned 2 pots of beans in the same week when I got distracted and forgot to check on them. That kind of destroyed my reputation as a good cook. Remove epazote sprig before serving.

Meet the Bloggers

Welcome to the Veg Head Blog. We are off to a great start. Keep checking back with us as our bloggers add their information and introduce themselves.

ZGarden's Personal Info
I have been a Denton County Master Gardener since 2006. My husband and I live in Flower Mound. Although we've had a small vegetable garden in a raised bed the past few years, this year we decided to kick things up a notch. My husband expanded the raised bed built with concrete blocks to double the size. This year we're growing tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, eggplant, jalapenos, cantalope, onions and lots of herbs.


M&G's Backyard Garden Personal Info
I started gardening in the City of Denton in 1984 and have been gardening for most of my life. Vegetables are my specialty and I have found out that you can grow virtually anything in Denton County. Soil preparation is important, of course, and it really gets hot in the summer. However, variety selection and proper gardening techniques can lead to successful year-round gardening. With the new knowledge I gained this year in the Denton County Master Gardener program, I look forward to even more success in growing wonderful things here in Denton


Pigs Fly Ranch Garden
Pigs Fly is a 4.5-acre "ranch" in south Denton County not far from the U.S. Corps of Engineer equestrian trails. We have a veggie garden, a blackberry-plus-lantana garden, a native plant garden, a butterfly garden and several compost piles. We also have 9 pygmy goats, two horses, two dogs, three cats and two bee hives.