Hi Everyone --
Just wanted to let everyone know that this weekend is the Fort Worth Home & Garden Show at the Fort Worth Convention Center. The show is open Friday through Sunday.
For more information go to: http://www.texashomeandgarden.com/ for directions, hours, and more information. Coupons for discount admissions are available at Tom Thumb grocery stores.
This show is an excellent time to speak to different vendors about their products and to also pick up some samples.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
OTCG Upcoming Events
Hi Gardeners --
On Saturday, February 9 nat 9:00a there will be an ALL-GARDENERS workday at the OTCG!
We will be continuing preparations to the gardens for the upcoming season!
Any and all hands who can help will be appreciated!
See you in the garden!
On Saturday, February 9 nat 9:00a there will be an ALL-GARDENERS workday at the OTCG!
We will be continuing preparations to the gardens for the upcoming season!
Any and all hands who can help will be appreciated!
See you in the garden!
Helpful Hints 2 from Al Kirchhoff
20 January 2008
Helpful Hints
Welcome to a new gardening year. The “off season” seems to have gone by quickly. Hope you each had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. Now we start off fresh and rested into a new gardening season.
It is always good to start with a quick review of the previous season. What did you learn during your previous year’s experience? Did you learn the importance of timing in soil preparation, fertilizing, planting, spacing and harvesting? I’m sure you now realize more than before that gardening is more than putting seeds and plants in the soil.
In the previous Helpful Hints we gave you some planting considerations, i.e. planting timing and sequence, variety selection, crop cultural considerations. Some crops recommended for small gardens are beets, broccoli, bush squash, cabbage, carrots, eggplant, green beans, onions, peppers, radishes, tomatoes, spinach and lettuce. Crops such as cantaloupe, watermelon, pumpkins, potatoes and corn require large areas to produce meaningful harvest and while they certainly can be planted they are not recommended for small plots. Today we will add a couple more considerations.
Now think about what you can do with the space you have to maximize your harvest without crowding your plants. One such thing is choose plants and varieties that are heavy producers for the space they require, have plant form, shape, that minimizes the area required. What about cool season vs. warm season crops? Can you gain space by mixing these? Have you ever heard of pole vs. bush, determinant vs. indeterminate, vining vs. bush? First I was referring to beans,second tomatoes, and finally squash types.
Careful advanced planning will help maximize the production in our 60 sq. ft. plots. It is good to start with a scaled drawing of the plot and lay out the row plan, then label in the crop for each row. Let me give you a for instance. Suppose I want my garden row spacing to be 30”, recommended for most crops, and to run the shorter distance, 72”. This will give me only three 6’ rows or 18 ft of row length. But by adding rows to give just 15” spacing and alternating warm and cool season crops I can have seven rows for a total of 42’ row length. The cool season crop will be harvested and gone before the warm season crop requires the space. ‘That’s just one way to “gain space”. Some crops can be planted closer than 15” for instance onions, just stop by the garden and see what the Wallace’s have done with theirs. Personally I have gone to sowing my carrots and radishes or sometimes planting two rows just 8” apart. Sometimes I will plant full rows of beets or carrots where I plan on putting tomatoes and when it is time for the tomatoes to go in I just sacrifice the short row distance necessary to put the tomato plant in the ground and let the remaining cool season crop grow along with the tomato. There are other options for you to discover and try, One consideration doing these techniques is the water and fertility demand will go up.
Finally, seeds can be expensive, especially if you use only a small portion of several different packets. You may want to cooperate with your garden neighbors and share your remaining seeds or you buy one crop and he or she buys a different crop. The packets typically tell how much row length it will plant.
We certainly have the fixin’s for a great year in the Old Town Community Garden. I can hardly wait for you to get the seeds and plants in the ground. If you have any questions refer to the website http://www.aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/ or feel free to call me and I will get you and answer.
Your fellow gardener, Al
Helpful Hints
Welcome to a new gardening year. The “off season” seems to have gone by quickly. Hope you each had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. Now we start off fresh and rested into a new gardening season.
It is always good to start with a quick review of the previous season. What did you learn during your previous year’s experience? Did you learn the importance of timing in soil preparation, fertilizing, planting, spacing and harvesting? I’m sure you now realize more than before that gardening is more than putting seeds and plants in the soil.
In the previous Helpful Hints we gave you some planting considerations, i.e. planting timing and sequence, variety selection, crop cultural considerations. Some crops recommended for small gardens are beets, broccoli, bush squash, cabbage, carrots, eggplant, green beans, onions, peppers, radishes, tomatoes, spinach and lettuce. Crops such as cantaloupe, watermelon, pumpkins, potatoes and corn require large areas to produce meaningful harvest and while they certainly can be planted they are not recommended for small plots. Today we will add a couple more considerations.
Now think about what you can do with the space you have to maximize your harvest without crowding your plants. One such thing is choose plants and varieties that are heavy producers for the space they require, have plant form, shape, that minimizes the area required. What about cool season vs. warm season crops? Can you gain space by mixing these? Have you ever heard of pole vs. bush, determinant vs. indeterminate, vining vs. bush? First I was referring to beans,second tomatoes, and finally squash types.
Careful advanced planning will help maximize the production in our 60 sq. ft. plots. It is good to start with a scaled drawing of the plot and lay out the row plan, then label in the crop for each row. Let me give you a for instance. Suppose I want my garden row spacing to be 30”, recommended for most crops, and to run the shorter distance, 72”. This will give me only three 6’ rows or 18 ft of row length. But by adding rows to give just 15” spacing and alternating warm and cool season crops I can have seven rows for a total of 42’ row length. The cool season crop will be harvested and gone before the warm season crop requires the space. ‘That’s just one way to “gain space”. Some crops can be planted closer than 15” for instance onions, just stop by the garden and see what the Wallace’s have done with theirs. Personally I have gone to sowing my carrots and radishes or sometimes planting two rows just 8” apart. Sometimes I will plant full rows of beets or carrots where I plan on putting tomatoes and when it is time for the tomatoes to go in I just sacrifice the short row distance necessary to put the tomato plant in the ground and let the remaining cool season crop grow along with the tomato. There are other options for you to discover and try, One consideration doing these techniques is the water and fertility demand will go up.
Finally, seeds can be expensive, especially if you use only a small portion of several different packets. You may want to cooperate with your garden neighbors and share your remaining seeds or you buy one crop and he or she buys a different crop. The packets typically tell how much row length it will plant.
We certainly have the fixin’s for a great year in the Old Town Community Garden. I can hardly wait for you to get the seeds and plants in the ground. If you have any questions refer to the website http://www.aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/ or feel free to call me and I will get you and answer.
Your fellow gardener, Al
Helpful Hints from Al Kirchhoff
Welcome gardeners,
You all worked hard this past season growing a productive garden while overcoming several tough obstacles --- Soil conditions, drainage problems and lots of rain to name a few. With the new
raised beds and planting soil in place, compost "working" in the bins and soon to be, if not yet completed, aisles refreshed with wood chips, you should all be excited about the next growing season.
A sample of our "ready to plant" soil mix was sent to the Texas A&M soil labs to be analyzed. We have the result and recommendations back. Not surprising it is devoid of nitrogen and needs some phosphorus but less than a pound of each for the size plots we have. The soil also tested a pH of 7.2 which is slightly alkaline, desired is 6.5. The soil delivered to us is largely sand and not as much fertile top soil we had expected. That being the case we will be adding organic matter and fertilizer according to the soil test results/ recommendations. Don't worry, Gary and Al will be available to interpret the test results and answer any questions. There are a number of simple ways to amend and rapidly improve the soil. You will have a very good growing soil and with the help of Mother Nature a very productive garden.
For now here are several things you can look at and think about for next year’s garden.
HELPFUL HINTS:
Now is the time to gather ideas for the garden next year.
- planting space allotment per crop
- direction of rows, i.e. N and S or E and W
- interplanting of crops, planting early maturing crops between rows of longer maturing crops
- sequence of planting for dates of planting different crops
Seed selections
- gather seed catalogs from suppliers such as Burpee, Gurney, Park. Just Google "vegetable garden seed catalogs" or the "' company name' seed catalog" to order.
- Use the catalogs to help plan what you want to plant and chose varieties - Don't rush the planting season. Remember the average date of last freeze in our area is March 18, we are in growth zone 8.
- Garlic is one of the few crops you can plant now, in fact, garlic needs 30 days of 32-50˚ temps to induce bulbing so winter or early spring planting is desired. Most other crops, however, are adversely affected if not killed by too early planting.
A very good source of information is the web site of Texas A&M. The sequence I suggest is www.aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu then click in sequence in succeeding windows "gardening", "home gardening", "tx extension vegetable publications", "vegetable resources", "vegetable crop guides". Select the vegetable of choice and educate yourself about the plant.
That should keep you occupied for a month or two. There is a multitude of resources available to help you plan your garden. Have fun. After all that is what this is all about. FUN!
We'll give you a new list of HELPFUL HINTS in January. For the immediate future have a Merry Christmas and Blessed New Year!
Al
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Meet the New Communication Coordinator!
Returning gardener, Marisol Espinal accepted the Communication Coordinator position in the OTCG Executive Committee!
Thank you, Marisol.
Thank you, Marisol.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
OTCG Upcoming Events
Hi Gardeners!
On Tuesday, January 15 at 6:30p there will be an ALL GARDENERS meeting at the CCA.
All gardeners are welcome. Please come and share your comments, concerns, and ideas for the OTCG.
See you there!
On Tuesday, January 15 at 6:30p there will be an ALL GARDENERS meeting at the CCA.
All gardeners are welcome. Please come and share your comments, concerns, and ideas for the OTCG.
See you there!
OTCG Workday
Last November the gardeners of the Old Town Community Garden gathered from a workday full of moving wheelbarrow loads of soil to the newly built raised beds.
The day was filled with friends and laughter. And also gave the gardeners a chance to reminisce about the past season and to discuss plans for the upcoming season.
Come by the garden and see the results of all the hardwork!
The day was filled with friends and laughter. And also gave the gardeners a chance to reminisce about the past season and to discuss plans for the upcoming season.
Come by the garden and see the results of all the hardwork!
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