By Jannie Vaught With all the very stormy Spring we are having and all the up and down temperatures I am looking forward to Summer. We need sunshine to ripen the tomatoes and kick start the lagging flowering. It is just an unusual weather year. This week I would like to bring up some issues…
By Jannie Vaugh Beans, snap, and lima. Cantaloupe, Swiss Chard, Collards seeds or transplants, cucumber, eggplant, greens cool season, Okra first of April, mustard to end of March, April peas English and snap through July, peas southern now through the end of May. Peppers transplants now through May, Sweet potato slips now through the end…
By Jannie Vaught With the past year of empty shelves and higher prices for just about everything. Many are returning to the “Victory Garden”. With this has come shortages of seeds, transplants, and the products needed to start seeds under lights. Seedling trays, Grow lights, and even seed and potting soil. Some are purchasing large…
By Jannie Vaught As the year 2021 starts I often find myself looking forward to all the possibilities ahead. One has been to become acquainted with the Honey Bee. I have observed them and watched them pollinate my garden and flower beds. And fly away to unknown locations, but always happy to have them visit.…
By Jannie Vaught Yesterday afternoon I was enjoying a stroll through our back garden and now leafless fruit trees and I noticed that there were wild or feral bees going after some outdated fruit jam I had placed in a dish for the 4 chickens who live in my back garden area. They were eating…
Jannie Vaught Seeds for this gardener have very personal meanings. As a seed grower and a seed saver, I am constantly looking close at many varieties of seeds. And I have a great fondness for seeds that are very tiny. It seems that these tiny bundles of potential hold a big productive plant, producing large…
By Jannie Vaught For those of us who are outside early and late there is a bit more grainy grime on the leaves and tomatoes. also, the wind seems to remove any soil moisture as soon as it touches the ground even with deep mulch to hold the water. Last week I came across a…
By Jannie Vaught, With a warmer winter, the natural elimination of pests through freeze has had an effect on this seasons growth. Bugs! How do we make Pest and Disease controllable? Build your habitat with Natures Preditors! Yes, the bugs that eat the bugs. This includes Ladybugs, mantis, birds, toads, garter snakes, and even wasps.…
By Jannie Vaught The (Cucurbitaceae) along with cantaloupe, honeydew, and cucumber originally domesticated in West Africa. This is a vining flowering plant with over 1000 varieties. The health benefits are Beta carotene and phenolic antioxidant found in the red to orange colors and it gets better as the melon ripens Low in calories and…
By Jannie Vaught Vernal Equinox has finally arrived and with it “The Days of Uncertainty.” As the world is placed on hold from a sweeping illness from day to day we never really know or understand the full effect. It has emptied our grocery stores, closed us in our homes and had us elbow bump…
By Jannie Vaught, It is that time of year when the cold fronts blow in then it warms up and all my garden plans are on hold till that pesky soil temperature reaches 60. My living room is full of Tomato and Pepper starts under lights, most of the soil and garden preparations are ready…
By Jannie Vaught The National Butterfly Center in Mission Texas is a 100-acre wildlife center and native species botanical garden dedicated to the conservation and study of butterflies. Since many butterfly plants support bees also. Take a moment and go to their web site. www. nationalbutterflycenter.org. for all the latest and up to date information…
By Jannie Vaught Yes, if you find your gardening duties are slow now it just got busy. The onion starts are in the feed stores. Here in central Texas, it is Short Day onions that do best (11 to 12 hour day lengths). Here are some that grow well here. Yellow: Chula Vista, Cougar, Jaguar,…
By Jannie Vaught Plan first, sort seeds and decide what you need to purchase. You can still plant some cold crop plants, Asian greens, lettuce, radish, and spinach. It is also bare root fruit tree season and cane berry time. Most nurseries will begin to have fruit trees and blackberry plants in or will have…
By Jannie Vaught Solstice is December 22. This is the final descent into darker shorter days with deeper cold at night. Then the light begins to return on the 22nd. and slowly we climb into lighter mornings and longer days. In some Old Northern customs, they consider this as Spring. Here in central Texas, we…
By: Jannie Vaught A few Saturdays ago in the afternoon I had the opportunity to sit in on the Highland Lakes Native Plant Society of Texas at the Marble Falls Library. The speaker was Hans Landel, Ph.D . Current Interim Invasive Species coordinator at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. First of all the…
By: Jannie Vaught This weekend was spent inside planning and plotting next seasons garden plans and as my rain water barrels overflowed, I was quietly happy. This means more water on the garden a little hail damage but the moisture was worth the concern. Now with this big storm and all the great available nitrogen…
By: Jannie Vaught Pollinators are in trouble especially in built up cities. It is up to the urban residents to provide nectar, pollen, and nesting options. Our native bumble bees are among our most important pollinators and they thrive in urban and suburban environments. Research has counted around 50 other types of Bees, carpenter bees, leaf cutters, borer…
