tel: 512 280-1192 Friday, Jan 24 2014
Nursery Notes: We have a fine selection of cool season vegetables
including lots of onion seedlings. Some tomatoes and peppers for
the early birds (those who like to pot them up for later planting when
the time is right.) Fruit trees arrive the week of Valentine's Day.
(Despite the weather, the nursery is open regular hours today.)
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The world’s smallest water lily has been stolen after green fingered
thieves struck at England's Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew recently,
reports the Daily Telegraph. The tiny flower, less than a centimetre
across, is critically engangered: Nymphaea Thermarum
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Want to turn the pages of the Statesman or Chronicle into a charm-
ing little bio-degradable pot for your seedlings this spring? A video
from Dave's Garden will show you how easy it is: Dave's Garden
Austin awoke today to find its gardens and landscapes encrusted in ice.
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in drought? Landscape Kenneth Francis draws on his experiences in
New Mexico and Texas. On tour, Becker Elementary's Green Class-
room teachers are hard at work with watershed protection projects.
Sat. noon, 4 p.m. or Sun., 9 a.m. www.klru
Coming soon to a Garden near you!
by Chris Winslow
Believe it or not, spring (warm season) planting time is just around
the corner. And as usual at this time of year, my mind is focused on
America’s favorite backyard vegetable crop – the tomato.
Every season has its challenges when it comes to this fickle crop,
especially with our central Texas weather. Last year we learned two
important lessons.
First, we ignored one of the cardinal rules of gardening: never plant
the same crop in the same place season after season.
Our spring crop was a hit. Trials of ten popular varieties were a raving
success, with BHN 602 topping the weight chart at 1.6 pounds for the
largest fruit, and 31.5 pounds total from the most productive bush.
We were so astounded by our results that we planted our fall crop in
the same location, after adding fresh compost and tilling in organic
fertilizer. Our good luck turned to bad when many of our tomato bushes
succumbed to a nematode invasion.
Secondly, our drainage was not good enough for our heavy fall rain.
After 9 to 10 inches of rain, our nearly ripe tomato crop became a victim
of cracking. Two lessons learned the hard way. Oh Well! This season
gives us another chance, with a couple of new tomatoes showing great
promise.
Valley Cat is the Rodeo 2014 release for this spring, to be launched at
the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo to generate funds for the
Junior Master Gardener Program. Valley Cat is a very large deter-
minate tomato hybrid with an excellent sugar to acid flavor and the
potential for setting 20 pounds plus of fruit.
A second up-and-coming tomato is Redline. This plant yields large
to extra large fruit and has an effective disease prevention package.
It is a vigorous determinate with extra foliage to help shade the fruit
from sunscald.
Now’s the time to prepare. Happy Gardening everyone, stay warm!
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Mark your calendars for the last weekend in February. Kevin Call-
away, a commercial grower from Hondo, will be at the nursery to
answer questions, and will give a seminar on Sunday Feb. 23, 2 p.m.
(Rumor has it that he may be giving away some seed of a drought
tolerant groundcover tomato with currant-size fruit that he collected
in Ecuador.)
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Visit the website: www.itsaboutthyme.com Visit the nursery:11726 Manchaca Road, Austin, 78748 Like us
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