I hope everyone has had some success with their vegetable gardens

this spring and summer, especially with tomatoes, America’s favorite

backyard vegetable plant.

 

To be honest, this spring was rough one. We had a late season freeze

during the night of  March 20,  which was 20 days after the last

average freeze date. In northern Hays County, we even had a frost

on April 10, 25 days past the last average frost date.

 

My first crop of tomatoes froze and my second planting had to be

covered with frost cloth three different times.

 

This all added up to a late start. My heirlooms just started blooming

when the heat set in. Very little fruit was made.

 

On the other hand, my determinate hybrids, mostly Rodeo 602, BHN

444, Tigress, and Celebrity managed to produce tons of fruit that rip-

ened during the last two weeks of June. The plants finished just in

time to prepare for the fall tomato planting season which kicks off 

next week (the second week of July).

 

Most of the hybrids produced fruit in the ¾ to 1lb range with the

largest - a Rodeo 602 - weighing in at 1.6 lbs. It was a whopper!

When gardeners think of marigolds, they think of annual color that

lasts from the spring to the fall. This versatile family of plants also

has two notable species that are wonderful perennials in our Central

Texas gardens: Mexican mint marigold (Tagetes lucida), and Copper

Canyon daisy ( Tagetes lemonii ).

 

Mexican mint marigold, known also as yerba anise in Spanish, has

an enchanting anise fragrance to its leaves, and pretty button-size

yellow flowers in the fall. It emerges in the spring and makes a

deeply green plant which grows to a height and width of three feet

by the end of summer. And it makes a beautiful flower display in

the fall.

 

In the kitchen, you can use its leaves as a substitute for French tarr-

agon in culinary recipes. Some gardeners call it ‘Texas tarragon.’

This marigold also makes great cut flowers and is not bed invasive.

 

Copper Canyon Daisy is the other perennial flowering marigold. It

grows to a height of 3 feet and spreads out to a width of 4 feet. The

foliage has a strong scent and you can expect a show of yellow

flowers in the spring and fall.

Both of these marigolds are easy to grow and deer resistant. Give

them at least a half day of sun, and once established, they will need

very little watering.

One of the oldest techniques is to leave out a few saucers of beer.

Slugs and snails love beer so much that they wind up drowning in

it. Snail and slug bait with metaldehyde has been used for years but

is unsafe for children and pets. The good news is that there’s a new

snail and slug bait on the market that contains iron phosphate. This

is safe for kids and pets, and simply becomes plant food when all

the slugs have been killed.      Happy Gardening Everyone!