The Austin Garden: Chris's vegetable garden tips | evergreen cordial

Drip irrigation workshop: this Saturday, 10 - noon. This form of irrigation is an efficient way to conserve water and is an important tool in the Earth-Kind landscape. Learn from Travis Co. irrigation experts how to install a drip irrigation system in your garden. Space is limited. RSVP here ❦

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Starting seeds class: Saturday 10 a.m. the Natural Gardener, with Heather Kendall. When vegetable gardening in Texas, timing is everything. Being able to start vegetable (and other) seeds indoors gives a gardener more control over choosing plant varieties, as well as timing. TNG ❦

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Fruit tree pruning: this is the month for pruning. Writer Richard Ashton describes it as 'an art more than a science... and years of pruning will make a person a better pruning artist just by trial and error.' Texas Gardener ❦

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Evergreen cordial: over the holiday season, Traditional Medicinals shared this interesting drink 'to access the spirit of evergreens throughout the year.' All it takes is sugar, water, vodka, and a cup of fresh evergreen green needle tips. TM ❦

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a d v e r t i s e m e n t

Thursday Morning Landscape

design and installation,

free consultation Call Dwight: 512 913 2189

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Central Texas Gardener: native plants for bees, the scoop on plant pathogens, cultivating wonder with Sharon Lovejoy and water-conserving, habitat-friendly garden restoration. Saturday. 4 p.m. Sunday 9 a.m. KLRU ❦

The Vegetable Garden

by Chris Winslow

For those of you who included ‘create vegetable patch’ in your list of new year’s resolutions, then I am afraid it is already time to get to work.

In just a few weeks, you’ll be able to plant your asparagus, potatoes, radishes and all kinds of lettuce and leafy greens.

Just a month later, warm season crops such as tomatoes, peppers, green beans, okra, black-eyed peas, cucumbers, and all kinds of squash can be planted in.

Pick a garden site that gets plenty of sunlight and is well-drained, and dig over the soil, adding generous amounts of organic compost.

If you’re not composting all your leaves, kitchen scraps and grass clipping at home, then don’t despair. There is a myriad of choices available at your local garden centers.

Some are made from cow and turkey manure, and others from vegetative sources such as alfalfa and cotton gin trash. Often you’ll find composts that blend these animal and vegetable components together.

You should mix generous amounts of compost into the top 6 to 12 inches of the garden soil. This will help with moisture retention, aeration, and drainage. It gives life to otherwise poor soils by adding beneficial microbes to the soil.

Besides compost, it’s important to add organic, slow release fertilizer. This provides the primary ‘macro-nutrient’ building blocks for plant growth: (N) nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P), and potassium (K).

Look for fertilizers which also contain micro-nutrients such as magnesium, calcium, sulfur and iron.

Cottonseed meal and alfalfa meal are highly effective sources of organic plant food. Both also stimulate the growth of existing beneficial bacterias.

Other sources include bat guano, earthworm castings, blood meal and bone meal.

If you’re looking for a blended fertilizer with all the nutrients needed for strong plant growth, Espoma’s Garden Tone is one of my top favorites.

Time’s getting short and the spring 2020 garden season is just around the corner. It’ll be here before you know it. And don't forget to check out the Texas A&M Planting Guide which has all of the best dates for planting your crops. Happy Gardening Everyone! ❦