Fall Planting & Homemade Ollas

I finally got around to planting my fall garden last weekend.  Part of the reason it took so long was because of all the rain (over 10" at my house over the last 2 weeks).  The other reason was that I had decided to make some homemade Ollas.  I'm not sure if they'll work, or how well, but I figured that it was like $10 for two of them so it's not a big deal if it doesn't work.

I made mine thusly:

Step 1: purchase an unglazed terracotta pot with a saucer that fits the top.  Also get yourself some permanent craft glue.  The directions I followed actually recommended using permanent craft glue and then sealing around the seams with caulk.  I opted to skip the caulking part and only used the E6000; so again, I don't know if it will work or for how long, but yay! EXPERIMENT!

Step 2: Follow craft glue directions to glue the saucer to the pot.  In the case of E6000, you're to put a thin layer on each piece, let them sit for 2-5 minutes and then press together.

Step 3: After pressing the pieces together, I added a bead around the outside  and then let them sit for a few days.

Then came this last weekend - I pulled out the spring veggies (it was tough - especially since both the tomato and habanero were alive; but neither had any flowers and it's really too late in the season to have expected them to produce anything before the freezes), and buried the ollas in the garden - one in each bed, and then planted the fall veggies around.

I left the herbs in place and I had already planted the Inchellium garlic so I really only needed to transplant the starts I had purchased at Red Barn a few weeks ago.  This year I'm growing the aforementioned Inchelium Garlic, Garlic Chives, Oregano, "Bouquet" Dill, "Bronze" Fennel, "Snow Crown" Cauliflower, "Pacman" Broccoli, "Black Magic" Kale, "Dragon Tongue" Mustard, "Graffiti" Cauliflower, "Romanesco" Broccoli, and "Southern Comet" Broccoli.

Support your Independent Nursery Month: Barton Springs Nursery

Welcome to October: Support your Independent Nursery Month.  Pam at Digging started SIN Month a few years ago to show all the benefits of going to an independently owned garden center as opposed to a big-box store.  Some years there are even drawings and give-aways.  I'm not sure what's on the agenda for this year (as to whether there are any give-aways or not), but I figured I'd go ahead and start blogging about the local garden centers in case you're new to town and want to get a start on fall planting.

I, personally, like going to the big box stores in order to ask them for things I know they won't have...like Milkweed.  Milkweed is quickly becoming the most sought after butterfly plant, and big box stores just don't carry it.  A HUGE oversight on their part.  But if you keep going in and asking for it, in theory, they'll eventually carry it.  Of course, I think it would help if the Grow Green folks added a "Butterfly Host Plants" section to their guide since I know the big box stores by my house hand out that guide, and try to carry a decent selection of the plants in that guide.  And I'm sure I have an inside track on this since I WORK WITH THE PEOPLE WHO MAKE THE GUIDE.  Jesus...you'd think that I'd have brilliant ideas like this more frequently, but alas and alack, I do not.  [10 minutes later] Okay, I checked the guide, they do have "Mexican milkweed" as a recommended plant for the Austin area.  But I still think they should have a little section on Butterfly host plants (much like they have a section on rain gardens).

Back to the issue at hand:
But you know who DOES carry milkweed?  Your independent garden center.

They also have things right now like strawberries.  Which you should plant now, not in January.

They also have garlic because now's the time to plant.

Anyhow, the garden center I'm highlighting this week is Barton Springs Nursery.  BSN (as those of us in the Biz call it) is a quick jog from my office - I work at Barton Springs and Riverside.  BSN is located on Bee Caves west of Walsh Tarlton and is usually quick and easy to get to (unless you're dealing with ACL traffic...so I'm really glad I decided to go there today at lunch instead of tomorrow at lunch).  The Wild Birds Unlimited which used to be in the shopping center at Walsh Tarlton recently (like earlier this year) moved to the building adjacent to BSN, so now you can get all your plant and bird needs met with one trip.

Of course, I forgot that this is SIN Month, so I didn't take any photos while I was there...but I've highlighted them before (also no photos...damn).

Anyhow, my goal for today was to find more milkweed plants.  My "Hairy Balls" plant I had through the spring and summer died and while I did just plant some plants in that area, I figure having additional milkweed isn't a bad thing*.  Especially since I'm currently raising monarch caterpillars in the house and they eat a crap-ton of leaves.  I found 4" pots and gallon-sized pots.  Since I was looking for more leaves over more plants, I went with the gallon sized.  Because it is a garden center which is in the business of trying to sell plants, they pick all the caterpillars off of their "for sale" plants and put them on their plants they have in the back which aren't for sale.  Unfortunately, they had too many caterpillars and not enough plants, as in their plants were completely denuded, so they had 5th instar monarch caterpillars free to a good home.  And that is how, even though I specifically got the plants to feed the ones I already had at home, I ended up with 3 more caterpillars to add to my menagerie.

*(aside: you have no idea how worried I was when I typed in "hairy balls plant" in the Google machine)

April Bloom Day and Foliage Followup

Combining (and this is really sad because I was just contemplating on if 'combo-izing' was a word) Bloom Day, which is hosted by Carol at May Dreams Gardens, and Foliage Follow Up, which is hosted by Pam at Digging, and posting them together a little late.  Oh well.  Better late than never.

Ghost Plant Blooms

One of my cacti from East Side Succulent

Artemisia with the dead avocado tree in the background

Hell strip which includes Artemisia, Santolina, and Iris

Dr. Huey Rose getting ready to bloom with blooming photinia in the background

May Night Salvia with a dead agave in the background.  Sigh. 

Baby Blue Eyes

Smith's Unknown Iris

Two types of portluaca

Gulf Coast Penstemmon

Red Corn Poppy

Summer Thyme

Englemann's Daisy

Amethyst Iris

Cemetery Iris

Primrose with Amethyst Iris

Lucinda Huston's Iris

Pink Poppy, which my husband has deemed his favorite, which means I ought to let it reseed freely.

Other plants blooming:
Coreopsis
Dahlberg Daisy
Tomatoes
Peppers
Red Columbine
Yellow Columbine
Passionvine
Chocolate Daisy
Blackfoot Daisy

ArtHaus Ceramics Pots

Fact:  My cousin and his wife are ceramicists. (you can see their store here)

Fact: They make a bunch of cool stuff, but none of those things were flower pots.

Fact:  They do custom orders

Fact:  I bought $60 worth of succulents from East Side Succulents

I think you can see where I'm going with this...

And this is how it came to pass that I emailed my cousin's wife and asked her to make me some succulent flower pots.  When asking for custom stuff, I usually give some ideas and try to get out of the kitchen - I figure I'm paying these people for their expertise - that's how it is when I order stuff from Bob at Draco, that's how it is when I get artwork from my friend Laurie, and apparently, how I also order pots from my cousins.  I would recommend that if you're going to put in your own order for a custom pot, that you also specify what type of holes you want in the bottom - many small ones or one dime sized one.

I told Danyelle that I had a pitcher and a bowl that she made, but I didn't have anything that Jared had made so at least one item had to be made by him (and that if maybe, just maybe he would be kind enough to include a baby-head, that would be great), we usually go for things in the cool color range because it's so blame hot down here, and that I loved her hooter mugs so I NEEDED at least a few of those (in pot form, mind you).

A few weeks later, this is what I received:

 

The owls (hooters) were made by Danyelle and the other items were made by Jared.  These are all small items - the two pots in the background are the largest of the five, and they're roughly a 4" pot size.

It took me a few weeks, but I finally managed to plant some of my succulents in the pots (keeping in mind, of course, that I decided all of the succulents I'd bought just wouldn't do and I needed MORE succulents so I went to Red Barn and HEB and got even MORE plants; and wouldn't some portulaca just look stunning?)

So far I haven't even used any of the plants I got from East Side.  And rather than leave them in my backyard where I'll see them every once in a while, I'm taking them to work where they will make me even happier (plus they're less likely to get damaged there, I hope).

And without further ado - Voila!  (I'm thinking that the doll head ones would look pretty awesome painted up for Dia De Los Muertos, or even just little skulls instead of heads...uh oh, I think I feel another custom order coming on).

Sunshine Community Garden Sale

The first Saturday of each March, the Sunshine Community Garden has a fundraiser sale.  They sell 4" pots of tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and herbs for $2 a pop. 

I went with my friend and fellow garden blogger, Roberta.  My sister (whom you can see in my March Wide Angles Post) was supposed to go with us, but bailed the night before because she didn't want to get up at 7 in the morning.  To be fair, she only was going to have to get up that early because she was staying with my parents in Georgetown and they wanted to have breakfast together at Kerbey Lane before the sale.

Anyway, the sale - we arrived probably around 10am, it was a relatively warm day, albeit muggy and yet windy.  By the time we arrived, there was only a line to go into the herb shed

But since we were there for the big guns (aka tomatoes), we bypassed the herbs.

The tomato tent.  They must have made an extra big order or tomatoes this year because there were still PLENTY available by the time we got there.

I managed to not buy any peppers - and that's mostly only because I have a gazillion that I dug up in the fall and have managed to keep them alive over the winter so I'll be transplanting them after this crazy cold snap.  After picking up our tomatoes, peppers and eggplants (and of course buying twice the tomatoes that we actually have room for), we were happy and content -

 

And then we decided to go look at some of the gardens.  One of the plots has a 3-year-old Collard Greens plant which has a trunk as thick as my arm - like seriously, that's impressive man!

 

My purchases:

 

Tomato "Blue Berries":  Specialty - Very dark purple color. At maturity they turn deep red where the fruit was shaded and almost black where it's been in full sun. Elongated clusters that look beautiful. Indeterminate. 75 days.

Tomato "Cherokee Purple": Heirloom - Dusky rose, purple fruit, large 10-12 oz, heavy producer. Very popular tomato from Tennessee. Sweet rich flavor. Indeterminate. 80 days. [some day I'll try to grow both Black Krim and Cherokee Purple at the same time so I can do taste tests]

Tomato "Chico III": Paste - Very early, oblong tomato developed in California. Wonderful disease resistance. Many consider this to be superior to Roma, as it is much earlier and a touch sweeter. Determinate. 70 days.

Tomato "Dwarf Arctic Rose":  Container - A 2012 release by the Dwarf Tomato Project. Topping out at about 3 feet, this is the shortest of the project releases to date. Determinate. 70 days.

Tomato "Japanese Black Trifele":  Heirloom - Potato leaf foliage. Black, pear-shaped tomato that looks like a little eggplant on the vine. It's a commercially grown tomato in Russia. Complex, rich sweet flavor. Determinate. 80 days.

Eggplant "Fairy Tale":  Early harvests of elongated lavender fruit with white stripes. Best picked when about 4X1 3/4 inches while the skin is still shiny. Plants are ideal for containers. 50 days.

Eggplant "Machiaw":  Pale lavender skin, 9-12" long. Mild tasting white flesh. 65 days. 

End of Year

And just like that I up and leave you for a month.  But never fear, I am still here.  It's just I haven't been blogging as much.

I pulled out old veggie plants in the garden and found that my newer bed (the west bed) is beset with root knot nematodes:

All I can say about this is, DAMMIT!

I also cut back a bunch of other plants (Cosmos, Mexican Petunia and Artemisia), mostly to make light for other plants growing in the area (namely the irises and the yaupon holly).

I planted new plants - Pacman Broccoli, Marathon Broccoli, a Cauliflower and a Brussels Sprouts.  Ivy broke one of the broccoli plants, but the leaves are still growing, so that's weird.

I also went back to working on the grass removal project in the back corner of the yard.  Part of it did include installing a trellis that Bob at Draco made for me.  It will involve planting a rose bush and therefore, removing soil and putting in Ladybug Rose Magic soil.  I have high hopes, even though my poor little grasses are still little.

For Christmas, I gave my parents some herbs and jars and vinegars, oil, and vodka to do some infusion projects.

Infusion stuff - got the idea from Vicki at Playin' Outside

It's finally time to start THINKING about sucking up the leaves in the yard -

Now if only those last few leaves will drop...

AND finally, I made a trip down to East Side Succulents to use a Groupon I got a little while ago.  Shawn even went with me, so I let him pick out most of the plants.  The next step will be to ask my cousins at Art Haus Ceramics to make some special order pots and pot everything up good and proper.

This is what $60 of succulents looks like.

More Mull-shay!

The new "Betony Bed."  Betony, White Yarrow, Paprika Yarrow, Liriope, Columbine and Firespike.

After using 3 bags to mulch the possumhaw area, and then another 2.5 to mulch the red tip photinia bed, I decided that paying at least $2.50 a bag and having all those bags was a little ridiculous.  Enter The Natural Gardener.  The Natural Gardener sells mulch and soils in bulk.  Their most expensive mulch (Sylvan Formula) is currently $26 per half cubic yard (aka 13.5 cubic feet) with the cheapest one that you'd want to use being $16.50.  If you don't want half a cubic yard, they also sell it in "bag it yourself" bags.  If you go this route, however, the cost does increase to $3.50/bag ($35.50/half yard).  Does buying in bulk end up saving money?  Yes - but it's a negligible amount ($2.44 per big box brand bag equivalent instead of $2.50 (going for the cheap stuff on both accounts)).  So because we were tired of ripping apart bags, we opted to go get us some bulk mulch.  It was easy-peasy.  The guy loading the mulch was a pro - we didn't even have to get out of the truck AND he even levelled the top of the mulch mountain all with the little front-end loader.  We took surface roads all the way back home because mulch does get blown around.  We had the sunroof open, and we both ended up covered in mulch dust by the time we got home.

The side yard - Iris bed on the right in front of the rain barrel, Bettony bed straight back.

Do you have any idea how quickly half a yard of mulch will disappear when you're spreading it around the yard?  Like super quick, man.  We mulched the Rose bed, the Iris bed, and the new Betony bed.  And that used about half of the mulch.  We still have to mulch the front bed, 3 trees, and the main backyard bed.  Plus we may do the veggie garden beds (even though what I really need is more soil), and the front bed along the walk.

The Rose Bed - Dr. Huey Rose with Blackfoot Daisy, Zexmenia, and Dwarf Lion's Tail.  The zexmenia reseeded prolifically this year.

I think we're going to need more mulch.

Tomatoes

What does one do when one already has 13 (strike that, 12 since one got clipped) tomatoes in 4" pots?  Go to the Sunshine Community Garden and Austin Organic Growers sales to pick up yet more tomatoes. Naturally.

I picked up Roberta a little late because I was too busy watering my garden to actually leave on time.  Once I got her safely ensconced in my car (and with her sitting ramrod straight because of a bad back), we headed over to Buck Moore to pick up some chicken feed and to look at the baby chicks.  Then we headed over to the Sunshine Community Garden Plant Sale.  There I picked up a Trinidad Scorpion Pepper for my husband; a dill plant to replace the poor aphid ridden plant in the garden; a marjoram plant because I like me some Italian food; and Raspberry Miracle, J.D.'s Special, and Pink Berkley Tie-Dye tomatoes.  I can't say "no" to tomatoes.  WEIRD TOMATOES, I WISH I KNEW HOW TO QUIT YOU!  Of course I rationalized the tomato purchases by convincing myself that the tomatoes I started from seed (Black Krim and Roma) didn't look all that hot and they may not even produce, so I might as well purchase some good plant starts to hedge my bets.  Never mind the fact that I have no where to put 16 tomato plants. I still had to talk myself out of getting an eggplant (I've got 5 still in the seed starter thing that I need to transplant to 4" pots). After Robera purchased her 9 plants (or however many she got), we headed south to the Austin Organic Growers sale.

The Austin Organic Growers Sale is a sale that I stumbled upon back when I first started gardening.  I'm not sure how I managed to find the AOG sale advertised but not the Sunshine Sale since most know of Sunshine but not AOG.  Nonetheless, the husband and I went down to that AOG sale where we learned about the Sunshine Sale so we decided to hit it up on our way back north.  Ever since, I've gone to both sales.  In recent years, the AOG has started getting plants from Gabriel Growers (the same vendor that provides the plants for the Sunshine Sale) in addition to the plants that the club propagates on their own.  But I digress - Roberta and I headed south to the AOG sale, paid our $2 to get into Zilker Botanical Gardens and went to the sale.  I found some white yarrow that I have been looking for since making my garden plan.  Roberta purchased some other plants too (including a lemon verbena that none of us (meaning the sale people and the two of us) knew whether it was an ornamental or an edible) (Note:  It's both). 

Then we went and ate lunch at El Alma.  It was delicious. 

We headed back to Roberta's where we hung out on her front porch talking and throwing bread pieces at the chickens and guinea while sitting with Beagle in the sun.

Damn it was a great day.

Garden Design Implementation: Phases 7 and 8 of eleventy-billion

 

Phase 7:  I don't know if it was the impending dinner party, the brush pick up, or the fact that he squashed my dreams of a cinder block wall, but while I was at Pam's Lawn Gone talk at the Natural Gardener, the husband set up my secondary rain barrel.  This rain barrel has been sitting in the yard not set up and not collecting water since my friends gave it to me when they moved in April.  As you can see, he used the cinder blocks as a stand since more head equals better draining of water from the barrel.

 

 

Phase 8:  The planting of the grasses.  My original Plan called for two Big Muhly grasses, and when the husband nixed the cinder block wall, I added a third.  Since I decided that wouldn't give enough screening, I decided to add three Gulf Coast Muhlies to the mix as well.  Of course I don't think this will be tall enough to totally shield the utility box, but it's a start.  Of course you can't see green on green grasses, so I'll help you out - the yellow flags are the grasses and the one lone orange flag in the back is a coral honeysuckle vine.  The flags, naturally, are meant to keep the husband from accidentally mowing over them.  I purchased one of the big muhly grasses back during the fall Wildflower Center sale, I got one from my coworker, and I purchased the third at Barton Springs Nursery the day of the talk (yes, I totally visited two of our awesome locally owned nurseries on Saturday).  I got the two gulf muhlies at the Natural Gardener. The coral honeysuckle also came from BSN.  Not shown:  The Augusta Duelberg sage and 2 Ruby Crystals  grasses I also got at BSN.

All that's left on this side of the yard is to plant the Hamelia Patens aka Firebush next to the rain barrel (I use the scientific name because the plant is sometimes called hummingbird bush, but there are a bunch of other plants also called hummingbird bush).  I may also replant more petunia as my current plan calls for having it moved all to this side of the yard (but I may wait until the fall to move the rest).

Support Your Independent Nursery: The Natural Gardener

The Natural Gardener is located in southwest Austin on Old Bee Caves Road close to SH71.  As the name indicates, the Natural Gardener is the home of all your natural and organic gardening needs.  The sign above welcomes you as you drive into the parking area.

As we start at the front of the property, there is a large selection of 'hot and dry' plants with a selection of vines closer to the street.

They had multiple varieties of passionvine including this red variety.  I do believe I'll have to go back and peruse this section more indepth.

Coming back up toward the shop, you'll pass through the herb and veggie section.

 

The NG was stocking up on those plants that you should plant now, rather than when the box stores tell you you should plant them - Strawberries!

 

After walking by the shade plants section, and glancing at the sun perennials, you pass by the back of the store - a location where they have upcycled projects - most made from oil drums by Haitians.

Heading away from the shop, and passing through the sun plants section, you'll come to the demo veggie gardens.  A few years ago, NG did multiple test plots of square foot gardening in order to develop a soil that provides the best results.

Further on, you'll come to the herb wheel - this is actually a section that I had no idea existed since I'm always "PLANTS!!!" whenever I'm at a garden center and had never wandered this far away from the goods.

Heading back to the store, you'll go through the trees section - and here is the reason why I came to the center - Possumhaw.  I've called for 4 plants in my back yard garden plan, and thustofore I have not been able to find any plants for a reasonable price - the cheapest I had found was $75 a plant for 5-gallon plants.  I even went to the Wildflower sale on the Member's Only sale solely to get possumhaws, of which, they were sold out of by the time I got there 2 hours after opening.  Based on the recommendation of a coworker who said that she got hers at NG, I headed over there after hitting the Wildflower sale.  And lo, the Natural Gardener did indeed have possumhaws - a bunch of them.  AND! Even better! I was able to get 3 for $75.  I only got 3 because that's all I could fit in my car, so I'll have to go back sometime to get the last one.  It is also at this point that you learn how helpful the workers can be - I went to 3 independent nurseries on the north side, was obviously looking at trees and not one of them asked if I needed anything.  Here, I was asked if I wanted help at every turn (of course for most of my trip I was just wandering around).  When I was asked the second time whilst looking at the trees, I asked how they know whether they have female or male trees.  I was informed that they only propagate the female trees because there are always male trees around and once you start getting seedlings, some of them will be male trees thus furthering the process.

After picking up my trees, I wheeled over to the pots and ceramics section - everything is organized by color and it is one of the bigger selection of pots I've seen at garden centers.

Finally, I headed into the shop to pay for my wares - the NG has a decent supply of stuff for birds, seeds, tools and other wares either for your garden or for those who garden (honestly I just noticed the Ollallas in the upper left corner).

I recommend you go enter Pam at Digging's Independent Nursery give away - this week it's a gift card to the Great Outdoors on South Congress.