Monthly Archives: February 2022

Tomatoes Will Break Your Heart

Posted on February 25, 2022 by Dallas Garden Buzz

I will listen to anything anyone has to say about about growing tomatoes. I have a tomato app on my phone. I’ve taken meticulous notes at many a tomato class. And what I have learned through experience is that tomatoes will break your heart in a new way every year. So select your varieties carefully- heirlooms for flavor, hybrids for disease resistance – and don’t even try the gigantic beefsteak ones you remember from your youth. Too much will go wrong before they are ready. Okay, try a big flavorful heirloom but hedge your bet with Sun Golds and Early Girls.

This year in the north garden we are going to try the Florida weave trellising technique to get the vines off the ground and improve the air circulation. The tomatoes in the how-to diagrams look very well behaved. I’m anticipating an amorphous blob of vines unless we prune daily, which will become a test of faith by the middle of April.

My best tip for obtaining delicious tomatoes for your BLTs is to make friends with someone’s uncle who has been growing tomatoes for a hundred years. Then one day your friend will say her uncle died and you will say you are so sorry to hear that while thinking, “I hope it wasn’t the one who grew tomatoes.”

Beverly Allen, Dallas County Master Gardener Class of 2018

You will manage to get some tomatoes at least this far. If your tomatoes tend to vanish in the night, harvest at the first hint of pink and ripen indoors.

Hornworms are not uncommon and will defoliate your tomatoes. If you let them live they will develop into beautiful sphinx moths. Thank you, tomatoes, for this dilemma.

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Purple Wintercreeper, Euonymus Fortunei ‘Coloratus’

Posted on February 25, 2022 by Dallas Garden Buzz
Purple Wintercreeper at Linda’s

Is it just the name? Why don’t more gardeners plant purple wintercreeper?

Listed on AgriLife Water University’s Top 100 Plants for North Texas , purple wintercreeper is one of the five groundcovers listed along with horse herb, frog fruit, snake herb and grey santolina. Texas gardener, Neil Sperry, also gives it a thumbs up.

It is evergreen, grows in full sun or partial shade, has reddish-purple fall and winter color and provides a wonderful texture to the garden floor. You might consider planting it instead of the ubiquitous Asian jasmine because it isn’t damaged by our cold weather temperatures.

Purple wintercreeper is easily established in a large area needing ground cover, just add mulch around the new plants and water as you would any new planting. After establishment, purple wintercreeper thrives on a moderate watering schedule.

Drip irrigation would be perfect as shown in this first photo.

In the next few weeks our thoughts will turn to spring, but while considering ground covers please don’t forget the one with the funny name, purple wintercreeper.

Ann Lamb, Dallas County Master Gardener Class of 2005

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From the Heart

Posted on February 9, 2022 by Dallas Garden Buzz

Valentine’s Day this year is on a Monday and we are staying home for a warm, cozy dinner by the fire. Our menu isn’t going to be fancy. Instead, we’ve chosen to flavor it with a touch of nostalgia. To start our meal, the salad course is a revisit of an iconic 60’s dish known as “Southern Wilted Lettuce Salad with Hot Bacon Dressing”. Wilted lettuce is also known as “killed lettuce” or “kilt lettuce” because the greens soften under the hot, tangy dressing.   It was my late father-in-law’s favorite salad. Grandmother prepared it for him at least a few times a month.

 

Wilted Lettuce Salad

Wilted lettuce salad likely came from Eastern Europe with versions of it appearing in Poland and other countries. After the dish traveled to America with immigrants, Southerners began putting their spin on this wonderfully delectable salad. And, in true southern style, it was enjoyed with freshly baked cornbread or cornbread muffins. 

Outdoor spring seed starting season for lettuce is typically sometime between February 1st and March 15th so now is a good time to consider your options. A sturdy, spring lettuce such as romaine, spinach or red leaf works well for this salad. Look for other varieties that will keep some of their “crunch” when tossed with the hot bacon dressing.

Botanical Interests features a Chef’s Gourmet Spicy Mix with over six different texture-filled greens to excite your taste buds. Guerney’s offers a Premium Lettuce Seed Blend with a colorful combination of various textures and shapes. Have fun planning your spring salad garden.

Southern Wilted Lettuce with Hot Bacon Dressing

Linda Alexander, Dallas County Master Gardener Class of 2008

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