Fall Gardening in Dallas

Posted on July 14, 2012 by Dallas Garden Buzz

FALL GARDENS 

Are Dallas gardeners just looking for any excuse to work in this heat? Listen to Common Sense here: the middle of July is reserved for racy spy novels, tall glasses of iced tea, and Spider Man movies. Settle onto that couch, look at the garden out the window, and move only to refill the pitcher of mojitos.

Obviously Jim, our Earth-Kind® and WaterWise Demonstration Garden vegetable guru, didn’t get that memo.  By late June he already had diagrams, plans, flow charts, and supplies for the Fall Garden. He sprouted a frenzied list of freeze dates and vegetable maturation periods.  He is more organized than Martha Stewart. 

looking at Vegetable Beds for the Dallas Fall Garden

Trowel at the ready, the first veggies called up were tomatoes; their installation set for June 15 to July 25. Right on their heels are the Thanksgiving favorites: acorn and butternut squash for July 1 to August 1.  Sugar pumpkins and cole transplants are set for July 15 to August 15.  Green and yellow beans step up from August 1 to September 1.  Spinach, carrots, lettuce and radishes go in from August 15 to September 10. And finally, mustard greens, beets, and turnips will be planted from August 25 to September 5.  

Just makes you want to sweat. 

Really, if you think about it, Texas is in denial about autumn.  We really have extended summer through mid-October served up with a large dose of fall allergies.  

I know this from personal delusion.  Mike and I scheduled our wedding for October 1, thinking of cool breezes, rustling leaves, pumpkins, and mums.  San Antonio weather sprung a record-breaking heat wave, and sweat rolled off the wedding party. 

But what Dallas gardeners In The Know will tell you is that if you get off the couch, fill your compost pile with the scraggly spring tomato vines, and plant now in the summer heat, you can have a blockbuster fall harvest.  Cooler autumn temperatures coax bumper crops of tomatoes and pumpkins.  Come see Jim’s fall garden! 

Elizabeth

Click Here to see the Fall Garden Plan for our Raised Beds

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Honey Lime Vinaigrette

Posted on July 13, 2012 by Dallas Garden Buzz

 You may have been searching for  this vinaigrette recipe, like the bee in this picture is searching for pollen in the dahlia.  This is the last of our recipes from the May menu in the “Farm to Table” write up.  We will continue to give  information about growing vegetables  and using what you are growing in the future.  Keep searching Dallas Garden Buzz!Bee gathering pollen on a dahlia bloom 

 

 Ingredients:

¼ cup fresh lime juice

2 tablespoons  honey

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

½ teaspoon garlic powder

¼ teaspoon cumin

½ teaspoon kosher salt

½ teaspoon ground black pepper

¼ cup olive oil

¼ cup canola oil 

Directions 

3 Easy Ways to Mix the Dressing: 

*In a blender.  Add everything except the 2 oils to the blender and mix until combined.  With the blender running, add the oils in a thin stream through the hole in the blender lid.  Blend until well mixed.

*In a bowl.  Whisk together everything except the 2 oils.  Continue whisking while adding the oils in a thin stream.  Keep whisking until well combined.

*In a jar.  Add everything except the 2 oils to the jar.  Cover and shake to combine.  Add 2 oils and shake vigorously until well combined. 

Serving Suggestions:

Toss dressing with your choice of salad greens.  Use approximately 1 tablespoon of dressing per 2 cups of greens. 

Drizzle dressing over sliced tomatoes or cucumbers. 

Yield:  About 1 cup

Linda

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Avoiding Picky Plants

Posted on July 11, 2012 by Dallas Garden Buzz

WHY PICKY PLANTS ARE LIKE MY CAT

My refrigerator is filled with open cans of cat food, one spoonful taken out, each encased neatly in a sandwich bag.  Offerings to a sick—now well—cat.  Each refused.

Black and White Cat

Adopted kittens should come with a warning label: once you offer the smelly, canned stuff, they’ll starve themselves before eating dry kibble.  Charlie was perfectly chipper, although on the skinny side, before her yearly checkup and shots.  Then, two days later, the dish with dry kibble was untouched. 

A flurry of vet visits, calls, pokes, and blood tests, always with a flashing credit card, ensued.  She still wouldn’t touch the dry kibble, but thought she might be able to bring herself to tuck into the $2.50 a can vet variety of Good Stuff.

She started again to eat and over a matter of days felt Much Better. 

Then this morning with reasons known only to cats, the $2.50 Good Stuff didn’t look appetizing anymore.  Only the cat food from the pet store would do–which we were out of.

But this is it.  My final trip to the Pet Store for canned cat food.  You black-and-white-adorable-shorthaired-domestic-tuxedo cat have got to again embrace Kibble. Food in a bowl, dump it in in the morning and have at it.

Which brings me to Picky Plants.  I simply must stop this swooning at the plant nursery.  Take me home, whispers a maidenhair fern.  All I require is perfect soil and constant moisture.

Some very organized people have—and actually keep notes in—a garden journal.  Mine would be filled with Did I Really Fall for That Again? plants.

Since working at the Earth-Kind®/WaterWise Demonstration Garden, my plant choices have gotten more savvy.

Need a splash of blue in my landscape? Look to Henry Duelberg or Indigo Spires Sage found in the Wildlife Habitat Garden. 

Salvia Blue Spires Blooming at the Demonstration Garden

Or lovely roses that bloom profusely and rarely get blackspot? Belinda’s Dream, Maggie, Perle d’Or, or La Marne fill the Rose Trellis Garden.

Earth Kind Rose Maggie Blooming in a Dallas Garden

Or a fun little fern that will love the dry shade under my huge red oak?

Wavy cloak fern is thriving in the Shade Garden.

The Demonstration Garden is a wonderful source of plant ideas. It’s filled with more than 70 trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals, and roses perfect for low-water yards in North Central Texas.  Come visit us!

Elizabeth

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Get To Know Us

Posted on July 9, 2012 by Dallas Garden Buzz

We are the Dallas County Master Gardeners at the Earth Kind® WaterWise Demonstration Garden on Joe Field Road. We hope you will get to know us and plan a visit to our gardens. 

We love compost and work hard at it.  Cindy, Sue, and Roger are adding green material to our compost bins. Believe me, our compost smells good. Roger is wearing the mask to reduce exposure to allergens.  Come take a whiff-we promise!

Master Gardeners Working with Compost

Adding green material to the compost bins at the Demonstration Garden

Planting those onions mentioned in the “Farm to Table” menu.

Planting Onions-January 2012

Onion Planting in January 2012

Jim adding drip irrigation to one of our raised beds.  If he can’t do it, nobody can!

Adding drip irrigation to a raised vegetable bed

“Cares melt when you kneel in your garden!”

Dallas County Master Gardeners at work, weeding in the Demonstration Garden

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Tomato Tips

Posted on July 8, 2012 by Dallas Garden Buzz

TOMATO TIPS

Celebrity Tomato Recentyl Planted in the Fall Vegtable Garden

We plant  tomatoes in the vegetable area of the Earth-Kind® Demonstration Garden.

Here are some tomato musts:

  • Be sure that your site has full sun, at least 6-8 hours a day. 
  • Plant a variety that grows well in the Dallas area, like Celebrity, Roma, or Sweet 100.  Heirlooms are also delicious, but trickier to grow. 
  • Use a rich soil full of aged compost. At the Demonstration Garden we use the Earth Kind® Bed Preparation.  Mulch to keep down weeds and retain moisture. 
  • Spray weekly with fish emulsion to repel spider mites and fertilize your plants.
  • Plant your spring tomatoes in early March, being prepared to cover young plants if a freeze threatens.  Fall tomatoes can be planted in early July.
  • Provide a structure to hold the tomato plant, such as a large cage or wire.  Tomato stems are brittle and will break without support.
  • Give regular water with drip irrigation or a soaker hose.

We don’t fertilize at the Demonstration Garden; if you want to feed your plants, use a slow release organic fertilizer.

If you have more tomatoes than you can give away, core them and freeze them whole in freezer storage bags for later use in sauces.  Freezing preserves tomato flavor better than canning.

Elizabeth

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Posted on July 7, 2012 by Dallas Garden Buzz

Tomato Sauce from Fresh Tomatoes

Stir 4 minced garlic cloves and 3 tablespoons of olive oil together in a cold large skillet.  Cook on medium heat for about 2 minutes until the garlic is sizzling and fragrant.  Stir in 2 pounds of cored and peeled tomatoes, cut in ¾-inch chunks and ½ teaspoon of salt.  Bring to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until thick and chunky, about 15-20 minutes.  Reduce heat if sauce starts to stick to bottom of pan.  Remove from heat.  Stir in ¼ cup chopped fresh basil with salt and pepper to taste.

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Tomato Talk

Posted on July 7, 2012 by Dallas Garden Buzz

TOMATO TALK

Dallas Tomatoes ripening on the counter

Thirty tomatoes ripen on the kitchen counter.  Little red bottoms in the air, stem side down, they were picked when blushing, but not ready to slice.  Now they deepen into that lovely rosy red of June gardens.  A strainer full of cherry tomatoes drains in the sink.

A part of me wishes the tomato plants in my garden were as lovely as their offspring.  Now, with our high temperatures, their yellowing leaves are hosts to masses of spider mites, a miniscule pest. Yes, we did spray the plants with fish emulsion—which is just what it sounds like—that is supposed to repel the insects.  But we lost that battle.

And there’s the space issue. Or lack thereof. The unruly Sweet 100 Cherry tomato bush is about 8 feet tall by 4 feet wide and completely covers the well-behaved Celebrity tomato.

Celebrity Tomato

In the seed stage, tomatoes line up to be Determinate or Indeterminate.  Determinate tomatoes agree to only grow to a certain height, have lots of large offspring, and bring them to graduation ALL AT THE SAME TIME.

Indeterminate tomatoes are the embarrassing relatives of the straight and narrow determinates.  They have their own time table and in mid- June look like they haven’t had a shave or decent haircut in months.

Indeterminates grow as tall and as wide as water and fertilizer will take them, have zillions of cherry tomatoes, and ripen WHENEVER THEY WANT TO.

Sweet 100 Cherry Tomato

If that’s confusing—a little botany goes a long way—look at it this way:

A determinate Celebrity tomato would vote for Mitt.

An indeterminate Sweet 100 Cherry tomato would support Barack.

Elizabeth

 

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Our New Blog

Posted on July 6, 2012 by Dallas Garden Buzz

 Looking Down the Path to our Garden

 

Hello,  and welcome to the new blog for the Earth Kind® WaterWise Demonstration Garden on Joe Field Road. We have changed our name, but not our mission.  You may have known us formerly as the Bloomin’ Blog on Joe Field Road, we can now be found as dallasgardenbuzz.com.  You can help us by subscribing to our blog and passing our name along to others.

Though we are changing our web address to dallasgardenbuzz.com, you will find the same gardening advice and love of gardening. Our physical address has not changed. The  Earth Kind® Water Wise Demonstration Garden is located at 2311 Joe Field Road, Dallas, Texas 75229 in the heart of the Northwest industrial  area of Dallas near Royal Lane and Stemmons Freeway.

Drop in on a Tuesday morning or contact us for an appointment.  Even better, bring a group for a field trip to our gardens.  We would love for you to see our gardens.

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Blackberry Cobbler

Posted on July 5, 2012 by Dallas Garden Buzz

Blackberry Cobbler

Blackberry Cobbler

Fruit Mixture:

8 cups blackberries

¾ cup sugar

6 tablespoons small pearl tapioca

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

2 tablespoons lemon juice

Cobbler Dough:

8 tablespoons butter, softened

¾ cup sugar

2 cups flour

1 ½ cups milk

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt 

Cobbler Topping:

1 cup sugar

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1 ¼ cups boiling water

Cinnamon 

1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2.  In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients to make Fruit Mixture.  Mix thoroughly.  Pour the Fruit Mixture into a buttered 9” x 13” baking dish.

3.  In a bowl mix thoroughly all ingredients for Cobbler Dough.  Spread over Fruit Mixture.

4.  In a medium mixing bowl, stir together dry Cobbler Topping ingredients  Sprinkle evenly over the Cobbler Dough.  Pour boiling water evenly over the cobbler.  Sprinkle with cinnamon.

5.  Bake for 1 hour until the top has a golden crust.

Serves 15.

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A “Farm to Table” Menu

Posted on July 3, 2012 by Dallas Garden Buzz

Looking Back at the May Master Gardener Meeting

Planning to feed over 125 Master Gardeners a satisfying lunch fresh from our garden can be quite a daunting task.  Preparations must start early.  This year was no exception. 

In late January Jim set out over sixty 1015 onion slips.  By mid March it was time to plant green bean seeds.  We weren’t sure of the variety because the seeds were given to us.  However, they ended up producing one of those “bumper” crops.  Then in April some radish seeds were added to one of our raised beds.

Already in the ground and doing well after three years were four different varieties of blackberries:  Natchez, Rosborough, Womack and Brazos.  Also, our upright rosemary was so large it was about to overtake the raised bed planted three years prior. 

Blackberry Blooms at the Demonstration Garden

As May rolls around with the thought of providing a healthy and delicious lunch for our Master Gardener friends it’s time to get started with menu ideas.  Our speaker for the event was going to be a professional “bee keeper”.  How appropriate for our group since we all value and understand the importance of bees in the garden.  

Why not offer the group a “honey” based menu?  Here’s what we finally decided was doable with limited oven space but volunteers determined to meet the challenge. 

Menu  

Rosemary Chicken Skewers with Satay Sauce

Rustic Onion Tarts

Garden Salad Bowl with Fresh Green Beans and Radishes

Honey Lime Vinaigrette

Old Fashioned Blackberry Cobbler 

Blackberries Picked for our Cobbler

Here’s how we did it.  The onions were fully developed and ready by mid May so the harvesting and drying in bundles of eight began.  At the same time, our blackberry bushes were heavy with luscious ripe berries in beautiful shades of purple, black, and burgundy.  Picking them over the next few weeks was a treat. Our strategy was: eat one, pick a dozen.  And so eventually we dutifully harvested over 15 gallons and sent them to the freezer.  

Happily, our “garden to plate” plan produced the following: 

  • Enough 1015 onions for ten rustic tarts (each tart yielded 12 slices)
  • Plenty of “thyme” for flavoring the tarts
  • Blackberries to make six 13” x 9” cobblers (each cobbler fed 25)
  • 125 10” rosemary strips for the chicken skewers
  • Six gallons of green beans for the salad
  • One lonely radish (if you have to supplement somewhere, why not with radishes?)  Rosemary Skewers on the Grill

Thanks to Abbe’s husband, Neal, for bringing his grill to cook the chicken skewers on site.  What an enticing smell as MG’s were arriving!  It was a delightful morning for our event.  Lots of full and satisfied gardeners celebrated the joy of locally grown, fresh organic food.   

Waiting in line for homegrown cooking!

 Now it’s time to get our hands dirty again and put that fall crop in the ground.  After all, some new menu ideas are buzzing around in our heads! 

Linda

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