My father has owned fifteen acres of river frontage on the Brazos just outside of Brock for about twenty years now. I just recently moved back here from Minnesota to look after him and the place; he has had numerous heart attacks and a pretty stout case of diabetes, and he'll be 77 next month. Since I got here in December, Dad's lost almost thirty pounds, and we get outside and work in the dirt almost every day.
Years ago we took a neighbor's advice and sprayed 2-4-D and fertilizers on our pasture to make a better hay crop. We were both uncomfortable about it, and discontinued after one or two seasons of it. That's been more than a decade ago. We have about thirty-five pecan trees that were grafted by Mr. Wolfe out of Stephenville back in 1927, so they're the same age as my father now. We've both noticed some issues with the ground level coming up around several of them, so we are interested in things like perhaps air-spading around some of them and re-exposing the root flares. We also have started a rather large garden that was almost wiped out earlier this week by the late frost we had (I think that was Sunday night, but I've lost track of days since moving down here). We think everything but the tomatoes and some of the peppers will make it, but the taters were really off their feed for the last few days. I had just finished dirting them when it hit.
There's a thread that Dad posted at my website about what we're growing in the garden. As of March 27 this was what we had going:
Quote:
What’s Growin’ In The Garden?
What’s growin’ in the garden---just a whole bunch of stuff. It has been a long time since I brought this thread up to dat so here is a plant by plant status.
Our garden this year is in two plots separated by a sort of road or path. The rows in the north plot are 77 feet long. The rows in the south plot are 100 feet long. So if I mention a row of stuff I will try to note whether I am talking about north or south rows.
Potatoes—Irish potatoes are our star performers at the moment despite the fact that we chose the sorriest ground in the garden to plant them. They don’t seem to mind and are growing away. They are multiple leafed and of good color and I would not be surprised if they were already sending out those seven inch side runners to set potatoes. We have three rows altogether in the north plot. One row is the LaSoda variety of red potato and the other two rows are the large Kennebec variety baking potato. They are doing great.
Pinto Beans—We have 1 and 1/3 rows of pinto beans in the north plot that are coming up even as I type this and that will definitely have to be thinned. Although these are normally grown for dry shell beans I am raising this batch to can as snap beans. The flat pods of the pinto make outstanding snap beans when young and I intend to can a few jars from this 1 and 1/3 rows.
Radishes---Radishes will be ready to eat in a week. We have variety Early Scarlet Globe for about 20 feet of row and White Icicle variety for about ten feet of row. These badly need thinning also. They are off and running.
Onions---We have two south plot rows of onions planted from slips up and growing well. These onions were out there when the snow came however and may feel that they are in their second year due to the cold spell and as a result they may, being biennial plants, bolt and go to seed instead of making onions. As insurance against this fact I hope to put one more south row in next week. Onions are important stuff. The two rows we have growing now are composed of about equal quantities of Texas 1015Y yellow Granex, White Bermuda (delicious onion but a poor keeper), and Red Burgundy onions. If we put in another row I am going to try to make it all 1015Y if I can find the plants because they keep so well.
Turnips---We have about 1/3 south plot row of purple top (Shogoin) turnips up and doing well. We planted these more for greens than for turnips since both of us love good turnip greens. They are so easy to grow that I probably won’t bother freezing or canning any because we can have them fresh from the garden for about ten months of the year.
Swiss Chard—About 1/3 south plot row in scarlet stem Swiss Chard now about three inches high and heading for higher. Chard is a lot of fun to grow because it seems eager to get on the table.
Fennel---We planted about twelve feet of a south row in Florence Fennel but not one single plant came up. We are atotal failure on the fennel market.
Cabbage---Currently we have ten cabbage plants nearing the heading stage in a south plot row. We did have twelve plants but one morning as I was eating breakfast I saw a squirrel come down from a pecan tree and expertly incise two of the infant plants to naught and sit there munching a leaf. I was flabbergasted. We should plant a bunch more cabbage I suppose and perhaps we can put in some more next week.
Watermelons—Yesterday we (we in this narrative actually means Frank) planted our watermelons. Varieties as follows:
Black Diamond---Average 40 to 45 pounds, red meat, dark green outer rind---- 5 hills
Carolina Cross---Huge melons, often over 200 lbs, red meat rattlesnake rind--- 5 hills
Crimson sweet---Avg. 25 pounds, red meat, rattlesnake rind, great taste--------- 4 hills
Jubilee---Oblong melon, avg. 30-35 pounds, heat tolerant, great taste, red meat—5 hills
Wilhite Tendergold—22 to 28 pounds, yellow meat, great taste, blunt oblong-------4 hills
Cobb Gem---Large melons to 130 pounds, red meat, grayish black rind--------------5 hills
Yellowfleshed Black Diamond---60 to 70 pounds, dark green rind, yellow meat-----5 hills
Tom Watson—long oblong, green rind, red meat, delicious 60-70 pounds-heirloom—8 hills
Total number of hills------------------------------ 41 hills
Anticipated vines----------------------------------- 123 vines
Anticipated melons---------------------------------- 492 melons
Frank says we must plant more that is not enough.
Bell pepper---Frank planted pepper plants today among other things. Including red, yellow, purple, and green bell sweet peppers as well as six plants of New Mexico red Chiles. I wanted to plant some ancho and poblano peppers but none were available at the market today. We may have to make our chile rellenos using Anaheim peppers. We have a total of 42 bell pepper plants growing.
Hot peppers---I did not do a good job of keeping the hot pepper plants sorted out so we have many pepper plants planted that we (meaning me) do not know what they are until they get some peppers on them to look at.I know that we have some of all the following varieties---serrano, aji, habenero, jalapeno, chili petin, Tabasco and maybe a few other varieties thast I have forgotten. I promise that next year I’ll label the plants better. We have a total of 41 hot pepper plants thriving.
Mustard---Two varieties of mustard are up making one north row. One variety is Florida Giant and the other is Southern Giant Curled. That is more greens for the table this summer. I like wilted mustard salad also.
Corn—Four north rows are occupied by corn planted in blocks.
We have Yellow Dent Field corn, Bodacious sweet corn (SE), and Golden Cross Bantam. I am beginning to worry about the corn. I see some slight evidence of germination but it is far from a stand at the moment. The next week should tell.
Carrots---The carrots are like the corn. Some are coming up but not enough to make a good stand. We planted a row of Scarlet Nantes and a row of Danvers Half-long in the noirth plot.
May have to replant.
Beets---Our only complete failure. We planted a whole row in the south plot with beet seed that had been carefully soaked overnight. In that hundred feet of row we got perhaps five beet plants.
It won’t do!
Tomatoes---We have gobs of tomato plants growing away. Varieties as follows
Mountain Pride---determinant, medium size--------------------------------------3 plants
Super Fantastic—Indeterminant, large, robust plant----------------------------25 plants
Brandywine----Indeterminant, large,--------------------------------------------------2 plants
Marglobe-----determinant, medium, ------------------------------------------------- 6 plants
Rutgers-------indeterminant, medium, disease resistant-------------------------9 plants
Better Boy----indeterminant, hardy, large, great taste----------------------------2 plants
Early Girl---indeterminant, very early to mature, good taste--------------------16 plants
Sunmaster---determinant, heat resistant, drought tolerant me4dium size----6 plants
Porter Improved---indeterminant, small, great taste, dependable producer—6 plants
Total of tomato plants--------------------------------------------75 plants
Herbs---Herbs are a mixed bag for us:
Dill---two plants growing well, need much more
Aloe vera----two plants growing well
Green santolina—one plant growing well
Coriander---seed did not germinate.
Lettuce leaf parsley---two plants—one doing well and something ate the other, probably deer.
Spearmint---two plants growing reluctantly
The herbs are not a very bright picture in our gardenj.
So that is where we stand at present. Big drive for next week is blackeyed peas, cantaloupe, honeydew and cucumbers---maybe pumpkins also. Pole Beans and green snap beans come right after that. Okra waits a month.
Tomorrow cucumbers.
We have since planted the cucumbers, but little else. Today is county clean-up day here in Parker County, and I have chores waitin outside as I type this over coffee (yes, I know the day is half over already; I'm indolent as the day is long and unrepentant about it). I have tilled under the frozen plants and re-raked the rows in preparation for re-planting in the next few days. It looks like perhaps the corn will make it after all, but it's spotty and I may just start fresh there as well.
This is my first vegetable garden, though not my father's. The first year he had a garden here he canned 635 jars of pickles and preserves of one variety or another.
Here were the taters before the frost. I haven't taken any pics since then, as it depressed me too much.
Here's the cabbage and chard and whatnot. None of this suffered any damage at all.
The corn before the frost.
We mixed up the potting soil out of Dr. Garrett's book and planted most everything with a little of it.
I know I should weed more, but I have a lot of irons in the fire here.
We've also planted about sixty or seventy trees since December, and we seem to have had 100% success with them, which was unexpected.
There's more pics
here at the Ranch.
I listen to the show as often as I'm able, so I usually catch something worthwhile when we're driving into Weatherford with the radio on. We're both determined to be completely organic here, and we allow as how there are things that may just take time. I hope that Dad has a tremendous amount of that commodity left in order to really see this place come alive while he is yet master of his surroundings. I'll post more pics as I am able. I just wanted to show off for Dad a little here, as he is a big fan of Dr. Garrett.