Spotlight - Armenian Cucumbers

We harvested two huge Armenian cucumbers from the garden yesterday. They are both around 20 inches long. We're looking forward to having fresh cucumber with dinner tonight.
Armenian cucumbers, also called yard-longs, are the preferred cuke in my garden. They technically are not a true cucumber, but are from the closely related muskmelon family. These cucumber cousins not only taste like the real McCoy, but they have some traits that actually surpass traditional cucumbers for garden performance!
Armenian cukes tolerate the heat and dry air better than other cucumbers that I've grown. They are never bitter tasting, and each fruit will grow to over fifteen inches. There is no need to peel them, as they lack the thick skin traditional cucumbers have. Armenians also don't seem to cause the gas issues that regular cukes do in some people. Yard longs can grow along the ground as Michele does, or trellised as I do.
If you haven't tried growing Armenian cucumbers, then you should definitely include them in next year's garden. These heat-loving, versatile performers won't disappoint.

Spotlight - The Redbud Tree

The Redbud Tree is one of my favorites.  We have four of them in our front yard and they fill the space with beauty every spring.  They seem to be everywhere in this part of the state and thrive with very little attention.  With the tree being so plentiful, I had to wonder if there were any particular uses for it other than the most obvious – it being so lovely and pleasing to the eye. 

In the course of my research I found out that you can eat the flowers in the springtime and the new, soft green seedpods in the fall.  Wow.  It is a member of the legume family and shares many things in common with the pea.  The flowers, which have been described as having a sweet and slightly nutty flavor, can be eaten by themselves, mixed in with salads or other foods, or even made into jelly or relish.  In the fall when the seedpods are young and tender, they can be eaten raw or cooked like peas.   Like many legumes, the seedpods contain nutrients such as protein, iron and some complex carbohydrates.

 The picture above shows some young seedpods on one of the Redbud trees in our yard.  They look very similar to peas.

Since Redbud trees are usually under twenty feet tall, they makes a good under canopy tree in the forest.   That is not only true for the forests in parks, but also the food forest you might want to start at home.  Whether you’re just looking for an easy to grow tree to add some dimension to your yard, you’re trying to start a food forest and need some canopy trees, or you just want to something aesthetically pleasing, relatively long lived, and easy to care for that will come in handy if things every get really tough, you might consider the Redbud tree.

Gardening with Wildflowers - Gaillardia

As gardeners, we spend a lot of time trying to find just the right flower to accent our garden beds and yards.   The primary thing that we have to consider is what will grow in our particular area.  The Texoma area is not as forgiving as some areas of the country when it comes to gardening.  This is true for vegetables or flowers.  I often see beautiful plants at our local nurseries that just won’t tolerate the conditions in our yard.  I have learned though experience and failure that certain things just aren’t going to make it. 

In recent years, I have begun to wonder why I struggle to grow plants not meant for this area, when there are so many plants that are native to the area that hold just as much beauty, color and wonder.  Take wildflowers for instance – this time of year our roadsides and hillsides are covered with lovely flowers of all colors, shapes and sizes.  Why can’t a flower that brightens up a highway brighten up your yard?  There is no reason!  I have seen wildflower seeds for sale in many stores and have some growing here in our yard.  One of my favorites is Gaillardia – more commonly known as Indian Blanket.  This is the flower pictured above.  It is lovely and easy to grow.  It is native to this area, doesn’t need any special care and comes back year after year regardless of conditions.  Wow!  Indian Blanket seeds can be purchased in local stores and they are easy to get started in any flower bed.  You can start them inside and transplant them, or just direct sow the seeds.  This is true for many, many of the wildflowers you see growing along the roadsides. 

There are websites devoted to helping you identify your favorites.  Just look up ‘Texas Wildflowers’ or ‘Texas Wildflower Identification’ and follow the links.  Add a little bit of Texas to your flowerbed.  I think you’ll be pleased with the results!

(Just as a side note - as with many native plants and herbs, Gailladria has some medicinal properties and the roots can be dried and made into teas or paste to treat a variety of illnesses.  There are enough native flowers and herbs growing in our area to enjoy new teas all year round).

The Honeysuckle Bush

Walking the dog around the back of our place today, I noticed a distinctly sweet smell. It reminded me of honeysuckle vines, but I couldn’t remember having seen any on our property before. We followed our noses and came across several very large bushes full of sweet smelling white flowers. I had never heard of a honeysuckle bush, and had no idea what these were. They were very pretty, smelled very sweet, and were very attractive to butterflies and bees. There were dozens of butterflies flitting around the bushes. The dog and I watched them for a few minutes and then we headed back to the house to fetch the kids. I traded the dog for a camera, and the kids and I set off to watch the butterflies and take a few pictures.

The picture at the start of this post shows a couple of butterflies enjoying the flowers.  Below is a close up of the flowers.

And finally, here is a picture that shows more of the bushes and gives a better idea of how they can grow and how lovely they look.

After searching online to try to determine the type of bush – and being very unsuccessful – I typed in honeysuckle bush just because it smelled so much like the vines. Guess what, there is such a thing and some of the pictures online looked just like the ones we took here! I’m not completely convinced that’s what these bushes are (just mostly convinced), but am going to keep an eye on them this fall. The honeysuckle bush will produce berries in the late summer that ripen early in the fall.

The bush is considered invasive and there are web sites devoted to giving instruction on how to kill them! I thought they were very pretty and don’t want to kill ours. There are a wide variety of honeysuckle bushes in existence, some with berries that are slightly toxic to children and others that are fine to consume. It was noted that although it was ok to eat them, they were very bland tasting and people didn’t tend to bother with them. Birds will eat them in the winter after the other, tastier food has been foraged. That is one of the reasons they spread so easily. The flowers can be dried and used in teas or made into an oil. There are some reported health benefits that are associated with consuming them in this manner.

Here are links to pages discussing these:

http://lifestyle.iloveindia.com/lounge/health-benefits-of-honeysuckle-8773.html
http://www.naturopathydigest.com/nutrition_herbs/herbs/honeysuckle_flower.php

I think I’ll wait to try any of these out until after I confirm what the bush is. In the meantime, it is a very ornamental shrub that seems to thrive in our climate. It can attract butterflies to your garden and add a sweet smell to your yard. The bushes may be trimmed to keep the size in check if your space is limited, or left to grow tall and thick like ours and used as a privacy hedge, or to decorate a fence row. Be sure if you decide to grow these that you keep them in check and don't let them choke out any of your other plants!  I know that mine are going to stay for now. I may even transplant some a little closer to the house so that we can enjoy them more easily.

Nutritious and Delicious Mulberries

The mulberry trees are full of fruit and it is ripening fast.  It will be a race to see who gets the most off of the trees – the kids or the birds.  The birds usually win, but the kids don’t do too badly.   We have four trees in our yard that we planted from seedlings shortly after moving to our current home.  In the nine years since, the trees have flourished, and have been yielding fruit for the past few years.  They are hardy here in NE Texas, like rocky soil, and are drought tolerant (although they do appreciate a drink when it’s as hot and dry as it was last summer).  What’s not to like?

Our trees, being relatively young, aren’t all that big yet, but they can get up to fifty feet tall.  A word of warning – they can be messy!  The fruit drops off and if squashed on a walkway, can easily stain it.  Our trees are planted away from any sidewalks and this will not be a problem for us.  Another thing to consider if you live in a city and the tree will be close to the house, driveway or walkways is that birds love these berries.  A lot of birds usually leads to a lot of droppings.  On the upside though, they will grow well where other trees will not, can be used as a windbreak, are easy to propagate, and the fruit is healthy and delicious.

Here is what one page had to say about the nutritional benefits, along with the link:

Mulberries are actually a good source of raw food protein, a rarity in the fruit kingdom.  They are also a good source of magnesium, potassium, riboflavin, iron, calcium, vitamin C, and fiber. One of the mulberry's greatest health assets is it's high concentration of resveratrol, an antioxidant currently being studied for its effects on heart health. An ancient fruit of Asia, the mulberry is touted in medicinal folklore as a remedy for ringworm, insomnia, arthritis, and tapeworm.

http://vegetarian.about.com/od/glossary/a/What-Are-Mulberries.htm

I sent the kids out today with a container and told them to get to work.  They came in with about two cups of berries and the stained fingers and cheeks that led me to believe they’d eaten another cup or so while they picked.  The earliest of the berries are just ripening now, and in next week or two there should be plenty more.  It is easiest to just put a tarp on the ground and check it every day.  The ripe berries tend to fall off of the tree.  If you check it often enough, you can beat the birds to the sweetest berries!  I made a batch of mulberry muffins this evening to reward the kids for their hard work.  

I think the fact that they complained that I didn't make enough is a sign that they liked them!

Trees are a longer term investment than a traditional garden, but they'll reward you for years to come.  

Versatile Okra

Okra is a very nutritious vegetable that is easy to grow in this region of Texas. My experience has been that, once it is planted, the only thing that will keep it from growing is not harvesting the pods. It seems to love our hot Texas summers! One of my biggest complaints is that after harvesting the pods every other day for two months, I’m tired of it. I recently read that the dried, roasted beans can be used to make coffee, so I figured that this year once my family has eaten all the okra we can hold, I‘ve given enough away to make my friends flee at the sight of me, and my freezer is full of the lovely green goodness, I’ll let a few of the plants keep their pods. Once they dry out, you can crack them open, remove the seeds, roast them and grind them up, then brew them for coffee. It’s decaffeinated, but that’s ok. I am very interested to find out how it tastes.

Did you know that you can eat the okra leaves as well as the pods? They can be prepared much the same as radish or beet leaves. Those are the ones that some people steam up or use in various cooked dishes but that my family loves to just toss in a salad. I can’t wait to try them out! Okra is one of the few green vegetables my husband likes and we’ve been growing it for years. Our favorite way to eat it is rolled in cornmeal and fried. It might not be the healthiest way to prepare it, but is sure is good! There are many, many more ways to prepare it that does not involve deep frying. Just look online and pick what looks best to you.

Okra is believed to have been grown and consumed back in ancient Egypt and has since been introduced to almost all warm climates world-wide. It is a very good source of vitamins A, C, and K. It is also a good source of dietary fiber and a few minerals. It has quite a few other nutritional benefits. Here is a more complete list of those benefits. The whole article is interesting but if you want to just skip to the nutritional information, click on the link at the top of the page.

http://www.neurophys.wisc.edu/ravi/okra

One thing about okra is that it won’t grow until it’s nice and hot out. We have been working hard on our gardens and getting all of our cool weather plants in the ground, but the okra has to wait another few months. I’ll probably plant it early to mid-May. Some people don’t plant it until June, but I’m not that patient. I find that it will sprout and grow a little earlier than that.

If you haven’t tried to grow it yet you should think about it. There are so many ways to use it that everyone should be able to find something they like about it. Hope you found some useful information here. As always, happy gardening!

Swiss Chard

Well, even the chard resented the cold weather that we've been having.  I'll have to clip off as much as I can.  If it recovers, fantastic.  If it gives up on growing for the winter, that's alright.  It was a good ride.

Photo courtesy of mercedesfromtheeighties

If you're new to chard, then just treat it like you would fresh spinach.  It has more of a peppery bite than spinach, but cooks exactly the same.  I usually give it a very rough chop, and saute it quickly in bacon fat or olive oil.  Like spinach, it wilts down super fast.  Sprinkle a little sea salt and black pepper after you toss it in the pan, and you're good.  It's that easy.  You can also eat chard raw, steam or boil it.
Chard is very healthy for you, and VERY easy to grow. You direct sow the seeds into the soil after all danger of frost is gone.  Give it water.  Give it sun.  In about two months, you'll be clipping leaves for the table. If you're new to gardening, then add easy, forgiving chard to your list of spring plantings!

Lamb's Ear

Did you know that lamb's ear, a member of the Stachys family, was used as a bandage for minor cuts right up until cloth and band aids became the popular choice?  That's how it earned one of its nicknames:  woundwort.

Photo courtesy of Chhe.

I have it planted along my front walkway because I love it's soft, furry leaves and its durability.  Finding out that it has a medicinal use just makes me love it more!

Sweet Potatoes

Here's a link to an article I found extolling the virtues of the humble sweet potato.  Sweet potatoes are easy to grow, and a great calorie crop.  I've even seen them growing happily in those 5 gallon buckets that you find in the home improvement stores!

Growing
So far as growing them is concerned, now is probably too late in the season to try.  They need about 100 no-frost days to grow, but as soon as the danger of frost is over, you can sow them directly into your beds.  What's more, you can grow them again in late summer for a fall harvest.  If you're starting with a full size sweet potato that you've allowed to vine out (and good luck with that by the way if your potatoes have been treated with a bud preventer), don't just plunk the whole thing into the ground.  Nip off each vine with a chunk of the potato still attached, and plant each separately.  You'll get a bigger harvest that way.  You can use cuttings of the vine as well, but I admit, I have not tested this method yet.  The vines tend to be amazingly prolific, and will creep over your whole garden bed if you let them, so keep an eye on them.  Redirect as necessary.  I wouldn't get too carried away with fertilizer, and never use a nitrogen based commerical fertilizer.  Tubers in general often do better when you don't feed them too much.  Otherwise, you get lots of pretty leaf growth, and very little tuber.  They are not picky about soil, but, as usual with annuals, well-draining is preferred.  If you've got nothing but gumbo, then you'd better break it up or mix in some compost.  Root choker, that stuff is.  Finally, since the actual sweet potato tubers will grow out underneath the base plant, make sure your garden bed is nice and deep to allow lots of grow room.

Harvest & Storage
After about 4 months or so, you can harvest them!  Pull up the plant gently, and you'll see up to a handful of yummy sweet potatoes growing under the base.  Only they're not so yummy just yet.  Sweet potatoes don't quite live up to the "sweet" in their name fresh out of the ground, though they won't taste gross either.  If you want the sweetness and texture that you get out of the store bought versions, then you have to cure them.  You do this by keeping them in a warm, humid place for about a week.  If you've got warm, but not humid (Texoma, anyone?), then rig something up with row cover fabric, or anything else that will hold humidity.  The ideal temperature for this will be about 80-85 degrees.  After that, you can store them in a dark, cool spot (not your fridge, that's too cool), and they'll usually keep for at least two weeks minimum.  The ideal storage temperature is about 55 degrees.  The extent to which your sweet potatoes stay fresh is directly related to how closely you reach that temperature.  Here's a link I found with additional information on curing and storing sweet potatoes.

After that, you can enjoy your super healthy sweet potatoes.  Happy gardening!

Goldenrod

“One gardener’s lifelong enemy is another’s lifesaving herb, and another’s treasured border plant”.    This quote came from Rodale’s Illustrated Encyclopedia of Herbs and was told in association with Goldenrod.  Goldenrod grows wild on our property and I think it’s great!  It is lovely to look at and attracts bees and wasps to the garden.  This is one of the reasons that it makes a good companion plant.  Another reason is that it repels some pests.  Whether you like it or not, you likely will have to decide what to do about it because it is native to Texas and according to some, does best in poor soil.  No wonder it thrives here!  

It is a beautiful flower and dries well, so it is a nice addition to dried flower arrangements.  It can be used to make varying shades of yellow dye and makes a tasty tea.  As a matter of fact, some people claim that after the Boston Tea Party, tea for drinking became scarce.  Liberty Tea, made from the ever abundant goldenrod was a common replacement and became so popular that is was exported to China. 

To the medicinal herbalist, the goldenrod has a long history or uses in North America, Europe and China.  It has been used as astringents, diuretics and diaphoretics, as well as for sore throats, bladder and kidney infections, headaches, flu and even flatulence.   Whether or not any of these things truly works or not, I don’t know but it does seem that no serious illnesses have been associated with the plant. 

If you want another piece of fun trivia about goldenrod, according to the Wikipedia article on the subject, Henry Ford gave Thomas Edison a Model T whose tires were made of rubber from the goldenrod plant.  How about that!

Enough of the history lesson - whether you think it’s a weed or a welcome addition to your flower bed, goldenrod is here to stay in NE Texas.   It has a long history associated with it, and maybe I’ve given you something to think about the next time you see a field of goldenrod waving in the breeze.   If you don’t have any growing wild around your place and would like to add some, you can either hit up one of your friends with an ample supply or find it at a local nursery.  

Until next time, happy gardening!

Morning Glories

Now that the temperatures are cooling off, the morning glories are taking off!

I have them growing in two large rectangular boxes, trellised happily up two wooden frames that my husband mounted to the brick facing of the house.

Morning glories, and their night-loving counterpart moonflowers, are an annual vining plant. They are PROLIFIC growers, and will actually grow through and up other plants if you let them. Don't be shy about redirecting or pruning away any vines that you find misbehaving. This is a hardy plant.

Flowers tend to be large, and vary in color. The classic blue is my personal favorite, but there is an array of color variations available. It's a bit hard to spot in the photo, but I have four all growing together (blue, pink, white/purple picotee, white moonflower).

They grow quite tall. Mine are at about the six foot mark. I have an idea that if I had more trellis, they would be taller. Morning glory doesn't stick or cling to surfaces as ivy does. They twist their vines around structures to support themselves, so you'll need to give them something to twirl around. In my experience the vines are nowhere near as heavy as some other vines like trumpet vine or climbing roses, but don't give them too flimsy a trellis either. Mine are a mid-weight wood. Forget those cheap, stapled trellises. They won't do.

As far as growing them goes, you start from seed.  Any store that sells seeds is likely to have them in many colors.  Direct sow them into the soil in the spring, preferably after danger of frost is over.  Well draining soil is always best, but I have found that morning glory is not terribly fussy.  Water them well, and that's usually all it takes. I actually grow these on a west-facing wall, where the afternoon sun is brutal. The vines struggled through those 100 degree summer months that kicked all our butts, but erupted as soon as the nights dipped below 90 degrees. Vines grow and leaf out so thickly that they actually shade themselves from the sun and usually do just fine on what I like to call my Front Walk of Burning Death.  I have never heard of or experienced morning glory roots destroying walkways or foundations.  I plant mine in planters anyway just in case.

The plant is an annual, and will die back with a hard frost.  You'll notice a ton of seeds drop off the vines as you pull them off their trellises for the year.  Gather as many up as you like.  If you store them in a cool, dry, and preferably dark place, they should be fine for planting again in the spring.  Resowing may not even be necessary, as morning glory will often reseed itself from the seeds that you missed when you cleared the dead vines away. That's good and bad. You'll save a bit of money when they re-sprout. The bad? They never just sprout in the area where you originally planted them. Never. You will be pulling little morning glory shoots out from undesirable spots on a regular basis. Clipping the flowers off before they seed helps, but will not eliminate the problem. I love the heart-shaped leaves and bright flowers so much, that I don't consider this to be a big issue. I pull out the shoots along with any other weed that I find. It's a small price to pay for such a beautiful plant.

Happy Gardening!

Pears, pears, pears

Pears are great fruit that will thrive in our lovely NE Texas climate and soil.  It seems that no matter where I drive out in the country, I see a pear tree loaded with fruit.  They may be beside an abandoned barn, in a front yard, or standing in a field next to a park.  One of the things that this tells me is that once a pear tree is established, it is resiliant!  I read one post in my search for information about this hardy produce that jokingly suggested that the only thing you could do to kill a pear tree is pamper it.  Hmmm, this is sounding like my kind of tree!  In truth, I have killed a pear tree or two.  I have a couple struggling in the back yard right now that wish I had planted them somewhere else.  It seems that, once again, picking the right variety and proper location are the key to success. 

The picture at the start of this post is a small portion of the haul the kids and I gathered from a lonely tree next to the park my kids play at.   After some research, I have come to the conclusion that these are Kieffer pears.   This tree is described on Texas A&M horticulture website as the "old standard of pears".  They are heavy fruit bearers that will ripen in late September to October.  It also says they are "higly reistant to fire blight".    Sounding good...

Just on a state level, we seem to be on the border of Texas tree growing zones one and two.  That leaves a wide variety of pears available to us to grow.  I love the idea of the old, hardy, do-nothing-to-it and have it produce year after year kind, but the fruit of the Kieffer is not the high dessert quality that some people prefer.  Never fear, there are still more than ten variety of pear trees that will survive in our area if you find the right location!  One that is good in Zone one (which seems to encompass most of west Texas all the way over to Grayson County) is the Moonglow.  I have seen this particular variety in many nurseries around here, and have some in my yard.  They struggled over this hot summer, but did survive with only one watering from us.  The yield was very small, but the trees have only been in for two years.  The other pear tree we have planted out there is an Asian variety.  I have not given up on these trees and feel that they will thrive in years to come, but my next one will be a Kieffer and it is getting planted on either the north or east side of the house.

So, what do you do with all of those pears?  Give them to friends of course!  And eat them and make preserves, pies, and pear butter. 

I have a pan of pears boiling on the stove right now.  Trying out new recipies is a thing of joy!   The recipe for today can be found here:  http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/pear_butter/

The pear butter in the picture is from here:
:http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Spiced-Pear-Butter-2789

I don't know how today's will turn out, but the cinammon/vanilla recipe is wonderful!

Have fun and happy gardening!

Texas Sage (Leucophyllum frutescens)

As it's name suggests (at least it's non-scientific one), this very pretty shrub is native to Texas.  It really is drought tolerant, thrives in rocky soil, and loves the heat.  As a matter of fact, most of the information I read about this plant indicates that one of the few things, other than too much water, that irritates it is too little sun.  It really is native to Texas and loves our harsh climate!  It is also known as Cenizo, Purple sage, Texas Ranger and the Texas barometer bush.  I can attest to the fact that the flowers do seem to emerge right before it rains.  The above picture was taken today.  This is a couple of days after our last rain, but the flowers have been on it for about a week.  My husband even commented on them and said he hoped it was an indication of rain to come.

The bush usually grows 3 - 5 feet tall, but may grow as tall at 8 ft.  The bushes on our place are right in front of the house and are over 6 ft tall.  We have let them go unpruned for too long and they are beginning to look scraggely, but a good fall pruning can take care of that.  They can be grown from seed or propigated from semi-hardwood cuttings.  Any of you lucky enough to attend the lecture hosted by the Master Gardeners of Fannin County last week will know how to propigate from cuttings! 

Aside from a very hardy, attractive shrub, the leaves and flowers can also be used to make an herbal tea.  Several articles have been written describing the use of this tea for medicinal purposes.  Some believe it is useful in treating colds, coughing, and fever and chills associated with the flu.

We have found this plant a welcome addition to our flower garden.  I hope you find this information useful if you're looking for any native shrubs to add to yours.  As always, happy gardening!

Pokeweed

For the last two years, our yard has been home to pokeweed.  Having never encountered it before, it took a while for me to figure out what it was.  I finally asked a couple of my native Texan friends, and they didn't hesitate to identify it.  I am still debating what to do with it.  I hate to pull out a potential food source, but this particular food source can be poisonous if not prepared properly.

Here are some things that I've noticed.  First is that it seems to be drought and heat tolerant.  Everything in the yard has been struggling this summer except for the pokeweed.  It has doubled in size!  Second is that it is very prolific.  Apparently the birds eat the berries and pass the seeds.  I noticed little sprouts in the raised beds early this year and pulled them right out.  That proved a very easy task and they haven't grown back.  Last year, before I knew what I was looking at, I allowed one to grow in one of the beds.  The things was nearly as big as a tree before I pulled it this spring.  It took a shovel and a lot of digging to finally get the roots out.  I have allowed the patch to grow next to the peonies on the north side of the house, but I'm afraid they are taking over.  To top it all off, I just noticed it growing in the rose bush island out back.  It's starting to feel like a plague! 

Those sounds like bad things, but if I can keep it controlled, I have to admit that it's somewhat attractive and is obviously happy with our harsh soil and climate.  And like I said before, it can be eaten.  I've heard some people refer to it as a southern delicacy.  (Does anyone remember the song Poke Salad Annie)?  There are even recipes for it on some of the more popular recipe sites.  I'm not convinced to try it out yet because of all the 'cook it just right' warnings, but I'm not sold on just pulling it up as a nuisance plant either.

If you have pokeweed on your property, or find it just shows up one day as a gift from the birds in the area, these are some things that you'll have to consider before you decide what to do about it.  I'll keep you updated on ours, and will be sure to let you know how it goes if we ever decide to eat it!

Asparagus

Did you know that you can plant asparagus one time and harvest it for fifteen years?  Actually, different websites suggest ten to twenty years.  Now that is my kind of plant!  I may have mentioned in an earlier post that our garden was going to be home to some asparagus this year.  Seeing as how this was a new venture, I chose to dedicate one of our 4' x 8' raised beds to the cause.  I purchased one year old crowns (the recommended method) from a local nursery, looked up planting tips and stuck them in the ground way back in late winter.  It took a little while, but each crown sprouted an average of three shoots.  Yeah!  Continuing my reading on the subject, it became apparent that harvesting should not be done until the third year.  That means patience.  If it means I get to harvest this nutritious vegetable for the next fifteen years or so, I can be patient.  Allowing the spears to continue to grow, you'll notice that they will soon look like a type of fern.   We all know that this year has been very hot and dry so far.  I have watered very little, but the ferns still look good.  One website suggested that the plant prefers conditions a little too dry as opposed to a little too wet, but it was also noted that if they become too hot and kept without water too long, the yield the following year will be smaller and less healthy.  That means that I need to get the hose out and do a better job.   I am keeping my fingers crossed that next year's spears will look even better and that before long my family and I can enjoy the fruits of our labor for many years.

Here are a few of my favorite websites on the subject, but there are many more out there:

http://easttexasgardening.tamu.edu/tips/veggie/asparagus.html

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/archives/parsons/vegetables/asparagu.html

http://www.ehow.com/how_6186997_plant-texas-asparagus.html

I hope this information was helpful to anyone trying to decide what to plant next year.  As always, happy gardening!

Jenny - Rosemary

Here are a few sprigs of rosemary from my backyard. These are going to be tossed whole into the roasting pan with tonight's leg of lamb roast (traditional Easter feast in my family).
Rosemary is about the easiest thing that you can grow in Texoma. It's one of the plants (onions and roses also come to mind) that can make some of the blackest thumbs look green. You pretty much put it into the ground, and give it some water once in a while, especially the first year that you plant it.
I admit that I mixed in some garden soil with my black gumbo before planting my rosemary. If you live in the part of Texoma that boasts sandier soil, you may be able to get away with skipping this step. If by "sandy," your soil means "concrete when it's dry," then please mix away. Use your judgment on that one. Once the plant is established, it needs very little from you. Rosemary grows into a densely branched, medium sized, evergreen shrub, so either give it a couple feet in all directions, or plan to prune often. And that brings me to the real magic of rosemary: It can function both as a landscape shrub and as a workhorse plant, spicing up your recipes. Cutting sprigs from this hardy, waterwise shrub takes nothing away from its beauty and adds lovely flavor to potatoes, chicken, lamb, and more.
If you haven't grabbed you a rosemary plant for your garden yet, then get to the nursery. This one's a winner!

Cucumbers

Hello again everyone. We've enjoyed a good growing season this year and I'm happy to say that our fall garden has been started. There are still many things to be planted, but the cucumbers are in and looking good.

My children and I all love cucumbers, so it's natural for us to plant them each spring in the garden. I have been looking for the best cucumber to suit our needs for quite some time, and have finally come up with a winner. For our house, we love the Armenian cucumber. It is also known as the yard long cucumber, and it's name speaks for itself. It is said that these do not make very good pickling cucumbers because they tend to lose their crunch. I made quite a few jars of pickles with our spares this year and will report in a month or two what I think of this. In the meantime tough, it must be said that we have never had a bitter one. I had a lot of trouble a few years back with bitterness in our cukes. Some research suggested that this can be due to heat and low water. I'm not very good at watering the garden and prefer plants that will forgive me for this. 'Regular' or pickling cucumbers can get very bitter. English cucumbers don't tend to get bitter, but they do like a lot of water in order to produce a good volume of fruit (or should I say veggies). Armenians seem to flourish with very little attention. That means it is right for us.

I don't know how they will do in the cooler climate of a fall garden, but I'm determined to find out. Ever one to try new things, our garden is now sporting some Armenian seedlings, as well as some English cucumber seedlings. It may turn out that the English variety does better in the fall garden around here. I'll let you know if a couple of months!

There are a lot of web sites devoted to the various cucumbers, their pros and cons and preferred growing conditions. It may take a little research, but with some effort and experimentation, you should be able to find one just right for you.

Until then, happy gardening.

Michele - Irises

The Irises in our yard are finally in bloom. We had to wait an extra week for the new 'surprise' ones to open up, but they finally made it. The burgundy colored ones are new ones. I think they make a fine addition!

Irises only bloom for a week or two a year. I love the plants when they are in bloom and am completely tired of trying to keep the weeds out of them by mid-summer. The great thing about them is their durability. You can mow them over when summer rolls along and they come back up grandly the next spring. You can dig up the bulbs and toss them in a bag in the corner for three months before replanting them. No problem. They'll still grow. Your big dog can lay in them, the cat claw them, the kids pull off the leafs - and they will still come back. So, if you want a flower in the yard and nothing else will grow for you, you might want to consider an Iris.

Jenn - More Words on Blueberry Bushes

I had 2 lovely blueberry bushes back in New England where they're easy to grow. My success so far with them out here has been dubious. I planted three. Only one has survived so far, and he's sad. I have very little shade around my house, and the sun just burns them up. Michele has had better luck with this. I do have a couple of tips to add to hers though.
For starters never just buy one bush. Buy at least two, and vary the strains. Blueberries need to cross-pollinate, and they do a better job of it when the bushes are not all the same type of blueberry. Check the plant hardiness zones carefully. You don't want to buy a plant that's suited to a colder climate than we have here. I've had some plant hardiness charts put us in growing zone 7A, but I often find zone 8 to be a better fit for our corner of Texoma. Once you get them home, look for a planting spot that isn't going to have the sun blazing down on them all the day long. That's how mine got burnt to a crisp. This wasn't a problem in Connecticut. It's a problem here.
If you're within 2 years of planting a new blueberry bush or if your bush is spindly & slow-growing, you should really pinch off the blossoms and not allow the bush to fruit. That sucks. I know. But bearing fruit actually puts a large strain on the plant and can keep it from getting nice and bushy. And if your bush isn't bushy, it won't bear much fruit in general. For a really long time, if ever. So though it breaks your heart a little, pinch off those blossoms on the new or struggling bushes. Give it the time it needs to grow in and widen out. You'll thank me later for nagging you now! :)