Michele - Gardening seminar

The folks at Sweetwater Farm Greenhouse put on a great seminar last week. The topic was year round gardening and the speaker, Ed, was full of good information. Among other things, he pointed out that in our climate, you really can have a garden all year long. He showed charts and gave examples of vegetables that would survive cool Texas winters and well as ones that could cope with the heat of our summers. These charts are all available at the local extension offices, so if you haven't been there yet, you might want to check it out.

Another bit of information that I found to be very helpful was that you need good soil to grow good plants. Although that may sound obvious, I doubt that the soil in my garden would win any awards for proper nutrient balance. There are test kits available at most local garden centers that will do basic tests on your soil. Kits are also available at the extension office, and for a mere $10 they will send it off to be tested. You get a report back detailing what is good and bad about the soil, along with suggestions on how to get it up to par.

Natural pest control was discussed, as well as fertilizer, planting techniques, and the benefits of gardening. I always thought the main benefit of gardening was the food, but Ed pointed out that along with providing beauty and food, gardening is great exercise. It will get you outside on these beautiful spring days and get you moving.

Overall, it was a very well spent hour and I would recommend attending similar talks if you get the chance!

Announcement: Vegetable Growing Seminar

Sweetwater Farm Greenhouse in Denison will be hosting a Year Round Vegetable Growing Seminar this coming Wednesday in their greenhouse between 11AM and noon. Master Gardener Ed Supina will be hosting. Click here for details!

Michele - Patience

It's hard to be patient when there are so many tasty, homegrown treats just waiting to be eaten. Since these pictures were taken, some of the strawberries and mulberries have ripened. The kids have been having a great time running out there every morning and raiding the mulberry tree. They announced today, after picking a bowl full, that they wanted to make mulberry ice cream. Hey, I'm game to try!

The blackberries and squash lack a few weeks and the plums and peaches at least a month. That's ok, it gives us something to look forward to, as well as adds incentive to keep up the work in the gardens. So far my little helpers seem more interested in eating than weeding. No surprise there I guess, but I did find that given the choice between cleaning the house or pulling weeds, every one of them will choose the weeds. I may be onto something!

Happy gardening.

Jenny - Children's Garden Part 2

After a trip to Sweetwater Farm Greenhouse and our local home improvement store, the kids had a few plants for their garden. We got our hands dirty planting them in and just clustered them in the center of the garden for now. The tree rose looks beautiful, but the truth is, I was quite sure that it would be on its way out. I had pulled it up from the front walkway (to replace it with 2 matching potted versions). The kids couldn't bear to see it get dumped in the compost, so we potted it here in case it wants to live. Sure enough, within days the whole thing was brown and looked like it belonged in a Halloween display. A quick listing of the plants they chose: strawberries, snapdragons, lilies, petunias, celosia, diamond frost, and marigolds. I gently tried to steer them toward easy to care for plants, but let them chose pretty freely. It will be a good experience for them to learn how to care for each plant. Here's where we were after that.

Jenny - Children's Garden Part 1

We've spent the past couple of weeks creating a garden area for my two children (11 year old boy, 6 year old girl). They both wanted an area to play in and put plants of their choosing. I thought I might use this blog as a place to catalog our progress. On March 29th we started out staring at the area just outside my son's window. It was a prairie mess of johnson grass and other weeds. We pulled all that up, laid out landscaping fabric, lined the space out with some old bricks (in a pre-determined curve shape), and filled in the space with lots of gravel. Special thanks to Daddy for hauling and shoveling wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of gravel. By the end of day we made very decent progress. Here's what it looked like.

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.

Jenny - Ya Can't Beat Local Knowledge

Well, it's taken me 2 weeks, but I wanted to report on my visit to the local nursery that I mentioned in my last post on the Bonham garden expo. My family and I drove out to Sweetwater Farm Greenhouse in Denison the day after the expo. We wanted to check the place out and see how knowledgeable the owners, married couple Dave and Barb, would prove.
Well, we ended up staying there for about 2 hours! The establishment is a smallish one with one large greenhouse and a couple of outdoor areas beside it. They sell a variety of perennials, annuals, shrubs and trees. Though some of the more mainstream plants, such as petunias and pear trees, can be found at the larger discount stores, I did notice that Sweetwater tended to have a wider color variety. The plants were also in better shape than in the big stores, and clearly treated with more love.
Where Dave and Barb really excelled was in knowledge. They knew their plants. They knew the area. They had experience in planning and planting garden beds, and were willing to share everything in their heads to help you create whatever kind of garden or vegetable bed you had in mind. Have a problem area or a deathtrap garden bed (my front walkway)? Well, bring them a picture and lots of details on the soil, sun, traffic, etc going on there. They'll try to make some suggestions to help you turn that area around.
Their patience with me knew no bounds. After 2 hours of brainstorming, and a truckful of plants, including a lovely butterfly bush and a few very healthy strawberry plants, we went home full of ideas and enthusiasm. If you live in the Texoma area, and need a little collaboration on your flower or veg gardens, go and see Dave and Barb.

Sweetwater Farm Greenhouse
4400 W Crawford St
Denison, TX 75020
http://www.sweetwaterfarmplants.com/