The last of our ordered seeds came yesterday so progress is being made. Included were the ‘Imperial Star’ artichoke seeds. Last year was our first year with these annual artichokes and were we impressed! Artichokes are normally thought of as a perennial vegetable that don’t tolerate temperatures below 20 degrees, grow best in foggy areas with cool days and nights, and demand a long growing season. Certainly none of those apply to our area and we had no idea what to expect from this variety. Ten to 15 large edible buds appeared on every plant – we were in our glory! Nom! nom! nom! So start them from seed, transplant out with the tomatoes and peppers and give them lots of room, start harvesting about 90 days later.
February 27, 2009
Artichokes
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February 25, 2009
Spring in Pittsburgh
Okay – try living in Pittsburgh right now. We are well and truly in mud season, that time when you really see all the stuff in the garden that you should have cleaned up in the fall, but it was mud season then, too, right before it froze solid. Bleah. I’m not sure if I envy the snow of 5 hours North or the dry of Texas! ah well, thank goodness for the garden catalogs…
This is a winter picture (without the mud) from the ‘Burgh – Buddleia davidii “black knight” with a coating of sugar snow. At this point in the winter, Jeff calls any snow Satan’s powdered sugar. Better than mud, though.
In a month or so it should be dry enough to get the clean up done and I’ll need to cut this particular friend back hard. At least I am not behind on this. Yet!
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February 24, 2009
Garlic Mustard
Saw this picture on the Sustainable Gardening blog and immediately recognized this menace. In cleaning up some woodsy areas, I have come across wide swaths of this stuff, pulled it up, forked it out, and presumably got rid of it only to have it appear the next Spring in the midst of the mayapples and trout lilies in exponentially greater numbers than before! Its highly allelopathic nature (think black walnut trees!) and its explosive seed delivery means that this “pretty” little plant can and will spread and wipe out stands of native wildflowers before you know it. Hopefully some biological controls will be available soon because it takes years to eradicate it by hand from one spot and, in the meantime, it has escaped somewhere else.
Garlic Mustard Identification and Control from Barbara Lucas on Vimeo.
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February 23, 2009
Spring in Texas
Spring has started to arrive here in Texas. The trees are starting to leaf out and soon the flowering trees will be in full blossom. It is my favorite time in Texas, a great time to get out and garden before the heat of the summer gets here. It’s been a dry spring and I am already having to use our sprinkler system.
