Filed under: Austin, Garden, Heath + Beauty, food, go green, outdoors | Tags: arkie's grill, austin gardening, fall vegetable plantings, square foot gardens, summer vegetable garden, texas vegetable gardens, the natural gardener
It’s July 29th and I’m enjoying my first semi-official “snow day” in Texas.
The Pennsylvania snow days that I’m accustomed to usually come in the winter, and they’re usually accompanied by snow. In Texas, there is no snow and there is no winter. Today’s “snow day” was courtesy of an electrical transformer that blew up outside of our office this morning and wiped out all power to the office complex, with no hopes of repair for at least 8 or 9 hours.
In celebration of my snow day, I met Melissa for breakfast at Arkie’s Grill on East Cesar Chavez (which is only open M-F). Not the topic of this post, but if you’re reading this in Austin: GO TO ARKIE’S! And go for breakfast! It’s like stepping into a movie filmed in the early 1970’s. And the pancakes were the best I’ve had anywhere – even better than Kerbey Lane. Bold statement, I know. Just trust me on this one.
Following breakfast I drove out to the Natural Gardener with a shopping list of supplies. After a month of traveling & ignoring important things like home, health, sanity, etc, I’d decided it was time to renovate a bunch of things in my life. The garden was the first natural step.
I came home with mulch, a Purple Cherokee heirloom tomato, an Arkansas Traveler heirloom tomato, a blackfoot daisy, a rosemary plant, cucumber seeds, organic foliar fertilizer, peat pots, and two starter plug trays. In the next 3 hours four tomato plants were removed in their entirety. The two heaviest producers of the spring were spared but cut to 1/3 their size. It’s likely that they will set a second set of fruit in the fall. I cut back both of my basil plants, removed arugula that had already gone to seed, weeded the beds, and added in bonemeal fertilizer. I mulched the landscape bed, planted my new finds, harvested any remaining tomatoes and hung my herb trimmings inside to dry.
BEFORE....
...AFTER. I no longer look like the crazy garden lady in the neighborhood.
In the coming weeks I’ll be adding cucumber, squash, cantaloupe and broccoli to my garden, which will most likely require a garden expansion. Tis the season to prepare for a fall harvest! With one season already under my belt I’m excited to begin a new cycle (but also wondering when Texas farmers ever get to take a break!). Here’s a few more pics from today’s productivity… how’s everyone else’s gardens doing? Any exciting finds to report??
My lemon basil is multiplying like bunnies. I potted a few up to give away... hoping they survive the transplant.
My second set of peppers is coming in - even the Habanero is producing this time!
freshly mulched landscape bed... here's to hoping it will retain more moisture now!
freshly cut herbs hanging to dry
Arugula & broccoli sprouts coming up! (the arugula seeds were harvested from my first planting of the spring).
