Who Should Be Saved?

Recently there was a house fire in my neighborhood and it completely gutted the structure.  Thankfully no one was injured, but I can’t even imagine the pain the family is going through over the loss.  At times like this I reflect on what I would do in a similar situation.  If my house was filled with smoke and I had to get out, what would I save?

I’m facing something similar in my garden right now.  We now have had over 70 days where the temperature was 100 or more degrees.  Worse, in my yard, we have had only 5 inches of rain since January 1.  To say that it is an inferno out there is truly an understatement.  We are also on water restrictions and can only run sprinkler systems (including drip and soaker) once a week.  You are allowed to hand water with a hose as much as you want – for now.

I know some long time gardeners here in Austin who have had enough.  They are saying that they are going to let nature take her course and stop watering.  If the plant dies, good riddance you weather wimp.   I sympathize.  My husband, Ed, has been a savior and waters by hand in the morning.  We use the condenser water from the air conditioner and supplement with the hose.  But even my modest yard is too big to hand water.  I have to choose what to save.

Some of the choices have been easy because the plant has simply died.  My hibiscus was an early casualty, as well as nearly 80% of the perennials I planted this spring.  My vegetable garden has limped along, but now the heat stressed plants are being attacked by scale and white flies.  One by one I have pulled up tomatoes, okra, and eggplant and added them to the compost.  It makes me very sad to shut off the water to each raised bed as the casualties mount.  I don’t dare plant any seeds right now to replace them because they won’t germinate in this heat.

But now I have some harder choices.  I have native shrubs that are struggling.  My citrus trees are yellowing and curling in the heat.  Should I try to save them?  Or should I just walk away and let them burn?  They are just plants after all.  Someday the rains will return and I can replace them.  The smoke fills my nostrils and the light dims. I start to stagger and lean against my garden fork.  Who can I save?

Gardening in Central Texas - Lessons Learned

This month is my one-year anniversary of gardening in Central Texas. It hardly seems possible that a year has passed since I first put my hands in the sticky muck that passes for soil in my back yard. My first two plantings were some sad looking tomatoes and peppers from Lowe's. I just jammed in them in a strip of raised bed left by the previous owners, and hoped for the best. The best didn't really happen, because I was about to be KO'd by the hottest summer in Austin history. But even so, there have been many lessons learned since then, and hopefully my fall gardening season will kick off a little more successfully.

1. It is freakin' hot here. The hottest summer non-withstanding, the heat here is so much more intense than Oregon. Those 100-degree days in August are nothing compared to the every day onslaught here in Austin. It doesn't cool down at night so a stressed plant stays that way. The bonus though, is that these warm nights really aid the growth cycle and ripens fruit a lot faster.

2. You cannot water enough. I didn't understand why everyone was so upset when water restrictions said you could only irrigate once a week. I'm used to that being just fine and watering any more frequently promotes shallow root growth. Not here. Some of my vegetables and fruit get watered every day during the hot spell. During fruit set I will hand water AND drip irrigate. Believe me, I am not overwatering. I use my trowel or garden fork to dig in the soil to find the moisture zone and spend many days never finding it. I am so thankful that I installed my rainwater collection system.

3. Pestilence rules. If there is an obnoxious bug on the planet, it is sure to be thriving here in Central Texas. I have never seen such a plague of pests. Cabbage loopers, stink and pill pugs, leaf-footed bugs, caterpillars, little black beetles that mowed down my mustard, and a host of others that I discover every day. As I build my back yard habitat I hope to attract just as many beneficial insects, but right now it's just me out there doing battle. I have had to rethink my entire approach to what to plant. Up until now I mixed my vegetative and flowering plants together in the same bed. Not any more. In order to harvest food for the table, I have to keep the vegetative plants under row covers. I lost my kale and cabbage because I didn't get the covers on soon enough. That won't happen again. I am also shopping online for a bug vacuum. I have my eye on one that has a zapper inside. Payback's a bitch baby.

4. The growing seasons are actually shorter. The heat and the cold really shorten the available days for healthy plant growth. This is a problem for something like tomatoes that take forever to ripen. And worse, bloom set stops when the temperature reaches 95 degrees. The only way to combat this is to start seeds very early. I now have plastic to go over my hoops and will be raising seedlings as early as November. I need those plants vigorous and ready to bloom in March. However, notice I wrote "seasons". We have two awesome seasons to grow in, making this my most productive food patch ever.

5. It will freeze here. That hot summer really lulled me into thinking I live in the tropics. Not so. We had several freezes and I lost two of my precious citrus trees and had frozen pipes in the bathroom because I was careless. Not next time. I will actually put up Christmas lights in November - on the plants, not the house, and will let the faucets drip on cold nights. I also have plastic covers ready to go. Bring it on!

It has been such a blast learning to garden in a new climate. And even though I have had some spectacular failures, my successes are far greater. Home grown citrus, lemon grass, and cantaloupe bigger than my head, sweet corn in June - I really couldn't ask for more. Now if you'll excuse me, it's time for me to check my inventory and get ready for fall planting. Yee haw!