Sunday, August 28, 2011

Central Texas Veggie Garden Guide

Our local agricultural extension provides some great materials for successful landscaping and gardening in our unique Central Texas area. I had several documents detailing what time of year to plant what type of vegetable, but the formatting made them difficult to use. They were either lists of veggie types with bar graphs for what month to plant, or lists of veggies with a date range to plant each. But like most gardeners, I want to know when I go into the garden, what can I plant TODAY? So I organized the information into a list categorized by month with the appropriate veggies listed alphabetically. It's easy enough to scan to see, "When can I plant peas," if you wonder about that sort of thing, but far easier to just take a glance, grab the right seeds, head out, and put some in the dirt. I keep mine taped inside my kitchen cupboard next to the fridge, where I keep my seed packets.

On the reverse are simple instructions I prepared while teaching a local gardening class for square foot lasagna gardening, my combined version of the two easiest garden methods I've ever come across. That is useful no matter where you live. You can also copy/paste the chart into your own word processor to adjust the veggie types to you specific area if you don't live around Austin.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Blue Hole

 
 
 
 
 
We joined our local homeschooling group for another day at the Blue Hole on Cypress Creek in Wimberley. Two words: GOR-GEOUS! Old growth bald cypress trees line the banks of the newly improved park with paved stroller/wheelchair access down to the hole, full and lush flat shaded lawn area with picnic tables, and controlled access points to control the erosion and mud problem of past years. An attendant even overheard me telling the little kids they had to walk down because we had so much stuff to carry, and took all my gear and little kids down on his UTV; what service! Since public school had started a few days prior, the place was virtually empty as opposed to the riotous week before. That is, until school let out, which let the kids enjoy watching the older boys trick out on the rope swings. They got brave and did some tricks of their own, while Julia, finally having learned to swim, and Zoey, equipped with her awesome Coast Guard PFD approved water wings tooled around. I sat in a camp chair in the cool water or hung out on the docks taking photos and chatting.