Today I planted my Apache and Arapaho Erect blackberry cells from Stark Bros (3 of each). There are both thornless varieties, and with any luck I will get an extended harvest from having two different breeds. I have planted them in a row of 6, with about 2 feet between each seedling, in the front [...] Read more »

Last night I finally got around to planting the two Blueberry bushes I have had parked in a box in the house for a few days. Both plants are ‘Rabbiteye’ varieties…one is of type Tifblue and one of type Climax.  The theory is that having more than one variety of Blueberry improves the yield, I shall [...] Read more »

While I have heard many times that the pesticides that we find on our fruits and vegetables that we buy from the local grocery are bad for you, I really never took it seriously. That was until I saw exactly what residue came off some fruit that I rinsed under our water ionizer. This lead [...] Read more »

Anyone who has tried lasagna gardening will be sure to tell you how much easier it is than traditional methods of preparing soil.  It is a procedure for building up soil, usually in a raised bed for a flower or vegetable garden, that basically involves layering different organic materials on top of each other – [...] Read more »

One gardening method I have found really useful when space is limited is the technique of square foot gardening.  Pioneered by Mel Bartholomew in the 1980s, there are a series of books available explaining the tips and tricks to making Square Foot Gardening work for you, I recommend this one, the All New Square Foot [...] Read more »

I plan to talk about the construction of my raised beds in a future post, but today I will address the soil mix I utilized.  The City of Plano, under a contract for the North Texas Municipal Water District, puts out a line of garden mixes under the brand name ‘Texas Pure’.  These products are largely created from recyclable [...] Read more »

In the process of planning my plantings for the year I have done a lot of research on the Internet -  I tend to suffer from Analysis Paralysis!  I would have to say that one of the most useful resources I have come across in my reading is the information provide by Texas A&M. There [...] Read more »

Today I planted most of Raised Bed #4. I have dedicated half of this bed to Sweet corn. Whilst I had hoped I would have room for 4 rows, I only managed to squeeze in 3 rows of 10. I spaced the individual seeds roughty four to six inches apart, with ten inches between each [...] Read more »

Now that I have completed extending Bed #3, I have space for my remaining asparagus crowns. My planting today consisted of two rows of 5 of Jersey Supreme Hybrid Asparagus – Giant Grade, and behind them one row of 5 of my remaining Purple Passion Asparagus crowns. Once I had them planted I gave the [...] Read more »

I have spent a lot of time the last few days working on a new raised bed (Bed #3) for my Asparagus.   I originally planned to plant these along the fence line, but given the long life span of Asparagus (10 years or even more) I decided against it.  With any luck the Asparagus will last [...] Read more »