G'day everyone!
Hubby and I had purchased a small castle this fall in a lovely Austin, TX which came with a small garden in the back of it. Right now we have pretty much nothing but trees and grass there- I would love to grow some veggies/flowers/stuff there but do know know when/what to plant.
So please help if you happen to have a castle garden in Southern Texas of your own- I will appreciate it greatly.
I have few questions:
1. I would love to grow small alpine strawberries.. My mom back in Russia used to grow these and they were giving us berries all summer long. But the climate is different and I am not sure if they will survive texas heat. Anyone had any luck with these? or any strawberries in Texas? If yes, which kind would you recommend and when am I to plant them?
2. Anyone knows of any good online resource for Southern gardening?
3. I would like to grow climbing roses/vines next to our castle walls but I dont know which ones would grow in a heat..
Thank you in Advance
Yennefer
I live closer to Galveston, but my mother-n-law has had great success in growing strawberries every year. What kind and special things she does I don't know. But between now and April you want to start them indoors.
I have had success with many vines and roses. There is no one in particular that worked better than the other. So I couldn't tell you exactly which one to get.
*Hope some of this helps*
Oh, I better go find some strawberries seeds then.. Thing is, I dont always trust salespeople in nurseries/home depot.. Many of them never had a garden of their own and while shrubs might look good, plant might die later. I bought some tomatoes last spring in hopes to grow them in pots in our balcony ( we did not have a house yet) and they grew very tall at first and then died mid summer regardless of my watering/ plucking new leaves..
Thank you for advise LadyShadow! Where did you get your roses from?
I would contact Queen Bonnie, she lives in the same area and is quite the gardener, I bet she has lots of advice!
Best of luck, we too are going to try gardening this year.
Texas gardening can vary greatly from one area to the next. So, first of all, I'd recommend seeking books on Texas gardening by Dale Groom and Neil Sperry. Used bookstores area great resource. Neil also has a website and e-mail list you can subscribe to that has lots of good information.
Here's a link from Texas A&M's website on gardening in your area: http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/travis/
And here's one of my favorite places. We buy lots of plants at their plant sales:
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/, and Dr.Novak is a terrific guy.
One of my favorite places for roses and ornamentals, or just an afternoon's photo safari: http://www.antiqueroseemporium.com/
Don't get discouraged if you try several things, and not all of them succeed as you'd like. It's very much a trial-and-error thing, especially here!
Hope that helps!
Oh, there is a link to Garden faire in Austin on one of those websites and its in March so I dont have to sacrifice any of my Scarby's weekends :D
Tipsy Gipsy, thank you so much, I am reading your links and find a lot of useful info there. I should definitely go check out used books. I went to Barnes and Noble and they did not have anything about gardening specifically in Texas. I bought a book but I didnt find any use of it as it mostly talks about gardening in Northern US.
Still though Id love to hear which strawberries/ roses others had most sucess with as personal experience is golden.
The Master Gardening program is LOADS of help, especially with region-specific questions. Here's the main site for the Texas program:
http://mastergardener.tamu.edu/
Heat is good to keep in mind, but you also need to be aware of where the light falls.
I love gardening, and I've had fun trying new things, and learnign what works and what doesn't. One of my favorite blooms is nasturtiums - very bright flowers and they are great in salads!
Good luck!
Queen Bonnie is in a Gardening Club and lives in Elgin, so not too far from us here in Austin. She will be a wealth of information for you, I am sure.
Unless you buy a heat tolerant tomato seed, anytime it gets over 85 degrees, tomatoes usually do not make because of the heat.
Thank you, Blushing!
Accoding to that website,English Ivy could be grown in Texas.. I always thought it needs shade for it grow and I dont think I ve seen it on houses in Texas. I would love to grow it, I think I am going to give it a shot
So far everyone I have talked to, and including us, had no success with tomatoes this year, which is surprising, usually we cant kill ours no matter what we do.
The roses I have are "Mi Amori (spl?)" and I got them at Home Depot. We have some type of ivy growing in our gardens, and it also does well in Texas, but I am unsure of which exact type of ivy it is.
Good luck with your gardening.
Quote from: RenRobin on February 09, 2009, 06:17:56 PM
Unless you buy a heat tolerant tomato seed, anytime it gets over 85 degrees, tomatoes usually do not make because of the heat.
Where woud I buy such a seed? I had been in USA for about 5 years and still new to all the wealth of retail here..I bought my seeds in Home Depot.. From what I planted, not many sprouted..
I have it growing at my house, but it is in a shaded area...engish ivy that is.
Quote from: Yennefer on February 09, 2009, 06:23:27 PM
Quote from: RenRobin on February 09, 2009, 06:17:56 PM
Unless you buy a heat tolerant tomato seed, anytime it gets over 85 degrees, tomatoes usually do not make because of the heat.
Where woud I buy such a seed? I had been in USA for about 5 years and still new to all the wealth of retail here..I bought my seeds in Home Depot.. From what I planted, not many sprouted..
http://www.naturalgardeneraustin.com/ I would start here.
RenRobin, the link that you kindy shared has pointed me in a direction of :
February 14 – Mike Shoup, Owner of the Antique Rose Emporium, presents "(Antique) Roses are Easier than You Think." Class! How timely and I was just thinking about buying roses :D
Much appreciate :)
Actually we had pretty good luck with tomatoes this year (when we could keep the birds and our dogs out of them), Cherry Grande being the best producer of the ones we planted. We even had tomatoes still on the vine when the freezing rain hit. RenRobin is right though, although tomatoes like full sun, they produce best in moderate temperatures.
I believe there are some Half-Price Books stores in Austin; check their gardening section for a "regional" or "Texas" shelf. That's where I found some of mine. I've actually found some decent Texas-specific books at Sam's Club, too, of all places. And of course, there's always Amazon :) .
Tipsy Gipsy, which one is your favourite book on Texas gardening? :)
My two favorites are Dale Groom's Texas Gardening Guide and Neil Sperry's Complete Guide to Texas Gardening. I tend to reference them side by side, and compare information.
I'm going to put my plug in for the organic gardening I've used it for decades and love it. http://www.dirtdoctor.com/ I've found Howard Garrett advise on gardening very usefull.
My mom has a wonderful harden back in Russia she never ever uses any pestisides.. She uses Cow poop for all her soil needs and to kill bugs she soaks tomato plant leaves in a water and spays.. and some other home-made stuff.. She collects egg shells through the winter and puts them into soil in spring to make it fluffier.. She also collects tea leaves after they are used for tea; she dries them and then puts them into soil too..
When I was little, I had to pick weeds in our garden every summer while other kids played outside.. I swore off gardening for life back then but now I want my garden. Go figure.
Thank you all so much for sharing. I am planning on trying on strawberries, Jasmine and some roses this year and will let you know how it went :) Please feel free to share your sucess
Hugs,
Yenn
Might I suggest a water garden?
Nothing like sitting on the patio in the early morning and listening to the sound of water going over the waterfalls.
When I started looking for a house, I already had an idea for how I wanted to layout the pond and stream. I found a house with a backyard that would support what I planned.
Pond is about 10 ft wide and 20 ft long and from 1 ft to 3 ft deep (holding about 2000 gallons), with a meandering 30 ft stream going over two stone waterfalls and one wooden dam. The upper pond is about 4 ft above ground level.When I had the wooden patio deck built, I had it wrapping around part of the pond, with wooden benches built so that I could lean over the railing and watch the fish.
No weeding, no insect problem (the fish love mosquito larva), and fish who view you as their god.
It would be lovely but sounds like a lot of work. When we bought our house, there was an abandoned fountain in the corner. Water was shallow and it was FULL of moscitoes.. They were everywhere in a grass, I had my ankles bitten. We requested that seller would fill it with dirt and now we have a planter ( I plan to stick a couple of rose bushes there). Even a thought of having that many moscitoes in our garden makes me shiver so I would like to stay away from any water features. Pond with koi and circulationg water will probably resolve the bugs issue but I dont have that kind of money and time to invest in my backyard yet.
throw menced garlic around the yard it will keep the moscitoes away and is good for the yard too. I pick up a big jar every month at the dollar store just for that.
Didnt know it worked in the yard, I'm gonna have to try that. I knew if you used garlic in your cooking daily it would keep them away from attacking you.
I bought 2 climbing roses today : Don Juan and American beaty and also 2 roses that called " Knock out roses"- suppose to be very hardy.. Strawberries I planted in a pot this year ( so I can bring it inside if needed) and I also bought lavander and some white flower tea tree.. Keeping my fingers crossed to everything to grow well
Thank you all for your support! and I will definitely try garlic for moscitoes as well