Pop Up Gardens

Eating from the garden

Mark your calendars. May 15th Fredericksburg will finally have a Farmer's Market again after a several year farmer's market drought. This is really exciting as several Fredericksburgers have been working hard to organize a truly great venue which will be weekly on Thursdays, from 4 - 7 pm through September.

Here's the poster fresh off the press. Candace Morgan designed the new FFM logo (Fredericksburg Farmer's Market) and I've been helping with the posters. Woo-hoo! Now if I kill my tomatoes in a late frost I can count on these local veggie pros to supply loads of ripe ones and much more.

Meanwhile, I am actively working on my vegetable garden. We've eaten mesclun mix twice out of the garden. I love it! I am patiently waiting to directly sow many warm-season crops into the ground, like beans, corn and squash. But the seedlings I planted indoors under grow lights are really getting to be like lanky teenagers. They want to be in the outside dirt! I'm just being a bit protective because we still could get a late freeze. I'll wait another 2 weeks max. Then I'll just have to take my chances because some of these tomato plants will be sending out flowers soon.

And then there's the final photo below of those gorgeous succulents which are not edible. This is serious eye candy, right? Even though three of them aren't cold hardy they still deserve a place either in a container or the garden bed as an annual. (Hens & chicks, echeveria shaviana, 'Black Tree' Aeonium arboreum atropurpureum 'Zwartskop', and Dudleya caespitosa. Yes, that's a mouthful.)

Design Reflections

Lucky the cat probably eyeing the goldfish, owner's pond

With one week left of winter, as the calendar says, I've been reflecting a bit more on the winter garden. Yes, there are many blooms popping up and new shoots springing forth so I know that Spring is almost here.
However, as a garden is in constant flux, I also am continuously tweaking and adding layers to my young town garden. This garden is between one and two years old and it is one that I am slowly installing over time.

There is a certain luxury to installing a garden all at once and, viola!, instant lushness! I sort of did that last summer with the raised concrete garden in the backyard last May. I literally planted the whole thing one stormy afternoon from a trailer load of goodies I hauled from one of my favorite nurseries. That was luxury. I rationalized the whole extravagance by telling myself that our home exchange family from Sweden that was coming for a month that July really needed to have this as a backdrop. But who was I kidding? There's nothing like a deadline to get things done.

So, a year has gone by and I'm looking at more things I'd like to add or change around. I know I would like to have a few more bold evergreens in the garden by the driveway, which we also use as our front door entrance. I am thinking of adding Texas mountain laurel, Sophora secundiflora, as well as perhaps another Will Fleming yaupon holly, Ilex vomitoria 'Will Fleming'. Both would compliment each other in form, the first with it's full oval shape and the latter with its very columnar profile. And they would give the winter garden more structure.

A great way to see what your garden is lacking is to photograph the garden in the winter. Take the picture and look for the bold shapes which should be the evergreen plants. Is it hodge-podge or is the composition pleasing? Now is the time to move things and make changes so the roots have a chance to get re-established before the hot summer season. Better yet, draw simple composition shapes right on to a print out of your photo like I did in the example below of my side garden.

Mark desired shapes on to your garden photo and fill in with the appropriate plant.

Redbud, Green bud

Redbud blossoms

Do you have anything blooming in your garden today? If not, then think about adding some of these to remind you that Spring really is around the corner.

The redbud trees, cercis canadensis, are now blooming and I have a very old multi-trunked redbud in my backyard that lights up in deep pink-purple seemingly shaking up the sleeping beds. Mine is an old eastern redbud tree probably planted by the original owner of this German homestead. We are very close to a river, so the soil is deep and rich, thus this variety has done very well.

There are two other varieties that I like to use in the hill country that tolerate drought much better than the eastern redbud: the Texas redbud, Cercis canadensis var. texensis, and the Mexican redbud, Cercis canadensis var. mexicana. The Texas redbuds are smaller and more drought tolerant than the eastern redbuds and they have much smaller leaves that have wavy margins. The Mexican redbud is even more drought tolerant than the Texas redbud and usually tops out at only 15 feet tall, versus the Texas variety's max height of 20'. The eastern redbud is the tallest, attaining anywhere from 20' to 30'. All of them have heart shaped leaves and make wonderful accents to a garden.

Now look down. Blooms on the garden floor! I spotted the first chartruese blooms of my favorite plant that almost no one else has but everyone should, the Gopher plant (euphorbia biglandulosa). (The Natural Gardener in Austin carries them.) Notice that it is also evergreen although it is a groundcover only reaching about 12" tall. Next to the bright green blooms are the deep blue upright spikes of Salvia sylvestris 'May Night' which has been blooming all winter long! The catmint is waking up with its soft blue blossoms and the Sedum 'Neon' is morphing into succulent orbs which will eventually rise and unfurl neon pink blooms this late summer.

Gopher plant, euphorbia biglandulosa

In the Zone

As we have some chilly wind and daytime temps right now we're humbly reminded it is still winter. Oh, yeah.
Woops - I sheepishly trotted my 12" tall tomato plants that I had placed in a new homemade coldframe yesterday back into the warm house.

Some of my clients are asking me when is it safe to plant annuals or place their tomato plants outside? Can they redo their containers without fear of a freeze blasting them to death?
Well, we all need to wait about 5 weeks or so.

Technically, we are in what the USDA has declared zone 8. That zone encompasses areas surrounding Fredericksburg and the Texas hill country. Interestingly enough, it also happens to be the same garden zone as Seattle, Tuscon, and England! How is that possible? That would be because the USDA Plant Hardiness zones are determined by average minimum temperatures and for zone 8 that is between 10 and 20 degrees. Plants that are labeled as zone 8 can withstand those minimum temperatures.

San Antonio and Austin are hovering near zone 9 and can therefore grow a wider palette of tropical type plants than we can in the hill country. Keep that in mind when you shop at nurseries in those cities.

Obviously, we cannot grow the exact plant palette as gardeners in Seattle or England. The USDA zoning doesn't take into account average high temperatures, although there is another zoning system that does called the Heat Zone System, which will hopefully clarify plant tolerances for diverse gardening areas.

So! What is the magic date then for the last freeze for zone 8 in the Texas hill country? It is listed as March 30th, but according to local peach grower, Danny Hallford, April 17 is a much safer bet.

USDA plant hardiness map