• Join Home Gardening Forum

WR's 2016 Spring Garden

whistech

Well-Known Member
Messages
322
Location
Spring, Texas
Planting Zone
9a
Mr. Ranch, I really enjoy looking and reading about your garden, bread making, meat smoking and recipes. Thank you for sharing with us and giving all the great tips for more inexperienced gardeners like myself.

I am rally looking forward to your 2016 Spring garden!
 

w_r_ranch

Master Gardener
Administrator
Moderator
Plus Member
Messages
6,449
Location
South Central Texas
Planting Zone
8b
Last weekend I started the seeds for the tomatoes ('Health Kick' & 'Celebrity'), peppers (jalapeno, sweet green & poblano), eggplant (Millionaire) & the basil. Then I planted the flower seed... I got 108 Mixed 'Zahara' Zinnias & 144 pots of 'French Marigold', which will planted between the plants in the garden. Everything else will be direct seeded in 6-8 weeks.

Most of the spring garden vegetables are my normal 'go-to' varieties, although there a some new varieties that I wanted to try as well...

For slicing tomatoes I'm going with 'Celebrity' this year, mostly due to the fact that they are determinant. I grown them in the past & they are dependable.

For sweet corn I chose 'Bicolor Mirai' as I've always wanted to try it. The story of this corn's wild popularity is incredible. It was bred on the Ahrens family farm in Illinois by J. David Mackenzie, a plantsman from Cornell University. As the economy worsened for family farms in the early 1990s, the Ahrenses hired Mackenzie to research new strains of sweet corn for market use. When he discovered 'Mirai', he was really just trying to create a more disease-resistant variety. But one taste changed all that. At first, the new corn didn't seem marketable. It needs to be hand-picked, which ruled out production by the huge commercial farms in the U.S. So Mackenzie introduced it instead to Japan, where small "boutique" farms are common & many crops are still picked by hand. Within a few years 'Mirai' had become the bestselling sweet corn in Japan, capturing an amazing 35% of the market from all other varieties!!!

Another new variety will be 'Sugar Cube' cantaloupes. They are suppose to have the best disease resistance of any melon & produces several personal-sized 4" mini-cantaloupes with extra-sweet, deep orange flesh... I sounds perfect for growing on a trellis.

For sweet green peppers, I decided to go with a variety named 'King Arthur'. The fruit is thick-walled & blocky (4 1/2" long/wide) & is suppose to set well even in heat. This variety is also reputed to be highly disease resistant. We'll see...

Also new for this year are the 'Imperial Star' artichokes, which I started in mid-December. I picked this variety because they are said to produce nearly 3 times more artichokes per season than older varieties. In addition they are thornless (for easier harvesting) & they stay closed longer on the plant, so I don't have to pick the entire crop at once. If anyone here would like to try them, I have extra plants. Almost forgot to mention that they are perennials, so they will produce year after year.

Lastly, I will be growing 'Crane' melons (aka Santa Rosa). I have no idea what they taste like, but I'm all for trying & experiencing new things in the garden. Ernie was kind to supply the seed for these & I want to thank him again here. (y)

 

w_r_ranch

Master Gardener
Administrator
Moderator
Plus Member
Messages
6,449
Location
South Central Texas
Planting Zone
8b
Watered the starter pots in the greenhouse (as needed). As you can see, many of the seeds have already germinated... pretty quick this year!!!

Seedlings2_012816.jpg

Seedlings1_012816.jpg

Here are the 'Imperial Star' artichokes that I started mid-December:

Artichoke_012816.jpg
 

RLwhaler

Well-Known Member
Messages
488
Location
Cypress,Texas
Planting Zone
8b
Mr. Ranch, I really enjoy looking and reading about your garden, bread making, meat smoking and recipes. Thank you for sharing with us and giving all the great tips for more inexperienced gardeners like myself.

I am rally looking forward to your 2016 Spring garden!

You and me both!! Have you tried Ranch's pie recipe?
 

w_r_ranch

Master Gardener
Administrator
Moderator
Plus Member
Messages
6,449
Location
South Central Texas
Planting Zone
8b
The garden was dry enough to finish the final prep of the potato row. Then I cut/sulphured the well chitted seed potatoes. They will be planted tomorrow.

Then I continued weeding/prepping other parts of the garden.
 

w_r_ranch

Master Gardener
Administrator
Moderator
Plus Member
Messages
6,449
Location
South Central Texas
Planting Zone
8b
Set the tomato stakes & planted & tied up half of the tomatoes. Took all the flats of flowers out of the greenhouse.
 

w_r_ranch

Master Gardener
Administrator
Moderator
Plus Member
Messages
6,449
Location
South Central Texas
Planting Zone
8b
Formed the rows & planted the melons today. Also replanted some of the 'Murai' corn as something dug up some of the seeds.
 

w_r_ranch

Master Gardener
Administrator
Moderator
Plus Member
Messages
6,449
Location
South Central Texas
Planting Zone
8b
Been a tough spring here due to the weather... rain, rain & more rain. It came down so hard & so often, that we had standing water in the garden, which downed/killed half the tomatoes, most of the corn, peppers, beans & cucumbers. I replanted what seeds/reserve plants I had on hand... I just hope that they have enough time to get established & are able to produce before the hot weather kicks in. Many of the 'original' plants are still stunted still due to being in shock...

I pulled all the onions & set them on the picnic tables in the party barn to 'cure'... better to have a smaller crop than to risk them rotting in the ground (no lunkers this year). I also pulled a couple of the garlic but they are not bulbing so they may be a total loss this year.

I'll pull a couple of the potatoes in a few days to check on them...

Artichoke_042716.jpg

Garlic_042716.jpg

Onions_042716.jpg

Potatoes_042716.jpg
 

w_r_ranch

Master Gardener
Administrator
Moderator
Plus Member
Messages
6,449
Location
South Central Texas
Planting Zone
8b
Yeah, I'm kind of behind on the updates, I try to get it done tomorrow...

Today, I cleaned all the onions & put them in the bread trays for further curing. I then harvested two-thirds of the potatoes (I'll finish them tomorrow) as the forecast is showing even more rain in the next few days.

Spring_Potato_Harvest_050916.jpg
 

txjustin

Member
Messages
7
I hate to complain, but looks like our big garden might take a sizable bust for the 2nd year in a row due to the over abundance of rain. Looks like another dump truck later this summer.
 
Top