Storm Damage

THIS JUST IN: Storm Damages Tomato Crop in Southeast Texas

We have our own Hurricane Katrina - an 8-pound tortoiseshell cat with a big appetite and a bigger attitude.

We started our tomato seeds in flats a few weeks ago and have kept them indoors to provide a warm, even temperature for germination.  Because we have indoor cats and know that cats like to dig, we covered the flat with a clear plastic dome and placed it on a countertop in the kitchen.  We were so excited when most of the seeds sprouted in less than a week.  "Remember how low the germination rate was last year?" we remarked.  "Look at how healthy and strong they are!" we gushed.

Then one of us, who shall remain nameless, decided that the seedlings needed some "air", removed the plastic dome, and went out to get the mail from the mailbox.  The errand took three minutes, tops, probably less.  Said person returned to the house to find Katrina on the countertop having a snack.  She is nothing if not efficient.  In that short time, she had jumped up on the countertop, found the seed tray, determined that it contained something tasty, and neatly removed the tops of four of our precious little seedlings.  She must have been in the process of eating a fifth when she was interrupted by the door opening: the little plant had been yanked out of the soil and left for dead.

Exhibit A below shows one of the casualties.  Note the sad little leaf on the soil surface to the left of the beheaded stalk.

What was she thinking that fateful afternoon?  Was she jealous of the attention we had been showering on these immobile interlopers? Did she feel a need to remind us of her Alpha Female status?  Or was she just hankering for something fresh and green? We will never know.

Postscript:
Damage repair commenced immediately.  Replacement seeds have since sprouted.  Security was stepped up to prevent future incidents (i.e. that plastic dome is glued on until we move it outside!).

Oodles of Onions

In case 200 garlic cloves in October wasn't enough, we planted 500 onions in December.  We are big fans of the Allium family.  They are so easy to grow organically because they have few pests.  As far as we know.  We may find out that is wrong this year, now that we have a lot more plants, but I sure hope it holds true.

We didn't plan to have 500 onions - we were shooting for about 300, enough to fill one of our rows in the main garden.  We found another Texas company, Dixondale Farms in Carrizo Springs, to supply the onion sets.  After reading the descriptions for short-day onions, we ordered 1 bunch each of 4 varieties (1 yellow, 1 red and 2 white).  Since each bunch contains approximately 5 dozen sets, we would have about 240 sets from Dixondale, plus about 60 of our own that we started from seed.

When the sets arrived in the mail in mid-December, I was impressed by how healthy they looked.  Ed prepared the bed according to the helpful instructions provided by Dixondale, and I started sorting the bunches to choose the best sets to plant.  Unfortunately, three of the bunches had quite a bit fewer than the estimated 60 plants.  We were pretty disappointed, though still pleased with the quality of sets we got.  We planted what we had, then I emailed Dixondale, telling them which varieties were shorted and by how much, and asking them to send us the difference.  They responded promptly, were apologetic, and promised to send another shipment immediately.

When the box arrived, we were amazed to find that, rather than just making up the shortfall, they had sent us full bunches of the three varieties.  In fact, each bunch was 80 to 100 sets.  Wow!  That is some great customer service.  Of course, we didn't want to waste any of those little guys, so we changed our planting scheme a bit and found some space for the extras.  The plants are thriving, as you can see below, and will probably make some very nice bulbs when the days lengthen.  I hope our farmer's market customers are in the mood for onions later this spring.

By the way, I was just poking around the onion photo gallery on Dixondale's website and found out they grow a variety named Red Zeppelin!  I can see the sign in our market booth now: "Red Zeppelin onions from Rain Song Farm" (I might be able to work in some pun on Robert Plant if I try hard enough).  Sadly for me, Red Zeppelin is a long day variety and would never form a bulb here.  I could always grow it as a scallion, though.  Hmm, I may be placing another order...

Acres of Alliums

Okay, it isn't really acres.  In fact, our total growing area is probably less than a quarter-acre.  But I couldn't resist a bit of alliteration.  "Many square feet of onions" didn't grab me as a good post title.  Anyway, we have planted a lot of onion family (aka Allium) plants this season.  At least, it seems like a lot to me.  Many more than last year.

First it was 200 cloves of garlic back in October.  Nine different varieties.  We ordered two sampler packs from Bob Anderson, self-proclaimed Garlicmeister, of Gourmet Garlic Gardens in Bangs, Texas.  A box arrived full of little brown paper bags holding garlic heads (bulbs) of various varieties.  I sure wish I had taken a photo.

We split the heads up into individual cloves and planted the largest ones according to Bob's detailed instructions.  After a week or so, we started to see little greens shoots poking up through the mulch.  Now there is a little forest of garlic tops.  They are all varieties suited to our hot, humid, short-day climate; each one should form a nice head of garlic cloves.  We will harvest some green, before they fully mature, and leave the rest to mature in early summer.

Bob's website is fun, sprawling and colorful - check it out for interesting information about garlic cultivation, cooking, health benefits, medical uses, and history.  He ships garlic heads for eating, too; if you are a garlic fanatic, try ordering one of his samplers and taste some of his varieties for yourself.

Stay tuned for Episode 2: Scallions and Shallots and Onions, Oh My!

Ordering Seeds

The seed catalogs with their brightly-colored covers and beguiling contents began arriving in late November. The people who design the catalogs are very good at what they do - when I first open up a catalog, I am tempted to call the convenient 24-hour toll-free phone order number and say "I'll have one of each, please". The photos of the vegetables are enticing and the descriptions make you think each variety is either the best tasting, the earliest yielding, the most productive, or the easiest plant you will ever grow. How do we ever decide?

Well, we have one big constraint which helps us to narrow down the candidates and makes our variety selection easier: our climate. We have scorching hot summers with frequent droughts and nighttime temperatures in the mid-70's (some plants, notably tomatoes, will not set fruit if they don't get to cool off enough overnight). Plus some very robust insect populations due to the generally mild winters and early spring. Paradoxically, our summertime daylight hours are shorter than in areas further north, so that the plants don't get as much light energy with which to grow, produce, and stay ahead of the pests. So the number of suitable varieties is greatly reduced.

This month we made our selections and placed four seed orders, all within about a week. These orders, plus the seed leftover from last year, should get us through most of the year, though we will probably order a few more varieties for the fall growing season. We ordered from Johnny's, Tomato Growers, Territorial, and Baker Creek. All the orders have arrived; we now have a container full of seed packets in our refrigerator.

Take a look at these beautiful seed packets from Baker Creek:

Can't you just taste one of those Green Zebra tomatoes? I hope ours look like that.

Cold Snap

Lately the weather here has been unusually cold, as it has been in most of the U.S. The air temperature sunk below freezing on Thursday night and stayed there more than 24 hours. Saturday morning the temperature was 18 degrees! That doesn't sound like a big deal for most places, but it isn't common here in Decker Prairie, Texas - we really aren't that far from the coast.

Before the freeze, we harvested our lettuce, but left the rest of the cool-weather plants to fend for themselves. This includes the Brassicas (broccoli, kale, radishes, etc.), legumes, beets, chard, carrots and the Alliums (garlic, onions, shallots). So far, most appear to have survived, though they look a little wilted.

We won't know how the citrus trees fared for a little while. I don't think it killed them, but they may not produce anything this year. I'm glad this cold weather came when it did because we have been talking about buying a bunch of citrus trees and planting them in front of the main garden, near the street. They would be completely unprotected out there, unlike the ones we have now which are near the house and the shelter of some larger trees. I would love to have a variety of fruit grown right here in my own yard, but I don't relish the idea of trying to cover a bunch of 5-foot-tall trees every time we have a cold snap. So this was a good test!