Because of the freeze we recently had here in deep south TX we lost a lot of the vegetables in our garden. We have found replacements and will be back on track in no time. I thought you guys might like to see some film of it. Here is a link.
http://www.valleycentral.com/news/video.aspx?id=399680
Here is a photo
Thanks for the link.....Sorry to hear you guys took such a bad hit. Wow!
Calalily - how sad to see all of the plants frozen like that! You really have your work cut out for you -- hang in there. I'm extra glad to have a lot of stuff from my garden canned and in the freezer this year, I can only imagine how this will affect the price of fresh produce everywhere.
Sandy
WOW that was something else.
Thats sad but you do have a beautiful place.
Lisa
So sorry to hear of your loss. What a beautiful garden!
I found replacement plants for some things. I have cleaned out about 2/3 of the frozen stuff and replanted about 1/4 of the garden so far.
At least I don't have to worry about running our of room!
Maybe you can do the crop rotation now.
Lisa
It's so sad I can barely stand to look at it. I can only imagine your grief. This rotten weather sure made us appreciate all the good years. I hope you get nothing but great weather to compensate.
So sorry that happened to you, expecially when you do this for living. The weather has been a mess lately. I pray for plentiful harvest for you and others who have had to suffer this cold spell.
Wow. So sorry about the loss. But thank you for your indomitable spirit in all this! Next time I lose a little plant, I'll have a much better perspective on that loss compared to yours, and I will be encouraged to press on!
Hugs!
And thank you for sharing all your knowledge with us here in the garden.
Linda
So sad! I know you fought hard to save your plants in this really freaky storm system. Glad you're able to find replacements for some plants that you lost and will persevere.
As of yesterday evening I've replanted almost half of the garden. It's sort of great to have the experience of the last few months to know what I shouldn't plant side by side because things get too big. I ripped out the brussels sprouts because they were taking up too much room and I don't really like them any way. Some of the tomatoes are still green on the lower two or three inches of the stem so I'm sparing those. A few things I thought were dead are coming back, a few things I thought were going to make it didn't.
There was a new market on the Island Sunday, must have been thousands of people (traffic was backed up for miles with people trying to get into the market). We sold out in 25 minutes. I keep telling the vegetables to grow babies grow!
I've been harvesting broccoli, the freeze didn't hurt the flavor. The cauliflower is making heads, nice big heads that should be ready this weekend. I still gave food to the homeless shelter!
Glad to hear you are up and running again! As we used to say back in the 70's....Keep on truckin', Calalily =~)!
That is wonderful Calalili, you are really an inspiration for us newbies, keep up the good work!
You, are truly an inspiration to all of us.
Sorry to hear about your loss! You have a great spirit - I know I'd be crying!!
The weather get us all at some time or other. It got down to 9F and I was worried it got to my freshly planted Blueberries. They took some damage but I think they will make it. Now I am worried that the Blueberries I planted are going to leaf out and get bit. One night this last week the low was in the mid 60s. Yesterday I wanted to sit with a cup of tea and watch my peafowl, the skitters ran me off. The fire ants are coming to the surface and I'm even seeing small grasshoppers. I don't want to see any more 9F but it's too early for Spring.
Kenboy the same thing happened to my newly planted blueberry plants, one of them lost all its leaves and I thought that for sure it was dead, when I went to take a closer look I saw that it had tiny new leaves comming out. The other blueberries just have all their leaves different fall colors, I would imagine this ones might loose their leaves as well.
What I do to controll fireants and let me tell you I get a lot of them expecially when the warm weather starts showing up is I sprinkle some grits and by 2 days or so they are gone.
Thet don't like grits either?
No what happens is they take it to their queen and also eat it themselves, this is pretty grosse but it works. The ants die from the inside out, because the grit when eaten mixes with the ant’s digestive juices and expands inside the ant’s stomach that eventually kills the ant. It takes usually a couple of days but I like it better than usin poison in my backyard, I have little kids and dogs so for me this works a lot better. Now I just read that if you have ducks to not use grits because they might die, using corn meal also works, but I like to use grits expecially if the ants are bigger.
Susie...So sorry for your loss///I'm glad you saved the Brocolli (sp)...I Love it!! Jo
I have been harvesting so much broccoli. We had it for dinner last night. The cauliflowers were huge and I have more almost ready.
Some of the frozen tomatoes have put up sprouts. It's been in the 80's this past week.
Calalily, what type of broccoli do you grow? I had to collect the main heads of mine a couple of days ago because they were starting to open up, unfortunately they were not too big at all maybe 3 inches, this is my first time growing broccoli so I am wondering if this is weather related or not.
Farmerdill said frost will make them bolt, but most of the varieties I'm growing have done well. Right now I have Green Goliath, Belstar and Pacman getting ready to harvest. I also have Green Magic, it's still small. Looks like one or two of those are going to bolt. Southern Comet does well for me also and will produce side shoots well into the heat of spring.
DiCicco was damaged by the frost, the centers of the heads turned a yellowish color.
Of the cauliflowers Cheddar and Cassius came thru the freeze and are heading up really well right now. Snow Crown is making weird heads and is taking forever.
Thank you Calalily I'll have to give those a try, the ones that I grew were called calabrese and all went to bolt, I still have small side shoots on them so I will let them form and see what happens. I am looking for a bigger head of broccoli that is for sure specialy with the limited space I have to grow.
I planted calabrese by accident once. I hated it. The plants were huge with teeny little "heads." I pulled the plants up. At least it was still cool enough for another crop to grow.
Well, that's encouraging! I have NEVER been able to grow a decent brocolli, but I'vr only ever tried calabrese, so maybe I'll give it another shot!
Calalily that's good to know, the side shoots are very small so I am even wondering whether it is going to even be worth it or not, thankfully I have a few seeds of pacman that I got on a trade so I will try this one for sure next time. Weather is going crazy here, we had some nice days and all of a sudden cold again, you never know what to expect.
Carmin, same here. We were in the upper 70's then bam, down to low 40's the last two nights. I have a market on the island today, right on the water. I know I'm going to freeze!
Cala, is your farm on Padre or across on the mainland? I have a friend from HS who owns a condo on Padre and would move there in a heartbeat if he wasn't still working! LOL He goes down every chance he gets, though.
Cala I ended up having to cover all my raise beds yesterday just in case, had some precious seedlings that I just transplanted and did not want the cold weather to kill them. Let us know how it went in the farmers market in the island.
I have not been impressed with Calabrese at all. Main head was small and not tight. Side shoots are ok but not great. Best overall for me are Early Dividend and Di Cicco. ED had good sized main heads, some 9", and many many good sized side shoots. Di Cicco had nice main head and not quite as prolific on the side shoots as ED.
Calalily - I'm glad you are able to salvage a good part of your season! The weather will always be a battle - so unpredictable...
Kelly I am happy to learn that I am not the only one with problems with the Calabrese, I don't think I'll try it again. I definetely will try some of the ones you mentioned Early dividenf sounds like a good one, with my limited space I need to grow something that produces better heads.
Wow! I've been away for a while - just recently subscribed again.
Calalily, tough break on the loss of all your veggies.
My garden is small so I could cover everything with heavy 12 ft wide row cloth. It all survived the 14º and several below 20º mornings we had. Course all my plants are mostly mild winter hardy no maters cukes & stuff like that. A couple pics I took yesterday and posted on another thread http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1072893/
The problem for me is it is so wet. The raised beds are OK, but the dirt rows are quite wet. I am not an advocate for rain cause I can always add water, but it impossible to take it away in terms of gardening.
Good luck on your Spring efforts.
Jerry! I've been wondering where you've been! Glad you're back on board!
stephanietx, I've been busy on another project. You can read about it here: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1073394/
Jerry, I was just thinking about you this morning and wondering where you were. Glad your back.
Cala-I'm trying Calabrese for 2 years now and I thought it was just me or this crazy Texas weather. This year wet and cold last year was really dry. Anyway, of the types you like which are O/P?
Thanks,
Lisa
Lisa - Di Cicco is an OP I like a lot. Nice sized main heads and prolific side shoots. Calabrese I have been very disappointed in 2 years running myself...
I like Di Cicco also. It has a good flavor.
The gardens and orchards are on the mainland. Space is too expensive on the Island plus the sand and salt are hard on the veggies.
The Island market was wild! It has turned out to be our biggest market for now. I don't know how it will do when the winter Texans leave. They have a face book page with photos, South Padre Island Farmer's Market. There are two pages, one doesn't have anything on it.
