Hands in the Dirt

Fall came out of nowhere and now seems to be here to stay, with lots of rain and cooler days. Get outside during one of the breaks in the rain to cut down, rake up and generally dispose of anything that is past its prime, including tomatoes, squash plants and bolting greens. Now is the…

I’m not ready for summer to end, but the garden has already begun the season change. Many plants can benefit from a pruning now. Tomatoes and squash plants may continue to flower long after the deadline for fruit to ripen before frost.  Pruning the growing tip can cue the plant to spend energy ripening existing…

The orange light from wildfire smoke in the atmosphere seems like it is becoming the new normal, but the garden is still producing. This week I harvested zucchini, chard and tomatoes, in addition to giant bouquets of herbs and flowers. The garden is abuzz with friendly pollinators. To keep the garden producing, make sure to…

How did your garden fare through the heat wave? The Ballinger Organic Garden (BOG) did pretty well, with only the tips of some rhubarb leaves a bit crispy and a bit of leaf curl on some plants.  The high water table at Ballinger Park may have helped keep everything hydrated. Many folks weren’t so lucky…

In a rare turn, June actually feels like summer this week. Most garden veggies can be planted now without extra protection. Basil, cucumbers, and both summer and winter squash can all still be direct sown early in the month, and can even outpace seeds sown last month that may have stalled in cooler weather. With…

  We’re in for a rollercoaster of May weather this week, with rain, heat and maybe even lightning! I plan to nip outside between storms to tend my young plants. Mother’s Day is the “all clear” to plant most things in our area. The 50°F low mark is the signal to transplant tomatoes and direct…

It truly feels like spring outside. My forsythia is blooming (time to prune the roses!), and so are most of the cherries and plums. My apologies to those with allergies, but I love it! Does anyone else feel like they’re growing a production farm of shotweed? I pull and pull, but it just keeps popping…

March and the sun are here!  Not much gets a gardener’s blood pumping like the first days with 50-degree highs! What should you do this first week of March? Weed. What should you do next week? Weed. And the next and the next?  WEED! Get those pesky plants out now before they have the chance…

Most of the gardeners I know are getting antsy to start their 2021 garden. If you haven’t yet, it’s time to finalize your planting plan so you can purchase seeds and mark your calendar with start dates. It’d be terrible to get so excited about tomatoes that you forget to start your onions! If you…

This month is looking awfully wet. The water level in Lake Ballinger is very high and walking through the park is often like walking on a sponge. Is your lawn the same way? Avoid walking on it too much, as the compaction can harm the soil structure. January is a great time to take care…

For most gardeners, December will be spent looking at seed and tool catalogs and dreaming about spring. Given the recent increase in interest in gardening due to the pandemic and potential seed shortages as the gardening industry adjusts to the demand, it could be a good idea to get seed orders in as early as…

Not much new to be done in the garden this month.  Clean up and prep for winter is still the name of the game. The only annuals to plant in the ground are for harvest next year, including greens, peas, garlic, and flowers.  Planting now can get you a few weeks jump start on spring….

After the mad dash this week to soak up those last few rays of sun and 70-degree days, soon the garden will transition to mostly clean up. A few annuals can still be planted in the vegetable garden — mostly seeds for overwintering crops like garlic, onions, and peas, that you won’t be able to…

The rain on Monday and the cooler nights are starting to make it feel like fall. Have you noticed signs that your plants feel it, too? Luckily our gardening days are not yet numbered since we are projected to get back into the 80s this week, which should help ripen the rest of those green…

It feels like summer just started, but the days are starting to get shorter and the plants will soon be showing signs of the coming of fall. Hopefully you are reaping what you sowed back in spring and your garden is producing like crazy. To keep it going for a bit longer, make sure to…

Ah, July. Time for summer to officially begin — but not until after the holiday, of course! July is a bit of a limbo month for a lot of gardeners. The heat is building; heat lovers are growing like crazy, spring planted greens may be bolting and going to seed, and while the last of…

Welcome to June, even though it kind of still feels like May with the rain and cool nights we’ve been having. Nighttime temperatures are still hovering around the 50-degree mark, which means depending on your garden microclimate, tender plants like tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant can still benefit from a little extra protection like a cloche…

Can you believe it’s May? If you weren’t busy in the garden yet, you’re about to be! Nighttime temperatures are still hopping around in the mid-40s, so hold off on transplanting your heat-loving plants like tomatoes and peppers in the ground until our lows are consistently over 50°F.  It may feel good to set out…

While the world is in a very interesting place, at least gardening has not been canceled. We can trust that if we plant seeds in soil, and provide water and sunlight, the seed will sprout. Bring on April! If you are new to gardening and looking for plants or seeds, you still have many local…

Crocuses are blooming, daffodils are budding and threatening to burst, and the ornamental cherries and plums are starting to wreak havoc on folks with allergies. March must be here! Plants are starting to break their dormancy and set buds, and I’ve seen new growth on both the blueberries and raspberries. Now is a good time…

Anxious to get outside? You probably can this month. Our soil is often still too cold and waterlogged to do much in the ground, so pay attention to what is going on in your planting beds. A digital kitchen thermometer can be a great way to check your particular ecosystem, just don’t forget to bring…

MLTnews welcomes this new monthly column from Robyn Rice of the Ballinger Organic Garden. From the outside, January looks like a sleepy time for gardeners. The weather is abysmal, the soil is cold and wet, and not much is actively growing. But on the inside, January is busy busy busy! There are seed catalogs to…