Hey everyone! Shocking to see that my last post of 2019 was more than 6 months ago. I guess I have a good reason.
Before I get started on the 2020 garden, let's wrap up last year. My tomato plants did really well, but of course I ended up with some nasty blossom-end rot. My tomatoes did a really good job of setting fruit, but I was a little busy (see above), and they suffered seriously from neglect. The purple hull cowpeas did REALLY well. In addition to eating plenty of them fresh, I had enough to dry and put up 3 pints of beans. Those were a winner and will definitely be back. My squash and zucchini did well until the powdery mildew set in. Once that took over, it was all she wrote. Cucumbers produced pretty well. I don't personally like them, but Mrs. Nonna does. If I change anything going forward, I might (gasp) grow fewer roma tomatoes.
The other big thing that happened to wrap up 2019 was the official ceremony welcoming my intern class as official master gardeners. I got a badge and a certificate and a license plate! I can't say enough about the Williamson County Master Gardener program -- how much I've learned and how I've gained new ways to contribute to my community. We had our first meeting of 2020 last week, and we received a lot of insight from the City of Franklin about how they manage stormwater and how we can help. Stewardship is an important part of the master gardener model, and this lesson certainly fit into it.
As I was wrapping my my 40 hours of volunteer hours for 2019, I ended up producing 4 videos. I'm excited to share these and to create more showing how the WCMGA benefits the community. Here's the first -- a wrap-up slideshow of 2019 activities.
So, let's talk about 2020. The weather has been wild so far. LOTS of rain and basically every day so far in January has been above average temp. Some days have even been mid-60s up to 70 degrees. It's been so warm that early daffodils are already blooming and the forsythia on the roof at Carrabba's is too!
All that stuff around the sign... That's blooming yellow now.
The rainfall has been really unkind to my camellia bushes. The ones that I've had for a while dropped all their blooms and look pretty sickly. I purchased a couple more late last year that I still need to plant, and when I do, I might transplant the other 3.
Calabrese Green Sprouting Broccoli. Picture from RareSeeds.com. I get all of my seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. You should too!
So what's growing in the garden? I started some broccoli and some lettuce today. I eat a TON of broccoli (just ask my coworkers), and as you'd guess, homegrown is a lot tastier than store bought. I also seeded some lettuce. I'm going to use a technique I've heard where you stagger different seedings so that the plants mature at different times.
Little Gem Lettuce. Picture from RareSeeds.com
So that's it for now! Hopefully now that my tiny humans are a little more mature, I'll be able to tend to the garden a little better and post to the blog a little more frequently.
Before I get started on the 2020 garden, let's wrap up last year. My tomato plants did really well, but of course I ended up with some nasty blossom-end rot. My tomatoes did a really good job of setting fruit, but I was a little busy (see above), and they suffered seriously from neglect. The purple hull cowpeas did REALLY well. In addition to eating plenty of them fresh, I had enough to dry and put up 3 pints of beans. Those were a winner and will definitely be back. My squash and zucchini did well until the powdery mildew set in. Once that took over, it was all she wrote. Cucumbers produced pretty well. I don't personally like them, but Mrs. Nonna does. If I change anything going forward, I might (gasp) grow fewer roma tomatoes.
The other big thing that happened to wrap up 2019 was the official ceremony welcoming my intern class as official master gardeners. I got a badge and a certificate and a license plate! I can't say enough about the Williamson County Master Gardener program -- how much I've learned and how I've gained new ways to contribute to my community. We had our first meeting of 2020 last week, and we received a lot of insight from the City of Franklin about how they manage stormwater and how we can help. Stewardship is an important part of the master gardener model, and this lesson certainly fit into it.
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