This seasonal class offers many tips and techniques to insure successful spring and summer vegetable production specifically for our Houston climate. Timing is everything! You don’t want to miss this important class! For those who need to look back at the information presented, the instructors have offered the presentation material here. The March 4th class […]
Archive | Gardening
Tomatoes! How To Be Successful
When and where to buy plants When to purchase plants – mid-February if weather is mild When to plant. When nighttime temperatures are expected to be above 45-55 degrees. March 1 is a good date to plan for. Where to buy plants – Buchanan’s, Another Place in Time, Southwest Fertilizer, Wabash. Varieties (cherries vs large) […]
Saving Garden Vegetables From a Hard Freeze
The experience of Don Finley at the Westbury Community Garden Don Finley has a 25’ x 4.5’ garden bed with a border of 8” square concrete blocks. Prior to the late December 2022 freeze, he mulched around each vegetable with a thick layer of pine needles. He then covered the bed with sheets and sealed […]
Freeze Protection For Citrus Trees
The experience at Westbury Community Garden and at Ray Sher and Gary Edmondson’s yard. Our method for protecting the citrus trees in the February 2021 freeze had minimal success. That year we piled leaves against the citrus tree trunks surrounding a 5-gallon bucket of water and wrapped the whole thing with a blanket. Most trees […]
Recovering From The Freeze
It is possible to recover many vegetables after this freeze. Do not be too hasty in pulling out plants because they do not look healthy. Begin by removing the completely dead portion of a plant, especially those that look mushy. Do not pull out the roots! Sometimes parts of the plant in the soil can […]
Fall Seeds Are Here!
The fall seed packs are ready to go! They are $18 per pack for WCG gardeners, $20 for non-WCG gardeners (friends, neighbors, whoever). There are 30 varieties of seeds in each pack, and there are 60 complete packs. There are limited quantities of two specialty items available for purchase separately: kohlrabi for $1.50/pkt and golden beets […]
Workday in the North 40 Orchard 2/26/22
The Teach For America Volunteer Group joined our WCG members in preparing the orchard beds for planting replacement fruit trees at the March, 2022, workday. The remaining roots of the frozen trees from 2/15/2021 Winter Storm Uri were removed, weeds were removed, most of the bed’s diameters were extended, a grass barrier was installed and […]
Ditch the Bug Zappers, Try This Instead
We gardeners are all plagued to a varying extent by blood sucking, disease-spreading, itchy Mosquitoes in the Houston area. Currently they’re not especially annoying at WCG until dusk. But this will likely change with heavy rains & absent lovely summer breezes. I’ve read that rubbing native American Beautyberry leaves on your skin is a natural […]
Weeds Be-gone
Weeding is not hard. It is easy and is an integral and necessary part of gardening. Make them your friends – they type of friends you want to never see again. How to Keep the Weeds Away 1. For the areas where Astroturf is not used and the areas where Astroturf will be removed, a […]
Transition from the Spring to the Summer Garden
Garden beds need to be mulched with leaves, alfalfa hay or pine needles by mid-March, or as quickly after that to keep weeds down and more importantly to retain moisture in the soil after watering. In early June, there are usually a few fall/winter crops that are hanging on for dear life, fighting disease […]