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Food from a garden is one of life’s best experiences. You get to play in dirt, sweat with a purpose, and the payoff is just plain rewarding: nutritious, delicious foods for you and your family. Not only is food-gardening fun, but it teaches us patience, trust, and connects us to where life begins – in the soil. So let’s get started!

1. Keep it Simple

Not too big, not too much. Gardening is fun and laborious. Your first few gardens should be manageable enough for you to have fun and success with.

2. Choose Your Food

We have two great seasons for growing food. Spring (Feb. 1st – June 1st) and Fall/Winter (Sept. 15th – Jan 31st). Each offers their own bounty. Mother Nature plays a vital part in this – check out “Gill’s Spring Vegetable Planting Dates For Nueces County” to help you decide what to grow and when to plant.

3. Pick Your Spot

All food gardens need: Adequate sun, nearby water source, good soil, and proper drainage. Whether you are planting in the ground, raised beds, or in containers, 4 to 6 hours of mid-day sun is generally enough for popular edibles like tomatoes, peppers, squash, beans, and most herbs.

Above: Last year, Debbie shared a weekly log of her fall/winter veggie garden – check it out!

Planting in: The Ground

Most vegetable plants will enjoy a good 12 inches of rich soft loam to grow in. You can make your own by adding Nature’s Blend or Cotton Burr Compost, to your existing soil. Follow this with Dried Molasses to attract good soil microbes.

Here’s my recipe for ground planting:

Clean/clear area of all weeds and grass
Moisten soil a couple of days before breaking ground-good for your back!
Break soil with a dirt fork if it’s hard packed. Then till the soil.
Add compost, till some more
Add molasses and Medina Growin Green Organic Fertilizer. Chicken feed it across the bed.
Hand rake into soil, water and rest the soil, at least a few days

The end result should be good rich soil, slightly mounded and ready for planting.

Above: A raised bed we installed for one of our landscape customers – all ready to plant!

Planting in: Raised Beds

Raising the bed has some great benefits including reducing weeds, helps with soil compaction, concentrates your energy in smaller spaces, easier to maintain, and it’s easier on your back…for those of us who need all the help we can get!

Here’s my recipe for planting in raised beds:

Build your gardens up as little as 4 inches, as much as 24 inches, more is better, with cinder blocks, rocks, or treated lumber.
Add sandy loam, purchased in bulk, and Nature’s Bend Compost. Mix it up.
Add Medina Growin Green and dry molasses.
Mix in, water, and rest; a few days for the soil & as needed for you.

Planting in: Containers

Using containers for growing food is perfect for small spaces or those who just want a little something to grow…a tomato, a pepper, a few herbs. You can add a trellis for beans and a few herbs or edible flowers for a pop of color.

HERE’S MY RECIPE FOR PLANTING IN CONTAINERS:

Choose some large pots, at least 5 gallon size, 10 gallon is better. Something pretty or old used nursery pots are fine.
Fill with good potting soil. Potting Soil by Landscaper’s Pride and Premium Potting Soil by Back to Nature are quality mixes for containers.
No need for anything to rest, the soil’s already blended and the work is easy!

Look ahead for the next part of this series. We’ll talk about what to plant this spring, seeds and transplants, growing vertical, fertilizing, and watering.

-Debbie

Growing Fresh Food Part I, Part II

Photos from Debbie’s Last Fall Veggie Garden

We talked about watering and fertilizing last week. Now the fun stuff – watching your garden grow! Each day as you walk the garden, keep an eye out for seedlings emerging and harmful insects and disease, especially as your veggies grow.

Now I must tell you that there will be lots of insects in your garden, most of which are not harmful and many beneficial. Spiders, bees, ladybugs, lacewings, are your garden helpers eating many of the harmful insects. Toads, lizards, and even wasps will prey upon the nuisance critters. So be careful and use caution when using insecticides or fungicides.

In the multitude of choices, I always recommend an organic or non-chemical approach to start. Most common issues are caterpillars, aphids, spider mites, & stink bugs. These are easily controlled with organic products like Thuricide for caterpillars, Neem Oil for aphids, and Spinosad for stink bugs. Serenade is a natural fungicide that controls things like powdery mildew on squash, blights on tomatoes, and black spot on berry plants. A light application of Nature’s Blend around your plants will suppress fungus spores that can splash onto the leaves. Snails and pill bugs (rollie pollies) can be controlled with Snail & Slug Bait or a pan of beer. Of course, You can always be the control….squish!

Nature happens in your garden; lots of good and some not so good but don’t angst too much. It’s ok to have a few bad bugs and few marred leaves. Pick them off, throw them out and treat if necessary. When in doubt, bring us a sample of what’s happening and we’ll help you with the best solution for your situation!

Happy Growing!

-Debbie

There are a wide variety of pollutants released in your home by furniture, paint, carpet, household cleansers, even gas cooktops and hot water in the shower, that can trigger illnesses, asthmatic attacks, and allergic reactions.

Plants have been found to be very effective in purifying the air in a safe, clean way. The NASA Clean Air Study conducted by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in 1989, seeking ways to clean the air in space stations, and several subsequent studies by others, found that all plants, besides removing carbon dioxide and producing oxygen, can also eliminate varying but significant amounts of benzene, formaldehyde, trichloroethylene, toluene, and ammonia. More recent research has shown that in addition to the plants, micro-organisms in potting soil also eliminate pollutants and improve air quality.

Since most of the best air purifying plants originate in tropical and subtropical climates, they do well in our local climate and can flourish in household light. Palms, ferns, even blooming plants, and especially ivies are all helpful, but the three top air purifiers are Peace Lily (Spathyphyllum), Sansevieria (Mother-in-Laws Tongue), and Dragon Tree (Dracena marginata). You can find all three of these and many other excellent air purifiers at Gill’s.

[x_block_grid type=”three-up”][x_block_grid_item]
Peace Lily (Spathyphyllum)[/x_block_grid_item][x_block_grid_item]Sansevieria (Mother-in-Laws Tongue)[/x_block_grid_item][x_block_grid_item]Dragon Tree (Dracena marginata)[/x_block_grid_item][/x_block_grid]

So do yourself and your home a big favor, purify the air and bring beauty indoors with houseplants. Come to Gill’s and we will be happy to help you find the perfect plants for your home and that breath of fresh air!

–Mary Kidwell & James Gill

weed-b-gon — **Weed B Gon** kills many different types of broadleaf weeds without harming your grass.

Days are staying warm and our lawns are growing. Now’s the time, sometime in the next few weeks, to get your lawn, trees and shrubs fertilized. Great for the spring application is our Gill 13-1-3 Lawn & Garden Fertilizer for all your trees, shrubs, vines and groundcovers. Also feeds the vegetable garden. One bag covers 6,000 square feet.

Winter weeds many times will just go away once your lawn starts growing. Some lawns, though just have too many weeds and need some pro-active weed killing. Ortho Weed B Gon For St. Augustine is safe to use on Floratam St. Augustine and comes in an easy to spray hose-end bottle and kills many, many different types of broadleaf weeds without harming your grass.

Image is great for grassy weeds like grassburs and also works on nutsedge and some broadleaf weeds without hurting your St. Augustine, also available in a easy to use hose end sprayer.

Post emergent weed killers are best used when it will be warm & sunny for a few days.

turf — Kill weeds before they sprout with **Hi-Yield** pre-emergent.

Another great weed management product is pre-emergent Hi Yield Grass Stopper With Dimension. It can be used any time of year to keep weed seeds from sprouting – in the first place!!

We know it’s a lot to learn. Please know we’re happy to help you make the best product choice for your landscape. And remember, it’s always important to read the label before using any lawn product. Come see us!

– DeAnna

Hopefully we have seen our last big cold snap of the season, so it’s time to get tomatoes in the ground.

rocket fuel — *Rocket Fuel will help your plants get off to a great start.*

espoma plant tone — *Feed with Plant-tone once a month throughout the growing season.*

Tomatoes need full sun for their entire growing season. Once frost is done, put them in a bed enriched with compost. A couple tablespoons of Rocket Fuel under the roots will help your plants get off to a rapid start. Feed them with Espoma Plant Tone monthly through the growing season.

I like to put my tomatoes in a cage as soon as they are in the ground and wrap that cage with row cover fabric, top to bottom. Ours is called Grow Web (12ft x 16ft). Cut the fabric to size and cloths pin the sides together. The fabric will protect the plants from cold nights and, more importantly, harsh spring winds that can dry them out in no time. Don’t worry – it doesn’t block water or sunshine.

Remove the cloth when the plant reaches the top of the cage. If it starts blooming before then, remove the cover from the top of the cage and shake the cage gently whenever you walk by. That will encourage pollination from the top of the plant down to the bottom. Row cover can also be used to protect Peppers, Squash, Beans and all the tender spring vegetables in the garden.

–DeAnna

Sally and I, as members of the South Texas Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas, spent a very pleasant day touring Rancho Lomitas Native Plant Nursery and RV Park in far South Texas, near Rio Grande City. Our hosts were Benito and Toni Trevino, he is an ethnobotanist (knows plants and how people have utilized them as food, medicine, tools, and such) and Toni is his longtime sidekick/boss.

Our tour started with Toni roasting mature ebony beans to brew up some South Texas coffee substitute, popular with early settlers and vaqueros, as coffee was hard to come by on the frontier. Benito took over with stories of how, as one of 14 siblings (and another 12 cousins) they would gather younger ebony seeds and eat them fresh as a snack, or roast them over mesquite coals for even better flavor, and techniques for gathering and preparing yucca blooms for cooking or pickling and canning. Meanwhile, Toni was roasting up a dish full of nopalitos (young prickly pear cactus pads) and she soon called us for fresh, hot tacos de nopales. As we munched, Benito explained how regular consumption of nopales has shown great benefit for controlling blood sugar levels in diabetics.

We were then loaded into the cattle trailer (the people got to ride that day, while the longhorns walked) and toured their property with Benito giving a running lecture about the native plants and terrain. He pointed out the amargoso with pretty purple blooms, which he and all other family members would use as an anti-dysentery decoction, very necessary as they were often required to drink whatever water was available, whether from the Rio Grande, or even stagnant pools. Benito said the large majority of South Texas folk medicines have not been verified scientifically, but the amargoso is an exception, having been shown to kill amoebas in laboratory conditions.

He showed us how to break off the sharp tip of an Agave lechuguilla and strip out the very strong fiber to use as a needle and thread, for sewing clothes or a shelter or bag, or even an open wound of people or livestock. The lechuguilla is much preferred, as most other Agave species have an extremely caustic sap, causing blistering. As the dust blew up behind the cattle trailer, he told how wild longhorns were driven north to market after the Civil War, and the cowboys in the rear of the herd were riding in almost constant dust. They would relieve the irritation in their eyes with eyewash made of young mesquite leaves crushed in water.

All in all it was a fascinating day in great company. Thanks Benito and Toni, and NPSOT South Texas Chapter.

– James

I have had several customers bring me Tussock Moth Caterpillars they found munching on their oak tree leaves.

The creamy white hairs on the caterpillar are long and bristle-like and spread out in tufts down the sides. Two long, sharp black pencil like hairs protrude near the front and rear and these hairs are connected to poison glands, which excrete venom on contact. Contact with the venom may result in itchy irritation.

You can spray your tree with Hi Yield Thuricide Concentrate or Natural Guard Spinosad Hose-end. Both of these products are organic and safe to use on all plants. Thuricide reacts with the cells of the stomach lining of the target pest causing them to not be able to feed within hours of ingesting. Spinosad is a contact kill, but still safe and organic for all plants.

(photo via ocala.com)

-DeAnna

Now that the weather is getting warmer, it is finally periwinkle time. Periwinkles are a great annual that thrive in our hot summers and keep going into the fall. My mother has a periwinkle hanging basket my sister gave her last summer that stills looks great!!

An irritating issue with periwinkles is they can get stem rot, a bad disease problem for periwinkles. The variety we sell, Cora, is less susceptible to stem rot than the older varieties, but can still get it. This disease is caused by a soil-borne, fungal-like microorganism, phytophthora, that can persist in the soil for years. Under conditions of overhead watering or heavy rainfall, this disease can spread rapidly throughout your periwinkle planting beds.

To minimize the possibility of this disease there are a few steps you can take to help prevent it from occurring. Be sure to work compost into the soil to help loosen the ground for better drainage. Space the plants 8-10 inches apart. Mulch heavily with hardwood mulch.

Slow easy watering with a soaker hose or drip irrigation at the base of the plants is best instead of overhead irrigating. Hand watering carefully to saturate the soil around the plants without watering directly over the top is also advisable. If you have had stem rot or want to insure success, water your plantings in with Actinovate Fungicide. All these tips will help you be successful with periwinkles!

-DeAnna