thawed and slightly flawed

I'd sort of hoped the freezing weather would kill this agave, which is just too big now.  

Austin had several windy days in a row last week in which the daytime highs barely hit 31 and nighttime lows were in the teens/low 20s. The week before that we had more freezing temperatures and measurable snow, which is extremely unusual for Austin.

Our 1941 house has its original wood frame windows, which we normally love, but I definitely did not love their draftiness in that cold weather and am happy to be wearing only one layer of clothing and no knit cap inside the house this weekend.

Outside the house today, I finally checked out the state of the garden. Our xeric lawnless front and side yards came through fine. The only things out there I covered were two potted succulents and my potted Blackfoot Daisies.

Santolina and rosemary fare well, whether it's 30 or 103.

Paperwhites' blooms crashed and burned, but their stalks and leaves are still perky.

Even in a pot, the Mexican Feathergrass is another xeric plant that can handle cold or heat.

I experimented a bit with the backyard vegetable garden, only bothering to cover a few of the tenderest plants. I'm pleasantly surprised by the results: lots of plants are damaged but not dead, and most of the damaged vegetable leaves aren't pretty but are still edible and will be fine tossed into a soup.

Covering these leaf lettuces paid off.

I covered this second round of beet seedlings, and although they're small, they look healthy.

I covered my potted aloes, but it wasn't enough--should have brought them inside. I think this one will bounce back, though.

Violas fared well covered and did double duty as an anchor for the row cover  protecting the garlic.

Gardening on trial: genetically modified alfalfa deregulated

Finally, my gardening and trial-watching overlap. Thursday 27-January-2011, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack (D-IA) decided the U.S. Dep’t of Agriculture (USDA) will fully deregulate genetically engineered (GE) Roundup Ready® (RR) Alfalfa. While I am upset and depressed about this move, I’m more grateful than ever to have an organic vegetable garden and more determined than ever to be a better gardener.

This story on RR Alfalfa started with a lawsuit in 2006 (details here), brought by organic farmers against Monsanto and a subsequent ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court on 21-June-2010. That was the first Supreme Court ruling on a genetically modified (GM) crop and was a decision that basically put the power in the hands of the USDA on these issues. Seems like lately, USDA decisions have aligned with the desires of biotech, big agribusiness, and herbicide industries.

Why am I so depressed about this move?

1) Alfalfa is used as a forage crop to feed livestock; it affects meat and dairy products...and more.
If cows are fed GE crops, those cows' milk cannot be (labeled as) organic. The global effects from widespread use of GM crops including RR Alfalfa is largely unknown. I don't even know if my little urban vegetable garden could be safe from RR Alfalfa.

Furthermore, the ramifications and global effects from widespread use of Roundup (glyphosate) are unknown at this time (re EPA).

We already know it has detrimental effects on field workers and will tend to accelerate the evolution of "superweeds."

It seems like one would have to be apathetic, extremely optimistic, or just well-paid to believe Roundup and RR crops are a good thing in the long run (see this "Understanding RR Alfalfa" report).

I believe this carte-blanche approval and widespread acceptance and use of Roundup and resulting monoculture will prove to have horrible effects on biodiversity and people's quality of food and quality of life. Beyond that, it sets a precedent for a continuing dominance of GMO over organic.

2) We have lost a big battle, maybe the last big battle for organic food.
We are seeing fewer and fewer barriers for biotech and herbicide industries to move forward with their plans to implement their experimental techniques on a grand, grand scale. Now the onus is really on us, the organic consumers, to demand transparency in labeling and truth in testing of the foods we buy at markets, grocery stores, and restaurants. 

The onus is also on us, the organic growers, to avoid becoming victims of cross-pollination and contamination from GE seeds and plants grown in fields near ours.

I doubt it’s possible to avoid contamination; there are various ways GM crops can contaminate organic crops (bees travel up to five miles, wind, birds, truck spillage.) The big biotech and herbicide companies even have various ways of spinning the results of contamination to their advantage, hurting the smaller and organic growers. As a result of this USDA move, it will simply be harder and harder to find organic foods we can really trust.

3) Some of our biggest allies capitulated.
Big players that most of us thought were on our side in this battle, particularly Whole Foods Market, finally showed a shift in their approach. Where they once fought hard against the biotech industry, they ultimately looked to compromise, settling for "a seat at the table" and a wimpy attempt to "attach strings" to the governing policies in agriculture as a last resort. (Read more on this at La Vida Locavore.)

It's all looking to me like hypocrisy and lies in a popularity contest: Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” program, aimed at battling obesity and bad eating habits among children; President Obama, USDA, FDA, and Vilsack all seem to favor Monsanto. In September 2001, Vilsack (D-IA) was named Governor of the Year by the world’s largest biotech organization, BIO, an organization with whom Monsanto worked to extend its RR Soybean patent.

All of this makes me even more determined to support my local organic farmers—we are fortunate to have so many here.

Beyond buying from local, known sources, what are my other trustworthy sources and to whom do I write? Organic Consumers Association (OCA). Center for Food Safety (CFS).

More suggestions welcome, but don't tell me to write to Obama.

Big thanks to Edible Aria for this link to non-GMO seeds.

Also big thanks to husband Kurt in helping me research and compose this post.

2011 gardening: more tough love

Saturday night, we finally got enough rain to break in my new rain gauges, a little more than half an inch. It arrived just in time to offer some protection against the past two nights' hard freezes. Something about these two weather events solidified my resolve to practice more tough love, especially in our lawnless front yard, which is filled with established drought-tolerant plants. If the indigo spires are droopy and thirsty, so be it. They'll bounce back if/when it rains.

However, I've had a more difficult time being tough with my vegetable garden, but now I can see that the vegetables will probably be fine with a little less water and a little less complete coverage in freezes. Not sure if this is apathy or wisdom, but I just don't care much if I lose some plants because of some neglect on my part.

I Harvested tiny broccoli crowns, cauliflower, parsely, cilantro, and two types of kale before the freeze.

I covered most of the potted plants, the beet seedlings, garlic, and lettuces but left the broccoli, cauliflower, kale, and carrots uncovered.

New ponytail palm! I bought two new peace lilies and a "Fabian" aralia, too.

I've become a little obsessed lately experimenting with incorporating my homegrown greens and herbs into soups. Yesterday I made up a cauliflower sweet potato soup with lots of cilantro. It was hearty and tangy, a success. It's still very cold today to this cold-wimp Texan, so I'm headed to the kitchen now to make free-range bison chili from Thunder Heart Bison .

despite drought and pests, decent December vegetable harvest

Second (small) beet harvest

Caterpillars weren't satisfied eating the beet greens and moved on to the beets themselves.

Austin's officially in the severe drought stage again. I don't think it's rained since September. The fat, woolly, black and orange Giant Leopard Moth caterpillars have been eating everything in sight. And yet, I've managed to grow some cool-weather vegetables, and I'm extremely grateful.

first time I've tried growing Fall potatoes

I planted them a little bit late (early October, I think) but the Fall potato experiment worked! We made and ate buttery mashed potatoes within a few hours of digging them. Heavenly.

first time garlic: foreground bigger ones I planted in September; small ones were a November experiment

I planted my first-ever garlic in September, and they seem to be doing fine. After pulling out the spent green bean plants, I decided to try more garlic in their place, even though November is apparently a little late to plant garlic. I faithfully watered the new guys but wasn't expecting much. But Saturday, voila: the little garlic seedlings appeared. All 15 of them!

sauteeing chard, broccoli greens, and kale with onions, shallots, roasted carrots and sweet potatoes

My broccoli plants are producing large leaves but are just now showing tiny crowns, so I snipped bunches of those leaves, plus dinosaur and Russian kale, and some chard to make a big pot of green soup this weekend. I added roasted onions, carrots, and sweet potatoes; plus minced ginger/garlic/jalapeno, cumin, cinnamon, fresh cilantro, and salt. It tastes great but isn't pretty because I used the immersion blender. I love my immersion blender.

ugly but healthy, tasty ginger sweet potato-greens soup

Did I mention how much I love my immersion blender? Oh yes, back to vegetables. After harvesting the remaining beets, a third of which were destroyed by those dang black woollies, I weeded and composted that bed and planted even more beet seeds.

I asked Larry, farmer/co-owner of  Boggy Creek Farm , if it was crazy late to sow beet seeds. He said I had a decent chance as long as I cover the little seedlings (assuming they emerge) when it's cold. Carol Ann, farmer/co-owner of Boggy Creek Farm and married to Larry, told me that the evil black woolly caterpillars and their gray and beige cousins are a relatively new (past 2-3 years) scourge to this area and that birds won't eat them and BT won't kill them. Wasps are their only obvious predator. Hmm...may revise my previous pacifist approach.

just in time for Thanksgiving: early carrots and late beans

I didn't thin all the carrot seedlings as thoroughly as I should have, as you can see from this curly duo.

But overall, I'm thrilled with this season's early group of little "Carnival Blend" (from Botanical Interests) carrots. I, like many other Austin gardeners, doubted that those seeds I planted the first week of August when the weather was consistently in the upper 90s and dry would actually make it. I had to hand water them three times a day every day for at least a month. I'll plant more seeds in the new bare spots tomorrow and hope for the best.

The "Contender" and "Royal Burgundy" green beans have been consistently producing for awhile but are winding down now. I'll definitely try them again in the spring! I plan to pull out the bean plants this weekend and, although it may be a little late, plant more garlic and shallots in the bean beds.

All my lettuces (leaf, Lolla Rossa, Little Gem, and  romaine) are looking good except for some damage from Leopard Moth black woolly caterpillars. The caterpillars and some grasshoppers seem to have moved from my kale to the broccoli and cauliflower. I hope the cooler weather we're supposed to get this weekend slows them down.

My front yard isn't looking so great, but it primarily consists of established drought-tolerant plants, so it ought to bounce back next spring. I prefer to save water for the vegetable garden and practice a little tough love elsewhere.

garden bloggers' bloom day

 Cooler weather but precious little rain has led me to water my vegetable garden and a few potted plants but allow the rest of the yard to fend for itself. So I don't have a big bloom showing this month. You can find other garden bloggers' blooms at Carol's May Dreams Gardens blog. Also blooming are blue and white plumbago, lavender, trailing lantana, a few blackfoot daisies, and ruellia.

Alyssum

Pentas

Snapdragon with loropetalum

Marigolds with chard and shallots

This Torenia has been blooming since early April. It's my favorite summer annual.

"Diamond Frost" Euphorbia: curious to see if it's too tender to make it through a predicted mild winter.

Halloween weekend greens and grasshoppers

Husband Kurt and I finally put up a few Halloween decorations today and will celebrate our 11th anniversary tomorrow. Meanwhile, I've been harvesting (all from seed) several quarts of kale and chard, one big bowl of baby lettuces, a couple of handfuls of green beans ("Contender" and "Royal Burgundy"), the last few cherry tomatoes, and a few banana peppers. Tonight I'll make a big pot of curried sweet potato kale soup.

But I'm having a major battle with grasshoppers, who have decimated one of my cauliflower plants and chewed big holes in the kale. I'm also battling these fuzzy black caterpillars.

I don't know what they are, and I can't yet bring myself to kill them because, well, I just have trouble killing anything except mosquitoes and fleas. Must be the Quaker side of my ancestry. I have relocated a few of them, but that hasn't helped, and now they're all over the place. I've got some research to do!

tardy garden bloggers' bloom day

marigolds in the potato patch

Not much new to report this month except that the delicious cooler weather has helped lift my spirits, as well as those of several almost-dead plants. It's still dry, though, so my hoses and watering cans are getting quite a workout. You can see blooms from all over the place at Carol's May Dreams Gardens.

blackfoot daisies don't mind the lack of rain

resurrected diamond frost euphorbia

fall aster

Mexican bush sage

snapdragons and phlox

Also blooming: Turks Cap, blue plumbago, purple and white ruellia, rosemary, abelia, confetti lantana, indigo spires, white gaura, leadwort plumbago, and pavonia.

not another vegetable update

Gregg's Mistflower with Monarch butterfly

I actually have been doing some gardening that does not involve obsessing over vegetable seedlings. I potted some cool-weather annuals, transplanted some perennials, and sowed my first Larkspur, Sweet Pea, Bachelor Button, Viola, Nigella, Flax, and Scabiosa (ugly name, no wonder it's also called Pincushion Flower) seeds.

new Gregg's Mistflowers

As much as I love blue-purple flowers, I had somehow overlooked Gregg's Mistflower, a great butterfly magnet, until now.

Sweet Pea seedlings ("White Elegance" and "Singing the Blues")

I expect the Sweet Peas to eventually get fairly vine-like, so I planted them close to the fence to make it easier to rig something for them.

My first kalanchoe (in front pot) is a gift from MSS, who really likes that chair.

We transplanted some artemisia ("Silver King"?) to help camouflage the ugly Grande fiber optic utility box.

Did I mention that box is ugly? And that we don't even subscribe to Grande? And that it's crooked?

newly potted white snapdragons and phlox

Just a teensy vegetable update: look at these pretty baby Romaine lettuces.

baby Romaine lettuces, to be thinned next weekend

The end.

Fall Treats

red spider lilies--first time (in 21 years) appearance, I think

My first time growing beans, "Contender" variety

I'm so grateful for Austin's recent much cooler temperatures. Being able to sleep with the bedroom window slightly open and still needing a blanket is fabulous! But, still I must remind myself to water the oregano and plumbago we relocated last weekend because they're now in full sun. And I continue to give all my seeds and seedlings a decent spritz once or twice a day: so far it's paid off.

Yep, I've diligently watered these "Early Wonder" beet seedlings, but I really need to thin them now.

Seeded these carrots in August but had to water them 2-3 times a day for quite awhile. They look okay so far.

Have also been diligent about watering these leaf lettuce seedlings.

Cauliflower in front of "Royal Burgundy" green beans. 

Seeded this kale in August, and it's really grown fast! Need to eat some.