Gardening Tips

At Green’s Produce and Plants we have a knowledgeable staff that can help you with your home gardening needs. Whether you want to do some simple landscaping or plan to grow your own fruits and vegetables for the dinner table, Green’s Produce and Plants is here to help. On this page we provide important tips and information regarding home gardening.

"What A Wonderful World"
Creating a garden/ play area for the kids.

Although the world is not so kind as when I was a child. When children climbed over fences and up trees, roamed vacant lots and fields and rode our bikes all over town, it's still a wonderful world.

Today we feel a need to keep our children close. What better place to let them go, than the safety of their own back yard. A sand pit, a tire swing and a ' bouncy ball' or an uber play area with towers, slides, climbing wall, trampoline, putting green, oh my, the list goes on and on. There are swings and bouncy seats for babies and playground equipment designed for special needs children. The design of a place to grow a child healthy in mind and body is limited only by a child’s imagination, your creativity and your credit line.

Location is the first consideration. Measure the ground space you've chosen. Then look up and make sure there is plenty of clearance from trees and power lines. Take photos of the area from different angles and in the morning and afternoon. Get a picture album at the dollar store. Fill it with your photos and include the wish list. This will enable you to give a clear picture to those at garden centers and play equipment sales people. Take your book everywhere. You never know when you'll see something you can't live without. Will it fit, will it get the right amount of sun ?

The following list should tweak your imagination and help you to create a place of wonder and discovery. A peaceful place of texture, color, motion and sound. A place to jump and shout, fall down and roll around swing to touch the sky or make a messy mud pie. A place to just sit and watch the butterflies or lay in the grass and watch the clouds change shapes. A place where “don;t spill that, don't touch that, don't be so loud” doesn't exist.

Getting started can be inexpensive and easily accomplished in a few hours.Build a small raised bed from stacking concrete blocks or add a few containers for veggies, herbs, and flowers. Pickup a few child size gardening tools (real) not plastic, a small watering can and a few packages of seeds. You can see a raised bed and get how to do it tips at Green's.

• Create a flower garden to attract creatures; butterflies, humming birds, toads and lizards.
• Clear a patch of dirt for mud pies and mountains.
• Dig a shallow pit , fill with sand for digging and road building.
• Add a tire swing or board and rope swing or a swing set.
• Build a tree house from scrap lumber or get PaPa to build one with a roof and windows.
• Make a private place with a pole teepee with morning glories or beans growing up each pole or pitch a pup tent for a place to read or take a nap.
• Add an old quilt or blanket for adding to the make believe arsenal.
• Add a bouncy ball, trucks and cars, digging tools, watering can, dolls than can be washed and dishes for tea a party.
• A backpack just for a backyard safari. Add a favorite book, a hat or cap, somethin' to drink, a piece of fruit and a few cookies.
• Dig a hole two feet across line it with stones and on a night when the moon is shining and the crickets are singing, build a small fire and roast marshmallows. It goes without saying - don't leave the kid alone with the fire.
• Add an outdoor storage bench for toys and before time to come in make sure they have picked up and put up.

Together projects: make and decorate a gourd bird house, put together a saucer and pot bird bath, make a toad house, cook up a butterfly buffet, bring the young'uns to Green's produce where they can pick out seeds, get a gardening handout designed for little ones or pick out a colorful watering can and follow the rain drops to help Green's gardening guys give plants a drink.

When you come to Green's Produce and plants our garden designer ( that's Moi ) will be pleased to help you and your young gardener pick the best seeds and transplants and share prep and design tips. We just love to brag on our gardeners large and small. Please bring photos for our bragging board or email them to sharon@greensproduce.com.

Spring will be here before you know it. Get ready.

Sharon A. Martin

Be careful! You could put somebody's eye out with that thing.

Planting or transplanting yucca with sharp points? Put corks on the end of the spines. Ta-Da! No more painful pokes.

Let's Plant Some Onions

Onion- allium, an underground bulb, cousin of garlic and shallots, big sister to chives.Do we really need to know why onions are good for us ? Isn't it enough to know how good a big, cold wedge is with red beans and cornbread or a crunchy sweet slice on a burger-um,um,good. On a cold evening a comforting bowl of brown onion soup with toast and bubbly swiss cheese on top,ahhh. Have you tried a big basket of Cheddar's (the restaurant) onion rings. They make "em like my mama used to make. As Rachel would say YUM-O !

How about braggin' rights to your very own home grown, home made rings.

Crystal wax white bermuda, red burgundy, Texas 1015 and yellow granex are considered to be the best varieties for growing in Texas. Onions grow best in 9 to 10 hours of sun, in loose, composted, well drained soil with a regular watering schedule. No soak and dry, soak and dry. Dust a little Happy Frog All Purpose Organic Plant Food in the hole to get them off to a running start. Plant your transplants to cover all the white to the green leaves.You can pull the onions at any size that suits you. They should be mature when the tops begin to turn brown and droop.Stop watering at least one week before you pull them. Dont wash them. Just brush off excess dirt and tie by the tops into small bunches and hang in a cool dry place to cure.

Chives are just a tiny member of the onion family. Snipping the tops for a steaming hot baked potato is usually the first thought that comes to mind. When it comes to baked potatoes, butter is my first thought, lots of melting butter but I digress. When the chive patch gets too crowded, thin them by pulling the older ones and using the whole thing. Even the sprouted seeds taste great on sandwiches and in salads. A garden bonus, Chive's put on pompoms of pretty white flowers that bring honeybees to your garden.

To put together a tasty onion soup , go to produce and click on recipes. Share your favorite onion recipe. E-mail sharon@greensproduce.com. I'll post a few of my favorites to share with everybody. Green's Produce and Plants has a good selection of onions ready for cookin' while you wait for the transplants to get here to plant in your garden, pot or raised bed. Green's Produce and Plants carries compost,Happy Frog and Rabbit Hill and other organic products.

Sharon A. Martin

Growing Potatoes

Yummm, new potatoes swimming in milk and creamery butter, fresh green beans and corn bread. The remembrance of Sunday dinner at grandmothers just makes me drool. The flavor and texture of freshly dug potatoes are worth the work and the wait.
Plant potatoes in late January thru February. Select certified seed potatoes. Cut in chunks with 2 to 3 eyes. Allow them to dry on paper towels for 4 or 5 days, and then dust with sulfur.

Everything old is new again. Planting under straw or hay has been around for many years. This is a no dig, clean, easy way to plant potatoes. To build your potato pit you will need cinder blocks, cardboard, straw or hay and compost. Begin with one row of cinder blocks to make an inside measurement of 4 foot square. Lay the cardboard inside making sure not to leave gaps for weeds to grow thru. Wet the cardboard thoroughly. Place potatoes on cardboard, 4 rows of 6. Cover 8 inches deep with a 50/50 mix of straw, compost and water. Place two more rows of cinder blocks staggering the seams to compensate the walls of your pit. In three to four weeks you will see sprouts popping up. When the sprouts are eight to twelve inches tall, cover 2/3 of stem with 50/50 mix and water this layer. Repeat layering until mix is about two inches from the top of wall. Make sure tubers are well covered and not exposed to light. Exposure to the sun will cause them to turn green. The green part is toxic and not edible. Two to three weeks after plants have stopped blooming you will be able to collect 'new' potatoes. When the tops die down in July pull the whole plant to find a bounty of mature spuds.
Bonus! The wall of your potato pit can be used for planting herbs and flowers that ward off the bad bugs and attract predators and pollinators. Just fill the holes in the top of you cinder blocks with organic potting soil and pop in the transplant. Alyssum attracts tiny predator wasps. Oregano deters white flies and flea beetles. Thyme attracts bees. There is room for chives, basil, mint and marigolds. Plant rue in the corners to keep the cats away.

Well there is the good stuff. Now, just so you know, potatoes are beloved by aphid flea beetles, grubs, potato beetles and white flies. They can suffer late and early blight from staying too wet. If it is too hot too soon your crop could be small or not at all. Just remember anything worth having is worth the work. Be brave. When you've got taters, mash 'em, fry'em , bake'em , boil'em and tell your friends and neighbors you grew them.

Bougainvillea, Keep those spectacular, bouncy ruffles coming!

Whether screamin' fuchsia or Green's 'White Hankie', the beautiful, papery ruffles are attention getters. Keep them root bound in a five or ten gallon clay pot or in a twelve inch hanging basket. Feed them with "Buds and Blooms" every week and keep them a little on the dry side. If you keep them wet, you will have lots of greenery and few blooms. When they stop blooming, cut your plant back by one-third to one-half to encourage more blooms.

Bougainvilleas seem to bloom best on new wood. Six hours of full sun should keep 'em blooming. If the plants are already in full bloom, they may be hung in high shade. When they have finished blooming move them back to full sun. Repot when it is time to bring your "boogies" inside. Trim an inch or two from the root ball and repot in the same size pot. Hanging baskets of bougainvillea are here at Green's. The large pots with trellised bougainvillea with sweet smelling jasmine will be here soon.

Tomatoes, Tomatoes, Ripe, Juicy, Tomatoes!

In the ground, a raised bed, in a container right-side-up or upside down you can grow tomatoes. Find a spot with 6 hours of sun. Plant 'em with your roses, hang one on the porch or put a pot by the back door. My raised beds are ready. This has become my favorite method of gardening. The beds are easy to build using cinder blocks and no mortar. Size your raised bed can either four by four by three feet high or four by twelve by three feet high. Fill with garden soil by the yard or by the bag and add tomato/pepper food and top dress with mulch. You're ready to plant, wet-to-wet. Soak the transplant in a seaweed solution for about thirty minutes, remove from pot and plant deep in a wet hole. Buying larger transplants will allow you to plant deeper, creating a larger root system. The tomato plant will make roots at each set of leaves below the soil. Now, put the tomato cage in place and you are on your way to a great tomato harvest.

Tomatoes are heavy feeders. Top dress with tomato/pepper food every two weeks. Feed them at bud set and at the first sign of tiny green fruits. Keep the plants mulched to maintain soil temp and moisture even - then water soil deeply. Do not water the plants from the top, water the soil. Night temps of fifty-five up to ninety-five daytime are optimum temps for tomatoes. If you use bloom set make sure the blossoms are fully opened. Plant basil with your tomatoes to improve their flavor. Carrots,chives, marigolds, nasturtiums, onions, and parsley make good tomato neighbors.

My favorite tomatoes are : Sweet 100 - deep red,super sweet, bite-size, extra high in vitamin C. An indeterminate that produces clusters like grapes all season. Juliet - clusters of two ounce deep red snacking tomatoes with great crack resistance. An indeterminate rocking all season long. Lemon Boy - eight-ounce lemon yellow, very flavorful indeterminate. Brandywine - big rich flavor, twelve ounces of indeterminate slicer - um, drool, tomato sandwich with miracle whip. Oh my I can't wait. No money changed hands for the mention of miracle whip. But growing up I never had a sandwich without it. Oh, oh, I nearly forgot. Just for fun, try red mulch under your tomato plants. Studies say it wards off root knot nematodes, ripens the fruit faster and increases yields up to twenty percent. Don't know what to do with bumper crop of veggies? Watch for notes on preserving your garden produce.

Notes On Butterfly Gardening by Sharon Martin

Gettin' started? Become a natural gardener. No chemicals. Remember even natural bugacides will kill butterflies and their larva. Do not introduce mantids or trichagamma wasps; they are predators. Don't place items to attract birds to your butterfly garden. The butterflies and their larva will quickly become a song birds tasty lunch. You will need larval food, adult food and places to hang their cocoons in a hidden spot. Choose a sunny, sheltered area. Provide supplemental food. Place half an orange on a saucer on a picnic table, the butterflies will soon be sipping OJ.

Did you know that butterflies taste with their feet? Create a salt lick for the beauties by combining 1 gal. of sand with 3/4 cup of rock salt and keep it moist. Use a wide range of native plants and throw in a few adaptives, add herbs and grasses and you will have a garden filled with jewels in flight or perched on a blossom having lunch. Speaking of lunch, you will see caterpillars of orange and black munching on the passion vine. It will soon become the orange and black, gulf fritillary. The big, fat, black and green ones on the dill plant will soon unfurl its wings to show the gorgeous blue and black coloring of a glittering jewel.

If you are not ready to add a bed or new garden space, start small. Replace an old shrub with a Butterfly Bush or plant a nice patch of dill and add a salt lick. Put up a trellis covered with passion vine, plant plenty of parsley at its feet and add a big patch of Coneflowers. Creating containers filled with butterfly "yummies" is an easy way to find just the right place for butterfly watching. Some of he butterflies you might see flittin' around Green's are Hairstreak, Elfins, Painted Ladies, Sulphurs, Swallow Tails, Gulf Fritillary and Monarchs. Whenever you're ready , we'll be here to help. Bring the kids we love to play show and tell.

Growing Your Own Fruit & Vegetables - by Sharon Martin

You don't have a plot of land or you're just not that into tilling & weeding. But you would enjoy eating your own home grown fruits and veggies.

Well, just put it in a pot. A clay pot, a plastic pot, a wooden ½ barrel, a wash tub with holes for drainage, a bucket, a raised bed small or large, pretty much anything that will hold dirt. No treated wood, please.

Plant Your Favorite Things

A large pot with a "Tumblin’ Tom Tomato", sweet basil, oregano & garlic chives. Make a lettuce bowl & add lemon thyme & curly parsley. Put a "Prolific" yellow squash in a BIG pot. Add a trellis for "burpless" cucumbers. How about a "Mojito" Pot—a drawf lime tree, Kentucky colonel spearmint + stevia for sweetener. Lemon, oranges, limes, peaches, blueberries and strawberries are some fruits that can be grown in containers.

Even easier and less expensive; add fruit and vegetables to your existing landscape. Replace a large shrub with a fig tree. Train blackberry vines on fence to produce pale pink blossoms in spring, followed by large juicy berries in early summer. Grow lettuce and parsley in a border. Use rosemary as an evergreen hedge. Plant fragrant herbs such as thyme or lavender near a walkway. The possibilities are endless. You don’t have to plow an acre to have your own naturally grown food.

A sustainable landscape can be beautiful, healthy, tasty and low maintenance. Whether you start with transplants or seeds, use found objects or fancy pots as containers or create a raised bed or begin by adding plants to your landscape—just "Get ‘Er Done".

Getting Started

Make a list of fruits, vegetables and herbs you want. Many can be found as transplants, some mature and already setting fruit. Many are easily started from seed sown directly. Find a container—some plants require 7 – 10 gallon containers, others a shallow bowl.

Purchase a quality, natural, nutrient rich potting soil. Use shredded hardwood mulch, stones or pot chards that keep soil from splashing onto plants and washing over sides of pots and help retain moisture.

Learn about your plants. Some are heavy feeders, some not so much. For example; potatoes don’t like manure, strawberries like rich soil, blueberries like acidic soil (4-5 pH). Tomatoes love basil. Asparagus is happy with parsley. Plant bush beans with potatoes, they protect one another from beetles. Sprinkle radish seeds around a cucumber hill and let them grow to protect against cucumber beetles. Fruit trees like chives.

Other supplies:

• Tomato cage
• Trellis
• Soil food
• Dipel for caterpillars (hornworm). Don’t use on parsley, dill, fennel or rue; you’ll kill your butterfly babies.
• Natural fungicide
• Ladybugs
• Gloves
• Digger
• Plant labels
• And maybe, a little guidance.
• Informational handouts to help you plan.

We’ll be glad to help.