Accuweather's forecast for December
Hi All, we now have a weather station on line at the garden. You can view it here.
Garden Tasks - By Steve Camp (April 16, 2022)
Howdy! I hope everyone is having a great planting season so far!
Workdays often evolve into social events! SCG is a fantastic place to meet new friends and learn both new and old gardening techniques. There's a wealth of knowledge here and experienced people that love to share it.
New Gardeners
There are several new gardeners at SCG! Please don't hesitate to introduce yourself and y'all get to know each other a little and share garden knowledge and tips. Let's emphasize the Community in Community Gardens.
Hose Connections
Please do not connect hoses with aluminum fixtures to our brass faucets. These two metal alloys will chemically bond, effectively welding them to each other. If you have them connected now, be aware that if there are problems with the faucet, your hose may have to be cut in order to get it off.
Additionally, please read handbook and site rules. Any hardware (hoses, sprayers, nozzles, splitters etc.) attached to garden faucets and maintenance of said items are the responsibility of individual gardeners, not garden staff.
Roads and Parking
- Speed limit is 3 MPH. (Primarily for safety, but also to keep the dust down.)
- Sunshine's roads provide access to plots and common areas. Gardeners should not
- Park on roads except to unload a heavy load from vehicle
- drive on roads when wet
- drive around barriers
- drive into another gardener's plot, or
- put plants or other items in the road.
- Cars may not be left idling while at the garden.
- Park only in the front parking area or your common area. On weekends there are parking spaces on Sunshine and 49th Street.
Handbook and Site rules specifically state that Parking on garden roads is strictly prohibited. Park in the parking lot or common areas only. When the emergency vehicle enters SCG, they may (I hope not) be coming to assist You. How inconvenient it would be for them to have to wait for folks to move cars.
When you're done with your project, please close the lids.
Priority Tasks
Maintaining common paths and common areas. If you have plants extending into common paths, trim them. The common paths are designed to allow the biggest wheelbarrows that we own to traverse them unimpeded.
TSVBI:
- Weeding paths in TSBVI garden and wood chip areas on west side. (This is normally needed. Try to get out roots. Be sure to smooth out paths after weeding to facilitate TSBVI students moving around garden).
- Picking up trash in compost area and along fence lines.
- Cleaning the street curb gutters of dirt and debris buildup. (At places in the curb gutter along Sunshine Dr. And 49th St. soil has built up and grass is beginning to grow. Scrape off with shovel and put in wheelbarrow. If debris is gravel it can be put in low places in the parking lot, otherwise, destination is dumpster.
Regular:
- Mowing (Please check area around trailer and greenhouses). The mowing season is picking up (if it ever rains, it will pick up exponentially. It's way easier to keep it mowed than try to catch up when it gets overgrown.
- Maintaining common paths. (Gardeners are required to maintain a 2' strip of common paths adjacent to their plot.)
- Mowing and cleaning up overgrown/messy places in common areas.
Note: TSBVI hour tasks can also count as regular hours.
Your Zone Coordinator may have more tasks than are listed here. Contact them if you feel that you have run out of things to do.
Plant Sale Pictures
Pictures courtesy of Charles Hale
Gardeners' Picture Page
If you have pictures you want to share on the Sunshine web site Sharon has created a new feature that will allow you to do this.
Navigate to the upload page to upload your pictures.
Go to the Gardener's picture page to see the pictures. Click to see a larger view of each picture.
Problems/Comments? Contact Sharon at scgardenweb@gmail.com. Thanks.
News Article
The Garden That Gives Together By Zoe Erler, The Philanthropic Enterprise
Sunshine Updates
Updated Texas A & M AgriLife Vegetable Planting Schedule
Last year a new vegetable planting guide was published. Of note, tomatoes transplants can be planted the last week of February. Gardeners, watch the forecasts and plant at your own risk.
What Vegetables Grow Well Together
Many times I'm talking to fellow gardeners and am asked "Do you do companion gardening?" Well, yes and no. I subscribe to the theory that "If it tastes good cooked or served together, then it should be able to be grown together". My gardening neighbor tried to grow pole beans with onions on the outside of the beans and swore he'd never do that again because he did not get any beans. I do plant an overabundance of onions around my tomatoes and peppers, but only because there is empty space on the outside. By the time the onions are ready to be taken up (early-mid May), the tommies are just starting to go strong, so no energy is wasted growning the two together. Besides, alliums are supposed to be good bug repellants.
As I was searching for a particular webpage, I came across this article which explains in more detail the ins and outs of companion planting.
(If you come across an article you would like to share, please send the link and maybe an explanation or anecdote to scgardenweb@gmail.com. Thanks.)
Pictures of Fall Transplanting
Video of the opening moments of the 2017 plant sale.
Watch video of the March-in on March 5, 2016.
Courtesy Berkley Bettis
Video from the Plant Sale 2015 -- courtesy Berkley Bettis
2014 Tomato Test Plot Results
Tomato Garden News
Many tomato varieties have been recommended for Central Texas gardeners. The tomato garden located by the entrance was established to evaluate various tomato varieties. Spring 2014 was the fourth year we have field tested tomato plants in the tomato garden. Each spring since 2011, eight tomato varieties have been grown or evaluated in the tomato garden. The tests are designed to determine the yield or production of each variety. Generally, tomatoes are allowed to remain on the vine until color is showing. Tomatoes from the test garden are donated to Micah 6 or Eastside Community Connection. Since 2011 over 4,500 tomatoes from the test garden have been donated.
During the first year of the test garden (2011), over 700 tomatoes were harvested from 24 plants of eight varieties. The Carmelita tomato plants yielded an average of 54 tomatoes per plant followed by La Rosa II with an average of 50 tomatoes per plant. Carmelita is a medium sized globe tomato. La Rosa II or LaRossa is a pear-shaped, paste tomato. A popular heirloom tested in 2011, Cherokee Purple, yielded an average of 14 tomatoes per plant.
In the spring of 2012, the 24 plants yielded over 1,300 tomatoes. The Viva Italia plants were extremely heavy producers averaging about 150 tomatoes per plant. Viva Italia is a pear-shaped, hybrid tomato. Arkansas Traveler yielded an average of 63 tomatoes per plant. Arkansas Traveler was developed in the 1970s and takes its name from an old heirloom that went extinct in the early 1900s. The plants yield a deep pink tomatoes weighing from 5-7 ounces.
The early high temperatures in the spring of 2013 negatively impacted the yield for the plants grown that year. Only a total of 376 tomatoes were harvested from the 24 plants. The three Bedouin plants yielded at total of 102 tomatoes, or 34 per plant, followed by Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye with 83 tomatoes, or 28 tomatoes per plant. Bedouin is a pear-shaped, dark red tomato originating in Eastern Europe. Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye is a port-colored beefsteak tomato developed at Wild Boar Farms in California.
For spring 2014, we planted five plants each of eight varieties. Plants were planted on March 22nd. Below are the varieties grown and the average number of tomatoes harvested per plants.
- Andes - average of 15 per plant
- BHN602 - average of 54 per plant
- Black Krim - average of 30 per plant
- Black from Tula - average of 32 per plant
- Cream Sausage - average of 78 per plant
- Early Girl - average of 107 per plant
- Flamme - average of 98 per plant
- Indigo Apple - average of 52 per plant
Overall, a total of 2,304 tomatoes were harvested. Black Krim and Black for Tula are heirlooms. Both yielded 30-32 tomatoes per plants. Black Krim and Black from Tula are both dark maroon beefsteak tomatoes from Russia. Flamme, or Jaune Flamme, is a French heirloom. Flamme is a small orange globe tomato. On average the Flamme plants yielded about 100 tomatoes each.
Early Girl is a medium size globe tomato, hybrid, reportedly producing earlier than other varieties. The Early Girl plants in the test garden didn't really produce "early" compared with other varieties. About 6% of the Early Girl tomatoes were harvested before June 1st compared with 22% of the Flamme tomatoes and 12% of the Black Krim tomatoes.
The Cream Sausage plants produced a large number of tomatoes during a short period of time. From June 7th through June 17th 225 tomatoes were harvested, or 57% of the total Cream Sausage tomatoes harvested. Cream Sausage is an elongated paste tomato that is cream in color. Cream Sausage tomato plants are short in height, about two feet tall.
Welcome to Sunshine Community Gardens' website
Please feel free to contribute recipes, hints, pictures, links, comments or anything else you feel that will help this website become a gardener's reference and home.
Send email to Sharon at scgardenweb@gmail.com.
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