Garden Girl

are likely at your farmers market now, if you live in CenTex & they are gooooooooood! Like the melon this year, I wonder if all this hot & dry hasn’t concentrated the flavor in some of our local produce & made for a good season for some edibles at least.
I hear some folks in other parts of the country complain about the prices at their farmers markets & I feel quite lucky. We bought two big dinners worth of hatch peppers, yellow squash, zucchini, yellow onion and eggplant for around $10.00 this week.
Also, we had Jeff Rodgers of Margarita Gardens give a great talk on basic gardening tech for our area, including showing off some plants than can handle the Texas sun just fine.
I like the idea that farmers markets can become a place not just to support local artisans & growers, but to share information & ideas and to build real community, so I give a definite thumbs up to the Pflugerville Farmers Market for inviting Jeff to speak.

Homegrown Evolution: Gardening in an Apartment Windowsill

Something to make your weekend

Honestly, I don’t know if the raised beds here will be ready by Fall. I haven’t started to build compost yet, the summer looks like it’ll be a dry, nasty, over a 100* often- as- not affair, & I’d like to save money for a jujube & a (probably white) mulberry tree next Spring.

I know mulberries are messy, but I love ‘em.
I’m trying to follow permaculture logic– start with trees & create micro climates, & when you have established zones of shade, sun, & protection, *then* put in your ground crops.
The mulberry tree will complete a semi circle of fruit trees we’ve planted close around the house (sides & back) that will provide weather protection for Fig Tree Cottage & bring in some birds.
The jujube will go out front to give us a head start on having a tree to replace the Bradford pear, which I expect to start dropping branches & being a problem child in just a few more years.

Ready to eat!
Nom, nom, nom.

Red, White & Grew - Victory Gardens and More!: This Letter Came in the Mail Last Week

Organic farm’s wells going dry as water competition stiffens

Tags: gardengirl, victory garden, slow food, locavore

If you haven’t already started a tool pool in your neighborhood, there are some online sites to help you rent and share your stuff (think freecycling, but you get your stuff back ). I’m definitely putting a few things up on the loanables.com site, which has a good number of members in Austin. More info here:

Rent / borrow stuff from your neighbors and save money! - Loanables

& speaking of Austin & surrounding neighborhoods, Mr. Garden Girl and I just beat the rain when we were biking home from the Pflugerville Farmers Market this Tues., but it was well worth it to score some organic black bubble tea from the owner of the Formosa Tea House & to share a rose cupcake & a rootbeer cupcake from The Happy Vegan Baker under a tree while listening to live music.

Here’s just some of the vendors at the market:

http://www.pflugervillefarmersmarket.com/vendor_list.html

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YouTube - WSJ clip: suburban farming, an idea whose time has come

a brief & smile worthy clip from the Wall Street Journal

My blackberries are starting to bloom!

Tags: gardengirl