Garden Calendar

My Irises, who knew?

Well, first of all I would like to personally thank Patsy Rosen for a splendid presentation. The slides were beautiful. I would also like to thank her and the group for educating me more about organics and gardening in general. I am more of sort of a "if I can't eat it I don't want to grow it" gardner. I jest a bit but I do spend much more time in the vegitable garden than I do anywhere else around the house.

My family and I moved into this house about two years ago. This is our first home, and we were luck to buy it from a couple that spent a fair amount of time in the yard. Some where along the way I was came to believe that these flowers were Gladolias, like I said "if I gat eat it I don't grow it", so what did I know. Any way here are some pictures of the "Gladiolas", enjoy.

This one is in the back yard.

This one is in a flower bed in the front yard

And this is the flower bed that it is in, the trees are Crepe Myrtles. There are also Daffodyls, and some kind of mint in this bed. In the background you can see the Rosemary bushes (man they smell great)

Not that this picture has any thing to do with Irisis, but on my second visit to the AOGC some one was kind enough to give me their "lottery" winning. I forgot the name of the plant but I though I should include it to show where I put it and that it is doing well. It has about doubled in size so far. It is quite pretty.
Here is where I planted it, you can see it at the bottom of the picture at the base of the porch.

and here is a close up of the plant

In anycase thanks to the group for making me feel so welcome and for providing a forum for me to get away from the glow of the computer screen for something a little more earthy, dare i say ... organic?

Thanks again to Patsy and the group, see you next month :)

The Quinn Garden

Well here is what I hope is a way to proudly show off the garden I (and others) have. Enjoy :)

Here is the first picture of the garden. This was taken 03/31/04. You can see that I don't even have the mulch down yet, bad organic gardner :(
The image has been reduced to better suit those of you with dial up access. You can make out the Onions, Broccoli, and Brussles Sprouts in the front of the garden (I cheated they are all from starters). Behind that are turnips and radishes, along the back trellis are Peas (all from seed). You can also make out the rain barrel I put in a couple of weeks earlier. Although you cant see it from the picture there are also Beets, Lettuce, Spinich, and Squash (all from seed)

This is a picture from the same weekend, We planted Lettuce in this pot the last year but it got hot and the Lettuce bolted to seed. I just let it go and then kept some of the seeds for planting this year. As it turned out I did not need to, these Lettuce plants (plus four others) came up in the same pot this year. We transplanted 4 heads of the Lettuce into the garden and thay all took. We got Lettuce out our ears :)

Well this next picture is amazing. This is the same garden shot on 04/18/04, about 3 weeks later. I added a trellis for the Soybeans (thats right I said Soybeans!), Cucumbers, and Eggplants. I think it turned out well. I als put in Carrots, and Green Beans

remember the broccoli plants I put it? Well we got our firt head. We planted about 8 plants, about half went to seed almost immediately. I let thos go, I figure I will get the seed for next year

You can start to see some of the radishes now ! I have already pulled some for a great salad we had, CRAZY TASTY!

Ok, here is the garden as of 04/25/04. May can those plants grow! My peppers did not do well from seed, so I cheated and got starters in this weekend. Also the Eggplant (2 varieties), Cucumbers, and tomotoes

Here is that same head of broccoli, I kid you not, This was taken a week later!

Now some of the turnips have started to head

And because I thought it was kind of cool, here is a close up of the water barel I put together

So far we have had seveal salads with Lettuce, Spinich, Peas, Beet Greens, Radishes, and Onion Greens all form the garden. I also made a Turnip Green cassarole that turned out pretty good if I do say so myself. I never had Turnip Greens before but they we not bad at all

Anycase hope you enjoyed. I will update throughout the season
bye and good growing

April Meeting

Don't miss our April meeting. . . Patsy Rosen, Iris expert and AOGC member, will tell us all we want to know about irises. What types are there? How do you grow them? What works in North Texas?

April's meeting will be on Thursday the 29th. Social/refreshments begin at 7:00 and the program begins at 7:30.

Iris Open House

Patsy Rosen, our April speaker, was kind enough to invite the club to see her iris garden during an open house today. With over 650 irises, her backyard is truly stunning. Even walking though her yard, we learned a whole lot about irises, and what does and doesn't work here in North Texas. Join us for our April meeting on Thursday the 29th and find out more!

Getting Ready for Plant Sale

Preparations for the June 19th Natural Urban Living Garden Show are already well on their way. Dave has been hard at work potting up plants for the plant sale. A few of the goodies are shown below.

40th Annual Standard Flower Show & Festival

Join us at The Fielder House Museum - 1616 West Abram, Arlington, Texas -
Saturday May 1st, 2004, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
for the 40th Annual Standard Flower Show & Festival.
See you there!!

2004 Natural Urban Living Garden Show

(Reposting March notice)
This year's Natural Urban Living Garden Show will be held on Saturday, June 19. We are pleased to announce that Howard Garrett has again agreed to speak at the show. Stay tuned to www.aogc.org for more show details in the upcoming weeks.

Show hours are 9-5, and entry is free to the public. We will have organic vendors, speakers, non-profits, and a Kid's & Family room. Come early for the plant sale. . . we will have many hard-to-find well-adapted plants for North Texas. Raffles will be held throughout the day . . . if you have been to our show (or our meetings!) you will already know what terrific prizes our club sponsors donate.

See you there!

Cowtown Gourd Patch

Meets Tuesday, May 4, 2004, 6:00 p.m., at The Rig Restaurant in Fort Worth, on IH-35W South at the Alta Mesa exit.
You may purchase dinner, participate in meeting, and win door prizes.
(Meets 1st Tuesday of each month January through October, 6:00 p.m.)

Herons

Sadly, the herons seem to have decided not to nest here after all. We have not seen them at their nest site for over two days now.