I’m going to try to make these posts more concise as I tend to be pretty wordy .  Suffice it to say this time that the 4×12’ vegetable garden I began tilling back in July is planted and the first plants have already risen from the ground!  Here what I’ve done since the last update:

Finished the bed (9/10):

• Tilled about 6” deep, then put in decorative concrete bricks as a border (raising it slightly).
• Tilled in 1/2 cubic yard (100 gallons) of garden soil from Natural Gardener (they have a great bag-your-own bulk soil offering).  Also mixed in some rock dust (contains lots of trace minerals which supposedly help flavor and vitality) and more used coffee grounds (source of nitrogen).

Planted lima beans (9/11):

• 14 plants in two tight rows, offset by 6”

Installed drip irrigation (9/24):

• 12 4’ lengths of Mister Landscaper drip hose (1/2 gph dripper every foot).  48 drippers total.
• Currently hooked up to a garden hose, but later this Fall I plan to bury a line from my sprinkler system so it will be automated.

Mulch and brussels sprouts (9/25):

• Soil was quickly losing its moisture which is wasteful and requires a lot of watering, so mulch was necessary to save water and keep the soil temperature and moisture more constant.
• Moved one of the rows of lima beans so that the brussels sprouts could go in the back (thinking they might get pretty tall and need support from the fence…I plan to put a trellis back there soon).

The mulch patch on the left is around a comfrey plant, which is supposed to be a nitrogen-rich leafy herb that isn’t good to eat but is great to use in compost and homemade fertilizers.  I almost killed it by letting it get too dry, but it looks like it might recover.

That’s that!  Next month I plan to put in some baby spinach along the front of the bed and also build a trellis out of chicken wire and mount that to the fence so that we can support tall plants on it and grow viney stuff like cucumbers on it.  Also, here are a few links to gardening resources I’ve enjoyed recently:

• Natural Gardener To-Do Lists and Tips – great resource for Texas gardeners, especially those in central Texas.
• Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds – online store of unusual and rare heirloom seeds.  Fun to look through, I plan to try some of their unusual varieties at some point.
• Growing Your Greens – Youtube channel of a really knowledgeable California gardener who video logs about all sorts of gardening-related topics, including his incredibly impressive front yard raised gardens.  He also has a number of episodes in Las Vegas which would be more applicable to Texas gardeners.