Get Ready For Fall

It is now time to get ready for fall planting. We have a lot of fall planting articles, yet I still have to remind people every year that their fall garden will be the best garden if they are in Texas. I am sure that applies to other warm places in the United States as well, but fall is really the only time it gets cool enough to grow most vegetables in Texas.

Get Ready For Fall - 8/14-8/20/2023

Monday, August 14, 2023

Sunrise through the flowers from our Kitchen building this morning.

Good morning. It is time to get ready for fall planting. It just really surprises me that so many Texans say they do not know that they can plant a fall garden. What? It normally doesn't get cold until late so, yes, you can plant a fall garden and get lots of good veggies as it begins to cool down. We always get our best garden in the fall.

I got up early this morning, around 4am, with a stuffy nose. All summer long, my nose has been running but I had to go to the couch to go back to sleep today. Before I did, I took my thyroid pill so I could eat when I woke up again. It took quite a while to fall back to sleep. I finally woke up and had some delicious coffee and a breakfast sandwich. I went outside and unlocked the business. While I was out there, I fed the fish and took some morning photos.

It was a bit cloudy this morning. Looking toward the gate and the Kitchen building at an empty parking lot before everyone arrives.

We recently doubled our plant area outside of our Farm Store. Now it has a drip system set up to help take care of the plants.

I went out back and fed and watered all of the animals. That took some time and by the time I was through, I was a hot and sweaty mess. I had to go in and clean up, then get ready for work. At the same time, I was thinking about our roosters. Sooner or later, having multiple roosters, there will be a problem. We need to get rid of the three Ideal 236 roosters, all of who turned 13 weeks today.

All 3 roosters can clearly be seen. They are 13 week old Ideal 236 roosters and we already have Foghorn Leghorn who is 18 weeks old. I ordered all girls but received 3 boys in error.

I came out to Fulfillment and pulled all of the seed orders. Then I managed to get them all mailed out before the mailman showed up. He took a huge bagful with him because it also had all that were mailed this past weekend.

It is now 4pm and 102°. I just sent out some newer orders received this afternoon so we are all caught up except for one order. Hopefully, the seed I need for it will come in tomorrow. It did not come in today.

Get Ready For Fall

Now is the time to get ready for fall in the garden and in the greenhouse. It is time to decide what you will grow in the fall garden. What will you plant in just two weeks? Do you have the seeds already? If not, you still have a little time to order them here.

Where will you plant it all? Will you put it in the ground, in raised beds, in pots, or will you use a combination of all three like we do here at David's Garden Seeds®. Pull up old plants and weeds. Add a fresh layer of dirt and compost to the soil. If you don't know how to make your own compost, learn how here.

Tuesday, August 15, 2023

I cannot remember what this flower is called but we have them in several colors hanging on the deck of the business.

Good morning. David has a 9am doctor appointment in Pleasanton today so Matt is here early feeding the outdoor animals. I need to get ready to go. I still have to open the store for him in case we have any early morning customers. Of course, I am going with David or else I will not know what is going on.

David got a very good report from the doctor this morning. His labs all look good so it was a short visit with no big deal. On the way home, we stopped at the meat market in Pleasanton and picked up some nice meats.

Nacho is here today doing various things for David. He serviced our pond filter. He and his team are supposed to be mowing about a 20 foot path next to the fence in case there is a fire over in the dry grass so our house does not go up in flames. It is very dry out here with no rain in months. Also, he is fixing some air conditioner units for the animals. This heat is brutal on all of us, humans and animals alike. It is 102° right now and will get hotter as the afternoon wears on.

Another thing he did was service our pond filter by putting some sort of new filter and light in it. I do not see a light shining but the water looks much cleaner than it was.

I have filled all of the orders and I have been posting about planting a fall garden. We are getting lots of questions. I have written many articles on fall gardening but, apparently, nobody is reading them.

Every week by email and on social media, we get all kinds of requests for free seeds and re-mailing of seeds for free even though they had already received what they ordered.

For instance, David got an email from a customer who ordered two packs of seeds from us. We shipped them. The customer received them. Her husband took them outside to plant and the seeds all blew away in the wind. She said she would pay for replacement seeds if we would ship them for free. What? The only ones winning here are the USPS workers. They just raised their rates again. Why would we have to mail them and pay for shipping? No. We mailed out the seeds. You let them blow away. You need to take responsibility and pay for shipping again. Why should we have to pay about $5 out of our own personal money to mail you out more seeds?

At least this customer said she would pay for the seeds. Most demand that we send more out and not get paid for it. Who does that? Nobody sends us stuff for free and we don't ask because we are adults and we take responsibility and pay for what we get. Don't you?

Get Ready For Fall

Plan out where you will plant everything in your garden to get ready for fall on paper. Make sure you consider companion planting so that everything grows well together. Check for your first fall frost date if you don't already know it. Ours is November 22. Count backwards to find out if you have time to plant all of the seeds you picked out in your fall garden. In Texas, we have a long growing season and some years, we won't get our first frost until sometime in December or January.

Wednesday, August 16, 2023 - No Organic Seeds

I grow lemon grass in pots in the backyard for the dogs to snack on. They love to chew on it when they are outside doing their business.

Hi everyone! It is 3:15pm and I am just getting around to writing on here today. Of course, it is 103°. A man stopped by at 9am saying he wanted us to buy non-organic fertilizers for the garden that he sells for his company. When we garden, we keep it as organic as possible. No, we do not have organic seed certifications as they cost $1500.00 a piece per year for everyone. We now have over 1200 seed varieties, most of which are organic but because we are not rich, we are not allowed to say that. Let's do the math. $1500.00 x 1200 = $1,800,000.00

So in order for us to say our seeds are organic, it would cost us approximately one million, eight hundred thousand dollars per year. That is insane. Companies actually pay that much money to the government just for the privilege of putting the word "organic" on a packet of seeds. If we had that kind of money, I have a lot better things we could be doing with it than giving it to the government. Again, most of the seeds we buy are organic. The ones we grow are organic but due to government regulations, we are not allowed to say that. People are still asking us if we have the organic versions of seeds we carry. Most are organic but because we are not rich, we cannot say that.

Imagine giving all of that money to churches for outreach or to centers to help the poor instead of paying it to the government to give to other countries or waste it on ridiculous spending. When I was a kid, organic gardening was talked about a lot but these regulations did not exist. I think that most people don't realize how much it costs to put that on a pack of seeds or on a food label.

Once the salesman left, I cleaned out the pond and refilled it. Then I filled all of the seed orders. After that, I added some new seeds to the website. Then I finished adding the rest of the new seed collections.

I learned some new social media posting techniques today from someone and I tried them. I guess we will see how they work over time.

Get Ready For Fall

Today's get ready for fall tip is to deadhead all zinnia blooms and all rosebush blooms. This will make the flowers produce more now and in the spring and it is good to get the rosebushes ready for next spring. Put all of your zinnia heads in a bucket and save the seeds so you can plant them in the spring. Zinnia flowers will continue to grow until the first frost kills them. Also, zinnias do drop some seeds so expect some of them to come up in the spring.

If the flower stems are already brown and dead like ours were last week, pull them up, add compost to the beds, and they are ready for spring blooming.

Thursday, August 17, 2023

Hello! Thursday just sort of flew by. I started feeling really bad in the afternoon so I never got on here the whole day. I had customers in the Farm Store and I filled a lot of seed orders. Being on medication to try to get things right with my thyroid and blood pressure is not much fun. I feel nauseated for much of the day and when I eat, I feel worse. Seems I can't win. Lol!

The five baby chicks were let loose again in the big hen house and they have been picked on a lot but I cannot keep them in the kennel forever.

I went back to the house at 5pm and fell asleep on the couch because I was so tired and not feeling well. I went out to put the chickens away at 8:12pm and the five babies were huddled on top of the kennel with a Leghorn out there harassing them. All of the other chickens were away. I had to get the babies inside which I did but it took a while.

Get Ready For Fall

Get ready for fall by adding a new raised bed or two. Buy some of those fabric planters for growing potatoes, peanuts, ginger, and sweet potatoes. Get them set up and fill them with good garden soil and compost so they are ready to roll at the end of the month. Make sure you have a good, long hose to reach them all. If your hose is cracked, order a new one on Amazon. You probably won't be able to find one in the local stores this time of year but Amazon almost always has the things you need.

Friday, August 18, 2023

Good morning. The five harassed babies were on the top of the new perch this morning where they stayed when I let everyone out to eat. When they finally got down, the hens picked on them constantly so they went back up. I am not sure at this point what to do. It has not been this bad before. The Leghorns are doing most of the picking and they just went through this not long ago.

A man who came for a visit last week and who lives out here close to us is here now discussing gardening set up with David. Matt just left for a dental appointment. Brendon is in the back watering plants and our other person is counting seeds. I will be filling seed orders in just a moment.

It got down to 73° this morning but the high is supposed to be 106°. No rain and no break from the heat. Oh how I hate the heat.

The Farm Store is open but still not stocked with the new seeds yet. We just don't have the people here anymore to get it all done. I am hoping we get it done by next Friday because Saturday, August 26, our Farm Store is opening for the first time since June. The hours will be different. We will be open from 9am until noon. That is all. So please make sure you get here early with enough time to shop. Our gates will close promptly at 12:15pm automatically.

Get Ready For Fall

We have made a giant compost heap behind the pallets. Compost is a great way to give a boost to the soil in your garden.

Today, let's talk compost to get ready for fall. Do you make your own compost pile? We have used the compost bins that you spin when you add new scraps. We kept one with compost that was almost decomposed while the other was for newer scraps. Once the scraps are decomposed, add the soil in your garden and mix well. If your plants are growing, just sprinkle it around and on top of the garden soil. It helps tremendously, bringing much needed nutrients to your soil.

In the photo below, these were our compost bins from San Antonio and we had just moved out to the farm. See the moving boxes? Notice our sandy soil. This is all we have for more than 300 feet down. We add lots of compost to our garden beds and things grow nicely.

Here is an article I wrote on how to make a compost pile.

If you live in the city, you may want to start off with a circular compost bin that you can turn whenever you add kitchen scraps to it. Better yet, get 2.

Saturday, August 19, 2023

There were mountains and clouds which made the road to Leakey look so pretty.

This morning, we had to get up early to drive to Leakey, a place we haven't been in almost two years since my father in law passed away. None of the family there speaks to us anymore. So why did we go? To get a male rabbit. We tried getting one from the place where we got the rabbits a few years ago but we were told they had none to spare. Of course, we would have paid but he said he needed all of them. The farm has over 500 last time we were there. But whatever. One of David's schoolmates from Leakey raises and sells rabbits so we went out there. Got there around 9am and picked up a six month old fluffy white bunny. He is a White New Zealand rabbit.

Here is our new boy bunny in the kennel when we got him home. The towels were under him for his comfort but apparently he did not like them. He seems happy out with the other rabbits now.

Here he is in his new home.

We got back home before lunchtime and stayed on the farm the rest of the day doing Saturday things. Of course, next Saturday, the store will be open from 9am until noon so make plans now to visit us early.

Tonight for dinner, Matt picked up some food at a steakhouse in Devine. David wanted shrimp. Turns out they do not devein their shrimp. So David's meal was inedible because this place served him this:

The shrimp were actually overcooked but when you turn it, you find out that each one has parts of the poop sac and vein still in.

All of the shrimp are like this with most of the poop vein still partially there. Who wants to eat that?

All of the shrimp are like this with most of the poop vein still there. Who wants to eat that? I have seen Gordon Ramsay say no to this.

Get Ready For Fall

To get ready for fall, let's talk about garden fertilizer. David likes to fertilize established plants about once a month. We do not sell any fertilizer. David likes Medina fertilizer products. He also uses the liquid fish fertilizer and the liquid seaweed fertilizer. Your plants need fertilizer but do not over fertilize as that will cause damage to your plants.

Sunday, August 20, 2023

Well, here it is, Sunday again! It is currently 75° but will soon go up to 105° with no end in sight. I woke up early to take my thyroid pill and now I am having coffee while everyone sleeps. Time to go out and feed the animals.

The Easter Eggers that are in with the big hens are still getting bullied but it is getting a bit better. Apparently Easter Eggers are smaller than Ameraucanas, even though they look pretty much the same. The new male rabbit had a good first night but he was jumpy when I tried to feed him.

We went to church and then came home and had some brisket heated in the crockpot that we had in the freezer. Along with some baked beans and mashed potatoes, it made a good lunch. David is watching Lonesome Dove. He started it two nights ago to take a break from Murder She Wrote.

It is now 5pm and I need to go feed the fish, collect the eggs, and make sure the animals outside are okay but it is 102° and I do not want to go out there.

Get Ready For Fall

If there are some garden beds where you won't be planting a fall garden, consider putting nutrients back into the soil by planting a fall cover crop such as fall green manure. After it has grown, till or plow it into the soil that has been depleted of nutrients from your summer crops.

If you are planting a fall garden, once you have harvested it, you can still plant either a late fall cover crop (if you have time before your first fall date) or plant an early spring cover crop in February or March if it is warm enough in your area.

PS: Don't forget that you can still plant a winter garden if you have time.

Return from Get Ready For Fall to Our Fifth Year On The Farm

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