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Dear (Contact First Name),
It's February, and Old Man Winter still lays claim to our gardens. But before long, folks will be outside, enjoying the spring weather and planting up their gardens. This month, our own Jill LaVigne has a story on growing Potatoes here in Austin. We also have an article on Berried Plants and their wonderful winter color. Even though it's Winter, there are things to do in the garden to get it ready for Spring in oour Garden to do list. Hope all is well and Happy Gardening!
Thanks so much for your patronage. We truly do love our customers!
Tom Tinguely
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You Say Potato?
by Jill LaVigne
February: it's time to plant asparagus crowns, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kohlrabi, radishes, turnips, beets, carrots, mustard, collards, chard, lettuce, spinach, peas, and potatoes.
Broccoli and winter greens are commonly found in vegetable gardens this time of the year. I feel many gardeners are unaware of how easy and fun it is to grow potatoes. I added potatoes to my garden after reading the list of soil fumigants, herbicides, fungicides, and insecticides used on commercially grown potatoes in Michael Pollan's book Botany of Desire. This will be my fourth season to grow my own potatoes.
The first step is to purchase seed potatoes. Potatoes have a rest period before they sprout. By using seed potatoes you can be rest assured they will sprout and that they are certified disease-free. Also grocery store potatoes may be treated to deter them from sprouting. At the Great Outdoors we carry white Kennebec, red LaSota, and red Pontiac varieties. We are also going to bring in Russets and Yukon Golds. The first three varieties recommended for Travis County and have grown successfully in my garden. The last two potatoes, even though they are not on the recommended list, I couldn't help but give 'em a try. You can order seed potatoes on-line but my experience is that they don't ship in time for our growing season. Last year I tried growng some blue potatoes from the grocery store. I made sure they were organic and picked out only ones whose eyes were already sprouting, still they did not produce as well as my seed potatoes.
Before planting, I lay the seed potatoes out on cookie trays (TO READ MORE, CLICK HERE) |
 More consumers are growing their own veggies nowadays, in an effort to reduce thier spending on groceries. It's no wonder, with produce prices going up and up, and with diseases outbreaks like the recent Salmonella-tainted peanut products, many people are turning to growing their own. for freshness, safety and cost-effectiveness.
Research from the Garden Writers Assn. shows that 39% of gardeners plan to purchase fruit and vegetable plants this spring compared to 32% just one year ago.
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Our featured Gardeners of the Month have a simple philosophy: Go with the flow.
Walking the mosaic tiled path toward the front door of David and Barbara Hale's garden home, I am reminded of something Dr. Seuss once wrote: "Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living. It's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope."
I gaze around, taking in the fantasy and artistic entirety of a suburban yard that features, among other ornaments, a giant mirrored concrete hand that doubles as a chair, and an equally striking toilet, colorfully coated in broken tiles and soothingly overflowing into a hidden basin. A mirrored sidewalk swimming with cobalt blue mosaic koi fish flows around my feet, complementing the calming liquid noise made by three prominent and well lit fountains. It feels like I'm looking at a page out of Horton Hears a Who...through the right end of a telescope. (read more)
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Berried Treasure
by Matt Welch
 If April showers bring May flowers, what do November winds
bring? December berries! What would winter in Central Texas be like
without the bountiful berries we see in gardens and fence rows throughout the
area? Even the busiest and most distracted of us can't look away from the
gorgeous displays of orange-red Possumhaw berries freckling the roadsides these
days. And what about the early winter glory of our native and aptly named
American Beautyberry? If you're like me, this is the time of year when
you wish you had planted more berry plants last year; there just never seems to
be enough of those little orbs of brightly colored garden magic.
From the ground up, berry
plants can be found everywhere, and usually during times of the year when not
much else is showing color. All of the
hollies, for example, are in full splendor from late fall through most of the
winter. Pyracantha, or fire thorn,
despite its spiny behavior, has without a doubt the most berries in the densest
clusters of any shrub we can grow. In
late fall, pyracanthas set gardens and fence rows ablaze with their red-orange
fruit that is a favorite meal for migrating robins. And then there's Ardisia, one of my all-time
favorite groundcovers, with its late summer pink blossoms and Christmas time
berries peeking out from under stout evergreen leaves.
So keep an eye out
during this stark, leafless winter season.
Now's the time to admire and celebrate the plants that color up our
winter landscape the most. It's also the
best time to pick up one or two of your favorites, take them home and plant them
in a worthy spot to admire next year and for many years to come. Do yourself, your garden, and some lucky
birds a favor, and plant some berried treasure in your back yard!
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Gardeners! We're proud to announce our first ever Spring Speaker Series. What
a lineup we have this year, from authors to plant explorers, a bulb hunter and a top-
knotch permaculturist. Check out the schedule and put these events on your calendar!
Spring Speaker Series
selected daytimes and evenings under the Oaks at The Great Outdoors
MARCH
March 7th
10:00 am "It's hot! It's steamy! It's dirty! Yes, it's humified compost!
And it's good for you and the Earth!" Patrick Van Haren, Sunergie
Patrick and his partner, Allan Dyer, have started their local venture just
south of Austin.
The compost is primarily composed of non-fertilized hay and they hope to be
100% organic by the end of the year.
The humified composting process Allan and Patrick are
following is a modified version of Leubke compost, which is named after the
Austrian family that developed it. While other composts utilize waste
ingredients and mechanical mixing or reduction methods, humified compost relies
on a specific mix of ingredients and a controlled three phase biological
process. Humus is the most active ingredient in our soils,
and can only be produced through biology. Humified compost makes use of
special inoculants and biological strains to produce this high quality.
Allan and Patrick are working to conserve water in the composting process and
reduce waste in their packaging materials. This humidified compost will be available for sale on the day of the presentation.
March 14th
10:00 am "Who's Afraid of the Big Bamboo?" Merrideth Jiles, TGO
March 21st
7:00 pm "Life on the Dry Side: From Mexico to China, Gardening Without Tap Water" Dr. David Creech, SFA Mast Arboretum
March 28th
10:00 am "Mixing It Up With Dave: Container Patio Gardening at its Best!" Dave Mix, Pacific Home and Garden
APRIL
April 4th
10:00 am"Practical Sustainability for Everyday People" Jenny Nazak, Austin Permaculture Guild
April 11th
7:00 pm "Tough as Nails: Great Bulbs and Great Stories From the Bulb Hunter" Chris Weisinger, Owner, Southern Bulb Company
April 18th Earth Day!
10:00 am "Super Compost" Patrick Van Haren
April 25th
7:00 pm "Staghorn Ferns" Laura Joseph, President, Austin Area Garden Council
MAY
May 2nd Art Under the Oaks
May 9th
7:00 pm "Tough, Sustainable, Perennial: Great Plants for Central Texas" Dr. Bill Welch, Author Perennial
Garden Color, Texas A&M University
May 23rd
7:00 pm "Everything But the Kitchen Sink: Annuals and Perennials for the Condo Garden" Dawn Stover, SFA Mast Arboretum | |
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So as we get geared up for the big spring season, we will be sending our our "Great Gardens" Newsletter every month, filled with great information, news and events when you need it most! Thanks for your patronage!
Sincerely,
Tom Tinguely
The Great Outdoors |
 2730 S Congress Ave
Austin, Texas 78704
512-448-2992
www.gonursery.com
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 VIP Customer Bonus!
Now is the time to get your garden and flower beds ready for spring planting. To make it easier, simply bring in this coupon, and when you buy 3 bags of our Famous Turkey Compost, get the 4th Bag FREE! Limit 3 Free Bags per customer.
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Offer Expires: February 28, 2009
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