Bohemian Bounty

Back at Urban Roots

The Bohemians — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 16:10:25 +0000

We were thrilled to be invited back to Urban Roots to present another canning workshop this week. The 2010 group was bigger than last year, with 25 eager students learning the basics of canning.

Of course, it’s all a bunch of boring theory until we break out the Bohemian Bounty made samples – plum jelly, pickled okra, dilly beans, grape jelly, and cinnamon peach conserve with almonds. Then the eyes light up, the smiles break out and everyone realizes what they grow is only the beginning of what they can make with it.

With their enthusiastic help, we put up about 36 pints of okra and 36 half pints of mixed pepper jam. Every student took home a jar of each and the extras will fill the CSA baskets.

Look for a Bohemian Bounty canning class soon!

Canning with Urban Roots in Edible Austin

The Bohemians — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 21:25:07 +0000

Last summer Bohemian Bounty was happy to spend a morning with the great folks at Urban Roots. We led them in a canning workshop making pickled okra and a mixed pepper jam. Edible Austin has just published a great account of the workshop in their summer issue.

We’re happy to report we’re already planning on going back next month!

You can see a slideshow of our 2009 canning day below.

Wein & Saengerfest

The Bohemians — Sat, 01 May 2010 13:28:33 +0000

Bohemian Bounty will be at the 7th Annual Wein & Saengerfest all day in historic downtown New Braunfels on Saturday, May 1, 2010. Along with wine and beer tasting, our event offers a host of entertainment and activities that include continuous live music, a grape stomp, art market, food seminars, Chef’s Showdown, activities for the kids, and a farmers market – culminating with a street dance at Main Plaza!

Look for our gardening display in the Farmer’s Market area.

http://www.weinandsaengerfest.com/

April Garden Rehab

The Bohemians — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 04:48:07 +0000

This April Bohemian Bounty was happy to work with an experienced gardener in Northwest Austin who had outgrown her current garden space. The garden was 20 feet by 10 feet and held in place by rotting railroad ties. Whenever we see railroad ties we strongly recommend removing them. Creosote, used to preserve the logs, is not approved for use in the landscape. It has a number of cancer causing chemical compounds and not what you want in contact with your veggies.

Bohemian Bounty designed a 2 bed garden, each 4 feet by 20 feet with a comfortable path between and around the beds. The narrow beds meant the gardener no longer had to walk in her bed while working the garden. To reduce materials, labor and cost, the gardens were built in-ground, but raised bed, with the beds being 6 or 7 inches higher than the pathways and border. The raised bed edges are supported by the walkway’s cedar and the beds have 12 inches or more of fluffy, rich soil for plant roots and improved drainage. Cottonseed meal, slow release fertilizer and compost were added to the soil to make up the previous gardening nutrient take and to loosen up the clay soil.

Gardening Business Article in the Stateman

The Bohemians — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 16:27:13 +0000

It looks like Bohemian Bounty had its 5 minutes of fame in a weekend article in the Austin American Statesman. You can read the full article here. We are happy to see there is enough demand for multiple businesses in the Austin area and have even referred work to the raised bed garden company the article mentioned. And we know of at least two other companies in Austin doing this or a similar model. Most focus on square foot raised beds. We think that is an awesome way to get started.

We’ve been happy that Bohemian Bounty has had the opportunity to work on some unique garden projects such as reusing landscaped areas, such as the pool install they mentioned (you can see that time lapse video below). See Our Customer’s Gardens for list of many of our installs.

Harvesting Your Veggies

The Bohemians — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 02:03:03 +0000

We have had a lot of fun watching gardens grow over winter. One of the biggest questions is how do we know if our carrots are ready. If you have one of the Rainbow Carrot or Babette Carrot Mixes, you can harvest them once they look finger-sized. Below is our harvest of a Rainbow Carrot. We grow several species of carrots and we usually check and pull several sample carrots before we use a garden fork to pull out our whole crop. Our harvest time is usually mid to late April. Soak carrots in an ice-bath for 10 minutes to increase their storage life. Place dried carrots in a ziploc bag and enjoy!

A Kids’ Organic Kitchen Window Garden

The Bohemians — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 18:51:19 +0000

The following garden was a fun one designed by Bohemian Bounty for a family in southwest Austin. It features a raised bed, 3 feet by 10 feet. The challenge came in accounting for the slope in the yard, which changes about one inch per foot. Two sets of 6 inch boards were installed to bring the bed close to level and protect the soil from washing away during heavy rains in the yard.

There were also two mini-gardens placed along the house for blackberries, flowers and asparagus. Both will produce for many years to come with little maintenance.

The kids did an awesome job planting strawberries and lots of seeds. I don’t think Bohemian Bounty has worked with two more attentive children. These veggies will not suffer from a lack of attention as the garden can be seen from the adjacent kitchen window.

Free Clinic – Spring Organic Gardening in Texas

The Bohemians — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 17:10:00 +0000

Join us at REI , Wednesday, March 31st for a free clinic from 7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m

Join Bohemian Bounty Professional Gardeners, James & Jennifer Buratti, to learn the basics of Organic Gardening in Central Texas. The class will cover various aspects of basic edible gardening, including: What to plant When, Where and How; Gardening Techniques (in-ground, raised beds, container); Soil Preparation; Composting; Garden Design and Construction; Cooking from the Garden; and Other Resources. Bring your friends and find out how great it is to eat the fruits (and vegetables) of your labor!

Directions and sign-up here

Locations is 9901 N Capitol of Texas Hwy, Ste 200 Austin, TX 78759

The Garden Gift: From Mother to Daughter

The Bohemians — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 04:22:40 +0000

Sometimes, clients request a garden as a gift for someone they love – and this garden was one of those special Christmas gifts. The gift goes to a sweet daughter and her family living in Creedmoor, TX.

A portion of the family’s backyard was an open field with mostly bunch grasses and full sun. The soil was mostly clay, but with some organic matter and worms and was a great base for plant roots to expand into. For this garden, we cleared a 24 by 28 foot section of the field, incorporated Garden-ville’s Rose Soil to the bed areas, tilled the clay and new soil together, built and installed cedar raised bed boxes, topped them off with more Rose Soil, added cottonseed meal and Medina Granular fertilizer, mulched the pathways with Garden-ville double-shredded cedar, and finally planted seeds and transplants with the family.

It was a great day of work and we had a wonderful time building and planting this garden with an enthusiastic, close family. The daughter kept telling us it was the best gift ever! Way to go mom! Stay tuned to see how this garden changes through Spring and Summer!

Spring 2010 Garden Rescue

The Bohemians — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 21:29:22 +0000

The Bohemians are in full swing for Spring – new and current clients are emailing and calling in preparation and we are still accepting clients. At the end of last year, new clients made Christmas wishes for gardens in 2010. Our first client to get their Christmas wish had an existing garden space that needed refurbishing.
This northwest Austin garden had great soil that was just waiting for dry weather to break ground.
We had 2 glorious days of sun in mid February to begin our work. The original space was wonderful and plentiful. The garden needed set pathways to make the space more usable and soil amendments to add nutrients for the Spring.

When anyone plans out a garden it is good to designate pathways from garden beds to preserve the health of your garden soil. Avoid stepping on your garden soil. Keep your garden beds between 3 and 4 feet wide. It is also a good idea to add natural slow release fertilizer (Medina Granular was used here) and a boost of Nitrogen from a low cost, natural cottonseed meal. We like using newspaper as a natural, biodegradable weed barrier and then cedar mulch over it. Walking and kneeling on mulch is more comfortable than stone but it needs to be refreshed as it degrades. Adding natural material onto the soil keeps the surface permeable for not only rainfall but living creatures like earthworms.