central Austin

Worms Cutting Back Garden Productivity

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Insects are a blessing and curse for food gardens. Over the past weeks I have pulled hundreds of worms off plants and picked up the scraps of dead plants left after they have moved through a garden. It is an upsetting experience but it is also part of a healthy ecosystem. These worms are actually moth larva and due to the good weather, all plants and animals are doing great. Of course insects reproduce en mass so we are seeing a lot of these chewing worms lately. We expect the worms will go away after a good freeze or cold snap. Meanwhile, try our organic solutions.

1. Organic liquid sprays of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), Thuricide

2. Handpicking from damaged leaves (see photos)

3. Wasps (leave a few nests around to encourage wasps to enter your garden and harvest worms for food-see photos)

Elephant Garlic Harvesting

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This year we created a separate plot for a type of garlic called, Elephant Garlic. James received the seeds from his 94 year old, Czech grandmother. Grandma has been growing them for years and considers it a weed now that it has covered her gardens around the house. This variety is an heirloom and easy to grow. It is a mild flavor that will not permeate your body like other garlic.

Green elephant garlic is also a cash crop for many farms due to its culinary uses.

Steps in growing are:

Attain seeds, Plant around November, Water and Watch it Grow, Cut off any flowers in April-March (makes the bulbs in the ground grow large), Harvest at the beginning of June, Cut off tops, Let them “cure” in a cool, dark dry place and use as needed…

New Starter Garden

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Spring has sprung and Bohemian Bounty and Central Texas gardeners are busy! One of our three installations last week was a new backyard organic garden in central Austin.

We loved the client’s directions when we went over the list of possible plants to grow – “I want to try everything. I figure even if I don’t like it, I should give it another try growing it myself.” That’s an awesome garden attitude I can agree with! I hated Brussels sprouts until I grew them myself. The flavor was a night and day difference from the grocery store variety from Who-Knows-Where, Mexico.

Starting small, Bohemian Bounty created a 7-foot by 7-foot U-shaped garden in an area that previously held a decorative shrub and the invasive glossy ligustrum. With the ligustrum and all its tangle of roots gone the garden area reused narrow limestone block already used elsewhere in the yard. The U-shape allows for easy access to all parts of the gerden. A smaller area with good light surrounding an air conditioner unit was also converted from abandoned flower bed to herb and vegetables.

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