by Geoff | Jan 13, 2012 | Gardening
Last year I skipped using a heat mat underneath the flat in which I started my hot pepper seedlings. That was a big mistake. I had a germination rate of less than 10%. This year I picked up a new heat mat and have had great results. It’s already time to start hot peppers in Austin. They can be transplanted into the garden as early as mid-March and it takes 8-10 weeks from the time seeds are sown until the seedlings are ready to transplant out. Hot peppers...
by Geoff | Jan 12, 2012 | Recipes
Still harvesting winter kale? My friend Matt Gossage gave me the recipe for this salad. I tried it for myself a few nights ago and decided to share it. The avocado gives a creamy texture to the salad. Ingredients One large bunch kale Two ripe avocados Fresh lemon juice Salt Course ground black pepper Remove the stems from the kale and chop. In a large bowl add ½ tsp salt. Massage the salt into the kale with your hands and then let sit for 20 minutes. Taste...
by Geoff | Dec 14, 2011 | Gardening
In October I wrote about the project that I did with Save Our Youth making self-watering planters out of reclaimed five gallon buckets. You can read the original post here. I decided to modify the original design and turn it into a strawberry planter. First a note about strawberries in Austin: They are normally planted in the fall here and treated as an annual crop. I’m a little late in my planting this year. The plants fruit in the spring, but rarely survive...
by Geoff | Nov 20, 2011 | Recipes
Since it’s getting close to the end of the growing season for my sweet potatoes, I decided that harvesting some of the leaves that have sprawled into my other garden beds would probably not affect tuber production significantly. I’ve sautéed sweet potato leaves before and will post another recipe soon, but today I wanted soup. The quinoa in this soup gives it some body to make it more filling. 1/2 Onion chopped 1 Stick Celery chopped 1-2 Hot Peppers...
by Geoff | Nov 10, 2011 | Gardening
Last spring I started some Agastache mexicana seeds indoors but got very spotty germination. I decided to investigate whether or not stratification would improve germination. I think that it will. Here’s the why and how: Many seeds have built in germination inhibitors. This prevents them from germinating until more ideal growing conditions are present. Stratification is one method of mimicking natural conditions that seeds are exposed to prior to...
