infrequent watering would be the main cause like LSS said. The soil gets dry then a heavy watering. Using a good mulch will help out to keep the soil at a more consistent moisture level also. Ideal would be for the soil to stay moist, not wet, 100% of the time. This time of year i like watering in the evenings, it works for me. The water has about 12 hours to soak in the soil before the sun and heat come up. And the plants have the same 12 hours to enjoy the moisture with out the Texas summer beating them up during the day. Mulch helps through out the day to retain the moisture.

The DE stuff posted above does work but i think it would be best with one of those "puffers", I forget the name. The deals where you put the powder in the can and it has a pump to distribute the powder in a cloud, anyone know the name and where to find one?

EDEIT: and a face mask. I wonder how much DE the guy was selling that he felt the need to eat it?

check other gardening websites seen some there.

I've had fire ants on my okra for about two weeks. Pizzed me off enough that I got the machete after them on Friday. No worries though, I have more dang okra than I need already, and still have 5 plants in the ground...

time to do some weeding today and put together the plan for the fall garden.

According to the the recommended planting dates for North Texas, I'm a couple weeks late for planting peppers and tomatoes. Does anyone know if planting these (in the next couple days) is a worthless attempt, or might I get something out of it?

Also, does anyone know where I can get seed potatoes at this time in the year? All the local places seem to stop carrying them after the Spring (that I can find).

It's been a while since I've been in here. Here's my latest work:

This:



Transformed into this:



Which has now transformed into this:


Later on, I'll finish the top half. It's a little too warm right now.

You can go ahead and try peppers and tomatoes...I think we'll get a later freeze this year...

Looks good, by the way...

I use soaker hoses. We did have some good solid later afternoon rains about a week and half ago. I guess that is what did it.

I water in the evening when I get home.

What type of mulch should I use?

depends on a few things as far as what kind of mulch, main thing is you dont want something that is going to throw your ph level off. I used wheat straw. Theres a organic place close by that sells cedar mulch for 22 dollars a bobcat scoop. I use a soaker hose also and one thing I learned is to give the garden a good spray of water ,concentrating on the stems, do this atleast once a week. This will help keep pest from getting out of control.

Yup, looks like you got the fever. Time for an intervention.

Buy some taters and put a few under your sink for a couple weeks. You should have some sprouts and I believe you have enough time to try this if you can't find any "ready to plant" anywhere. I wouldn't bother with Russets but Yukon Gold and Reds (if you can find 'em) should sprout ok (plus, they'll be more amenable to cooler temps).

Nice garden patch. Now where you gonna put the hot tub?

I've got a really nice serrano plant this year. Must be three feet tall with deep green foilage and was covered with flowers. I've gotten one chili off of it so far.

What's the deal? Is it better for serranos to be planted in pairs for pollination ? I've always had good yields from single plants.

In the middle of the garden of course...

Dang , dont do a serrano image search on google , scary.
Mine seem to do fine as long as their not bothered by pest. On these pepper plants you should flick each flower and you should see a little puff of pollen, then the flowers should set fruit. I think LSS posted earlier in the year the importance of spanking the plants.

Start spanking it like a tomato plant...

Do any of you guys make your own compost? I took over the compost making from my wife and I really enjoy it. Plus it is a good mini work out the way I do it, chopping and blending the stuff with a hoe. We are always on the look out for free ingredients.

true...

Yes, I compost. Finding the "ingredients" has sort of become a game - I'm always keeping an eye out for someone throwing out bags of leaves, grass clippings, companies throwing away coffee grounds, etc.

In related news, I need like 10 more cubic yards of cow/horse/chicken/rabbit manure. That's a lot of truckloads of carp.