Hello from Texas New member.

Discussion in 'Introduce Yourself Here' started by carolann, Jun 15, 2015.

  1. carolann

    carolann Junior Member

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    Hello,
    My name is carol and I moved from Illinois(northern temperate) to Texas (southern subtropical) and began looking for how to garden in Texas. I saw the design drawings and beautiful videos that were posted on the geoff lawton site and the permaculture news site and was hooked!
    I am still looking for gardening in my climate advice and have been involved in an interesting project that grows food for our local food pantry, just off the parking lot of a church. I have homeschooled my children and am interested in others homeschool experiences. I also have baked bread made yogurt, canned much of our own garden vegtables. I am curious about lots of things, like growing grain, ponds for fish, compost toilets, and chickens! I love to learn new things. I am looking forward to learning and sharing my experiences with this diverse international gamechangers.
    Sincerly
    Carolann:)
     
  2. 9anda1f

    9anda1f Administrator Staff Member

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    Hello Carolann,
    Welcome to the forums! Big change from Illinois to Texas. Assuming you're in dry conditions, do you use mulch in the church garden to retain moisture in the soil?
    Plenty here to meet your interests. Looking forward to hearing about your future work.
     
  3. Tejas

    Tejas Junior Member

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    Carolann,

    Austin does not have the greatest of soils unless the ground has been previously worked. Lot's of "Houston Black" soil type which is deep but slow permeable clay. West of Austin things get a little rocky as well. Good news is there is plenty of rain ~30 inches spread more or less evenly through out the year. Are you familiar with Tilapia as a fish? They do real well in that environment until December. Then it is time to bring your breeding pairs into heated ponds/tanks. They don't do survive under 65F. But will come roaring back with a fry in the spring. The State requires you to have a screen tank and a permit to preclude them from getting into the wild. However, that cat is out of the bag already; and really don't pose a threat since there are few places where they can survive in the wild. Notable, cooling tower ponds at electrical generation plants. (All those areas are already populated by Tilapia anyway.) So really not an environmental threat.

    Welcome.
     
  4. carolann

    carolann Junior Member

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    Texas church garden

    Yes we mulch heavily and use drip irrigation in most of the garden at the church. We have just installed a rain water collection tank, that holds 500 gallons and the garden is in partial shade. Texas is very hot for most of the summer so the timing of plantings is very important and still seems unnatural to us northerners! We are amazed at the size of the tomato plants in the church garden, compaired to our skinny small ones! We planted too late but we will get tomatoes and peppers in the fall when it cools off. Our best looking garden tomatoes are the volunteers in the compost pile!
    The church garden gets donations from landscapers of leaves and wood chips, and we mulch with those. We also have a large compost pile and leaves are added to the garden trimmings.
    I am learning a lot and aspire to share with everyone at the church garden too
    Thanks carol ann
     
  5. carolann

    carolann Junior Member

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    Thanks for the welcome! Tejas!
    We had no soil at all when we moved into this rental. We made raised beds and filled them with soil from the garden center. The first thing we did is make a compost pile in one corner, it is working well but two of the beds we had went anaerobic and stank when we harvested the plants we had to take out all the dirt and spread it out to air out, we have put drains in these beds and refilled them with dirt and are planting again. We hope it works this time!
    I hear a lot about hydroponics and tilapia. we don't have a large enough area to grow fish. Our lot is smaller than a postage stamp!
    Thanks for the welcome. I am looking forward to exploring the forums and learning.
    Carolann
     

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