Teaching Garden Update: Deep Soak

Things are heating up at the teaching beds @zilkerbotanicalgarden and we all needed a deep soak!

Here is what we were seeing this week:

🦗 With the heat the plants are sending off stress hormones and we are seeing a lot of beetles and grasshoppers. We did a foliar spray spray of seaweed as a preventative measure. The seaweed is like a stress wrap and gives the plant nutrients it needs for growth.

🥜 We planted, peanuts, red noodle beans, southern peas, black soybeans and a bunch of varieties of bush beans in the Legumes square of the four square garden.

🌱 We finished our archway trellis and planted heat loving crops: red noodle beans, snake gourd, loofah squash, and Malabar spinach.

🧄 The garlic continues to send out scapes so we harvest them so the plant puts its energy into the bulb growth. Scapes can be used in lots of recipes including making a pesto.

🌽 Milpa/Three Sisters update: We are starting to see silks and tassels. The epazote volunteered from last year. The tatume squash is really starting to take off and showing no signs of SVB. The pole beans are coming up quick, providing support for the corn structurally and nutritionally by fixing nitrogen in the soil. Visit our website for the Squash Vine Borer Organic Guide.

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