ZBG Teaching Garden Update

We were dancing like fairies at the gardens this week after seeing all that was ready to harvest. We enjoyed elderflower cordials and harp and plant music by Andrea Cortez of Mind Body Music Center at the Woodland Faerie Trail kick-off!  We had lots of guest helpers stopping by to help harvest our spring crops.

Here is what we were seeing this week in the teaching gardens Zilker Botanical Garden:

🌽 Milpa/Three Sisters update: We did some hand pollination to make sure we get good ears of corn. Several tatume squashes are almost ready to harvest some signs of SVB but tatume is outpacing those buggers. The pole beans are climbing high, providing support for the corn structurally and nutritionally by fixing nitrogen in the soil. Visit our website for the Squash Vine Borer Organic Guide.

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

🦎Seeing some helpers including a anole lizard. Male anoles have a pink colored throat fan (called a dewlap), which is used in both territorial and courtship displays. They eat insects like grasshoppers, moths, grubs, and beetles.

🧄 We have started to harvest and braid our multiplying Dr. Pound garlic that we grow on the perimeters of our beds. 

🖤 Lots to harvest: Asparagus, blackberries, cucumbers, onions, and  garlic, tomatoes, sweet peppers, elderflowers, and milky oats. Amaranth, Cosmos and Zinnias are starting to bloom. 

🥜 The squash, malabar spinach and red noodle beans and southern peas are starting to come up on our new archway trellis. Okra and sunchokes are also coming up quick.