The Research Journey:what to plant now, fall gardening in Dallas-Ft worth

Heather is having a class on fall gardening for the DFW area. She had the square foot garden bed that had no fertilizer and was doing well in our hot july and august weather.

What to Plant Now: 
Fall Gardening
September 22, 2016
10 AM to Noon

Cost:  $25 includes 10 lb bag of Texas Worm Ranch Premium worm castings and 2 fall-appropriate see packets.

teacher: heather rinaldi
Where:  Texas Worm Ranch—
2636 National Circle, 
Garland 75041

The heat is gone, but the thrill in the garden is not!  Fall is the most productive and easiest time to garden in Texas.  Learn how to plant and succeed with Broccoli (and other) transplants, plants that create ongoing salads, root vegetables and more.  Learn the correct way to care for plants from seed to harvest. Includes: what varieties to use, planting, fertilizing for success, preventing disease and pests, and maintaining health of plants through Fall and Winter. Wear gardening clothes and bring gloves--we will be planting!

Texas Worm Ranch
September 18 at 8:44am · 
From container plants to raised beds to large ranch lands--your growing space is an ecosystem and each plant has it's own micro-biome (above and below the soil). It's Fall garden time--how many of you are pulling all of your Summer plants out or starting a brand new garden? How many of you have bare soil exposed to our extreme heat this week? Likely, you have killed most of your beneficial biology in your growing spaces. Our 2 garden classes this week (look at our website) will show you how to establish and maintain disease resistance and nutrient cycling by creating a beneficial microbe habitat in your growing space. You will have your most productive season ever!





Texas Worm Ranch
4 hrs
Why should you Plant perennials among your annual garden plants? Perennial plants:
*Hold fungal hyphae in your soil maintaining moisture
*Maintain soil ecosystem
*Pull nutrients and water to your bed
*Can be food or medicine
*They can attract pollinators
Learn this trick and more in either of our two garden classes this week (REGISTER NOW ON OUR WEBSITE)

Well the class was a fun class. A mixed of ages, but I wasn't the oldest elder. Some had me by 10 yrs. Gardening is a continuous enjoyable journey. No one has arrived. This class help me join some more dots of square foot garden, back to Eden,  "Teaming with Microbes" book, NO-till method  and Dr. Ingham advance teaching of bacteria and fungi, protozoa, etc,,, Some things I can pass on. There was so much.

-I learned the lowly  earthworm is the Whale of the soil. Great for the imagination. 

-That weeds will put out an exudate to attract bacteria. They live mostly in a high level bacteria environment. That's why you see them in cracks of cement, at the border of your garden bed were their in decrease fungal activity.
-gravel walkways increase the heat in an area from 10-20% and increase bacterial activity, thus more weeds.
-after establishing a mulched walkway of 8" or more. you can come back in 6 months to get the humus that's develop just above the  ground tea to avoid seeds and place in your garden. Then put the old mulch back down and cover with the new  mulch and repeat the cycle. 
- compost stored in plastic bags in the cold or extreme heat will have no soil life. It's been killed. 
-it more than a ecosystem, it a town, city, nations. ( that's from me)
-you can plant legumes, like peanuts. when finish, cut at the surface and allow it to compost beneath the surface, causing increase fungal growth. they are fast nitrogen producers.
When you cut it on top to the ground , approx 20% breakdown beneath the soil, thus feeding the soil life.
-intermix  biennials( like swiss chard and perennial near the annuals veggies. they have long roots and will bring nutrients to the vegetable and provided increase fungal hype , like we saw in the teaming with microbes book.
synthetic fertilizer cause the microbes to cycles the organic matter at a rapid rates, then run out of food and die. 
one thing I did like in this no till method is you can plants your seeds next to a old cut off root and it will supply nutrients while it growing. 
Don't leaves tomatoes in the soil.
There was so much more, but I hope these ideas are helpful. Many of them you're already doing. 
We did actual transplanting, discussed seedlings, starting and problems, which was very helpful, but I'm not going to explain here, because I'm getting tired. Maybe next post.
we ran out of time. she will send a list of the plants that work well with intermixing short rooted plants with deep rooted plants, but also not competitive on top of the ground.  
She has a book, titled "365 Days of Edible North Texas Gardening". I encouraged the D-FW area gardeners to get it. In this book, she discussed the plants that will handle our temperature, even as low as the teens. Other books seem to favor the north , colder weather.

Thank you for sharing! I tried to find the book on line - is that the correct title?

sanderson wrote:Thank you for sharing!  I tried to find the book on line - is that the correct title?

yes, you'll probably have to order directly from her. let me send her a email and I'll post back later. she has some books on her website, but I didn't see that one. I saw it on the table with other products as I was leaving and decided to buy it. It may be too new.

Has, Thank you, but I was looking for a review before considering buying it. I don't really need it. Just something that, if at the right price, I would consider buying.

sanderson wrote:Has,  Thank you, but I was looking for a review before considering buying it.  I don't really need it.  Just something that, if at the right price, I would consider buying.

understand. For those who might want to purchase it, I received this response. "If they email me their request and address, I can invoice them for $12 and will ship it to them."
here's the email address- [url=txwormranch@gmail.com]Tx Worm Ranch[/url]

Thank you