By Jim Longstreet
Master Gardener
Frustration and ‘an exercise in futility’ is how many see vegetable gardening in West Texas. The soil is too alkaline, the municipal water is too contaminated as is the well water, the pests are too out of control, and the climate is too long, too cold and too soon, too hot. Many give up after a few years of trying.
But there are a few easy and strategic tweaks to your garden that can be made in order to ensure success — even great success and a high yield harvest. With a little extra effort there is no reason to repeat the previous year’s frustrations.
A Master Gardener Class is being offered Wednesday, February 14, to offer strategies for successful vegetable gardening. It will show how easy it is to deal with many of the challenges of soil condition, water quality, pest control and climate restrictions among other concerns.
The class will be offered at the home of Jim Longstreet, 5006 Los Alamitos Drive, Midland, in order to clearly show how some of our challenges in West Texas can be overcome. You can either choose the morning class from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. or the afternoon class from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. A PowerPoint picture may be worth a thousand words, but an on-site visit can be worth a thousand pictures. In his backyard gardens you can get many ideas for what can work in your own backyard and you are free to beg, borrow and steal all of his ideas. How do you think he got his ideas anyway?
You will also see some of the many plants that can be grown here in the cold winter months and simple methods and strategies to get a jump-start on your spring garden. Many plants do well even when the temperature dips below freezing, and there are simple things that can be done to protect and insure the lives of your plants. You can be harvesting vegetables when everyone else is just starting to plan their garden and you can be picking fresh, delicious tomatoes when everyone else is buying their transplants.
To register for one of the two-hour classes go to westtexasgardening.org. The cost for non-members will be $10. The limit for each class will be 25 people.
Come and learn some new and simple strategies, and tweak what you are already doing for more success, higher yield and greater satisfaction.
And filling a great week relating to food is the Permian Basin Local Food Summit 2.0 in Stanton on February 15. Register here: https://bit.ly/3NRRH84
If you have questions, call the AgriLife office in Odessa at 498-4071 or in Midland at 686-4700. Additional information, and our blog for access to past articles, is available at westtexasgardening.org. Click on “Resources.”
