Spring in the Garden

by Celia Hayes

Yes, we know very well that the official date for 'last frost o' the season' for San Antonio is March 15th – but the trees are tentatively beginning to put on new leaves, the new grass – or what passes for the grass in weedy fields and verges – is already thick and green, and so it is time to get back to the garden. The suppliers have gotten the early spring vegetables starts in already. So – we went out this last weekend to get started in a bigger way, especially since the early lettuce and greens that we put in pots a couple of weeks ago did very nicely.

The topsy-turvy planters had been emptied of last year's plants and the soil; we were so encouraged by the success of growing peppers…

Never Too Early Garden Start

 … in the spring to begin reviving the garden.

But if I knew then what I know now about the topsoil in the yard around my San Antonio home, when I first moved in, I would have hired someone to come in with a small bull-dozer and scrape off the top few inches of topsoil. Then I would have had a third of it put back into place, and mixed with another generous third of sand and a final generous third of well-rotted compost.

This is what I have finished up with in most of those places where I have plants growing, by the way – doing it at the very start would have saved a lot of time and trouble. The prevailing topsoil around my neighborhood is clay – splendid for making adobe bricks from. It’s dense, heavy…

Reviving the Garden: Tomato Victory

 by Celia Hayes

The curse on growing tomatoes in my garden has definitely been lifted: we have ripe red tomatoes on the vine, and promising clusters of green ones – and although they are not all very large, they are tasty. So the Topsy-Turvys do the trick as promised; even if they haven't resulted in simply bushel-baskets of tomatoes, they have indeed tomatoes, which is about three steps farther than I have ever been able to go before. Next spring we will try out some of those heirloom varieties, and if my daughter, the queen of all garage sales, manages to score a few more Topsys at marked-down rates, we'll soon have so many suspended from the tree in the back yard that it will be more than your life is…

Frugality – Part Two

There are any number of ways to exercise second-hand frugality in San Antonio; one of our very favorite and every-day resources for second-hand books and movies is Half Price Books, which has several locations in San Antonio, although I’ve always been very fond of the location on Huebner. For extreme book frugality, though, nothing beats the regular library book sales, or the huge North East Independent School District PTA book sale, which is usually held in the spring, at the Blossom Athletic Center: acres of books, at 50 cents for paperback, $1 for hardbound.

San Antonio Neighborhood garage sales are a sometime thing – but a venue like Bussey’s Flea Market in Schertz is open every weekend: basically, Bussey’s…

20 Herbs to Remember

Written by Randy Watson

The 20th Anniversary of the San Antonio Herb Market presents the "20 Herbs to Remember" ... at the Pearl Brewery Complex, 312 Pearl Parkway, San Antonio, TX. Saturday, October 15, 2011 from 9:00am to 4:00pm.

The 2011 San Antonio Herb Market. The free SAWS-sponsored event features cooking demos, lectures, and activities for the kids! Purchase fresh herbs and other plants, handmade soaps, olive oils, books and other products to delight your herbal senses. Visit with experts on organic gardening, and choose from an array of handmade gardening items to purchase for your patio, deck or yard.

The Herb Market is free and open to the public. Mark your calendars for this very special event!

Herbal Remedy

Ah, at long last - respite from the customary brutal heat of summer in south Texas, when that glorious day dawns. The low temperature at night drops into the fifties, the high of the day is maybe for about twenty minutes in late afternoon when the thermometer crawls up to the mid-eighties, and all over the city one can hear the sound of windows being raised, cranked open and flung wide to admit the delicious fresh and unfiltered air . . . yes, the woman rushing from window to window last week and screaming ‘fresh air, fresh air, good…

Hurrah for Olives!

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Although it embarrasses me thoroughly - especially after Saturday last - to confess that I really don't like olives, straight up. Nope: don't care for them, I do not like them in a house, with a mouse, here or there, anywhere - not even at the Olive Ole festival down in Elmendorf, the home of the Sandy Oaks Olive Orchard  . . .  although I can really, really, and in an almost religious sense -  get behind olive oil. Olive oil, drizzled on salads, infused with herbs, brushed over grilled meats, dipped into with chewy pieces of good rich sourdough bread, infinite in goodness, and utility - the cooking oil of the gods. …

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme

And patchouli, lemon-grass and key lime ... all of which grow in my San Antonoio back yard, or in pots hanging from trees along the side garden by the front door. Or all but the parsley, both pots of which has died back to the roots and beyond. I once had a volunteer parsley plant which came up in a sunny spot along the side of the house, and thrived for several years, on a thick stem the size of a parsnip. There is nothing like the taste of fresh herbs, and nothing like the convenience of being able to duck out of the kitchen and snip a couple of teaspoons of parsley, or rosemary, or pull a fresh bay leaf from the tree, or a handful of basil ... especially…