For years we have experimented with various garden methods, construction, locations, and a variety of fruits and vegetables. Our soil is black, cracking clay, and that means half measures won't grow anything but weeds. Soil improvement is critical to maintaining a healthy garden. In our soil, we add horse manure and sand that we dig out of our sand traps at the back of the property. Where water flows, a deep ditch with a shallow outlet is sufficient to catch tons of the best sand, much better than what one would find available at retail outlets.
To begin the garden we now use, we ditched around the selected area of about 70 x 70 feet, spreading the dirt we dug out over the garden plot to raise it up and give excess water a place to go. Certain plants drown easily. Tomatoes are prone to Blossom End Rot in wet weather and peppers are notoriously prone to root rot. By raising the level of the garden plot and ditching around it, garden flooding can be reduced or eliminated.
This black clay is affectionately known as "Black Gumbo" in South Texas. The quality of the soil is actually better than it appears. Once black cracking clay has been improved with plenty of organic matter (either manure or peat) gypsum, and sand, the nutrients that give it a dark color become available to the plants. 
Once the soil has been improved, it will hold moisture and allow oxygen to reach the roots of the plants. The color and character of the soil has changed completely after being improved, but it will not be at it's peak of quality for another couple of seasons. 
The garden has been in use for a full season. The soil will grow much better produce at this point with far more flavor. As long as good compost, peat, or manure are added regularly, the organic matter decomposing in the beds will maintain high nutrient availability season after season.
The water in the ditches has been captured and can be used to water the garden either with a watering can or a small, inexpensive pump with a screen or filtered intake. The decaying vegetable matter at the bottom of the ditches makes excellent fertilizer. It can be dredged out and used to cover seeds, encouraging faster germination and early growth.
After many years turning the entire garden, usually with just a shovel, taking twice the time it should, we decided to establish permanent beds. The spaces between the beds need not be turned, cutting preparation time in half. The beds where plants actually grow are the only areas that must be improved and maintained, focusing all resources where they are needed. Conservation of time, energy, water, and nutrients lowers the cost of production and enables us to grow really superior vegetables.
To border the beds, we purchased pallets from the feed store for $2 each, broke them up, and set the rails into the soil at the edges of the beds. The rails may be removed for preparing the beds and are only held in place by soil, but the rails serve as a low retention wall, preventing the soil and mulch from washing out of the beds. These permanent beds may be planted in succession without turning more than twice a year.
Adding manure each time the bed is turned replenishes organic matter in the soil helping to hold moisture. Old mulch should also be turned in. Most people use mulch for decorative flower beds to "keep the weeds down" and protect the roots of their plants. Bark mulch does wonders when it is mixed into the soil. It helps to prevent soil compaction, holds moisture, and breaks down slowly, releasing nutrients into the soil over the course of several seasons.
We mix the manure into the soil and chop up any clay clods as finely as possible. This is a labor intensive project but once the garden bed has been planted for a season or two, the soil loosens more easily. By maintaining the permanent beds, we only have to turn the spot we are planting, instead of turning the entire garden.
After mixing, chopping, and turning the bed, we reset the pallet boards around the edges and push the soil against them on both sides to hold them in place. We rake the bed smooth and then we plant it. Even peppers can be seeded directly into the fine, loose soil in this type of bed. Nearly every pepper seed we planted this year came up without having to be started in pots.
Seeds germinate rapidly in good, fine soil full of nutrients and organic matter. In only a few days, the green bean and cucumber seeds we planted in this bed were up and growing.
After a few rains, the garden has taken off. The cucumber vines already have small cucumbers on them and the green beans are beginning to climb. The weeds and grass between the permanent beds will be cut down as soon as it is dry enough after the rains. For now, the wood pallet planks serve as an effective barrier against encroachment.
We have already begun harvesting, eating, selling, and feeding out, yellow squash which will give in abundance right up to the first frost.
No garden is complete without flowering tobacco. 
Growing any variety of tobacco is not illegal. In Texas, a gardener may grow up to one half acre of any variety of tobacco, either for its' beauty, its' use as a pesticide/weed killer tea (this tea is also available for purchase at nurseries), for poultices, or for personal consumption as a smoking or chewing tobacco. All tobacco varieties have lovely flowers and produce tiny seeds that can be planted year after year, perpetuating production.
The leaves of tobacco plants can be dried, cured, and stored for long periods of time to make an organic pesticide effective against a variety of worms and insects on any species not of the same taxonomcal family. Tobacco is in the nightshade family, Solanaceae. This family includes tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, eggplant, datura (Jimson weed), mandrake (Belladonna), and petunias. The pesticide cannot be applied to other members of the same family. It CAN be applied to weeds in the same family and it will kill them.
There are plenty of plants the pesticide can be used on. Corn, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflauer, turnips, radishes, lettuce, etc. It is truly a boon to find an easily produced, safe, effective, organic pesticide that can combat the many enemies of the gardener on so many crop plants. The plants do not absorb the tobacco tea. It is easily rinsed away by rain or washing.
Buying corporate produced tobacco for tobacco tea would introduce pesticides contained in the plant that corporate tobacco producers applied to their fields. Only home grown, or organic tobacco can produce a genuine "organic" tobacco tea pesticide.
Tobacco leaves also have value as a poultice to take the sting and swelling out of insect bites and stings. In foreign countries, medicinal products are available in the form of topical pastes made from the ground up leaves of tobacco plants. These products are sold in stores for use against the stings of bees and wasps, mosquito bites and other insect bites.
Tobacco has always been said to have anthelmintic properties against intestinal parasites. It is one of those things that horsemen have always "known" and in fact the commercial wormer "Levamisol" is made with finely ground tobacco leaves. I would not recommend trying to use tobacco as a wormer in any animal without knowing the proper dosage.
The best use I have found for tobacco though is as a decoy plant. Tomato horn worms should be called tobacco horn worms instead. They prefer tobacco to tomatoes as a food source and tomato plants grow unmolested in gardens that include tobacco plants. The worms are easier to locate on tobacco plants. They tend to show up on the underside of a leaf. 
They begin by making a hole in the leaf and at the edge of this hole, if you catch them when they are small, you may find a tiny, hair-thin hornworm. But you won't find them eating your tomatoes.
Tobacco is one of those plants that is really difficult to kill. I have enjoyed growing it because it is so easy to grow, has so many uses, and has such lovely flowers. It lasted through the worst drought south Texas has seen since record keeping began after the wettest April on record failed to drown it. I admit I wasn't giving it the careful attention I lavish on my food crops. I really had no idea that it was so easy to grow and I had little faith that it could survive the drought.
One by one, every other crop plant we cultivated suffered and died in the blast furnace of May, June, July, and then August. Tobacco was the only cultivated plant that made it through the summer.
The photo below shows only half of the garden area, though two thirds of the established garden has been reclaimed and planted. 
The plants are still small in the remainder of the garden, each bed having been turned and seeded as we could get to it. In the photo above, beds that contain yellow squash also have some radishes growing for the pigs. The beat bed has a couple of butternut squash plants growing in them. Lettuce borders the cucumber and green bean bed. Turnips, beats, carrots, and broccoli also occupy beds that are planted with tobacco. Our idea is to use every inch of valuable garden soil. Any open space is planted with something that will not hinder or be hindered by other plants.
During the fall, we intend to expand our garden area. We will take photos to illustrate, step-by-step, the methods we use in preparing new permanent beds.
In South Texas, we have a year round growing season that allows us to grow many cold tolerant crops like celery, broccoli, cabbage, and greens that do well up north only in the spring. For this reason, food preservation is not high on our list of priorities. We eat what is in season while it is fresh and at the peak of flavor.
Flavorful food can bring so much joy to life, it is well worth growing your own vegetables, or seeking out the freshest home grown produce from local gardeners.
Herbs are as important to a gardening cook as tomatoes. With aromatic herbs and spices, food will appeal to all of the senses as it should, instead of merely filling us up to stop hunger pangs. As our gardening progresses this year we will offer tips for the use of fresh herbs, recipes, and photos of some of the dishes we prepare for our own table.
Gardening can be rewarding on so many levels if it is done right. We have made many mistakes over the years but the biggest mistakes have involved planting vegetables that we don't enjoy eating simply because they were easy to grow and would yield in abundance, putting us in the position of constantly eating our least favorite foods to keep them from spoiling because we had so much of them. It is very important to plant more of what you want to put on your table, but if you intend to create a sustainable system, it is possible to find important uses for the excess that is neither sold nor eaten.
Both composting and keeping pigs can provide a good disposal for fruits and vegetables that are past freshness. Nothing is wasted, even when it grows in super-abundance and it isn't one of your favorites. Instead of being thrown out, it goes back into the sustainable system to provide nutrition for more plants or for livestock.
When planting, I've learned to take into consideration the number of days to harvest. Some plants, such as green beans, take longer to yield, while radishes may be ready in 24 days. To avoid having a bunch of radishes around with no lettuce to make salad, I plant first what takes the longest to yield. Plant more of what you like the most. And replant empty spaces after harvesting one crop, as soon as possible, with seasonally appropriate varieties.
Days to harvest, plant spacing, and thinning information is on the back of each seed pack. Thinning is one of the more difficult parts of gardening. After waiting to see the plants appear, a gardener is then expected to ruthlessly rip out several of the new arrivals. But, thinning does not have to be so destructive. Many plants may transplant well. Those that can't should be pulled and left in the bed to become part of the organic matter. By selecting the fastest growing, most robust plants to remain in the garden, it is possible to keep a healthier garden. If you are letting some plants go to seed in order to collect seeds, the faster germinating plants with larger leaves should be marked as candidates for seed collection with small stakes stuck in the ground a few inches from their stem.
The basic spring garden should always include tomatoes, bell peppers, and onions. These are the ingredients for a well set table. It is always possible to prepare a tasty meal if you have plenty of tomatoes, bell peppers, and onions, even if all you do with them is to put them on flattened bread dough and bake them in the oven.
Potatoes are another staple crop and one quarter of our spring garden space is devoted to them. Potatoes are simple to grow and do well in most of the United States. It is important to maintain proper spacing of plants, in order to get the biggest, best potatoes possible. We plant ours 1.5 to 2 feet apart in acidified soil. Potatoes will not grow well in basic soil. It is a good idea to test the soil pH before planting with inexpensive tests that can be purchased at any garden center.
More information will be included in this page as we continue to plant and expand our garden. If you have gardening questions, just click on the Smoke Signals tab and feel free to e-mail us. We will be happy to help.
