Webmaster’s Note: The CMG Volunteers at the Vegetable Rose Garden (VRG) are again going to document their work and harvests in the AgriLife Vegetable Rose Garden (VRG) to help new veggie gardeners (or those new to Comal County). They’ll provide weekly updates on what they did the past week in the garden and what they planned to do the following week. We hope you’ll log on each week, follow along, and learn from the experts! The garden layout is HERE and their planting plan for the Spring 2024 garden is HERE. The current weather at the garden is HERE, courtesy of the 2022 intern class.
Happenings and Harvests in the Vegetable Rose Garden (VRG)
Week of: 3/03/2025 – 03/07/2025
Happening this week:
Monday
– Worked with the young plants in the greenhouse and gave orientations.
– repaired wind damage and then prepared the 6 tubs for the coming Patio tomato plants.
– worked on a bad timer and other water issues.
– planted more plants in the square-foot garden.
– did even more pruning in the rose garden.
– Asparagus was harvested.
– sifted compost.
– continued constructing the tomato trellis project in Demo 4.
Friday
gave first-visit interns, Jana and Elaine a tour. Then they sifted 6 bags of compost from piles outside the fence. Then did their on site greenhouse orientation.Vickie replaced windblown and roly poly eaten cabbage & broccoli plants with the same plants and some cauliflower. Watered the potatoes in cement troughs near the back gate.David continues the arbor construction.Kelly tilled mushroom compost into the soil in the barn bed.Luz planted artichokes in the tubs by the front gate.Michael trimmed grapevines.
Crops: the potatoes are emerging, radishes in trough A are sprouting. We harvested about 20 small asparagus spears per Dian’s instructions. The first bloom popped on the plum tree.
YTD harvest: 115 lbs
Week of: 2/24/2025 – 02/28/2025
Happening this week:
Monday
Rachel and the Garden Ladies did some top-secret greenhouse operations. I spotted a suspicious amount of tomatoes and other green things thriving in the soil. Meanwhile, the interns harvested 21.4 lbs of onions (cue the tears) and planted sunflowers in Demo 1.
They also bravely took on Demo 4 with some hardcore tilling.
Cheryl was in the greenhouse wrestling with the grow lights.
Richard, our resident Water Wizard, was on plumbing duty. The back line on the work table had a meltdown from the freeze.
He also turned the water back on for the greenhouse and fruit trees, fixing several broken lines.
In highly prestigious news, Richard received an award from the president…
Wednesday
Beautiful morning to spend with a bunch of cool folks in the VG. Nice to not be cold, or wet, or cold and wet.
– Monica replaced all the frozen broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower in RB 1-4.
– Kelly S. planted many cool plants in the square-foot garden.
– Dwayne and Kelly installed shelving and worked on other mechanical tasks in the greenhouse.
– Richard got water running in the greenhouse and worked on other water projects.
– Robert and Jeanette continued the rose maintenance for spring.
– Michael worked with his areas including checking out his rose sticks.
– Plants were replaced in the keyhole and maintenance was performed.
– The greenhouse gang did a bunch of maintenance work.
– Rachel wore herself out talking to various parties.
– New traditional was readied for tomatoes whenever they were ready.
– Water lines have been checked and are grouped at the gate end of the bed along with an extension for the 10th row (hard to explain).
– The greenhouse has now been painted, and it looks very pretty.
Friday
Gorgeous morning in the veggie garden today. It started a little chilly but quickly warmed up.
– Pulled and planted struggling broccoli from the hard freeze in the raised beds.
– Tilled traditional beds 1 thru 9.
– Radishes planted in trough beds A&B.
– Soil test results meeting which says no more fertilizer for now! Retest in about 3 months.
I hope everyone has a great and productive weekend!
Harvest YTD: 104 lbs
Week of: 2/17/2025 – 02/21/2025
Happening this week:
All work at the garden has been canceled this week due to severe weather conditions.
Week of: 1/20/2025 – 01/24/2025
Happening this week:
Friday
Brrrr, a cold wintery morning with a temperature of 27 degrees! There was no rainfall. Nonetheless, the CMG and intern winter Olympic team were training. Today, we harvested and pulled the cauliflower and spinach plants.
-Harvested the red cabbage.
The interns worked on one of their projects: building a wood frame for their fruit tree. Richard and Bruce assisted them.
-We moved pea gravel to the greenhouse work area.
– Emily hand watered.
The “dudes” rotated the tires on the new roto-tiller.
Luz took our harvested crop to CRRC – thanks, Luz! (Of course, the veggies weighed more today since they were “frozen.” )
Spinach 0.6 lbs
Cauliflower 12.2 lbs
Red cabbage 11.2 lbs
VRG Volunteer hours this week: 24.0 hours
Harvest YTD: 90.2 hours
Week of: 1/13/2025 – 01/17/2025
Happening this week:
It was a beautiful sunrise this morning in the garden, complete with a full rainbow and spitting rain.
Harvested:
Baby carrots 1.2 lbs (from tubs near the gate)
We moved pea gravel from the parking lot into the greenhouse & spread it. Rachel supervised. Jeannette & Molly from the rose garden visited. Richard was doing his compost thing. We ate Lori’s yummy coffee cake – thanks Lori. Luz took the carrots to CRRC – Thanks, Luz! Have a good weekend!
Harvest YTD: 66.2 lbs
Week of: 1/6/2025 – 01/10/2025
Happening this week:
Brr it was cold and muddy, (in the north country we called this fold – you can figure out the acronym). It’s a fine day to mud wrestle.
Monday:
Broccoli 1.4 lbs
– Picked broccoli, pulled the plants
– We placed compost bins behind the GH area.
– Richard & Kelly could pump air in 1 tire of the new rototiller.
Harvested:
Broccoli: 1.4 lbs
Broccoli was taken to CRRC by Vickie.
When it was over, we all looked like we had joined the CMG WWF mud wrestling team.
Now we are all waiting for our fingers and toes to thaw! Y’all have a warm day.
Harvest YTD: 64.7 lbs
Week of: 12/30/2024 – 01/03/2025
Happening this week:
Monday
It was a misty, cool morning in the garden. We checked on the greenhouse progress and then got to work.
Sharon installed a shoe/boot cleaner near the main gate.
Removed yellow & brown leaves from the ground & lower parts of broccoli.
The cauliflowers were placed in compost bins.
Rachel, Richard, Kelly & Dwayne supervised the greenhouse construction crew.
The north windows were installed.
Walter showed up to check on things.
New greenhouse as seen from the back.
Harvested
Green tomatoes (ripened at Emily’s house) 9.0 lbs
Red cabbage 1.6 lbs
Green cabbage 5.0 lbs
Cauliflower (gold & purple varieties) 7.8 lbs
Broccoli 3.8 lbs
Carrots 1.4 lbs
Onions (green) 5.6 lbs
Spinach 0.1 lbs
The produce was taken to CRC by Georgia – Thank you.
Harvest YTD: 34.3 lbs
Happenings and Harvests in the Vegetable Rose Garden (VRG)
Week of: 12/23 – 12/27/2024
Happening this week:
Monday
Work Accomplished:
– Painted ramp.
– Tilled RBs 1-7
– Watered as needed
– Harvested:
Tomatoes 56.6 lbs(green ones that were ripened)
Cabbage 2.6 lbs
Cauliflower 1.6 lbs
Broccoli 3.0 lbs
Wednesday
Cancelled for Christmas
Friday
There’s not a lot to be done in the garden these days as it is pretty well bedded down
for the winter; but, we
– Harvested:
Onions 7.4 lbs
Tomatoes 40.6 lbs(harvested earlier in the month and ripened at Emily’s
house plus some donated by Richard)
Mixed Herbs 0.8 lbs (donated by Luz)
Spinach 1.2 lbs
Broccoli 5.6 lbs
Carrots 0.8 lbs
Cauliflower 5.6 lbs (1 beautiful purple head cabbage – see picture below)
Cabbage 2.8 lbs
Mustard Greens 6.0 lbs(donated by Rachel)
Turnip Greens 10.2 lbs (donated by Rachel)
Butter Crunch Lettuce 1.4 lbs(donated by Rachel)
– Luz delivered the veggies to Sattler. Thanks, Luz!
– Richard added horse manure to the compost bins holding the old tomato and
pepper plants.
– Larry N. Worked on the armadillo trap.
– Larry and Dwayne cut some decking “wood" blocks for new row numbers
for the Traditional Bed. (Dewayne plans to router the numbers into the blocks….. It sounds
like a long-lasting fix. Thanks, Dwayne.)
– The guys working on the new greenhouse were there when we left…progress report
on Monday, please.
– James our CMG Treasurer, was very popular in the garden this morning.
– Emily brought in the results for the soil sample testing from Long Bed Back 1 – see
picture below. Our soil (in that bed, anyway) is in great shape!
Happening Next Week:
we are still harvesting a few veggies and doing general garden maintenance.
VRG Volunteer hours this week: 48 hours
Harvest YTD: 5,533.1 pounds
Week of: 12/16 – 12/20/2024
Happening this week:
Monday
It was a cool wet morning. We had a little rain over 0.39” for an annual total of approximately
31.3 inches YTD.
– We harvested:
Broccoli 7.0 lbs
Turnips 2.8 lbs
Wednesday
Big day in the VG!
We:
– Lowered the level of the road base inside the foundation by 3” to prepare for the final pea gravel
floor. The road base was relocated somewhere in amphitheater land.
– Emptied one of the two trailers of mushroom compost acquired yesterday. LB1 rear is complete.
More went into the RBs. It’s a very stinky, steamy, dark load this time!
– Walter arrived with materials to run the electrical system in the new greenhouse. It was quite an operation.
Getting the old cable pulled from the PVC conduit was a major chore. Luckily, Kelly came to
the rescue by running home and returning with a come-along puller. Lots of old-guy muscle and
leverage eventually won out. Pulling the 4 new wires from the box to the greenhouse went much
more smoothly. We are lucky to have Walter’s vast skillset and can-do attitude as a CMG.
– There was some harvesting:
Tomatoes 33.2 lbs
Broccoli 3.6 lbs
Friday
We
– Harvested:
Tomatoes 45.6 lbs (actually these were brought back from Emily’s where she had them ripening)
Beets 3.6 lbs
Broccoli 5.6 lbs
Kale 2.2 lbs
Peppers 1.8 (donated by Luz)
– I delivered the veggies to SOS.
– Finished emptying the compost into Long Bed Back 2, the Raised Beds, and into several buckets for
Demo Beds 1, 2, and 3 and the asparagus and artichokes.
– Sharon and Luz spread the compost on all the beds…ready to be rototilled starting next week.
– Emily was moving the road base over by the Amphitheater and accomplished general clean-up
around the garden.
– Emily also took more tomatoes home to ripen.
– Hand watered as needed.
Happening Next Week:
Rototilling the mushroom compost into the beds.
VRG Volunteer hours this week: 64 hours
Harvest YTD: 5386.9 pounds
Week of: 12/9 – 12/13/2024
Happening this week:
Monday
– Another beautiful morning in the gardens. The sky has cleared and it is a nice warm
beginning of the week. With that said we may have a freeze come Wednesday am. So
with that, we picked a large amount of green tomatoes. Emily took them home
hoping they would ripen. We shall see.
– We picked and pulled the remainder of the poblanos. After a slow start, they grew very
tall however on the small side.
– We harvested:
Poblanos 22.4 lbs
Swiss Chard 5.0 lbs
Tomatoes 32.2 lbs
Oregano 0.2 lbs
Turnips 18.6 lbs
Onions 7.2 lbs
– The windows of the new greenhouse arrived. Forms are to be pulled today and possibly
Wednesday start framing.
– We received 0.59” of rain (YTD rain 30.6 a bit under our average of 34 ish.)
Wednesday
We:
– Harvested
Cabbage 1.8 lbs
Broccoli 4.2 lbs
Green onions 5.0 lbs 
– Cleaned up around the greenhouse footer.
– Evenly spread the base inside the footer. It’s ready for the framers.
– Built 4 tepees in Demo 1 to support the lima beans that will be growing there next.
The dried okra stalks were used to demonstrate reuse and recycling.
– Discussed a plan by David Green to build a trellis tomato growing frame in Demo 4.
It’s a structure that allows us to attach to the tomato vines from above and manage
them for maximum production.
Friday
We
– Harvested
Broccoli .6 lbs
Red Cabbage 4.8 lbs
Tomatoes 2.2 lbs
Kale 1.2 lbs
Radishes .2 lbs
Onions 4.8 lbs
Chard 1.2 lbs
– Georgia delivered the veggies to CRRC…thanks, Georgia!!!
– Richard turned the drip system back on.
– The compost bins by the amphitheater were tended …sifting and turning
– Emily tended the entrance to the amphitheater and took soil samples from the Long
Beds in the Back to submit to A&M for analysis.
– Larry L. pulled the onion in the Barn Bed and then tilled the empty rows.
– Larry N. Repaired and cleaned the armadillo trap.
Happening Next Week:
Discussion about the tomatoes (to pick and pull or not) resulted in a decision to leave them
as is today since high temperatures near 80 are expected next week.
The run to Gonzales for mushroom compost is scheduled for next Tuesday, so there’ll
be that to work on next week.
VRG Volunteer hours this week: 64 hours
Harvest YTD: 5354.5 pounds