Home Page Gardening Lubbock Beagles Contact Us
Discover Circuits Discover Solar Energy Imagineering Ezine

 



Being a gardener  in Lubbock is a greater challenge than I imagined, but each year is getting better.
Come follow my progress as I get my hands in Texas soil.

Joy Blooms . . .
with veggies, flowers, birds, butterflies, & creatures
                                                                                                                            This page last updated:   05/08/2016 08:07 AM
                                                                                                                                                                            


Gardening in Lubbock, TX

Lubbock is in USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 7.  A welcomed change from Thornton's Zone 5.   The growing season here is longer, which means that I can put seeds and transplants in the ground a couple of months earlier than I did in Colorado.  It also means that I can harvest to Thanksgiving and maybe even beyond.

Lubbock is our home now and I set out to learn everything I could about getting things to grow in this dry windy environment.  Come follow my progress as I get my hands in good ol' Texas RED dirt.

A Little about the Dirt.    Lubbock County is located in Northwest Texas on the Southern High Plains  within the larger Great Plains of the western United States. The flat, nearly level treeless plain has few streams to cause local relief. However, several major rivers originate in the High Plains or cross the area. The largest is the Canadian River, which has cut a deep valley across the Panhandle section.

Texas Alamanac describes the soil in Lubbock County as "mainly brown to reddish-brown loams and sandy loams, with smaller areas of grayish-brown, silty clay loams. These overlie a clay subsoil and, beneath that, at from two to three feet from the surface, a hardpan of caliche made of calcium carbonate. This caliche forms the Caprock, which has generally prevented streams from cutting their way through the area. Beneath the caliche zone lie beds of water-filled sand of varying thickness but averaging about 300 feet; these make up a part of the great Ogallala Aquifer, formed some ten million years ago as great rivers deposited sand from the Rocky Mountains over an area extending several hundred miles east of the mountains, from what is now Canada to the South Plains of Texas. s are mostly well-drained, deep, neutral to alkaline clay loams and sandy loams in shades of brown or red. Sandy soils are in the southern part. Many soils have large amounts of lime at various depths and some are shallow over caliche. Soils of bottomlands are minor in extent."

The area is used mostly for cropland, but significant areas of rangeland are in the southwestern and extreme northern parts. Millions of cattle populate the many large feedlots in the area. The soils are moderately productive, and the flat surface encourages irrigation and mechanization. Limited soil moisture, constant danger of wind erosion, and irrigation water management are the major soil-management problems, but the region is Texas’ leading producer of three important crops: cotton, grain sorghums, and wheat.

Transforming  "blank canvas" into a Victory Garden    

The pictures below where taken on June 5, 2011.  As you can see there is an over-abundance of red dirt.

Part of this  area will become the Doggie Yard 20 of these beds make up my Victory Garden
 
This is a North view from the back door.  The garage is to the
left and the shop ("basement") is to the right.

 

Ultimately the Victory Garden consisted of 20 raised beds,
located SE of the shop ("basement')
Future home my "Iris River" Future location of my Butterfly Garden
The space south of the raised beds will become an "Iris River"
The garden will feature iris, small shrubs, perennials & annuals.
East of the "Iris River" will be the location of a Butterfly Garden.
I will be able to view it from my office window (single one). 

Although we "bought" our Lubbock home at the end of May 2011, we didn't officially live there until July 2011.  By then just about every thing that had been growing was dead.  In March 2011 we accepted a contract on our Thornton, CO house.  Since we had anticipated the sale, we were packed and ready to go.   We gladly traded in our down-jackets for shorts & T's.  

We moved to Texas into temporary housing (3 month rental on a house is Wolfforth); so no gardening for me.   My "garden" was a planter box with dusty millers and marigolds. 

We ratcheted up our search for a new home that had some acreage.  I really wanted a victory garden!     At the end of May 2011 we closed on our Lubbock home.     During the month of June we took our time and began moving in.  By the end of June we returned the keys of the rental and started the process of making the house and Lubbock our home.

The property, located outside the city limits,  is just a touch over one acre of good ol' Texas RED dirt.  Most of the acreage is in the backyard;  there is plenty of room for a long-dreamed Victory Garden.   Hubby built (I helped) 20 raised bed in which to grow veggies.

Most of the acreage is in the backyard;  plenty of room for a long-dreamed-of Victory Garden.  


Joy Blooms . . . with Planning
Gardening in Lubbock     Veggies Anyone?     Iris River Garden     Butterfly Garden     Joy is for the Birds      
Lawns & Landscaping
    Compost It!     Gardening Lessons from Daddy     Mindful of the Fur-Kids

Home Page Gardening Lubbock Beagles Contact Us

Discover Circuits Discover Solar Energy Imagineering Ezine
Copyright © 2007-2016  www.joyblooms.com                All rights reserved.                  Privacy Policy
We do not attest to the accuracy of the information given on links to external sites.  Any trademarks are the property of their respective owners.