Say hi if you are in the DFW, Texas area

Looking through other posts, it looks like we have a pretty decent number of people in the DFW area on this forum. I'm curious to see how many of us there are. Please say hi if you live nearby.

I have lived in Allen for 10 years, thinking about moving north a bit more to get a little land.

Hi kb5won, I'm in Cleburne which is south of Ft Worth. You're right, quite a few people on this forum are from the area. This has been my second year gardening, and it was definitely more successful than the first.

Hi Brian, welcome to the forum! I'm in Grand Prairie, on my 2nd year of SFG and loving it.

Tracy

Hi Brian, Welcome to the SFG forum. I also follow your forum - (love your garden calendar).

We're in our third year of gardening and have about 235 sq ft, mostly SFG in Double Oak just north of the DFW airport. Been a pretty successful year so far.

Gloria

Hi Brian,
I'm in Garland and have been SERIOUSLY dedicated to SFG for about 4 years (dabbled about 15 years ago with 4 boxes and whiskey barrels) now with 140+ square feet and a little more in Smart Pots (potatoes and squash, about 20), plastic bins (sweet potatoes, about 15 bins) and 4 earth boxes (okra). Welcome!
Jane

I live west of Fort Worth in good ole Weatherford, TX. We have 10 acres. Horses on most of it. Grandkids on motorcycles on whats left. I managed to save my backyard for a SFG. This will be my first year so I will have a lot of questions. Good to know you people are out there!

Good to see some fellow DFW folks. This is my first attempt at SFG. I'm starting with 2 - 4x4 boxes. Everything is ready to go. About to go out and plant some lettuces, spinach, and seed potatoes today!! Should be interesting!

In Frisco here. Got the book last week and built three 4x4 boxes, 2 with trellises and the third is a pyramid for carrots and sweet potatoes. Can't wait to start planting this weekend.

Welcome fellow Texans! Good luck to the newbies! You will find this forum packed with information and everyone is so helpful.

Hi, my husband and I are new to McKinney (six months) and new to square foot gardening. We have grown herbs in containers and lots of flowers. My husband did row gardening in Maine when he was younger, too. We have six 4 x 4's and plan to try a lot of different veggies this first year.

Does anyone know if any Home Depot or Lowe's in the DFW area carry Mel's Mix? If not, any alternate pre-mixed you can suggest?

I currently live in Houston but I was born in Dallas and raised near Midlothian and Waxahachie.

If you are looking for bagged Mels Mix then go to Lady Bug Brand website and do a search of stores that carry their products. Lady Bug is a Texas company and I have liked all of their products that I have tried. They do have premixed MM in bags but I think they use coir instead of peat moss.

Thanks H_TX_2!

I lived in Austin for 7 years before moving to McKinney last summer. John Dromgoole was a favorite of mine on Central Texas Gardening and I bought a lot of my herbs and such at his Austin store (The Natural Gardener). I'll be happy to use his blend. We mixed our own for the ground level 4 x 4's but I am putting two 2 x 4 tabletops out for my herbs and want to try potatoes in grow bags - and I thought a pre-made mix would be a lot easier for fill the bags over the next few months. I'm hoping I'm not too late to start the potatoes!

You can find the Mel's Mix online at Home Depot but I couldn't get them to deliver to my local store so I could avoid the shipping charges. I ended up doing an online chat with them and they did discount it for me though. I hurt my knees and shoulder recently so I opted to go that route rather then mix my own. I'm just topping off my boxes though, if I needed to start from scratch I couldn't afford to go that route.

Flower Mound here ! This will be our third year running a garden in our suburban yard. We plan to add chickens this year and we will expand upon our composting process.

Thanks, TexasTracy - I was able to find bagged Mel's Mix online at Home Depot. The search that finally did it was "soil Mel".

I'm going to a local McKinney store to price the Ladybug mix and figure out which is priced best. The Ladybug is 2cft and the Mel's Mix is 1.5cft. The Mel's Mix shipping (for me at least) maxed out at six bags - $55 shipping and per bag price of $8.97 and six bags for a total of $108.82 (including shipping) so from that point on the price per bag decreases. If the difference between the two is really only the peat moss and Mel approves the Ladybug, it will come down to price.

I'll be sure to post the price points once I find out.

Thanks again!

If you do go with the pre-made mix I suggest amending it with more compost. Sort of like insurance.

Sounds like a great idea, camprn - we'll be sure to do that. We mixed our own Mel's Mix for the majority of our beds, but for the two smaller tabletops and the grow bags for the potatoes, I'd like the pre-mix. Two places in McKinney carry the Ladybug as well as the Whole Foods in Allen, so we're going to check prices against buying the Mel's Mix from Home Depot.

Checked out the prices on Ladybug compared to Mel's Mix. My price on Ladybug was $19.99 for 2cft at Whole Foods. Home Depot Mel's Mix is 1.5cft for $8.92 plus shipping. To get apples to apples, you need 6cft of each, so three bags of Ladybug and four of Mel's Mix at Home Depot online. The price (not including tax) was $59.97 for 6cft Ladybug and $90.68 ($35.68 + $55.00 shipping which is the maximum shipping for the product) for Mel's Mix at Home Depot. The price is better for Ladybug until you need approximately 16cft or more - at which point, Home Depot becomes the better deal. If hauling is an issue, having Mel's Mix delivered to your door may also have an impact on which is the better deal at a lower cubic foot.

I only needed 10cft, so I went with LadyBug. Seems to be the same mix (five composts and vermiculite) but with coir instead of peat most. A local McKinney nursery was more expensive on Ladybug, so check prices.

Hello, I am about 1 hour south of DFW south of Kemp TX. I've been SFG for many years on and off. My grandfather did this method over 30 years ago and was a very successful gardener. I aspire to have my garden produce as much variety as his did. My problem has been not setting up correctly in the beginning and having to water twice a day in the middle of summer. This is difficult as I commute to Dallas for work.
Also, I'm looking for the course vermiculite in Dallas area. Can anyone recommend place to purchase? I saw older post but most were north of Dallas.

Did you check the forum vermiculite database? There are several Dallas and Ft Worth listings but I have no idea if any are convenient to you.

Kay

We saw some vermiculite at Calloways this weekend. There seem to be a few of those around the Dallas area though the one we saw it at was in McKinney. I would call first before driving to be sure it is in stock - seems like a lot of people started their gardens this weekend.

Marshall's Grain carries 3 cu ft bags of coarse vermiculite in both their Grapevine and Forth Worth stores. I believe that North Haven Garden's in North Dallas also carries it.

I am a first-time SFGer. How do I determine what to plant and when? I have a single 4x4x6 raised box to keep it simple and hopefully some success. Your recommendations would be superb.

Hi anthonycreative,

Welcome to the forum.

First - let me suggest that you plant what you like to eat. If you love a vegetable, plant more of it. To help you find the best planting dates and varieties, I've attached a couple of links for information about what and when to plant. Most spring vegetables can go in right now.

Here's an interactive guide that will give you your last "freeze date" for the spring. This is the date you need to figure out when to plant each type of vegetable: http://davesgarden.com/guides/freeze-frost-dates/index.php?q=75077&submit=Go

This is the Texas A&M home vegetable guide. It's really good information about home gardening in Texas. It tells you when to plant each type of vegetable in number of days (weeks) before or after your last freeze date: http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/vegetable/files/2010/10/E-502_home_vegetable_guide.pdf

Here's an interactive A&M website that lets you see the best vegetable varieties for your area - by zipcode: http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/publications/veg_variety/

Good gardening and I hope this helps,
Gloria

Awesome info Gloria, I am thankful you responded. Are there any scheduled gatherings of SFGers in the DFW area?