Texas Peach Handbook

An up-to-date guide for commercial and residential peach growers . . . With an estimated one million trees producing almost fifty million pounds of fruit per year, Texas is a leading producer of peaches, and several popular seasonal festivals highlight the widespread enjoyment of and interest in this delicious, versatile fruit. In addition, a recent rise of interest in edible gardens and home fruit production has led more people to think about planting a peach tree in the yard—or paying closer attention to the one they already have. Jim Kamas and Larry Stein, drawing from their many years of experience and the best current research, provide authoritative advice for those who want to improve peach production, whether in a large commercial orchard or on a single tree in the back yard. With discussions ranging from site selection to marketing ideas, Texas Peach Handbook covers the basics of peach cultivation—planting, pruning, fertilizing, watering, protecting, thinning, harvesting—and gives both instruction on disease and insect control and advice on the financial aspects of the peach business. The authors also direct readers to other, more detailed or technical sources, for those who want to learn more about a given topic. For its useful information and expert guidance, this how-to handbook will prove indispensable for anyone who grows, or wants to grow, peaches.

Set includes revised editions of some issues.

In this updated 2nd edition of Texas Fruit & Vegetable Gardening, you'll find much-needed advice and practical tips on growing an edible garden, no matter which part of The Lone Star State you call home. Growing in Texas isn’t easy. It’s either too hot, too cold, too wet, or too dry. The state ranges from a cold winter climate in the north to an almost tropical one in the south. And it goes from very alkaline limestone soils in the Hill Country to extremely acidic soils in East Texas. That's why this region-specific garden guide is a must-have for every Texas gardener! Seasoned horticulturist, conservationist, garden writer, and seventh-generation Texan Greg Grant simplifies the ins and outs of Texas gardening and serves as your guide to success. Regardless of whether you're tending an in-ground plot, a small container garden, or a series of raised beds,Texas Fruits & Vegetable Gardening is an invaluable resource. From soil preparation and starting seeds to fertilizer tips and techniques for safely managing Texas's most troublesome vegetable garden pests, you'll find all the answers you're looking for. Inside, you'll find detailed profiles of over 60 edible plants that thrive in Texas's distinctive growing conditions, including favorites like cantaloupe, tomatoes, collards, summer squash, okra, and pomegranates. In addition to vegetables and fruits, also featured are popular herbs and even edible nuts. Helpful charts and planting graphs keep you on track, while the garden maintenance tips found throughout ensure a lush, productive, and high-yielding garden. Regardless of whether you're a first-time grower or an experienced Master Gardener, the modern varieties and well-researched gardening information found here will have you going from seed to harvest with confidence and know-how. Texas Fruit & Vegetable Gardening is part of the regional Fruit & Vegetable Gardening series from Cool Springs Press. Other books in the series include CaliforniaFruit & Vegetable Gardening, Mid-Atlantic Fruit & Vegetable Gardening, Carolinas Fruit & Vegetable Gardening, and many others.

The burgeoning demand on the world food supply, coupled with concern over the use of chemical fertilizers, has led to an accelerated interest in the practice of precision agriculture. This practice involves the careful control and monitoring of plant nutrition to maximize the rate of growth and yield of crops, as well as their nutritional value.

In The Texas Lowcountry: Slavery and Freedom on the Gulf Coast, 1822–1895, author John R. Lundberg examines slavery and Reconstruction in a region of Texas he terms the lowcountry—an area encompassing the lower reaches of the Brazos and Colorado Rivers and their tributaries as they wend their way toward the Gulf of Mexico through what is today Brazoria, Fort Bend, Matagorda, and Wharton Counties. In the two decades before the Civil War, European immigrants, particularly Germans, poured into Texas, sometimes bringing with them cultural ideals that complicated the story of slavery throughout large swaths of the state. By contrast, 95 percent of the white population of the lowcountry came from other parts of the United States, predominantly the slaveholding states of the American South. By 1861, more than 70 percent of this regional population were enslaved people—the heaviest such concentration west of the Mississippi. These demographics established the Texas Lowcountry as a distinct region in terms of its population and social structure. Part one of The Texas Lowcountry explores the development of the region as a borderland, an area of competing cultures and peoples, between 1822 and 1840. The second part is arranged topically and chronicles the history of the enslavers and the enslaved in the lowcountry between 1840 and 1865. The final section focuses on the experiences of freed people in the region during the Reconstruction era, which ended in the lowcountry in 1895. In closely examining this unique pocket of Texas, Lundberg provides a new and much needed region-specific study of the culture of enslavement and the African American experience.

A garden-grown tomato, sliced and laid across a grilled hamburger . . . Sweet, plump cherry tomatoes in a crisp, green salad . . . Sauce made from fresh tomatoes, ladled over a steaming bowl of pasta . . . Spicy tomato salsa . . . Savory tomato soup . . . Is there any single vegetable as mouth-watering as the tomato? And yet, as thousands of people—tired of mushy, half-green, and tasteless tomatoes bought from supermarkets—have discovered, much more is involved in growing your own than simply putting a plant or two in the ground and expecting to harvest luscious tomatoes a few weeks later. William D. Adams draws on more than thirty years’ experience to provide a complete, step-by-step guide to success in the tomato patch. Growing good tomatoes requires a gardener’s attention to a variety of factors, and Adams begins by explaining the basics of soil preparation, planting, feeding, caging, and watering. He also outlines the pros and cons of standard, hybrid, heirloom, and cherry varieties, sharing tips about old favorites and suggesting new varieties. After the tomatoes are chosen, planted, and thriving under his tutelage, Adams prepares growers for the insects, diseases, and other visitors they are likely to encounter, warning that "gardeners are not the only ones that love tomatoes." He ends by offering a few words about “tomato kin folk” (peppers, eggplants, tomatillos, and potatoes), along with a source list of selected suppliers. Liberally sprinkled with the author’s easy humor and illustrated throughout with excellent photographs, The Texas Tomato Lover’s Handbook has everything you’ll need to assure a bumper crop, year after year.