Vegetable Gardening in Texas

How many of ya'll have put in orders for your veg gardens yet? I LOVE Johnny's Seeds and can easily spend several hundred there, including tools to help along the veg garden. Was looking at their compost bins and was surprised they cost so much...and yet still none seem to be a perfect solution.

I have the unfortunate task of laying the foundation for a new veg garden where grass currently exsists this year.

What vegetables will you be growing? How have you laid your veg garden? What are the dimensions of it? Things you've learned? I'm in zone 9 so anyone close to me that has any helpful tidbits I'm much obliged to hear them!

Cross posting in the Texas Gardening forum.

Just doing my orders this weekend!

tir_na_nog .....where are you at in Texas? ...........what will you be planting? I too will be breaking ground for a new garden ..........except fortunately for me there is very little grass there, mostly weeds.

jmt

Ti do you have or have access to a tiller? If so you might want to go ahead and till those areas now and cover with cardboard or wetted newspapers and some type of mulch to hold them down. The worms will be your new best friends! I'm planning 3 3'x 30' rows for veggies. I only do wide row, raised bed. And we do not do the traditional raised beds with boards, we shovel about 6"-8" on the top of the tilled area. I already have bags of leaves laid out to kill out my grass/weed crop, LOL .
I like Johnny's and got a bunch of stuff from them. I also love Gurney's and will probably buy some of the things I'm missing from them. Plus Baker's is killer for unusual veggies and flowers.
I'm growing mainly organically grown, heirloom variety veggies, including 6 different kinds of tomatoes, 5 different kinds of peppers, potatoes (those I grow on the ground), radishes, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi, lettuce, salad mix, spinach, swiss chard, beets, beans, (bush & pole), cukes, zucchini, summer squash, winter squash, pumpkins, watermelon, cantelope, sunflowers, marigolds, nasturtiums. I'm creating a separate area for 250 gladiola bulbs and may buy some more while they are on sale. Plus I want to buy more roses, this year it will be moss and rugosa type.
Plus I'll interplant with some annuals and what ever else I find that suits my fancy. I want to create a sunflower fort for my grandbabies this year, which should be interesting and great fun! And it's all done organically, I do not ever, ever use pesticides or herbicides on my property. We've been working this ground for over 25 years and I mostly have black loam. I have 2 compost bins and they are working making me more black gold.
I can and freeze a lot of the produce, give some away and give lots of surplus to the local food bank.

doc i envy your 25 year pampered land!!!! wonderful! what type of compost bins do you use?

i am in houston, zone 9.

Great gardening thread. I'm thinking of growing some vegetables and have been composting.

Ti here is pic of compost bins, they are recycled pallets the DH got from his old job. The bags of leaves are a "bonus" we snagged! LOL

So IN the bins are also bagged leaves? Or do you bag and let sit everything in there? The pallet idea: pure genius!

Yep, they were, this is an old picture. The bagged leaves have been moved to other areas to kill out grass for new beds, although DH dumped a couple in the bins and gave it a stir. I'm still not happy with my slow heat, so DH is probably going to over and get a pickup load of raw cow poo, and add to them........For some reason, just not quite getting the right balance to suit me........LOL

Has anyone used the compost powder sold by Johnny's Seeds? Supposed to help it break down faster....

I have used powdered starter and had good results, it's been awhile, but sometimes you need a little extra omph to get it rolling! Nothing wrong with that :)

compost powder?

You can look up Johnny's Seeds company online, they sell it, 20 bucks for a bucket of it.

thanks

Google compost starter, planolinda. This is from what I've been able to understand very similar to the "soil soup" and other agents like that. I saw some for 9.99

ok--thanks doccat--

When I bought my first Troybilt tiller they gave me a book called The Joy Gardening. It says that one of the best, easiest and cheapest ways to start a compost pile is to layer your plant material with a few handfuls of dry dogfood scattered on it, a few shovels of soil on top and water it. Something about the protein in it jump starting the microbes. The same principle as adding a spoonful of sugar when you want yeast to dissolve and start working.

My all time favorite is to hit a row of old garden plants with the push mower for several passes and just till it in green. That way it disappears in a week or two and you don't have to wait or move it around. All the goodies are right where you need them. The warmer the soil the faster it works.

Chopping fallen leaves with the lawn mower and then dumping them in a chicken pen is the fastest way to compost them. Then you come back with the shovel and skim an inch or two of the black gold. Chickens will also take care of any other compostable material in short order.

I've always been a firm believer in easy is better if it gets the job done and I hope this helps.

Twig, we got the same book and it's great! LOL We can't have chickens here since it's been rezoned, but think I'm going to ask the lawyer about that since 2 neighbors down the road have cattle. In NE even chickens are considered livestock.......of course with VA, ya never know.

Doccat if you skip getting a rooster and don't let them free range in the front, the neighbors probably would never know you had them. There was a big lawsuit here a few years ago over a rooster and he never had a chance. A kid in town got a chick for Easter that grew up to be noisy. There was a lawyer's office on the next street almost back to back. He claimed the Rooster was making him sound like a country bumpkin to clients on the phone. I followed the court doings in the paper and it was quite entertaining with lots of letters to the editor too.

My winter garden is in full swing (collards, turnip greens, kale, spinach, salad greens, radishes, carrots) - winter is my favorite time to garden.

I'm in the process of ordering for the later spring/summer stuff. I usually buy from Baker Creek Seeds and Pleasant Valley (for supplies etc.).

I'm in New Braunfels, so that's 8B I think.

Only problem here is bugs once it warms up. Those stink bugs are the worst!

Oh I know, we dealt with them in Coverse (SA) last year!!!!!!!!!

VEGGIEHAPPY,

Good to hear your garden is in full swing. I've got some spinanch, onions, and lettuce planted now though it's yet to sprout. With all the rain we've had I've been unable to work in the garden.

Veggie,

When did you plant your winter stuff? I think I probably have time to grow some things before it gets too hot, but only if the seeds will still germinate in the colder weather...

David

I think that for alot of the summer stuff you can plant this spring early ........ and cover any seedlings if we have a late frost.

jataylor,

What do you plan on planting? Have you planted anything, yet?

Dean,

When did you plant your cool-weather stuff? I'd like to plant some of that stuff, but if the light rain and fog in our area doesn't let up my dirt won't be dry enough to work in. Dirt around here is very heavy and sticky when wet.

I turned sod over for an expended main garden area in early January, but didn't get the small area for cool-weather crops tilled. I have lettuce, spinach, radishes, green onions and sugar-snap peas all to plant.

David

David,

I planted peas, green onions, lettuce and spinach about a week and a half ago. It still has , yet to sprout.

I know what you mean about the rain and fog. I still need to finish tilling my main bed area, but its been a muddy mess. I was trying to till in some compost to those beds to build up the soil. I also got plenty of leaves to use as mulch for my aisles. I'm eger to get started.

You guys are making me sooooooooooo jealous here. I got major zone envy. I got to wait at least another month, although my beds are ready to go! Dean, my son, I'm a gonna have to teach you about setting up next springs bed in the winter. Do your beds, get them smoothed out and then over seed with annual rye grass. It will hold the soil and keep down the weeds. Then in the spring you can either till it under or just mow it off and start planting. The grass gives you a little nitrogen fix to help those seedling's jump. Less wear and tear on the gardener and leaves are plentiful in the fall. :)

It was a bit of a last minute plan to have a garden. I relized I had all that compost and it would be great to use it for some veggies.

That's ok. Gardening should be fun and you learn a lot from your mistakes, I do believe.

doccat,

Don't have too much zone envy. It's almost impossible to keep tomatoes alive through July and August, much less actually setting fruit. I'm planting more peppers this year, since they supposedly love the heat. I only planted a few sweet peppers last year and they all succumbed to a virus. I'm also making a stronger effort with Melons and sweet corn. I think Farmerdill said that Melons will grow well where ever Burmuda grass will grow....last year the Burmuda retook part of the garden, so hopefully this year I'll be able to control the grass and grow some melons.

There are plenty of heat resistent tomato varieties, don't recall the ones we planted last summer in San Antonio but we enjoyed tomatoes in the summer. :)

Dean,

Have those spring vegetables started sprouting yet? I was able to plant green onions, radishes, lettuce, and spinach this afternoon. I'm starting some brocoli in jiffy pellets, and I hope to plant snap peas next week.

Does anybody recommend a specific "heat tolerant" tomato? The 12 cultivars I have now might not be enough! : )

David

David,

The lettuce is coming up. No sign of the green onion, spinach or peas, yet. Yesterday, I planted carrots, radishes, swiss chard, mustard greens and some more lettuce. Good luck with your brocolii. In the past when I grew it they had lots of bugs.

Wow, 12 cultivors of tomatoes. You must have a big garden, David.

Dean

Dean,

I can hardly wait for my lettuce and onions. My family makes a "fried lettuce" salad that I love. Of course, it's a heart attack on a plate! Mix of leaf lettuce, spinach, green onions, stirred in a paper bag, wilted with smoking hot bacon grease, seasoned, and served warm. MMmmmm...

As far as tomatoes, I'm trying several types of tomatoes as experiments. I've been following the Tomato forum, and many of the growers there try 20 or more heirloom types! I'm trying some of the ones that they recommend for flavor.

I have a large lot, with about an acre that "could" be garden. It's all good soil, but has fairly heavy Burmuda grass. For now, I have an area about 30 x 100 for the tomatoes, sweet peppers, sweet corn, and some squash. Once I see how that plants out, I may break some more ground for some melons.

I'm also growing about a dozen types of sweet peppers. I love peppers, but had a problem last year with a virus. This year I'm trying some virus resistant types of bell pepper as well as a good sampling of other sweet peppers to see if I can find something that produces.

My family always gardened, canned or froze vegetables when I was a kid/teenager. I've only been able to have a serious (larger) garden for the past couple of years, so I'm just now relearning everything. I'm spending less than I would for golf, and I have something to show for the work when I'm done!

David

Your problem with the virus is why it is so important to keep a journal of your garden. With pictures is even better, it took me awhile to figure that out. But it allows you to learn from your mistakes and good crop rotation is Critical!
I've got 6 varieties of heirloom tomatoes I want to try this year. Probably that many peppers, plus I've orders some hot ones for the next door neighbor, who loves the things. I can't eat em, but I can grow em. One think that might help you set blossom on your tomatoes and peppers in the the heat is spraying them and the plant with epsom salts water. Tomatoes and peppers love the magnesium and will set fruit like crazy.
It's 1 Tablespoon of epsom salts to 1 quart of warm water, mix throughly and spray away. :)

David,
That fried lettuce salad sounds great.

As far as tomatoes go I'm only trying two. The tomatoes I'm trying are Delicious and a cherry tomatoe.

My lot is smaller than yours so I only have limited room. Though I will plant some okra, zucchini, tomatoes, peppers, melon and honeydew.

The peppers I bought are a Bell Pepper mix with all the different colors. I also will plant some Thai peppers for my DW, she likes the hot ones.

Happy Gardening.

Well, you can train the zucchini and melons to climb a trellis if you're short on space, Dean. I get all my girl friends to save me their "blown" pantyhose and knee highs which work wonderfully as 'slings" for the fruit. It's a lot easier to control both not having to bend down, but the fruit is cleaner and I don't seem to have as much problem with insects. DH is making me some new trellis out of pvc pipe this year. I also want to run bird house gourds on a trellis as well. Do a little garden landscape art.........LOL

I may just do that. It will help maintain space between rows as well. Gourds, they grow like crazy don't they. I thought about planting some, but no need for them.

Actually you can dry and sell them to your local art group.