Texas winter garden

This is the first time in several years that I've had a "real" garden. By that I mean one in the ground. I've been growing vegetables in pots for the last three years and still have some in pots for the convenience of it. Here is a photo of my garden. It is 20 x 42 ft long. It is fenced to keep out armadillos. Armadillos dig in the soil looking for worms and uproot everything. We have javalinas (looks like a little pig) and they dig too. A neighbor tilled the garden with a tractor tiller attachment, the soil is close to the water and is silt and loam. After he tilled, I laid out the rows 3 ft wide raised rows with a 1 ft path between them. I don't wear shoes in the garden, so no problem walking. I have only lost my balance once! I keep a heavy mulch on everything, and all additives are organic. I don't plan on tilling this area again. I did plant a row of tomatoes outside the fence because I couldn't bear to toss the plants. Something stepped on and broke three of them which I replaced. I garden organically and by the moon.
Our winters are mild, we rarely get frost. Most days are in the upper 70's to low 80's with nights in the 50's or 60's. Once in a while we have north wind and the nights drop into the low 40's. The wind is brutal when it's out of the north, sustained 30-35mph with gusts even higher. The wind blows the plants around and the stems make wide holes where they wiggle back and forth so I mulch to stabalize them. Gardening books were absolutely no help for the Rio Grande Valley and garden centers weren't much better. I was looking for seed potatoes and all said "we get them in in February" which is too late to plant and then they wonder why they don't sell! I buy my seeds from Johnnys now but used to buy them when they were in the stores and keep them in the refrigerator till time to plant. I bought organic potatoes from the food co-op and planted them.
In this garden I have 42 tomato plants, 6 broccoli, 6 cabbage, 5 bell peppers, 42 ft of potatoes, lettuce, two kinds of turnips, two kinds of radishes, two kinds of kohlrabi, pac choi, scallions, onions, shallots, garlic, cucumbers . pole beans, bush beans and two pitiful canteloupe plants. I just planted mustard greens and english peas. It may be too late for the peas, but I'm hoping they will make it.
I'm getting one more garden tilled in a few days. It will be 30 x 50 and I'll probably plant melons there. The soil is not warm enough for them yet but should be okay by February.
I'll post more photos in a few minutes. I'm also baking bread right now!

Here is a photo of the side with tomatoes, broccoli and cabbage. The lettuce in the front didn't come up as well as I'd hoped. I think the ants carried off some of the seeds. I also have fiddler crabs in the garden. I wonder if they eat lettuce?
The extra fencing along the north side of the tomatoes is for wind break. The plywood is also wind break for my peppers. A north wind really ruined their leaves. I did harvest two peppers, but the wind messed up the plants pretty bad. Bud fixed the plywood and now their leaves are growing back nicely.
I have hot peppers, but they're up by the house growing in big pots.

This side has potatoes, garlic, onions, beans. The outside (right hand) row has cucumbers and cantaloupes planted. The cucumbers came up nicely but the cantaloupes didn't do so well. I am rushing the season but I had to try it. I planted english peas along the fence today.

Last photo. This is my container garden. The containers are filled with compost and soil mixture and are 20 gallon pots. I grow lettuce, radishes, onions, english peas, snap beans, tomatoes and turnips in them. We love fresh turnip roots in our salads. I've grown cantaloupes, cucumbers and watermelons in these pots too. The beans and peas have 20 plants per pot. I only put one tomato in each pot. I also have my hot peppers growing here, one per pot. The cherry tomato really got beaten up by the wind this year. I have grape tomatoes started, but they're still small.
It's easy to go out and pick almost everything I need for a salad, even if it's dark outside I can turn the flood lights on and pick what I need.
The peas are growing up in tomato cages. I grow melons and cukes the same way.

That's a beautiful garden! Good luck to you.
It's always nice to see pictures of other's gardens.

This message was edited Dec 30, 2008 6:05 PM

What an absolutely beautiful garden. I must be a joy to work in, and harvest from! It's really interesting to read about your garden "varmints". Here we have rabbits, raccoons, and the occasional deer. You have such exotic ones... armadillos, javalinas, and fiddler crabs! What a hoot, but I bet they can do serious damage. I do have gardening envy viewing your posts though. Here in the Midwest, we have freezing temps and ice/snow mix this week. Just a barren garden to look out onto (except for my potatoes under straw!).

I am interested in your container garden. What were the containers originally? Do you have trouble with ants moving in to them? I realize you said they were 20 gallon but was fascinated when you said you had 20 pea or bean plants in them. Why so many? Do you have to fertilize heavily?

Although mine is a more moderate climate, I must admit zone envy too. At least now, when there are no hurricanes. Very nice!

Thanks everyone for the nice comments. I love working in my little garden. Every morning we take coffee down to see what's new. Hoosier, we do get a rabbit every now and then, but they don't do much damage. I had a big turtle that was stealing tomatoes this summer. She would come up from the water every day and munch on any tomatoes that she could reach!
Podster, the containers are the large plastic pots that trees come in from the nursery. I filled the bottom half with good garden soil from our grapefruit orchard and filled the top half with compost. I added rabbit manure the first two years, but this summer I used organic fertilizer in a bag. I think it was called "Landscaper's Choice." I add greensand once a year plus epsom salts for the peppers and tomatoes. I fertilize once when the plants are growing good and then again when they're flowering. The pots are full of earthworms. I haven't had a problem with fire ants, but we're not overrun with them yet.
The peas and beans have that many plants because I was running out of pots and had 40 bean seed and 80-90 pea seed to plant! The most important thing is to not let them dry out. I water them first thing every morning unless it rains or we've had the sprinklers on. The lawn is irrigated and the sprinklers hit the pots just right so if we go out of town, we set that zone to come on 15 minutes every morning and I don't have to worry about my veggies drying out. Fifteen minutes is the least amount of time the timer can be set for.
I start things to be transplanted in the containers like tomato and pepper seed. I even started some potatoes in one and moved them after the garden was ready. They did fine.
As for the hurricanes, Dolly was the first bad one in 30 years. We had a little water that came thru the windows and front door because we were out of town and didn't put up the hurricane shutters, but no other damage other than trees blown over. I hope I've got my garden far enough from the water if another one comes thru.

Very interesting. Thanks much for answering my questions and for sharing your winter garden. pod

Just wonderful! And the "Texas" gardening guides don't have much to do with this area, either. I think if you live in Austin they'd work, but Texas has massively different ecosystems. But OH, your garden is great!

WOW Susie, I am so impressed. It all looks so wonderful. You have so much land. I am so jealous. In the pot photo, is that all your land empty? I am surprised you do not have it all filled with plants like your last house.

And you had bread in the oven. I bet Bud is getting so spoiled by you!

Kell, yes that is our land. This piece of property has 3.75 acres. If I use all this up, there is a 111 acre farm. It's plowed right now, waiting to be planted but not by me. (we lease the land to a farmer). Every time we pass by I say to Bud "I see peas, carrots, beans, corn......" and he speeds up really fast!!!
Yes, he is very spoiled, but he spoils me too.

I remember when you told us you had bought another lot. Isn't it next to your house? I bet it keeps you so busy, happy busy. You could plant a paradise!!

Those grapefruits sound so good too. I bet the juice is so good.

Yes, you 2 are lovebirds for sure. LOL.

Yes, the lot is next door. The people who owned it were very nice. He worked in Alaska. The only problem, the house they were going to build would block our view of part of the river, so we bought the lot from them. They really wanted to build closer to their children, so they were happy to sell too.
The grapefruit juice is fantastic, much better than what we could buy in the store.

Susie, your garden is amazing. But then all of your gardens have been amazing.

Wow, it looks great, Susie. I'm so jealous that you can grow these veggies this time of year when it so cold and drab here.

How great to have so much extra room, Susie.

Ada, we all need a road trip to visit Susie. LOL She will cook for us.

Hi Jeanne. You rejoined! LOL

We need Mel too!

Well I had to see Susie's new garden and what a garden it is.

LOL. I know you did. Susie is such the good homemaker.

I forgot to mention we need CC too! I so miss CC!

Here is how the garden looked a week ago. Bud is watering it. That's the first time it's needed watering (other than light watering for the emerging seedlings) since it was planted.

Tomatoes on the left along the fence, broccoli, pac choi, radishes and turnips. (this photo was taken last week)

Sure, make us jealous Susie.

Also taken last week, potatoes, turnips, kohlrabi, garlic, onions.

If those made you jealous, how about these radishes?

Is it possible to croak from jealousy? If so, I'm in grave peril.

Just beautiful, Susie. You have such a way with gardening.

I have been eating Japanese radishes at sushi lately. They are much more mild!

Am I getting a gift basket soon?

Kell, I have mild radishes and hot radishes. I've heard of the Japanese radishes, but don't have any growing. I bought seeds for an heirloom purple radish.
If you want fresh veggies from the garden, you have to come to Texas!
Twiggybuds, I don't think you can die from jealousy, but it might make you turn green! Won't you be planting there pretty soon?

True love only goes so far, I guess. LOL

And remember, when y'all up north are enjoying your tomatoes, ours are dead and gone from the heat!

This is how the garden looks at the end of January. The lettuce is finally growing. I kept blaming the fiddler crab for eating my lettuce. I dug down in the mulch and found cutworms. After spraying the garden with beneficial nematodes, no more cutworms and the lettuce is growing. The fiddler crab is still there.

I harvested three heads of broccoli. They were huge, at least 8 inches across and no bugs or caterpillars.

Susie,

It's so nice to see your smiling face! What a wonderful garden!

Beautiful! I harvested four heads of cabbage this morning myself; the tops got frozen last night but I don't think I'll have to sacrifice much of them.

Hi Michelle, it's good to see you too!
Brigidlily, it was chilly here both yesterday morning and this morning (well, 52* but I really was cold). My cabbage isn't quite ready. How early did you plant yours?

Calalily, I've lived in Vermont, and 40* in Texas is colder then 20* there. I'm sure it's because of the dampness!

I put the cabbages in in late August. Steamed one last night, then sauteed it just a little with olive oil, salt, and pepper. YUMMMMMMMM.

I agree about the cold. I was in Minnesota in October and it got down to 21* and it didn't feel much colder than 45* here. When we have a cold front, it usually comes with a strong north wind. We're not as humid as other parts of east Texas, because the wind blows most of the time and when it's out of the north, it can be brutal.