Vegetable gardening? Any Texas Gardeners out there?

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  • August 5, 2009 at 2:02 pm
    mommix3
    Member

    Hi, I really want to start a vegetable garden with my kids. We live in Texas (hardiness zone 7)so we have a long growing season. Problem is, I don’t know where to start. We don’t have a lot of $$. And the last time we tried this everything died. So it was very discouraging to us. We started everything from seed and it all started growing great and then all of the sudden it was all dead.. We are thinking of doing some raised beds because of our last experience. We have left over wood and my 11 year old is extremely enthusiastic about building the beds as well as the gardening. Thanks for your help.

    Angela

     

     

    August 5, 2009 at 6:08 pm
    Mamasong
    Member

    We’re in San Antonio and we garden (not for the faint of heart down here!!!)  Your local/regional extension service should have lots of great info for you.  Summer is the most difficult time to garden here because everything just gets fried. We usually wait until after the summer storms are done (september-ish) to put in our fall plantings.  Raised beds are great but keep in mind that the soil will be much warmer in raised beds than in the ground, that can fry your plant roots (I know from experience).  The growing season is long, but tricky and many things don’t grow well here.  We’ve had constant success with tomatoes, peppers, onions, watermelons, squash, beans and sunflowers (of course).  Carrots have been a dismal failure for us, we just can’t get sandy/cool enough soil for them.  Coming from Oregon it’s been hard for us to adapt to this climate (in Oregon everything grows) but little by little we’re finding out what works and what doesn’t.  Here is a good starting point from Texas A&M regarding Vegetable, Fruit and Nut Gardening, the links are fantastic:

    http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/lawn_garden/veg_fruit_nut.html

    Best Wishes on your garden!

    Rachel Smile

    August 5, 2009 at 6:23 pm
    Sonya Shafer
    Moderator

    Angela, you might find some helpful info on this 1st time gardener discussion to get started.

    August 6, 2009 at 4:14 am
    Cindie2dds
    Member

    Hi Angela,

     

    We live in Central Texas and have several raised beds to grow vegetables.  Starting everything from seed is a great way to find out which plants grow and produce well where you are.  Since you are in Texas, hot weather crops are the best bet for a new gardener.  I would do things like melons, cucumbers, tomatoes and squash.  Onions transplants are cheap and easy for the spring.  We buy 4 100-ish spring transplant bundles at $1 a bundle.  These are great because you have wonderful spring onions (green onions) until the tops start to fall over; then you harvest and dry them to have onions all year for $4!  We get our seeds for our other veggies from http://www.seedsavers.org so we can save them from year to year if we like them.  Make sure your raised beds are no more than 5′ by 5′ so you can reach in and weed them comfortably without stepping on the dirt.  I would recommend “Square Foot Gardening” by Mel Bartholomew to learn more.  I would caution you to only grow a few plants your first year so you don’t get too overwhelmed. 

    Feel free to ask away if you want to know more specifics.

    ~ Cindie

    August 7, 2009 at 1:15 am
    Rachel White
    Participant

    HI Angela,

    My first year last year wasn’t good either. I’m in N.Ga., a zone 7, too. We do have a long growing season. I also recommend sq. foot gardening, too. I had 4 raised beds this year as Ga. has terrible clay soil.

    I’m getting ready to put in a fall garden. You can look up what plants and when to plant them. The Spring plants can go back in from mid-July to Nov. depending on the plant. There’s still time for you to get some things in, or you may just want to use the Fall/Winter as studying and planning time.

    Find out when your first frost date and last frost dates and plant accordingly. Find out what your plants need as far as nutrients, watering, supplemental fertilizing, companion planting to control the bad bugs and bring in the good ones and complement the soil. You can start a compost pile now, as well. “Let it Rot” is a good book to check out at the library on this.

    I also recommend starting/keeping a gardening journal to write down what you planted and where. The results of your efforts, etc…That way you can look back year after year and see what worked and what you did and when.

    If you’re interested in what I’ve done this year, what I have planned for the Fall, both in planting and with a journal I can share that; just send me a PM!

    I get my seeds from Bountiful Gardens; they are organic and/or open-pollinated; no hybrids! Also, Seeds of Change for organic seed.

    Rachel

    August 7, 2009 at 3:06 am
    Mamasong
    Member

    I second the recommendation for Seeds of Change, we get a lot of our seeds from them, and they are fantastic!

    http://www.seedsofchange.com/

    -the other Rachel Smile

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