Texas Gardening

[Kiara]

Alright, here is the thread for how to plant in Texas. We can hopefully exchange tips and see how each others gardens are growing.

[texasgal]

Are you going to break this up into districts .. as Texas is so big and the climate varies.... *wink*

*snort*

[Kiara]

So, I will rudely start on this thread

This weekend I was planning on planting cherry tomatoes. Still need to find some. Hopefully this weekend. I was also wanting to plant cucumbers, beets, radishes, carrots, potatoes dill and chives (the last two indoor). They are partially the main ingredients in a traditional Polish dish I have gotten addicted to. Of course, most of these need sandy or soft soil. We have blackland prairie out here, so rather thick and clay-like soil.

So cherry tomatoes will be planted, maybe cucumbers. Any tips on the rest?

Also with this weekend having a forecasted freeze, should I hold off or will tarping help?

[texasgal]

I was thinking cherry tomatoes also... I'm considering planting potatoes in an alternative way .. maybe potato cages..

[Kiara]

Texasgal, good point, I am not familiar enough on the different soil types and where they are to make that distinction

Yes, cherry tomatoes have been a hit so far in our garden. Though we have found we will need a stronger trellis.... Let me know how the cages work out!

[texasgal]

I was kidding about the districts .. hehe.

We live in the forest .. so sunlight and pine trees are a problem. We do have the area around the house that gets the most sun ..

Then there are our chickens.. that will eat anything they can get to.. so we have one little place fenced off..

I'm considering planting a garden for them .. just to keep them on their end of the property!

[Kiara]

I realize that, but it was still a good point, as there are different soil types depending on your area.

I'm kinda jealous that you live in the forest. Around here people don't seem to like trees very much *sigh*

If you have a herding dog, you could teach him to guard the garden from the chickens :)

[clippityclop]

Well here's my gripe for the gardening thread (LOL) - I planted two 4x8 beds of bareroot strawberries and it has been almost three weeks and not a single green leaf in sight. So I went out and dug up about ten of the roots just to get a good idea of what might be going on - they look exactly the same - no change. I planted some last year, but didn't pay any attention to it after I planted the roots until one day I walked by and the plants were tall and making millions of runners so that doesn't help me when I'm trying to figure out what the normal time frame is from planting bareroots to appearance of the first green leaves.

Oh well ....... I'm thinking that too much time has passed - time to order a new batch. Glad they were cheap!

[Kiara]

We were about to plant tomatoes and cucumbers, maybe some other things. The nursery lady said to wait another week or two. Good choice, since it's getting cold again all week. I did get some chives and dill and they are growing :) Our artichokes are still alive too. Hopefully they will produce this year or else DH might throw them out ;)

[clippityclop]

Yes -- sounds like another week or two is worth the wait! I am waiting until this weekend - I don't think it will get super cold anymore after that point - I'm going to go ahead and plant the other warm weather stuff - beans, squash, cantaloupe...i have some peppers, eggplant and other stuff that are already tall and waiting to be transplanted.

These new grow lights I got this year grow plants really well. Next year I think I will hold off starting seeds under them until January - this last time I started in mid December and my tomatoes were so tall, I HAD to get them in the ground or risk losing them all. And I can tell you now I hate having to fight with plastic sheeting to cover and uncover constantly to keep them warm at night but not too hot during the day. I don't want to have to do this again next year!