While I will always complain about the 613% humidity in August, there are many advantages to living in Texas: Bluebonnets in the spring. Frito pie from the high school concession stand on chilly fall Friday nights. The world’s best smoked brisket. An enviably long growing season
Our last frost date (on paper) is in mid-February. The last several years, The Foodie Groom and I have unsuccessfully planted small vegetable gardens: tomatoes, peppers, basil, cilantro and parsley. The first year, we lost everything to a several week stretch of biblical rain. The second and third years, drought. The fourth year, baby. This year, rather than an another uninspired toe-dip attempt at growing a small veggie garden, we cannon-balled into the deep end. Two days after the last frost date.
The Foodie Groom constructed four raised beds and we used the square foot garden approach to maximize production with a minimal footprint. So we won’t (hopefully) have to buy as much compost in the future, we started composting using the bungee cord and garbage-can-with-drilled-holes method. And then I bought eleventy billion seed packets.
Tomatoes – Beef steak, yellow pear, cherry, and 3-4 other heirloom varieties.
Peppers – a variety of spicy peppers and a rainbow of bell peppers (red, green, orange, yellow, and purple)
Chives
Green onions
Garlic
Shallot
Texas sweet onion
Zucchini
Cucumbers
Sweet peas
Green beans
Broccoli
Eggplant
Carrots
Parsley
Thyme
Tarragon
Lavender
Oregano
Cilantro
Basil
Greens – mesclun, red and green romaine, spinach
Watermelon
Strawberries
Butternut squash
Canon ball. And that’s just the raised beds. We have developed a slight fruit tree obsession. Last year, we purchased 4 citrus trees. It’s a wonder they didn’t die on us after months of neglect, little water, and barely any fertilizer. But they made the move to our new house and survived a couple of weeks in the garage during a super cold stretch of January. We have high hopes for this year.
Meyer Lemon (dwarf, potted)
Pink Lemon (dwarf, potted)
Key Lime (2 dwarfs, potted)
Orange (trimmed to dwarf, potted)
Peach (2 in-ground)
Plum (in-ground)
Avocado (in-ground)
Blueberries (4 potted)
Pomegranate (potted)
And after all that, I still have a want list:
Rio Star grapefruit
Fig
Blood orange
Oh wow! I am so impressed. After next year, I will hopefully be able to live in a place where I can have my own garden. I might be asking your advice. Your pictures are so beautiful. I am completely inspired. 🙂 I cannot wait to see the progress you make with it.
Shanon
Definitely an enviably long growing season. You will be able to grow things I could only dream of here in my zone 6 season. Are you doing intensive fruit tree planting like they suggest at http://www.davewilson.com/homegrown/BOC_explained.html . We plan on doing that here and I have figured that I have room for about 20 trees with their methods. I just need to narrow down my choices before my birthday comes around. Here’s to a bountiful season!
@Katie, Thanks for the link! I’ve never seen that method before but it’s a similar concept to our vegetable garden (maximizing output/variety in smaller spaces).
What a fantastic array of fruits and veggies!
Could i be more jealous? Um. No. I can’t wait to see all of the fabulous produce that you…produce!
How exciting! Can’t wait to hear how everything turns out!!
How ambitious! I’m anxious to get my garden going, too.
Texas weather is much like Mississippi – warm weather from March until November! We planted a big garden last year and like you – a new baby became the center of our world and eveything died! Hoping to do better this year – already have the herbs planted and looking to plant some tomatoes in the next few weeks.
Best of luck to you! I have a decidedly ungreen thumb which did not keep me from attempting to grow an herb garden last year. It went okay for awhile, but I just couldn’t remember to keep it watered. Living in Florida, well that wasn’t a good thing..ah well, I will most likely try my hand at it again soon. You have inspired me.