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