Good morning to all- I just got in from starting our fall/winter broccolli plants. I do hope the seeds sprout well and get big so I can plant them out by mid-September. Here on the Gulf coast, we are in the "dead zone" for gardening. summer is hot, very humid, and about the only crops that grow are okra, peppers, sweet potatoes, and peanuts. As fall comes, we can expand our growing and do cooler weather crops- onions, potatoes, cole crops, and even snow peas. We grow much more good stuff to eat in fall/winter than we do in summer. So, even though I enjoy summer a lot, I am looking forward to fall/winter gardening a lot, too. good day to all- Ed
What part of "the Gulf coast?" I live in Houston and my neighbors are still picking tomatoes, though it took a lot of watering this year. Also a few cucumbers left on the vines and they are picking green beans today.
We have been picking tomatoes every day, even though the weather has been very hot this summer, and we have had to water quite a bit extra also. Mostly, I have grown the smaller cherry/plum sized tomatoes because my plants didn’t grow well enough to hold a full-sized tomato; but this year, I have several tomatoes that are over 4’ tall, and some are taller than I am. We are not getting any large tomatoes yet, but it looks like the weather will be back into the high 80’s for the rest of this month, and not around the high 90’s+ like it has been; so I am still hoping for some larger tomatoes before the end of the season this fall. This one is growing right outside of our back door, and is still spreading every day. You can’t even see the tomato cage anymore !
I’m still picking winter tomatoes that survived all on its own while I was away for 5.1/2 weeks. it’s tough and needs trimming back but we’ve had very little dry weather to try and get outside to do a bit of trimming / cutting back . I’ve picked about 2 kg of tomatoes from this neglected looking bush and they are delicious and what a saving $10.99 kg for what I call “ plastic tomatoes” in-the shops. We had one reasonably good day so we took the opportunity to go get dirt to fill the little raised garden bed I bought from Aldi last summer, so that’s ready to go when we start to get a bit of warm weather after all it’s spring now …not winter .but you wouldn’t know it . Oh I’ve also got a nice crop of chard and silver beet amongst the neglected tomato waiting to be picked
The winter tomato that’s grown up,the back trellis …over the top and hanging down the front ..so it must be at least 7 ~ 8 foot long plant ….it look neglected but it’s staying while it’s producing tomatoes
My small raised garden bed that’s about 3x 6 foot …it took a while trailer full of soil to fill it Cold wet day AGAIN .. just went outside between showers to take photos Remember we live in a fairly arid area of South Aust ( we normally get excited if we get and inch of rain in winter ) but the rain just has not stopped this winter ..nor has the very cold arctic winds
I am jealous of your beets. I didn't put any in this year. It has been cool this year here too with adequate rain to keep everything green and pretty. A little extra watering. I won't be planting this fall.
I am working on the raised bed, started covering it with cardboard a couple months ago, put worms we raised in it several months a ago. Still deciding on greenhouse,