Garden Update

My husband and I garden in central Texas. When other parts of the country are just getting into the swing of gardening, Texas is hot, hot, hot and gardening slows in July. The weeds in the garden are gigantic, the temperatures are over 100 degrees, and the mosquitoes are on the prowl for their victims.

This cantaloupe weighed over 3 pounds! 

We are harvesting a lot of items right now-corn, cantaloupes (well, we are not harvesting them so much as collecting them because they are taking themselves off the vines and we just pick them up and take them into the house!), tomatoes, peppers, spaghetti squash, okra, Chinese long beans, and onions. We  recently harvested about half a wheelbarrow of red and yellow onions. Some are larger than softballs! Yes, everything really is bigger in Texas!

In our area, we plant onions in November to get the largest onions possible. 

Just as it is the hottest and we only want to be lounging inside with a cool drink, we need to start working and planning for our fall garden. In our area we are fortunate that we can garden just about the whole year around.

Our goal is to be able to produce all of the fruit and vegetables we want to eat. This year is the best we have done so far towards that goal. Last year, we added fruits to our garden. We planted grapes, dwarf pomegranates, blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, two pear trees, and a fig tree. Our five blackberry canes produced a pint or more of berries every day for nearly three weeks. We are definitely going to expand the amount of blackberries we are growing!

There are few things I find more satisfying than creating a meal whose ingredients mainly came from our garden. I am looking forward to many more home grown meals and new recipes in the future and I will be sharing them right here with all of you!

Just washed okra waiting to be tossed in cornmeal and fried for dinner. 

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Here I am with our onion harvest in May 2012!

I live in central Texas where it is possible to garden pretty much 365 days of the year (smiling broadly as I write this). My husband and I have had a garden the last 14 or so years and I have slowly been working on my front yard landscaping as time and budget allow.

We are working towards the goal of our garden supplying the majority of the fruit and vegetables we consume. My husband has more time than I do to work in the garden right now and has been planting tons of items. We do the planning together and I assist with weeding, watering, and harvesting.

Late fall harvest of okra, green peppers, tomatoes, Chinese long beans, and chard. 

Currently we are growing: potatoes, turnips, beets, radishes, Oregon peas (edible pod pea), yellow and white onions, Romaine lettuce, asparagus, strawberries, blackberries, green onions, a variety of peppers, cherry and Roma tomatoes, fennel, red cabbage, and regular cabbage. We plant our onions in December and when we begin harvesting in May they are softball sized!

My hubby, Joe, pulling onions.

In two weeks we will be able to plant Chinese long beans! These beans are really long-last season I measured one at 22 inches long! We save and dry some of the mature bean pods to have seed for the next season. These beans are great producers and grow from spring until the first frost.

Chinese long beans! I don't have to pick many  to have plenty for our evening meal!

By the time we have spring in full swing, we will also have planted tomatillos, watermelon, cantaloupe, yellow squash, zucchini, butternut squash, pattypan squash, a variety of herbs (thyme, rosemary, basil, mint), and probably at least one new fruit tree (last year we planted dwarf pomengranates and two pear trees in the front yard).

I will continue with gardening info and updates because I love gardening. Tell me, how does your garden grow?