Fall planting is just around a corner in Houston: Got a plan?
By Urban Harvest
Although summer is still dishing out lots of very hot days, and
we are still mainly gardening in the early morning and very late
afternoon to avoid the heat, fall is close enough to be counting
the days until there is a hint of coolness.
Early mornings are spent removing weeds that have formed both in
our ornamental and vegetable beds. For the vegetable gardener,
trellises of worn-out cucumber vines, spent tomato vines and
no-longer-producing squash vines are being removed and
composted. And daily okra, pepper and eggplant harvests fill the
rest of the morning. A little work each day will make the summer
bearable while preparing your gardens for fall. Adding mulch to
already worn-down mulch in the vegetable beds is a must in order
to conserve water and soil life, in order for the soil to be in
great shape for fall planting.
Yes, fall planting is close and requires some planning. Now is
the time to decide what you want to grow in the fall. Think
about all the vegetables you and your family like to eat.
Whatever it is, most if not all can be grown in the fall. Begin
to make a list. My list includes lettuce, kale, collards, chard,
endive, arugula, beets, carrots, rutabaga, turnips, cauliflower,
broccoli, cilantro, dill, parsley, sugar peas, bok choy,
cabbage, mustards, onions and garlic.
If you have a large enough garden, all of these vegetables and
more can be grown, but not many people have that much space
dedicated to vegetable gardening. Therefore, choices need to be
made. The smaller the garden, the more careful one has to be
with choices. Cut-and-come vegetables will provide the most to
eat in the least space. These are the vegetables that can be
harvested over and over again all fall, winter and early spring,
such as lettuce, kale, collards, mustards, endives and broccoli
that produces a lot of side shoots after the main head has been
harvested. Vegetables like cauliflower and bulb onions are
�one-cut�, where they grow for a long time and harvested by one
cut, and no more is to be yielded from that space. Avoid these
or plant very few if your garden space is limited.
Once a decision has been made on the type of vegetables to grow,
some time needs to be dedicated to determining what varieties to
grow. There are hundreds of varieties of lettuces, and many
varieties of all other vegetables. Some varieties do better in
our hot humid mild winter climate than others. The Urban Harvest
website, under Gardening Advice, has a list of varieties that
have been tested and found to be excellent for our climate. But
there are many other varieties that are excellent as well. Check
out online seed company catalogs such as Johnny�s Selected
Seeds, Baker Creek Heirloom, Territorial Seeds and Gourmet
Seeds. In these catalogs will be found good descriptions that
will entice the gardening spirit. Most of these catalogs will
tell you how many seeds are in their packets, and they will tell
you how many days it will take from planting to harvest. Some
carrots, for example, can be harvested at 55 days while others
not until 95 days. Unless there is some compelling reason,
planting the shortest to harvest will provide more time to plant
something else once it is harvested.
Order your seeds now. Seed companies sometimes sell out of
highly desired or in-short-supply seeds. Once the seeds arrive,
store them in a container with powdered milk at the bottom in
the refrigerator. The idea is to keep them dry and cool so they
will last for years. The larger the seed, the more years it will
last. For instance, bean seeds will last a lot longer than
lettuce seeds, for they are many times larger.
All of this planning will pay off handsomely with abundant
harvests. If you think you need help with your gardening, you
may want to check out the numerous Urban Harvest gardening
classes. There is an upcoming August 18 Constructing the Home
Fruit & Vegetable Garden, as well as the August 23, Hands on
Planting the Fall Vegetable Garden. The schedule of classes is
listed at
Urban Harvest Calendar of Classes.
This article is provided by Urban Harvest, Inc. To learn about
gardening classes, farmers markets, school and community gardens
and more go to
www.urbanharvest.org or call
713-880-5540 for more information. This article was written by
Ray Sher who is a gardening and permaculture instructor,
vegetable and fruit garden consultant, and works his large
intensive home vegetable, fruit and herb garden using organic
methods. Contact him at
RayInTheGarden@sbcglobal.net
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