Winter Gardening in Texas

I am still trying to get my mind around gardening in Texas.   I grew up with the notion that you planted a vegetable garden in late spring or early summer and harvested the produce in late summer or early fall.  That is definitely not the case in Texas.  There are two seasons for gardening here, spring and fall.  The summer is just too hot for most things.  Even that is confusing since "spring" and "fall" don't necessarily coincide with the typical times indicated on the calendar.

Winter Gardening.  I started a "fall" garden last year (meaning first plantings in June).  It was slow to start, but kept going and going.  The peppers, beans, and lettuce were all doing great well into what I think of as winter.  I had enough banana peppers to make a batch of pickled peppers in mid-November and I had cherry tomatoes for Thanksgiving dinner.

Bell pepper, banana peppers and green beans, some of the harvest on 11-6-16

We had a light frost in mid-November, but covering the plants with frost blankets kept everything going strong. 

Frost blankets in place on 11-18-16

In fact, everything was alive and the garden was still producing goodies into December.

Tomatoes on 12-7-16.  Notice the red cherry tomato near the center and lots of green tomatoes.

However, in reality it had become an overgrown mess.  The tomatoes in particular were trying to take over the world.

"Fall" garden on 12-7-16

With a forecast of freezing weather approaching,  I picked the peppers, beans, and green tomatoes (LOTS of green tomatoes), pulled out the tomato and pepper plants, and covered the remaining more hardy plants (broccoli, beets, lettuce, carrots, and green onions).

Last harvest from the warm weather plants on 12-7-16

Hardier plants (broccoli, beets, carrots, green onions, and lettuce) covered on 12-7-16, in preparation for cold weather

The uncovered pole beans and the marigolds did not survive, but everything else did great.

Garden on 12-10-16 after freeze

I continued to pick lettuce for the next several weeks and was hoping for the broccoli to mature.  However, in early January we finally got some more severe cold.  It was predicted to be in the low teens to high single digits.  I did not think even the frost cloth would be enough for those temperatures, so I did not bother to cover anything.

Sure enough, we had several days of extreme cold and even some light winter precipitation.

Winter precipitation on 1-6-17

Garden as seen through the window (and screen) on 1-6-17

The lettuce, beets, and broccoli did not survive, but to my surprise the carrots and green onions actually seemed to do better after this hard freeze.  In any case they were the starting point for this year's garden, a normal spring garden.

New Spring Garden.   The calendar still said winter, but the weather was great.  I cleaned everything out of the garden except the carrots and green onions and began thinking about what new to plant for a spring harvest.

Carrots and green onions on 2-8-17, remnants from last fall's garden

This year's spring garden will be a bit different, but it still focuses on most of the same plants as last year. 

Two squares of carrots and the green onions on the right are left over from last fall.  See info at the link (https://www.growveg.com/garden-plans/784963/)  for meaning of the figures and projected planting and harvest times, at least according to growveg.com

The bigger issue is knowing when to plant.  The average date of the last freeze in Denton County, at least according to the Denton County Master Gardener Association, is March 18. Of course, all that the average really means is there is a 50% chance there will still be a freeze after that date.  The 90% probability of no frost is April 6. 

However, this does not seem to be an average year.  We have had a record 12 days at 80 degrees or above since December 1 and it was 88 (new record) on Thursday.  A cold front came through and it was down to 36 on the backyard thermometer this morning, but there are no freezing temps in the long range forecast.

Even with the warm temperatures and lots of people posting on Facebook that they are already planting tomatoes, I have decided to pretty much follow the suggestions from North Haven Gardens. 

Brocolli and kale transplants were planted on February 9.  Three kinds of lettuce, two kinds of spinach, two kinds of carrots, and the green onions were planted as seeds on February 9 and 10.  Now, just two weeks later and despite the fact that it is still meteorological winter, everything looks great.

Garden with hardier veggies in place, 2-24-17

The seeds are sprouting.  The transplants, especially the broccoli, are growing.

Garden with hardier veggies in place, 2-24-17

The carrots and green onions from last fall look the best they have ever looked.  

Garden on 2-21-17.  Carrots (on left) and green onions (center right) are from last fall.  Broccoli and kale is new this spring.

I am anxiously awaiting the time to plant the less frost tolerant plants (marigolds, beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers).   Assuming no freezing weather is forecast, the beans and cucumber (all from seeds) will likely be planted about March 20, with the tomatoes and peppers to follow as transplants about March 25 and April 1, respectively.

Wildlife.  I am also trying to beat off the wildlife.  The chicken wire around the garden looks kind of ugly, but has been effective thus far in keeping the bunny out of the garden.   That is probably a very good thing, since he seems to really like carrot tops.  He completely consumes any carrot greens (although not any remaining orange parts) that I leave for him on the patio. 

On cool days I frequently see anoles sunning themselves on the concrete base of the air conditioner. They are brown in the picture below, but turn to green when in the green vegetation.  It is great that they are still around, since they eat a lot of the insect pests that can invade the garden.

Anoles sunning on the base of the air conditioner.  Note that the one on the top is puffing out the skin under his chin...trying to intimidate me, I think.

A new problem, at least relative to the garden, is squirrel digging.  The squirrels apparently took advantage of the soft dirt in the garden last fall and stashed some of their nuts.  Several times I have discovered major holes in the garden.  A look at the surveillance camera revealed a squirrel climbing the chicken wire and retrieving buried nuts.  The transplants have been ok so far, but it has been hard on some of the new little seedlings.  Ahhh...problem rodents.