I have been back in Houston for about a week and am back in the Houston vegetable garden again. The green beans I planted Labor Day weekend are producing very well. I did not get a very good stand of corn, but it is tasseling. Perhaps the seed were too old. The turnips also came up well and will be ready to be picked in a week or so.
I planted beets, both red and Chiogga and carrots (Kinbi and Touchon) directly in the garden. Kinbi is a great yellow carrot, but the seed is getting hard to find. In the indoor system I started collards, fennel, lettuce and bok choi. All of these are coming up now. The weeds were rather bad except in the areas I covered in late May with newspapers and alfalfa. In that area I have very few weeks. Next summer I will do the whole garden that way instead of relying on cover crops (cowpeas).
I bought some purple mustard and purple kohlrabi at Buchanans. The plants were beautiful and it will give a jump start on seeds. I also ordered Contessa onions from Dixondale; a absolutely great onion. Make room for it in the your garden. I plan to plant the front of the rose bed in onions to get more production this year.
Cilantro and parsley have reseeded from last year.
I have been away on a long trip to Australia and have been lagging on postings.
When I was in Houston over Labor Day I planted corn (Silver Queen) and Derby green beans. I also broadcast some turnip seed. Corn is a good fall crop. It ripens slower in the cool October/November weather so the it can be picked over a longer period. In the spring it ripens in late May and all of it must be eaten in only a few days. Worms are often worse in the fall, however.
Before I left everything was coming up. Corn needs to be started by early September. Beans can wait until as late as early October. As our winters have become warmer and warmer I have found best results are obtained by planting later than the historical weather based recommendations. Except for Ike, the September has been exceptionally nice; perhaps an omen of a colder winter. In most recent years it has been so hot in September that fall crops just cannot get started.
All of the cooler weather crops can wait until October and some to November. About mid October I will plant mustard greens, broccoli, lettuce, arugula, carrots, beets and fennel. I count on parsley and cilantro to reseed every year. All can be seeded directly in the garden but I often start broccoli, lettuce and fennel indoors under the plant light. (see instructions on Main Panel on right). I may plant some more exotic vegetables such as kohlrabi also. More on those planting in a week or two.