HoustonVegetableGarden.com

The picture shows the status of the tomato plants that I planted on January 5.  They will be ready to transplant to 4″ pots next week.  Then in a couple of weeks before I leave for a trip to New Zealand they will be transplanted to 1 gallon containers.  I may go ahead and plant some directly with a frost cloth wrapping.  Wrapping works well for tomatoes and peppers for Houston vegetable gardening.

 The Packman broccoli planted around October 1 is now being harvested.  Fennel planted at the same time is also ready.  Mustard greens continue to produce faster than we can eat them.  They have lasted longer this year by picking the leaves when they are still relatively small.  I have much better luck with Florida Broadleaf Mustard than with the curly varieties.  In addition to the traditional southern way of cooking (and over cooking) them, I use them is soups with lentils and also by lightly stir frying with onion and then steaming for a few minutes.  They are more bitter with the shorter cooking.

A rather slow time in the Houston vegetable garden.  I am picking lettuce, mustard greens and bok choi.  Carrots and beets are coming along but it will be a while.  The broccoli is starting to form heads–I should have started it a little earlier, but it should be ok if we don’t have a real hard freeze.  The mite problem seems to have gone away.  They spread from the turnips to the greens but I was able to control them with insecticidal soap.  I tried just washing them off.  It was easy to get them off, but they came right back up.  On large plants such as roses washing works well because they can’t get back up to the foliage.  Next week it will be time to start tomatoes under my grow light. (see post for how to)

I replanted lettuce where something had eaten the first batch and put some fine mesh wire over it, but the varmint got under it and ate all the Simpson lettuce, but left the Red Sails alone!  I am not sure what it is; I think an animal of some kind.  Snails or cut worms would get one plant at a time rather than all at once.  Also nothing was left of the tops so whatever it was ate everything.  Strangely in this one spot next to the trellis I have had this problem (last time it was peas), but nothing is bothered in the rest of the garden in this manner.  Any clues?

I will be working at the Urban Harvest fruit tree sale again (Jan 19), probably as a grapefruit salesman.  I got one grapefruit on my tree the first year.  The orange tree (2 years old) also had one orange, but the squirrels got it.  I guess they got all the persimmons also.  When we I got back from Montana they were all gone.

I did find the carrot and other seed at Urban Harvest; still quite an inventory left. The beets planted were Chiogga, a beet most would not recognize as a beet. It is yellow with concentric red bands when sliced. It is supersweet compared to the traditional red beets like Detroit Dark Red. Beets are interesting in that each seed is really a number of seed. Thus you might get 5 or 6 plants from seed. Young beet plants are rather spindly and do not transplant very well. As a result I usually just thin them.

Carrots are planted by broadcasting and then covering lightly with sifted compost or potting soil. I also planted some kohlrabi the same way. I do not normally raise it, but each year I plant something different. This year it was kohlrabi. We usually eat it raw or put it in salads something like jicama. If you stopped 10 people on the streets of Houston I doubt that more than one would have ever heard of kohlrabi. The one that would know likely would be of local Czech ancestry. It was a favorite vegetable of the Czechs I grew up with in central Texas. I planted Kinbi and Touchon carrorts. Kinbi are a pale yellow and quite sweet. Touchon are more traditional looking carrots and a type of the well known Nantes carrot.

When I returned in early October I planted Derby green beans and turnips. Both came up well and are growing. Early October is really too late for beans, but I got a mess or two last year with the late planting. This year I planted them in a location that will get more sun in November. We will see.

I also planted seed of mustard greens, broccoli, bok choi, fennel and lettuce in a planter box under a grow light. (See Main Menu for information on this very good method) Those seed came up well also, but I had to delay transplanting them until the temperature got below 90, a longer wait each year it seems. The cold front this week gave me the opportunity to set them outside. The bright sunlight has been a bit hard on them, but I have watered them each day and I think they will catch on ok.

Next up will be carrots and beets. The weather should be fine for planting them now. I just need to get some carrot seed. I will plant Kinbi and Touchon if I can find the seed. Urban Harvest is stopping their seed selling program because of the time intensity of the effort; however, they probably still have some left. Also will plant some mache’ and some lettuce by direct sowing.

Time also to order my Contessa onions from Dixondale. The last time I checked they showed out of stock, but probably the plants just are not ready yet.

 Here are some pictures of Houston winter garden vegetables in my backyard garden.

The picture below is a lettuce bed with varieties noted.  Dark Lollo is good as a color accent for salads but is a slow grower and not so productive.  All others are very good.  See more on Mache below.

Mache is a nutty flavored French green.  It is an excellent complement to a mixed salad or good on it own.  I especially like it with pears and gorgonzola.

Fennel is widely used in Italian cooking.  (See previous post).  It grows much of the year here but is best in the cooler months.  I usually start the see indoors (see page)

The Contessa onions sets I ordered from Dixondale Farms ( see links) arrived yesterday and planted in garden today.  The date recommended by Dixondale for planting onions in Houston vegetable gardening is about a week earlier than this, but I was a little late in ordering.  Should be fine though.  A bunch of 60 plants cost about $10 including shipping.  Incremental bunches are much cheaper.  See a previous post of these great, sweet onions.  Give them plenty of fertilizer ideally below the root line.  They should mature in April-May.

Sugar Snap Peas are a great for the Houston winter vegetable garden.  I planted mine yesterday.  The normal guideline is to plant between Christmas and New Years, but Bob and Gary at Urban Harvest now recommend planting them earlier.  They planted them last week at the Old Sixth Ward Garden.  In the inner Houston area the earlier planting should be ok unless we have a hard freeze after they bloom.  The plants are moderately cold hardy and work perfectly for the mild winters we have had in recent years.  However, temperatures in the low 20s can damage the plants severely.  A strong fence of 6 feet or so is needed.  I previously planted them on the lattice at the back of my garden, but they did not get enough sun.  This year I put up a fence in a sunnier area.

The first of the winter vegetables are coming in.  Today will be the second batch of mustard greens.  I planted Florida Broadleaf, a variety with huge flat leaves and Southern Giant, a variety with curly leaves.  I much prefer the FB.  It produces better and has a milder mustard flavor.  The Southern Giant is a bit strong for my taste without being mixed with other greens such as collards (which I find a little bland on their own).

Chioggia beets and Packman broccoli will be picked this week.  Some of the beets matured much more quickly than others.  Some of the laggards are ones I transplanted, but not all are.  The greens on the beets look wonderful.

Lettuce of various vintages are ready.  The Winter Density I started indoors in September is fully mature, although cut worms and grub worms got a lot of it.  The other varieties are large enough for leaf picking or basal clipping.  The mizuna mustard matured quickly and is ready to add a little zest to the salads.  Arugula is also ready.

I picked a mess of turnips but found they were infested with sucking bugs, mealy bugs or something of that kind.  I sprayed them with insecticidal soap and killed the bugs, but a lot of damage was done because I did not notice them soon enough.

Lettuce is easy to grow provided you stay away from hot weather.  Seed germinate poorly if the temperature is much above the 60s and small plants have a high mortality if the temperature reaches the mid-80s.  Wait until mid October to plant outside.  I started some indoors in September using a system I described previously.  Lettuce transplants very well.  This year I am planting a number of varieties to add color and texture.  My favorite varieties are black seeded simpson and Craquerelle di Midi, which evidently is the French name for Winter Density, a variety highly recommended by Bob Randall.  Winter Density is somewhat between a romaine and a leaf lettuce.  It does well, is tasty and has a good texture.  Black Seeded Simpson makes a large leaf, is very productive over a long period and is a beautiful chartreuse green.  This year I am adding some red varieties; Red Sails, Dark Lollo and Red Romaine.  Also planted some green romaine, Jericho.

I usually raise lettuce as individual “specimen” plants and harvest the lower leaves.  In a good talk given today by Ray Sher at the Urban Harvest fall harvest celebration for community gardeners, he said he likes to broadcast the seed and let the plants grow in a high density.  He snips off the leaves about an inch above the ground when they are bite size.  Ray says almost any variety will do well here except the iceberg varieties, but who would want to grow them anyhow.

Some seed sources say lettuce needs light to germinate, some say to cover lightly.  I have tried both methods with success.  Temperature and maintaining moisture seem to me to be the critical factors.  A commercial seed producer has a good web site on lettuce germination. (Link).  They recommend using seeds they “prime”, but when 300 seed cost only a dollar at Urban Harvest, you really don’t need 100% germination.

Lettuce makes a nice winter landscape plant also.  By planting red, light green, dark green and speckled varieties like Red Sails you can make a bed as pretty as flowers you buy at the garden center.

Planted mustard, collards, broccoli, fennel and lettuce in a seed flat in Montana.  They came up well but the weather was too cold for part of the time; however they made the trip back to Texas ok and are now under my plant light here.

The beans that my daughter planted did not come up very well; probably did not get watered enough.  Getting bean seed started in 90+ degree conditins is challenging even when you can watch them closely.  Just for the heck of it I planted some more beans.  We will see if global warming will bail me out. 

Today I planted carrots (mokum and touchon) and beets (golden and chioggia).  For carrots I lightly till the surface and sprinkle the seeds on, then press them down and very lightly sprinkle some potting soil or sifted compost on them.  Likewise for the beets I plant in little holes and cover with compost.  Because I add a lot of mulch the top layer of the soil has chunky undecomposed material.  By covering with something that holds water well, germination is greatly improved.  I soaked the beet seed overnight.  The golden beet seed did not sink to the bottom as they are supposed to; we will see.  They are relatively harder to germinate.