HoustonVegetableGarden.com

A busy day getting rid of most of the fall and winter vegetables and continuing to plant for the spring vegetable garden.  The Derby green beans I planted in late February will be blooming a week or so.  I sprouted the Florida Staystweet corn and planted the sprouts at the same time as the beans.  The stand is good and the corn in now about 8 inches tall.  For some reason some of the plants are very strong and a few are very weak.  I have always observed this with corn but do not know why.

All of the original lettuce is bolting and now has added some needed green matter to the compost pile.  The Red Sails lettuce I started indoors in February in now ready.  The beets planted in November are ready for a final harvest.  The ones I planted in December need another week or so.  The arugula is about 4 feet tall and blooming.  I pulled all but one plant, leaving it for the flowers.  Likewise, for the bok choi.  The bok choi was good, but I never got around to eating all of it.  Greens and bok choi are a bit hard to give away.  Most people either don’t like it or don’t know how to prepare it.

Planted some black eyed and purple hull peas; probably a little early, but I expect they will be fine.  Also planted some Genovese Basil seed that we got at the Urban Harvest Gala.

Sugar snap peas have been outstanding.  The plants are about 8 feet tall and covered with peas and white blooms.  They are a must raise veggie for here.  Plant around December 15.  Tomatoes are blooming and the cherry varieties have some little tomatoes.  The plants are a little leggy.  Maybe I left the frost cloth on too long, or it may just be the nature of the plant.  The Sweet Chelsea seem to be related the the bean stalk in Jack and the Bean Stalk.

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.

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.

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.

Most historical information on fall gardening concerns beating the cold weather.  In recent years the issue has been more about dealing with the heat of September and October.  For the backyard gardeners, I think it is best to gamble on the cold weather than to take on the rather certain hot weather.  In the inner city area we have not had a hard freeze in a number of years.  When we have had cold weather the timing has been unpredictable.  Last year the coldest days (no freeze) was in December.  In other recent years it has been in mid to late March.

Green beans and corn are the only real tender vegetables that I raise in the fall.  The corn has to be planted in August, but the beans can be postponed.  Older guides say September 1 is the latest for planting.  I plan to plant the Derby beans over Labor Day.  Actually my daughter and grandkids will do the planting because I am still in Montana (high in mid 80s, humidity of 23%).  They should be producing in mid to late October.

 For most everything else I will wait until October or later.  The everything else includes carrots, lettuce, turnips, greens of various sorts, fennel, broccoli and beets.  In addition, I will plant parsley, chervil, cilantro and arugula.  Hopefully, the parsley and cilantro will re-seed from last year.  I will get chervil from Buchanan’s if it does not re-seed.  Turnips and greens can be planted outside in September if the soil is kept constantly moist.  These seeds germinate so fast, it is not much trouble.  I like to plant broccoli and lettuce under my plant light indoors (or start in flats in the MT coolness) and transplant when the weather moderates a bit.

 Spinach planting should wait until late October; sugar snap peas in late December. 

The spring garden is about finished.  The green beans held up longer than expected, but the 95 degree temperatures are too much.  They are headed to the compost pile.  Tomatoes are still coming in but the quality is lower and the end is in sight.

The last of the fennel also was harvested this week.  Fennel is one of my favorites.  It is easy to grow and complements a number of dishes.  We use it mainly with the great seafood we get from J&R on Brompton.  A simple recipe from “Classic Italian Cooking” involves just lightly sauteing the chopped fennel bulb in olive oil and then braising it  with a little water, wine or sambuca until tender.  Evaporate all the liquid, add a little more oil and saute the fish.  Stir the fennel while the fish is cooking to brown it nicely.  Serve over pasta.  Recipes for fennel with fish often call for orange flavoring to complement the fennel.  I especially like the orange flavor with scallops.

Fennel will grow almost the whole year, but a like all of us it does not like July and August very much.  I start the seed under a plant light indoors (more on that in a later post) and plant 6 or so plants at a time.  It grows well fall through early summer.  For some reason unknown to me some of the plants do not make bulbs.  I let them go to flowers.  They are pretty and are a good attractant for beneficial insects and the seed can be used as an herb.  I grow Florence fennel.  I believe there some other types, but I have not tried them.  Would be interested if anyone else has.