http://www.houstonvegetablegarden.com Raising and growing vegetables gardens in Houston Tue, 17 Aug 2010 17:33:50 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Only 110 heat index so better to be planning than doing.  The fall garden in Houston is basically a cool weather garden so one does not need to get started too early unless you want to plant corn or tomatoes.  I have had reasonable luck with corn, but poor results ... http://www.houstonvegetablegarden.com/index.php/2010/08/17/houstonvegetablegardencom-%e2%80%ba-create-new-post-%e2%80%94-wordpress/ We finally got a picking of okra in the Houston vegetable garden.  I planted a combination of ZeeBest and Flower Bed, both locally produced seeds formerly available through Urban Harvest.  Both produce nice okra on bush type plants.  The seed were planted in April after the broccoli was finished.  Germination ... http://www.houstonvegetablegarden.com/index.php/2010/07/26/first-okra/ "In other environmental issues we tell people to stop something, reduce their impact, reduce their damage," - US Ecologist Gary Nabhan Since the beginning of the green movement, there has been a rise in the number of organizations and businesses that are doing their part ... http://www.houstonvegetablegarden.com/index.php/2010/07/14/sustainability-through-the-consumption-of-things-conserved/ As mentioned in a previous post, my son bought several Earth Boxes for raising vegetables and herbs in Houston.  His back yard has too much shade as well as 2 beagles.  However he has a sunny driveway with areas not used by cars.  He tried a number of vegetables and ... http://www.houstonvegetablegarden.com/index.php/2010/07/07/report-on-earth-boxes/ I planted two peach trees about 10 years ago and never had a fruit until this year.  One of the trees, a Mid Pride, set some fruit every year but the plum circulia ruined all of it.  The other, a Red Baron, evidently never had enough chilling hours to produce.  ... http://www.houstonvegetablegarden.com/index.php/2010/06/20/peaches/ A lot of innovative ideas have surfaced for space and sunlight deprived urban gardens.  The New York Times had an interesting article on raising tomatoes from a hanging basket, with the tomatoes growing from the bottom.  See:  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/20/garden/20tomato.html?hpw A number of other ideas have also surfaced including Earth Boxes and similar ... http://www.houstonvegetablegarden.com/index.php/2010/05/22/upside-down-garden/ The traditional spring crops are in harvest and some are winding down in my Houston vegetable garden.  I have picked a few tomatoes and have a lot more just about ready.  As usual Merced is the earliest and most productive—too bad the seed are no longer available—followed closely by Celebrity ... http://www.houstonvegetablegarden.com/index.php/2010/05/12/spring-garden-winding-down/ The Contessa onions in my Houston vegetable garden are starting to form bulbs and should be ready in a couple of weeks; hopefully before I leave for Montana.  The photo on the left shows the thriving bed (the super sugar snaps in the background are about finished but have produced ... http://www.houstonvegetablegarden.com/index.php/2010/05/02/onions-and-their-seed-shoots/ Picked the first of the Derby beans from my Houston vegetable garden; 2 1/4 pounds from about 20 square feet.  These are the beans that got "burned" rather badly from the late cold weather.  They recovered beautifully.  Last year my first beans also came on May 2.  I also picked ... http://www.houstonvegetablegarden.com/index.php/2010/05/02/derby-beans/ I picked the first mess of green beans from the Houston vegetable garden on April 17, about 2 weeks earlier than last year.  I started 24 Contender plants under the grow light in deep 6-pack pots.  They really got a jump start on the plants from seeds planted directly.  However, ... http://www.houstonvegetablegarden.com/index.php/2010/04/19/first-green-beans/