Category: Vegetables

  • How far apart should I plant vegetable starts?

    Plants need room to grow Location: Houston, TX Have a little daydream when you plant your vegetable start.  This is the best way to ensure that the tender shoot will have the proper amount of space to grow.  Imagine the plant in its full blown glory.  Leaves and blossoms and fruit all at once.  The…

  • Just Keep Planting

    There is No Such Thing As Disappointment In The Garden Thursday was supposed to be my planting day.  That was my big Okra Garden Supply Plan.  Plant on Thursday.  I have lost momentum on that, I don’t think I have planted in three weeks.  But I have made progress on the e commerce front.  Did you notice these…

  • When To Harvest Collard Greens

      As I mentioned before.  I have more collards than I can eat.  That may not be accurate. It would be more accurate to say I am growing more collards than I am eating. So, when to harvest collard greens?  I wait for the plant to be established, and this timing is completely variable.  The seeds that I…

  • Dream Garden

    There are so many wonderful plants that I want to grow.  Gardening in Houston, Texas is full of opportunity because theoretically we can grow just about anything from warm loving tropical plants like plumeria and hibiscus to sweet temperate plants like lettuce and radishes.  There are the commodity cash crop plants that are so interesting…

  • When To Transplant Veggie Starts

    Transplant veggie starts when they have four true leaves. The first two leaves that emerge from a seed after it germinates are called cotyledons. They are special and wonderfully encouraging to see but don’t count them. The true leaves will have a similar leaf edge and leaf shape to the mature plant. If you are…

  • Start Seeds In Small Pots

    Thursday is my planting day. If I keep putting seeds in dirt eventually something good will happen. The good in this case would be having so many veggie starts to put in the ground that I have to tear up my whole lawn to plant them. Good would be to have product to sell in…

  • Squash Transplants

    This is the spot in the compost where we threw the old pumpkin that we didn’t have time to clean and carve.  Look at those beauties.  You can see the seeds and the sprouts. Cucurbitacea, one of the gardener’s favorite botanical families for a number of reasons.  First, there are lots of yummy veggies in…

  • Want to Garden? Start with Collard Greens

    Here is a raised bed with Collard Greens.  If you live in the south and want to start gardening, start with Collards.  They will come through for you.  Look how well the collards below turned out despite growing in the middle of an ant pile and remaining in their 4 inch pots.  Amazing! The corner…

  • Sunny again – but the damage is done

    Freezing one minute, balmy the next. Sometimes a freeze will reveal something about your garden that you didn’t know before.  In this case a collard plant was hiding in the Bidens alba.  Bidens can’t take a freeze so it all went dark green and limp but the ever resilient Collard greens survived.  Like the sun peaking…

  • Saved Seeds – Conquered Fears

    The thought of planting 10 okra plants didn’t seem like a very big deal.  And it isn’t.  Except for one thing… ROACHES Ahh, the American Red Cockroach, the companion of the southern gardener.   Yes, we must face the truth if we want to garden in the sun belt.  The roaches are with you.  I…