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In January, February, you can plant cool weather crops like peas, cabbage lettuce. That would also be the time to start seeds for things like tomatoes which will be planted out later. There may be some information here for you:
MaryKate
Hi from Oregon,
Go to the library or book store and get a copy of Four-Season Harvest by Eliot Coleman
It will give you lots of ideas on to do what you are trying to do..There is a lot you can grow year
around and this book will tell you how.
Happy Gardening
One more question. I have a vegetable area in my garden. It is like a rectangle area which is 4-5 inches deep. There is some plastic sheet placed at the bottom. My question is that if I plant anything in that bed then how would the roots behave with the plastic sheet at the bottom.
I am not sure who placed the plastic sheet at the bottom since we just moved into our new house. Will the plants even grow in only 4-5 inches of soil and with plastic sheet at the bottom.
Hi
You could most likely grow veggies with shallow roots but not root crops, like carrots, radishes..
Give your local master gardener a call and see..
I spend a day a week or more on occasion volunteering in huge demo veg garden and when we took it apart this fall we were surprised at how deep some of the roots were, we have raised beds..Too you can always try it!!!!!
Coleman's Four Season Harvest is a great book, but it is for a completely different climate than you will experience in Houston. I only read it once, after getting a copy from the library, but I think it really focuses on getting vegetables through extreme cold, and while Houston does have some cold days, heat is a bigger problem.
One of my sisters lives in Lafayette, LA, which has a similar climate to Houston's, and her garden produces well in Spring and Fall (which kind of overlap with not much winter in between). Her non-producing time is in August and September, when it is just too hot for most vegetables to do well. Tomatoes quit then, and everything either dies or goes on "hold."
If you really want a four-season vegetable, a great place to start your search would be with your county extension office--which is where you will find the Master Gardeners (as mentioned above by another responder) and probably all kinds of information about gardening in Houston. My extension office is packed with reference material that is free to anyone who needs it.
I have not found a four-season vegetable for NW Georgia, and I have been growing food here for eighteen years, but it is possible that Houston's climate would be good for a perennial tropical vegetable (Have you looked at the book called _Perennial Vegetables_ by Eric Toensmeier?) that could be protected through the colder weather with help from Coleman's book. I hope that your search is successful!
agwh, I agree with you on using the resources avaliable threw your ag office and master gardeners info, i am a master gardener and like working the desk because of the questions like kates we get..
I have a copy of colemans book and it would work in most climates but what I saw was you have to have near perfect soil conditions and location in your yard..We are mild in climate here in the Willamett valley of oregon but I wouldn't try unless I had worked on my soil ect for a long time..It gives one idea's to think about ..
happy thanksgiving everyone
I live on the GA coast and have a year-round vegetable garden. Our climate is about the same as Houston's. Vegetable gardening is not rocket science, nor do you need to work your soil for years to have one. Just start small.
For the OP, I think you need to get rid of the plastic sheeting. It will cause problems in more way than one.
As far as start time, at this point, other than onions or garlic, you probably need to wait till mid February and then plant a small salad garden of leafy greens. You can also start carrots and radishes then. Unfortunately you have to wait till warm weather to plant your tomatoes.
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