When will you start your garden?

[dmmjsm]

We got our first above ground veggie bed built before the rain, and I filled it up with all its necessary good earth, and popped in my pepper plants today- yeah! We had various starters that made it through the colder temps and rain, etc. outside this week, so we figured they were ready to go in the official garden. I have a ton of seed starters to harden up over the next week. I hope we get some home grown veggies this summer. We have a topsy turvy with a tomato and one home made hanging pot fashioned like a top.turv. with a tomato also---- we will see if one is better than the other. We have tons of flowers on our mexican lime bush and myers lemon, so I am hopeful we will get some fruit this year.
Being able to garden like this is one of our favorite things about San Antonio now! We got to spend a lot of quality time with our teens this week working on it, and its really been great.

[dmmjsm]

Originally Posted by Paka

Got one of those "Topsy Turvy" tomato hangers and some plants this morning at HEB Plus...already planted it and have it hanging from the oak tree out back where it will get lots of sun.

I am attending the "Sq Ft Gardening" class this Tuesday nite from NSISD Cont Ed...excited to try it out!

Please let us know how that class is. I have seen it listed several times and thought about taking it. I have learned a lot at some of the adult ed. classes.

[kimbo1]

Originally Posted by Bowie

Last time I grew strawberries, I bought 4 plants and got a grand total of 2 berries. I haven't planted strawberries since.

Me, too! No luck with strawberries and the few berries that did grow the birds got them!

[SnappyBob]

My strawberry plants are loaded. The birds and the squirrels CAN be a problem though. I try to go out early in the morning with a flashlight and pick the ripe ones before work. The birds and squirrels are a lot like us. They don't like the unripe ones either.

[SnappyBob]

Originally Posted by jules07

Does it take THAT much water to use the hose? (Honestly asking, I'm a TOTAL novice!) I was JUST trying to figure out if I wanna attempt a raised bed this year (I know, I'd need to hurry up!), but if it's gonna cost me more in water than it would to just buy the darned produce at the store......

Jules, you can't buy produce at the store like you can grow in your back yard. If done wisely it doesn't take that much water, area, money, time or work to have a good portion of your meals fresh from the garden all year long aound here. And if it's not fresh it can be frozen or canned which is also much better than you can buy at the store. And you know what went into it from the time it was planted to the time that you eat it.

[LovingSAT]

I have been reading this board and trying to learn about square foot gardening. I have the frame built and ready with the mixture but I have a question. I see that I can plant tomatos, winter squash, and cabbage in SA if I do so by tomorrow. Is there anything else I can plant where do I find out the dates and items to plant?

[SnappyBob]

Those plant by dates are just general guidelines for typical seasons. Unfortunately we don't have too many typical seasons around here. For example, I normally try to get my fall tomatoes in the ground by mid July but this year with the drought and the heat I just now bought some Solar Fire tomato plants yesterday and potted them up so that I can jockey them around the yard to avoid too much sun. Hopefully things will settle down and get back to some kind of normalcy so that I can put them in the ground soon. As far as what else you can plant in the fall and/or winter how about Broccoli, carrots, onions, beans, radish, lettuce, spinach, swiss chard etc. Stop by one of the Garden Centers (not big box stores but real nurseries) and pick up a list of veggies and recommended plant times for seeds and transplants. I usually wait until about Labor Day to plant my winter stuff like cabbage and broccoli. The freeze sensitive stuff should go in pretty quick but keeping them from burning up in this heat can be tricky. The goal is to have the freeze sensitive plants up and producing well before the first freeze.