Here is an article on starting a garden which I wrote for our neighborhood newsletter. The resources sited are specifically for the Houston area but similar Agriculture Extension Office resources should be available to you anywhere in the USA.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Anyone in the neighborhood with a mouth and a wallet
is probably becoming acutely aware of rising food
prices. Fuel costs for trucking in those red tomatoes
and ripe cantaloupe tack on a surcharge that’s becoming
harder and harder to pay. Here in Houston our growing
season is twelve months long. With a little time and
effort a person can replace a lot of their
store-bought fare with fresh yummies straight from
their backyard garden. Everything from asparagus to
watermelons can be easily grown here, often using just
a small amount of your backyard. In this article I’ll
give you tips on what to plant, when to plant it,
where to plant it, what to plant it in, and how to
care for your plants so as to get the biggest yields.

So, what to plant? Well, what does your family like to
eat?! Pretty much every type of vegetable can be grown
here. However, to be a truly successful Houston
gardener you can’t just go down to Wal-Mart, buy a
bunch of seeds and stick them in the ground. There are
definite varieties of your favorite veggies that
handle Houston better than others, the trick is to
know which ones are optimal for here. Luckily, someone
has already figured that out for you. Simply go to
http://harris-tx.tamu.edu/hort/pubs/vegherb.htm and
click on the “Vegetable Varieties for Harris County”
link and you get a list of exactly which seeds will do
best in Harris County. For instance, if you like okra
you should get “Clemson Spineless”, “Cajun Delight”,
“Emerald”, “Louisiana Green Velvet”, or “Silver
Queen”. If the packet of seeds isn’t listed on that
sheet, put them back on the shelf!

So, now you have the proper seeds for the area you
can just stick them in the dirt and let them grow,
right? Wrong! While you can grow vegetables all year
round here, different plants thrive under different
mixes of sun and temperature. Some plants thrive in
the summer heat while others prefer the cooler summer
and fall. To find out when you should plant your seeds
I once again direct you to
http://harris-tx.tamu.edu/hort/pubs/vegherb.htm and
this time click on the “Vegetable Planting Calendar
for Harris County” link. It brings up an easy to use
calendar telling both ideal and marginal planting
times for all your veggies.

The next step is figuring out where in your yard to
plant your garden. A general rule of thumb is leafy
and root plants such as lettuce, cabbage, collards
greens, beets and radishes can tolerate light shade.
More ‘full-bodied” plants like beans, cucumbers,
peppers and tomatoes require full sunlight to reach
their full potential. Study your yard to figure out
where the sun always shines and where shadows fall.
Will your house or a tree cast cause too much shade?
Remember also that the sun will be coming from a very
different angle during the summer than during the
winter. Take that into account if you as you pick a
place (or places) for your garden. As usual, you can
find more information at
http://harris-tx.tamu.edu/hort/pubs/vegherb.htm, this
time click on “Vegetable Gardening in Harris County”.

Now let’s discuss the dirty part of gardening, your
soil. Most of the lots in this neighborhood had a
layer of sand laid down over thick clay. This is not a
good medium for growing most plants, especially
vegetables. For a small fee Texas A&M will test your
soil and tell you exactly what fertilizers, compost,
lime and other additives you will need to add to make
your yard soil productive. You’ll probably have to
rent a rototiller to mix all these nutrients into your
soil. This is a real pain.

It is much easier here to build a raised bed garden. A
raised bed garden is simply a box approximately 12-18
inches deep which sits on top of your current soil and
is filled with pre-mixed, nutrient-rich dirt. The
sides of the box can be made out of wood, stone,
cinder blocks or even winebottles stuck neck-down in
the dirt. This box can be any length and width or even
a funky shape as long as you can reach the center of
it from outside the box. The soil can be purchased
pre-mixed from any of the local dirt sellers or you
can buy the components and mix them yourself. I
personally like a mixture that is 1/3 peatmoss, 1/3
pearlite or vermiculite, and 1/3 compost, as
recommended by Mel Bartholomew, author of “Square Foot
Gardening” (www.squarefootgardening.com). With a
raised bed you will know right from the beginning that
your plants will have the nutrients, proper drainage,
and weed-free soil they’ll need to thrive without all
the back breaking labor involved in turning our soil
into something in which things will actually grow.
Once a year you just need to mix in some more compost
and maybe a little more peat moss to keep the soil
healthy and ready for plants.

Finally, how can we maximize our harvest. The two keys
tips here are water well and patrol for pests! The
Houston summer sun can dry plants out in a day or two,
so check them every day. The best time to water your
garden is early morning before going to work. This
will prepare the plants for the day without leaving
them wet at night. Being wet in the dark is prime
conditions for fungus and other problems. A thick
layer of mulch will also trap the moisture in the
soil, reducing the need for watering. One other note,
if possible collect rain water to use on your garden.
Ordinary tap water is treated with chlorine which the
plants don’t like. I collect rain run-off from my roof
in three 55-gallon plastic barrels and they’ve
supplied me with enough water to get my 140 square
feet of gardens through every drought so far for the
last five summers.

It’s easy to keep your garden watered, but keeping it
pest free tougher. We have to contend with assorted
bugs, birds, squirrels and possums, all of which love
the food of your garden as much as you do. Examine
your garden every day to make sure nothing is
attacking it. Caterpillars and snails can strip your
bean plants down to nubs in just two days if you
aren’t alert. Many people like to use “organic”
pesticides and recipes for many of these can be found
on the internet websites such as
http://vegetablegardens.suite101.com/article.cfm/organic_pest_control_and_pesticide.
Personally, I find commercial products like Sevin give
me the best results when used as directed.

Against larger pests like birds and squirrels I’ve had
to cover my strawberries, blackberries and tomatoes with homemade
chicken wire cages. This is cheap and very effective.
I had tried hanging bells, aluminum pie pans, and
rubber snakes around my precious fruits but those only
scared the critters away for a few days. The local
mocking birds are especially voracious eaters but
since putting up the protective cages they haven’t
stolen a single berry from me.

Let me finish by directing you to one more free
resource, the Master Gardener community volunteers of
Texas. These volunteers have been extensively trained
by the Texas AgriLife Extension Services and they can
answer any questions you may have. They can be reached
by calling 281-855-5600 Mon-Fri from 9am-3pm or e-mail
them at hcmga1@yahoo.com. Your tax dollars have paid
for them so take advantage of their knowledge.

May your garden grow rich and green!


-Blast