Well today is August 1st which is traditionally when you start planting your fall vegetable garden in North Texas. But with the extreme heat that we’re having (highs predicted this week to be 108) and no relief in sight, I was not sure if I should “plant” or “not plant”.
After much thought and deliberation, I decided to go for it. It might be a mistake but what the heck there only seeds that did not cost much any way. In fact some of the seeds I harvested from last years crops and I can’t save them past one year anyway.
This year when I planed my fall vegetable garden I took the seed packs that I wanted to plant and marked the date they needed to be in the ground, breaking them into 3 groupings (8-1; 8-15, and 9-1). So today I got up bright and early, grabbed the seeds with the Aug 1st date on them and went to work. Lucky for me my beds are not hard which made hoeing and planting a snap.
What did I plant today you asks?
August 1st veggies planted
I planted two rows of: carrots, swiss chard, bush green beans and cilantro. I also supplemented the spring cucumbers (that are still alive) with a few cucumber seeds. I am still on the quest for 1 gal tomatoes, and if don’t find any this week I’ll have to give it up since it will be too late to plant them – wish me luck.
Now all that is needed is to water them daily and make sure a hard crust does not form on the rows, preventing the seeds from breaking through. Well that and to start praying for rain and a break to this excessive heat were having this summer.
Good luck. We’re done for the year. Hopefully next year will be better :(
Hi Kendra – yes hopefully next summer will not be so hot and dry making life and gardening a hole lot easier. Be sure to send prayers for rain for those of us still going for it.
Hi Kay,
We are also praying for rain. I did plant some bean seeds in July (following the recommendation of the county extension office for Fannin County) but soon saw that they were going to require watering twice a day which I wasn’t willing to do. I have a few stragglers that are managing to survive with just one watering.
Anyway, about tomatoes – I still have tomato plants from spring going strong and am planning to take some cuttings and stick them in the ground as soon as we get rain to get a few more plants going for fall. Do you know anyone close by you could get some cuttings from. If so, bury almost the entire cutting (can be horizontally), mulch, provide shade with shade cloth if you can and water like crazy. I don’t plan on doing that until we get some rain though. Just an idea.
Sharon – what a good idea about getting a cutting for my fall tomatoes – I wish I would have thought about that before I removed the spring ones that were dieing. I will try to remember this for next time. As a side note I did notice today that some volunteer black eyed peas have come up in my garden, and the watermelon that I planted in the spring is just flurshing.
I planted my fall tomato plants last week and sadly they shriveled up in one day. :( I also planted carrots seeds, but have not watered since I planted, so most likely there will not do much. I’ll try again in a week or when the weather cools down.
it has been rough! I think the carrots need much cooler weather, be we will be there soon