Gardening: Is Summer the Off Season?

Note: You may find this post boring. It's more like a gardening journal entry. Sorry, I don't have pictures in their fully glory. I didn't realize the height of beauty was so short-lived; I missed most of my photo opportunities. But I've included what they look like now, even if the plants are somewhat spent.

Apparently, it's too hot in Texas to grow many crops. I have finally obtained a chart that lists when what crops are to be grown. Peas are supposed to be planted in Jan/Feb. I got about 20 pea pods before the plants all dried up.

My green beans produced plentifully, but I think their life is spent. If I'd known they didn't last very long, I'd have sprouted new ones earlier; I don't know if they will grow up in this heat if planted so late in the season. My chart says no, but I did it last year and it seemed to work, so I will attempt it anyway. After all, I have some space where I had to pull up my peas. Oh, but wait -- I think I planted them in August and my chart says August is the time to plant beans for the Fall Garden. Green Beans (on their way out)

Our corn grew up and developed, but ear worms ate most of them. We salvaged a few and they were heavenly! Turns out there isn't much you can do to combat those pests, but I have one more batch growing in which I can attempt some mineral oil/neem oil and BT combo pesticide. After that, it is too late/hot to attempt another round of corn until August for the Fall Garden. Corn

My cantaloupe and cucumber are losing the fight against aphids, despite my diligent treatments of all kinds; I've tried: neem, soap, pyritherin, ladybugs, coffee grounds [to kill the ants which protect the aphids: they didn't flinch]. Next year: start off with lacewing larvae when plants are young and follow-up with more lacewings or ladybugs. Cantaloupe/Cucumbers on Trellis

Not a single cantaloupe set fruit this year. I plucked 2 cucumbers and there's 1 more maturing, but I think the plant is too far gone to give me any more, as all the other tiny spears are withering up too. (I call them our $30 cucumbers. Gardening is certainly not a money-saving endeavor. At least, not at this point. Maybe when I'm old and have reached Master Gardener status, it will become cost-effective. So far, I don't think it would qualify as "provident living" unless the future I'm planning for is 20 years from now when I can actually grow something successfully. However, I'm confident that the more experience you gain, the better you get at this, so I'm not deterred. Like last year, I'm learning a lot.)

I found out last year that tomatoes can't set fruit when temperatures are above 80 degrees at night and/or 100 in the day; I purchased catalog tomato seeds this year and specifically got some guaranteed to set fruit in extreme heat (they are doing well so far). Waiting for them to ripen now. The transplant Rex's mom brought over only produced 2 tomatoes but both were eaten by birds/rodents. I put up the bird netting after the first one was devoured so I don't know how the second one got bitten into. I hope we don't lose all our tomatoes that way. I hate picking them early to let ripen on a windowsill -- they don't taste the same. I planted some determinate (which are the heat resistant ones) and some indeterminate (so that I could experiment with pruning, but I don't think I'm doing too well with that.) I also planted some grape tomatoes since those are the kind the kids will eat.
Tomatoes

Miraculously, the beets, brussel sprouts, and broccoli are faring very well so far. I didn't know I wasn't supposed to plant them for a summer crop -- if they wither, I'll try again for Fall. The basil is of course doing great, but why doesn't the rosemary get any bigger? The few carrots I have seem to be doing great by their tops but who knows what's underneath.

Brussel Sprouts

Carrots

After the first zucchini failure from the squash vine borer, I replanted 2 in the same spot and 1 somewhere else, using the advice of a master gardener to protect it with a ring around the stem from a plastic cup to protect them from the pest. The 2 in the same place are pathetic -- I think they got over-watered, so I moved the water source further away. The lone one is thriving so far. Broccoli, Zucchini, Rosemary

The green pepper plants have started producing miniature peppers, but the plants are too small to sustain them yet. One of the jalapeño plants has started producing too. But I remember last year it took them quite a long time start, but once they got going, they really shot up and produced a ton. (We had them coming out of our ears, so I decided to only plant 2 this year.) Sweet Pepper

jalepeno

I have 4 super long raised beds. Only 3 beds have crops. I am hoping to get one more truckload of garden soil for the 4th bed because I've sprouted my pumpkins seeds. (Last year, I planted them in April and had pumpkins for the 4th of July; I learned you are supposed to plant them in June to get pumpkins for Halloween!)

Because the summer-season window is so short due to such high heat, I wonder if gardens would fare better here if planted in semi-shade, like building a big arbor or pergola over it and putting a screen-like shade cover over the top. Hmmm, something to think about for the future -- far in the future (not as high a priority as other projects). If shade would indeed have been better, I would have planned my garden in a different area of the yard....

***I was proud of myself when I found out I identified a particular pest all by myself. Those little reddish spider-things on the beans and tomatoes are called leaf-footed bugs, a type of stink bug -- the immature form of the insect that doesn't look at all like it's parent (like a tadpole=frog). Like I suspected, it isn't particularly harmful to the plant; it just makes tiny discolorations on the vegetables. Still -- yuck!