October 5, 2015

Avalanche September 17, 2015 column

I hadn’t lived here in Far West Texas long that I soon realized the growing seasons here are a bit different than the rest of the country.

Just as though I had good sense I tried for the first couple of years to grow the usual spring crops in the spring here in west Texas. My successes were really less than desirable.

Springs start out nice enough but they develop “attitude” very quickly. Heat and wind are not the best conditions to mature all of the usual spring crops. These crops develop their best flavors when it is cool. What to do?

I frequently have mentioned that our winters are perfect for winter gardening. So why not try growing these spring crops through the winter to have them mature while the weather is much more favorable towards these crops.

There are a few “spring crops” that I grow year round and reseeded as need be. These are carrots, green onions, chard, kale, and beets. These are the hard core veggies in the garden and do not mind what kind of weather they are given.

Now for some of the other “spring crops”, I like to sow them to a seed bed and then transplanted a month later. These crops are sown around the end of August. They are broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussel sprouts: in other words the brassicas. Spinach is also sown to seed bed at this time too.

Once these guys are transplanted they are harvested February until completion or are eaten up by aphids.

There is another spring crop that takes a little more finesse. This would be the snow peas. These are curious in their likes and dislikes. The foliage does not mind much about freezing weather   (as long as it is not too severe). The blossoms and pea pods are a different story, they abhor below 32 degrees. I used to start these guys at the end of August but soon modified my planting schedule. Peas do not care for soils in the 80’s, the seeds rot before they germinate. The peas that did grow matured just as we get our winter freezing weather so no peas.

I changed this veggies sow date to the middle of October and over winter the plants as small well rooted seedlings. Once the weather starts to warm in February, the peas take off and peas are harvested the month of March. This past year with our cool spring I harvested them up into May. This truly gobsmacked me!!!

Yes it is much easier to grow veggies if you can adapt to their needs instead of trying to adapt them to our needs. It makes for a much more rewarding experience.