July 18, 2016

avalanche column

JULY 14, 2016

The season from July until freezing can be the easiest time of year to grow veggies in West Texas. Especially if we get summer rains. I do remember the summer of 2011 and it was an extension of June and was just plain hot and dry. If I had not gotten my garden well established before the normal angry months, I may have been up the creek with outa paddle.

In a normal year this time of year can grow anything. It just about makes gardening look easy. Cooler temps below triple digits, very little wind, afternoon clouds and rain. What more could you want.

For the folks that have not started a garden there still is plenty of time. If you haven’t started your own plants you will need to purchase seedlings.

July is when I like to do a number of succession crops such as green beans and summer squash. This helps to extend these veggies into the fall, with luck up to freeze. July squash plants are more vigorous and can fend off powdery mildew which will soon raise its head around the middle of August.

Usually by the end of august there is some cooling and some of the fall crops can be started. These would include the brassica’s, parsnips, fall lettuce, carrots, beets and green onions. Last year the end of august was quite warm and a number of these crops did not do well whether they were direct seeded or planted to a seed bed for latter transplanting.

This year I plan to germinate and or grow seedlings inside to be transplanted. Carrots and green onions do not mind the heat and can be direct seeded to their beds. Extreme care must be made to keep them moist.

Parsnips if they could be sown at the beginning of August would make larger roots but they seem not to like temps above the mid-eighties. Last August this was the case too and I had a very poor germination. I plan to germinate and sow them around the end of August. Much latter than this and they will not get any size. The brassicas are transplanted to their finishing beds around the end of September.

I have attempted to sow peas and spinach at the end of August with very poor results. Both of these crops like it cooler. I wait until the middle of October to sow them.  Last year the middle of October was still too warm and there was not a very good take on these veggies. Depending how warm it is, this fall, I will germinate and then sow. I have frequently mentioned that veggies will grow in warmer or cooler conditions than what they will germinate.