Summer heat is arriving with its usual ferocity. Some plants may be suffering from it– as well as some of us. That’s no reason to stop our favorite pastime. Here are some helpful hints to prepare for the coming dog days.
As a legume, they put a considerable supply of nitrogen back into the soil. That makes these peas an excellent rotation crop to plant between spring and fall gardens. Drought-resistance and low water requirements make it an ideal crop for our hot Gulf Coast summers.
Start your tomato seeds. Remember that tomatoes started from seed need at least six weeks before they are ready to put in the ground. If you start them now, they should be prepared by the end of February or early March to transplant.
I’ve got a lot of gardening tools. Hand rakes, and four of five different shovels and spades, several types of pruners, a couple of pruning saws, as well as a bow crosscut, three or four hoes, some long- and short- handle weeders, dibbles, a ton of hand tools, and a plethora of other instruments.
When the weather’s cold and wet, and the gardener in you is getting a serious case of cabin fever, you might want to prepare for these days ahead of time by reading some of the top gardening books of Texas. In addition, some of them are great reference books as well, and will give you pointers about a variety of garden situations. Any of these books also make ideal Christmas presents for gardeners.
Fortunately, there are many beautiful and hardy flowering plants that do exceptionally well along the Gulf Coast. Many of them are natives.
Because of mild winters here, many plants can stand moderately cold weather, and short periods below freezing. However, hard freezes like the one we had in January, froze many of these back, leaving them brown, wilted, and, for the most part, just plain ugly.
