We’ll not have the cool nights to fruit my tomatos until maybe September and it doesn’t bother me at all that my official garden plot might not be ready until August. The heat’s here already in North Texas, and it came earlier than last.

But it looks like I’ll have extra radishes in just a few more days! Does anyone have any good radish recipies? Can I store them somehow? I think every single seed came up. 3 year old seed, at that. My tomatos are blooming, and the swiss chard looks great albeit only 3 inches tall. The lettuce will be ready soon if it doesn’t get too much hotter, and the spinach is getting close. The onions and potatos look good, and the peas and carrots. I wonder if I dare replant any of the stuff that didn’t sprout due to the snow? Anyone have any guesses what fall weather will look like? Spring was quite random–80 one day, 30 the next.

Hmmm…the sheep ate your vegetable garden? I would be about to say those dreaded four words except my ducks have just discovered my vegetable garden too (luckily while I was planting out some strawberries, so I had the chance to fence off the gate right away, but a day or two either way and I could have been in the same boat).

One point I would add here is the benefits of growing from your own saved seed here. For one thing planting seed is generally much faster than transplanting seedlings. If you have your own seed you normally have much larger quantities than the pinch you get in each commercial package. This means you can sow more generously and resow any time disaster strikes, meaning you only lose a week or two each time. Your own seed should be stronger and more vigorous as well, not to mention it being much more economical.

My leeks went in a bit late since I didnt trust the commercial seed quality/quantity for direct seeding, but Ill keep the best ones to seed for future crops if they grow well in our climate. Our winters have periodic dry windy spells so I am going off the idea of maritime humidity loving crops. Tatsoi does well for a month or two, then gets stressed and leathery when the wind changes. Solution- grow resilient collards instead- they do the same job in a meal anyway.

One thing that has helped me enormously in getting good timing with plantings is to divide my garden into two halves, one for winter and one for summer. On the off seasons each side is buried in green manure crops that are regularly slashed- I think this does more lasting good for the soil texture than manuring and even mulching in our humid subtropical climate. The added bonus is that you can turf out the green manure whenever you need to. You arent juggling the returns of the last crop that is hanging on with the timing demands of the new crop that is going to replace it.

Shane in Australia

Now if I only had the least idea how/when to harvest them. They’re supposed to be shelling peas for split pea soup.