I am building a 4'x12'x1' raised bed, I live in Houston.

what vegetables would you recommend? I am estimating 9 large plants and 18 smaller plants.

what's are you planning for your garden?

I am in Houston myself with about a 4' x 15/17' raised garden. We typically do about 6-8 tomato plants, 3-4 bell peppers, 2-3 jalapeno's, and sprinkle in onions in between the larger plants. Last year we did some green beans in one end, and they turned out pretty darn well.

Be prepared to fend off birds. Without netting, birds would easily destroy about 30-40% of our tomatoes. They just tear the bottom, open about a dime size tear, drink/eat, then move to the next.

I agree with the poster above. Tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapenos grow well in Houston.

I'm getting ready to start prepping the two 4'x4' raised boxes I built in the early fall.

I have my jalapenos in pots and bring them inside in the winter. Production slows down but they still produce.

Got to have okra!

+1 for okra. It grows best when the weather gets hot and dry and is one of the best looking plants in the garden.

It's a variety of Hibiscus, so the flowers are really pretty too.

We usually do
sugar snaps
snow peas
green beans
cherry tomatos
cucumbers
zuchinni
yellow squash
okra
maybe cantaloupe

we have done spinach and lettuce but find it's a pain to get clean and you can buy it cheap at the store.

Might throw in some herbs like basil, oregano. If you have a cat a catnip plant is a treat for them.

We're trying to maximize space so instead of strings etc horizontally, we're trying cane teepees to take the vines vertical. We'll see how that goes.

[This message has been edited by cstxag90 (edited 2/16/2011 9:35a).]

In regards to herbs, we have a separate herb garden with rosemary, oregano and chives. Also put basil in yearly.

Watch your tomatoes and find out what 'color' they are when the birds start to eat them, and pick them just before they get to that color. The ripening process does not require them to be on the plant and the only ones that can 'taste' a difference between the two are the people who you told which tomatoes were ripened on the counter and which were on the plant...in other words, there is no difference.

Currently for my late winter garden I have spinach, broccoli, swiss chard, brussel sprouts and red onions.

My late spring / summer garden generally has various tomatoes, squash, okra, potatoes and peppers. Plant things you like to eat.

Having an herb garden is nice too. I put all of mine in pots to keep them from proliferating too much. Basil, rosemary, oregano, fennel, cilantro, leeks, etc.

Plant at least 4 okra plants as they take little room and each one will have about 4 ready at the same time. They produce quickly too.

Also if you have youngs kids, radishes grow extremely fast. 28 days from seed to fruit. My kids get a blast out of those (even though no one eats them lol)

Do y'all plant from seed or buy small plants?

Do you have the herbs in direct sun all day or just afternoon / morning sun?

Tomatoes, jalepenos, bell peppers are all from plants.

Green Beans & cucumbers were from seeds.

Basil from seed, chives from plants. I harvest my basil seeds each year then use them to plant the next year.

Rosemary was from a plant, but it is like a bush, buy it once and it is there until it dies. Just be careful, rosemary is an arid style plant, and the garden centers around here water the heck out of them to green them up and grow fast, then they tend to get a shock when you put them in the ground and let them get the average annual rainfall instead of daily watering. It took about a year or two for ours to adapt to the natural climate/precipitation, but then it settled in well starting to dominate the herb garden. We need to trim that sucker back or else it would take over.

Oregano was from a plant from my dad, it is perennial, so will stick around as long as it is taken well care of. We have one in the ground with our herb garden, and one in a pot. The one in the pot does a lot better than the one in the ground, but both do decently well.

Most of my veggies are from transplants. If I can't find what I want then I opt for seed. This is usually for beans, pumpkins, etc.

My herbs aren't in as much direct sunlight as my garden being near the patio. They still get 6+ hours of sunlight. Most of those are transplants as well. I just find it easier.

Okra grows great from a seed
Radishs seeds.
Corn seeds.
cantelope and watermelon seeds

Onions buy a bunch of onions. like $2 and you most likely wont use them all.

tomatos buy a plant
japs buy a plant
Bell pepper buy a plant.

Anyone ever try blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries (we like fruit )? I'm experimenting w/ each of those. I'm also trying potatoes, asparagus, and red onions.

I've never had much luck with berries. Potatoes and onions are pretty easy. Asparagus will take a few years to mature, but should show up every year after that.

http://aggiehorticulture.tamu.edu/publications/easygardening/E-503_asparagus.pdf

Strawberries are fairly easy BUT BE FOREWARNED, pick them when they are green and let them ripen in the window, or the birds will eat 1/2 of them before you pick them if they ripen on the plant.

Well, we built the garden this weekend.

What should have been 1 trip to home depot turned into 3 with one more still needed. The first trip was successful but we had to go back since we did not have enough pipe for the irrigation system and we had to go back again since we were missing a t connection and I need to go back one last time since when we got the risers we measured from the ground up not taking into mind it was a raised be and needed to be 12 inches higher.

Soil, it took a lot of it and that stuff is heavy. All my muscles still hurt.

But the garden looks great. We have 12 tomato plants, 3 different types of chilis, brussle sprouts, rosemary, strawberries, leeks, acorn squash, green beans, basil, small cucmbers and cilantro.

Fingers crossed.


[This message has been edited by dummble (edited 2/28/2011 8:29a).]

wow. you will have enough tomato's to feed your whole block!!!

I always freeze four or five to a bag to cook with.They peel super easy frozen.

Take some photos of your garden. It appears to be a good size from everything you've planted. I'm tempted to put in another 4'x8' bed because my other two are full right now.

[This message has been edited by dummble (edited 3/1/2011 2:58p).]

I need to do this too. Looks great.

That will vegetable garden will be a vegetable jungle before long.

I might chop down any stragglers in 2 months, but the beauty of the walkway behind the garden should give me access to everything.

I'll take more pictures once the grass is back and everything is sprouted and on its way up.

quote:

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wow. you will have enough tomato's to feed your whole block!!!

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My wife's grandfather used to have several raised beds, and would plant something like 120 tomatoes a year! Every time we'd visit, we'd come back with BAGS of them.

Your bed looks great. I suspect you'll be culling out a few plants soon, though. Seems like a lot for that size.

When I lived in Houston I tried pretty much all of the veggies that were recommended. By the time we moved, I'd stopped planting okra (hate getting those tiny thorn things when I handled them) because it was easier to just buy frozen. Nothing compares to home-grown tomatoes, though, so you could fill your entire garden with them and it would be totally worth it! I loved growing cuc's and bell peppers, too. I'd usually plant 1-2 hot peppers (japs, serranos, and/or habanero). My opinion on those, though was that you use so few, that it's not worth it to take up limited bed space, so I'd just buy the peppers in the store.

So... for me it's all about tomatoes, bell peppers (orange AND red), cucs, and some kind of pea.

Good luck! I'm jealous... We're moving to a different area in Austin in a couple of months, and I plan on taking advantage of the larger yard to put in a bed for some fall veggies!

De Omnibus Dubitandum

What's the size of your garden? Looks to be ~4x12'. Good idea about the path behind the garden. Mine doesn't have much space near the fence so I have to walk in the garden to harvest.

yup, 4'x12'

and its just so hard not to go crazy planting everything that catches my eye. It is almost equally hard giving such a small plant 18" from the next, even though I know what they will look like in a few months

just finished building a terra cotta retaining wall to level out my garden. I think it is about 20'x5'. Need to till and add about 15-20 cubic feet of dirt/compost this weekend.

Usually plant around march 15th.

This year i think we are going with 4 tomatoes, 3 peppers, cucumbers, long neck squash, okra, red bells, radish and then basil, chives, taragon will the added to the spearmint and rasemary in the herb garden.

can't wait to get everything in the ground.

Year 2 for ours. Last year tomatoes, peppers, cucumber, cantelope, peas, and watermelon. Need to get it ready though.

here are the raised beds I put in last August. Surrounded by a mostly native texas flower bed.


I plan on putting in tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapenos, cucumber, and a few other things this coming weekend.



[This message has been edited by GCRanger (edited 3/7/2011 12:24p).]

Nice CG. Are those just 1x6 boards?

they are 2 x 12s

what is a good watering regiment for gardens?

I'll have tomatoes, bell peppers, and okra in one plot. Cucumber, squash and onions in another.

Just finished these this weekend.

I know there are too crowded but I'll just wait and see what does well and move things around for next year.

Those beds are definitely a bit crowded. It'll be a contest of survival of the fittest if you don't move some out. Possibly stunting the production of them as well. The beds look good though.