I have a question for those that grow their own food

[ArcadianCam]

When you grow vegetables, I understand the idea of planting things in their appropriate season of the year but do you do successive plantings through the growing season also? Or do you just plant one large crop and that produces yields all year long?

 

[Pearl]

Here in north central (hotter than hell a lot of summers) Texas, I plant in the early spring and again in the fall! No garden this past year because of the extreme heat (110- 114°) and super extreme drought! But on a not so bad year, two crops work best.

 

[ArcadianCam]

Here in north central (hotter than hell a lot of summers) Texas, I plant in the early spring and again in the fall! No garden this past year because of the extreme heat (110- 114°) and super extreme drought! But on a not so bad year, two crops work best.

Yeah I think it’s gonna be up to me to experiment a bit. I just started this year really attempting to grow vegetables and next year I plan on increasing the size of my garden considerably but I want to make sure I maximize my space and get the best yields possible. I’m in east Texas as well and what little I had out there got totally nuked in July and August this year.

 

[Pearl]

Yeah I think it’s gonna be up to me to experiment a bit. I just started this year really attempting to grow vegetables and next year I plan on increasing the size of my garden considerably but I want to make sure I maximize my space and get the best yields possible. I’m in east Texas as well and what little I had out there got totally nuked in July and August this year.

Y'all usually have more precipitation and humidity than us west of DFW. This was a bad summer for all of Texas! I find every year is different and experimental!

 

[ArcadianCam]

Y'all usually have more precipitation and humidity than us west of DFW. This was a bad summer for all of Texas! I find every year is different and experimental!

Yeah it’s usually pretty hot but the consistently high temps of 115 or 110 degrees plus absolutely no rain for two solid months just totally decimated anything I had. It seemed like it didn’t matter how much I watered it, the plants just couldn’t handle it.

 

[Mountain trapper]

At our location and elevation we have to plant short season vegetables. Last summer most of our garden was wiped out when we had snow on June 22nd. A couple years before that we had a foot of hail in July. Every year is a challenge up here.

 

[LadyLocust]

I plant various things over the course of a couple months in spring then by fall, I’m spent and ready to put the garden to bed. So I do not try to extend the season.
@UrbanHunter grows year around and @Neb are you doing so also? Maybe more if you peruse the garden thread.

 

[Peanut]

I would add for planning… weather patterns here in the se tend to cyclical over several years. Rarely is there just one year of drought or one year with too much rain.

Nature tends to string several dry or wet years together. One year will be the worst but the years on either side tend to be similar. I think of it as a slow multi-year sine wave, not the abrupt change of flipping a switch on or off.

This is where the national weather service plays a role, they keep records for decades. I checked them every winter looking for patterns or trends. Since there are always surprises it’s best have plans b, c, and d waiting, another winter chore. Always be ready to throw out plan A. Much easier to do when you have another plan ready to go!!

 

[Dani]

Yeah it’s usually pretty hot but the consistently high temps of 115 or 110 degrees plus absolutely no rain for two solid months just totally decimated anything I had. It seemed like it didn’t matter how much I watered it, the plants just couldn’t handle it.

What part of the Eastern Texas border? We have a big stae here.

 

[Neb]

I plant various things over the course of a couple months in spring then by fall, I’m spent and ready to put the garden to bed. So I do not try to extend the season.
@UrbanHunter grows year around and @Neb are you doing so also? Maybe more if you peruse the garden thread.

Depends on the crop.

Potatoes just one crop.
Lettuce, radishes, beans are planted in batches for a continual harvest until it gets too hot in summer.
Corn gets planted in 4x4 raised beds once a week for a month. Yields fresh corn on the cob for a month or more.

In fall the greenhouse starts again to provide salad through winter.

Ben

 

[Caribou]

Yeah it’s usually pretty hot but the consistently high temps of 115 or 110 degrees plus absolutely no rain for two solid months just totally decimated anything I had. It seemed like it didn’t matter how much I watered it, the plants just couldn’t handle it.

It is nothing that I'd ever need but you might look into shade cloth. It comes in various shading percentages.

 

[sonya123]

We grow food for us and to sell . I start plants indoors in January and put cold resistant stuff out in March ( and cover it during cold nights) , replant some of the cold resistant plants in August and winter squash. One crop of tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, stuff that only grows in warm weather

 

[ClemKadiddlehopper]

It is nothing that I'd ever need but you might look into shade cloth. It comes in various shading percentages.

Shade cloth is too expensive here with the shipping involved. I put burlap (for winter wrapping bushes and trees) over my brussel sprouts and strawberries.

The brussel sprouts lived through the 100° summer heat and started growing again late fall. I have them in buckets in the boot room and am harvesting them now.

The strawberries started producing right away instead of dying off.

 

[SLADE]

We plant 1 time for the yearly food stuffs.
Potato. corn peppers. onion. cabbage. garlic.tomatoes.green
beans,carrots.califlower.brussle sprouts. spinach
winter squash.summer squash and all the summer things.
Then in the fall we plant the summer things again in the hoop house for winter salads.

 

[Tim Horton]

I am the Webster definition of ...black thumb... when it comes to growing plants....

However I have to think all depends on your ..plant heartiness zone.. I have lived in zone 2 near the Artic Circle and seen quite successful gardens, but limited plant varieties.. I have never lived anywhere more than a marginal zone 6 that seemed to produce much differently...

Your local extension office and I'm sure there will be a Master Gardeners organization near you... They will be a big help and wealth of info..