I live in New Caney 30 miles north of Houston and spring I plant tomatoes and onions, when those are done zipper cream peas or purple hull peas then back to tomatoes in the fall again. I am by no means much of a gardener but I do a little bit.

"Is it possible to grow vegetables and herbs all year round here in the Houston area?"

Sure is. I do it every year! I grew fava beans this winter. I didn't actually get any beans for my efforts, but the plants looked great and gave me wonderfully scented black and white flowers. I also grew Red Russian and Black Tuscan kale, different lettuces, broccoli.

When I lived in La Porte, we gardened year 'round. You just plant different crops as the seasons change.

Fall always makes a better garden than does Spring.

In spring, we have lettuce, tomatoes, snow peas, onions, corn...
Warmer weather allows us to plant cucumbers, squash, zuchini, peppers, beans, and the King of hot weather...Okra! When the corn goes, we plant black eyed peas or purple hull peas in the space where the corn lived. I wait for the snow peas and lettuce to finish, then plant okra in that space. Okra wants warmer weather, and will often just set there and wait for the weather to get a bit hotter before it will grow.

Tomatoes will stop setting fruit when the night temps get real hot, but often will take off again in the fall.

When fall gets here, set in some brocoli, cabbages, cauliflower, kale, lettuce, kholrabi, Brussel sprouts to grow over winter. All these plants like cool weather, and they usually finish after I plant tomatoes in the spring.

You can keep busy when it is real hot, growing transplants from seed. You need to start tomato seeds in July, so it is important that you protect them from our too hot sun. This is the best way to go, because if you wait for tomato transplants on the market, it is often too late to get a good crop.

Check with your extension office for a chart of what to grow and when to plant it in your area.

Experiment. Try everything. Have fun. I grow a lot of stuff that I will not eat, but somebody will, and I am very happy to share.

I grow a LOT of herbs as well. I try them all, have many perennial herbs and many that reseed, such as dill...

Also, flowers are great in the vegetable garden. I have a cut flower garden growing among the 'maters and the cukes. Also roses, and in winter, I have sweet peas. Larkspur will bloom in February if it is in a protected area, and will reseed generously. I love flowers in my veggie garden!

Enjoy!

Janie

Coldframe is how I did it in zone 8. I grew broccoli and califlower in winter. PJ

Thanks everyone... I'm going to do it. I hope my friends and family are ready to eat some vegies... My wife and I ate fresh green beans from our garden last night.. They were fantastic! Soon I'm going to have more vetetables than we can eat though so I'll have to give them away.

I knew y'all would have the answers I was looking for. I did have a few questions though.
1. Tomato transplants from seeds.. is that better than the cloning meathod? Someone told me that I can pinch off a piece of my tomatoe plants that I have now, and start new plants for the fall that way.. Is this true? Or do I need to start new plants by seed?

2.When planting the diffrent lettuces, brocolli, cauliflower,etc... for the fall, I will be planting from seed. If I live in Zone 8 when is it a good time to start them... Sometimes it's hot through October here.

I have so many questions becuase I'm so new at this... I could go on for hours with questions... I look forward to y'alls wisdom and help in the future..

Thanks so much!
Dave

You can definitely pinch off stems to root for more plants. I've done this a few times to get a fall batch started, but they didn't seem to fruit as much. It was probably my fault, though, so I'd definitely experiment with it. I normally just direct seed my tomatoes, because the growing season is long enough, and it's easier. I've got a BUNCH of tomatoes coming up in odd places this year, because the chickens must have eaten one in the compost and pooped out the seeds lol!

I direct seed broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, cabbage, too - but be prepared for those pretty white butterflies. They're a sure sign of cut worms, and they're brutal.

Chard grows really well here, and I have it going year-round. I also have great luck with spinach and all of the salad greens. I always plant cucumbers and squash, but it's hit and miss, usually depending on how quickly the stink bugs locate the plants! Oh, and I planted fava beans this year (from the Central Market bulk bin), and they are going wild - hard to keep up with them, actually!

Get the planting guide from your extension office, and have fun!

We have planted black eyed peas and done well with them in the past. However, this year only half that we planted came up. We replanted 4 times and still have not had solid growth yet. We have never ever had this problem. What would you suggest that we add to the soil? It must be the soil .. right?

I'm in Sugar Land and planted my brussels in Feb just after the last freeze. I realized shortly after that I did so at the wrong point of the season. However.....my stalk has grown and is full of mature looking sprouts. I took a few from the bottom and noticed that they have some type of rot in about half of them.

Should I harvest what I have? Is it the heat causing the rot and should I expect this rot to continue due to the heat?