With this warm weather my self seeded Crawford lettuce is starting to bolt. I'm eating it as fast as I can ... :-) It's recommended that it be planted from Nov. to Jan..

Cilantro is in flower ... :-(

As Mara suggests you can google "planting schedule for ____ county, Texas" and get the recommended dates for planting veggies.

So far my bib lettuce is holding good. I grow a Celtuce, that volunteers ( chinese lettuce). It is bolting , but that is good because I grow it for the stems that are better than celery. they absorb the tastes of spices and sauces very nicely. I am eating a hole in my crop so I can get some long beans planted in the center QUICK. My family is getting tired of it. Imagine that.

Those little maps on the backs of the seed envelopes are nothing to go by. Get a map for your county.

Celtic.

Thanks. I'm in Dallas. I just received my garlic from Burpee :( Think I could keep it in the fridge until November so I can still plant it??

I just looked up a schedule for Dallas county and It says lettuce from Feb-March. It was 90 degrees yesterday and it's 85 today! Just gonna have to start with summer veggies. Thanks so much. Btw wantonamara, your lettuce may be bolting but the color is beautiful!

Those stems are my crop. I have been eating off the tops all winter. The stems on the outside of the patch are growing in very thick and nice. The inside ones are thin but tasty. I think I will cook them by making thin parings of them and call them noodles. This variety bolts as a matter of design. Just be aware that this is a very odd year with a very strong HOT El NIÑO.

LOL! I like that idea. I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks the temperatures are off this year. :/ I have tried to find forums but I can't find any.

I live about 20 miles west of Austin, and while early winter had some lows in the mid 20s, late winter was definitely warm. All in all it was a zone 9 winter instead of the normal zone 8. I'm beginning to worry about global warming not just raising sea levels, but messing with perennials that need winter dormancy. My red oaks did not begin to lose their leaves until late Dec.

As to planting potatoes, all websites say the best time to plant for South Texas is Valentine's Day.

The problem is I have just received a few of my live plants from Burpee per their schedule that is based on Hardiness Zones. I received garlic yesterday. It's all stressing me out.

I would find another way to buy plants in the future. It sounds like a local store would be more in-tune with the local market of when things sell in your area. It is all hindsight now. I would find a good nursery in your area and use it. It might cost a bit more per plant but they will be better because you will get them when you need it.

I planted potatoes in February and lettuce back in Dec. & January. I'm just north of San Antonio. March would be far too late for lettuce. Mara's right, don't go by the back of the seed packets.

I guarantee you we've all made these same kinds of mistakes when we first started gardening, and still do sometimes! It's great that we now have a place online to get advice because when I started the learning curve was much steeper without the internet. A large part of gardening is experimentation so just look at it as being where the fun comes in ... :-)

Happy gardening!

OH god, I remember my first magazine catalog order back in the day of mail outs from Springhill or some place like that that came in the newspaper. I ordered a wisteria plant being conned into it with one of those pictures of three foot blooms in pink and I received a toothpick wide twig with a white thin hair of a root made one inch long. I swore "Never again!". I willed that thing into life but it took a long time. A trip to a local nursery would have been cheaper or much more satisfying.. I thought that by virtue of it being far away, that they must have had a better variety. SHEESH. Idiot. The computer does make research and comparison so much easier.

I found a site that helps and says what is good for TX (the site is based in Austin, I think). I can't think of it atm, but I printed off a bunch of things from it that tell me what actually works here and things that like heat. An example: New Zealand spinach and that climbing spinach that isn't really spinach. lol

lol It's funny how out of tune with the weather and seasonal eating I was. Now I check the weather every day to see if I can get it a month from now and all I want to eat is seasonally (and fresh from the garden).

The 'not spinach' spinach vine "Malabar spinach" is really tasty! I love it sauteed with garlic or in soups. No bugs bother it and the hotter it is the better it grows.

There are some really good nurseries in Austin--The Natural Gardener may be the best for veggies and herbs and lots and lots of natives.

Haylee, I think you can go ahead and plant your garlic. It may grow or it may just go dormant, but next fall or spring it will sprout again and grow. Same with onions.

I tried looking up planting times for my area and each website I checked had different information. :\ Can't win lol I'll just plant stuff and see what happens :) Eventually I'll get the hang of it. :D

Makes sense. I'll just start putting my seeds in the ground.