Hi,
I'm trying to identify the Zone 8-9a veggie growers!. If you're one of them, please give me a holler so I can compare notes with you on getting my SPRING 2014 GARDEN up and running.

To date, I've got the fall/winter veggie growing down but, I've never done a SPRING garden before, other than tomatoes and bell peppers. I want to grow lots more this spring, and could use a good source of knowledge for when to plant which veggies.

I'm also prepared to start my own seeds, but, again, could use some tips on when to start the seeds.

Thanks!

Linda

Hi Linda,

I'm over just south of Atlanta and I believe I'm Zone 8 but not sure what works for me will work for you. I'm fairly new to the area (3 yrs) but I can tell you what I've tried.

So far I have my broccoli seeds planted and under lights. I will be doing more this weekend and also cabbage and cauliflower. Cauliflower is iffy, it doesn't like the heat at all so it may not get in early enough no matter how hard I try. The weather often goes from freezing to HOT!

I will plant potatoes, beets and carrots outside mid to late February, weather permitting. Last year we had too much rain for me to be able to access the garden so they got planted out later. I have also put lettuce seedlings out under plastic tunnel in early March. We had to keep an eye on it because of the cold but we had beautiful lettuce that spring.

I usually have started tomatoes and peppers inside by now but this year I am waiting because I don't see any benefit of starting them this early. I will wait until mid Feb. Same with eggplant.

That's what I've done, for what it's worth. Good luck with your gardening!

Middle Georgia (Augusta) here. January is the only month I do not plant. Onions and English peas are planted in November , December for spring harvest. Romaine lettuce also over wintered. Start new Cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli in cold frames beginning of February. Irish potatoes go in around the middle of February as does a second planting of English peas. March gets the third plant of English peas, beets, radishes, pak choi, lettuce etc. when spring arrives, the brassicas are transplanted from the cold frames and the planting of early summer vegetables snap beans, squash, watermelons, sweet corn, cantaloupes, cucumbers etc. Tomatoes, eggplant and peppers are started inside around the first of March for tramsplant in April. May involves second plantings of early summer vegetables, plus the beginning of hot summer vegetables lima beans, edible soy beans, cowpeas, okra. Second planting of cowpeas and limas in June.

By the way, most early varieties of cauliflower do well in midlle Georgia as a spring planting ( tranplanted in early April)
Montana Fremont Snow Crown White Passion Rushmore

I like the looks of your cauliflower. I have not had any luck with spring cauliflower but the only variety I have tried is Snow Crown. I did not see the other varieties in the seed catalogs I ordered from. I'll have to explore a bit more. I did purchase seeds for Amazing, supposed to be heat tolerant so I'll try that one. Have you ever grown that variety?

No, I have not grown Amazing. I have to grow quick maturing varies and Amazing takes 75 days. Even Snow Crown at 68 days is pushing my luck. Majestic (50 days, Rushmore (51 days) do a lot better. Amazing may be ok for fall planting. I am trying Bishop (Johnny's) this year. They also have Fremont. Twilley currently has Majestic 50 days, and Rushmore 51 days. They were also my source for Montana but have dropped it.
Majestic

Okay, I am not familiar with Twilly, but am looking them up right now. I want to try Majestic and Rushmore.

So you direct sow in cold frame and then transplant out? You don't start any under lights inside?

Okay, cannot order online from Twilley but I have requested a catalog. Thanks for the info!

No I use a cold frame for spring brassicas. They are already hardened off when ready for transplanting. No problem with transplant shock.

Hmm, I don't have a cold frame at this house but maybe I'll have DH throw one together in the next week. Makes sense to do them in a cold frame.

Do you want to compare hardiness zones, or average-date-of-last-spring-frost?

For example, I'm Zone 8b, but my average last spring frost date is April 6. And we have many mild weeks all winter and especially from early February on. yet my summer doesn't get really HOT ever, and evenings stay pretty cool until July.

@farmerdill I just looked at Johnny's and it seems I purchased Amazing for a FALL planting, not spring! I looked at Fremont and Bishop but for some reason I passed them by. I will be getting some Rushmore and Majestic for sure!

The only place so far I have seen Majestic is Sakata. Your photos looks so good I may have to just bite the bullet and order from them. I hate to just order one thing from anyone.

I do Denali in the fall and I have been very happy with it, but hey, I just started planting cauliflower again after years of failure, so what do I know!

Gymgirl said:Hi,
I'm trying to identify the Zone 8-9a veggie growers!. If you're one of them, please give me a holler so I can compare notes with you on getting my SPRING 2014 GARDEN up and running.

To date, I've got the fall/winter veggie growing down but, I've never done a SPRING garden before, other than tomatoes and bell peppers. I want to grow lots more this spring, and could use a good source of knowledge for when to plant which veggies.

I'm also prepared to start my own seeds, but, again, could use some tips on when to start the seeds.

Thanks!

Linda

Hi Linda,
I'm north of you in the Huntsville area. If you haven't found it on here Dave has provided a Garden Calendar under the Goodies tab on the left of the home page. You type in your zip code and based on your zone it will give you planting dates for all your veggies. You probably need to start looking at doing your seed starts if you plan to grow your own transplants.

I built a raised bed garden with cinder blocks last year and grew tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash and okra in the beds and strawberry, lettuce, arugula, endive and spinach in the holes. Also different herbs and extra squash, eggplant, beans and potatoes in flower beds and containers. This past year I have been experimenting with edible landscaping.

All the county Master Gardener groups will be having plants sales late February and early March and usually have good varieties of veggies for their local areas. Don't know when Harris Co., Brazoria Co. or Galveston Master Gardener dates will be but Montgomery Co has their Fruit and Nut Tree Sale tomorrow the 25th in Conroe. I know they will have seed potatoes and 1015 onion sets for sale. Here in Walker Co (Huntsville) we will have our sale March 8 and will have multiple varieties of tomato and pepper plants as well as squash, cucumber and other veggies.

Feel free to ask questions any time. I have lived in Pearland, Pasadena and Deer Park in the past and gardened in those areas.
Duane

Hey, Duane!
Like Rick suggested, I maybe should've asked for Zoners relative to my frost-free dates, LOL! No matter, cause I can still figure out what to do from the other Zone 8-9a folks by adjusting my schedule by two months or so!

You're the closest on to my frost-free dates (February 7th for Houston), so I'll play tag-a-long with you, if it's ok.

I have three active raised beds to date, with plans to add another next weekend or so.

In RB #1 I have cauliflowers, broccoli, turnips, spinach, and beets, all from seeds I started inside under fluorescent lights.
A bit concerned my cauliflowers won't head, because the leaves are humongous, but I see no signs of a curd in the plants (I've peeped), and they should be starting to head up. I think I held them too long inside, and they were stressed (or the growing cycle was interrupted) before I transplanted them.

Only reason I'm not thoroughly disappointed is because I do eat the cauliflower leaves, so, I won't count it as a loss. I'm also wondering if there's too much nitrogen content in the bed. I didn't add any, but, just wondering...

I've had the raised beds covered with PVC hoops and clear contractor's plastic sheeting since transplanting. To date, the foliage and growth is pristine, without a single bug hole that I can detect on any plants. The cauli has been out for almost three months now, and everything else was transplanted two weekends ago. These plants growing under the protected hoop have grown faster than I've ever experienced. I'm learning how important it is to protect the plants against the wind -- the cold they can handle -- but, our constant Texas wind will just decimate the poor baby seedlings!

RB #2 has cabbages, spinach and beets. Growing slower than RB #1, but coming along steadily.

There are flats of mustard greens and beets hardening off, just waiting for an open spot to jump into!

Carrots and kale are growing in large planters, and I have eight (8) patented Earthboxes full of onions. Onions were set January 20th, transplants from Dixondale Farms. Working on building another PVC hoop to cover them, since the squirrels keep jumping down on the soil bed -- shoot!

I started tomato seedlings inside on January 5th and potted some up to tall drinking water bottles this weekend. Still have a large flat to pot up tonight. Will start hardening off next weekend (for two weeks). Tomato transplant is scheduled for February 15th.

Finally, I have still more beets ( I love beets -- and, I just learned to can spiced, pickled beets!!), turnips, and collard green seedlings inside under lights, ready for succession transplanting as spots open up in the raised beds. Or, once the add'l raised bed is built, I can transplant all of these seedlings into that site.

I want to add cucumbers and green beans to my repertoire this spring, but I think I'm supposed to wait until closer to the hot weather to direct sow those seeds, Yes? I'll start pepper and eggplant seeds next weekend. Behind on the peppers, I know...Will help the eggplants along with some warmth inside.

So, that's my garden, and, "welcome to it!"

Any scheduling tips will be greatly appreciated.

Hugs!

I have cauliflower heads declaring!

Was wondering if I'd get anything besides huge, lush leaves. Went away for three days, and viola! That did the trick, LOL!

Everything in the raised beds under my hoops is growing like crazy! I've never had veggies grow so fast, and not a bug hole in anything!

The cabbages are revving up, and so are the spinach. I was worried about the spinach sitting and sulking, but they look like they've settled in and like their location.

The broccoli and turnips have fairly doubled in size, and this cool breeze we're getting is most agreeable to the whole garden.

My only concern now is locating more space to plant more veggies, LOL. And, whether my onions will produce the large, bulb onions they're supposed to grow up and become!

Hugs!

I just found your post, I am in zone 8b as I was just reminded. Glad to find this post I need as much as help as I can get, and I love to compare notes with people in the same growing zone. Each year I lean more to growing things under hoops and in cold frames, et. With all the weird weather and all the bugs looks like that is were we are headed.
I have a few tomatoes started, did have a few peppers (after tonight's 30 deg.temp) I may not have, I left them out in the cold frame with no heat.

I am getting ready to plant carrots, and transplant some of my little lettuce seedling into the garden, also I want to start some onion transplants. I tried onion seed three times already and got nothing, looked at the garden planner Dave has set up and it said to plant onion seeds in Oct. I think, maybe that was the problem. I thought I planted onion seed last in Jan. but maybe not. I did grow some decent onions form seed last year, but the Armadillo destroyed most of the ones from seed.

Seedfork,
There's a video over on YouTube by WebCajun, the Bayou Gardener. He did a whole experimental tutorial on growing onions from seeds in a trough filled with fine, sifted, aged compost. He started seeds in August, and it took ~12 weeks for him to get the wispy, "transplants," which he set out in November (he's in zone 8b, too, I believe). He was harvesting huge onions around April? May? Nice.

Well, I did the same experiment last year. Started seeds in August, in old dressers drawers I turned into seed flats. I used sifted pine bark fines, and the medium drained beautifully, yet stayed moist enough. It took FOREVER for those seeds to grow because I think they were too old! Learned that lesson the hard way....

They finally took off, and I transplanted them in November. I believe I would've had close to his results if the seeds had been fresh. Also, I was preoccupied when it was time to transplant, and I waited longer than I should've to get them into their own space.

It's a way to save some $, but only if you have the space and time to devote to growing the seeds. Ordering onions from Dixondale Farms is just less of a hassle, I guess. For me $20 (shipping included) to get more onions than I ever have space for, vs. growing a $2 pack of seeds that I have to monitor for 12 weeks, transplant, then grow for another 5 months...

Hope this input helps.

How did I NOT manage to post a pictorial veggie garden update? I'm moving too fast.

BEETS

CABBAGES, SPINACH & BEETS

CAULIFLOWERS
CAULIFLOWER MAKING A CURD
TURNIP & BROCCOLI

We have 44 days left until Spring, so I think everything will make it, and mature by then. When the wind lets up, I'll change the hoop cover to either greenhouse plastic or tulle (bridal veil fabric), to keep the moths from lighting on the leaves to lay eggs. Some might find their way under, but, I can certainly reduce the likelihood of a population explosion with the hoop.

There are onions in Earthboxes, and carrots and kale growing in large planters. Also, mustard greens waiting for a home somewhere. I need to build another raised bed, tomorrow!

Inside under lights, there are more collard, turnip, & beet seedlings, and tomatoes ready for hardening off. Tomato plant out is February 15th, under protective cover...

NoID Tomatoes in A Community Flat


SWEET OZARK ORANGE SEEDLINGS