Peak summer is here in central Texas. The cool weather crops have finished their run and the summer melons, cucumbers, and tomatoes are hitting full stride. There’s a cantaloupe nestled in the vine at left. We trellised some melons this year by mistake. Originally thought to be cucumbers we double checked the planting chart too late. The melons are growing OK but without support the heavy melons can’t grow to full weight without putting too much stress on the vine.
Below are okra, cucumbers, and green beans. Our green bean crop has been disappointing. The pods were slower to grow and by the time we started to get a decent harvest, the grasshoppers were hitting them hard.
When the cool weather crops are harvested, we pull up the plastic mulch and till those rows, then plant a cover crop or late summer crop. Pictured here are the first rows of the garden – we’ll replant several in pumpkin and winter squash and put the rest in blackeyed peas to keep the soil well covered during the rest of the hot summer.
The final photo shows the newly tilled plot for our main fall garden. We’ll let the main summer garden rest during the fall and winter and mainly use this new plot – just adjacent to the summer plot. We’ve tilled the new plot 3 times over about 6 weeks to try to kill out the pasture grass. Before the last pass, we sowed blackeyed peas. They’ll grow all summer to keep the soil covered. Then we’ll till them again in late August and plant for the fall and winter in early September.