Here’s our main garden now, with pumpkin and winter squash growing in the foreground. A cover crop of blackeyed peas is growing thick in the middle rows which we have finished harvesting for this season. Actively growing summer varieties are at the back.
Although we are still in the middle of the current season harvest, it’s time to think about next year. With a successful season underway we are hoping to expand our harvest next year, which of course means a bigger area to farm. Since we are converting open pasture into vegetable gardens, now is the time to plow and till so that the existing grasses can be killed by the intense summer heat. The recent rains have turned the hard soil into soft, tillable earth for a few days, so we have to seize the opportunity.
We’ve decided to triple the total garden space, which means tilling up another 20,000 square feet of earth. In the left photo is the existing garden with the pasture bordering. The right picture shows the same area, a little zoomed in, after a pass with the tractor and tiller.
Here’s another view from the far side, looking back at the main garden. This is the first of three passes we need to make over the next few weeks. Hopefully we’ll get another rain in 2 or 3 weeks and we can till again which will help exhaust the grass roots before they can re-establish. And then a third pass in late August, in which we’d also sow more blackeyed peas, would be perfect.
The final photo on the right shows where we’ve tilled a finished row within the main garden, again after sowing blackeyed peas. Hopefully it will look like the row just above it in several weeks. In cooler weather this fall, we will mow down the blackeyed peas and till in seeds for winter peas as the cover crop. Those peas will grow into a dense mat about a foot think. We’ll mow and till those about three weeks before we plant next spring.
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.
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.
Elgin’s HEB grocery store has graciously invited farmers from the weekly Farmers Market to sell local produce Wednesdays from 4pm-7pm for the next several weeks. We’re at peak harvest right now so it’s great to have a couple days to sell each week.
It’s the middle of May and the garden is in full production. The cool weather crops are peaking while the warm weather varieties are starting to ripen.
