So this probably isn’t the best time…
January isn’t really the peak gardening season anywhere, even in south-central Texas. So my photos are pretty gross. However, we do have a couple of things going on right now, and the next couple of months are going to be filled with prep-prep-prep. I cannot wait for Spring!
We bought a new house a couple of years ago, and the VERY first thing I did, even before we had all the furniture moved over, was start getting the garden going. Some things just take time. It’s expanded quite a bit since this first bed, but this photo below was the first one we put in.
There’s a lot going on here. First, I wanted to get my herbs going, so that’s off to the left there. We have rosemary, thyme, oregano, and mint. I tried sage, but for whatever reason, no matter who says it’s the easiest thing to grow, I just can NOT get it to grow for me. The bugs eat it, or it dies, or whatever. I have tried so many times, at both houses. I give up. No sage. We also have a fairly healthy stand of Swiss Chard in this bed that keeps us supplied in good greens, subbing our spinach and kale needs for most of our recipes.
The next bed is black beans that I was growing to replenish the soil and dry the beans. They didn’t survive the first cold snap we had, which was expected. I need to get out there and cut them back before they mold. There are also some volunteer potatoes from the summer. They were SO tasty, but we just haven’t been eating a lot of potatoes this fall for some reason, so I really need to get in and see if they’re any good before they start sprouting new plants.
The corner bed is currently garlic and one lonely Chinese cabbage that managed to sprout from the five seeds I planted. I had just cut the leaves to mulch back into the soil before I took this photo. I figured if the bugs were going to eat the leaves, they might as well eat the cut ones.
Next are two beds of peas that are doing phenomenally well. There are some beets growing in there, but not as many as I would like. The cold snaps keep running the bees off into hiding, but we have a few pea pods here and there.
In the back is a pomegranate tree. We had it in a pot at our previous house, but it has just done amazingly well since we put it in the ground here. It went from about four feet in height to ten or twelve feet. It flowered at the previous house, and produced one small fruit, but a worm got it before we could try it. In 2019, we got one or two fruits, and last year we had about five fruit. I’m really looking forward to see what this year produces!
And in case you’re curious, we are using a 3-Tier waterfall raised bed from Gardener’s Supply Company. If you’re interested in their products, I strongly recommend you sign up for their emails to take advantage of their frequent sales. We chose this bed partly for the design, and partly because it had so many other configurations. We could buy add on pieces, or additional beds, or even just the corners if we needed to, in order to expand our garden in the future (which we did). I liked that it was composite boards, which are supposed to last in all kinds of weather and heat (hello, Texas summers!). Our previous house came with raised beds made of cedar boards, and I was constantly fighting them to keep them in their corner posts from the warping due to age and heat. It’s only been two years, but these have done really well so far.
This is only a small part of my garden. Stay tuned to see what else is growing!
Don't Be Latte! 