by Texas Homesteader

It was with high hopes in late winter that I planted my indoor greenhouse with my heirloom seeds. Those seeds sprouted into tiny seedlings and I anxiously planted them in my garden immediately after Easter (as is recommended in our planting zone 8 here in NE Texas.)

But the strange spring weather battled with my tender seedlings.

My garden was lovingly planted and with the highest optimism. I awaited the expected growth but Mother Nature had other plans… 

Although spring is typically a wet and rainy season for us, this spring has really done a trick on my garden.

Too Much Rain!

Rain systems were swinging through every few days. Then they hung around for several days. And on days where there was no rain we would be dealing with heavy cloud cover, which would prevent any of that moisture from evaporating.

And of course none of the life-giving sun could reach my tender seedlings.

The seedlings suffered but the grass and weeds were going crazy in the garden. After several weeks with no remaining sign of life and with a sigh I had to admit to myself that my garden was gone. 

I would need to undo all that was previously done, prepare the beds again and replant. And that’s exactly what I did.

Starting Over

So with new resolve I tackled the grass growing in the planting rows, pulling and tugging to get to the roots. I’ll continue to battle for awhile since I expect that I’ll need to address the wayward roots.

Then I pulled my garden planting plan that I rely on every year to layout my garden and planted new seeds in the beds. 

Concord Grapevine

My grapevine, unlike the struggling young veggie seedlings, is absolutely loving all the rain!  It’s growing like crazy and looks like it will supply me with a great crop this year.

The only problem is that I’ve not  yet been able to get out there and tie the vines to the fence to make it grow neatly in the manner I want. But I don’t think it’s too late to tackle it.  (I hope…)

Wild Blackberries

And of course the blackberry vines I transplanted to the garden area several years ago are growing like crazy as well. But wow they need to be pruned back & tied too. I think those vines are a little out of control. LOL.

But despite the overgrowth I get to see those first tempting juicy rewards of spring.  Ummmm…  delicious! I’m able to harvest a small handful of berries each day.

Those berries are frozen for future use. I want to be able to harvest enough berries to make our favorite homemade blackberry cobbler.

Garlic & Onions

And of course the garlic and onions are doing fine. The bottom leaves of the garlic are actually starting to turn  yellow, indicating it’s getting close to harvest time. It seems early to be harvesting garlic but I’ll probably be doing just that very soon.

I’m not gonna lie, I’m very excited to be harvesting garlic. It’s been a LONG time since I had no garlic available for cooking. But I’ve used up all my reserves and have been waiting for harvest to replenish it.

My onions, as always, are doing great. I have walking onions in my garden. They grow a smaller bulb than traditional slicing onions. But they’re stronger flavored so I can get the same onion power from a smaller amount.

I’ve been slicing them thinly and sprinkling them on our salads. They’re perfect. And since they reproduce every year I don’t ever have to buy onions for the garden.

The plant will produce a bloom like traditional onions, but small bulbils form on the stalk. They grow & weigh the stalk down until it touches the ground. Then the bulbils root to make new onions.

Garden Survivors

My volunteer cilantro grew GREAT in the garden this year! I harvested lots of it for cooking. My favorite was Cilantro/Lime Rice.

I’ve purposely allowed the cilantro plants to flower & go to seed. Although I don’t like to use the seed (coriander) in cooking, it virtually guarantees free cilantro in the garden first thing each spring. Gotta love it!

A few seedlings actually survived like a couple of tiny tomato plants. They’ll require a little sunshine though to take off.

And I’m seeing a couple of cantaloupe and zucchini sprouts in the large tubs I moved to the garden too. Hopefully they’ll go ahead & grow into hearty plants.

The galvanized trough I set up in the garden for a raised bed has green beans planted in it. They have grown and are starting to flower. But they’re not very vibrant-looking plants. So we’ll see how that trough experiment goes.

Since there’s plenty of room in the garden rows with all the non-growing plantings, I went ahead and planted another row of green beans. I’ve noticed tiny green bean seedlings have  sprouted.

They’re actually growing quite nicely and with much more vigor than the trough-planted beans. So one way or the other I’m guessing we’ll at least have green beans to harvest!

Challenging Weather

It’s certainly been a challenging spring garden here in NE Texas. I’m used to it being the rainy season but WOW – this year the garden has required two plantings in the same season. 

The second planting hasn’t really shown much promise yet. And since it’s already mid May I’m wondering what that means for the future of my harvest this year. But being the eternal optimist means I’ll be cheering it on. 

How’s your garden going?  Are you able to get it in the ground yet?  Is the weather cooperating with you?

~TxH~

This post categorized in  

My Favorite Garden Hacks

• Easy Garden Planning Spreadsheet
• Getting A Jump: Planting An Indoor Greenhouse
• Repurposed Cardboard Seed-Starting Pots
• 3-Sister’s Garden – The Original Companion Planting
• Low-Cost Vegetable Gardening
• Planting A Large Galvanized Trough
• Using Cheap Biodegradable Weed Block
• Tricking Birds AWAY From Your Strawberry Plants
• Easy Compost For A Healthy Garden
• Propping Tender Seedlings
• Cheap (or FREE) Wood Mulch For The Garden
• Homestead Hack: Remember Where You Planted Seeds
• How Vegetable Gardening Can Change Your Life!
• Easy Deep-Soak Watering
• Planting Potatoes In Galvanized Trough
• Planting A Blueberry Bush In Galvanized Tub
• Stevia – Growing Your Own Sweetener!
• How I Use EcoBricks In The Garden 
• Making An Inexpensive Temporary Cold Frame
• Compost Old Confidential Documents

MORE Gardening Posts

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