Just Starting Out

I have just built my garden and filled it. I am in the Houston area and wondering what I can still plant and actually be successful. The heat has been oppressive the last week already. I am very new at this and am hoping to get some stuff growing. My daughter is very excited about the possibility of helping garden. Any tips would be appreciated.

When you say "Houston" area, what do you mean? There is a big difference between Conroe and Galveston....

!!! We are glad to have you.

Maybe someone a bit closer to you in the Coastal and Tropical region will pop in and answer, I know eliephant (sp?) is in your zone. Of course those of us in TX know that our weather knows no boundries, and sometimes we are actually too far north to get snow, it's happened.

My guess would be it's too warm by now to start cold weather veggies like broccoli, califlower, & cabbage, mine is wilting from the heat during the day up here in NE TX, so I can only imagine what those further south and on the coast look like. I'll try to look around for some guides for you and get back to you in a bit, I'm still on my caffine IV drip..... teeheehee

I found the link that was posted on a thread here for what to plant when in which zones.
http://www.thevegetablegarden.info/resources/planting-schedules

Just click on your zone (9) and go from there.

You may want to try this next one first.
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/archives/parsons/earthkind/ekgarden14.html

BUT it says I am in zone 7, actually I'm in 8a, but then they are going to change these again any time now.

Definitely skip the cool weather veggies and save those for fall. Go and ahead and put your summer veggies in now. I looked up Richmond, TX on weather.com and it was showing me that you've had beautiful 80s/60s weather for the past week, so I'm not sure if it gave me the right place as you said the heat is already getting oppressive? Although I know how that can feel after the cooler "winter" weather, lol. If you are in the 80s/60s, however, that is prime growing weather for summer crops so go ahead and get them in there! We're already in the 90s/70s.

In the case of tomatoes and peppers, large fruited ones won't set fruit as easily as small-fruited ones once the lows get over 75 and/or the highs get over the low 90s, so keep that in mind. You'll need starts rather than seeds this year.

Squash are great for summer. Most are bush plants and need a lot of space, but can hang over the edge of the box if you don't mind that. Tatume and Tromboncino are two vining types that I'm trying this year. Squash is quick and easy to grow from seed. You'll need to learn about powdery mildew and watch out for that.

Pole beans need a trellis, bush beans don't. Seed.

Cucumbers can be grown on a trellis. Seed.

Okra and Eggplant are two that I'm trying for the first time this year. They are supposed to set fruit even in the heat of the summer.

Hmmm, what else? Feel free to ask any questions. I've only been gardening for a little while, but having a ton of fun with it! Welcome to the forum!

I knew you would help out elliephant, thanks!!!!

This is Great! Thank yall so much. Richmond is just south of Houston we are about an hour south of conroe and hour north of galveston.

The humidity has been what is oppressive lately. This weekend you walk outside and feel like you're swimming through the air. It has been gorgeous otherwise. I am planting tomorrow. This is very helpful. Let's see what grows.

I would love to plant potatoes, but have had a hard time figuring out about those any advice on that?