Killer of Plants

[K6457]

I am a new member and new to gardening. I am a killer of plants! (Confession). I live in Texas… almost in East Texas… I need help planning a Fall garden. Size to be determined by input/advice. It is just us two living here. I am absolutely NEW to gardening. We are in zone 8b if that helps. Recommend a good book(s) to start?

 

[Zeedman]

I hate to say it, but when I read the title of the thread, my first reaction was - is that you Mom?

Welcome to T.E.G. !!! Plenty of people here from your corner of the world, whose advice would be more useful than mine. Looking forward to reading about your garden journey.

Edit: Ooops... I never did answer your question about garden books.

As an heirloom gardener, I would seldom recommend a book from "big AG"; but when I first began gardening seriously, Ortho's "All About Vegetables" was a great help. It is a slim paperback, but has a surprising amount of general gardening info, and detailed sections for many of the most commonly grown vegetables. William Weaver's "Heirloom Vegetable Gardening" is another good addition to the garden library.

 

[heirloomgal]

Welcome from Canada! Glad you're here!

As far as gardening books, many of my favourites are written by Bob Flowerdew in the UK. But you can also visit his website, for free, which has loads of great info on everything gardening. I think it is called bobflowerdew.com.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Welcome from Louisiana, glad you joined.

 

[Dirtmechanic]

Welcome fro Alabama -zone 8A! My advice is get digging! 60 days from now crops will be coming in September!

 

[flowerbug]

I am a new member and new to gardening. I am a killer of plants! (Confession). I live in Texas… almost in East Texas… I need help planning a Fall garden. Size to be determined by input/advice. It is just us two living here. I am absolutely NEW to gardening. We are in zone 8b if that helps. Recommend a good book(s) to start?

hello from mid-Michigan and welcome to TEG. i will recommend your local library for as many books as you care to read, i don't have any favorites because there are so many with different methods and opinions, plus you are further south and have a longer season than here so things i would do don't work the same down there.

there are a lot of east Texas gardeners here on TEG.

for a new gardener it is really tempting to go big and then get overwhelmed, my own advice is to plant enough diversity so that you will get some results, but to make sure to plant things that you know you like to eat. there's nothing more discouraging than to plant a lot of something and then finding out that nobody else will eat it.

usually easy crops are things like peas, pea pods, cucumbers, radishes, turnips, chard. it might be too hot right now for your area to start any of these so just getting the garden area figured out turned.

how much light it gets is important.

fence will also likely be important - around here without a fence we'd likely not get much results. because of deer a minimum height is 6ft, 7is better with another foot or two turned outwards at the bottom so the diggers won't have it easy to come under. keeping a fence clear of weeds and vines is also important through the years. a plant growing on a fence provides a lot of surface area for the wind to push against so i've found out that keeping most plants off the fence will keep it from being blown over. if you have a big enough garden you may also need to put something on a wire fence to make it more visible to deer so that they don't try to run through it.

personally i have a preference for in the dirt and on-the-ground-level gardening where the pathways are not a fixed part of the garden, but can be moved as you rotate your spaces each season. i also am not a big fan of raised beds, but we do them here because we get flash flooding. through the years i've found out that edges are work so i prefer as few of them as possible. but keeping a good edge along a garden will keep a lot of weeds from getting into the garden.

my favorite gardening tool is a stirrup hoe, you need to use it, but regular scraping of the surface will keep many weeds from getting bigger. when it gets hot it is important to get out early and get it done before it gets too hot. keep hydrated and siesta during the middle of the day. putter around later on if you can.

 

[seedcorn]

Welcome.

Don’t think of it as growing a garden. Make a list of what vegetables you do eat (if it’s one you would like to try, go to store and buy it to eat first), then ask, can I grow that in East Texas. IF after making the list, you decide you want a few tomatoes and jalapeños, just substitute them for flowers in your landscape.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Recommend a good book(s) to start?

All good advice above. Instead of a book I'd suggest you contact your county extension office and chat with them. You should be able to find them online. They should know what grows in your area and even have recommendations for varieties. In Arkansas and Louisiana I was able to get planting calendars for my area that not only told me when to plant something but listed a lot of things that I could plant. That's a great list for ideas.

In East Texas you still have time for a fall garden. In Arkansas I had to get things started in late August to beat the frost, which was rough because of how hot and dry it usually was with those tender starts. South of New Orleans October is usually a good time to start. All gardening is local, you have to figure out what works for you. Taking advantage of local knowledge is really helpful.

 

[Marie2020]

I am a new member and new to gardening. I am a killer of plants! (Confession). I live in Texas… almost in East Texas… I need help planning a Fall garden. Size to be determined by input/advice. It is just us two living here. I am absolutely NEW to gardening. We are in zone 8b if that helps. Recommend a good book(s) to start?

You will have a vast amount of information from these people here on TEG. They will all have different ideas but I find this too be a good thing.

So you are a killer of plants? Well I'm an upgrade from that because I am an actual serial killer of all kinds of plants, especially spider plants and aloe vera. I have just murdered my fourth spider plant this week

Pleased to meet you

 

[catjac1975]

I am a new member and new to gardening. I am a killer of plants! (Confession). I live in Texas… almost in East Texas… I need help planning a Fall garden. Size to be determined by input/advice. It is just us two living here. I am absolutely NEW to gardening. We are in zone 8b if that helps. Recommend a good book(s) to start?

You need very local advice to make a garden work for you. Find a local organic backyarder who can get you started. Work on your soil, till it, add manure, start composting.