I just finished building two new 3' X 8' beds. They are twelve inches deep. I did everything I could to build the soil exactly the way I want it with a mixture of good top soil, organics, and other amendments. Both beds are ready to grow something, but I don't know what will germinate, live, grow, and produce when the daytime temps are close to 100 degrees and night temps are above 80 degrees. Any suggestions?
Ted
New beds! What should I plant?
Last edited by tedln on Tue Jun 22, 2010 11:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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applestar
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Tomato sucker cuttings? Other "fall" and second crops for your region?
OK, I'm going to list all the plants that I CAN'T grow very well here because of the LACK of good hot weather issues and insufficient growing season -- Sweet Potatoes, Peanuts, Okra, melons, eggplants, gourd, possibly southern peas (I'm trying them for the first time this year)....
Muscadines and rabbit-eye blueberries.... Some fruit trees like figs -- are you considering fruit trees?
OK, I'm going to list all the plants that I CAN'T grow very well here because of the LACK of good hot weather issues and insufficient growing season -- Sweet Potatoes, Peanuts, Okra, melons, eggplants, gourd, possibly southern peas (I'm trying them for the first time this year)....
Muscadines and rabbit-eye blueberries.... Some fruit trees like figs -- are you considering fruit trees?
I mis-stated the size of the beds before I edited my post. I said 3' X 4', when in fact they are 3' X 8'.
They will be vegetable beds instead of tree beds. I have been planting a lot of trees and will plant a lot of fruit trees next spring. I've been concentrating on my vegetable garden this year. Someone suggested olive trees and cypress trees. I've lived next to a yard full of olive trees and they are wonderful in the spring when blooming. They smell better than honeysuckle in the morning. Unfortunately many people have allergies to their pollen. I've had many cypress trees and they are beautiful, but you need to plant them where you don't plan on mowing the grass. They send "knees" up from their roots and they are really hard on lawn mowers.
Cucurbits don't seem to do well when trying to germinate them in this summer heat. They will germinate, but when they see how hot it is; they tend to lay over and die. Okra will do well in this heat, but I'm not a big fan of okra. I love it fried, but we don't eat fried food. I'm already growing eggplant and it is just now getting hot enough for it to do well. I will be planting some fall tomatoes, which I am growing from cuttings, in the beds. I've already tried some chard, but it doesn''t seem to like germinating in high heat. It will grow well in high temps, but seems hard to germinate in high temps.
I think applestar is right about the "southern" peas. I believe they are what we call black eyed peas. They do well in the heat, but are not one of my favorite eating peas. We eat them in the south on New Years day in order to have good luck in the coming year. (It's just a tradition in the south).
How about carrots? Will they germinate in hot weather and produce a fall crop? Any other suggestions?
Thanks
Ted
They will be vegetable beds instead of tree beds. I have been planting a lot of trees and will plant a lot of fruit trees next spring. I've been concentrating on my vegetable garden this year. Someone suggested olive trees and cypress trees. I've lived next to a yard full of olive trees and they are wonderful in the spring when blooming. They smell better than honeysuckle in the morning. Unfortunately many people have allergies to their pollen. I've had many cypress trees and they are beautiful, but you need to plant them where you don't plan on mowing the grass. They send "knees" up from their roots and they are really hard on lawn mowers.
Cucurbits don't seem to do well when trying to germinate them in this summer heat. They will germinate, but when they see how hot it is; they tend to lay over and die. Okra will do well in this heat, but I'm not a big fan of okra. I love it fried, but we don't eat fried food. I'm already growing eggplant and it is just now getting hot enough for it to do well. I will be planting some fall tomatoes, which I am growing from cuttings, in the beds. I've already tried some chard, but it doesn''t seem to like germinating in high heat. It will grow well in high temps, but seems hard to germinate in high temps.
I think applestar is right about the "southern" peas. I believe they are what we call black eyed peas. They do well in the heat, but are not one of my favorite eating peas. We eat them in the south on New Years day in order to have good luck in the coming year. (It's just a tradition in the south).
How about carrots? Will they germinate in hot weather and produce a fall crop? Any other suggestions?
Thanks
Ted
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applestar
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If you want to try germinating carrots in the heat of the summer, what I've read, though haven't tried, is to put a wooden board on the seedbed to keep them moist and dark. Check every day and at first sign of sprouting, remove the board. Only catch I see with this trick is that a wooden board is also where slugs like to hide.... jal_ut (I think) suggesting something similar in another thread, using a cardboard, though I think it was for a different vegetable.
I too was in Greece last year (late September to October, sure different to me, when its October and 31 degrees Celsius)shaefins wrote:I know what I'd grow if I had warm enough weather - olives. I was in Greece last year, fell in love with it, and am *dying* to have olives and/or their cypress trees but, alas, I'm too far north to do it.
I read somewhere It can take 4 years until you see any olive seedlings
not stopping me from cutting open a stone and drying out the seed inside 
I'll try and grow anything ... I got a mango tree about 4 inches tall in my window.