Guest Column

I've decided to turn the blog over for this entry to my niece.  She's very good on this subject.  I hope you think so too.

The Four Seasons of Houston

When you think of Houston, you don’t really think of this city as having seasons. Most people think we have a hot season and a really hot season. Although it gets extremely hot here, we do actually have 4 seasons. Our seasons are a little different than the “traditional” ones (spring, summer, fall, winter). Houston is in a zone 9 season. I wanted to give you a little lesson in zone 9 seasons and the type of vegetables you can grow here.

Let’s start off by discussing the 4 seasons. The first season is called “Warm Season 1” from March until May. Most of the time March is when you see Home Depot or Lowes stocking up on gardening supplies and plants. This time of year is a great time to ready your growing beds. People do this many different ways. Some plant straight into the ground and others plant in a raised garden bed, like I do. The soil in Houston is different depending on where you live. I live west Houston and the soil there is very clay like. A raised garden bed is a better option for growing in my area. During Warm Season 1 I like to grow tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, beans, herbs (basil, rosemary, thyme, and oregano) and all of the peppers you want to grow. Types of peppers that I am growing and also love our zone 9 are bell peppers, jalapenos, hatch green chilies, and ancho peppers. There are many other hot peppers you can grow but my family prefer the milder peppers.

The second season in zone 9 is “Hot Season”. This time of year is from June until August. You can continue to grow all of your peppers and some tomatoes as long as you give them plenty of water. I’ve also seen people grow okra and black eye peas or cow peas. This time of year is extremely hot and most of the other vegetables will die off. This is where most people start readying their beds for the next season. Whenever I say “ready your bed”, what I mean is to pull all of the weeds and dead or dying plants out, replenish your soil with nutrients, and give the soil a good mix to provide some air. I have been using the same nutrient formula for my bed and it seems to work great. I like to mix top soil, cow dung, and earth worm casings (also known as black gold). Sometimes when cow dung is not available a good substitute is blood meal. This will provide plants with enough food for the whole year.

The third season is called “Warm Season 2”. This is from September until November. We call it a warm season because it’s as close to fall as we can get. The temperatures are very much like Warm Season 1 and it’s not so hot as to kill some of the more sensitive plants. You can grow those same plants in Warm Season 1 like the tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, and zucchini. I also like to plant my onions and garlic near the end of this season. Onions and garlic will take a long time to grow so planting them when the weather starts to get pleasant again will prepare them for “overwintering” into the cooler season.

The fourth and final season we have in zone 9 is the “Cool Season”. The cool season is from late December until February. In this season we can start growing plants like lettuce, kale, swiss chard, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and sugar snap peas. Our weather really doesn’t get below freezing most of the time. If it does these plants will be able to withstand the low temperatures and not die. There are some fruits you can grow in this zone and I have had some great success. Cantaloupe is great for Warm Season 1, strawberries love the cooler season, and anything citrus grows in the south.

One thing every gardener needs to keep in mind when growing their own food; there will be triumphs but there will also be failures. Pests will get the better of you, plants will die even when you do all of the right things, and some plants will just grow without producing any fruit or vegetables. All of these things doesn’t mean you get to quit or that you are bad at gardening. You just need to do a little more research and try again. Grow what you will eat and not to just grow something. Make sure to always give yourself some credit for things you did get right and always keep learning and growing.