okay folks...toyed with idea of doing raised bed. Decided not to. But then my neighbor had to remove some of his from behind his house to appease HCFCD so he had 2 beds built already. I took one and dimensions are 8 feet long x 4 feet wide and 16 inches deep.

Live in Humble and have spot in backyard that will get ample sunshine. Ground here is sloped to drain from house so plan is to dig one side of box down into ground a bit to have it level. Or close to it. Was just going to go to soil place like Living Earth and get either compost or garden potting mix of some sort.

Have sprinkler head here that pops up and sprays and it MIGHT be enough to water the raised bed but I'm planning on running drip line with timer from nearby spigot.

I'm new to this so looking for advice on how to fill and what to grow. I always grow my own jalapeno's in pots so that's a given. Also might do 1 or 2 tomato plants. Green bell peppers would be nice too. Wife only likes cauliflower and broccoli and brusselsprouts so those won't work for summer garden.

TIA for any advice

Google "Zone 9a Plants and Schedule" or some such and have at it.

I'm in Cypress, so we're likely the same zone.

Picking up the new soil/compost mix from a place like Living Earth could provide you with soil that is very organically rich. It could stunt your plant growth early in the season. I have done this every time I add a raised bed and the plants eventually recover.

I tilled in some composted horse manure into the garden (that I got for free!). Will start planting seeds tonight. Our last freeze date is April 15.

trip98 said:

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okay folks...toyed with idea of doing raised bed. Decided not to. But then my neighbor had to remove some of his from behind his house to appease HCFCD so he had 2 beds built already. I took one and dimensions are 8 feet long x 4 feet wide and 16 inches deep.

Live in Humble and have spot in backyard that will get ample sunshine. Ground here is sloped to drain from house so plan is to dig one side of box down into ground a bit to have it level. Or close to it. Was just going to go to soil place like Living Earth and get either compost or garden potting mix of some sort.

Have sprinkler head here that pops up and sprays and it MIGHT be enough to water the raised bed but I'm planning on running drip line with timer from nearby spigot.

I'm new to this so looking for advice on how to fill and what to grow. I always grow my own jalapeno's in pots so that's a given. Also might do 1 or 2 tomato plants. Green bell peppers would be nice too. Wife only likes cauliflower and broccoli and brusselsprouts so those won't work for summer garden.

TIA for any advice

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Try some other peppers. Anaheim, banana, pimiento. Cucumbers, squash, zucchini and okra are easy.

I modded a sprinkler zone and there is plenty of pressure for a 4x40' raised bed so you should be fine. I'll try and take some pics tomorrow assuming I can withstand all the pointing out of what i did wrong and there was plenty. I bought supplies from drip depot online. I would check them out for ideas but honestly i could have done the whole thing for much less money using plain old PVC instead of drip lines.

My mistakes so far
Waited too long to get the plants in the ground. Plant asap that is probably the most important advice. The clock is ticking if you love tomatoes

Spent too much money on drip lines and fittings. I bought stuff i may not need (backflow preventer, filter cleanout, pressure regulator) not sure if this is necessary or I got caught up with online research. I suspect it may be unnecessary.

I spent an absurd amount of money for a garden. By my estimates my first Tomato will have cost $1000
Have fun!

Planting tomotoes can be up to april 1.

Never count money when you are planting vegetables

No mattr what you plant you will always have to give away. I never plant a garden for myself because i know there is only so much we can eat

Money. I have over 1200 dollars in mushroom compost in mine over the last 5 years just because it was clay and had to loosen up for tilling. 100x100

I don't disagree with anything you are saying here but it feels like Texas goes from spring to 100 degrees in the blink of an eye and depending on the variety of tomato you are growing they start to head downhill very quickly when we climb into 90+ territory. If you get it in the ground now you maximize the optimal growing window. The risk is that we get a late freeze in which case you start over and you are out a seedling something that is a nit in the overall cost of the process.

Anybody grow sweet potatoes? I've got slips started from one of the Japanese purple sweet potatoes and planning to build some raised beds.

How deep should the raised beds be? I don't need huge production as this is a test run but don't want to choke the plants. Will be using old worn out fence pickets for the sides so I can increase in increments of 5.5".

I'll be testing a southern-style combo garden with sweet potatoes, okra, and trellised cowpea in one bed and sweet potato, hot peppers, and maybe more cowpea in another.

Also planning to grow some Seminole pumpkin up a tree for grins to see how they do.

Location, coastal Houston area

Update. Got a new dog, and she digs...forced me to build a fence, but at least it kinda looks nice and kept me busy for a weekend.


From back to front: Poblanos, Jalapenos, Pearly Onions, (not pictured) Cayenne, Watermelon, Tomatoes...I guess these are a little old.


From back to front: Peas (died of fungus), now Rosemary, watermelons, a bunch of herbs, and then borage (pictured, and sugar pumpkins, pictured)


From back to front:
Sweet corn, sweet corn and long island cheese squash (which I didn't realize was a winter plant, so oops), long island cheese squash again, sugar pumpkins x 4. Okra is now coming up in both of the bottom corners and green beans were planted recently because I had seeds to get rid of...


Wife also got some native plants that will hopefully get some bees visiting, and we found a maypop to climb the trellis against the window.

Those are some of my seeds!!!!

I tilled yesterday for about an hour and a half. It rained today, so I couldn't make the garden any larger yet. It's about 2000 square ft. right now. Got about another 2000 square ft. to go.

Going to be 40F in Dallas tonight. Just planted transplant tomatoes and peppers earlier this week. They're still small. Should I cover with styrofoam cups overnight? Any risk in covering too tightly?

40 should not hurt but if you wpuld like to put cups over just make sure you take off in the morning that is what kills them

Got six various types of pepper plants in three grow boxes and a 16 of the jiffy peat pods with Chile petins, padrons and cayenne seeds.

Daughter, will be class of 2026 decided she wanted a vegetable garden. Tomatoes, bell peppers, squash, zucchini, cilantro, and Serrano peppers. Planted last Saturday. Squash and zucchini breaking the surface today. She is excited. Will post pics later if i can figure out how.

Save to desktop, go to imgur.com, upload, right click and copy image address, come to TexAgs, click post reply, click the Polaroid image under the emoji's, paste image address, think of witty commentary, post, wait for blue stars.

It's as easy as 1-2-3.

Yes sir! Squash, corn, pumpkins, and watermelons are doing great.

Borage is slow going...eggplant is 2 for 3 after transplant, but I didn't harden off long enough...

Streetfighter 02 said:

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Picking up the new soil/compost mix from a place like Living Earth could provide you with soil that is very organically rich. It could stunt your plant growth early in the season. I have done this every time I add a raised bed and the plants eventually recover.

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I don't see how that works? Lots of organic material means lots of nitrogen for lots of growth. How would the N stunt the initial growth?

Being in Midland, we had what appears to be our last cold snap last night. Got down to 38* this morning. As of now, the only thing in my raised bed are carrots and onions, so they're fine. I have 2 beefsteak tomatoes my dad gave me growing in a wine barrel, so covered them.

With this being the last cold snap (hopefully), and it getting back into the mid 70s and 80s tomorrow and the foreseeable future, I think I'm going to start hardening off and transplanting my tomato seedlings this week. They've been growing for over 3 weeks now indoors and about ready for their home outdoors. I've also got a couple eggplants and jalapeos up. May give them a little more time indoors. Also have some cucumbers, okra, and squash popping up. Will give them a couple more weeks indoors.

I've had heck getting my pepper seeds to get going. A few of the jalapeos are up and growing, but zero of the banana peppers or bell peppers have started. I can't figure out why. It's been over 3 weeks since I planted them. May just try to direct sow them in the garden soon if the seedlings never appear. By mid April if I don't have any I'll just go buy some plants from the nursery.

Got bored and built this, this morning.
Once I've got all the dirt in, I'll put tomatoes and pole beans. Once that is over I'll probably just overwhelm it with zenas.

I've got another of the same size with potatoes and another with small watermelons.

Don't miss that at all.

bedofbrass33 said:

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Anybody grow sweet potatoes? I've got slips started from one of the Japanese purple sweet potatoes and planning to build some raised beds.

How deep should the raised beds be? I don't need huge production as this is a test run but don't want to choke the plants. Will be using old worn out fence pickets for the sides so I can increase in increments of 5.5".

I'll be testing a southern-style combo garden with sweet potatoes, okra, and trellised cowpea in one bed and sweet potato, hot peppers, and maybe more cowpea in another.

Also planning to grow some Seminole pumpkin up a tree for grins to see how they do.

Location, coastal Houston area

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Two feet is deep enough. Three feet is better.

What do y'all recommend for soil and compost, value priced?

I went to the Yard Depot in Cypress and asked for the premium soil they had. One yard was something like $30 max. My compost pile isn't ready to go yet, but just putting in clippings and food waste.

I went and got a yard of top soil from the local nursery, mixed in some peat moss, chicken compost, and worm castings.

So if i'm looking to hook about 100 1-GPH sprinklers to a pump, do I need to worry about a 360 GPH pump being too strong? Or would I attach a 25 PSI regulator to the hose and that would be fine?

I want to hook up my rain barrel to the drip irrgation line, but 'gravity's a bittch' and I need some pressure to get things moving.

Exactly why my rain barrel is going to grow cucumbers in it come May. I'm looking to add a chlorine filter to my drip system soon but my plants have never had a problem with the city water.

What do you, or the board, know about non-compensating pressure drippers...

Sounds like they might be able to handle gravity without a pump.

I think I'm all planted now, just need to fertilize and keep the caterpillars off the bean plants.