Zone 8 Second growing season

This morning before my run I went to let the Dogs out and realized I was not being choked by thick Georgia humidity. It was such a relief to breath crisp air with an actual cool breeze in my face. Sometimes we tend to take these things for granted when we have them everyday. I guess its human nature. Nevertheless, this weather has sparked my interest into prepping my garden for the second growing season of zone 8.

Last year I learned alot about planting cool weather plants for the second part of the growing season in zone 8. Although I had great success with the variety of plants and reaped a good yield; my plants were the target of many ailments that had to be monitored. I suspect this was from a few reasons. First, the bugs were gorging themselves on all my leafy cool weather greens; Second, the heavy rains smothered alot of my young plants and caused some others to be water logged causing many of the plants to have ailments associated with over watering.

Farming is tough and I give credit to all the farmers who have to do this day in and out to survive. Throw in organic and its a whole nother animal. Weather, bugs, and a little bit of negligence your crop is wiped out. This year we are planting just a little bit earlier while the ground is still relatively warm. I think with all my amateur experience that warmth during the germination stage kicks start the genetic code of the plants and will give them their real bang for the buck. This will translate into a plant that has a healthier root system and I'm assuming this will enable to the plants to ward of disease opposed to them being planted in cooler weather where they tend to be a bit lethargic and not able to defend themselves as well. This is all based on my experience and a bit of experimentation. During this second season, I have planted:

Butter Nut squash
Tomatoes
Egg plant (Still Producing from first season)
Watermelon
Cantaloupe
Sweet Peppers
Brussel Sprouts
Swiss Chard
Kamatsona
Spring Onions
Leeks
Radish
Corn
Lima Beans
Pole beans
Bush beans
Alacante Beans
Sun flowers

Looking forward to this second season. Some plants like spinach just can not be planted in this heat however there are some Japanese spinach varieties that do very well in heat. Unfortunately the seed packet got wet and the seeds prematurely germinated and all died. Dammit!!

Growing Butternut Squash in the Fall Zone 8

Over the past few weeks my Butternut squash have been producing many male and female flowers. Our hand pollination techniques are producing sub par results. I have noticed that there are these tiny ants that have been navigating to every open flower collecting what I think is pollen. There are some butternut that have started to grow and then for some reason or another they fail and those same tiny ants are walking in and out of the shell. I suspect they may also be eating the squash. The one pictured has been doing very well along with three others. The butternut unlike other varieties of squash seem to take forever to grow and the longer they are on the vine the more I have to contend with fighting off everything that wants to eat them. Nevertheless, they really enjoy the cool weather and when we have warm fronts that move in they are taking full advantage of it as well. But all in all I am really liking my butternut this time of year.

Bok Choy Second Growing Season Zone 8

Bok Choy, is hands down one of my favorite leafy green veggies. They are a great alternative to spinach and cabbage. As the cool weather sets in here in the south our Bok choy are loving every bit of it. About a week ago I thinned several of the plants and my wife and I ate the tender clippings in a stir fry. Today I went back out to the garden to prepare another meal and noticed that the Bok choy was growing in full force with much stronger leaves. As I started clipping the leaves I noticed that there are just way to much and I got tired I finished about half way through the clippings until I got smoked. They went really well with the stir fry of other fresh veggies we pulled from the garden and fresh pesto we made over the weekend that went will with our grilled Chicken breast... Absolutely delicious!!!

Growing Egg Plant Second Growing Season Zone 8

I planted this Eggplant back in the spring and he has shown to be a truly great producer. The oriental eggplant has been a great surprise to us with regards to harvest, taste, and texture. Here in GA the Second Growing season is in full swing and Mr Egg Plant is Showing his full appreciation, by setting forth several new flowers. Eggplants like tomatoes have the Perfect flower which means each flower has both male and female reproductive parts. For track stars this may not be a good thing, but for plants it is an efficient way to reproduce. We look forward to harvesting more Eggplants this season.

Zone 8; Geeked out Garden Plans

My wife often refers to me as a cool nerd. I decided to geek out my garden plans this year by doing extensive research on what I should plant when and for how long. It serves as a guide for me to look at the month and it will tell me what I should plant in that month. This guide I made up is for zone 8 and in my absence my wife will know what seeds to start sowing in the sunroom before she can place them in the garden. I really like the versality of zone 8 because alot of the vegetables we grow in the spring can be grown at the end of summer into the fall. It really doesn't get cold around here until the middle of Dec and even then there were 70 degree days this past Jan. This zone 8 seasonal garden plan is pretty much dummy proof. The blue represents the winter, the green represents the spring, the red respresents summer and the orange represents the fall months. Every vegetable/fruit has a specific month they should be planted in zone 8 and they should not be planted in any month that is not specified for the particular vegetable/fruit. I hope this can be helpul for those who live and want to garden in zone 8.