Heat Loving Veggies for the Texas Garden – Patty Leander

Jay’s enthusiasm for horticulture is infectious, and I could not resist his invitation to contribute a guest post to his interesting and well-organized blog.  Growing vegetables is my favorite horticulture-related activity and like many a gardener I am addicted to the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat that comes my way each season.

Patty and I in her garden

We endured a hellacious drought last summer – not our first, not our last – yet winter and spring have brought much anticipated renewal, for both garden and gardener. The drought has reminded us of the importance of mulch, efficient irrigation and planting the right plant at the right time. It’s not even a bad idea to think of summer as a dormant time in the vegetable garden, but for those who are not deterred by rain deficits, sun, heat and sweat I’d like to highlight a few Texas-tough vegetables to fill the summer gap: 

 

 

Okra can be a little "prickly" to some gardeners. if okra gives you the "itch" simply wear gloves and a long sleeve shirt when harvesting. Photo by Bruse Leander

Okra – This quintessential heat lover is first on my list.  Smooth, ribbed, long, short, green or red, I have never tried a variety that I didn’t like.  Okra seed can be planted once the soil has warmed (70-80º), usually April or May in Central Texas.  It will reach maturity (4-6 feet tall) in approximately two months and picking will be easier if you space it at least 2 feet apart – and once it starts producing you will be picking almost every day!  In fact the secret to tender okra is to check your plants daily and harvest pods when they are only 3-5” long. And unlike those temperamental heirloom tomatoes, heirloom okra varieties grow like champs without much coddling or cajoling at all.  ‘Clemson Spineless’, ‘Emerald’ and ‘Hill Country Heirloom Red’ are available from Baker Creek Seeds (www.rareseeds.com). I know of two open-pollinated varieties with Texas roots that deserve mention.  ‘Beck’s Big’, a giant okra with fat pods, introduced in 1968 by organic trailblazer Malcolm Beck of San Antonio, and my personal favorite, ‘Stewart’s Zeebest’, a smooth, dark green variety carefully selected over several years for branching and productivity by two of my favorite gardeners, the late George and Mary Stewart of Houston. Both okras are available from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange (www.southernexposure.com). Okra plants have tiny, mostly inconspicuous spines that cause an annoying itch, so be sure to wear gloves and long sleeves when harvesting pods.

 Grilled Okra

Not sure what to do with your okra bounty? Try it grilled: toss whole, 3-4” pods in olive oil, season with salt and pepper and toss them on the grill. Grill 10-15 minutes, until pods are tender and slightly charred.  Yum!

A plump pod full of Colossus Crowder peas. Photo by Bruce Leander

Southern Peas – These legumes go by many names – cowpeas, field peas, black-eyed peas – but no matter what you call them they can take the Texas heat. They also taste delicious, produce beautiful blossoms, and can be used as a cover crop to build nitrogen and organic matter in the soil.  Two old-fashioned varieties for summer cover crops are ‘Red Ripper’ and ‘Iron and Clay’.  For fresh-eating I am partial to ‘Purple Hull’ and crowder peas (so called because the peas are crowded in the pod) such as ‘Mississippi Silver’ and ‘Colossus’.  Heavenly Seed (www.heavenlyseed.net) is a small, family-owned seed company located in Anderson, South Carolina, that offers a superb selection of southern peas.

Asparagus, or long beans, can grow to 18" and are great in a stir fry. Photo by Bruce Leander

Asparagus BeansAlso known as yard long beans, this heat-loving relative of the cowpea is popular for use in Asian stir-fries. Most varieties are vigorous vines that require a sturdy fence or trellis. Harvest when pods are about 15-18” long, before beans begin to swell. ‘Red Noodle’, available from both Baker Creek and Heavenly Seed, produces long, burgundy pods that can be sliced and sautéed or stir-fried.

 

Malabar spinach is a great green for the Texas heat. Photo by Bruce Leander

Molokhia and Malabar Spinach – Lettuce and other greens thrive in most of Texas from fall to early spring, but home-grown salad greens are hard to come by as summer approaches. As the days grow long and hot many gardeners turn to Malabar spinach as a warm weather salad green. Another summertime option is a popular Middle Eastern green called molokhia, sometimes referred to as Egyptian spinach. The nutritious, grassy tasting leaves are plucked from fast-growing, multi-stemmed plants that grow 4-6 feet tall. Young leaves and shoots can be added to salads or sandwiches and older leaves can be cooked or sautéed and added to soups or casseroles. A reliable seed source for both of these greens is Kitazawa Seed Company (www.kitazawaseed.com).

Molokhia leaves and seed pods. Photo by Bruce Leander

9 thoughts on “Heat Loving Veggies for the Texas Garden – Patty Leander

  1. I love this article. Even though I do not have a garden, I was thinking just the other day with the heat that vegetable gardens would be a challenge – and viola – here is the answer!

  2. Your talk at the Texas Master Gardeners Conference was very enlightening and we were told we could get a handout on line which I have not been able to find. I would appreciate it if you would email me a copy so I can share it with my Orange County Master Gardener Group. I have stressed nutritious food for better health and have changed my way of eating. I am so glad to have found you web sight. Any information you can send me will be grately appriciated. Thank you, Annette McWhirter

    • Hi Annette. Patty Leander is a contributor to this website. I am going to send her your note and see if she can help you. Also, I am friends with the lady that put the conference together so I will contact her too and see if she can help get you the info you need. Thanks for reading and I hope we can quickly get you what you need

  3. Thanks for informative tidbits! We were given southern peas recently and I wondered whats the best kind to plant here in central Texas. My garden bore lovely this year, thanks to God’s rain and blessing!

    • Thanks so much for your comment. I agree that we have truly been bleesed as gardeners this year. Good luck with your peas!

  4. Hi! I’m growing Hill Country Red okra in Austin this summer. It’s my first year to ever really garden more than a few potted cherry tomatoes and herbs. My okra has its first fruits forming. However they are covered in tiny cream colored egg-shaped droplets. I read that okra sap is very normal and can be mistaken for insect eggs, but the pictures of that phenomenon I saw online showed clear droplets rather than cream colored. I also saw a few very small white bugs. In addition, my garden has a stink bug problem. I’m trying to avoid chemicals if possible. A friend suggested a compost tea spray to deal with the stinkbugs, but didn’t have any okra advice for me. If you have any experience you’d be willing to share, I’d be mighty grateful. Thanks!

    • If the drops you are seeing are firm, then its sap. If it is wet and sweet tasting, it is honey dew that is being caused by your little white bugs (white flies). I grow 100% organically. If you grow this way there is no way to rid yourself of white flies or stink bugs. Never heard of spraying compost tea. Neem oil has some effect but not much. Right now I have tomatoes in two places. In one group, each plant is surrounded by marigolds. It is lovely but still has lots of bugs. The other is a 33′ row planted next to a row of sunflowers. Both of those plants are suppossed to keep the stink bugs off of your tomatoes. Well, they don’t. I still have tons of bugs but I am still bringing in 8-12 lbs of tomatoes a day. While bugs are a nuisance, they do far less harm than birds and bunnies.

      If you grow healthy plants in good soil they will out compete the bugs. You may get little marks on your tomatoes but they are still good. Keep doing what you are doing. Build good soil and water regularly and you should be ok.

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