Hot Weather Means the End of the Cool Season Crops

Here in Memphis this week we are going to get into the 90s and that will do in all of our leafy greens. Late last week UT Assistant Professor of Residential and Consumer Horticulture Natalie Bumgarner came in from Knoxville to tape a few Family Plot shows and with her help we harvested the rest of the mustard and turnip greens (including the turnip roots), and lettuce.

Natalie harvesting the greens

Lettuce right before harvest

Cool Season Leafy Green Totals

Here are the total harvest we got from our cool season leafy greens

Vegetable	Total Harvest	Area in Garden (sqft)	Notes
Radish	3.5 lbs	2	32 Radishes
Spinach	.858 lb	2	There should be one more harvest of the spinach
Green Lettuce	1.12 lb	1	4 leaf lettuce plants
Red Lettuce	0	1	No seeds germinated
Mustard Greens	1.71	1
Turnip Greens	.7 lb	1
Turnip Roots	.58 lb	1	5 turnip roots
Peas	1.08 lb	4	They are still going strong. We should get much more here

We also have picked 1.08 lb of peas so far. That should keep going for awhile. We may need to push back the cucumber planting to keep the peas going.

Planting

While Natalie was in Memphis we taped a segment with her planting peppers. She planted three 'Big Bertha' pepper plants in the garden. One of them was grafted and she talked about the benefits of grafting and showed how to plant that one too. While she was here we also had her plant an eggplant, watermelon, and cantaloupe.

Also in the last few days we have planted summer squash and another round of bush beans. The summer garden is getting going. We have seen some flowers on the tomatoes so we should be getting the first of those in a few weeks.

Natalie planting peppers. Watch for the segment on Family plot in a few weeks

The three pepper plants in the ground. The middle one is grafted.

Planting Eggplant

Summer straight-neck squash seeds

The next two squares of green beans.

The spring rains have slowed down so I need to water ever couple of days. Because it is a raised bed with loose soil (mostly compost) it has very good drainage and dries out fast. I will be installing a drip irrigation system so the garden will water itself. We are looking for maximum production so having very dry soil for even a day or two could realy reduce the harvest on some plants.

We have plants growing in almost every square now. I am having trouble finding sweet potatoes so if I can't find some I will repurpose those squares to something else.