Howdy All,

My 7-year old daughter and I are going to start a veggie garden in Spring 2017.  I'm planning on growing some Green Beans, Bell Peppers, Small Pearl Potatoes, and some Maters.

The maters will be used for my wife's salads and I also want to make my own tomato sauce for some recipes that I cook.

Thoughts on a good species of Maters to grown in the far NW Houston area?

Thanks,
CMOS

I have had good luck with "Early Girl", "Tycoon" for regular tomatoes. "Sweet 100" gave me a bunch of cherry Tomatoes

Look for Heirloom tomatoes

The TASTE is SO superior...

BIGGER_HAMMER

Celebrity is what I grow. Along with cherry and grape tomatoes.

Do you buy plants for grow from seed?


CMOS

THIS... and try beefstake  tomatoes the size of softballs.

Sweet 100's for the salads and you might want to try some of the hybrid types that are heat tolerant.  

Sweet cherry tomatoes are very easy to grow.  Romas are great for sauces, not for sandwiches.

I like celebrity too

I have the best luck with romas. Good flavor and quantity. The "big beef" always split on me. This year nothing did very well. I think my wiff got overspray on the tomatoes with weed killer intended for the grass. The last time I did that, the plants grew, but no maters. (I used the wrong spray all together directly on the tomatoes)

I had Celebrity, cherry, 444, Heatmaster, Roma, and Tycoon last year. I probably did best with the cherry, roma, and Celebrity in that order. I did have some decent Tycoon, but there weren't many on the plants. I picked a shitload, and canned them. Ended up with 6 jars!!! SIX friggin jars!!! I lost a lot of motivation after that and gave away a bunch. It did make good salsa.

I think we canned about 3 dozen jars of pickles and my kids won't eat them because they don't taste like the ones at the store. I gave away a ton of cucumbers too and fed a ton to the goats.

I've been plowing the same patch getting it ready for Spring, I dunno if I'm gonna go as big this year.

I got a beehive coming in April. It's gonna be quite the urban farm.

I'm going to gets some seeds for Romas, Beefstakes, and also some Heirloom.  I'll do 2 or 3 plants of each and see how hey do.

Thanks for the advice.

CMOS

Oh Cherokee Purple! From my Dad's house 2 years ago!

Looks great.
Couple slices of fried bologna with cheese melted onto it with about a 1" thick slice of that tomato with lettuce, mustard, mao, salt, and pepper. My own version of BLT.

If you are going to go the seed route, you should probably start them between Christmas and New Years.

Thanks for that.  That was precisely my next line of questioning.  I will have all my seeds within the next week.  Already have my soil, and the seed-started trays.

Another question with regards to the outside garden: I have access to mounds of horse manure.  Is this a good thing to till into the soil?


CMOS

Dang you're really betting on an early spring.

I've seen people plant Feb 14 in Dallas and get wiped out with snow on April 1.

I'll usually seed mine the last week in January at the earliest and hold them in the greenhouse till I'm pretty confident that winter is done. Sometimes I have to bump them up to bigger pots to hold them.

As a horse owner I can answer this question.  

Here's what I do.  

In an area you are not going to use, put down a layer of horse manure about a foot deep.  Water it good.  Cover it with about a foot of grass clippings, weeds, garden stuff, and leaves.  Water it good.  More horse manure.  More water.  Cover it with a tarp.  Weight the tarp down.  Leave it all winter.  The size of the pile will shrink.  Some time in March, use a fork or a shovel and turn the pile over.  The stuff should be black, and it might stink a little.  Take the black stuff off the bottom, and put it around your already established plants and hoe it in.  Add some more stuff to your pile, wet it down good, and cover it back up.  

From what I've been told, tilling it into the soil right before planting is a no-no.  

I've also covered my garden in horse manure in the fall and left it all winter.  Then tilled it in.  I sent a soil sample to A&M in the spring after doing this, and they said my soil was a little low in nitrogen, but good on the other minerals.  So the last couple of years I've been doing the compost pile method.

The key to this is actually getting it to compost and generate heat to kill the weed seed. If it doesn't decompose properly, you're introducing massive amounts of weed seed into your area.

Well remember that I'm going to seed in the house, then plant the youngins about mid-March, depending on what the Groundhog says.


CMOS

Good input.  This is basically my plan - toss in horse manure within the next 3 weeks, cover with a black tarp, and wait until early to mid march to uncover and till.  Mind you, this garden is only about 12' x 8', and I have no tiller, so I'll be doing it the hard way - by hand. (not looking forward to that).

This is a project I'm doing with my 7-year old daughter.  Once the wife and I get employed (yes, BOTH are unemployed right now) I'll be getting a tiller and expanding the garden.


CMOS