Good evening to all- Well, it's July and mid-summer here on the Gulf Coast, and that means we're in the gardening dead zone. All spring crops are gone-long gone, and all that's left is peanuts, oriental long beans -which can take the heat and humidity, a few peppers and okra. In a month or so I will start my fall brocolli and other brassica crops, and I will probably plant some snow peas to try and get a fall crop- that's a sort of half maybe/half maybe not crop in fall. I'll also plant a fall crop of potatoes- they tend to do quite well, and they are very good to eat when it goes to cooler weather. We won't get a frost until New Year's, and then by early February it will be time to plant all spring crops. Of course, starting about Thanksgiving, we'll be eating lots and lots of Satsumas- a mandarin orange from our trees. I do wish we could grow tomatoes down here on the Gulf coast, but our nights get too hot too soon, and we have every disease which afflict tomatoes known to man. But I am looking forward to pulling and digging those peanuts- fresh boiled peanuts are delicious you all be safe and keep well-Ed
Interesting. In this part of Virginia, folks don't plant until after Mother's Day due to the likelihood of "just one more frosty night." I never thought of any area in this zone or higher where tomatoes would not grow due to heat.
When I gardened there, many things died due to the heat, but okra, summer squash and a few other things would survive. I grew beans all summer, but it required drip irrigation and a lot of mulch, but I got the best bush beans I've ever grown. Watermelons would also survive the heat. White potatoes needed to be out of the ground in May, but some folks grew sweet potatoes into the heat of summer. Quite the opposite here--cool temps and long days cause issues.