Beginner Gardening: New to raised beds in TX: HELP, 1 by oyye_vey

oyye_vey wrote:
Melissa,

One of the things I will miss the least about Texas is the heat of summer, but the fall is very nice! We used to say that we had two seasons... hot and brown :P
About the gardening journal, I just started mine a few days ago to record successes and failures and little things that I learn along the way. I also noted what plants and seeds I bought where, how much they cost and how well they are doing now. It's been really fun to draw the weird bugs that I've learned about along the way.

Last year we had a few hornworms also, but we also had parasitic wasps that I had never heard about that were just SO weird! They lay their eggs on the back of worms and when they hatch they borrow into the worm and eat it from the inside out. EWW. There are so many things that I don't know and it's exciting to learn new things all the time. I think gardeners will always draw from the knowledge of others because you simply can't know it all. This community is so full of valuable information and eager helpful people. I'm so glad to have found it.

I was thinking about your 12 x 12 bed last night. How are you able to harvest, do you have a pathway through the center? I found an article here that talks about cutting back tomatoes and peppers in the fall and getting a second harvest from them. http://www.texasgardener.com/pastissues/julaug02/fallgarden.... it also mentions just planting into existing beds for a fall crop. I think if I were you I'd just learn what I can from this go around and maybe take advantage of the fall Texas weather (cooler and wetter).

Oh and I meant to mention, I surround all my gardens with garlic and onions to help ward off pests. I read that in a book I borrowed from the library: http://www.amazon.com/Small-Plot-High-Yield-Gardening-Turnin... There were NO pictures in it, so at first I set it aside since I'm a picture person, but once I finally picked it up and read it it was the most informative book that I'd gotten in the bunch. :) Certainly worth checking out at a local library and giving a good read .

Babbling again so I'm going to just end it with a lovely picture of the poor hornworm that got to play host to the wasp family... eww