It’s nearing the end of summer, my second summer in Texas. This year I decided I would try out some of my Zone 4 skills in the dry hot unknown that is my zone 7 rental.
I started slowly; indoors with seeds. I chose plants that I thought would do well and for a while they did very well. Beans, squash, cherry tomatoes, and peppers lined my window sill.
Little did I realize that I was new to gardening all over again.
My plants flourished inside until there was no more room for them to grow. From here I though it safe to transplant into larger pots and take them outside into the shade. My thought, for whatever reason, was that if I put them in the shade it would help acclimate them to the outdoors before exposing them to the sunshine.
If you haven’t guessed by now, I had (read have) absolutely no idea what to do with such intensity when it comes to nurturing plant life. Years of fiddling in soil that is frozen for five months per year seems to be moot in this new environment. This is both disappointing and exciting. I was disappointed because it meant that all my hard work this year was for naught. The excitement comes from knowing that I have something fun and new to learn.
In any event, I put my poor plants out into the sun to bake. Slowly they withered and while I watered as often as I thought was necessary, we then slid into a period of torrential rain. A rain so constant and for a such a long period of time that parts of the state had extensive and serious flooding. I’m told that the amount of rain Texas had this year was out of the ordinary. I brought my plants in from under the rain but the damage was done. Either half baked or fully drowned, there was not much to save.
So while this wasn’t my year for learning the ways of gardening in North Texas, next year is bound to be full of promise. We’ll be in our own home, we’ll have a good amount of space, and I’ve got a whole season to read up on the finer points of what will thrive in the Texas heat and soil.
I look forward to a more prosperous garden season in our new home with some new attempts.
My Texas Life 
