June seed planting list

[See the most current June planting list here.]

I put this list together for some friends of mine who are just starting out with vegetable gardening. (They’re psyched to be eating straight from the garden. It’s so empowering to walk outside and make a meal from your own care and labor; not to mention knowing exactly what is IN the food you’re eating.) Anyway, I thought it might be useful to someone else in our area, too. I’ll put another one up in July.

“There are three reference books I’m using:
Month-by-Month Gardening in Texas, Dale Groom & Dan Gill (he’s in NE TX)
Texas Organic Vegetable Gardening, J. Howard Garrett & C. Malcolm Beck (he’s in Dallas)
Dallas Planting Manual, The Dallas Garden Club of the Dallas Woman’s Club (Dallas, again)

Technically, we’re in a slightly colder zone than Dallas (7b vs 8a), even without the heating effect of major cities. But these planting dates should be very close.

cantaloupe*
collards
eggplant
luffa*
okra*
peanuts
peppers*
pumpkin*
southern peas (black-eyed peas)
squash (Groom says these might be problematic in the heat; Garrett says to wait; but the old ladies in Dallas say go for it!)
sweet potatoes (slips)
swiss chard
watermelons*

The stars are the ones I’m planting. I’m also going to try to direct-seed tomatoes for a fall crop. Wish me luck!

Luffas are apparently edible when young, and they make really cool sponges when the pods have dried out. Ella ordered 3 this morning for her personal use (one for each of two chalkboards in the house, one for the bath). Also, in researching how to combat squash bugs, which took out my zucchini plant yesterday, Garrett says to interplant luffa vines with the cucurbits. I’ll give it a go.

Plant the okra in the space where the onions have been pulled out.”