3rd Update of My Texas Winter Garden

If you have been following along this is my 3rd installment of My Texas Winter Garden.  The goals of this garden were to grow the cool season crops of radishes, beets, lettuce and spinach during my time here in Texas.  To do this I utilized a greenhouse and a control planting exposed to the elements.  So far the results have been dramatic but expected and what I hoped to achieve from my research.


 Below are pictures that pretty much say it all.

Control Lettuce

Greenhouse Lettuce

You can see in the picture on the left the control lettuce planting is barely out of the ground and is only about 1 inch in height.  On the other hand the picture below depicts the same variety of lettuce planted on the same day.  You can clearly tell from the picture that it is much larger and healthier than the control.  Though countless tests and studies have clearly shown that greenhouses moderate and improve growing conditions sometimes it takes seeing it for yourself to really let it sink in.  I still have hope for the control lettuce that it may rebound and become edible.  One thing I am fairly certain of is that I will be enjoying the greenhouse lettuce long before the control lettuce.

I cannot speculate on the spinach that I planted since my dogs decided some digging was needed in that garden bed and my spinach was lost in the crossfire.  Though I can guess the results would be similar to that of the lettuce.

Cover Crops

In addition to this my cover crop plantings in a third garden bed are going well.  The Winter Rye and Hairy Vetch mix seems to be fairing better than the lettuce though I have not gotten the growth that I expected with it being largely unchanged since the last update.  If it hasn't been irreparably harmed by the cold temperatures it was exposed to I expect the growth will take off in the next month as temperatures continue to warm and sunlight get stronger with the approach of spring. 


Until next time fellow environmentalists

Josh