@EbS-P , that’s great that you’re wanting to get more into gardening. This thread should be a place where you can get some good advice. Others like
@begreen have more experience than I do, but I’ve got some hot climate experience I can share.
I do hydroponic seedling starting, but I don’t grow major food items that way, so I can’t give you advice on that. I do some container gardening but generally find it a bit harder in some ways that growing in the ground. My soil is awful here (mostly just limestone rock with no topsoil), so I have raised beds that I built up in a hugelkultur style. I’m in zone 8b and have the same issue of freezes in March and high heat starting early. This year my nearest major airport (San Antonio) recorded 155 days over 90 degrees, and we had the hottest May, June, and July ever on record for each month. My tomatoes had trouble setting fruit to say the least. Most just didn’t have time to set much before the 100+ temperatures started in May.
Around here the wisdom is that you have to start your plants early, grow them big inside, transplant as soon as you can and hope to get harvest before the major heat comes. Summer isn’t the most productive garden time, but I can keep plants going or plant new ones and have a good chance at a fall crop, too. It’s taken me a while to learn that system as I moved from Virginia where it was a very different approach.
Last summer we had a slightly cooler summer with more rain, and I had a stupendous garden year. I don’t know where exactly you are in North Carolina, but I looked at some climate data for Wilmington (zone 8a with similar frost dates to mine but a lot more humidity and rain). Gardening should be doable in such a climate with proper preparation.
I don’t have a greenhouse, but I do start all my plants inside from seeds. I use Aerogarden hydroponic systems to start the seeds, then I transplant into little nursery bags. I use sunny windows and sun outside on warm days once I take them out of the Aerogarden, though now I do own another grow light that I may use this year. Once they start getting big and the daytime temperatures are warm, I take them outside every day and bring them in every night till I’m ready to transplant.
All of that is for plants that need a head start for maturity like tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, even cucumbers. I direct sow other items or pre sprout and sow for more difficult seeds.
What crops are you most interested in growing? Okra and sweet potatoes come to mind as crops that might do well in your area.
I saw that you mentioned collards. ’m a huge collard fan from my childhood, though I don’t grow them. You are living in collard country, though. I heard a great NPR report a while back about a professor who drove all around Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina spotting collard greens in gardens, knocking on doors, and collecting heirloom seeds. A few of those seeds are sold at Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, I believe.
I’m needing to start getting serious about garden planning because I’m going to need to start some seeds soon. Right now my Aerogardens are still busy with tomatoes and peppers.
I’m planning to pick those ripe tomatoes for a salad tomorrow. I’ll combine them with some other cherry tomatoes that have been ripening inside from the picking that I did before our major freeze. These pictures are just from the last couple of days.
The last picture is a bunch of ripe Taiga tomatoes that also ripened inside. I diced them up and used them in Chicken Paprikash recently. I was very impressed with this variety, especially in such a difficult year. I’m looking forward to trying it again.
:crying: :doh:
www.yourindoorherbs.com
