“I hope you hear from lots of Southern gardeners. I look forward to reading about ideas that are adaptable to my gardening situation.”
Deep-South Gardening Solutions
I’m a longtime reader of MOTHER EARTH NEWS, and I saw the request for ideas on Deep-South gardening (“Not Much for the Deep South,” Dear MOTHER, April/May 2023). It’s hard to cover all the gardening regions in the U.S. in a single magazine; Texas alone has four hardiness Zones and 10 ecoregions.
One of the great things about gardening here is the opportunity for three distinct garden seasons: spring, fall, and winter. Notice the absence of summer. In June and July, when many U.S. gardens are really coming into production, parts of the South are unbearable for most veggies, except okra, melons, and peppers. We push spring planting dates into late winter to get produce out before the heat, and we scheme to figure how late fall veggies can go in to avoid September heat but hit that November sweet spot. This trend is growing as we see longer and more extreme stretches of high-temperature days. I would love information on how to accom-modate those challenges and limitations. The
