We have enjoyed several days of triple-digit heat this week. In this picture, Kayla is harvesting vegetables in 101 degrees of direct sunlight. I don’t know how she stays so lovely in this heat.
Our vegetables, however, will not stay lovely for long. We design our gardens to endure the blistering heat of a Rockport summer; but eventually our vegetables will play out for the season.
A Diverse Harvest
Our harvest today includes: tomatoes; eggplant; okra; butternut, spaghetti, and scallopini squash; sweet corn; Thai, serrano, jalepeno, and habanero peppers; collards; carrots; basil; mint; ginger; and more.
Stop by Coastal Bend Health Foods today for freshly picked local produce, while it is still available.
We feature fresh pastured chicken today in the four and five pound range, as well as half chickens, perfect for roasting. We also offer fresh eggs and pastured pork chops, roast, ribs, ground pork, and bacon.
Companion Planting for the Heat
Several gardeners have asked how we continue to get such beautiful tomatoes and eggplant in this oppressive heat, much less collard greens and carrots.
One technique we use is to inter-plant our tomatoes with our collards. The collards serve as a living mulch for the tomatoes and help keep the soil shaded and cool and moist. As the tomato vines grow thick on their trellises, they in turn shade the collards when collards need a little protection from the sun.
Tomatoes and eggplant also grow extremely well when companion planted with carrots, lettuce, chard, mustard greens, and in many other combinations.
There are no monocultures in our garden–every row of crops features innovative combinations of two, three, or more vegetables. Herbs and native flowering plants seeded among our vegetables help attract birds and beneficial insects to the garden, increase biodiversity and soil health, and add flavor to our harvest.
But our summer crop will soon play out in the South Texas heat. We encourage you to stop by Coastal Bend Health Foods today and enjoy freshly picked local produce while you can.