So your garden was going well until you covered it with shade cloth? What happened?

Collards are cool season veggies. So much for that. But maybe you're trying for a late fall crop? Tomatoes will stop producing when the temps get high, especially if the nighttime temps are over 75F. So it's about temperature, not about sunlight. Your shade cloth won't really make the air temperature any cooler.

So it isn't clear to me that shade cloth has any real value for these crops, though it may keep the soil from drying out as quickly.

i've never grown in a raised bed garden or in this climate before... so locals were telling me about the need to shade a garden during the hottest months cause the sun really bears down here.

so i did.. but then i got to thinking perhaps it helps something from burning out so to speak but collards and tomatoes maybe not so much help they will do what they will do ..

then with the whiteflies i got to thinking maybe the shade material was actually helping them and they were doing on job on my plants..

i built an archway over the garden and the shade material totally covered over the entire garden like a tunnel but the ends were closed too

i keep several inches of mulch as a top layer and water with buried soaker hoses

I have a tree to the west and to the East of my garden and that gives some shade but I get sun most of the day. My trees are short â¦.or they were. I am thinking I am getting too much shade lately. I lot of things will grow in part shade. Maybe 50% was too much.

I just don't do much gardening in the high summer. I take a break and go swimming, and then do a fall and winter and spring garden. I do use a frost cover to grow more stuff in the winter. But that is another issue. Is there a community garden around for you to go and take a gander at what a lot of people are doing.

Gardening in Texas does take an adjustment. Good luck.

The best thing for you to do is to get your transplants as early as you can and pot them into gallon containers. Get them big so that when the last frost date passes you can get a head start with big plants. Cover the tomato cages with Insulate for the chilly nights. Pick as much fruit as you can until night temps start remaining in the 80's. Instead of shade cloth, use the money to buy more tomato plants.

thanks for the replies

next year i'll forgo the shade cloth and see what happens. maybe i can hang it in front of my patio door instead for my own shade.

i usually try to plant as early as possible. sometimes i get burned for that.. but my collards have never failed me .. and i did get a good bunch of them this year till the recent problems and i still hope to get plenty more through the end of the year at least

i do like to plant from plants in the garden not from seeds from either starter plants i buy or seeds i started in the house but i've grown lots of things both ways over the years.

in other places i've lived i've gotten use to having close neighbors who were gardeners .. not so much here though i do know a few people i can ask about stuff they are a bit of a ways off from me

but i'm learning slow but sure

thanks again

As noted above by wantonamara, Texas gardening is really different than gardening up north. Most U.S. gardeners don't have a clue how different it is for us. We have three gardening seasons here. Spring and fall for regular stuff. (Oh, by the way, spring starts in late February! Also note that spring lasts longer than fall.) Winter for cold-hardy stuff, and summer is either when you go swimming or desperately try to keep your spring plants alive. I used to garden out west, and it took many years for me to acclimatize here.

Welcome to Texas!

When I left collards in when it got hot they got bitter and eaten up by bugs. I think you'll have better luck with them if you stick to cooler months.

Lisa

You should be planting collards NOW. It is a good time to be getting in all those winter greens.

Here is the Central Texas planting guide.You might google up one for San Antonio. I like this one because of the graphics. But a more localized one might be good. It is all about timing. I have learned to not fight the summer. Winter is easier to deal with most of the time.

I have the one for Travis county printed up and laminated in 3 places. One on my seed box, one out in the garden shed and one by my computer.

Here is a link that might be useful: Planting schedule