You're here! This forum is a treasure trove of ideas. For planting dates, I use the Collin County Master Gardener's page (though some on here start their tomatoes earlier and protect them). There's also a link to Texas A&M's plant answers site there, which also has a lot of good information about Texas home food production. For books, I love John Seymour's The Self-Sufficient Gardener and I'm reading Mel Bartholomew's Square foot gardening right now, but neither are tailored to Texas gardening specifically. Howard Garrett has a vegetable gardening book for Texas, but I've been hesitant to buy it on amazon because all of his other books are very encyclopedic and just touch on things--I can get more in-depth information on a specific plant by googling "(vegetable name) aggie horticulture or texas a&m." When you decide what you want to grow, use the search function on this forum for "(vegetable name)texas" and you'll come up with plenty of specific advice. It's my first year too and I've done a ton of research--we'll see if it pays off! Here is a link that might be useful: Collin County Master Gardener's Page

I read "Botany of Desire" last summer and found some parts fascinating (apples), and others drawn out & a bit boring (hemp). I learned a lot from it, and though I wouldn't recommend it to a general reading audience, if you are interested in learning about food and like physical science it will probably appeal. I read "Shanghai Girls" this summer and I really enjoyed it. I knew little about Chinese history and culture in the timeframe featured in the book, 1937-'53ish. I learned a lot and found the characters' stories compelling. I began Julia Child's "My Life In France" right before I was hit with an avalanche of stayover guests. Still hoping to finish it before I see "Julie & Julia." The movie might leave the theatres before I do, as more folks are coming for Labor Day weekend. DH & I both read "The Tender Bar" in July, and we both loved it. That was one from last summer's list.. Despite all the rain we had, this didn't turn out to be much of a "reading summer" for us.

Loved the animal stories too. When in England, one of my planned stops was Harriot's vet hospital. It was wonderful, fascinating...everything was just as it was when he practiced there and even had the original TV setting where they filmed. The people in the little town loved visiting Americans and would repeat that we were the reason his books become popular. A book I recommend to many is Mrs. Chippy's Last Expedition (tis a "he" though). It is about the cat on Shackleton's Antarctica expedition, brought aboard by the ship's carpenter. Written with the cat's view, has wonderful pics of the expedition, ship, men and history story of this sad event. Although a teen level book, highly read by adults and found in the adult section. Be ready for a very sad ending, but truely a worthwhile read.

I am downsizing the vegetable garden considerably because such a big plot is too much work and constant upkeep that I just don't want to do anymore. Yes I could downsize and grow in the ground, but in my middle age I'm putting serious thought into changes that will enable me to age in place and continue enjoying my house and property and hobbies. That means switching over to raised beds that are somewhere around hip height. I've seen many in my family who are older than me who got to the point they couldn't bend, raise their hands above their heads, or heck even walk steadily anymore. Raised beds -- while no guarantee -- are at least some insurance that I can enjoy growing vegetables if I ever get to that point. Even if I never get to that point -- it's just so much easier when it's all raised up. I asked DH to build me one bed to start for the strawberries. I had them in the ground, and even in my early 50's it was way too much squatting and bending tending to those things, so I moved them to a ready-to-assemble plastic thing-a-ma-jigs. That worked better but still not great, it was still kinda low. So he built one about 3' tall -- viola! What a joy to tend berries now -- everything is just reach in and quickly pull a weed or pluck a berry to stuff in my mouth. I'm not even old yet and I can forsesee what a game-changer this is going to be when I *do* get old (but hopefully not decrepit). Here's a pic of what he built: For the other raised beds, I'm going to have him build them to set right on the ground, not on legs. But he did a beautiful job on his first try, it's really sturdy and looks pretty good, too. (you can see the rest of the plot and how large it is, there's even more on the back side you can't see -- I'm looking to downsize size by about 2/3).