Yes, it's about 108 degrees outside, but it's time to start seeds for your fall garden transplants. If you start them during the month of August in Texas (for zone 8 climates) you'll get a good start on your fall garden and have time to plant two or three successions of crops for a winter-long harvest of cool season crops. I'm just going to give a basic run-down of what you can do now. If you're local, you can come to my comprehensive Vegetable Gardening 101 coming up on Aug. 28th at NHG, or attend the free fall seed starting class Wednesday the 12th at 11am (2010) at NHG . You can also refer to my planting date chart on the nhg website.

Warm season crops round 2 (or 3): You can direct seed a second round of warm season crops such as bush beans, squash, zucchini, melons, corn, snap pole beans, pumpkin and cucumbers. You can also still plant seeds or transplants of okra and peppers right now. You can harvest these crops till your first freeze.

Cole crops: Broccoli, cabbage, kale, chard, collard greens, kohlrabi, cauliflower and more. You'll want to start these seeds mid-August indoors with your handy seeds starting equipment. Seeds need supplemental light so make sure to use a good setup. Then you'll plant you first round into the garden in September. You can start a second round of seeds two weeks after the first to have another succession planting. Once your seedlings have rooted into the bottom of the seed starting cell or pellet, you'll pot them up into a 4" size pot to grow a larger root system, then after plants are rooted in, you transplant into your garden.

Herbs: Start seeds indoors of cool season herbs like parsley, dill, fennel. You might want to wait a bit, say end of the month to start cilantro, as even tiny seedlings will bolt too fast in any amount of heat. You can also plant transplants right now of many herbs like basil, oregano, sage, thyme, chives etc. Plant bulbs of garlic starting in September. Seeds of onions (not slips, which should be planted in January) can be started indoors or in the garden in September/October.

Salad greens: You can start direct seeding salad greens into the garden say early September, depending on temperatures. If it's still in the 90's, wait until the middle of the month, then seed into the garden. Remember that lettuce seeds need light to germinate, so don't cover their seeds with soil when you plant them. Simply press them into the surface of the soil and keep moist until germination. You can also start them indoors if you want to get a head start, but they're so easy to direct seed that's usually what I do. Then you can continue seeding salad greens through late fall, and then again starting in February.

Seed starting equipment:I use the JumpStart system from Hydrofarm because the lighting is perfect for seeds, the lamp can be adjusted to different heights, and it's a good for small spaces. We do sell it at NHG. You can use small trays with a seed starting soil mix, or the little compressed pellets from say Jiffy. I use those a lot and they work great. Make sure you have a humidity dome (plastic cover) for your tray. If you're using posts or pellets, make sure you have a water tight seed tray to set them in so you can cover them with the dome. The picture at left is only one example of the many different options available. Sometime you just have to experiment to find the option that works best for you. Also, a seed starting heat mat is necessary once you get into cooler temps of fall and winter, and you're starting seeds for spring planting.

Another great tiny garden center you should visit, if you're in the Portland OR area, is Pistils Nursery. Very urban and super cute with a nice selection of plants and giftware. They also have a really fab chicken coop and some foul residents...

Ok, WOW, was all we could say when we came upon the many greenhouses or gargantuan petunia baskets at Bauman Farms near Portland OR. They grow the biggest petunia baskets I've ever seen! Now, of course, we simply can't pull this off in Dallas, TX. Petunias just have too many grievances with our climate. Just to make it worse, they sell these monsters for...wait for it...$47.95!!! Good Gravy. That's it? Really? What a deal.

If you live near, or swing through Portland OR, Bauman farms is about an hour outside of town, but totally worth the drive. It's a 4th or 5th generation family farm that grows the most fantastic berries. They have a great produce stand, chickens, pygmy goats and garden plants. Too fun!

One of the several "new rages" at the professional trade shows this year are tiny tomatoes. Not tiny fruit necessarily, but tiny plants. Now a few of the ones I've tested for OG Magazine in the last couple of years crashed and burned in our heat. But I'll be curious to see how some of these new hybrids do. Here is one of them:

Tomato 'Sweet & Neat Scarlet'

I'll be gathering a number of these new tomatoes to test in my own garden and the NHG vegetable production garden. But due to timing, I will have to wait until next year to do so. Should be interesting...

One of my favorite new things I found at OFA the week before last...A funky new African violet that makes these fuzzy little green "flowers". They never open up into a traditional flower with petals. I like to call them the "man's violet", lol. It's called 'Neverfloris'.

You can even use it like a flower "frog"...you know the little metal circle of spikes that allow you to hold cult flowers in place. You can use 'Neverfloris' as a base to hold other flowers, decor, little birds, etc. Too cute.

I just got back from Portland this evening and have about a million photos to go through. I thought I'd start off with a photo from The Chinese Garden, or Lan Su Yuan,  in Portland Oregon. One of the many beautiful gardens, nurseries and garden centers I saw on my trip to the Perennial Plant Symposium this past week. In Chinese, Lan means orchid and Su means arise or awaken. It was built in conjunction with the Portland's sister city Sozhou. All of the beautiful hardscape, tiles, stones and sculptures came from China. This is really a lovely garden and a must see if you're in Portland.

I also ate lunch at their tea house in the garden. The food is wonderful and their tea selection impressive.