The problem always being the heat and bugs wiping out the plants before they can be transplanted.
Exactly, the bugs have had all summer to build up and are desperate for tender sprouts. In Arkansas grasshoppers were my worst but there were others. And to get the timing right I needed to sow seeds in late August, otherwise frost got them. I could usually get some germination but even if I covered them from larger bugs and watered a lot the heat would cook them. When I could even find transplants (which was not always what I wanted) it was usually too late for them to do anything, they were selling those for people with greenhouses like you. Hopefully that gazebo will work for you.
And it sounds right to start those warm weather things next month. You'll be transplanting them long before our friends up north can consider it. If you like greens you might consider starting some chard or kale. Those can go out pretty early, just cover them with an old sheet for frost protection. I liked getting a jump start on them before hot weather hit.
My experiments also continue. I moved down here about a year and a half ago and it too time to set up the raised beds. So this is my first winter garden. I'm a bit south of New Orleans and surrounded by water so a different climate than you, a little warmer in winter. I waited until the heat broke early October and sowed a bunch of seeds; carrots, beets, radishes, spinach, lettuce, turnips, chard, mustard greens, and collards. I also got transplants for Brussels, Sprouts, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, and kale. The Brussels Sprouts still have a long way to go and the carrots and beets are just starting to form. Everything else is just going crazy. We've already eaten three of the four broccoli heads, waiting to see it sprout the suckers. The cauliflower is blanching, my wife wants that for Christmas dinner. We'll have too much, What a problem. We've been eating all the other greens for a while, the collards and chard from seeds being the slowest. I'll plant a lot less next fall but haven't decided what I'll cut out. I still want to see how long they produce. Some may bolt soon or stop growing if it does stay cold for a while.
One of the most pleasant surprised was that the only bug problem I've had was a large black caterpillar that was easy to see on the broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage. It did not bother the greens, jut those cole crops. I haven't looked it up yet, probably a butterfly larva from appearance and size. I'll probably pick them off of the cabbage next year to protect the heads but from timing and damage I'll probably leave them on the cauliflower and broccoli, depending on what butterfly they make.
I haven't decided exactly what I'll plant next year, probably very little experimenting from last spring planting. My space is limited, at least for what I'd like, and I did learn some from last spring/summer. Plus my wife is limited on what she can eat, especially acidic foods. I can transplant tomatoes and such and plant corn and bean seeds in early March.
Just thinking out loud. I'll only plant two tomatoes, a cherry and a salad type. My days of canning tomatoes are long past and two plants give me all I can eat plus some to give away so I'll purchase transplants. Probably no peppers, they just did not get used. I'll do some eggplant. Squash vine borers have convinced me those are not an option down here, early or late planting. I was getting four or five borer grubs out of one plant. I'll certainly do my sequential corn planting again, start a new batch every two weeks but just enough to eat off of. We were eating fresh corn well into the summer but the earlier plantings did best. That was another really pleasant surprise. It's the first year I never saw one corn ear worm. Not one. First time that ever happened and i did no treatment. I'll plant a lot of beans. One patch for fresh green beans but not enough for canning. Most will be those "network" dried beans I'm trying to stabilize the seeds for new varieties. My early spring bean planting did reasonably well but not great. My summer planting in June was pretty horrible. I've got a few plants in Baton Rouge with the extension service lab to see if they can figure out the problem. I seemed to have three different problems. I did a soils analysis, one for each of my 8 raised beds and that did not show any problems. That's really frustrating, I though I'd have a great crop of heat of the summer dried beans down here. Some did not produce at all and all but one that did produce had horrible production rates, much less than acceptable. Strangely one did great.
I'll plant some herbs, probably Parsley, Cilantro, and Basil, more as ornamentals for my Granddaughters Fairy Garden but we will use some. I'll definitely start some zinnias and marigolds from seed, I've been saving these seeds for years.. The marigolds went leggy this year but I'll try them somewhere else. The zinnias filled in nicely where I put them, that was a win. I'm still looking for a good flower for my front landscaping bed, one that stays lowerer than my dwarf azalias, part sun and part shade, and spells of pretty wet. I've improved drainage some but it's a work in progress, especially when it sets in wet like it can down here.
) really offers unlimited space. I wasted about 1,000 sqft in 2019 doing that weed suppression thing when I allowed the sunflowers to grow too tall for the tiller to turn under. Probably, there will be that ground just as surplus that will have to be dealt with and not allowed to become a mess. No more sunflowers as weed control!!!
