Dallas · North Texas · USDA ~8a/8b

Grow food where the sun files a restraining order on your lettuce.

Scorch & Soil is a dual-track kitchen garden course for the Metroplex: heat, blackland clay, and the two-season calendar that actually works here. Flip Beginner / Advanced anytime—it sticks.

Core crops Survive the climate

Pick your track

Same crops, two depths. Beginner is a heat-gremlin coach with checklists and how-tos. Advanced Undergrad is deeper home-garden science with more swagger and less patience for magical thinking.

Beginner

Heat-coach basics

Checklists, snarky walkthroughs, top screwups. No dissertation—just don’t plant spinach in August and sue the weather.

Advanced Undergrad

Home-garden depth

Field notes, sun/soil/water/feed, Dallas timing, pests that actually show up here. Still not a PhD thesis.

Systems (do these before you impulse-buy starts)

Heat, clay, water, pests, calendar—Dallas edition. Skipping systems is how you invent crispy basil and a sad story.

Dallas garden in sun
Systems

Climate & heat

Two seasons, brutal summers, mild winters.

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 Blackland clay soil
Systems

Blackland clay

Raise it, amend it, or argue with concrete.

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 Watering in heat
Systems

Water & drought

Deep soaks, mulch, morning discipline.

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 Garden crops
Systems

Pests

Squash vine borers, spider mites, fire ants.

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Core five

The crops you asked for—built for Metroplex reality.

Tomatoes
Core

Tomatoes

Heat-set varieties or cry in July.

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 Cucumbers
Core

Cucumbers

Water, trellis, pick before bitterness.

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 Jalapeños
Core

Jalapeños

Texas classics that laugh at August.

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 Zucchini
Core

Zucchini

Abundance with a vine-borer tax.

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 Onions
Core

Onions

Short-day types or tiny bulbs forever.

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Also grows hard here (recommended extras)

Full dual-track guides for crops that earn their keep in Dallas home gardens— heat lovers for summer and collards for the cool season so you garden more than three months a year.

Okra
Extra

Okra

The plant that high-fives 100°F.

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 Sweet potatoes
Extra

Sweet potatoes

Long warm runway = storage gold.

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 Black-eyed peas
Extra

Black-eyed peas

Southern peas that handle heat.

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 Bell peppers
Extra

Bell peppers

Sweet heat companions to jalapeños.

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 Eggplant
Extra

Eggplant

Loves the oven that is July.

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 Basil
Extra

Basil

Pinch hard, water steady, pesto forever.

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 Collards
Extra

Collard greens

Cool-season MVP when summer clocked out.

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Heat essays

Opinion pieces for when the asphalt is cooking and your irrigation schedule needs a therapist.

Read essays