Our collards, kale (2different kinds), chard and beets have been in the ground for several weeks now. They all do fine even when it dips below freezing. We’ve even had collards stick around through 3 winters. To keep them going we only harvest the bottommost leaves so they eventually end up looking like collard trees. Biggest problem for us is making sure they are shaded in the summer since they don’t like hot weather.
Strawberries are already blooming and our pear and blueberries are done flowering. Our fig has not yet leafed out, but it’s always slow.
We use raised beds and put a tomato in the middle and then either eggplants or peppers and okra around the edges. Lettuces and greens go under these taller plants and really benefit from being sheltered from our hot afternoon sun. Once it starts getting too hot, we generally transplant the collards to a cooler section of the garden- they’re very hardy around here.
We’re late getting our beans in this year. We usually have the seeds in the ground by now. They grow up a homemade trellis and also help to shade some of the veggies that donkt like the hot sun.
We have terrible luck with summer squash due to squash borers- if anyone has any suggestions on how to prevent them please post!