While those in northerly climates are preparing for the colder season, where very little grows in the ground, Texans can look forward to our fall/winter gardening season as the temperatures start to go down.
Longtime Texans gardeners will be familiar with the sometimes tricky planting schedule that the state’s erratic weather can bring. But for those who are newer to planting fall veggies, advice can always be helpful.
Callie Works-Leary – a certified Texas Master Gardener who founded the Dallas Garden School – recommends new gardeners start with vegetables that are easy to grow from seed.
“We also call this direct sowing because fall vegetable transplants can be sometimes a bit hard to come by. A lot of nurseries are making room for pumpkins this time of year,” she said. “The number one that people might not expect, that’s my favorite, are cucumbers. They love our fall weather, and I typically get my biggest harvests of the year in the fall and make lots of pickles. But cucumbers love our warm days and cool evenings, and they produce a ton in the fall.”
Choosing vegetables for the fall
Works-Leary also said radishes are an easy addition to any fall garden.
“I call it an instant gratification vegetable,” she said. “It might not be the first thing that people think about growing, but some of the radish varieties can be ready in as little as 30 days after planting. And my favorite is a variety called watermelon.”
Tomatoes are often a popular choice for veggie gardeners, though Works-Leary said it might be a bit late to put tomatoes in the ground now.
“Tomatoes actually love the fall weather as well. If you have tomato plants that have been in the ground since spring, you’ll notice that they will start producing more as we start to get rain and our temperatures drop,” she said. “Because just like cucumbers, they love those warm days and those cool evenings.
“Now, it’s a little late to plant new tomato transplants for fall harvest, but I encourage people to think ahead next year and get tomato transplants in the ground in July so that they can get a second chance at a fall tomato harvest. And the other thing, too, is eggplants do really well and peppers do really well in the fall, too. You can grow anything a second time. That’s why fall is so great.”
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Protecting gardens during freezes
Texas’ milder winter for growing vegetables outside doesn’t mean that we don’t have any cold snaps. Works-Leary recommended frost cloth to help keep plants happy when the temperatures drop below freezing.
“You want to make sure that it’s intended for protecting your plants and just keep it on hand,” she said. “You never want to use plastic because plastic can actually burn plants, so just keep frost cloth on hand, and any time that we get a freeze warning, you can just cover up any plants that you’re worried about. And it does a really good job at helping them stay through winter.”
Tips for container gardening
Works-Leary also had some advice for people who want to grow food but don’t have a garden bed — or even a yard. It is possible to grow veggies in containers and pots, but she said you have to make sure you stay on top of their care.
“The key with container growing is you need to make sure that you’re getting the plants what they need. So first, use a really high-quality potting soil from a local independent nursery; that goes a long way,” she said. “The other thing is containers dry out really fast. So we can still get some really hot days in the fall, and if it’s above 90 degrees, you’re going to need to water those containers on a daily basis.
“And then finally, because we’re watering our container so frequently, we need to make sure that we are consistently fertilizing all the plants in there. So that’s really important, too.”
And if you haven’t started planting for fall yet, it is definitely time to get going.
“I encourage everyone to experiment, and you can grow just about anything that you can grow in the spring and summer. But the key is timing,” Works-Leary said. “You want to make sure that you get things in the ground so that they have enough time to mature before our first average frost date.”
