Planning Your Fall Garden in Central Texas
Updated: Sep 27
While spring gardens are great, fall gardens are our favorite! We've noticed fewer fall gardeners than spring gardeners, however, and we want people to know that they shouldn't skip out on the wonderful opportunity of abundance that the fall garden is.
Why Do We Love Fall Gardens in Central Texas?
There's so much diversity in the fall garden! The cooler temperatures mean that you won't have as many bugs to contend with, and fall gardens are easier to maintain than spring or summer gardens. Rainfall is usually more abundant this time of year, and many of the plants you'll grow like kales, mustards, lettuces, and leafy greens are cut-and-come-again plants. Also, a lot of our favorite wild and weedy plants make an appearance in the fall too, blanketing the ground and finding their way into our salads.
What to Grow Fall-Winter
Here’s a rough idea of what we like planting in Central Texas throughout the cold months. And this veg garden planting guide is a helpful place to start with timing veggies.
What kinds of things to plant?
Leafy greens (like lettuce and chard) and brassicas (think broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, kohlrabi, pak choi, collard greens, mustard greens, arugula, lettuce, and more). We like doing a combo of transplants and seeds.
Cool-weather annual herbs and flowers - Fall is a great time for herbs and edible flowers, and you can start seeds like calendula, borage, cilantro/coriander, arugula, poppies. Borage and calendula love cool weather and this is a great time to plant them, but they'll need protection over a deep freeze to keep going into the spring. Chamomile is quite frost hardy and we like to plant it the winter once it's firmly cold outside.
Sweet peas, fava beans, and root crops like beets, carrots, turnips
Alliums like onions and garlic
Perennials - herbs like Lemon balm, rosemary, oregano, mint marigold, mints, artichokes, and more + many native plants
Annual cool-weather herbs like chamomile and calendula. Chamomile is quite frost hardy, but calendula will need more protection during a deep freeze.
Wildflower seeds from October until Thanksgiving.
Winter cover crops
Perennials, trees, and shrubs
Planning Your Cool Season Garden
Timing is important with fall gardens, and in Central Texas, you want to start planning your fall garden in the summer. It may feel strange to think about cool-weather crops when it's still so hot outside, but that's the best way to get a jump start on the season and maximize your fall garden harvest. Also, the best planting decisions depend on your own unique space, energy level, microclimate, and what feels right for your garden and goals. So take a bit of time to plan it out before you start. And if you want more guidance, we often offer classes and consultations as well.
These are some helpful tips for planning your fall garden:
Feed the soil. If you've been growing through the summer months, your soil is likely depleted and could use a boost. In preparation for fall planting, amend garden beds with compost and slow-release granular fertilizer. If you haven't already, cover all bare soil with a layer of mulch.
Know your average first frost date and plant hardiness zone.
Average first frost. This is based on the historical weather data for your area. Once you know your average first frost date (for us its mid November), you can gauge how many frost free days you likely have left. Then you can consider a particular crop's days to maturity and plan your plantings based on what you have enough time to grow. For example, if the first frost is 70 days away and you're planting an annual crop that is not frost hardy, choose plants that can mature in this time frame or take measures to extend your season.
Plant hardiness zone. This is based on the average annual minimum winter temperature, and it helps gardeners know what perennials are likely to survive the winter. Our area of Central Texas has shifted from Zone 8b to Zone 9a. Overall the data trends warmer than before (suggesting that our average coldest temps fall between 20–25°F). However, the map doesn’t account for recent extremes like =the random deep freezes and ice storms we’ve seen in the past few years. So, while it's a helpful guide, it doesn’t mean our temps won’t occasionally dip much lower. Actual frost dates can vary wildly from year to year.
Most importantly, know that every garden and microclimate is different. Understanding this nuance is crucial, and it's something that can't be captured in a rigid planting calendar. Things like soil structure, summer heat and humidity prior to a freeze, the orientation of your garden, and access to sunlight/water/nutrients are all factors in a plant's lifecycle.
So...feed the soil, make smart planting choices, and plant the right crops for the right season! BUT don't stress too much about all the details. The best way to learn is by growing, observing, and getting to know your specific space. Plant a mix of things you’re excited about and build in resilience where you can (think mulch, shade, pest protection, frost cover). Take good notes based on your experiences, learn, adapt, and switch things up as needed. With gardening, there's always an element of trial and error and that's what keeps it fun and interesting!
Some Tips for Extending Your Fall Growing Season
Plant early (but in the evening), water well, and offer afternoon shade.
Protect your brassicas from pests like cabbage worms
The main pest you'll have to deal with in your fall garden is cabbage worms, which eat brassica plants (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, arugula, collards - many of the veggies you'll be planting in your fall garden). Pest pressure won't be as intense once it gets properly cold. But when temperatures are warm, these guys can turn your plants into a hole-riddled mess pretty quickly if you don't plan ahead. Here are our tips for dealing with cabbage worms.
Aphids are another pest that may turn up, but a blast of water is usually all that's needed to knock them off your leaves. A soapy water spray works too.
Also, don't forget that interplanting herbs and flowers helps a lot with pest control because many of these plants are host plants to beneficial insects like ladybugs and lacewings. Everything just works so much better when you treat your garden as an ecosystem. It may take a few years to establish, but it is well worth the effort.
Have some sort of frost protection on hand
It's a good idea to consider how you'll protect your garden if an extreme freeze sweeps through. In Central Texas, we typically only have a few freezing events, so you only have to cover plants once or twice to have an abundance of food and a huge head-start on the spring season. Having hoops over your garden beds is helpful so you can easily drape row covers, frost blankets, and/or tarps and clamp them down. You can buy hoops for this purpose, but you can also make them with pvc or masonry wire or any number of things. In a pinch, you can even just use tomato cages laid on their sides and bricks to hold the frost cover down. Use what you have. Just keep the surface of your covers from touching the plants and make sure the material touches the ground all around so the cold air can't get in. This is important. You're basically making a tent for your plants. If you have a bunch of young plants scattered around the garden, mason jars work great as mini greenhouses. And dumping a thick layer of leaves over everything during a cold snap works wonders for insulation.
Understand the killing temperature for different vegetables in your space
Observe the plants in your garden and how they respond to freezing temperatures. Compare notes with other growers, document your observations as things evolve and track the difference from year to year. Plants grown in the ground as opposed to raised beds can survive lower temperatures because their root system is below ground. The time they've had to acclimate also plays a huge role in whether or not plants survive a freeze.
With a little extra care and attention and some thoughtful planting, you can get your fall garden settled in early, enjoy watching your garden transition into the cooler season, keep it protected throughout the winter, and enjoy food year round.
