Planning Your Fall Garden in Central Texas

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.

Timing Your Fall 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 100+ degrees outside, but that's the best way to get a jump start on the season and maximize your fall garden harvest.

To start, you want to know your average first frost date, which is based on historical weather data for your area. For us, our average first frost date is in mid November. Once you know your average first frost date, 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 protect your plants with frost covers, within reason).

You also want to know your plant hardiness zone, which is based on the average annual minimum winter temperature, and it helps gardeners know what perennials are likely to survive the winter. The USDA recently updated their Plant Hardiness Zone Map (based on data from 1991 to 2020), and 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.

Also, know that every garden and microclimate is different. Understanding this nuance is SO important, 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...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

1. Understand the killing temperature for different vegetables 

Here and Here is some information about the winter hardiness of different vegetables. This is all helpful information, but just like "days to maturity," killing temperatures vary a lot from garden to garden. Observe the plants in your garden and how they respond to freezing temperatures. Take notes 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. Acclimation also plays a huge role in whether or not plants survive a freeze. In years where we have a good cold period before a freeze, frost-hardy vegetables will have a chance to acclimate to cold conditions and will likely bounce back from a freeze. But if we have one of those years where it's endlessly hot and then abruptly cold, plants will have a tougher time acclimating.

2. 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 do this once or twice to have an abundance of food and a huge head-start on the spring season. We think it's worth it! 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. 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. And dumping a thick layer of leaves over everything during a cold snap works wonders for insulation.

3. Protect your Brassicas from 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, etc - many of the things you'll be planting in your garden in the fall). Pest pressure won't be as intense once it gets properly cold. But when temperatures are warm, these guys can turn your garden into a hole-riddled mess pretty quickly. Here are some of 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.

What to Plant for a Fall Harvest in Central Texas

Here’s a rough idea of when we start planting things in Central Texas for a fall harvest. This isn’t an exhaustive list—just a few ideas to help get you started. As always, the best planting decisions depend on your own unique space, energy level, microclimate, and what feels right for your garden and goals. If you want more personalized guidance, we often offer classes and consultations as well.

What to Do in the Garden in August

Amend garden beds with compost and slow-release granular fertilizer to prepare for fall planting. If you haven't already, cover all bare soil with a layer of mulch.

Prune back perennials and herbs so they have a chance to bush out in the fall.

Assess your energy level for planting new plants in August. New plants always need extra care, but especially in this heat. If you're going for it, mulch well, water consistently, and consider giving them some temporary shade in the afternoon (can rig up something temporary or strategically plant under larger annual plants like tomatoes or sunflowers). Planting in the evening is a smart move too. It gives transplants overnight to adjust before facing the full sun. Watch for signs of stress like wilting, sunscald, or crispy leaf edges, and don’t be discouraged if they take a little time to bounce back.

Things to consider planting:

• Warm-weather annuals - This is a good time to plant another round of warm weather veggies for a fall crop. Plants like squash, corn, beans, okra, melons, cucumbers, basils, tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants are all good candidates. Make sure that what you're planting has enough time to produce, which will dictate whether you start from seed or transplant. Once the freeze comes, the season for these plants has passed. It's not worth trying to protect them over the winter.

• Frost-tender perennials - We love growing a wide range of tropical perennials throughout the heat of the summer and we often have them available at our market booth. We'll save all the specifics for a different post, but many of these (like lemongrass, lemon verbena, pineapple sage, curry trees, moringa trees, ginger, galangal, turmeric, and many others) can be overwintered in the ground and will come back if well-mulched. They can also be grown in containers and brought indoors.

• (Seeds) Cool-weather annuals - Fall is a great time for herbs and edible flowers, and you can start seeds like calendula and borage and cilantro/coriander. Borage and calendula love cool weather but can only survive light freezes, so depending on what type of season we get, they may not survive into the winter if you don't cover them. But if you start them now, you'll have a long-enough growing window to get plenty of blooms.

• (Seeds) Frost-hardy plants - If you're growing from seed, August is time to start leafy greens (like lettuce and chard) and brassicas (think broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, kohlrabi, collard greens, mustard greens, arugula). You can start your seeds indoors under grow lights. You can also start them outdoors on a back porch or a protected area, but your seedlings will need a lot more babying. Things to consider are that soil must stay consistently moist for the seeds to germinate, your seedlings will need sufficient light so they don't get leggy, and you'll need to protect your baby plants from things like heavy rainfall, bugs (in the heat, cabbage worms will find your plants quick), and birds and toads and squirrels. Another option is to buy transplants from a local nursery (like us!) in September and October, which is what many gardeners opt to do. You can also do a combo of direct seeding later in the fall + purchasing established transplants. We like this method, as it gives the little seedlings something to look up to as they grow. :)

What to Do in the Garden in September/October

Things to consider planting:

• Direct sow sweet peas, fava beans, and root crops like beets, carrots, turnips. Swiss chard and cool-weather leafy greens like lettuce, spinach, arugula, kale, mustards, and others can be direct sowed or planted out as transplants. To ensure we get a good harvest of leafy greens throughout the season, we like to have both transplants and seeds ready to go if we can.

• Transplants of cole crops (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage) - We like planting ours in September. Even though it will likely still be quite hot in the garden this time of year, you want them to get acclimated well before the first freeze. Plant them too late and their growth will slow down as the days get shorter. Plant them too early and they'll bolt and go to seed in the heat.

• 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. We also like sprinkling seeds of california poppies, cilantro, and arugula. Getting all these established in your landscape is fun because they'll self-seed and you'll see them pop up again and again.

• Winter cover crops. We like oats and red clover.

• This is a great time to plant onion seeds (if growing onions from starts or sets, you can wait a few months).

• Mid October - November is ideal for garlic bulbs.

November throughout Winter

• Leeks and other alliums, chamomile, cornflower, and more.

• Continue succession planting cool-season veggies mentioned above.

• Perennials, trees, and shrubs