It may seem outrageous since we are in the dog days of summer, but it is time to start planting, or at the very least, planning, your fall vegetable garden. A few veggies can be planted now and even more in the next month or two. In south Texas, fall is a great time to grow a bounteous vegetable garden.
The first step in gardening is planning and preparation. Determine the site for your garden if you have not. Plants that we harvest the fruit or root from need full sun, which means at least six hours a day. Vegetables that we eat the fruit of are those that develop from a flower, such as tomatoes, peppers, cukes, squash, melons, peas, beans, okra, to name just a few. Root crops include my favorite, radishes, as well as carrots, onions, turnips, and beets. Leafy veggies such as lettuces, cabbages, spinach, and chard do well with fewer hours of direct sunlight, or with dappled sun.
Testing your soil every couple years will tell you the nutrient levels and the pH, so you can fertilize accordingly. Sample bags and forms are available at Texas A&M AgriLife Extension offices or print the form from http://soiltesting.tamu.edu/files/urbansoil.pdf (sampling directions are on p.2) and use a clean sandwich baggie. Either way, send your samples to the lab at AgriLife in College Station and you will get the results in about two weeks. Amend the soil as recommended before planting so amendments, such as compost or fertilizer, can be mixed into the soil. While waiting for the results, which takes about two weeks, add whatever organic matter you can since it improves soil, whether the soil is sandy, high in clay, or a mixture.
Start small if this is your first veggie garden so it will be fun and practical rather than overwhelming. A surprising amount of produce can be grown in 50-75 square feet. When deciding what to grow, think about the available space and the space the vegetable will take, what you and your family like to eat, and the cost of the vegetables if you purchased them. An example is okra; it requires a bit of space, but it is quite expensive to buy fresh, is easy to grow and produces a lot for a long time. If your garden space is on the smaller side, you may want to skip vining plants like cucumbers or plan to trellis them.
If you are ready to start planting, you can plant the following by seed right into the garden: black-eyed peas, pumpkins, winter squash, cantaloupe, turnips, and beans-green, wax, and lima from mid-August through mid-September. Put tomato transplants (small plants) in the ground from now to early September. By next month, the cool season veggies (carrots, greens, kale, kohlrabi, lettuce, mustard greens, English and edible-podded peas, radishes, spinach, and turnips) can be planted. Select mostly varieties bred, or grown a long time, in Texas or the southern U.S. for the best results, although it is fun to try out a couple new varieties every year.
When planting seed, remember that the most common reason for it not to germinate is that it is too deep in the ground. Plant seed about two times the depth of the size of the seed, for example, plant a nice fat pea that is ¼” across ½” deep; plant radish seeds, which are small, only 1/8” deep. Check the seed packet for a tremendous amount of information on spacing between seeds and between rows, planting depth, days to germination, thinning spacing, days to harvest, and more. Do not miss reading them!
For specific information on growing a garden here, visit the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension page at https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/vegetable/. “Easy Gardening Fact Sheets” are short publications on individual vegetables and on general practices such as planning, composting, insect control, intercropping, and watering, to name just some of them. Be sure to click on “Commercial Production Guides” also because it includes information for home gardeners, such as the Texas Home Vegetable Gardening Guide and Organic Vegetable Production Guide.
For a list of varieties (including their days to harvest), see https://aggie-hort.tamu.edu/publications/veg_variety/. The Fall Vegetable Guide, at https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/09/EHT-056.pdf will tell you when to plant what, along with other great info. Or call or stop by the Aransas County Extension office, talk to one of our Master Gardeners, and pick up a copy of “Aransas County Vegetable Variety Listing.” The Aransas County Library also has numerous books on vegetable gardening.
Seeing a seed develop into a plant and then produce something edible, harvesting fresh, vine-ripened veggies, and getting outdoors and your hands in the soil can be extremely satisfying. I recommend it for everyone!