Fall Gardening Ideas for Vegetables and Lawns
Credit: Ornamental Kale (Photo by Mustang Joe, CC0 BY 1.0)
Now that that the fall season has arrived, how can you spend your time in your garden and landscape? If you grow vegetables and haven’t yet started your fall garden, now’s the time to check our Learn » Gardening Topics-Links website page for articles with vegetable recommendations. Especially timely are the Vegetable Planting Calendar for El Paso County and Vegetable Varieties for El Paso County pages. Things to do in October are given on our Monthly Tips page.
The Lawn & Garden section of the AgriLife TODAY newsletter website is a good place to check when you’re looking for the latest ideas and suggestions about gardening. Two helpful articles are How to Choose the Right Fertilizer for Home Vegetable Gardens and Apply Fall Preemergence Herbicide to Avoid Spring Weeds. This article on preemergence herbicides also gives tips on lawn watering as the seasons change
Related:
October Gardening–Good to Grow Radio Show
Fall Planting-Wildflowers, Garlic & More!–Good to Grow Radio Show
Tree Planting in the Fall–Good to Grow Radio Show
Our Raised Bed Hoop House and How to Build It
Get Winter Color in the Desert with These Four Plants
Easy Steps for Drip Irrigation
Cool Season Gardening Is Easy After the Heat of Summer
by Roger “Doc” Stalker, El Paso Master Gardener
Colours of Health (Photo by Alex Proimos, CC BY-NC 2.0)
The full onset of summer’s heat usually means the end to harvesting many vegetables planted for spring gardens. But summer doesn’t necessarily signal the end of vegetable gardening for many people who look forward to planting cool season vegetables. Late fall, winter, or even early spring can all be successful growing seasons with the right plants, under the right growing conditions, and the right care.
Cool weather vegetable gardening offers many advantages, not the least is the wide choice of crops that can be grown. You can have a long producing vegetable garden with minimal effort, keep harvesting in your garden into the fall, and maybe even into the winter months.
Related articles from the Learn » Gardening Topics-Links page:
Vegetable Planting Calendar for El Paso County
Vegetable Varieties for El Paso County
How to Care for Cool Weather Vegetables – Gardening in El Paso
Vegetables – Easy Gardening Series (scroll down for Spanish)
Texas Home Vegetable Gardening Guide
Related videos:
Why Test the Soil? by Ignacio Munoz, El Paso Master Gardener
Soil Testing by Skip Richter, Horticulturist—Agrilife.org
What’s Growing On with Fall Gardening Preparations by Aggie Horticulture Facebook
The AgriLife Vegetable Gardens Raised Bed Hoop House Adventure by El Paso County Master Gardeners YouTube
Drying Herbs: Before You Start
by Linda Kaip, El Paso Master Gardener
Dried Flowers and Herbs (Photo by Pusteblume0815, CC0)
What could be simpler than cutting a few herbs or flower blooms, tying the ends together and hanging them until they are dried? Many publications lead you to believe that drying herbs and flowers is just that simple. The truth is drying plant materials is complicated.
You should first decide what method would best suit you. Some choices are air-drying, drying with desiccants (moisture-absorbing substances), microwave-drying, and pressing to dry.
Related:
Let’s Preserve: Drying Herbs
Food Safety & Preservation: Drying Herbs
Herb Gardening: Harvesting, Drying and Storing Herbs (part 3 of series)
Drying Flowers
Drying and Preserving Plant Materials for Decorative Uses
Save the Date! 
New events are planned for this fall as we continue our goal to present learning opportunities for gardeners in our area. Watch a new webinar and visit us at our Information Tables to get handouts and ask questions about landscaping or gardening. Here are some upcoming event dates so you can mark your calendar. Click the event link, if shown below, for more information or watch for our Events page to be updated.
November 6 – Online: Read and Grow with Master Gardeners– Two Old Potatoes and Me by John Coy
What to Do About the Weeds?
With more rain this summer than usual, our landscape plants and vegetable gardens have benefited, but so have the dormant weeds that have been waiting for just this kind of rain. If your yard is starting to look like a jungle from the high-growing grasses and pigweed or your “groundcover” isn’t grass, but spurge or goatheads (aka puncturevine), you may get some help from some articles on weeds. Find them at the bottom of our post called By the Season – Gardening in El Paso. You can also scroll down a little further to the Good to Grow archived radio shows on weeds.
Why You Can Benefit from Desert Friendly Landscaping
Photo credit: Selfie by Clarisa Gilliland
Recently El Paso County Master Gardener Clarisa Gilliland was interviewed by KTSM-TV to learn about desert friendly gardening and landscaping. Watch this video to learn the tips and benefits of xeriscaping and gardening with Earth-Kind® principles.
Celebrating Earth Day with Desert Friendly Gardening
Related:
Earth-Kind® Home Page-Aggie Horticulture
Xeriscape™ – Landscapes for the Desert Southwest
Why Native Plants?
El Paso Desert Blooms Water Smart Landscaping Guide
Environmental Stewardship through Earth-Kind® Landscaping – Gardening in El Paso
Xeriscape™ – Landscape Water Conservation (pg. 8 starts “Outstanding Plants for Texas”; consider Regions 6 & 7)
Ornamental Plants for Far West Texas (Annuals, Perennials, Flowers, Shrubs, Trees, Succulents, Groundcovers, Grasses, Turf, Vines, including Natives, with Water Use)
Why to Be on Alert for Rose Rosette Disease
by Roger “Doc” Stalker, El Paso Master Gardener
You may have read about a fatal viral disease devastating individual rose bushes and rose gardens in many parts of the United States, including several Texas counties. At present, as ongoing research continues, only an extremely small percentage of roses are thought to possibly be resistant to Rose Rosette Disease (RRD).
RRD was first observed in the United States during the early 1940s. Abnormal growth in the various parts of the rose create RRD symptoms like malformed leaves and flowers, “witches’ brooms”, excessive thorniness, and enlarged canes.
For nearly seventy years little was known for certain about the causal agent or how the disease is transmitted. In 2011 research determined RRD is caused by the appropriately named Rose Rosette Virus (RRV) and vectored, or carried, by a tiny eriophyid mite (Phyllocoptes fructiphilus).
By the Season – Gardening in El Paso
October Monthly Tips
Growing Tomatoes in El Paso
Texas Home Vegetable Gardening Guide
Fall Vegetable Gardening Guide for Texas
Vegetable Planting Calendar for El Paso County
Vegetable Varieties for El Paso County
Vegetables – Easy Gardening Series (scroll down for Spanish)
Rainwater Harvesting
Rainwater Harvesting – Gardening in El Paso
A Waterwise Guide to Rainwater Harvesting
A Waterwise Guide to Rainwater Harvesting (Spanish version)
Why We Landscape with Native and Adaptive Plants
Ornamental Plants for Far West Texas (including trees)
El Paso Desert Blooms Water Smart Landscaping Guide
Gardening with Perennials (including dividing; sections in Spanish)
Growing Roses (includes plant types and winter pruning)
Planting Spring-Flowering Bulbs Outdoors
Seasonal Color with Bulbs in El Paso
Flowering Bulbs
Bulbs, Corms, Rhizomes, Tubers
Fertilizing Foliage and Flowering Plants
Fertilizing Texas Lawns
Fertilizing Woody Ornamentals
Pruning Shrubs in the Low and Mid-Elevation Deserts in Arizona
Follow Proper Pruning Techniques-Shrubs, Trees, Vines, Groundcovers
Low Desert Pruning Guide for Commonly Used Shrubs (includes Tips and Schedule)
Help Your Tree Survive in El Paso (PDF)
Watering Tips for Lawns, Vegetable Gardens and Trees
Regional Recommended Tree List (TPG List)
Trees for High Desert Communities
Fruit Trees for El Paso
Texas Tree Planning, Planting, Pruning, and Care Guide (text and video; Spanish version at page bottom of selected pages)
Lawn Water Management
Watering Trees and Shrubs: Simple Techniques for Efficient Landscape Watering
Watering Tips for Lawns, Vegetable Gardens and Trees – Gardening in El Paso
Spider Mites
Bug Book-Insect ID and Control
Pull Weeds as They Pop or Desired Plants Will Suffer (suggests techniques and tools)
Weed Management in Landscapes (includes Quick Tips and Spanish version)
Weed Management in Lawns (includes Quick Tips and Spanish version)
Herbicides for Weed Control in Turfgrass
Weeds of Texas Turf (good photos for ID of weeds)
Weeds-Pest Notes Library (scroll down for weed section; includes Spanish version at top)
How to Identify and Control Common Lawn Weeds
Find other helpful articles at Gardening in El Paso – Articles and Gardening Topics – Links. Find more videos at Videos and More.
Good to Grow Radio Shows
(Current and Archived)
Late Summer Iris Care
Fall Gardening
Monsoon Season (includes weed tips and upcoming MG class info)
Summer Time (includes info on upcoming MG class)
Summer to Fall Gardening
Beat the Heat, Plan for Fall
Fall Planting
Stressed Out Gardens (incl. positive aspects of gardening)
Wild Weeds
Weed Control (after monsoons)
Garden Weed Control
Weeds
Garden Pests
Answering Community Questions
Gardening Tools
Herbs
Native Plants
Plant Parenting & Indoor Gardening
Vegetable Gardening While Under Quarantine
Vegetable Container Gardening
Container Gardening, Pt. 1
Container Gardening, Pt. 2
Rose Care
Tree Selection and Planting
Trees-What to Know Before You Buy
Tree Pruning
Composting
Watering Your Landscape
Irrigation, Part 1 of 2
Irrigation, Part 2 of 2
Listen live on Saturdays at 11:15 a.m. on 88.5 FM or stream from the archives at KTEP Good to Grow.
Read more about our Good to Grow Radio Show, here.
Improve Your Skills with Our
Informative El Paso Gardening Handbook
Texans Ask About Gardening–Vegetables, Herbs and More
Photo credit: Vegetables Grown at Ascarate Demonstration & Teaching Garden (El Paso Master Gardeners Facebook)
From Asparagus to Swiss Chard plus “Non-Crop” plants and Herbs, you’ll find many of your questions answered in Everything Texans Ask About Gardening, an informative 67-page publication by Joseph Masabni and Patrick Lillard. Organized largely by vegetable name, the questions and answers cover general issues, diseases, and insects. Since this is a digital document produced by Texas A&M AgriLife, you can easily search for a topic or keyword by using the “Find” command if on a PC. Otherwise, here are some page numbers by section:
Vegetable Q&A – pages 1-54
Minor Crops – pages 54-61
Herbs – pages 61-63
Non-Crop Q&A – pages 64-67
BBQ and Party Supplies from AmazonSmile Can Help Support Us
When you start your shopping at AmazonSmile (smile.amazon.com/ch/20-1878485) you can support the El Paso County Master Gardener Association. With your support we can do more at our teaching gardens and for the community. At AmazonSmile, you’ll find the same convenient shopping experience as at Amazon.com, with the added bonus that Amazon will donate a portion of your cart’s value to El Paso County Master Gardeners. You can verify you’re shopping through the AmazonSmile portal by finding the AmazonSmile logo in the upper left of the website page. Your support is appreciated.
You shop. Amazon gives.
Note: Only purchases at AmazonSmile (smile.amazon.com/ch/20-1878485) or with AmazonSmile ON in the Amazon Shopping app will support us (not www.amazon.com). Please see this page, Donate, for more information.
Who We Are
The El Paso County Master Gardeners Association, as a member of the Texas Master Gardeners Association, is a non-profit educational and charitable organization supporting the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service in providing quality, relevant outreach and continuing education programs and services to the people of El Paso County. Our local volunteers receive extensive training and experience in a wide range of subjects before certification as Texas Master Gardeners.
In collaboration with the County A&M AgriLife Horticultural Agent, Denise Rodriguez, we educate the community through various events, workshops, and demonstration gardens. Our Master Gardeners volunteer through our Outreach programs and community Projects to provide information and recommendations on horticultural topics to all residents of El Paso County.
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