# fall garden?



## tenntex (Oct 27, 2011)

Can someone give me the benefit of their experience: What do you plant for a fall garden in north texas, and when?

I've asked this on a couple of other forums and only told to "check this website or buy that book".

What have you had success with, and will it produce after a light or early or heavy frost?

The frosts in this area are wildly unpredictable. The first may be in Sept or Nov. An early frost might be light or it might be heavy.


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## Wanderer0101 (Nov 8, 2011)

North Texas might be a little tough for tomatoes but if you get fairly big plants in the ground right now, especially cherries, you may get a pretty good crop, some years you do and some you don't. I no longer live in North Texas but I've had pretty good luck with cabbage, broccoli, turnips, cauliflower, Chinese stuff like Pak Choy, spinach, sometimes snow peas. Cannot make Brussels sprouts work for some reason though they should. Plants for the cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower, seeds for the rest.


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

Wanderer0101 said:


> Plants for the cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower,...


Same here - but those are the only things we have tried.


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## hashbrown (Sep 2, 2013)

We had spinach until the first of December last year.


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## mosquitomountainman (Jan 25, 2010)

In Kansas we'd often (broadcast) plant turnips in areas we were finished with for the year. They grow fast and are frost hardy and put out enough ground cover to keep the weeds down. Both tops and bottoms are edible and they can be harvested at any time. They can also be fed to livestock. If you had no use for them you'd just plow them under for green manure.


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## Woody (Nov 11, 2008)

Do you have any neighbors that have a garden? If you see them out there, stop over and compliment them on it, ask some advise. If they are in a hurry to harvest something, offer to help! "I'd love to chat but I need to get these tomatoes in to can tomorrow." "Got an extra basket?" Most gardeners are friendly folks and would love to chat and help you out, especially if you are offering some help in return. You might even find a canning buddy! You help them out (and learn some tips!), when your crop is in they might help too. I run a one person assembly line, it sure would go that much faster with two of us!

Is there a local gardening club, farmers market or community garden nearby? Offer to help out, make some friends, ask some questions. You will learn a lot more from folks actually in your area than any book or website. And, make some new gardening friends to trade seeds and extra produce with too!!

I garden (AND learn) by the what the heck method. Take a chance with a few seeds, what have you got to lose? A month before you should, plant some spring crops in short rows; carrots, lettuce, spinach, radishes, peas... Plant some every two weeks. If you have a mild spring, you get an early crop! If it gets nasty and you lose them all, so what, it was the early crop. You can plant those rows again in a few weeks.

Same with fall crops. This year I put in peas in early August, a month earlier than usual for here. Instead of the usual brutally hot and dry August, it was cool and wet. They are doing great!! I put in the usual late August planting too, a bonus crop this year! ...MMMmmmaybe, it is not harvested yet and anything could happen! I'll put a 10' row in in another week or so, in case we have a mild fall. Chances are slim it will produce but I'm only out a little time and a handful of seeds.


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## hashbrown (Sep 2, 2013)

mosquitomountainman said:


> In Kansas we'd often (broadcast) plant turnips in areas we were finished with for the year. They grow fast and are frost hardy and put out enough ground cover to keep the weeds down. Both tops and bottoms are edible and they can be harvested at any time. They can also be fed to livestock. If you had no use for them you'd just plow them under for green manure.


We do the same, it also draws the deer onto our place.


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## tenntex (Oct 27, 2011)

Thank you for all the useful replies!!!


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## Wanderer0101 (Nov 8, 2011)

I forgot collards, mustard greens, kale and Swiss chard. They all are easy.


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## Tucker (Jul 15, 2010)

One local nursery has a booklet (in store or on the web) that identifies which veggies to plant by seed or starts for the entire year. Perhaps you could find something like that for your area.


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