Fall in Central Texas; it is not really a season that we have. September to November is still mostly summer. Rain is scarce and temperatures are still in the 90's creating conditions that one still resists spending too much time outdoors. But a garden or landscape never not needs tending.
By the time August rolls around I'm eager for change. Everything is brown from lack of rain and the intense heat. The area I focus on first is my kitchen garden planning my fall planting list. What do I want to grow this year? Vegetables? Flowers? Both? Try something new? Stick to what I know was a success before? I've only been gardening in raised beds for two years now, but it has been much easier than I had expected.
So when do I do my fall gardening activities? Well, they generally span over a few months, starting in August and wrapping up the week of Thanksgiving. Let's dive in!
August
This is when I decide what do I want to grow again, and what new items do I want to try this year. Being the landscape design nerd I am I have software that I can draft up basic landscape plans on, and I use it in the most primitive form to plan each bed. I have files saved for my fall garden and my spring garden.
For context, my raised bed garden consists of:
three 3' x 6' x 1' raised beds
one 4' x 14' x 4" bed
one 4' x 4' x 1' raised bed
and one 4' x 8' x 1' raised bed.
I had expanded to this size over the past couple years and very glad I have. I now have room to try larger plants that require more spacing and have the flexibility to have a full bed devoted to trial and error planting. See my layout below!
Last year I tried my hand at a wide variety of leafy greens and lettuces, leeks, brussels sprouts, and let an existing bed of strawberries go wild. All turned out easier than I expected. I generally plant seeds, direct sowed into the ground, but some plants are better transplanted. There is a sense of joy and excitement seeing seeds sprout, adding to your confidence that you can GROW and care for living things, but also reap what you sow! How cool is that!
This year I am focusing again on a variety of leafy greens and lettuces, leeks, rotating beds for strawberry plants for next spring, broccoli, celery, and preparing a foundation bed for spring flowers of sweet peas, larkspur and testing ranunculus and anemone.
After I have my plan in place I evaluate my seed inventory; what do I still have from the previous year, what might I need to order, and what will I need to buy as a transplant?
TIPS AND TRICKS:
One recommendation I have, for those of you who also plant from seed and have a million seed packets floating around, go out and buy some small photo albums. Small photo albums are great storage and organization for your seed packets (and it is also pretty). I found these simple felt albums at Target: one is for vegetables, one for herbs, and the last one is for flowers.
I'm able to remain organized, and I even categorize my seeds by vegetable groups: lettuces, beans, peppers. Its much easier to see all your options with a flip of a page, or two.
Next on my list is cleaning up the existing garden. By the heat of August, generally the hottest time of year, herbs are bolting, strawberries are getting yellow and crunchy, tomatoes stop flowering, but your peppers are going strong!
After I've pulled up the plants that are at the end of their life, or I am no longer interested in, with clean beds I'm ready to do some manual labor and amend the soil before planting. When I first installed my beds I went to the dirt yard and purchased good garden soil to fill the beds with. This will hold up for about a year or so, but you will want to amend the soil by adding organic matter, compost in my case, back in prior to planting. Constant watering, along with the previous vegetation, will deplete the nutrients from the soil. Good practice is to amend every time you plant with organic matter or compost. Over the years, so I'm told, the soil will start to balance out more, and you can amend less.
TIPS AND TRICKS:
Purchasing in bulk is SO MUCH MORE COST EFFECTIVE! I can fill three raised beds with soil for the same price I could buy soil from your Lowe's or Home Depot which might fill one bed. I don't have a truck, so its not easy or convenient for me to do, but I have some really great friends that loan out their trucks.
September
Time for sowing! This is where the prep work and planning pays off. You have a clean slate, and an idea of how many rows/sections you will be sowing your seeds, or planting your transplants.
Early September the days are starting to show signs of shortening and temperatures are creeping down toward the 80's. It is getting dark sooner, which helps cool your soil temps, making it a more hospitable environment for germination. Too hot soil will prevent your seeds for germinating, or sprouting and dying quickly.
I'm still getting dates down correctly of when its best to plant and I have a spreadsheet where I keep track of when, and how long after planting seeds germinated. Again, nerdy, I know, but they say you need to keep a journal. That is just my way of trying to be organized and learn from my previous attempts.
TIPS AND TRICKS:
It's always best to keep in mind plants that grow well together and need similar water requirements when you are planning and planting your garden. I installed valves on each of my beds to control if water is needed or not. Also handy when you remove all plants and have an empty bed for some time; turn your valve off and you aren't wasting water! See the links to the products I've used below.
It is easy to care too much for seedlings once they sprout. Often times you over water, or more likely its underwater. Seedlings can easily take a turn for the worst, and they are not forgiving of that. I've found that installing a DIY drip irrigation system in my garden that simply hooks up to your water hose with a simple programmable faucet timer has been my lifesaver. Life is busy, and days in the fall and spring are short, making it easy to forget you need to water, or you're arriving home when it is already dark. You can find more of my love for my drip irrigation system and how I designed it here.
Granted, you can always have a more sophisticated garden and irrigation setup, but this method works well for those home gardeners starting out for the first time and have low budgets.
I start sowing seeds typically Labor Day weekend or mid month, depending on temperatures. All the sweat, hard work and manual labor was done in August, so its only a short time commitment to put seeds in the ground and adjust your irrigation and watering schedule.
For direct seeding, you want to keep the soil damp to moist, not wet, so getting just enough water down early in the morning can be all you need for the day, so long as its not boiling hot outside still.
From this point on, its a check-in every couple days to see if seeds are germinating and soil moisture is correct. There isn't much you need to do now. Having reliable DIY irrigation eases the mind, and is almost more satisfying if you haven't checked in a couple days because you are likely to be surprised at whats popping up.
October
There isn't much to do this month. You may have a group of seeds to plant with cooler soil temperatures, or its time to install transplants, but most of October is spent watching your plants grow and mature.
Leafy greens are likely already being harvested. Broccoli is likely starting to really fill out. Strawberries should be content and still green, with little to no runners being formed now that temperatures are cooling off.
Continue to adjust your watering as needed to keep plants from showing signs of stress, such as wilting. Chances are you are supplementing watering only every few days now that rain chances increase along with the cooler weather.
November
You're likely still reaping the benefits of your leafy greens, and starting to see results for other veggies planted. But November is the time of year I start sowing my flower seeds and bulbs for early spring blooms. I don't do this till late November, the week of Thanksgiving to be specific.
My go to selections last year were Sweet Pea and Larkspur which I will plant again this year. Both very easy to grow, and both come in stunning variety of colors and visual interest, and are great for cut flowers. Flower seeds are so small, its generally just scattering and walking away to let them do their thing.
Last year, I planted a whole packet of Rocket Larkspur seeds with astounding success. In fact, my niece and nephew did the sowing! I simply loosened the soil, scattered the seeds out, and asked them to gently pat the seeds into the soil. DONE!
I had a full bed of pink, white, purple and blue Larkspur from March till June. I even collected the seeds from my plants for planting this fall. Fingers crossed I have just as spectacular results in 2020. See my future posts specifically for my Larkspur and Sweet Pea experiences.
This year, 2019, I plan to try my hand at Tulips, Ranunculus, and Anemones. I'll post more on this in the Spring!
Thank you for reading! I hope you found my to do list and schedule useful. We'd love to hear from you!
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