In this area of North Texas, it’s important to know when to plant fall gardens. Even though the thermometer still says summer, it’s time to get your fall garden started. Onions and garlic should be here around mid-September. Their arrival will be posted on Facebook. A lot of our customers ask me when to plant specific crops. Onions and garlic can be planted as soon as they are available. It can be a little risky but you can plant tomatoes and peppers in September. Choose tomato varieties with less than 65 days to maturity labels and keep a good eye on the weather.

When it comes to beans and peas I am, or I try to be on the early side of the planting guides. For the other fall/winter crops, I tend to be on the late side of the planting guides. I have found it easier to protect plants from the cold than the hot and dry. Towards the end of September, I plant lettuce, spinach, radish, beets, mustard and turnips, kale, chard, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi, and Brussel sprouts. Actually, I never plant Brussel sprouts. I hope you get the idea if I forgot to mention a specific favorite vegetable.

If it is still hot when you are planting these cool season seeds, here are a couple of tricks. Furrow (trench) the row and soak the inside of the furrow with water. Sow the seeds and cover with dry dirt, to the correct depth, as you normally would. You can also cover the rows with water soaked burlap bags. The burlap bag works very well but you need to check the row daily. Once a seed breaks the top of row remove the burlap.

I hope that your garden preparations for the fall crops have been or are almost complete. It’s time to plant squash, beans, and okra from seeds. Fall plants should be here in the 3rd week of August. Keep an eye on Facebook and we’ll let you know when they’re here.

Of all the different things that we put in our vegetable gardens, none is more important than fertilizer. It is the food that grows the food. Because I grow my vegetables all-naturally  I need to fertilize sooner and more often than synthetic gardeners do. In a perfect world, I add a bag or 2 of compost and my pre-plant fertilizer about three to four weeks before I plant. I tend to use either a 50-pound bag of Wells Brothers Dirt Diet (4-1-2) or a 40-pound bag of Medina (3-2-3). I added the entire bag to about 300 square feet of garden area.

If that sounds like a lot it’s not and here why. Most gardens (including mine) in the North Texas area are raised beds that have a lot of compost added. That’s a good thing. However,  compost only has about 1% nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K). Nitrogen is already spoken for since it’s one of the engines that drives decomposition and plant growth. This means the plants and dirt are in competition for the same resources. Adding nitrogen feeds the plants but also fuels more decomposition. Nitrogen can also be washed out with a lot of rain and some types can evaporate. Compost has such small quantities of P and K that they should be considered nonexistent and should be added to the garden. A soil test will give you an idea of what the garden needs.

Depending on the weather, this pre-plant fertilization lasts four to six weeks after planting. After that, I need to start fertilizing. Normally I change pre-plant fertilizer from season to season but it’s not necessary.