Gardening 101: Fall vegetable gardening in North Texas

NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) — Let me start with this bookmark you need to make in your fall and spring planting guide. It is from the Texas A&M Extension office and I follow it with reverence: 

Fall Planting Guide

Spring Planting Guide

There are essentially three growing seasons in North Texas. There are a slew of summer vegetables you can grow in the heat (and dry) conditions of June, July and August. But the selection broadens greatly if you want to start in late winter and grow to the edge of summer, or you can start your plants at the end of summer and grow to the first freeze of winter–that’s the fall planting season.

I visited with one of my favorite urban farmers, George Pavlek of Colleyville, to see what he was planting this fall season. The urban area in DFW is getting a longer growing season. 

Fall weather is starting hotter and ending later. Just last December was the warmest on record in our 123-year history; it actually would have ranked as the 11th warmest November on record. With the longer growing season you get more crops to choose to from.

Pavlek is planting a wide selection of squash this year, betting that the warm start and later first freeze will provide an big enough window to get production. He has excellent soil (largely from building up his beds over the years using shredded and composted oak leaves) and collects over 3,000 gallons of rainwater from his roofs for irrigation (there is no substitute for rainwater). 

In the fall, I typically just plant my core greens: kale, chard, spinach and parsley. I plant several varieties of each. I also grow a large crop of beets (for the greens and the root.) Pavlek gave me some of his squash transplants and seeds to follow his efforts this season. I’ll let you know how it grows!

Jeff Ray

Jeff joined CBS 11 and TXA 21 in December 2010 as a staff Meteorologist. An avid gardener, you can catch his weekly Gardening 101 series on Fridays on CBS 11. Born in Lubbock, Jeff received his bachelor’s degree in broadcast meteorology from Mississippi State University. He also holds a master’s degree in science education from the University of Missouri at Kansas City. Jeff’s broadcast career spans over 35 years.

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