Planting a fall garden is an easy, fun, and even a therapeutic way to grow your own vegetables during the autumn season. Usually gardeners plant their vegetables in the spring to harvest in early summer. But in our region of Texas it is possible to start a vegetable garden in the Fall.

The first step is to choose your space, if you aren’t using your spring garden area. Just make sure the place you choose will get eight hours of sunlight and be able to drain well because of the large amount of rainfall we are prone to get. To prepare the garden make sure to remove any remaining plant material from the Spring garden and also pull out any weeds. The next step is to till the soil and add sandy soil and fertilizer before planting.

Here in Harris County we are in Zone 9 of the plant hardiness zone map. Meaning our growing season lasts from late February to early December. Our planting season almost extends year round. Local hardware stores sell many varieties of Fall vegetable plants or you can find seeds online. These are just some of the vegetables that thrive in our growing region: beans, beets, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cucumber, endive, kale, leeks, lettuce, onions, parsley, radishes, squash, tomatoes, and turnips.

Gardeners know that vegetables grown in their own garden often taste delicious compared to store bought vegetables. Tender and full of flavor nothing beats fresh vegetables picked from the garden and immediately consumed.