Time to Prep Now For a Good Fall Harvest in Your Garden

It’s pretty hot and dry out there. A lot of folks would rather turn their garden spot into a swimming pool right now. But it’s time to start thinking about a fall garden.

Peppers and tomatoes for the fall should have been planted around July 1 in our areas. If you plated some and managed to keep them alive, congratulations. We have some shade cloth over the tomatoes we planted in the spring, and some are still producing, especially the Early Girl variety. I didn’t bother planting any late tomatoes or peppers this year on account of the drought.

But right now is a good time to plant squash for the fall, especially winter squash and pumpkin varieties. Winter squash do not grow during the winter time. They get their name from the fact that farmers traditionally harvest them in the fall, store them, and then eat them during the winter.

A reader recently gave me some pumpkin seeds that his family has been growing in Fayette County for more than 100 years. He said his grandfather immigrated here from central Mexico in the 1910s and brought these pumpkin seeds with him. He said his family always plants them around the Fourth of July and harvests them in October. He said his family uses the pumpkin flesh to make sweet empanadas, a Spanishstyle stuffed pastry.

My wife Janessa planted some of these seeds around the middle of July, and they sprouted this week. I had quite a bit of success growing pumpkins the last time I tried two years ago. I’m anxious to see how these turn out.

You can also plant another round of summer squash right now. Regardless of whether you plant summer squash, winter squash, pumpkins, or all of them, be sure to plant them in a different spot than where you planted squash in the spring. Most of us in Fayette County suffer damage from the squash vine borer (SVB) insect. These bugs overwinter in cocoons in the soil. They emerge as a beautifully-colored orange and black wasp-like bug in the spring. The adults lay eggs on squash plants. They hatch as larvae and boring holes inside the stems, where they live and feed on the plants until it’s time for them to form a cocoon in the ground. The larvae phase is what’s so destructive to squash plants. For that reason, it’s good to practice crop rotation with squash.

Right now is also a good time to start thinking about green beans. Texas A&M’s Fall Vegetable Planting Guide recommends planting bush beans on Sept. 1 for our area. I prefer growing pole beans – mostly for aesthetics, I love watching them grow up trellises. Pole beans take a little longer to mature in my experience. So I’ll probably get some in the ground in the next week or two. For those of you who grow bush beans, now might be a good time to prepare a bed for them.

In addition, it’s probably a good time to get some space ready for brassicas – cabbage, kale, collard greens, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and the like. The Aggies suggest planting them around Sept. 1 as well. The Aggies also say the last optimum day for seeding eggplants was July 25. If you have some seeds, I would try sticking them in the ground. Eggplants normally do well in the heat, but mine did not fare well this year. I’m going to look for some eggplant seed to plant this weekend. Maybe I’ll get a good fall crop.