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What’s Happening in Austin’s September Vegetable Garden

Posted on September 1, 2023 by sheryl.williams

Purple eggplant harvested in the September vegetable garden

Enjoying the remnants of the summer garden

September Vegetable Garden Checklist Tips from Paula Wolfel

Vegetable gardeners and most everyone else welcome the arrival of September because it means cooler temperatures are on the way. Though the daytime temperatures are still hot, at some point in September, the nighttime temperatures begin to fall. That little drop will take heat stress off of plants and help make our gardens beautiful again. Gardeners are enjoying harvests from the plants that survived their summer gardens such as eggplant, cucumbers, melons, and tomatoes as well starting new with fall plantings.

The September Vegetable Garden Checklist

WATER

Daily watering is important for new transplants during the first two or so weeks as they put down roots. Water the soil before putting the plant in the soil.
Keep an eye on the sky – plants prefer rain water so if it is going to rain or rained the night before, skip your regularly scheduled irrigation until you can determine how much rain was received. Dry conditions in a vegetable garden can lead to delayed maturity, low yields, and poor quality so understanding soil moisture is crucial.
When planting seeds also water the soil before planting, then keep the soil most until the seeds have germinated.
Avoid watering in the middle of the day because water can be lost to evaporation. That’s mostly because the plant has closed it’s stomata to prevent water loss and doesn’t absorb water at the same rate that it does during cooler morning temperatures. The water that is applied to the soil during the hottest parts of the day is then just evaporated away.
Most vegetables have a growth stage when water is most critical: during head development for broccoli and cauliflower; during flowering and pod enlargement for beans and peas, and during root enlargement for radishes, beets, and carrots. Lettuce and other leafy vegetables do best with a fairly consistent supply of moisture from planting to harvest.

FERTILIZE

Sidedress vegetable transplants 3-4 weeks after planting. To sidedress, pull back mulch, sprinkle 2 tablespoons of fertilizer around the perimeter of the plant, scratch it lightly into the soil, water well, and replace mulch. Repeat this application of fertilizer again 3 weeks later to maintain healthy and vigorous growth. Keep soil moisture even so that the fertilizer doesn’t “burn” the plant.

SOIL

Newspapers laid on ground and covered with leaves for mulch

Use newspapers and mulch to protect soil and suppress weeds.

Clean up any dead plants.
Keep soil covered to conserve moisture, moderate temperature, and deter weeds.
One low-cost way to protect soil that is lying fallow is to spread a few layers of newspaper over the soil, wet it down, and top it with dried leaves, grass clippings, or mulch. Place drip or soaker hose underneath the leaves, grass, or mulch. This method works well for weed suppression around the perimeter of the vegetable garden too – just leave out the irrigation.
Put down a layer of mulch. It is an important component for the vegetable garden. It moderates soil temperatures, deters weeds, helps conserve moisture, and gradually breaks down and enriches soil. Dried grass clippings, leaves, pine straw, partially decomposed compost, and shredded bark are suitable options. When you’re ready to plant, just scoop up the mulch and put it in your compost bin.

WHAT TO PLANT IN THE SEPTEMBER VEGETABLE GARDEN

If transplants have been grown indoors or in a greenhouse, it’s a good idea to acclimate them to outdoor conditions before planting in the garden. Start by setting them in a shady spot for a few hours, gradually exposing them to more sun each day over the course of a week.
The best time for setting out transplants is in the evening or on a cloudy day, and if rain is in the forecast, it is very good for the plant to get rainwater right after being planted.
Broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, and cauliflower are planted as transplants in order to get a harvest before the first freeze. And root vegetables such as beets, carrots, turnips, and radishes are planted as seeds because they do not like their roots disturbed. Many of the other fall plants grow well from seeds or transplants. Seeds are less expensive and give you more control over the complete life of your plant. But transplants provide a quicker harvest.

SEEDS

Beets (all month)
Carrots (all month)
Leeks (seed all month for spring harvest)
Radish (all month)
Turnips (all month)

TRANSPLANTS

Broccoli (all month)
Brussel sprouts (all month)
Cabbage (all month)
Cauliflower (all month)

TRANSPLANTS OR SEEDS

green leaves yellow stems of swiss chard

Asian greens (all month)
Beans, snap and lima (early to mid month)
Chard, Swiss (all month)
Collards (all month)
Cucumber (early month)
Garlic (late month)
Greens, cold season (late month)
Kale (all month)
Kohrabi (late month)
Lettuce (mid-late month)
Mustard (all month)
Onion, bunching/multiplying (all month)
Peas, English, snap, and snow (all month)
Potato, Irish (early month)
Shallots (late month)
Spinach (late month)
Squash, summer (early month)

DISEASES/PESTS TO LOOK FOR IN THE SEPTEMBER VEGETABLE GARDEN

Cross-striped cabbage worm.

Fall armyworms, cabbage worms, cabbage loopers and cross-striped cabbage worms can be an issue this time of year, especially on cole crops like broccoli, kale and cauliflower. Cover new plantings with row cover to exclude the moth that lays the eggs or treat plants with a product containing Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), which comes in either dust or spray form. Bt is deadly when consumed by caterpillars but does not harm other insects. Read the label and follow directions carefully. You can also pick them off with your fingers and either drop them in a cup of soapy water or squash them.

MAINTENANCE

Always keep up with the weeds: they compete with young plants for water and nutrients.
Continue to pull up any summer plants that are infested with pest damage or disease.

Additional Resources

Watch the Vegetable Gardening in Central Texas Webinar

Vegetable Planting Calendar (Español, 繁体中文)

Vegetable Seed Sources

Vegetable Gardening in Austin

Plant Rotations, Successions and Intercropping

Sustainable Food Center Farmers Markets

Texas Farmers Markets

Monthly Gardening Calendar for Austin and Central Texas

Tool Maintenance

About Paula Wolfel

Paula Wolfel joined the Travis County Master Gardener program in 2022, but has been gardening in Austin, Texas since 2017. She grew up in the suburbs of Chicago learning how to garden from both her father—a Sicilian vegetable and fruit tree gardener—and both her grandmothers, and then spent years in Virginia gardening. Paula loves gardening because she finds it to be a grounding force- it gets her out of her head and into the present. She loves the pride that comes with cooking a meal for her family with every ingredient coming from her garden… and then the humility she feels when she loses an entire crop because of Mother Nature. She finds gardening to be wisdom, lessons, best practices passed down generation to generation, season to season and hopes to share that with you.

Opportunities to Grow as a Gardener in Weather Extremes

Posted on August 18, 2023 by sheryl.williams

tree limbs on the ground from freeze damage

Tree damage from the 2021 storm

Meet “Frovid”

Before and after photos of damaged plants On February 12-18, 2021, we thought we had met our garden demise with what we refer to around here as Frovid. After that freeze we felt like our gardens and landscape across our three acre property would forever be changed. We lost so many perennials, succulents, fruit trees, and branches and we thought things would never recover. March rolled around and the massive undertaking of the cleanup was behind us, and thankfully we did not meet our garden demise. Just like the many spring seasons before, plants once again emerged and by May we were in full swing again with beautiful color and healthy plants. One would have never known it ever happened.

And Then Came the Ice

fallen limbs and trees and then same area cleaned up

A lot of downed limbs that had to be sawed up and hauled away.

Fast forward to February 1-2, 2023. The ice apocalypse strikes hard in south Austin. By February 2nd, a third of our trees or branches from trees were so laden with ice that they were splitting, cracking off and uprooting left and right throughout the property. For lack of a better description, our property looked like a war zone. Giant multi trunk cedar trees were splayed completely across gardens, driveways, paths, donkey and chicken runs and on three acres of fence line. We also lost many prized heritage oak branches. We had never felt so overwhelmed in our lives as things deteriorated around us. When it was all said and done, we had major work to do on half of the four hundred plus trees on the property.

More Clean Up

The City of Austin and surrounding counties set up brush drop off sites and once again we had the intense job of cleaning it up. We hired a crew for 2 days that cost us about 2k to get the large branches, uprooted trees, and anything dangling and unsafe. Over the next 30 days I worked everyday chain sawing, stacking, and loading branches. In total, I transported fourteen brush loads in my 10’x 8’ foot trailer across town to the Hornsby Bend city brush drop off site (https://www.austintexas.gov/brushdropoff), a wonderful free service the City of Austin provides.

And Yet…

Same garden with more sunlight and happy plants

More sun has made for healthier plants.

We left town for the month of March for a much-needed break and decided we would regroup in April and see what in the world we were going to do with all of the gardens that were now full blazing sun. Again, just like in 2021 we thought the property as we knew it was never going to recover. Well, here we are in July just 5 months later and things are thriving.

Many plants in our shade gardens were moved or taken out to introduce more sun-loving plants. Overall, things are much happier. It turns out the perennials we had planted in numerous partial shade areas were not getting enough sun and they are now thriving. The loss of these trees allowed us to reinvent some areas that quite honestly were getting a little tired and needed a facelift.

An Opportunity to Grow

These extreme temperatures are hard, and they always create a challenge. Too hot, too cold, but always an opportunity to grow and learn as a gardener and reinvent a spot. One of our most favorite gardens now was our least favorite post freeze. It just never worked with the giant tree towering over it. Now that the tree is gone, we completely recreated it with paths and rocks that provide additional visual interest. The perennials have filled in and are healthy and blooming.

I vow to never think a too hot or too cold season will be the end of what we create. It’s an opportunity to learn and to get in the best shape of our lives pulling it all back together! As the saying goes, “What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger” and that certainly holds true for our little patch in south Austin. Of course, as our temperatures climb past 100 we have a new set of challenges in front of us. This too shall pass.

The Tally – Winners

Plants that made a complete rebound without any losses during both 2021 and 2023 freezes:

Shrubs

Pride of Barbados
Rock Rose
Yellow bells
Flame Acanthus
American Beauty Berry
Knockout Roses
Mexican Honeysuckle
Sotol
Firebush

Grasses/Perennials

Gulf Coast Muhly
Salvias
Majestic Sage
Bee Balm
Fall Aster
Silver Pony Foot
Obedient Plant
Cannas
Plumbago
Mexican Sage
Turks Cap
Shasta Daisies
Wormwood
Rock Penstemon
Fall Aster
Lantana
Greg’s Mist Flower
Clumping Bamboo
Mystic Spires
Gopher Plant

Vines

English Ivy
Crossvine

The Tally – Losers

These plants were damaged or a complete loss:

Arbequina Olive
Peach Trees
Cotoneaster
Germander Shrub
Prickly Pear Cactus
Mexican Mint Marigold
Jerusalem Sage
All Lavender Varieties
Ice Plant
Bi Color Iris

Additional Plant Resources

Ornamental Plants for Austin

The Grow Green Native and Adapted Landscape Plants guide

About Kay Angermann

Kay is a retired AISD teacher and has been a Travis County Master Gardener since 2018. She and Julie (also a Travis County Master Gardener) have had their “Katy Bird Farm” garden featured on Central Texas Gardener. They have two miniature donkeys, chickens, dogs, cats, and 15 different gardens on three acres. When she’s not busy on the farm, she’s out gathering vintage signs and décor for her Hipbilly Vintage business.

What’s Happening in Austin’s August Vegetable Garden

Posted on August 1, 2023 by sheryl.williams

Leafy plants with open spaces in the August vegetable garden

An example of an August garden with cucumbers, poblano peppers, tomatoes, and basil holding on but empty spaces where spaghetti squash and nasturtium succumbed to heat and insects.

Black Krim tomatoes going strong despite heat, waiting for cooler weather.

Stay Hydrated and Keep the August Vegetable Garden Going – Tips from Paula Wolfel

August is an interesting time for gardeners in Austin. Vegetable gardens consist of plants that have survived or are surviving the heat but have dormant and empty spots from plants that succumbed to high temperatures or pests and diseases.

For those who have tomato, pepper, eggplant, squash, melons, and cucumbers that are still going strong, continue to water daily and to provide a water-soluble fertilizer once a week.

If you’ve got empty spots or those who are ready to start new, clean up the remnants from summer and plan and prep for the milder days that will come. The first frost in Central Texas usually arrives in late November or early December which means you have over 3 months of frost-free weather ahead. Gardeners can concentrate on the array of cool season vegetables that thrives in fall’s cooler temperatures or there is still time for a round two of green beans, cucumbers, squash, and tomatoes, which start producing about two months after sowing seeds.

Things to Do in the August Vegetable Garden

Water and Irrigation

Water continues to be the most important factor in the garden as the temperatures remain consistently above 90 degrees without rain. Continue to water your plants at the soil line every day if needed and give them a long, deep water once a week.
Irrigate in the morning. Wilted plants in the afternoon is a natural response. Watering at night in times of high humidity can promote fungal disease.
Water new seedlings regularly and transplants daily; direct sun combined with high temperatures can be a death sentence for a tender seedling without an established root system.

Fertilizer

As tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, and squash begin to flower again and form fruit, give them a boost with an application of water-soluble fertilizer according to label directions.

Soil

Clean up any dead plants.
In preparation for planting, spread a 2-inch layer of compost over the garden beds and mix it in lightly. Water the area well before planting seeds or transplants.
Put down a layer of mulch. It is an important component for the vegetable garden. It moderates soil temperatures, deters weeds, helps conserve moisture, and gradually breaks down and enriches soil. Dried grass clippings, leaves, pine straw, partially decomposed compost, and shredded bark are suitable options.

What to Plant in the August Vegetable Garden

Shade young seedlings and transplants from direct afternoon sun. Use what you have on hand – an old window screen, shade cloth, sheets, cardboards, or umbrellas. It is not permanent and does not have to look pretty but it will give your plants a fighting chance.
If you have decided to grow cucumbers, squash, or green beans, plant seeds in late August or early September. For best results, choose varieties that mature in less than 60-days and be prepared to water daily until they are established.
Take into account the milder temperatures and shorter days that will slow the growth of fall plantings.
Seeds:
- Beets (late month)
- Carrots (late month)
- Corn (early-mid month)
- Greens, warm season (early-mid month)
- Turnips, (late month)
Transplants:
- Broccoli (late month)
- Brussel sprouts (late month)
- Cabbage (late month)
- Cauliflower (late month)
- Eggplant (early-mid month)
- Okra (early-mid month)
- Peppers (early-mid month)
- Tomatoes (early-mid month)
Transplants or Seeds:
- Beans, snap and lima (mid to late month)
- Chard, Swiss (late month)
- Collards (late months)
- Cucumber (all month)
- Kohrabi (late month)
- Mustard (late month)
- Peas, southern (early-late month)
- Potato, Irish (mid-late month)
- Squash, summer (all month)
- Squash, winter (early-mid month)

Diseases and/or Pests to Look For in the August Vegetable Garden

Aphids: a strong spray of water can easily dispatch them from the leaves or remove the leaves and put into a cup of soapy water. The soap breaks down their protective exterior and the aphids become dehydrated and die.

Maintenance

Pull weeds from the garden. They compete with young plants for water and nutrients.
Continue to pull up any summer plants that are infested with pest damage or disease. Remember, whatever malady they are suffering from will get worse, not better, during the stress of summer heat.

Harvest

You can harvest any tomato once the green turns to a yellowish-orange and it will ripen on your counter, especially if placed next to bananas or in a brown paper bag. You can harvest green tomatoes and they will ripen-just take a bit longer-or you can use in roasted tomato salsa, fried green tomatoes, or chop and add to a vegetable sauté. Store on counter or in bowl with stem side down to encourage ripening.

green, orange, and mottled orange tomatoes

Example of range of color that you can pick your tomatoes.

green to yellow to red tomatoes on a kitchen counter

All tomatoes in this photo were picked upon the first sign of yellow/orange and ripened on the counter.

Preparing Your Fall Garden

In preparation for fall, check your seed inventory and peruse seed catalogs for varieties that grow well in Austin and fit Austin’s required “days to harvest.” Popular vegetables for the fall garden include broccoli, Brussel sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage, collards, kale and spinach, beets, radishes, and Swiss chard, as well as bush beans, cucumbers, and summer squash. In choosing frost-tender varieties look for those that will mature in less than 65-days.

You can save money by growing your own transplants of fall crops indoors under grow lights. Start planting seeds of broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and other falls crops early in the month so they can be transplanted in September.

One habit to start, is to sketch out a garden planning grid and include a rotation plan for growing vegetables. Crops within the same family are often susceptible to the same pests or diseases. If possible, move or rotate plants to different locations to help break the pest/disease cycle.

Keep Up With Tool Maintenance

Find a shady tree or a patio and get caught up on tool maintenance.

Additional Resources

Watch the Vegetable Gardening in Central Texas Webinar

Vegetable Planting Calendar (English) (Español) (繁体中文)

Vegetable Seed Sources

Vegetable Gardening in Austin

Plant Rotations, Successions and Intercropping

Rootknot Nematode Management

Monthly Gardening Calendar for Austin and Central Texas

About Paula Wolfel

What’s Happening in Austin’s July Vegetable Garden

Posted on July 1, 2023 by sheryl.williams

vegetables from the july vegetable gardening checklist

Early July harvest- you can pick tomatoes as soon as the color changes from green to yellowish orange and have them ripen on your counter.

July Vegetable Garden Checklist Tips from Paula Wolfel

The July heat slows things down in the Austin vegetable garden. For most gardeners, July gardening consists of either trying to keep plants alive with daily watering until the temperatures drop again in late summer, or planning for their fall gardens. Heat and lack of rain can adversely affect growth and pollination so if your plants are not producing new fruits but remain green, try to hold tight until the temperatures drop. And in the meantime, start planning your fall garden. For those plants that have given up and have turned brown, or have succumbed due to pests and disease, pull them from your garden to make room for fall crops.