Texas Fall Gardening and Landscape Activities
What Needs to be Pruned, Planted, Cared-for, and Winterized
Sep 2, 2009
Autumn is beautiful in Texas and gardeners are itching to get outside and enjoy the cooler temperatures while helping their landscape and vegetable plants. There are several things Texas gardeners need to do in the fall and some optional tasks that they may want to do, like planting a second season vegetable garden or plant fall color in their landscapes.
The State of Texas covers many environments and hardiness zones; these recommendations apply to the parts of the State that have fall and winter seasons—generally hardiness zones 5-8.
Fall Lawn Care in Texas
Early in the fall is the right time to fertilize your warm season grasses, like St. Augustine and Bermuda, with a high-nitrogen fertilizer. Neil Sperry’s Texas Best is a good choice and available at many local nurseries listed on the site. This fertilizer was developed with consultation from scientists and has the EarthKind™ symbol of approval from Texas A&M University. If a landscape is on clay soil be careful not to add too much phosphorous as this soil type tends to have stored it from previous treatments.
Mow grass as needed to maintain a 2½ inch mowing height for St. Augustine and about 1½ inches for Bermuda. Early in the fall is also the time to use a pre-emergent to control winter weeds that take advantage of the dormant grass. Continue to water warm season grasses if the ground does not get enough autumn rainfall.
As leaves drop onto the lawn during the late autumn, mulch those with a mower rather than raking them unless the leaves are being collected for composting.
Taking Care of Texas Shrubs in Fall
A Texas gardener can prune shrubs at any time, but certain times are better than others. There are basically three reasons to prune shrubs:
- Train the plant to grow a specific way
- Remove dead or damaged branches to maintain plant health
- Restrict growth or encourage new growth
Plan to prune shrubs that bloom in summer or fall in the winter and prune shrubs that bloom in spring after their blooms die. If pruning flowering shrubs to invigorate them, the best time to prune is late winter or early spring.
Apply a high-nitrogen fertilizer in early fall and amend soil moisture if there is not sufficient rain fall. Even through the shrubs are not actively growing, the roots need some moisture to survive.
Planting a Fall Vegetable Garden in Texas
Texas is a great place for a fall vegetable garden with about a three month growing season before first freeze. Many cool weather crops, if provided a bit of protection during freezing nights, will be able to produce well into December. Although a gardener may use seeds for carrots, lettuces, chard, and spinach, most gardeners choose transplants for, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, beets, and cauliflower. Fall is too late to plant tomatoes, peppers and squash though. Those vegetables needed to be planted in July and August to have sufficient growing time before first freeze.
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