Who knew gardening in North Texas was so easy?
That’s because fall is one of the best times of year to plant a vegetable garden in our area.
Fall is about planting — whether you’re starting a new garden, or working to redo or improve your landscape.
It’s the season for planting edibles and ornamentals. But before you dig, make a plan based on which herbs and seasonal vegetables you’d like to eat. Consider annuals and perennials to splash color around your home. Perhaps you’d like to add structure, texture, color and/or shade with shrubs and trees.
In the days ahead, study the strengths and weaknesses of your garden. Determine which plants made it through summer’s brutal heat and which gave up. Consider the best alternatives to replace these.
Annuals and perennials
There’s a bloom for everyone in the fall-planting lineup. Fall-flowering perennials include aster, Copper Canyon daisy, Mexican bush sage, farfugium and toad lily.
If chrysanthemums are a favorite, plant tightly budded rather than fully open mums to enjoy a longer flowering season.
Black-eyed Susan, coneflowers, dianthus, lantana, pentas, pigeonberry, salvias and skullcaps will bring spring-fall blooms.
Native columbine is a cheerful spring option to tuck into beds this fall.
Graceful ornamental grasses are a major attraction this time of year. These low-care perennials add texture, color and movement in the garden.
Trees
Perk up well-draining containers and beds with cool-season annuals such as alyssum, calendulas, diascia, Drummond phlox, petunias and snapdragons. Wait until cooler temps arrive in late October to plant pansies and primroses.
Fall is an ideal time to plant trees, as this allows the roots to settle in before next year’s heat begins. Choose from a diverse selection of large and small and evergreen and deciduous trees to plant in your garden.
There’s nothing more rejuvenating to me than hanging out beneath trees, whether the burly, medusalike boughs of a live oak or the fluttery canopy of red maple leaves. If you don’t want or need shade, perhaps a smaller, flowering tree such as a Mexican plum could be a highlight in your garden.
The most valuable lesson I’ve learned over the years — select the right tree for the right place. Plant a tree where it will get adequate sun and drainage and have enough room to grow straight and evenly on all sides. Otherwise, trunks will lean as the branches compete for sunlight.
Avoid planting a large tree where it will eventually overshadow a smaller tree that flowers best with sun. For example, consider a Mexican sycamore’s large mature size to avoid planting it where it will eventually overshadow a crape myrtle.
Shrubs
Shrubs create a living framework in the garden. Taller evergreens, such as podocarpus and wax myrtle, can be used as the walls in a garden room. Long-flowering, midsize abelia helps connect upper canopies to lower-growing evergreens such as cephalataxus, which forms a low-care textural ground cover in shadier areas.
Native beautyberry is a fall standout, with its plump electric-purple berries, a draw for hungry birds.
Many roses make a comeback in the fall, a good time to add more to the garden. Lightly prune existing repeat-flowering roses. Fertilizer will encourage October blooms.