How to use your Texas Planting Calendar

Planting the wrong vegetable plant at the wrong time of year is probably one of the most common mistakes new gardeners make. It can lead to low or no production, stunted growth, pests and disease. Don’t do it!

So now you find a planting calendar online. There’s no shortage of them. What do you do with this information? How come two or three calendars that say they are from your local area have conflicting information? The internet is so annoying like that!

Here are a few things to understand about these calendars, your plants, your garden, and our Texas growing environment that make local planting calendars less stressful to interpret:

Seeds versus transplants.

The transplant you buy was probably sown as a seed 6-8 weeks before you purchased it. Which means, if you want to start from seeds, you need to count backwards. And many plants do better planted as transplants and many should never be transplanted, they should be sown directly as seed. This is one way that planting calendars, depending on whether they are referencing seeds versus transplants, can be frustratingly different, taking into account this 2 month difference. The only way to overcome this is to really get to know each one of your plants and what they need, how best they are to be planted in your garden.

Warm season versus cold season.

By displaying all 12 months on a planting calendar, you may think you have 12 choices and each month think something new and different should be happening. Do not over think it. Annual vegetable plants are in only 2 categories; warm season and cold season. This is as simple as plants that can handle a frost (32 degrees or below) and those that cannot. Most established plants that can handle frosty weather can survive a decent freeze of several hours, even into the low 20s, especially if there’s a break in the cold during the day keeping the soil temps milder. Does this sound like the weather during most Texas winters? Sure does.

But wait - Texas has 3 seasons!

Texas has two warm seasons and one cold one. Because July is so unbearable, many vegetable gardeners expect that to be a month of stalled growth or no growth. It should definitely be a month of no outside planting. Or no gardening all together, and that’s totally cool, too. It’s 100 degrees. No judgment. And since our warmth lasts so long, you can actually start frost-sensitive, warm season plants after the heat breaks in August to enjoy our second warm season. And if you can keep your spring plants alive, you can have another bump of growth late summer until first frost, which may not be until December. But it could also be in October, which brings me to my next point…

Central Texas weather is moody.

Is it supposed to freeze at the end of April? Should we reasonably expect multiple 95 degree days in November? Of course not. Do these wild and unruly weather events sometimes occur, seemingly unexplainably? And is it always when you’ve planned and planted already? Ugh. Yes!

This is actually where an organic program comes in handy. If you are following an organic program, your plants will be structurally and physically healthier and stronger and able to take a bit more stress than those that have been force-fed with salty synthetic fertilizers. When we get unexpected temperature extremes or a crazy dumping of monsoon rains, your organic garden is set up for success with strong root systems and healthy, living soil.

Hedge your frost dates risk.

Planting Calendars and plant guides often reference “frost dates,” and instruct planting so many weeks “before” or “after” these dates. Average First Frost and Average Last Frost is a seasonal average for your area. It’s not an actual date that means anything, especially when you are considering exposing a wee young seedling to the elements, which is what you are doing in the spring. Moreover, these dates can even be different within Central Texas; the Hill Country, versus Elgin, versus San Marcos have starkly different weather on the same day and different Frost Dates. What actually matters is the day it actually freezes, which you can’t know until you are there. Where I’m located in Kyle, different online sources tell me different things. If I’m going off the Old Farmer’s Almanac, which bases it on Airports for my area, Austin is the closest one, giving me March 11th. However, the neighboring city to our south would pull up San Antonio airport and a date of March 24th. The Aggie’s zip code finder for my county (Hays County) tells me March 20th. So what do I do? Personally, I have an Ides of March tradition: On March 15th, I look at the 2-week forecast. If overnight lows are all predicted in the 40s, I’ll plant as fast as I can get to the nursery. If not, I’ll wait a week and check again. It’s no guarantee, but what is?

Know your Days-To-Maturity.

Another thing to know about your plants is how long they take to mature from seed to harvest. This is another area that can make your head spin. Don’t over analyze those days-to-maturity numbers on the seed packet! Those numbers are based on ideal growing conditions, which our moody Texas weather about guarantees you will never have in your home garden. For argument’s sake, the difference between a plant that is “65 days” and “70 days” is negligible. You should, however, understand if your plant is 45 days or 120 days; that will make a difference. Cold season plants with longer days to maturity (such as brussels sprouts) should be planted at the beginning of the cold season (i.e. August or September) versus cold season plants with shorter days to maturity (such as lettuce) can be planted anytime, early or late in the cold season (i.e. September or February).

Just try some stuff.

You really just have to try some stuff and get to know your plants better. I know this might be an annoying answer for the beginners out there who want to know how to do it right. But if you understand what happens to each particular plant when the temperature stressed them out, it can give you a much better idea of when the “best” time to plant versus a “borderline” time to plant feels like. Carrots in warm soil will taste woody. Leafy greens and some herbs will bolt flowers when the days get long and hot. Many tomatoes will die instantly in even a light freeze. Of course, thousands of hours of study, academic or Google, can help, but there’s nothing like just trying a thing and seeing what happens. But of course, in order to actually learn, you have to remember. When did you plant? When did it produce? What was the weather doing when you did that? Which is the perfect segue to discuss your…

Journal.

It can seem simple. It is. You do not need an overly complicated something. When you visit your garden, just take note of: 1) Current date, 2) Current weather temps/rain, 3) What did you plant, 4) What’s currently growing, 5) What did you harvest, 6) Pest/Disease/Growth/Production Problems, and 7) Things you tried to solve the problems and whether they worked. Going into the following year you will have that, “oohhhhh yeeaaahhhh! Nice!” feeling and be so glad you did.

So in conclusion, take the planting calendars as a guide. They are a great guide and reminder. Then understand that generally, warm season plants are planted in March/April/May then again in August/September and cold season plants are planted August-March, depending on the plant. Remember to buy extra seeds and have a comforting drink available when nature decides to remind you that all the planning in the world is often thrown to the wind.