When the temperature each day is getting up above 100°F and staying above 80°F each night, it doesn’t seem very instinctual to plan for a bunch of new plant life in your vegetable garden — but that is what people in the know do. It is one of the secrets of vegetable gardening in the north Texas area. We can get 2 crops in and the fall crop typically works out better than the spring crop. (so I’m told) The trick is to get them in the ground at the right time so that when that brief period of cooler weather finally hits, your plants will already be to maturity and will start setting fruit.
Right now (end of June to early July) we can:
- place tomato, pepper, and eggplant seedlings in the ground.
- start broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage from seed indoors
- seed watermelon and cantaloupe outdoors
Before long (first of August) will be time to start placing the cool weather crops out for the fall. Most of those crops will grow all winter long, unless we have a super cold period like we did this past year.
More detailed information about when to plant can be found in the DFW/North Texas Planting Calendar thread on the North Texas Vegetable Gardener Forum.
Great info, glad I found this!!