There are actually two garden planting times in Texas Hill Country spring and fall. The Hill country covers a wide area, and for the purpose of this article we will define it as Austin toward Brady and south toward San Antonio. When is the best time to plant a fall garden in the Texas Hill country? It depends on what vegetables you are planting. For non cold tolerant crops such as beans, tomatoes, squash and peppers, you want to get them in the ground as soon as possible, though you may have to shade them from the hot summer sun. Warm weather vegetables should be planted in late July or August if you want to produce any crop before the first freeze.   The chart on the right below shows the optimal temperature for various vegetables. Use it as a guide to determine the best time to plant Texas fall garden vegetables.

Whether you choose to put in a large fall garden in the Texas Hill country, or just a small patch like the one above, you can enjoy fresh winter vegetables for much of the cold season.

Cold tolerant vegetables such as red lettuce, kale, Swiss chard, beets, carrots, cabbage, etc, should be planted around Labor Day. By that time there has usually been a cool front and fall rains have begun. The best time to plant a fall garden in the Texas Hill country for cold weather crops is around the first of September.

To prepare your Texas hill country fall garden, place sheets of black plastic over the garden as soon as your spring vegetable crops have been tilled under. This will kill many insect eggs and seeds.  Around late July you can remove the plastic sheeting and till up the fall garden and break apart hard clods of dirt. Apply some composted organic mulch and composted manure a week or so before planting.

Fall is a great time in the Texas hill country and you can enjoy fresh winter vegetables for much of the winter. Things like Swiss chard will survive down to several degrees below freezing.  To extend the growing season of less cold tolerant winter garden vegetables you can place filled gallon jugs of water next to plants to give off a bit of radiant heat and also cover tender plants when the first freezes of the year arrive for a few more pepper and tomato picking sessions.

A good book on Texas gardening is by Neil Sperry, the Complete Guide To Texas Gardening, seen below.