By Bobbie Langston
Lee Miller, Publisher | (936) 637-2400

The mistake most people make with a fall garden is waiting until it feels like fall. By then the window has closed on half of what they wanted to plant.

Here is where Forest Country actually stands in the third week of September.

Sixty days, give or take

NOAA’s 1991-2020 climate normals for the Lufkin airport put the median first frost at November 7 and the median first freeze at November 20. From today that is 47 days and 60 days. The median hard freeze, 28 degrees, comes December 3. Median growing season is 252 days.

Those are medians, not promises. There is a 10 percent chance of frost by October 22 and a 10 percent chance of getting to November 26 without one.

One thing to get right: we are not all the same zone

The 2023 USDA hardiness map put Lufkin in Zone 9a and Nacogdoches in Zone 8b. The line runs between the two towns. Angelina County moved up from 8b in that revision, joining a zone that used to stop near the coast.

If you are reading planting advice written for one and gardening in the other, you are off by five degrees of expected winter low.

What you can still put in the ground

Texas A&M AgriLife Extension divides the state into five planting regions. All of East Texas is Region III. These are the average planting dates:

• October 1 — Swiss chard
• October 10 — collards, leaf lettuce, parsley
• October 15 — beets
• October — garlic cloves
• November 1 — mustard, turnip, onion from seed
• November 10 — carrots
• November 15 — spinach
• November 25 — radish

On onions, the distinction matters. Seed goes in October through December, a quarter inch deep. Transplants go in January and February, not now. Either way, short-day varieties only in Texas.

What you have missed

Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage and cauliflower hit their last optimum transplant date for Region III on September 20 — yesterday. If you want them this year, buy the largest transplants you can find and put them in immediately. Seed is not a realistic option at this point.

Tomatoes, peppers and eggplant closed July 25. Beans, corn, cucumbers, squash, okra and potatoes are all past their date and would be killed by the first frost anyway.

The frost-tolerant list is where your remaining season lives: beets, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, chard, collards, garlic, kale, lettuce, mustard, onions, parsley, spinach and turnips.

This Saturday in Lufkin

The Angelina County Master Gardeners hold their annual Fall Plant Sale at 8 a.m. Saturday, September 26, at the Angelina County Farmers Market on South Medford Drive. They sell native and well-adapted plants that have proven themselves here, and they tend to sell out well before noon. Bring cash and get there early.

The lawn is a different calendar

AgriLife’s rule is that the last nitrogen of the year goes down no later than six weeks before the expected frost. For the Angelina County area, Extension Agent Cary Sims has published that date as October 1, and puts the last application at one pound of nitrogen or less per 1,000 square feet.

But heavy nitrogen right now works against you. September and October in East Texas bring warm days, cool nights and heavy dew, which is exactly what lawn fungi want. Lush, tender growth fed by late nitrogen is what they attack. Potassium is the better choice to harden turf for winter.

Water deeply and in the morning, an inch a week at most, two days a week maximum, and skip it entirely after a good rain. Fungicides work at the first sign of disease, not after a section of yard is already gone.

Fall is also the time for a pre-emergent against winter weeds, and a good time to lime for pH.

Prep the beds

Pull spring residue and weeds, and do not compost that material — it carries insects and disease. Work in one to two inches of coarse washed sand and two to three inches of organic matter. One to three pounds of slow-release fertilizer per 100 square feet. Water to six inches deep, an inch or two once a week.

Use transplants over seed where you can, buy the biggest ones available, and expect to water them daily for about two weeks. Soaking-wet soil rots roots as surely as dry soil kills.

Planting dates from the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Fall Vegetable Gardening Guide. Frost dates from NOAA’s 1991-2020 climate normals for Lufkin Angelina County Airport. The Angelina County Extension office is at 2201 S. Medford Drive in Lufkin; Nacogdoches County’s is at 203 W. Main Street.