Corpus Christi Gardeners Still Have Weeks to Plant Greens, Roots and Garlic
A Nueces County planting chart shows spinach, mustard, radishes, turnips and carrots can go in through November. Here are the dates and AgriLife's tips.
On the Coastal Bend, mid-October is not the end of the planting season. It is the middle of it. A spring and fall vegetable planting chart for Nueces County published by Gill Nursery, a Corpus Christi garden center, shows a long list of crops that can still go in.
Seeds you can still sow
These planting windows come from the Gill Nursery chart:
Mustard, radish and spinach: through Dec. 1 (spinach from Sept. 15, mustard and radish from Sept. 1)
Turnips: Aug. 20 to Dec. 1
Carrots: Sept. 15 to Nov. 20
Beets: Sept. 15 to Nov. 15
Leaf lettuce and parsley: Sept. 1 to Nov. 1
Garlic cloves: October and November
Onion seed: Nov. 15 to Dec. 1
Gill Nursery's chart puts the window for broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage transplants runs Sept. 10 to Oct. 15, so those are now at the end of their season. The nursery lists Brussels sprouts transplants for Oct. 15.
AgriLife's fall advice
Texas A&M AgriLife's Fall Vegetable Gardening Guide, by Larry Stein and Joe Masabni, groups beets, carrots, garlic, lettuce, mustard, onion, parsley, spinach and turnips among the frost-tolerant crops. The guide recommends planting them together.
Vegetables need at least 8 hours of direct sun and soil that drains well.
Water deeply, soaking the soil to 6 inches, and only when needed. An inch or two once a week is usually enough. Check by scratching the soil 1 inch down. If it is moist, wait.
Pick greens while the leaves are young and tender. Cut spinach once it has six or more crisp, dark green leaves, which encourages it to grow back.
Carrots can stay in cool soil for weeks after they mature. The guide calls the garden the best place in Texas to store them.
From the guide's kitchen notes
The AgriLife guide also says fall is for herbs, and it includes a couple of simple ideas worth trying. Mix a pinch of thyme into a tablespoon of honey and toss it with drained, cooked carrots and onions. Or brown parsley in butter with garlic to make a sauce for basting grilled meats.
For a plain weeknight side, here is a general recipe, not one from the nursery or AgriLife: slice fresh radishes and turnips thin, toss them with salt, a little vinegar and chopped parsley, and serve them cold. With a few short rows planted now, a Corpus Christi family can have something fresh from the yard on the table through the holidays.
Hero photo: Shixart1985 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0 (license).
