Nobody wants to plant anything in late July. It's 98° at supper time, the spring tomatoes have quit, and the okra is the only thing in the garden that looks happy. But here's the secret that separates Gulf Coast gardeners who eat all fall from the ones who start over in spring: the fall garden is planted in the summer. This week. Sweating.
Start these in trays, out of the worst sun
- Fall tomatoes — transplants need to be in the ground by mid-August to beat the November frost. If you didn't start seed in June, buy transplants now and hold them in afternoon shade. Heat-set varieties earn their name.
- Peppers — serranos and sweets both. They'll sulk through August and then absolutely bury you in October.
- Broccoli, cabbage & collards — seed them in trays late this month, transplant mid-September. Collards after the first light frost are a different vegetable — sweet, tender, nothing like summer collards.
Direct-seed these right now
- Pumpkins and winter squash — the last week of July is the classic Texas date so they mature in the cool of October instead of the heat.
- Southern peas — purple hulls and creams laugh at the heat, fix nitrogen in beds the spring crops wore out, and give you a September harvest for nearly zero effort.
- Okra, still — a late planting keeps young, tender pods coming into November when the spring-planted okra has gotten woody and tall.
And do this one boring thing
Solarize or sheet-mulch one bed for the fall garden. Pull the spent spring crop, water the bed, cover it, and let the August sun cook the weed seed for you. When September transplant weather comes, you'll have the cleanest bed you've ever planted into.
Check your own week's window on the live garden weather tool — the 7-day forecast is the whole game for timing transplants. And if you need seed, the shop has what I actually grow.