Waco Gardening Tips: SEPTEMBER

Herbs and veggies to plant this month.   

It's the last month to plant items in bold.  If a bolded item is grey that means the best two guides for this area, the Aggie Fall Direct Seeding Guide (AG) and the The Central Texas Community Gardening Guide (CTG) differ on whether this is the last month.   

START SEEDS OUTDOORS

Arugula

Beets 

Carrots (CTG says by Sept 15, AG says til Nov 10 )

Chives** (see note)

Cilantro 

Collards 

Dill 

Kohlrabi (by Sept 10)

Onion (seeds or sets)**

Lettuce, Leaf (AG says by Sept 15, but CTG says through October)

Mustard 

Oregano (Sept 4)*

Parsley ac

Parsnips (Late September)*

Raddish 

Rosemary (by Sept 18)*

Spinach (after Sept 15) c

Shallots (sets)**

Squash, summer (by Sept 10) - (AG says plant by Sept 10, but CTG says only transplant this month) 

Swiss Chard 

Turnips

PLANT INDOORS TO TRANSPLANT

Bok Choy/Pak Choi (transplant in October)

Cabbage, Flowering

Celery

Kale (plant inside before Sept 15)

Leeks (plant inside before Sept 15)

Lettuce, Head (before Sept 15) 

TRANSPLANT

Broccoli  (by Sept 20)

Brussels Sprouts (by Sept 20)

Cabbage (by Sept 20)

Cauliflower (by Sept 20)

Cucumber 

Kale (after Sept 16)

Lettuce, Head (after Sept 16)

Squash (Yellow, Patti Pan, Zucchini)

Swiss Chard

Zucchini

MORE PLANTING TIPS

• This is the month to transplant iris and calla lily.  There's a great video on how to divide and transplant iris here.  (But if they don't absolutely need dividing, possibly wait until next year.)
  
  
• Providing some shade for your plants may help with September heat.  Dorris at FlipFlopGardener suggests plant umbrellas (and gives some nifty instructions on how to set them up.   I've used plastic flowers to shade my read seedlings until they were strong enough to grow without shade, and it worked well.  

Some info from this page (but I'm not sure what...cause this is a post I re-did from a previous post) may have come from the Mother Earth News Website.

SOURCES 

Most of the info for this month's planting guide came from the Aggie Fall Direct Seeding Guides (which is now down from the site, but has been archived by the Way Back Machine), or The Central Texas Community Gardening Guide (CTG).   Some info also came from from the the 2023  Farmer's Almanac planting guide for Waco  which are marked with an*,  and the and  Month to Month Gardening in Texas, which are marked with ** (and has a note below).     I've been told the Farmer's Almanac is not as accurate as the Aggie Guide, but will include info from it only for veggies not listed in the Aggie Guide if I can find any evidence they grow in Central Texas (a mention on a gardening forum, whatever).  I will also use it for dates for planting indoors to transplant if it seems to be within a reasonable period from the Aggie transplanting guidance, since their guide doesn't cover this.

A few sources came from Central Texas gardening blogs or other sources, which I linked to.

**Note that Month to Month Gardening in Texas is not as specific by region.  It says that the last date to plant onion, leeks, and shallots is Oct 1.   The Aggie says in our zone we have til November 1.  The Central Texas Community Gardening Guide (CTG) says you can plant sets this month, and doesn't mention seeds.  I've planted onions and chives, both seeds and onion sets, all through the fall in Waco, and had them survive all through the winter, so I am not marking these as "last chance to plant."     


**** I have successfully planted dill in the fall, but I can't remember when I planted, so I'm going with the Farmer's Almanac "last planting date" here, even though it conflicts with their other planting dates.  The Aggie guide doesn't mention dill.