What to Plant in November in Texas: The Month Beginners Always Miss

The moment it finally cools down, most new gardeners decide the season is over. They pull the tired tomatoes, coil up the hose and say, see you in spring.

In Texas, that's the exact moment it starts.

November is one of the best planting months of the whole year here in Houston, and it's the one beginners miss most often. In this week's episode of Grow with Vibrant Rainbow Gardens, I walk through what's worth planting right now, what can't wait, and one ten-minute job for this week. Here's the written version.

Why beginners miss November

Most of us either don't know what grows in which season, or we carry around the idea that spring is for planting and fall is only for harvesting.

In Texas, summer is our hard season, the one that sends us indoors. Fall is when the garden gets its second wind.

In Texas, the garden doesn't end when it cools down. That's when it gets its second wind.

Look at what's happening outside right now. The sun is still strong enough to grow food, but it's gentle. The air has cooled off, the soil stays warm, and the pests start to ease up. You can stand outside for more than five minutes without questioning your life choices.

That's your fall planting window. Whatever cool-season plants you put in now get to soak up that mild sun and warm soil and turn it into roots, leaves and dinner. If nothing's planted, that sunshine just lands on bare dirt.

And one cold night in the forecast doesn't mean you've missed your chance. Radishes, spinach, lettuce, kale, garlic and onions can all handle a chilly night.

What's growing in my Houston garden right now

This isn't theoretical for me. Back when it was still hot, I transplanted my first wave of brassicas: cauliflower, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage and kale. A second wave is still to come.

I've also planted saffron crocus and strawberries, with more strawberries on the way. Right before our big rain, I planted peas along my obelisk trellises, radishes (daikon especially, which I'm very excited about) and rainbow carrots. I have red carrot seeds waiting too. For color, I added calendula and snapdragons.

My kale is already ready to harvest, and my citrus has started coming in. My garlic goes in within the next week or two, and my onions wait until December. Salad season in Houston is almost here.

After more than fifteen years, I'm still testing the timing of my plants. That's half the fun.

4 easy wins to plant in November

I'm keeping this list short on purpose. If you want every crop, my What to Plant in November in Houston episode has the full list.

1. Radishes

Radishes are the friend who shows up on time. They go in from seed, and in about a month you're eating something you grew. If you have kids, start here. Nobody has to wait until spring to be impressed.

2. Lettuce

Lettuce goes in from seed too, and leaf lettuce is the easy place to begin. A confession: I don't buy bagged salad at all. The only salad I eat is salad I grew. I'm not saying you have to become as unreasonable as I am. I'm saying November is when that starts to become possible.

3. Spinach

Here in Houston, spinach and radishes can keep going in well into April. So you have time. You just don't have endless time.

4. Kale

Kale can go in as transplants or as seeds, and I do both. Transplants give me kale right now, and the seeds give me a practically endless supply later. Pick up a few little plants and a packet of seeds at your local nursery and start planting.

And yes, I'd pick kale over lettuce every time. It's one of my fall favorites, right up there with spinach, cauliflower, broccoli, radishes, carrots and onions. Which, I realize, is basically the whole garden.

Two things that can't wait

Native flowers you sow in fall

If you've been dreaming about your own patch of Texas bluebonnets or echinacea next spring, like I have, this is last call. These native seeds want to go down in fall so they can build roots all winter. Early October is ideal, and for best results you want them in by about mid-November. This one is really now or next year.

Garlic

My garlic chills in the fridge before it goes into my raised beds, because Houston doesn't give garlic much of a winter. November is still garlic time here. For the whole saga, including why mine failed last year, listen to Episode 50: My Garlic Failed Last Year.

Save a spot for December onions

Onions are really about planning. Here in Houston, my onion transplants go in around December, so there's nothing to plant yet. But I want you to save them a spot.

Last year, I grew onions along one side of my brassica beds and garlic along the other, as borders. The onions did amazingly well. The garlic did not. I harvested about seven to eight months' supply of onions, which is a lot of onion, even for someone who cooks every single day.

This year I'm repeating what worked. Onions go in as borders around all my raised beds, popped in wherever I have space.

My favorite part of designing a garden, or a planting plan each season, is picturing how everything will grow out and then working in reverse. It's like watching a time lapse backward.

What to plant in November in the rest of Texas

Everything above is Houston timing, tested in my own garden. If you're in Dallas, Austin, San Antonio or East Texas, your window shifts.

Your first frost could arrive as early as late November or early December, or even sooner. Most of your fall planting should already be done, so focus on cold-hardy plants. If you're not done yet, you can still plant radishes, carrots, spinach, lettuce, arugula, collards and kale.

Cauliflower and broccoli can be tender in a freeze. If you grow them, plan to cover them, especially in Dallas. Wherever you are, plan around your own first frost date.

The beginner myth: one planting is enough

Beginners almost never plant too much (okra is the exception). They plant too little. They expect one plant to feed a whole family, and then dinner is one leaf.

That's why I plant kale two ways. The gardens that keep feeding you are the ones that keep getting planted. For the full picture, listen to How to Get a Harvest Every Week.

Don't bag your fall leaves

All over North America right now, people are raking up fall leaves, bagging them and leaving them out for pickup. Those leaves spent all year catching sunshine, and now they're falling into your yard for free.

You are throwing away next year's soil.

Picture a forest floor. Nobody rakes it up, bags it in plastic and leaves it out for pickup. Leaves break down and become soil. In our yards, leaves on garden beds can become mulch, and leaves in the compost bin become food for next season's garden. The sun's energy was captured by those leaves, and now we give it back to the earth.

So save yours this year. And if your neighbor is bagging theirs, ask before taking. If you're working with Houston clay, my clay soil episode covers no-dig ways to build better soil.

Your one thing this week

Sow some radishes, especially if you've never had a homegrown radish before. It's a ten-minute job, and in about a month you'll be pulling something out of the ground that you grew yourself. Then come tell me how it went.

Send me your garden question

I've started a new monthly episode called Garden Coffee Chat, where I answer your gardening questions right on the show. The one you've been googling at eleven at night. The plant you're afraid to admit you killed. No question is too beginner.

Send me your question and join my email list while you're there. That's where the behind-the-scenes updates live, and where you get first dibs when something opens up.

Not sure what kind of gardener you are yet? Take the free GrowSona Quiz.

Starting from a blank yard? Listen to How I'd Set Up a Garden From Scratch This Fall next.

Happy fall gardening, Vandhana

The more gardens we grow, the more vibrant our communities become.