What to Plant in Your Houston Garden in September

There’s So Much You Can Plant in Your Houston Garden in September

In Houston, the weather still feels quite warm in September. Some might even call it ‘hot.’ But those of us from Houston know that we have. to reserve the word, ‘hot’ for the middle of summer.

While we might not love the fact that the warm weather is still here, we can celebrate the fact that we get extra months to grow lots of delicious things in the Houston garden. 

This month, at Rooted Garden, we introduce our clients to what we call, ‘Warm Season 2.’ 

This is a mirror reflection of our spring season (affectionately known as ‘Warm Season 1.’)

During Warm Season 2, we get to plant lots of the quintessential vegetable garden plants like tomatoes, peppers, beans, cucumbers and squash. But we often get the most production from even simpler plants to grow with herbs and greens like parsley and kale. 

Whatever you do in September in Houston, don’t let your garden lie empty. Sometimes the exhaustion from the summer heat and the less than healthy looking plants can cause us to want to avoid planting this month in our Houston garden. But skipping out on this month can mean losing the entire growing season for the fall garden. 

So, even if you’re not up for growing tomatoes or cucumbers this fall, you’ve got to at least fill your garden with herbs, greens and some bush green beans. 

When your harvest basket is full at the end of the month, you’ll be so glad that you did!

You Can Plant Herbs, Vegetables and Fruit in Your Houston Garden in September

In our Rooted Garden clients’ gardens, we love to plant a wide variety of herbs, vegetables and fruiting plants. This variety in the Houston garden not only means you’ll have something to harvest daily from the garden in September but also contributes to a much healthier garden throughout the season. 

The herbs we love growing in September in Houston include rosemary, oregano, sage, thyme, parsley, cilantro and dill….just to name a few. 

The vegetables we plant in September in Houston include kale, mustards, collards, celery, bush beans, and arugula. 

And the fruiting plants we grow in September include cherry tomatoes, peppers, squash and cucumbers. 

Imagine a raised bed with herbs along the border, greens in the middle and vining tomatoes up the center trellis this month and you’re pretty much right inside a Rooted Garden kitchen garden. 

Let’s dig into the details of some of these September plants.

You Can Plant Bush Beans in Your Houston Garden in September

Bush beans are one of the simplest things to grow in September in Houston. These plants will produce handfuls of beans per plant and can be grown in the center or along the edges of your raised gardens in Houston. 

We plant these beans by seed directly in our raised garden beds and can expect to start harvesting beans within 60 days from planting. 

So, if you get these seeds planted at the beginning of September, you can expect to be harvesting beans by Halloween in Houston. 

Be sure your bean plants receive plenty of water before sprouting and as they start producing flowers and seed pods. And as soon as the beans begin to produce, start picking! The more you pick, the more each plant will grow. (Sounds like a good plan, right?)Plant Bush Beans by Seed in Your Houston Garden in September

Plant Cherry and Grape Tomatoes in Your Houston Garden in September

While most of the country is pulling up their tomato plants in September, we’re actually planting new tomato plants in our Houston gardens. Tomatoes love the cooling temps of the fall season in Houston. In fact, the favorite temperature range for tomatoes tops out at 80 or 85 degrees. So when the highs start to fall a bit in Houston, the tomatoes really start to shine in the garden. 

In the fall, we like to plant cherry or grape tomatoes for our Rooted Garden clients, rather than large slicing tomatoes to grow in our Houston garden. The reason for this is that the temperatures-thought they may seem very warm right now, will slowly be dropping in the coming months as our tomato plants mature and ripen. 

So by growing cherry or grape and smaller varieties of tomatoes, we ensure that we'll get a full harvest before Houston's temperatures head toward cooler degrees when the tomatoes will not thrive. 

Some of our favorite varieties include Sungold tomatoes and the Juliet grape tomato (pictured here).

Plant Parsley, Cilantro, and Dill in Your Houston Garden in September

Parsley, cilantro and dill, can all be planted in September in the Houston garden, as long as you keep your plants really well watered and under a little bit of shade. These herbs typically prefer cooler temperatures so they may struggle a little bit at first if you plant them early in September. But with a little extra TLC, you’ll get loads of harvests from these herbs beginning this month.

Even though these plants need a little extra care and attention, we have found that most of our clients have great success growing these herbs, all fall and winter long in their Houston gardens. These herbs can be started by seed or by plant.

Plant Kale and Other Greens in Your Houston Garden in September

Did we mention you can grow greens year round in your Houston garden? It’s true!

While we’ll wait to plant sweet lettuces and greens in our clients’ gardens until October, September is a great time to plant kale, mustards and arugula. These plants, like parsley and cilantro, will need extra care and water (and possibly shade) at the beginning of this month. But if you can tend them well and keep them growing, you’ll be rewarded with loads of leafy green harvests within a few short weeks of planting. 

Kale, mustards and arugula can be planted directly by seed in your Houston garden or you can directly install a new plant. Plants will be more difficult to maintain when temperatures are higher in September so if you go that route, be sure to take extra care with your leafy green plants. 

Plant Chives in Your Houston Garden in September

Chives are one of the easiest things you can grow in the Houston garden, any month of the year in September is no exception. Chives do best when put into the garden by plants, and you can start harvesting your chives directly from your garden right away.

Plant Small Peppers in Your Houston Garden in September

The same rule that we have for growing tomatoes applies to our peppers as well. 

We find that we have more production in our Houston clients’ gardens when we focus on smaller pepper varieties rather than the large bell peppers. 

You can still grow the hot pepper varieties like Serrano's and jalapenos but other milder varieties of peppers like the banana pepper do well in Houston's September garden as well. 

We recommend starting your peppers with plants, rather than direct seeding them in the garden this month. 

How to Work with Rooted Garden in Your Houston Garden this Month

As you can see, there’s so much to plant and grow this month in the Houston garden. In fact, it was September way back in 2013 when I first started gardening in Houston. That first fall, my garden was so full and prolific that I couldn’t stop talking about with friends and neighbors. As I harvested one thing after another throughout the fall season, I kept looking around and wondering: 

“Why doesn’t everyone in Houston have a garden?”

It was that excitement for year round gardening that prompted me to start Rooted Garden in the fall of 2015 and it’s that same thrill that keeps our company going month after month in Houston. 

This month, we’d love to help you with a custom design and raised bed garden installation so you can plant all the things here (and so much more). We’re currently booking our September consults and we’d love to meet you in your own garden space. 

You can set up a consult and find out more about our services in the video below or visiting our website. 

Here’s to having the best September in the Houston garden together this year!