Cold-Loving Vegetables You Should Plant Right Now

When we think “gardening expert,” a few local green thumbs might come to mind, but Dallas Arboretum’s Vice President of Gardens Dave Forehand certainly makes his way to the forefront. Each month, we’ll be sharing Forehand’s seasonal gardening tips and insight. Today, Dave’s talking marigolds.

Fall is a great time to plant vegetables in your garden or small raised bed. You can even use containers and planters where you might normally grow flowers.

Here are a few to plant right now:

• Lettuce: There are many varieties, and you can plant them from seeds or small plants, and can harvest them up until the coldest part of winter.

• Asian Greens, such as Pak Choi, Bok Choy and Asian Mustards do well in fall’s cool climate and into our winter months. These are great to dice and stir fry to create edible vegetable dishes.

• Other great fall plants are broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, Swiss chard, turnip greens and cabbages. They’ll develop and grow during these cool fall nights and bright days. You’ll get a lot of good production this time of year.

• One more plant I thought would be fun is sweet peas. They need bright cool days and cool nights, so fall is a great time to have a crop. They’re so tasty that you can eat these cooked or raw right out of the little pods. The flowers also smell beautiful. You can get the seed packets from the Arboretum’s garden center.

You can see all these vegetables at the Dallas Arboretum’s Plant Trial Gardens.