People say keepIng it simple this year, and I laugh. Keeping it simple is when you garden outside of AZ. Anything here takes a tender hand and a watchful eye. I LOVE hearing about all of these varieties!! This is awesome! I have jalape�os and serranos, lots of swiss chard, romaine, and butter lettuce. I started up another zucchini, and an acorn squash, along with several varieties of cucumber. Oh, and bell peppers of course, from spring plants - those are finally coming into their own, along with about half dozen eggplants. LOTS of eggplants!! Interestingly, my concord grape is fruiting this fall. It already produced this spring, and I didn't realize that it would re-fruit for me now...!

Southwest Georgia is Zone 8a or 8b. I don't know how close your climate is to Houston, I'm sure there are differences, but I have created a planting schedule that might be helpful. I'd run out and get Ed Smith's The Vegetable Gardener's Bible just for a crash course in gardening. However his timing information is primarily for New England states. Down here, we have two short tomato seasons rather than one long one and it's tricky to get the timing right. Most people start way too late, buying tomato transplants in late March, early April and wonder why they don't get any tomatoes. :( Right now you should be able to sow seeds for Wax and Green beans (either in Pole or Bush growth habit), Carrots, Parsnips, Beets, and Turnips. You can also plant transplants of Cucumbers, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Cabbage, and Brussels Sprouts if you can find them at your local nursery. Most of the cool crops aren't bothered by a mild frost (30 degrees) and Brussels Sprouts actually benefit from one. You're a bit late for planting Cucumber and Squash seeds but I am giving this a try anyway! I figure I'll get some harvest, just not as much as I would if I'd started earlier. I planted Broccoli and Cauliflower seeds about a week ago so I'm also a bit late on that. :) You can start Lettuce now if you can find seeds for heat-tolerant varieties like Jericho and Parris Island romaine/cos lettuce, otherwise wait until October. Then you can do Lettuce, Cabbage, Spinach, all the way through the first of March. There are head lettuces like you are familiar with at the grocery store (buttercrunch, bibb, romaine), and then there are cut-and-come-again leaf lettuces which are of great benefit to the home gardener because you can harvest the outer leaves off each plant every few days and it will keep growing back, giving you a bowl of salad almost every day depending on how much you plant. With the other crops, you can successively plant a little at a time so you will get a continuous harvest. Bush-type beans are self-supporting and give you the majority of their crop all in a short period. Pole-type beans need to climb something (up to 8') and give you beans in "flushes" over a month-long harvest. Snow Peas, Sugar Snap Peas, and English Peas can be sown December 1st-January 15th. Start Tomato and Pepper seeds January 1st-15th for transplant March 1st-30th. I scale up into 4" pots and then gallon pots so I have very large (18") transplants that are ready to hit the ground running and set tomatoes before it gets too hot. If you have a local nursery (I prefer family-owned nurseries over Lowe's/Home Depot/Wal-Mart because they have a better selection. Most of the varieties are the big box stores are taste-poor in-my-opinion like Celebrity and Beefmaster) they might have tomato transplants when you need them or they might be late. I grow my own tomato plants from seed (google "starting tomato plants from seed" and you'll find a great FAQ about it).

Garlic can be planted in the fall, maybe some carrots, the rest will freeze. Fall is a good time to plant walking onions for summer though. October 17 average first freeze date.Hope this helps,dd.

Lots of things, but I need to plant most seeds in August or early Sept. to grow into the fall. I have a lettuce mix and mache planted late Aug., spinach planted around the same time. I planted some bush beans beginning of August, they are blossoming now and I hope we get a harvest before 1st frost. I planted carrots end of July and they are ready now, but I will leave them in the ground til frost and pick as needed before the ground freezes.