Viewing post #1770688 by Intheswamp

I just wanted to mention, too, that the tender transplants (tomatoes, peppers, etc.,) can be started by seed at your house and don't require that you purchase started transplants at the store. It's a little more work and preparation, but you can end up with better quality transplants and you have access to a *much* larger number of varieties that aren't offered as live plants. And, if you grow heirloom/open-pollinated varieties you can save seed and grow plants from them.

As Kristi alluded to above, timing is important. Gotta have enough time for stuff to mature. Do a search and come up with your average first and last frost/freeze dates so you know the rough window of time that you have to work inside of. Look at the "Days to Maturity" listed for the vegetables you want to grow. Note that for transplants, "Days to Maturity" means the days from when the transplants are planted in the garden until they mature...not from when the seed is planted. Fit the DTM within the time period between last and first frost/freeze dates and you will most of the time have enough time to grow the vegetable of interest. Maybe give a bit of a buffer at the end of the DTM range so you have sufficient time for harvesting over several weeks. Hopefully that wasn't too confusing, as I tend to ramble a bit at times. If I made a mistake there hopefully somebody smart will come along and straighten me out!!!

Here's a list of Texas cities with first and last freeze dates: Texas Cities: Last/First Freeze Dates You may be able to home in closer to your location and get more exact dates by doing some Googling.

Best wishes!