If you stop by Cedar Ridge Community Garden as summer draws to a close, you’re likely to find a handful of dedicated neighbors harvesting late summer produce and prepping for the fall planting season. Photographer Justin Hamel spent a month on and off in the garden, watching as new community members joined and seeds of friendships and fruits sprouted week by week.
cycle. Credit: Justin Hamel / The Waco Bridge / CatchLight Local / Report for America
Waco is blessed with year-round gardening but that comes with year-round garden work. Every Thursday evening and Saturday morning throughout the fall, residents of the Cedar Ridge neighborhood are welcome to lend a hand in the garden, no experience necessary. In McLennan County, the fall planting season runs from late September through early October when the days become shorter and temperatures dip below broil.
For September, you’ll want to have your beets, carrots, chard, radishes, spinach, cucumber, lettuce, mustard, kale, turnips, collards, and green onions in the ground for harvest between November and February.
October is the time for spinach, turnips, collards, mustard, beets, kale, lettuce, onion seeds, and radishes.
Download Texas A&M’s full year-round planting schedule for McLennan County below.
