Not too much is happening this month in our gardens. If we’re lucky, the first freeze will hold off long enough so that we can keep harvesting veggies like peppers, tomatoes, and eggplants.
Here’s a run down of what you can do in your garden this month:
Vegetables
Soil temperatures are too cold to start anything by direct-seed, but you can transplant seedlings of lettuce, kale, collard greens, mustard greens, Swiss chard, and spinach throughout the winter. Either pick up seedlings at a local nursery, or start your own by seed indoors.
Flowers
The best time to plant spring-blooming bulbs like tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, and alliums in North Texas is anytime between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Plant bulbs to a depth 3x their height.
Annual Ornamentals
Pansies, violas, dianthus, ornamental cabbage and kale, alyssum, and snapdragons are some of the ornamental annuals that can withstand light freezes, and will grow through the winter.
General Tasks
- Following the first hard freeze, pull out all summer and fall vegetables that didn’t survive and compost. (Don’t add any plants with pest and disease issues into compost pile, however.
- After first freeze, herbacious perennials can either be left in place for winter interest, or cut back to the ground. Woody perennials (caryopteris, salvia greggii) should be left in place, and pruned back in late winter.
- Continue planting trees and shrubs.
Year-round gardening in North Texas is 100% possible when you know what to plant and when to plant it.
Enjoy this printable winter garden plan for month-by-month guidance on maintaining a beautiful and productive garden.
- Gardening 101 Class - February 6, 2026
- North Texas Vegetable Planting Calendar - January 12, 2026
- What to Plant in October in North Texas - October 2, 2025
