Gardening in Austin
Texas · Prairies & Great Plains · hardiness zone 9a
Now
34°C · Clear
Today
38° / 27°
Soil 6 cm
32°C
First frost
~85 days (Dec 8)
Above about 32 °C tomatoes drop their flowers and lettuce turns bitter.
- Ruby-throated hummingbirdbest now — Feeding hardest in the first and last hour — it burns through the night's reserves by dawn and must refuel before dark.
- Green lacewingbest now — Adults fly at dusk and through the night; the larvae hunt around the clock and do the real work.
In the garden now · September
Who else is working the garden
The insects and soil life out near Austin, Texas in September. Most of them are on your side — learn the few that aren't before you reach for anything.
PollinatorMay–OctMonarch butterfly
Danaus plexippus
Orange with heavy black veins and a white-spotted black border. The caterpillar is banded yellow, white and black.
What it does in the garden →Photo: Christine Young · CC BY 4.0
PollinatorMay–SepRuby-throated hummingbird
Archilochus colubris
Tiny, iridescent green above; the male has a black-looking throat that flares ruby in the right light.
Writing your field guide — reading the forecast, the moon and the map…
Overhead · Austin, Texas
The sky over the garden
The two clocks nothing on the ground can argue with: the length of the day, and the phase of the moon.
The sun
12h 21m of light
Sunrise
07:15
Solar noon
13:26
Sunset
19:36
A month from now the day will be 0h 54m shorter. Enough light for steady growth.
Right now · Austin, Texas
Forces at work
Nothing here is a guess. Each of these is read from this week's forecast and this location's climate record, and each one is pushing the season one way or the other.
- Quiet right now
Frost
293 frost-free days
Typically Feb 18 to Dec 8 here. Coldest night in the next week: 24.0 °C.
The hard edge of the growing season. Ice inside a leaf ruptures its cells — one night ends a tomato and sweetens a parsnip.
- Worth watching
Soil warmth
31.9 °C
Hot soil: germination drops off above 30 °C and roots slow. Mulch, shade the row, and sow late in the day.
Seeds read soil temperature, not the calendar. Six centimetres down is where the decision gets made.
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