'Don't be intimidated': What to grow and how to keep your plants healthy this fall

By Zachary Green,

Published September 9, 2022 at 3:49 PM PDT

It might be hard to believe with our scorching weather, but next week marks the start of fall. The days are already starting to get cooler.

And it’s a time when people start planning their fall and winter gardens. Gardening in the desert, though, isn’t easy.

As more people move to Las Vegas from other climates, they— you—have lots of questions about growing greenery in the desert.

Angela O’Callaghan and Norm Schilling, both horticulturists, are hosts of KNPR’s “ Desert Bloom” program and joined State of Nevada host Joe Schoenmann.

“Gardens are about nature. It's bringing in nature. That's one of the things I love most about my garden, is that it attracts a wide variety of birds and butterflies and other amazing interesting creatures,” Schilling said.

“I've been calling my tiny little yard, which is about a 10th the size of yours, but I've been calling it Angela’s Wildlife Refuge,” O’Callaghan said.

“If you build it, they will come,” Schilling added.

Skeeter from Mesquite called in to ask if it was too late to grow his Crenshaw melons. O’Callaghan said he should wait until March.

“Melons really do like it warm. I mean, when we say warm-season crops, we mean warm. Those seeds won’t even germinate if the temperature is below 60.”

Susan emailed in to ask why Las Vegas isn’t embracing more sustainable practices.

“It is to some degree, and it is a continual. So you go back 20, 25 years, it was like baseline zero, and we have made remarkable progress, Schilling said. “But there's still a lot of room for improvement. Some of that may lay with our municipalities. I mean, they just outlawed non-functional turf in businesses, HOAs and multi-family properties.”

Mike in Summerlin asked about vermicomposting, or composting with worms. Is it doable and sustainable in Southern Nevada?

“They eat their own weight every day. They are hungry little devils,” O’Callaghan said. “I use vermicomposting for all my kitchen-type garbage, all the solid waste and the tea bags and the coffee grounds and all that stuff. Not landscape waste, because it's not rich enough for them. And the compost that you get is what we call castings.”

But, skip giving them heavy food items like macaroni and cheese.

“I'm apprehensive about giving any kind of starch or dairy to a worm,” O’Callaghan said.

Sarah emailed in about her neighbor’s tree, which is attracting carpenter bees.

“Carpenter bees are really, really large bees. And they're the biggest ones. They're solitary bees. They build their own nest and they do it by burrowing into soft wood. Typically, it's dead wood. And I actually encourage them in my yard. I have some old cottonwood logs that I just keep, and they like that. Why do you want those bees? They're great pollinators. And they're really cool. I call them Gandhi bees. They're pacifists,” Schilling said.

And what we all want to know: What should you grow this fall?

Once daytime temperatures hit the 80s, O’Callaghan recommends leafy greens: broccoli, spinach, lettuce, which only take six to eight weeks to grow. You can also grow root vegetables, like carrots, parsnips and turnips. For herbs, look at basil, thyme and oregano.

No matter what you’re growing or how well you grow it, Schilling had some advice:

People say, ‘I have a black thumb,’ right? But they like plants. So I want to tell them and I'm telling you, if you're listening, you have a green thumb. If you like plants, you have a green thumb. You just don't have a trained one yet, and you play with plants. I've killed so many plants under my care over the years that I can go to an audience of 100 people and say, ‘I've killed more than all of you put together,’ and it's true. But what you do is you learn from your mistakes, you build on your successes, you brush off the defeats, you try and figure it out. You play with plants you love with it. And just like life, man, there's some disasters. But there's beautiful, wonderful, amazing victories. And here's the thing. For years, I knew I grew plants, I grew gardens. Then it slowly dawned on me that while I was growing them, they were growing me. There's this beautiful, rich reward all that comes from this. So if you don't think you have a green thumb, and you love plants, you like nature, you do have it, you just need to play with it. Don't be intimidated.

RESOURCES

Norm Schilling, owner, Schilling Horticulture; Angela O'Callaghan, social horticulture specialist, University of Nevada Extension