Very few moments compare to the one when you finish planting your garden for the season, and you can sit near it listening to the sounds of your neighborhood and imagine you are watching the seedlings or starters begin to take root and grow. The mulch and fertilizer smell like a day’s work and fresh dirt. My street is near a popular Mexican restaurant and I can hear the live music from the patio (I told my kids it helps the plants grow) while college students walk past me to go for dinner and margaritas. Some of them will even call out “cute garden!”

A well-planned garden helps your kitchen efforts tremendously. Herbs and lettuces produce very well in our climate, and if you harvest them often enough you won’t have to buy these items for months. You can even preserve the herbs, and most gardens will produce them well enough you’ll never have to buy them again. I loathe spending money on plastic clamshells with barely enough of an herb to season one dish, only to find it has gone bad in the refrigerator before I’ve managed to use it.

Lettuces, chards and cabbages do well in a fall garden in Texas. The trick to getting the most out of them is to harvest leaves often, and they keep growing back. You can also harvest whole heads, but you need more space for that and a talent with seedlings. Having a few different varieties is a fun way to shake up your salads or add some crunch to a quick sandwich. A fresh-from-the-garden salad is always appreciated at pot lucks and parties too.

Kale will provide you with never-ending smoothies and kale chips if you pull a few leaves off every day, and makes a gorgeous ornamental plant for when you inevitably get sick of kale.

Green beans, pole beans, bush beans— basically all of the garden beans — will do well if you give them a sunny enough spot. There is a reason they grow beans in a paper towel in kindergarten science class. Beans will grow with very little care and they are so fun to watch since they mature so quickly. I love to snap these off and eat them before they even make it into the house (and the kids love doing this too).

Carrots, turnips and radishes will all come out great in the fall because they are sweeter when they have some cold weather to grow in. These can even be stored in the ground once ripe, so you don’t have to harvest them all at once. Just remember to cover them if it freezes.

Most common herbs perform well in the ground, and even better in pots. These are perhaps the best kitchen helpers since you can use them in anything. You can even grow a few pots on your windowsill for convenience. I like to plant basil, cilantro, and rosemary every year. I planted some oregano and mint a few years ago that come back every year and grow into big, amazing-smelling bushes every fall and spring. I worried that this summer’s hot temperatures finally did them in, but when I started planting I found them coming back. I have a large creeping thyme plant that seasons dishes year-round — no, it’s not supposed to be a perennial, but mine has lasted so long I can’t remember when I planted it.

Herbs can even be used as cocktail garnishes, like in my take on a Negroni. Here’s how you make it:

Add ice to a small cocktail glass. Then add:

2 oz dry white wine or vermouth

Stir all ingredients, and garnish with a sprig of rosemary.

Fall weather is typically forgiving here, so you can experiment with items that would normally be planted in the spring. I am attempting a couple of these items, with plans to protect them when it freezes. I’ve started a pie pumpkin patch from seed, hoping to get a few little squashes in time for Thanksgiving, and I’ve got grow bags of cucumbers and honey nut squash (a butternut variety) that are already blooming and ready to start producing. Tomatoes might also do well depending on how much sun you have in the fall, but be aware that the slightest frost may kill them, so choose a quick-producing variety like a cherry tomato.

Once your garden attempts have paid off, there are so many recipes that accommodate all of your veggies. This one for ratatouille is one of my absolute favorite ways to use everything. It’s what I call a fridge-cleaning dinner. The beauty of this dish is that you can sub any of the ingredients for what you have. Squash can be subbed for a potato, bell peppers can be swapped for more tomato varieties or a root vegetable like turnips or radishes, add carrots if you have an abundance. And use whatever herbs you like! Here is how I prepare it, with an herb-packed homemade sauce (and don’t skimp on the butter):

1 32 oz can whole, peeled tomatoes preferably Italian

2 large bell peppers, red, yellow or orange

1 large handful of herbs I used basil, oregano, marjoram and thyme

Place the canned tomatoes, butter and white onion (cut in half and placed face down) in a pot. This is a variation on Marcela Hazan’s sauce, so simmer the tomatoes, butter and halved onion together for about 40 minutes, smashing the tomatoes as they soften. Rough chop the bell peppers and add them about five to ten minutes in. Add the garlic about halfway through (minced). Clean and de-stem the herbs, rough chop them and toss them in to simmer another 20 minutes or so, on low. Add salt to taste. Once the sauce tastes like you want it, take it off of the heat to cool slightly. When it is no longer boiling, remove the onion and use an immersion blender to purée all of the herbs and peppers into the sauce. Set aside.

While the sauce simmers, slice all of the veggies except the tomatoes and onions, and place them in a large bowl. Liberally salt them and toss, then allow to sit for ten to 20 minutes. Drain the water out and place them on paper towels to dry. In a skillet, heat up several tablespoons of avocado oil and sauté the veggie rounds lightly, working in batches. Place about a cup of the sauce in the bottom of a heavy casserole dish and start placing the veggies around the bottom of the pan in layers, adding more sauce as needed. Cut the tomatoes and onions into round slices and begin to place them in the pan also.  Once all of the veggies and sauce are in the pan, bake at 400 for 20 minutes.

Starting a garden? Tag us in your photos Instagram at at @ModernHippieKitchen and @FWBusinessPress and tell us about your favorite crop!  About the cook Once upon a time, shortly after graduating from TCU, Sarah McClellan-Brandt paid the rent by working as a reporter for the Fort Worth Business Press. Today she’s a social media specialist for a North Texas hospital system and in her spare time shares recipes and cooking tips with devoted followers of her Modern Hippie Kitchen blog.

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