Hello,
I'm new to gardening in Texas. I feel totally clueless, as I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, and now I'm in South Texas (just outside of San antonio, unsure how to identify my "zone"?

I just got a house that has a back yard and would love to start a SMALL raised bed veggie garden with my kids (elementary age) this fall. What do y'all have a suggestions to start with here? Thank you!

Fall gardens do well for me. (I'm SW of Houston.) I plant greens, broccoli, snap peas, cauliflower, and lettuce. Sometimes a fall crop of tomatoes will do well, but often the bugs get it. I am sure others with more imagination will have further suggestions. Welcome to Texas and to All Things Plants!

to ATP.
You can find your zone by going to this web page and enter your zip code. It looks to me like you will probably be in zone 9a.

http://planthardiness.ars.usda...

Let's see. @LindaTX8 lives pretty near and may be able to give you some tips and @dave the founder of ATP lived in the San Antonio area for a while, I think. He may be able to give some good tips about the timing for growing a winter vegetable garden there. @bubbles lives in Austin which would have similar gardening requirements. I live in Texas, but a colder zone. I do think the time to start a cool season vegetable garden is from now through the next few weeks. I could be off on that.

Also since you are close to San Antonio, on 1200 WOAI radio on Saturday mornings from 7am to 10am David Rodriguez has a garden radio show. He is the Bexar County Horticulture Agent for Texas A&M. They have some good suggestions on things that grow in that area.

@Mrsrebeccaphoenix, Welcome to ATP and the Texas Gardening forum. When we lived in San Antonio, I could grow most anything. Soil was good, weather great. Here in Austin, we seem to have too little rain, or too much rain. I would suggest you look on the left side of the home screen here on ATP. There's a section called Goodies. You will find what grows in your planting zone and when to plant it. I would also suggest checking to see who your county horticulture agent is. You can get a lot of good information sent to you from that office.

Are you in the city or are you in the country? Texas has lots of deer that love gardens! You'll have to find a way to fence them out. Fall is a perfect time to start a garden where you are. I have a grandson that loved planting (and eating) carrots and tomatoes here when he was smaller.

San Antonio has a wonderful Botanical Garden. You can see what grows well in the area there also.

Mrsrebeccaphoenix, welcome to the S.A. area and ATP! Below is a link for the for the county extension office site. It used to have more useful info on it, but it should still be of some help. Also, some of the local nurseries (not the big box ones) used to have a handout with info on all the veggies and when they can be planted locally. Hopefully, they still do. Good luck with gardening in that area. I live a bit over the line in Medina Co. now, but lived in S.A. for many years.
http://bexar-tx.tamu.edu/homeh...

San Antonio is Region III in this:
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu...