We have the privilege to enjoy gardening all year round in California but don’t hate us for it! Our dear friends elsewhere, start lushing over all those garden catalogues during the harsh winter months. If you get cabin fever, go on and create a greenhouse! Just as long as you keep playing in the dirt.
• This Fall, Learn What To: • PLANT, DIRECT SOW, and HARVEST from your garden!
• PLUS many other gardeny things to do….
*This calendar is based on Northern California gardening so keep in mind that planting times vary depending on location. V= Vegetable, H= Herbs, A= Annuals, P= Perennials, B= Bulbs, T= Trees
DIRECT SOW SEEDS INTO THE GARDEN
V: Beets, cabbage, carrot, chard, Chinese cabbage, collards, endive, garlic, kale, leek, lettuce, mustard, onion,peas, sorrel, spinach, turnip A: Bluebells, California poppies, clarkia, flax, larkspur, lupines, nigella, Shirley poppies, spring wildflower seeds and mixes H: Chervil, chives, parsley Cover Crops: clover, fava beans, vetch Perennial Grasses: blue grass, wild rye
START IN FLATS- Nothing doing this time of year for most of us in temperate climates
PLANT STARTS DIRECTLY INTO THE GARDEN
V: Garlic, onions A: Calendula, Iceland poppies, pansies, primroses, snapdragons, stock, violas P: Alstromeria, artemisia, campanula, catmint, columbine, coral bells, dead nettle, delphinium, dianthus, diascia, foxglove, geraniums, oriental poppy, penstemon, phlox, salvias B: Amaryllis, hyacinth, tulip T: Crape myrtle, ginkgo, liquid amber. It’s a nice time to plant trees with colorful fall foliage.
HARVEST: Apples, late tomatoes, squash, avocado
FERTILIZE N-P-K
Fertilize fall planted winter annuals and vegetables with fish emulsion or organic fertilizer.
PRUNE
Cut mums to 3″ off ground and chrysanthemums to within 6″ off ground. Cut Matilija poppies to the ground. Divide perennials and separate clumps of acanthus, agapanthus, and fortnight lily. Remove dead tree branches. Dig out dahlia tubers and tuberous begonias.
MULCH WATER SOIL
Use compost as mulch. Cover compost pile. Water wildflower seedbed. Turn off automatic sprinkler system when the rains come. Plant onions with compost.
PESTS Hand-pick snails and slugs or try using copper bands around beds
GENERAL INFO
Clean up garden beds. Harvest any remaining tomatoes. Buy and plant deciduous trees with showy fall foliage. Clean, sharpen, and oil tools. Purchase bare-root trees and roses. Build a compost pile. Watch for erosion. Keep turning compost. Buy and sow spring wildflower seeds and mixes to attract butterflies and beneficial insects.
I will be out there playing in the dirt and hope you’ll be get dirty too!!