- Author: MaryJo Smith
Having lived most of my life in the Pacific Northwest, my frame of reference for the gardening season was this: in the spring, gardens were planted, then from May until September, things would grow, berries were picked, various crops were harvested, apples and pears ripened, pumpkins and other gourds were ready for Halloween picking, and then it was done. The gardens were shut down and left fallow for the winter. It was a very finite time, and unless someone was that rare warrior gardener willing to take on cold frames, ice and snow, and freezing temperatures, gardening ceased until the spring, when the cycle would begin again. Once the weather turned in early October, residents hunkered down to eight months of cold, wet and rainy weather (27 to 48° F, and 78.63 inches of rain, give or take a tenth of an inch).
Contrast that against Contra Costa's winters of coolish days sandwiched between cool mornings and crisp evenings. Today's temperature is a high/low of 65°/46° F. For some of us that live here, its feeling a bit nippy and we want to wrap up and hunker down inside like our Oregon counterparts (to a Portlander, though, 65° is considered balmy, and a great excuse to wear shorts; its not unusual to see Portlanders walking around with shorts, boots and a down vest in the winter).
Although it's understandable to want to hunker down and wait until early spring to begin the garden, we have perfect weather for growing cool season crops. In many ways, a cool season garden is easier to tend to than a warm season garden because:
- There are fewer insects to contend with;
- Watering needs are much lower this time of year; and
- The plants can withstand light to hard frost and temperatures down to 28° F.
My garden currently contains Romanesco, broccoli raab, and cauliflower. I grew them successfully last year, along with some spinach and lettuce varieties, and I am looking forward to enjoying them again this year.
The Romanesco is a vegetable that I hadn't heard of until last year, and I am enthralled by it. It's not only a delicious-tasting vegetable, but also a beautiful work of art, with its vivid lime green color and perfectly spiraled fractals. It is known as either Romanesque Cauliflower or Romanesco Broccoli, and is of the Brassica oleraceaspecies.
If you haven't tried a Romanesco yet, here is a recipe for Broccoli Romanesco with Sage Browned Butter for you to try, hoping that once you taste it, you'll want to grow it.
Romanesco starts are available at local nurseries. Our Garden in Walnut Creek offered Romanesco veggie starts for sale this year before the end of the season. Look for them again next year.
Other plants that do well in the winter/cool season garden are:
Light Frost Hardy (as low as 32° F). Artichokes, beets, carrots, cauliflower, celery, chinese cabbage, endive, lettuce, parsnips, peas, swiss chard, escarole, arugula, bok choy, mache, and radicchio.
Hard Frost Hardy (as low as 28° F). Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, collards, kale, kohlrabi, mustard, onions, parsley, peas, radishes, spinach, turnips, leeks, and sorrel.
- Posted by: Yvonne Rasmussen
October 27, 2012 - By Pat Hitchcock, U. C. Master Gardener
Lovely October! Nighttime temperatures are dipping into the forties, daylight hours are shrinking, and the tomatoes we adored in August are just not as tasty now, if in fact there are any left on the vines. If you haven’t done so already, now is the time to get some winter vegetables in the ground so you will have something fresh to eat in the cold months to come.
Among the easiest vegetables to grow are cool-season greens. You can eat them at any stage, from just barely sprouted to large and mature. Some greens, like lettuces and chicories, can be served raw in salads, and most of them can be boiled, steamed or braised. Many greens not only prefer the cooler temperatures of fall and winter, some of them actually improve in flavor if they experience light frost.
The easiest lettuces to grow are the loose-leaf types. If you are starting lettuce from seed, look for varieties labeled as cold-hardy. Local nurseries have many types available as seedlings, to give you a head start. Some nursery six-packs include a mix of types, a good choice if you like variety in your salad.
Chicories are related to lettuces and include endive, escarole and radicchio. Appreciated for their crunch and pleasant bitterness, these greens need to be grown in cool to cold weather to keep that bitterness in check. These hearty greens can be braised or enjoyed raw in winter salads with sliced persimmons or pears and toasted walnuts.
The Brassica family includes greens related to turnips and cabbage, such as arugula, collards and kale. Leafy mustards, bok choy and napa cabbage (Chinese cabbage) also belong to this family. Leaves from these plants add a lot of flavor to salads when picked young and tender. As plants mature, the greens are better suited to cooking. Brassicas are hardy and easily withstand the frosts of typical Napa Valley winters.
Also consider planting chard, beet greens and spinach this fall. These vegetables grow well in cool to cold weather. Ideally, you should start them in late summer to get them launched in warm soil, but you can still plant seedlings until the end of October. Place them in the sunniest location you have; winter days are so short that your vegetables will need as much sun as possible.
Before planting, add two to four inches of compost to your garden bed, digging it into the top few inches of soil. The organic matter in compost improves soil drainage and texture.
Consider adding fertilizer of some sort, especially if you grew summer vegetables in the same bed. Most compost is low in nitrogen and the other nutrients that growing plants need. If you are not sure what to add, go with an all-purpose formulation labeled for vegetables, and follow package directions. Too much fertilizer can harm seedlings and add unwanted chemical salts to your soil.
When transplanting seedlings, follow the recommended spacing on the plant tag. Consult a garden book if you aren’t sure. In general, place seedlings far enough apart so that they will touch only when full grown. Place leaf lettuces, arugula and spinach 8 to 12 inches apart; more vigorous greens, such as chard and cabbage, will need 12 to 18 inches between them. Handle plants carefully to minimize trauma to them, which can stunt them and reduce your yield. Plant them in moist soil, and do not let them dry out.
Water regularly until rain arrives. Often the first few storms do not bring enough moisture to wet the soil deeply, so monitor often and water as needed. Assuming a typical wet winter, your greens should not need watering unless we get a dry spell lasting more than a couple of weeks.
Common pest problems include aphids, slugs, snails, imported cabbageworm and cabbage loopers, as well as birds and deer. Watch for aphids and spray them off with water to keep them from establishing colonies. To minimize the caterpillar pests, protect your young plants with row cover. This lightweight garden cloth allows air and water through but keeps flying insects from reaching plants and laying eggs. Monitor for slugs and snails; pick them daily when they first appear to reduce their numbers and minimize their damage. Exclude birds and deer with row cover or bird netting.
Most greens grow relatively fast. In ideal conditions, lettuces and arugula reach full size in four to six weeks. But with the cold weather and reduced daylight of late fall and early winter, growth will be much slower. Pick outer leaves at any stage and leave the inner ones to keep growing to extend your harvest.
If your plants seem to grow slowly, don’t give up on them. Roots will still be developing
underground. These laggards may surprise you with a burst of growth in January or February after other plants have finished producing.
I can’t promise that you will enjoy your sweet and spicy winter greens as much as your summer tomatoes, but your harvest will be fresher and more nutritious than any greens you can buy.
Workshops: Napa County Master Gardeners conduct workshops throughout the year see our wesbite for details and registration information. http://cenapa.ucdavis.edu
- Author: Terri Sonleitner Law
- Editor: Noni Todd
Master Gardeners Workshop - Winter Vegetables
By Terri Sonleitner Law UC Master Gardener
Q. What vegetables can I plant in my garden now? Cameron, San Luis Obispo.
A. There are many cool season vegetables you can plant now, which produce well from seeds or from transplants, in the cooler months of the year. Among these vegetables are broccoli, carrots, chard, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, lettuce, spinach, onions and most Asian greens. In San Luis Obispo County, many herbs such as chives, parsley, rosemary and thyme are also hardy year round.
A chart of recommended vegetable planting dates is available through the University of California: http://ucanr.org/sites/gardenweb/files/29040.pdf
If planting and keeping a kitchen garden over the cooler months seems daunting, come to the Master Gardener October “Advice To Grow By” workshop! We’ll feature a talk on kitchen gardens, including how to prepare the garden, grow and enjoy winter vegetables. It will be held in our demonstration garden, the Garden of the Seven Sisters, 2156 Sierra Way, in San Luis Obispo on Saturday, October 20 from 10:00am to noon. Bring a hat, dress for the weather and bring your vegetable and herb gardening questions for our Master Gardener experts.
Q. Every year we’re faced with an invasion of some kind of pest. Once it was mice, and ants are always a problem. What can we do to thwart these pests? Bobbie, Templeton.
A. We have a great resource available! Information on most pests found in California is only a few keystrokes away. The University of California Agricultural & Natural Resources website has a searchable database of research-based information on household pests at the UC IPM Online website: http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/menu.house.html
The Master Gardener’s next “Advice To Grow By” workshop will also feature a timely talk about our most common winter pests, ants and mice, including their habits and effective control methods. Come to the workshop on Saturday, October 20 from 10am to noon, at the Garden of the Seven Sisters, 2156 Sierra Way. Park in the lot adjacent to the garden and bring your timely pest questions for the Master Gardeners.
For more information about Vegetable Gardening, visit The San Luis Obispo UC Master Gardeners Website. You can find the Cool Season Vegetable Planting Guide for SLO County (aka Crop Circle) there!
- Author: Amy Breschini
November Chores in the Garden
By Ann Dozier
Q. I’d like to grow some winter vegetables. Is there anything I can plant now?
Jeanne Hyduchak, San Luis Obispo
A. Yes, you can still enjoy home-grown crops by planting vegetables that like cooler temperatures. Seeds of beets, carrots, chard, onion, peas, radishes and turnips can be sown in many areas. Garlic may also be planted. Cabbage, broccoli, beets and cauliflower may need a head start to get established before winter – Instead of seeds, buy small plants of these vegetables. As always, gardeners need to be aware of their micro-climate; if frosts are early and severe in your area, tender vegetables may not succeed. In coastal areas, it’s still possible to plant salad crops: lettuce, mesclun and arugula are good choices.
If you should decide not to plant vegetables in your plot this winter, consider planting a cover crop of clover, Fava bean, rye or vetch to enrich your bed for next season’s vegetables. (Large Fava beans are a delicious spring treat.)
November is also a good time for planting of biennials such as hollyhocks and Canterbury bells. In milder areas you can continue to divide daylilies, agapanthus, and iris. As the weather cools plant spring blooming bulbs – narcissus of all kinds are good for spring color and will naturalize in many areas. Tulip and hyacinth bulbs purchased now should go in the refrigerator for six weeks before planting.
In cooler areas begin to clean up for winter: rake leaves, dispose of garden debris and pull out annuals and vegetables that have finished their lives (disease-free plants can go in your compost bin). Finish your winter preparations by making sure the garden is well mulched. A good layer of mulch will keep down weeds and make them easier to pull when they do show their heads. It will also retain moisture if this is a dry winter, or help control erosion if big storms arrive.
Got a Gardening Question?
Contact the University of California Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners: at 781-5939 from 1 to 5 p.m. on Monday and Thursday; at 473-7190 from 10 a.m. to noon in Arroyo Grande; and at 434-4105 from 9 a.m. to noon on Wednesday in Templeton.
- Author: Amy Breschini
Winter Vegetables
By Maggie King- Master Gardener
There are many reasons to love living on the Central Coast. High among them is our mild winter weather. While gardeners in most parts of the country are putting down their trowels and picking up their snow shovels, we are able to grow vegetables all year round if we take in to account the particular needs of various plants.
While leaf vegetables like lettuce, spinach and chard may bolt and go to seed in hot summer weather, they grow happily and produce well throughout the cooler months of winter. Other stars of the winter garden are the root vegetables- beets, carrots and radishes, for example, as well as cole crops- broccoli, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts, which do best when temperatures are cool.
English, snap and sugar peas like cool weather and stop producing pods when it heats up. These legumes have the ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen into the soil, improving it for the coming season.
Onions, garlic and leeks can be added to the garden at this time, as well as culinary herbs.
Many seeds can be planted directly into the soil throughout the winter months, while others do best if planted from seedlings. It is important to follow instructions regarding timing of planting.
When preparing for a winter garden, amend the soil well. Most cool season vegetables like to be well-watered, but hopefully seasonal rains will help out.
Some of us are April to September gardeners, seeing the Fall and Winter months as time to stay indoors, read, and make soup. For those in this category, I urge you to venture outside at least long enough to plant a cover crop. Clover, vetch have nitrogen fixing ability as well as providing organic matter to the soil. Fava beans are an especially rewarding cover crop, as they provide a tasty early spring harvest.
A few weeks before planting the spring garden these plants should be cut down and tilled into the soil.
For more information on planning for the cool weather season, call the Master Gardeners.
Join the the UC Master Gardeners for a Fall Gardening Workshop!
"Nurturing the Soil"
Saturday, October 16th, 10am - noon.
2156 Sierra Way, San Luis Obispo