Cool season plants like a warm start, so it's not too early to begin adding some of them to the vegetable garden now. In this way you can extend the harvest of both warm season crops and cool season veggies.
In mid to late August, many warm season vegetable seeds will still have sufficient growing days to reach maturity. To figure out which vegetables can be planted now, look at the “days to maturity” on the back of the seed packet and count back from your region's first frost date. Chico has a 10 percent risk of frost by October 29, and a 50 percent risk of frost by November 14. This gives the gardener at least 60 to 75 days before frost, which is enough time to grow a new batch of cucumbers, a second round of summer squash, and some varieties of lettuce and Asian greens.
Many fall crops survive a bit of chill. The date to plant out frost-tolerant transplants like kale, chard, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower is somewhat flexible. Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower are best started indoors or purchased as transplants.
But what to do about all the plants already growing in the beds? This is where the magic begins. Previously it was believed by many that plants compete with one another for nutrients and water. The planting bed had to be denuded of the early crop and maybe even left fallow for a time before replanting in that space. Newer research shows that plants grow better when a variety of other plants grow nearby. Dr. Christina Jones, a soil ecologist from Australia who speaks at regenerative agriculture forums throughout the world says, “Every plant exudes its own unique blend of sugars, enzymes, phenols, amino acids, nucleic acids, auxins, gibberellins and other biological compounds….The greater the diversity of plants, the greater the diversity of microbes and the more robust the soil ecosystem.” These various soil microbes bring nutrients to the plant in exchange for sugars discharged by the roots. The wider array of available nutrients from a diverse group of plants increases an individual plant's ability to fight off diseases and pests, and increases the nutrient density of the plant. Basically, the plant grows better and is ultimately more nutritious when consumed. This diversity can be achieved by employing a combination of succession planting and “No Till” gardening techniques.
There are several approaches to succession planting.
- A crop can be seeded in the place where another plant was harvested.
- The next crop can be planted among the existing crop (intercropping). This has advantages in August since the foliage from older plants can offer sun protection to tender seedlings.
- Several compatible plants can be planted together (companion planting).
- The same crop can be seeded at different time intervals for continuous, smaller harvests (successive plantings).
Rather than pull out existing veggies when they are dying off, cut them down at ground level. Immediately add some compost. Poke a hole the depth recommended for the seed you are planting. Drop seed into the hole. Pull the soil back over the seed and keep watered. Cover lightly with straw, grass clippings, or other mulch. Wait until the new plants are developing before adding a thicker coating of mulch.
Succession planting and starting cool season vegetables early will extend the harvest, but remember that it is hot and new plants dry out quickly. Water more frequently until your fall garden is established.
Approximate Frost Dates in California
Vegetable Planting Guides for our area:
Chico Valley Area Planting Guide
You can find some of Dr. Christine Jones's talks on soil health here.
Well worth reading is Gabe Brown, Dirt to Soil: One Family's Journey into Regenerative Agriculture, Chelsea Green Publishing, 2018.
The Master Gardeners' Fall Workshop Series begins on August 28th with the first of a two-parter on home canning and preserving. All workshops are free, but they do require advance registration. For descriptions of all sixteen workshops and to register, visit our website.
UC Master Gardeners of Butte County are part of the University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) system. To learn more about us and our upcoming events, and for help with gardening in our area visit our website. If you have a gardening question or problem, email the Hotline at mgbutte@ucanr.edu or leave a phone message on our Hotline at 530-552-5812. To speak to a Master Gardener about a gardening issue, or to drop by the MG office during Hotline hours, see the most current information on our Ask Us section of our website.
Do you associate vegetable gardening with the heat of summer, like fireworks on the Fourth of July or the drone of air conditioners on an August afternoon? The amazing thing about California is that we live in a Mediterranean climate zone with hot, dry summers and mild, (hopefully) wet winters, where we can grow food all year. Although Mediterranean climate zones comprise only about 2% of the earth's land surface, they host 20% of all plant species, and California produces the majority of fruits, nuts and vegetables for the entire United States. No other state comes close to California's output per acre. If you have been thinking about growing a garden to provide food for yourself and your family, now is the perfect time to start.
To start a No Till garden, first mow or trim any vegetation as close to the ground as possible, then water thoroughly and cover the area with cardboard or thick newspaper, dousing the cardboard or paper with water as well. Next, add a four- to six-inch layer of compost mixed with garden soil or worm castings. Compost can be purchased, but you can also make your own for free (for details see Compost in a Hurry (ANR Publication 8037). The cardboard or paper beneath the compost will gradually decompose over a period of six to ten months, along with the roots and closely-cut remains of the weeds, lawn or plants underneath the cardboard.
Once, your garden area is prepared you're ready to plant! Think about the vegetables you and your family enjoy eating. Common cool-season vegetables that are planted in the fall include asparagus, beets, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, chives, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, Swiss chard, kale, leeks, lettuce, onions, garlic, parsnips, peas, radishes, spinach, and turnips. Consult these Master Gardener planting guides for the valley and foothills of Butte County for information on the best months to plant, when you can expect to harvest your crop, and whether to sow seeds or use bedding plants.
Cool season vegetables grow best in early fall when the soil temperature is between 55 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit in the root zone (four to six inches below the soil surface). All cool season vegetables can tolerate light frost, and some, like broccoli, Brussels sprouts, kale, turnips, onions and garlic, for example, can survive even heavy frost. Keep in mind that once the weather turns wintery and soil temperature drops below about 50 degrees Fahrenheit, most vegetables grow very little or not at all until things warm up again in the spring. By getting your vegetables planted now, they will grow happily through the cool, crisp days of autumn until first frost, or even beyond! With a modest investment in seeds and bedding plants, you can put food on the table for yourself and your family, with the satisfaction of knowing you took that unused patch of dirt and transformed it into productive ground.
UC Master Gardeners of Butte County are part of the University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) system. To learn more about us and our upcoming events, and for help with gardening in our area, visit our website. If you have a gardening question or problem, email the Hotline at mgbutte@ucanr.edu or leave a phone message on our Hotline at (530) 538-7201. To speak to a Master Gardener about a gardening issue, or to drop by the MG office during Hotline hours, see the most current information on our Ask Us Hotline webpage.
Do you associate vegetable gardening with the heat of summer, like fireworks on the Fourth of July or the drone of air conditioners on an August afternoon? The amazing thing about California is that we live in a Mediterranean climate zone with hot, dry summers and mild, wet winters, where we can grow food all year.
But wait! It's already September -- isn't it too late? Not at all, because every season of the year in California has a surprising variety of plants that can be grown for food right in your back (or front) yard. Last week's Real Dirt column focused on dirt: specifically, finding some! Once you have located your patch of soil, you're ready to begin a garden. The first step is to dig. This sounds uncomplicated, but there is actually more to it than you might imagine. Your soil has a structure that supports plant life as well as billions of bacteria and millions of microorganisms and fungi, not to mention nematodes and earthworms! Digging disturbs soil structure because it destroys soil aggregates, or tiny clumps, that create pore spaces in the soil used as pathways for water, oxygen and plant roots. The University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC ANR) recommends gardeners dig or turn over garden soil no more than once a season and doing so when the soil is moist but not wet to a depth of about 6 inches. A simple shovel works well. A small rototiller is another option (make sure it won't dig too deep). And you don't need to till or dig up the whole garden plot. One smart option is to dig planting rows about 18 inches wide, leaving walking spaces of 24 to 30 inches undisturbed between them. On the other hand, some gardeners do not dig at all, and instead use a gardening method called “No Till.” If you're not a fan of digging, this method is for you!
To start a No Till garden, first mow or trim any vegetation as close to the ground as possible, then water thoroughly and cover the area with cardboard or thick newspaper, dousing the cardboard or paper with water as well. Next, add a four- to six-inch layer of compost mixed with garden soil or worm castings. Compost can be purchased, but you can also make your own for free (for details see Compost in a Hurry). The cardboard or paper beneath the compost will gradually decompose over a period of six to ten months, along with the roots and closely-cut remains of the weeds, lawn or plants underneath the cardboard.
Once, your garden area is prepared you're ready to plant! Think about the vegetables you and your family enjoy eating. Common cool-season vegetables that are planted in the fall include asparagus, beets, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, chives, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, Swiss chard, kale, leeks, lettuce, onions, garlic, parsnips, peas, radishes, spinach, and turnips. Consult these Master Gardener planting guides for the valley and foothills of Butte County for information on the best months to plant, when you can expect to harvest your crop, and whether to sow seeds or use bedding plants.
Cool season vegetables grow best in early fall when the soil temperature is between 55 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit in the root zone (four to six inches below the soil surface). All cool season vegetables can tolerate light frost, and some, like broccoli, Brussels sprouts, kale, turnips, onions and garlic, for example, can survive even heavy frost. Keep in mind that once the weather turns wintery and soil temperature drops below about 50 degrees Fahrenheit, most vegetables grow very little or not at all until things warm up again in the spring. By getting your vegetables planted now, they will grow happily through the cool, crisp days of autumn until first frost, or even beyond! With a modest investment in seeds and bedding plants, you can put food on the table for yourself and your family, with the satisfaction of knowing you took that unused patch of dirt and transformed it into productive ground.
The UC Master Gardeners of Butte County are part of the University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) system. To learn more about us and our upcoming events, and for help with gardening in our area, visit our website. If you have a gardening question or problem, email the Hotline at mgbutte@ucanr.edu (preferred) or call (530) 538-7201.
Cool season plants like a warm start, so it's not too early to begin adding some of them to the vegetable garden now. In this way you can extend the harvest of both warm season crops and cool season veggies.
Many fall crops survive a bit of chill. The date to plant out frost-tolerant transplants like kale, chard, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower is somewhat flexible. Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower are best started indoors or purchased as transplants.
But what to do about all the plants already growing in the beds? This is where the magic begins. Previously it was believed by many that plants compete with one another for nutrients and water. The planting bed had to be denuded of the early crop and maybe even left fallow for a time before replanting in that space. Newer research shows that plants grow better when a variety of other plants grow nearby. Dr. Christina Jones, a soil ecologist from Australia who speaks at regenerative agriculture forums throughout the world says, “Every plant exudes its own unique blend of sugars, enzymes, phenols, amino acids, nucleic acids, auxins, gibberellins and other biological compounds….The greater the diversity of plants, the greater the diversity of microbes and the more robust the soil ecosystem.” These various soil microbes bring nutrients to the plant in exchange for sugars discharged by the roots. The wider array of available nutrients from a diverse group of plants increases an individual plant's ability to fight off diseases and pests, and increases the nutrient density of the plant. Basically, the plant grows better and is ultimately more nutritious when consumed. This diversity can be achieved by employing a combination of succession planting and “No Till” gardening techniques.
- A crop can be seeded in the place where another plant was harvested.
- The next crop can be planted among the existing crop (intercropping). This has advantages in August since foliage from older plants offer sun protection to tender seedlings.
- Several compatible plants can be planted together (companion planting).
- The same crop can be seeded at different time intervals for continuous, smaller harvests (successive plantings).
So there are a variety of ways in which new plantings can be mixed into existing beds, but what is the best way to do this? The old image of a row of chard separated from a row of broccoli by a clean path of dirt is giving way to a more heterogeneous look. Farmer pioneers and soil scientists like David Montgomery, Anne Bikle, Dr. Christine Jones, Dr. David Johnson, and Gabe Brown urge farmers and gardeners to get rid of the shovel or plow, mulch like crazy, plant multiple species, leave roots in the soil, and get some cows. The cows may not be feasible in your yard, but incorporating the other principles can enhance the health of your garden and bring more nutrients to your food.
To understand the advantages of No Till planting, imagine the roots of your existing plants creating a series of subterranean paths. These are channels which allow water to penetrate more deeply into the soil. They are the highways over which fungi, bacteria, and a world of other microbes travel. The casing of a root is covered with this life. In a vital, populated microbiome, it will take less time for roots of a new seedling to tap into this abundance than it would if it were being planted into a stripped environment. Digging and turning the soil also disrupts this preexisting helpful network.
Succession planting and starting cool season vegetables early will extend the harvest, but remember that it is hot and new plants dry out quickly. Water more frequently until your fall garden is established.
If you are interested in learning more about No Till gardening and building up soil health, the Master Gardeners are offering a three-part course, “Gardening from the Ground Up,” as part of their Fall Workshop series this September and October via Zoom. For details of this and the other Fall Workshops, visit our website.
First Frost Dates (PDF)
Vegetable Planting Guides for our area:
Vegetable Planting Guide Chico Valley Area
Vegetable Planting Guide for the Foothills
To view some of Dr. Christine Jones's talks on soil health, click here:
Gabe Brown, Dirt to Soil: One Family's Journey into Regenerative Agriculture, Chelsea Green Publishing, 2018.
The UC Master Gardeners of Butte County are part of the University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) system. To learn more about us and our upcoming events, and for help with gardening in our area, visit our website. If you have a gardening question or problem, email the Hotline at mgbutte@ucanr.edu (preferred) or call (530) 538-7201.