By Yvonne Rasmussen, UC Master Gardener of Napa County
Did you know you can grow lettuce year-round? Generally, lettuce is considered a cool-season crop but some varieties are adapted to warmer weather. With a few tricks, you can keep them cool for year-round harvesting.
Why bother growing your own lettuce? Because there are so many wonderful types, many of which we never see in stores. Lettuces come in myriad colors, shapes, textures and, yes, even flavors. Their fun names tempt you into buying seeds just to see what the results are like. Speckled Trout, Red Sails, Summer Batavia, Little Gem, Summer Crisp—who can resist those?
Read seed packets, seed catalogs and plant labels to find varieties adapted to warm weather. Look for the recommended planting time and length of time to harvest. Some will even regrow after you cut them, so you get even more greens for your money and time.
If you plant from seed, you have more choices, but lettuce seeds are small and can be difficult to spread evenly. If you overplant, you can always thin the young leaves and enjoy the thinnings in salads. Some seed companies sell biodegradable seeding tape with the seed already spaced out for you. Using the tape, you can plant perfect rows of well-spaced lettuces.
You can also make your own seed tape using toilet paper and flour. If you want a fun project, you can find how-to videos for making seed tape online.
The Napa County Master Gardeners have been doing home garden trials on the best planting time for different lettuce varieties. The trials are ongoing but we will report our findings when they conclude.
Lettuces prefer light, fluffy soil and regular watering. They may need some shade when it is really hot. Add compost and a little extra nitrogen just before planting. A little alfalfa meal or other organic source of nitrogen will help them get started and grow strong. Beware that dogs (and some wild critters) may be attracted to bone meal or feather meal.
If you purchase lettuce seedlings, there may be multiple lettuces in each cell. Carefully tease apart the roots and plant the individual seedlings far enough apart—six to ten inches, depending on variety—so they have room to reach full size. Water thoroughly after planting and keep the top 1 to 2 inches moist. Seedlings may need a little extra water until they develop their new roots.
Harvest leaf lettuce from the outside, letting the inner leaves mature. Harvest head lettuce by taking the whole head. Some leaf lettuces can be cut down to the base and, as long as it isn't uprooted, the base will produce more leaves for a second harvest.
You can plant lettuce between other, taller crops that will provide a little shade as both grow. Being shallow rooted, lettuce also works well in containers, and you can move the containers around to take advantage of morning sun and afternoon shade.
Protect young seedlings from snails and slugs with an iron phosphate-based bait. Make sure the product is intended for use on vegetable crops. Protect young seedlings from birds with row cover, a material available at most nurseries. Bury the cloth edges or tack down the corners so birds cannot get underneath.
Some people use overturned plastic berry baskets to cover their baby plants. You may need to pin these down with a small wooden skewer or U-shaped irrigation staples. Once the plants are a few inches tall, it may be safe to remove the baskets. Or maybe not. Depending on how hungry your birds are, you may need to keep seedlings under row covers.
Harvest lettuces in the morning when they are crisp. Wash well, shake out excess water (a salad spinner is a good investment) and refrigerate in a lidded container with a cloth or paper towel to keep them fresh and moist.
If you grow salad greens between your other vegetables, you can enjoy hearty salads from your own garden all summer.
Got Garden Questions? Contact our Help Desk. The team is working remotely so please submit your questions through our diagnosis form, sending any photos to mastergardeners@countyofnapa.org or leave a detailed message at 707- 253-4143. A Master Gardener will get back to you by phone or email. For more information visit https://napamg.ucanr.edu or find us on Facebook or Instagram, UC Master Gardeners of Napa County.






By Susanne von Rosenberg, UC Master Gardener of Napa County
It's the middle of October, we haven't had any rain yet, and I'm working on and thinking about my spring vegetable garden. How can that be?
First of all, the middle of October is more or less the latest time that you can get some cool- season vegetable seedlings into the ground. Most of them, such as the brassicas (broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and kale), will not mature before the cold weather sets in. However, they will get a head start in becoming established, develop a strong root system and reward you with rapid growth as soon as the days lengthen and warm up in the spring.
You can still get in one more round of some leafy crops such as fast-growing lettuce or Asian greens. Even if they don't get as big as they would if we had more sunlight and warmth, they will still form a harvestable crop by mid- to late November. Make sure that you protect your little darlings from birds and other critters. At this time of year, anything green and juicy is appealing to wildlife.
Another part of planning for my spring vegetable garden is deciding where to put those October vegetable starts. That means deciding which of my summer crops are ready to come out. This is a good time of year to harvest the last of your tomatoes and cut the plants to the ground or remove them. Tomatoes that ripen later are generally not very tasty and also more likely to succumb to diseases.
Similarly, my pole beans are largely exhausted and ready to be removed. I can't take out all of my squash plants yet because a few are still ripening fruit. However, those that have yielded enough or have only very immature fruits are also coming out. By the way, you can treat those very young winter squash like summer squash; they are edible and tasty.
Because I'm a great fan of cucumbers, I usually coax my cucumber plants as far into the fall as I can. You may also have vegetables that you just really don't want to let go of. That's part of the planning process as well. If you're saving seeds for next year, remember to do that before you remove the plants.
Not all of my summer vegetable plants have to come out at the same time because I don't need all that space for planting. The areas that I'll be planting next spring are great candidates for growing cover crops right now. I like to use fava beans, which are easy to plant. You can eat the young leaves (steamed like spinach) and the flowers (fun in salads), and you can leave some of the flowers to develop into fava beans. I usually like to let the plants mature in those areas where I'll put warm-season crops in late April or May.
Another thing I like to do in the fall is to refresh my vegetable beds, if needed. I have hardware cloth (often referred to as gopher wire) underneath all of my vegetable beds. This year, the gophers broke through in one bed and took out my acorn squash and mini pumpkins.
The other aspect of my spring-garden planning is determining what to plant where and when. I figure out when I need to plant various seeds or seedlings so I can harvest a crop around a certain time. Then I plot where I want to put those plants. I always rotate crops. It's important not to grow plants from the same family in the same spot every year. Crop rotation helps control pests and diseases and also helps balance the nutrient demand in the garden.
Once I know where those plants are going and when, I can decide where to put cover crops and which ones I'll leave in place to harvest. Then I check my seed supply. I make sure that I have the ones I want and that they are fresh enough to use. Some seeds, like lettuce seeds, don't last long, so it's best to purchase new seed ever year. I don't know anyone who plants a full packet of lettuce seeds every year, unless they are growing them as baby lettuce. If you know you won't need all those seeds, consider sharing with friends.
Most brassica seeds, as well as summer vegetable seeds such as tomatoes, squash, melons and beans, are viable for two years. When seeds get too old, they don't sprout as well, and even if they sprout the plants they produce won't be as vigorous. By knowing which vegetable seeds I need, I can order early to make sure I get the seeds I want and they arrive on time.
As you can see, even though the warm weather is winding down, there is still a lot going on in the garden.
Food Growing Forum: Last Sunday of the month through October. Register to get Zoom link at: http://ucanr.edu/foodgrowingforum2020
Sunday, October 25, 3 pm to 4 pm, “Planting Onions, Leeks and Other Alliums and What Else to Do Now”
Napa Library Talks: First Thursday of each month. Register to get Zoom link. http://ucanr.edu/wildlifehabitat2020
Got Garden Questions? Contact our Help Desk. The team is working remotely so please submit your questions through our diagnosis form, sending any photos to mastergardeners@countyofnapa.org or leave a detailed message at 707- 253-4143. A Master Gardener will get back to you by phone or email.
For more information visit http://napamg.ucanr.edu or find us on Facebook or Instagram, UC Master Gardeners of Napa County.








Many of us think of August as a time to harvest tomatoes. I'd like to suggest that August and September are also the ideal planting time for fall, winter and spring crops.
In our mild-weather valley we can plant cool-weather vegetables as late as October. How lucky are we to be able to harvest fresh vegetables from our garden almost year round? Put in a few ‘Bibb' or ‘Butterhead' lettuce seeds now and 45 days later you will have plants that can make salads all winter long if you harvest a few outer leaves at a time.
Cool-weather vegetable gardens require much less attention than summer gardens. Because our rainy season coincides with our mild winters, soil dries out slowly. Often very little watering needs to be done.
Moist soil buffers the impact of any frost because the soil doesn't get as cold as the air. Although most vegetables will not survive prolonged severe cold, cool-season crops will survive a few days of 25ºF lows and some will even survive down to 15ºF. The University of California keeps historical frost records that suggest that Napa has only a 10 percent chance of frost at the beginning of November. But the likelihood of frost rises to 50 percent in early December. You have plenty of time to plant now and have thriving plants before winter cold sets in.
Be aware that some cold-weather crops won't grow much during the winter. Root crops such as carrots, beets, radishes and parsnips will hold at maturity in the garden until you are ready to eat them. It's almost like having an extra refrigerator. Kale, cabbage and broccoli will grow slowly but do need to have a good start before the cold sets in.
When choosing cole family crop varieties (kale, broccoli, cabbage), note if they are labeled “early” or “short season.” These varieties are less hardy than those labeled as good for overwintering. Early-harvest varieties were bred for areas with winters too severe for vegetables to survive. They need to reach maturity quickly. Hardiness has likely been bred out of those plants.
Besides being able to harvest over a longer time, you will find another advantage to planting overwintering varieties of carrots, beets, spinach and kale. When these vegetables are exposed to frost, they undergo a process sometimes called cold-sweetening. The plant stores glucose and fructose to guard against frost damage. Sugar dissolved in a plant cell makes it less susceptible to freezing in the same way that salting roads reduces ice. So a little frost often makes these crops taste sweeter.
Many gardeners prefer to plant seeds for these crops directly in the ground. However, if you start seeds inside, you can pop the seedlings into ground that you are now using for a warm-weather crop, allowing you to make optimal use of valuable garden space. Local nurseries and garden centers will also have seedlings available.
Don't forget to give your soil some extra TLC. Because you are utilizing the soil year-round, remember to dig in fertilizer and organic matter more than just once a year. Twice would be good.
When deciding where to plant cool-weather vegetables, don't overlook areas of your garden that are too shady in warm weather. The sun traverses a different path in the sky in summer and winter. So new planting areas may be available. Keep in mind that salad greens and leafy vegetables require only four hours of full sun every day.
I plan to add an extra warm glow to my holiday meals by harvesting and serving vegetables from my own garden. Now that you know how easy it is, maybe you will join me.
Do you want to become a UC Master Gardener of Napa County volunteer?
To obtain an application you must attend one of the information meetings. For meeting dates, location and times or to learn more about the program and volunteer commitment see our website.
Master Gardeners are volunteers who help the University of California reach the gardening public with home gardening information. U. C. Master Gardeners of Napa County ( http://ucanr.edu/ucmgnapa/) are available to answer gardening questions in person or by phone, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 9 a.m. to Noon, at the U. C. Cooperative Extension office, 1710 Soscol Avenue, Suite 4, Napa, 707-253-4143, or from outside City of Napa toll-free at 877-279-3065. Or e-mail your garden questions by following the guidelines on our web site. Click on Napa, then on Have Garden Questions? Find us on Facebook under UC Master Gardeners of Napa County.