North Valley Gardening
Fall and Winter Gardening
Clean up: old plants as they quit producing for the season. If any were infested with insects or disease, put these in the garbage. Compost only the healthy plants.
Now is when you need to get your cool-season vegetable garden planted!
Think about your dormant fruit tree spaying schedule, Around Thanksgiving, around the first of the year and around Valentine’s Day
Time to Plant Garlic is September through October for next Years crop!
Plant now for fall Veggies!
Now is when you need to get your cool-season vegetable garden planted!
- Arugula (rocket)
- Beets
- Broccoli
- Brussels sprouts
- Cabbage
- Collards
- Carrots
- Cauliflower
- Celery (mild winter climates)
- Chard
- Fennel
- Kale
- Kohlrabi
- Lettuce
- Mizuna
- Mustard greens
- Onions (bulbing)
- Onions (bunching--standard onions harvested before they form bulbs).
- Pak choi (Bok choy)
- Peas
- Potatoes
- Radishes
- Spinach
- Coriander (cilantro)
- Many other Asian Greens
WHAT TO DO IN THE WINTER GARDEN
Enrich your soil with compost, peat moss, etc. Our hot summers bake organic matter out of the soil quickly, and you need to replace it at least twice a year. Think of this as cultivating the many soil organisms that will renew your soil for spring.
On warm days clear the weeds from any beds not already planted with winter vegetables. If you cover the beds with newspaper held down by rocks, they’ll be weed-free to accept plants in the spring.
Remember to water citrus, especially young trees, during winter droughts. As evergreens, they continue to respire throughout the winter.
For frost control, string old-fashioned Christmas lights (LED lights give off no heat) on your citrus. If the temperature threatens to drop into the mid-20’s or below and stay there for more than a day, surround your trees with old sheets held on with clothespins: they’ll help hold in the heat from the Christmas lights.
Dormant spray fruit trees with horticultural oil and fixed copper, to help control overwintering insects, peach leaf curl and fire blight on apples and pears. Repeat at least once.
Prune peaches and nectarines (fruit forms on last year’s new wood) and anything you want to shape or control.
This is the time of year to plant new trees and shrubs. Go bare root if you can.
This is also a good time to start new vegetable gardens: lay down as much compost and rotted manure as you can, cover it with cardboard or black plastic held down with rocks, and soil organisms will prepare your spring bed for you.
Clean, flush, and repair your drip system. Remove and discard any batteries.
Remove weeds like crab grass if they’re crowding trees, vines or berries. Newspaper covered with mulch will help control weeds around tree trunks.
Prune dead runners from your blackberry and raspberry vines.
Remove weak plants from your strawberry beds, if they’re ever-bearers. If they’re spring bearers, mow them with the blade set fairly high; the strongest will survive. Replace every three years with new starts – not runners!
Deadhead ornamentals run the mower over the removed stalks and add them to your compost.
Turn your compost pile once a month, to help it work faster.
Now’s the time to plant new bulbs or move old ones. Remember, spring here can begin in February!
Start seeds of tomatoes indoors in mid-February, and other warm weather vegetable seeds in March, for setting out in April or later, after frost danger has passed.
Order seeds from catalogs, if they’re not available locally.
Clean and oil your hand tools and maintain power tools so they’ll be ready when you need them.