i am starting lots of stuff now, this is a good time to plant in this climate. actually we are lucky that way, i plant all kinds of things all year round.we can plant some things that wouldnt work elsewhere....and some of it will just grow slowly all winter...then take off earlier in the spring. i try to only plant a little bit of each plants seed at a time, then do plantings of the same things every few weeks to space out the harvest a bit.

some of what i am starting- arugula, broccoli, greens, spinach, herbs, peas and carrots-once i get some mulch together. thinking to heavily mulch then plant the carrots in there to help with the weird germination i generally get with carrots. its occured to me thats why and it will work better- a nice thick straw mulch and then broadcast the carrots seed into there. we will see how it works.

course gotta go get some straw, or find/gather some good mulch. but wanting a nice freshy heap of straw particularly for the carrot seed.

in a little while i will harvest the garlic, onions, and potatoes, replanting some of what i harvest as i go. but that will be for growing all winter and into next year.

i also just randomly tossed about a lot of rose seeds everywhere.

This is the first year that I am really thinking about fall crops. It got so hot so early this year that I got no lettuce, so I'll be starting them, same goes for Cilantro which also bolted quite early and I will replant snow peas which I love, but which die back here in the heat. I also start my hollyhocks now, for next years flowers.Still have so many perennials to put in.

Thanks for the replies!

Leilahamaya -- good idea about the staggered plantings. I wish I had a little more space to do that, but I may have some room once my tomatoes are done for the year. My first year growing tomatoes, and I have 11 plants to take care of! So far, so good but I no ripe fruit yet. I guess I started off way late in the year. I'm planning on growing some of that kale you mailed me last month, plus some broccoli and greens. I really need to figure out how to make sure the snails don't get them! Ooh, and I'm going to try carrots for the first time too. Interesting method with the straw -- I don't have a lot of experience with mulching so I'm fuzzy on the details of it.

Northerner_on -- my cilantro bolted as well. It only took them about a month before they shot right up and had flowers. Before I could blink, basically. They really are cold weather plants, I might have to wait until November or December before I attempt to grow them again. (Although, maybe it's not so bad to have them blooming, because Coriander is actually my favorite spice.) I ended up giving up on those plants for the summer anyways, there's only so many things I can keep track of at once. Snow peas are a great idea, I do want to grow some and I think I may need to wait a couple more months before I plant them, it's just not cold enough for them yet. And hollyhocks! Good call, I might consider sowing some now. I have a little collection of flower seeds that I'm supposed to sow in the Fall; sweet peas, clematis, some poppies...

It's so crazy planning this far ahead for my plants. I've never done year-round gardening before, so this will be an interesting experiment!

~ Melody

yep same here with the cilantro! i got...maybe two small tufts of cilantro for all the seeds i planted....and now its spindly and flowers. a few weeks ago i just started some more and they sprouted fast. i think they will grow better with the later planting. its a little cooler here than there...but snow peas are defintely something i am planting now. this is a good time for them, but i can plant them whenever and they do good, or ok, any time of year.

re: mulch - i have no idea if this will work better, but i am thinking it will. i think i let the sprouted carrots dry out, or??? idk exactly, but i have hard time with carrots, they are fussy.
in general mulch is like magic and makes happy happy plants. =)thick mulch...freshy mulch, yeah plants really respond to this well.
it also keeps it from drying out, holds in moisture, thats basically why i am thinking the carrots will like it. just to sprinkle the seeds on top.

and totally with the staggered plantings, its for sure the way in this kind of climate. have keep it in mind to resist the temptation to start too many seeds of any one thing.

i have a limited amount of space that is greenhouse like...so its always packed with plants.i move things around, outside and inside, and do some container gardening with that. this is the best way to get good peppers here and tomatoes....

i have a lot of potatoes in the ground, but i started some off in a big container and they are doing great. i might start off a couple of those....with different edibles. they are just plastic tub storage containers with holes drilled in the bottom. been throwing the potato bits in there as i use them, and the ones in the container are looking better than the ones in the ground. they are digging on the fluffy soil.

and some of the stuff i plant would seem way out of season...i experiment a lot.
and planting odd things at different times of year, some of it works and some of it doesnt. i dont always get as many sprouts but usually will get a few of each planting time (about once a month i start different seeds)...and then have some plants in different stages come spring. and i over winter whatever i can inside...get peppers ripening at variety of times.