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California Gardening

Newbie needs vegie advice

16 years ago

Hi, I hope some Los Angeles vegie gardeners can help a newbie.

I will soon be started a small backyard garden here in Santa Monica.

My soil is a bit sandy and alkaline, and I am close enough to the ocean to have a lot of overcast days.I think I have a good idea how I want to work with the soil to get it happy, but choosing the best plantings is more of a mystery to me.

Since I am new to gardening, I am trying to control my desire to plant every vegie i love to eat, and am willing to start with the ones that grow here best.

But what are those vegies!!! Does anyone with similar conditions have tried and true favorites to recommend. How about places in LA to buy good starts, organic? Or local seed companies?

Is the Sunset Western Gardens book a good info source, or can anyone recommend a foundation book on vegies that is specific to a so cal coastal garden.

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Comments (4)

la90026
16 years ago
Tanya47,

I'm anything but an expert about this, but I have noticed that friends of mine who plant in your area get beautiful strawberries. I'm really jealous of this since I can't manage that in the relatively hot days we have here in Echo Park. I'm sure others who know far more than I do will chime in soon. Good luck with it!
jcin_los_angeles
16 years ago
The Sunset Western Garden Book is excellent. The most important thing you can do before starting a garden is to start to create good soil, and the best way to do that is to add compost. There's a good forum right here on gardenweb on soil and compost. It's a bit late to start your summer garden. What might work better is to plan your garden, amend the soil, and plant in the fall, which is the ideal time to plant ornamentals in southern California. And there are many vegies which you can plant then, all the cooler weather crops, ie lettuce, peas, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, etc. Feel free to email me to talk more.
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