I'm thinking of doing a "take two" with the cool season veggies I started with last spring, but the weather didn't work out well so they didn't thrive....China snow peas, brassicas (mini cauliflowers, broccoli, bok choi, Asian cabbages), beets, carrots, alliums, and salad stuff (butterleaf, frise, radicchio, red romaine, colorful mixed leaf greens, radishes), and accenting with poppies, bachelors buttons and maybe a few other flowers.

The brussels sprouts I planted last spring not only survived after a slow start, but they're growing robustly and fighting with the zucchini plants I put down next to them under the mistaken assumption that they would wither under the brutal summer heat here in downtown L.A. No actual sprouts yet, but I am hoping they produce something by fall.

Not sure what I'll do about layout since I anticipate that many of the summer annuals will last well into the fall/winter, if not all they way to next summer for a "round two"....I had a Japanese eggplant I planted in a porcelain sink last summer do just that - hang on through the winter and then grow to several times its original size and give us loads of lovely, sweet little eggplants just in time for BBQ season!

I would like to but this would be my first time trying this. When is a good time to plant the seeds?

I'm fairly new to this also, Laur07, so that's why I'm asking. It will depend on your zone, so are you in zone 10 like Fiddlerchick? Or 9 like me?

I be in the Bay Area. I'll sow a carrot crop in late August.
Cabbages & such never work for me. Bugs, disease.
I do sow cover crops in certain areas of my yard in late Fall: fava beans, clover, vetch. This practice has helped the soil and it is inexpensive and easy.

Here's a helpful link I found on another forum that addresses our questions about timing very well: http://www.digitalseed.com/gardener/schedule/vegetable.html

Looks like October is the time for planting fall seeds in So.Cal.

Unfortunately it also looks like I missed the bus for the winter squash....Might try it anyway to see what happens if I can find someplace where I can cram in any more plants!

Just for kicks and giggles, here is a fantastic site for heirloom tomatoes (location is Lomita near Long Beach): http://www.heirloomtomatoplants.com/

According to that grower, we can plant very early variety tomatoes in the late summer/early fall in S.Cal and enjoy eating them through Christmas!

For the record, I'm a newbie with veggies and growing from seed. Have done transplant herbs in containers for a few years now.

Actually socks, I think I might be in 7b. I'm in the low elevation foothills.

Huh, that heirloom tomato plant address in Lomita is a mile from my place and i've never heard of it. i will have to contact them.

My main plan for the fall garden is to replace the tomatoes that have developed septoria and to continue to grow more basil, cilantro, carrots and butternut squash.

MmmmÂbutternut squash is another one I wanted to try this fall. And speaking of Cilantro, I realize that I forgot to mention two very important fall/winter plants in my list above: spinach and cilantro! Last night I inadvertently conducted a case study of why IÂve spent so much time and effort and money growing an edible urban jungle: as I was making shrimp enchiladas with salsa verde (my home grown tomatillos worked out beautifully!!), it took some 25 minutes to clean and pick the "yuckies" out of the store-bought spinach and cilantro  something that would have taken a whole 5 or 6 minutes to clip from the garden and give a quick rinse if IÂd had them. My spinach and cilantro didnÂt work out very well when I planted them back in March (heat wave made everything bolt), so IÂll give it another go when things cool off in OctoberÂ.

Can anyone recommend a variety of spinach that is good for S.Cal/zone 10 and some tips for growing it successfully? It appears that here in Chinatown we get the low foothills heat, but itÂs somewhat tempered by the coastal weather system.

P.S. Can't wait to visit that tomato farm in Lomita and pick out a few plants to try for fall!!

I'm planning on a fall garden as well. I don't know much about it though. I'm planning on peas, cabbage, lettuce, spinach, broccoli, carrots, garlic, onions, kale

I'm so bad about remembering to restart cilantro every 6-8 weeks so I always have some fresh, but I finally got some more seeded last weekend. Fiddlerchick, when your cilantro bolts, don't yank them right away. The flowers are thee best pollinator attractor in my yard and if you pick and fry individual flowers in sesame oil with garlic, cumin, basil and summer veggies, the taste is amazing! And of course, the seeds become coriander (the flowers taste half way between the two).

And not to hijack the thread, I have to say that I've started to explore the edibility of my different flowers on salads and main dishes. Some are just too strong, like the basil and peppermint, but some were surprisingly good - especially some of the native sages (S. clevelandii, S. mellifera, S.apiana and the king of edible flowers, S. elegans. The cucumber flowers are so tasty that if I were a king, I would demand salads of pure cuke and pineapple sage petals.

I will start planting seeds at the end of August hp here north of Sacramento. It will still be really hot and I will have to protect my starter pots from the hot sun. I found it is best to start seeds every few weeks instead of all at once. That way if something happens, you have a reserve of seeds. Sometimes it's hard to find the seeds you want right when you want them. I will have some problems with space. Last year we had tomatoes until the middle of December. I had protected my plants with a frost cover I found at Harbor Freight and they survived several frosts. I don't care for store bought tomatoes so I was trying to keep them going for as long as possible. I am going to try planting some of the early type tomatoes for this fall.
Donna

I have had brocolli and cabbages going since Spring and they are doing well. Lettuces have all bolted, of course, but I have not succeeded in getting any to sprout lately. Is it a heat issue? I just put in a few cauliflower in a shady spot and they got mowed by bugs. I will keep trying. Hope to have some veggies going on most of the year here in sunny Tracy.

WOW!! Thanks so much for the great suggestion for the bolted cilantro, Dicot! I will certainly try that. IÂve been putting my nasturtiums on salads but will try the pineapple sage flowers  theyÂre so pretty! HadnÂt thought about the cuke flowers, but will certainly give that a go too  thanks again for the wonderful ideas! I wonder how the cute little flowers on my ridge gourd plant might spice up a salad or garnish a sauté of its own fruit? Will just have to try it and see!

Donna, can you let me know a little more about the frost cover you used on your tomato plants? I expect my summer tomatoes will hang on for awhile, but I am concerned about my little Mexican lime tree I just put in last April and is finally starting to come around. It looked quite unhappy throughout the unusually long, chilly spring we had here in S.Cal this year and I want to make sure it survives the winter in this latitude. Thanks!!

IÂd also like to echo DeneciepieÂs query about the salad not germinating, as I pulled some bolted salad plants out and put down some more seed a few weeks ago and plan on doing again this weekend (itÂs been hotter than h#// since July 4th weekend), but theyÂre in the shade underneath a little guava tree, and none have come up yet. I even gave them a whole new layer of nice, fluffy compost with a little organic fertilizer mixed in. I wonder if in this case itÂs a combination of high heat and insufficient light since the guava canopy has become so dense with summer growth that itÂs no longer dappled sun anymore, but solid shade for much of the day now. My husband waters every day while IÂm at work, so inadequate moisture shouldnÂt be an issue.

Thanks everyone for sharing!

Brenda K

Brenda, The frost blankets I bought from Harbor Freight are by One Stop Gardens. They are 10'x12'. Last year I found some that were larger. They were less then $5.00 each. They give 6-9 degrees protection and allow the rain and sun to reach the plant. I was able to keep the frost from killing my tomatoes through several freezes. Right now, I am using some of the old tattered ones from last winter to keep the deer from eating up all my tomatoes.

Last winter I protected my citrus trees with Christmas tree lights. We get a lot of frost up here and I lost a couple of new trees before I found this answer.
Donna