Love the tarragon suggestion. Thyme, basil and oregano will be great. Rosemary is also a good idea since it seems to grow in every type of condition. I will also try squash and thought I would attempt some eggplant and peppers. Do you think 1 gallon containers of cherry tomatoes could take the shock of transplant and actually do well without having established a root system to handle our impending blast furnace?

Do check out the irrigation system -- it would make more sense to irrigate the top of the slope and leave the bottom to live on runoff. I do that with several of my beds on our very sloped property (not only front to back, but side to side!) and it works quite well. I watered in everything once a week for the first few months, and after that let the lower beds survive on their own. They have thrived, even through the recent 2-week heat wave. I did improve the soil in most beds,and I have found that the beds I did NOT do this, the plants have not done as well. The clay has been exhaused by trees, weeds and unwanted shrubs for decades, and is no longer good quality soil unless very heavily amended. Replacement was actually easier than amending, BTW. I mulch heavily. I water (mostly soaker hoses, some hand watering) once every 2-3 weeks. If it's extremely, viciously hot, then once a week. Most of my beds are partial shade beds and it is surprising how much will grow in CA under these conditions. Our light is so bright that even under trees (or at least at the edges of the canopy) one can grow all kinds of things. And you're in a warmer zone than I am; I have had some trouble with winter chill damaging some frost-tender plants. I'm way north of you in the SF Bay Area, but in our sloped and rather shady backyard (a huge walnut and an enthusiastic silver maple that threatens to engulf fully half our large backyard), we still get enough bright shade overall to grow a surprising number of plants that are supposedly full sun. These include: -erysimum -canna -oleander -helichrysum -senecio -lantana -Meyer lemon -variegated euonymus -pelargoniums -shrub roses, rugosas, and miniature roses -New Zealand flax (phormium) I even got snapdragons to flower and return in one of the shadiest spots right at the foot of the silver maple. Although it probably helped to have a soaker hose in the bed -- the maple sucks up so much water that even weeds won't grow next to it. And of course, star jasmine grows like a weed, but it needs so much room I'm thinking of taking both of mine out. They are really uncontrollable! I'm not big on natives. They're nice, but spend half the year dormant or ratty. I want flowers, interesting foliage, and variety - all year round, even in January. OK, I'm a cottage gardener, I admit, LOL. Anyway, here's some pix of our backyard, and also the narrow north-facing sideyard, which is divided into two parts: the top half irrigated with soaker, the bottom lives on runoff. Looking upwards towards the house from the very bottom of our lot, from the backyard. Walnut to the right, silver maple dead ahead. Date: May 2006 for these pix Looking sideways at the bed around the walnut, towards my neighbor's yard Looking at the bottom of that bed, with the fence marking our lot boundary on your RH side. This side gets east-facing sun for about three hours before the walnut shades it all. Now the north-facing side yard: Top (Front) of the bed looking downwards - this is irrigated with soaker hose. The 'Emperor One' Japanese maple is a new variety and vastly superior to the old 'Bloodgood'. It grows in sun or shade; even windy conditions don't bother it. The bottom of the top bed, looking upwards (reverse of the photo above) The lower bed that lives on runoff. Contains star jasmine growing up a pillar, variegated aucuba, hellebores, bearded iris, liriope, and ferns.

I start new seeds all during the year, but I have a greenhouse to grow all the largest plants in and artificial light to start the small plants inside. I just started more reaper seeds, but these are the new generation, so they are the IR2s. I also just planted some Jay's peach ghost scorpions. I just started a few 7 pod lava seeds just to play with for myself. In another month or so I'll be starting some Datils, even more reapers, and a bunch of 7 of primos, since they are hotter than the reapers, and lots of people are just wanting the hottest there is.

I live in the Bay Area of California, and I have a very small "farm", consisting of a special light installation in our garage, and a hard plastic greenhouse and a small outside space with excellent sun. I grow tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, passion fruits, strawberries, and hanging geraniums all from propagation (suckers, slices, stems.) In addition, basil is easy to grow from seeds, plus we have a couple of orange trees and a lemon tree. I grow everything in containers. I have started to propagate all the veggies and fruits from above right now in September and October, not necessarily for winter consumption but to assure an early start in the next year.. From a package of Sugar Bomb tomatoes bought at Whole Foods in May, I took 8 tomatoes, sliced them, put them in fertile soil, watered them, and lo and behold they came up and provided me with 20 extremely well producing plants right now, in October. The same with a red pepper from Whole Foods. I used the same procedure, got about 12 plants that are now producing about 75 peppers. I learned that the only difference in color is growing time, so I let them grow until they are all red (and very firm.) I started their growing quite late in early July. I just did the same thing again with resulting tomatoes and peppers from above, and am already propagating them. They have already come up, and I plant to put them in bigger containers in the greenhouse over the winter. In addition, I have cut a number of strong suckers from other tomato plants, including hybrids, and they are all growing roots. Again, I will put them in bigger pots in the greenhouse during the winter. My goal is to plant them in their final and larger containers during early April and start picking the results in early June. Just read and try. It is so much fun, and it has kept me sane during this pandemic.