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Container Gardening

Tips and help for planting by a first-time gardener in CA

7 years ago

Hello there,

So I purchased my first home and looking to venture into planting in my backyard. I am in Central California (Bay Area).

The previous owners had two vegetable beds (about 10x4) that they were about to start using but never did. They told me, the soil is good and should be ready to use with necessary supplements as necessary.

Looking for suggestions on how to go about starting:

1) I see potting mix suggested at various places. Miracle-Gro seems to be popular. Is it okay if I just put a layer (how thick?) of this potting mix on top of the existing soil in the beds?

2) Given California weather, what plants could I go for? I am interested in Spinach, Zucchini/yellow squash, Okra, Green Beans. Would these be okay for this time of year/CA weather? Or am I being too ambitious to try them?

3) Should I mix in Perlite?

4) Any fertilizer recommendations?

Thanks for any advise!

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Comments (3)

gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
7 years ago
Sam, if these are raised beds (or just inground beds), then you do not want to add a potting soil. Potting soils are designed specifically for container growing and are unnecessarily expensive to add to a raised bed or inground garden plus add nothing beneficial to assist with the growth or productivity of plants grown in this manner. So no potting soil, no perlite :-) If the previous owners said the beds were ready to go, I might try them as-is before making any changes. Otherwise, just adding some good quality organic matter to the beds (compost) should provide all the supplementation required.

As to what crops to start out with now, you might want to see what locals suggest - try posting that question on the California Gardening forum. In my area (a bit further north), fall planting is restricted to cool season crops - pretty much anything in the cabbage family, greens (the spinach should be fine), some root crops, late peas and onions and garlic. It just doesn't get hot enough this late in the season to encourage the proper development and fruiting of warm season crops like squashes, okra or green beans, which are normally summer (not fall) growing plants. But your climate might be more receptive to these types of crops so check with local growers to confirm.
Sam A
Original Author
7 years ago
@GandenGal,

Thank you very much for the detailed reply. Really appreciate it.

Valuable advise!

Though, I just happen to have a mixture of some top soil and garden soil (left by previous owners) that I might throw on top and see how that goes.

Will ask around local nurseries or perhaps in the California Gardening forum.

Thanks again.
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It depends on what the little red bugs are. They could have been red ants.. once I found huge numbers of very tiny red ants in some similar type potting soil that I left out on the porch for a while. The bag was teeming with them. if it's ants, there's not much danger to your plants, though you don't want them running all over and making tunnels disturbing the soil and creeping you out. I can't quite remember what I did to get rid of them. I think I watered the pots a lot and stirred up the soil till they finally went away. I've heard that they don't like their quarters disturbed a lot, so they took their colony elsewhere. Of course, you don't want to disturb your plantings, so you might have to figure out how to get them away from your plants safely with as little disruption as possible. If you put some of the bugs in a zip lock plastic bag and bring them to your local nursery or county extension office, someone will probably be able to identify and assist you. Or if you could describe them better. Or take a close up picture.. then someone could maybe help you. Can you tell what these bugs are? This is the key to knowing what to do about them. You can pour all kinds of chemicals on pests, but it might not be necessary to do that, and you might do damage in the process. Are your plants looking ok? Are the insects eating or bothering the plants at all? If you just sprayed a little insecticidal soap on them that is pretty mild. Be careful not to put strong chemicals or systemics for ornamental plants on your vegetables.. it might not be safe.
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jane__ny
7 years ago
Try visiting the many forums on this site where this is discussed more completely. Here's a few links:

Vegetable Gardening

California Gardening

Just look at the list of Gardening Forums here. You'll find what you are looking for.

Jane

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