My climate is pretty similar to yours, though sometimes your heat is a few degrees hotter than mine. Cowpeas will come up, bloom, and bear a crop in about 8 to 10 weeks. You will get 3 or 4 pickings over about a two week period, and then they will be finished. Because of this, I plant "patches" of them about a month apart until mid July (24 square feet of them, sowed 4 inches apart feeds 4-6 people with each picking). One caution, deer adore them, so provide protection, especially in late summer when the deer get tired of the stuff they're eating out in the wild. The Southern Living Garden Book says that blackeyed peas do better in California than in the southeast. But the pink eye purple hulls will do great for you. I love Zipper Creams too. Basically, any type of crowder should do well for you. Last year, I planted pole beans in early August and they bore very well until first frost in mid November. Any sooner than that and it might be too hot for them, depending upon the variety. (I planted Louisiana Purple Pod Snaps) It will be easier to get germination in the heat if you cover the row with fabric and keep it wet. With our heat, it's very difficult to keep uncovered soil consistently moist. Once they germinate, uncover them and keep them watered. They'll like a good mulch too. Next year, I have decided that my early crop of snap beans is going to be something that is heat resistant, like Rattlesnake beans. It got so hot so soon this year, that my Fortex beans quit producing after only 3 pickings. As the above posters said, July is a good time to start fall crops: collards and cabbage seeds can be started in pots (in dappled shade) in mid July. By mid August, you can direct sow broccoli, turnips, rutabagas, carrots and beets. By early September, you can sow kale and mustard greens, and set out your collards and cabbage plants. Since your climate is somewhat hotter than mine, you may be able to get a couple more weeks on these dates.

Yup, looks like C. lubbersiana to me too. I had a feeling it was a part of the maranta group by the way it looked. It sits in a west facing kitchen window where it should get enough humidity from the sink. So far it seems to enjoy it there. Can't wait to see it get more full and bushier. But since it does get about 2 ft. tall, in the future it'll have to have a new place in the house. Thanks for your help everyone! Karen

1 - Pachysandra terminalis 2 - perhaps Forsythia (if I see correctly that leaves are opposite)

OK, please bear with me. First, I like Token's idea of poppies and larkspur in spring, pink and white cosmos, rose campion, etc. in summer, and pineapple sage, etc in the fall. How do you implement a plan like that? Token, I know you direct seeded poppies and larkspur in the fall, so I assume your poppies and larkspur will come from that. (I haven't sown anything yet, except for the 4 Solstice containers). I need to prepare the beds (lasagne) before I can sow anything. Should I do that ASAP, then DS poppies and larkspur now? Or can I / should I WS poppies and larkspur, plant them out later? I will say that direct seeding this much is an appealing idea, although it is far less effective. I would get that bed in order right away. Try to use topsoil or some kind of composted material on the top so you can direct sow right into that. I direct sowed poppies last March 1, there was snow on the ground and it made it easy to see where they landed. Larkspur was wintersown, but I didn't get nearly the results I seem to have by direct sowing in the fall. I think many of my seeds rotted. They were commercial seeds, and I only have about 25 of the three kinds I sowed. This year, I went with the traded variety and had several hundred. You might also want to try direct seeding with cloches, little plastic tops where you put several seeds in the soil underneath them. Carrie360 does this with great results for CA poppies. Token, I think you plan to WS cosmos and other annuals about 3 wks before your last frost date - mid-March? How many plants would you need to fill a bed that is 100' x 3.5' wide? Roughly. My cosmos will be direct sown. I have no problems with getting them to germinate as long as I sow them a couple weeks after the last frost. This past year, I sowed them right after pulling some cabbage and other distressed cold crop plants in the same area. Disturbed soil makes a great bed for these plants. Seems they all germinated. It depends on the kind of cosmos you sow too. The orange ones are much larger than the pink/white. Cosmos sulpherous vs Cosmos sensation. Now, return to the BES bed. Assume that bed is 250 feet long x 4 feet wide (actually 3.5' because I don't want to make tending paths this year). 250 x 4 = 1,000 sq. feet. According to the Wildseed site, 1 oz of seed will cover 1360 sq feet. Average seeds/oz: 106,875. average planting success is 80%. I'll order 1 oz or a bit more BES seeds for variety. Spacing: Token suggests 8", Lynda plants HOS 6-8" apart. If using 6" spacing, this would be 500 hunks per "row." If chunks are planted on 6" centers, this would be 7 rows in a 42" wide bed (3.5 ft). Total: 500 hunks per row x 7 rows = 3,500 hunks. Is this correct? I recommended a single plant because last year, that's what I did. I pulled the largest seedlings and potted them into individual containers. Those plants bloomed like crazy. Three tiny plants became a huge mass of blooms. It works for me. HOS plants bloomed, but sparsely and later than individual plants. Different sites, different soils, different sunlight, so there are many reasons this could be the case. I would also steer away from planting in rows, especially if you want a more natural look which is what it sounds like you're aiming for. Plant in groups of three and five. Leave some space for other plants like Shasta Daisies and echinacea. Toss in some grasses too. A 1 gallon container purchased at the nursery can yield 3-4 plants if you divide it before planting. It will take a couple years to fill in, but that's less work you have to do in the coming years. I am having a little trouble with the HOS concept. I understand what you do, but don't understand why so many seedlings growing so close together don't die. Or maybe some do die, and the stronger ones live. Can you enlighten me? I understand WS, except for the HOS concept, and why it does not lead to seedling death. Some seedlings will die. I cull mine individually instead. So maybe you want to look at sowing 4-6 seeds in 9ounce cups inside the hoophouse instead of a large container where you have to deal with the HOS issue. You can always pinch off the weaker plants, or split the cups when you plant them. For a bed this large, you need a systematic way of doing the planting or else it's going to eat up all your time in the spring. Trust me, planting 700+ plants over the course of a few weeks is back breaking work. But the rewards are incredible. I have more questions but I need to get the plastic on the hoop house now. Temps are supposed to get VERY cold this weekend and no end in sight. Yep...same weather is heading out way tonight. Supposed to be 18F. That's late February weather for us, not January. See these pictures for individually planted BES. See those three tiny plants? Here's what they became. It took over 2 months, but they bloomed for weeks. I deadheaded and tossed the seeds back into the bed. I haven't seen any sprouts yet, but there is some wood mulch, so I may have doomed them. Basically, the best method is the one that works for you both in terms of germination and planting out. Direct sowing and wintersowing might be combined to make sure you get a certain number and variety of plants. Next year, after all the seed you'll collect from a few BES, overseeding every fall should be plenty.