by Linda Carloni, Master Gardener and ABG Board Member
Now that it’s autumn, gardening changes, but in our area it doesn’t end. Here’s a guide to resources from ABG and other excellent sources for some autumn gardening tasks: planting and cultivating fall and winter crops; improving your soil with cover crops and other techniques; and planting California natives.
Fall and Winter Crops
You can still plant many fall/winter vegetables, but the season is moving along quickly, so move fast and buy seedlings if you want to grow broccoli, cabbage or cauliflower and plant those onion seeds now! Asian greens, peas and cilantro are great to plant now, but be sure to protect them if we get another heat wave. Garlic should be planted from October 15 through December. Arugula, beets, chard, collards, green onions, kale and lettuce can be planted year-round, and many of these are best in the winter. Here’s more information:
- What to Plant When from the Alameda County Master Gardeners
- Broccoli and Bok Choy
- Plant Onions Now
- Root Crops
- Planting in November
Cover Crops
If you’d like to give your soil a rest, a winter cover crop may be for you. A cover crop is a non-food crop that you grow in your veggie beds that improves your soil over several months while your garden beds aren’t occupied with growing a food crop. Cover crops can have amazing benefits – they can build nitrogen in the soil, provide large amounts of organic matter, prevent erosion, improve soil structure, promote water infiltration and retention, suppress weeds, and stimulate beneficial microbial soil life. And it’s easy!
Faba Bean and sorghum sudan grass. Photo credit: Edwin Remsberg and USDA-SARE
Cover crop variety trials at Washington State University Organic Farm in Pullman Washington
More for Your Soil
There are many other alternatives for building soil during fall and winter. All those fallen leaves can help create great compost to feed your soil.
An open vegetable plot with no crop or cover crop is just inviting those pesky weeds. Fight those weeds with mulch!
For a fallow area, fall and winter is a great time to use amendments that need to decompose over time: Manure covered with Mulch.
Plant California Native Plants
October is a great time to plant native plants. Plants that are native to California evolved here – with summer dry climate and in relationships with our native insects and wildlife, both helping them and benefiting from them. Many California native plants can succeed with little to no watering once established (most are likely to need more water through at least one, perhaps two dry seasons; then you can really cut back for most) making them important to consider for the water-wise gardener. And there is a huge variety to choose from – plants adapted to sun, shade, or part sun/shade; plants for many different types of soil; trees, shrubs, vines and perennials; flowering in all colors, or without flowers; differing water requirements.
One or more of these projects will happily occupy your gardening time until the rains come (please!) and it’s time to cozy up inside with your seed catalogs and a cup of tea dreaming of spring and summer gardening!