by Margie Siegal
We had a cold start to the year, and the fava beans were loving it, as were the radishes. The squash and tomatoes were cowering and shivering. By the middle of June, the favas and radishes were finally done, and I was going through my seed packets, figuring out what to plant next. Now, two months later, the beans I planted in June are three feet high and starting to flower, the peppers, cauliflower and basil I started inside are outside and flourishing, and radishes and mustard greens, started at the beginning of August, are popping their little green heads above the ground. After the tomatoes give up in October or November, it will be time to replant the favas and radishes – and the cycle begins again.
Alamedans have a very long growing season. We have a few frosts in late December and early January, and bouts of cold rain. However, the main limitation on year round growing is light. When the hours of light per day drop to less than ten hours a day (in our area, mid-November) the growth of anything you plant basically stops. Your veggies won’t die – but they won’t get any bigger.
Succession planting takes advantage of Alameda’s long growing season to make the most of your limited growing space. You can roughly plan how long each vegetable or herb will take to mature by reading the description in the catalog or the back of the seed packet. In between plantings, also plan to build up your hard working soil by adding compost – lots of compost- and organic fertilizer.
There are two ways to do succession planting. You can repeatedly start a quickly growing crop (like lettuce) or you can grow different crops, suited to each season. Either way, you are growing plants in the same field, one after another. Successful succession planting depends on well nourished soil and crops that go in the ground at a time of year when they will do well.
Succession planning can start around the solstice holidays. You will want to start crops that will thrive in the cold and wet first. These will be harvested by the time the days lengthen and warm up, freeing garden space for warm weather crops. When these, in turn, have produced all they are going to produce, they can be replaced with either plants that mature quickly, like lettuce, greens and radishes, or plants that can be successfully overwintered.
Vegetables can be divided into cold tolerant and heat tolerant types. You will want to plant cold tolerant vegetables and herbs as soon as the atmospheric rivers start slowing down in late January or early February. Give these plants a head start by starting them inside right after New Years and putting them out when the weather improves. You can also plant these vegetables in September or early October and plan for harvest in early spring.
You will want to put your fall and winter plantings in the areas of your yard that are the sunniest in wintertime. These areas may not be those that have the most light during the summer, when the sun is higher in the sky. Observation is key to success.
Cold tolerant vegetables: Cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprouts, mustards, cauliflower, kale, potatoes, winter hardy onions, peas, fava beans (not regular beans!), radishes and lettuce.
Heat tolerant plants are those which hate cold, but can put up with a fair amount of heat. Beans and summer squash are not happy in colder weather, but are a little more tolerant of lower temperatures. In order to have any success at all, most heat tolerant crops need to be started inside and be transplanted just as the weather is warming up. I put my tomatoes out too early this year, and they shivered and complained for a month and a half before the weather warmed up enough to suit their taste. The zucchini has just gotten going, and a lot of the winter squash didn’t make it. Next year I will have to remember to start the pumpkins and delicata later.
Vegetables that like heat need a certain number of hours where the temperature is over a certain benchmark to mature. This is known as “heat hours.”
Vegetables that like it warm: Beans, summer squash (including zucchini), and many hybrid tomatoes. If you want to put your tomatoes out as early as possible, look for varieties marked “early maturing.” These tomatoes need a limited number of heat hours and will produce ripe fruit (a tomato is botanically a fruit) despite the fact that your yard never really heats up.
Vegetables that like it hot: Melons, eggplant, peppers, most heirloom tomatoes, okra. These get set out when the weather really warms up.
How To Plan
Let’s say the first thing you want to grow is kale, a good cold-weather crop. Looking at your seed catalog, kale will mature in 50 to 75 days, and can either be direct planted or started inside and planted out in four to six weeks. If you start your kale in mid January, you can start picking kale between mid March and the beginning of April.
The next thing you want in that area of your garden is cherry tomatoes. Yellow pear tomatoes are prolific and very reliable. You can start munching between 75 and 80 days after you put your starters out in the yard. If you grow your own seedlings, you will want to start them 6-8 weeks before you plan to set them out. Tomato plants will be cold and miserable if you put them out before the middle of May. Counting back eight weeks, that means starting tomatoes in mid March. By May, you will have eaten your kale, and, after digging in compost and fertilizer, your plot will be ready for those tomatoes.
If all goes well, you can start snacking in July. By October, the tomato plants will be done for the year, and, after once again building up the soil, you can plant snow peas, which will survive the winter and sprout cheery blossoms and tasty pea pods in early Spring.
Here’s to a productive (and tasty!) year!