Just because we’re having an unusually early start to our winter
rains, doesn’t mean you have to stop planting fall/winter
vegetables. There’s a host of winter veggies that can be planted
and harvested, thanks to our mild winters.
Just because we’re having an unusually early start to our winter rains, doesn’t mean you have to stop planting fall/winter vegetables. There’s a host of winter veggies that can be planted and harvested, thanks to our mild winters.
Yes, even though your summer tomato and zucchini plants are dead, go ahead and pull them up, replenish your soil, and start anew. In fact, many vegetables actually will do better during our cool rainy season.
For instance, if you’re a fan of Popeye’s favorite vegetable, you may have planted it in the spring, only to see it bolt into flowering stalks as the days grew longer. In winter, spinach keeps up a fine, leisurely offering of big, green leaves that can give you several harvests.
The same goes for Salinas’ favorite veggie – lettuce. During the summer, especially in our warmer weather here, lettuce will bolt early. However, this time of year, you can get a fine harvest. With leaf lettuce, you can even get multiple harvests by simply harvesting leaves and letting the plant itself continue growing.
Broccoli and its relatives like cabbage and kale, can also go in now, usually as transplants. If you’re looking for unusual varieties, go ahead and shop for them by seed and start them in flats of your own. I always save those plastic six packs that annual bedding plants come in. They make ideal seed-starter trays.
Carrots and even Gilroy’s own – garlic – can also be planted. Garlic doesn’t grow from seeds. Instead, you can use the garlic bought from the grocery store or farmer’s market. Just break the bulbs apart, and plant the separated cloves. Cloves should be planted in rows a foot apart and about six inches apart. Planting is easy: hold the clove with the tip up and push it into the soil with your thumb as far down as your thumb will go.
As mentioned earlier, make sure to improve your soil before planting. Add organic compost, peat moss, mushroom compost, steer manure or other amendments. It’s best to rototill them into your soil, but you can also hand-dig as well. There’s little or no danger of your plants “burning” this time of year. So, you can usually add more soil amendments than you would during the spring or summer.
Finally, thanks to our winter rains, watering usually isn’t needed either. Just remember to protect newly planted seedlings from snails, slugs, earwigs and other crawling pests. Take advantage of our mild winter climate and have a fall/winter vegetable garden.
