I have Pat Welsh's Southern California Guide, and she recommends planting wildflowers at this time. You're a lot cooler than we are, but maybe the advice is the same for you. She also suggests onions and strawberries, on the vegitable side.

Somehow, when I edited my message, the newer version didn't show up, so I'm adding to my first post. The flowers she specifically recomends are Lupines, Clarkia, California poppies, Chinese Houses, Baby Blue Eyes and Larkspur.

I also am a little late in putting in my winter garden, but I've planted transplants of brocolli, cabbage, parsley, chervil, cilantro, lettuce, carrots and celery. I've also put in bachelor buttons, iceland poppies, and love-in-a-mist in the flower section of my potager. Sorry I don't have any pictures. I'm glad to see someone still posting on this forum.

I am glad to see people posting too! I love this forum, but there hasn't been a lotta traffic.

don't forget chard, and collards and mustard greens! nows a good time to put in oriental veggies like tatsoi and bok choy too.

Hi, me again.

Today I added garlic and shallots. Fun, fun, fun!

manzomecorvus, I like the mustard greens, but what is tatsoi?

I am mostly confused on the whole chinese greens thing..supposedly bok choy and tatsoi are variations of the same thing, but to me tatsoi tastes more cabbagey and bok choy tastes more like bitter lettuce.

course I am a southerner, my tastebuds and arteries have been ruined by years of cooking everything with jalepenos and bacon grease and washing it down with chicory coffee!

heres a source:
tatsoi

Thanks, manzomecorvus. Maybe I'll give them a try sometime, with bacon grease, and jalepenos. :)

Are there any cold-weather potager folks out there using cold frames?

I'm experimenting for the first time with a so-called winter tomato (Siberian), but so far no blossoms, just slow growth. May have to wrap it up in plastic. The days here in the LA area have been pleasantly warm, but the nights cool. We'll see. Maybe it'll be a wash.

Hi! I just found this forum and am so happy to find information about growing veggies year-or-almost-round. I have the books, but it's so much more useful to get people's first-hand experiences.
My winter tomatoes were certainly a washout this year- the super dry "winter" we've had so far allowed the summer infestation of spider mites to take over the plants. I was also pretty disappointed at how big and root-bound the winter tomato plants were at the nursery in October when I bought them (I probably should've left them there)- next year I will definitely start the cold-weather varieties from seed. I got a few fruit, all taste-less and leathery from the Manitoba plant and a few very sour fruit from the Yellow Taxi plant. And very little new growth.
I wondered if anyone has planted Kolrabi? I had very good luck with the seeds germinating in October, but they've hardly grown at all and show no sign of making a nice big bulb above ground.
I had great luck with Arugala last year at this time, but I had to go and try new things! And there's really only so much Arugula one can eat....

Your experience sounds like mine, hollymolecule.

I bought a Siberia tomato in September with the thought of having "winter tomatoes", but the frost got it, despite the fact that I wrapped its cage in plastic. My winter veggies are not doing well at all, even though I thought I got them in early enough (as 2-3" seedlings, also at the end of September). They're alive and growing slowly, but it's obvious that I'm not going to get anything 'till March or April, if not later.

I though maybe the problem was my soil; it's sandy, though well-ammended with compost and chicken manure. I thought maybe it was nutrient-poor. However, after reading your post, maybe it really is just the weather. Thanks for writing.