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justinandlaura1_gw

Winter SFG for Newbies?

justinandlaura1
14 years ago

Hi all,

Its my first year with my sfg. Its 4x10 and right now filled with a bunch of dead summer stuff (squash, zucchini, tomotoes, beans, etc). The cherry tomatoes still produce occasionally, but everything else seems to be wilted and dying fast. I am new to gardening altogether...had a couple questions:

Do I just rip everything out or do i save anything?

Is there anything that is easy for a newbie to grow in winter? (I am in 91350, santa clarita, socal)?

Anything else i should do to keep my garden up to par for next season? When should i start planting my next season? (I dont have a lot of spare time...so i just buy the little plants from the nursery and plant them...not seeds or anything like that)

Thanks all,

JD

Comments (4)

  • ribbit32004
    14 years ago

    I don't know much about your climate, but it all depends on how cold your winter gets and how far along into winter you are. If the temperatures stay mild, you can do all your cole crops, lettuce, carrots, radishes and plant garlic and onions for spring harvesting.

    You may need to start from transplants, but this is only if you can get them in and mature before a hard freeze....if you even have hard freezes.

    I'm in GA and we're expecing our first hard freeze Saturday. I'm pulling my broccoli and lettuce tonight.

  • knittlin
    14 years ago

    The best thing you can do is find a planting schedule for your area. According to the Arbor Day zone finder you're zone 9 (a helpful piece of info to put in your profile ~ helps others answer your questions better). So you could find something that lists what and when to plant in zone 9, but every zone 9 is different, so a schedule specifically for your area would be much better. Try your agriculture extension service website.

    I'm in zone 8b (a bit cooler than you) and here's what I'd do in your situation ~ I'd rip out everything and replant with cold tolerant veggies. Even if I tried to keep those tomatoes going, their production would slow to a crawl, so much that it wouldn't be worth the heroic measures I'd have to take to keep them going (building a structure to hold plastic and row cover, being sure to vent it on a hot day and cover it back up on cold ones, finding a way to water it when it's covered, etc. ~ a real pita). And it'd eventually get killed by a humdinger of a freeze anyway. It'd be much better to just rip it out now and plant something that can take the cold.

    Here's the list of what's in my garden right now (so would be things I'd pick to replant the square foot bed with of course):
    lettuce
    snow peas
    all the coles (broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kale, cabbage and collards)
    mustard greens (including spinach mustard)
    bok choi
    tatsoi
    other Asian greens
    Swiss chard
    spinach
    garlic
    beets
    flowering sweet peas
    dill
    cilantro
    artichokes

    I know I'm forgetting something else...

  • ga_karen
    14 years ago

    I'm a little cooler than you too. Right now I have onions, lots of onions, lettuce, radishes & spinach. I'll stick some cabbage out there before long.

  • nancyinla
    14 years ago

    JD - I'm in the same boat as you. Here's the local planting info I found from the UC Cooperative Extension, Los Angeles County. Hope this helps.

    Nancy

    Here is a link that might be useful: LA County Garden Tips

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