With all the hubbub and gnashing of teeth about pending water restrictions to once a week, I’m blasé about the issue because my productive edible garden has always done well with far less.  I’ve always conducted my watering timing as an only-when-imperative operation.  Yes, I’ve lost some plants because I did indeed wait too long, but by far my successes have taught me that generally recommended frequency and amounts of water have been way beyond what the plants needed to thrive.
      But it does take training the plants and trees from the moment they’re seeded or transplanted to grow deeply to retrieve the water that you’ll make available less frequently.  And that means now.  Even if you’ve already planted your summer garden, in the several weeks before the June 1 reduction start, you can get those plants to stretch further downward in search of the water you provide, so the once-a-week restriction will be nary a change.
 
Some guidelines:

• Water deeply – just below the genetically-determined length of the specific plant’s roots – such as 6” lawn, 1’ lettuce and ornamentals, 18-24” beans and peppers and squash, and 30-36” asparagus and tomato.  The point is to always provide those bottommost roots with the water they need so they’ll withstand the frying heat in the top 1-2 inches of soil.
• Water infrequently – only when the soil 3” down is dry.  Again, you want the water to keep the soil moist further down, where you’ve taught the plant roots to establish the bulk of their rootsystems.
• Keep soil surfaces covered with 1-3 inches of mulch to shade the soil from the beating heat of the sun and therefore lessen evaporation of moisture from the soil.
• Incorporating organic matter like compost into the growing beds will help all soil types stay both moist and well-drained.  It’s the magic for both sandy soils (holding the moisture from draining too quickly) and for clay soils (providing miniscule air pores for better drainage) that will enable plant roots to remain well-moistened like a wrung-out sponge.
• What’s the best method to water my garden?  Choosing which of the many modes of delivering water to your garden depends upon your time and effort and can be a combination.  Several options include hand-help hoses, overhead sprinklers, mini-tube drip emitters on timers, soaker “leaky” hoses under mulch, and buried 5-gallon plastic containers with bottom holes.

  
See my previous blog articles where I’ve described these specifics in more detail –

Start Watering The Garden - 2/7/22

Watering -- When, How Much, and Methods - 3/19/22

​How Deep Is “Watering Deeply”? - 7/21/18
 
For more monthly garden tasks, go to May

For other major-topic blog articles, go to Homepage

     The flowers are blooming their hearts out in my garden.  Everyone is providing its own version of color and pattern and height and spread.  It’s truly glorious to walk around and relish everyone doing their part in beautifying our gardening world.  That brief but intense downpour of rain a couple of nights ago really enthused the plants to perk up and unleash their colors.  And the again-mild air temperatures during both days and nights certainly helps them expand their delights.
 
Keep Sowing and Transplanting
     The mild weather continues to bode success for both sowing seeds and transplanting seedlings. 

• Make sure seedbeds are moist before and after sowing. 
• Fill planting holes with water and let it sink in before inserting the plant.
• Massage rootballs to gently loosen the root system, and combine the loosened soil and container’s potting medium to provide a soil mix that combines them both – so the roots will have some of each as they extend into native soil.
• Water transplanted plant three times right then to make sure that the surrounding soil a foot beyond the plant is equally moist.  This also encourages roots to reach out into the native soil to establish extensive root systems.

 
Establish Watering Patterns For Summer
      Keep plants thriving into our coming hot weather by matching your watering practices to plant needs and the weather.  All plants will need more than an evening sprinkling when you come home from work – it’ll satisfy you but potentially be a problem for plants that they won’t be able to overcome when our summer heat blasts our gardens.  So start “teaching” your plants now to be able to withstand the heat onslaught that will surely come.

• Water each plant to just below its natural root zone, depending on variety and your soil. 
  • Some plant roots are naturally shallow, going only to 1 foot in depth – like lettuce, radish, celery.  Others go to 2 feet deep – like beans, cucumbers, peppers, squash.  The deep growers, to perhaps 3 feet – include asparagus, artichoke, tomato. 
  • You’ll water this deeply every time you water, regardless of what time of year it is or how hot or cold the weather is – the point is to get the water to satisfy the needs of the plants’ entire root systems.
• Weather will determine how frequently you water. 
  • Mild weather like during our spring and fall means watering perhaps every other week.  Warmer weather, like that week of above 85 or 90 degrees, requires watering just before the heat hits and again after. 
  • Consistently hot weather like during our summers where the temperatures are consistently above 90 or 95, requires watering perhaps once a week – and more for large plants like tomatoes that do a lot of transpiring. 
  • Of course, you’ll water individual plants more that appear to be struggling.  But be aware that – like people – plants may be droopy at the end of a long hot day.  Best to check the soil moisture before automatically watering, since they may recuperate overnight.  If the soil is dry 3 inches down, or the plants are still droopy in the morning, then water immediately.

For more monthly tasks, go to May.
 
For major-topic articles by season, go to Homepage.

     After this past week of high-90s temperatures, which are certainly beyond my pleasure level to be in the garden, this coming week promises to be back in the mid-60s during the day and mid-40s during the nights.  I’d watered my garden two weeks ago, before the heat, and again last night to help it recuperate from last week’s extremes.  Now it’ll be able to mellow out this next week.  Being well-watered is always the crux enabling the garden plants to be able to deal with extreme temperatures, or to fall victim to them.
     And this is only the beginning of April, which should be mild-weathered.  But maybe this is another example of what used to be as opposed to what is and will become, due to climate warming. 
     My mesembryanthemum (whose botanical name has changed several times since I learned the name, but I don’t bother keeping up with them) always used to bloom from mid-April through Mother’s Day in May.  The last several years, its prime bloom has shifted to mid-March, with only a few stragglers now.
     Daffodils are long gone, freesias came and went, as did grape hyacinths, and bearded irises and Dutch irises are just starting nicely now. 
     Lettuces have long-ago bolted, and peas had their last picking and the plants were pulled and added to the compost pile.
     Artichokes are starting – we’ve had three meals’ worth already.  I’ve picked them when the tips of their scales are barely standing out from the globe, and have been amazed that there was no choke at the base, even though the scales were sufficiently fleshy.  I’ll continue this practice with the other plants to see if this was just a peculiarity of that one plant, or is consistent with all the plants that I’d started from that same “Green Globe” seed packet.
     Before the heat, I’d picked a bunch of “Little Finger” carrots, and they were nicely crunchy and sweet.  With last night’s watering following the week’s heat, I’ll wait several days for the roots to again be full of water and hopefully sweet after their stressing out with the heat.
     Sweet peas blooms are becoming bountiful with my being able to pick a vaseful every third day. 
     I’d also sown another batch of edible peas – the same varieties that I’d sown last fall and we’d finished eating two weeks ago – on the opposite side of the ornamental peas, and about half of them came up.  I’ll sow more in the gaps.  We’ll see whether we get much of a crop with this planting since it’s been so much warmer than for the overwintering batch.  “Wando” peas, especially, are supposedly tolerant of both cold and heat, so we’ll see how they deal with this heat end of the season, especially since they’ll have at least this coming week of comfortable weather. 
     While sweet pea flower pods are poisonous, there’s no problem growing edible peas together with them, since their pods are so visually different.  Sweet peas are grayish in color and very fuzzy.  Edible peas are bright green (or purple in the case of “King Tut,” “Royal, or “Sugar Magnolia” which I grew this year), smooth and glossy, and much larger and filled out.
     My crookneck squash plants are up and stretching out, and some of the beans are up as well.  I already sowed more seeds in the gaps, and watered them well, at the beginning of the heat spell. 
  The asparagus that I’d started from seed and transplanted last fall are now five inches tall and bushing out.  They’ll continue to develop their root systems this summer, so I’ll make sure to keep them well watered as I replant something in the spaces where the fall peas used to be – perhaps another batch of squash and beans and more pepper plants.
     Cilantro and parsley are still producing nicely but may be toward their end due to this heat.  I’ll sow some more during this coolish weather this week just in case it’ll continue so they’ll germinate.
     Beets and kohlrabi are still small so am keeping them moist until they get to my preferred size of one and one-half inches.  The beets I’ll pickle for summer-long salads.
     Chard continues to be a mainstay of my “greens” plants.  Between my 4 plants in different colors that’re more than a year old, I toss the stems and more mature larger outer leaves into the compost pile, and harvest only the tender mid-size leaves, raw in salads and sandwiches, stir-fried, and cooked in soups and stews, burritos and quiches.
     I didn’t have much luck with several varieties of bok choy and broccoli raab this year, seeding every two weeks into both nursery packs and into the growing beds and getting decent germination but having most bolt (go to seed) shortly after transplanting before producing much foliage for me to harvest.  I guess I’ll blame that too on the flip-flopping weather.
     My several tomato plants that I’d transplanted almost two months ago are all doing nicely and have sorted themselves into different rates of growth due to some of them being shaded by the breadseed poppies that had germinated from last year’s crop.  I can’t bear to remove the poppies before they bloom, so I’ll just have to let the tomatoes fend on their own until the poppies are done.  This’ll give the tomatoes lots more time to develop really extensive root systems, which will ultimately enable them to produce even more tomatoes!  At least that’s what I’m telling myself….

For more garden tasks, see April.

For my main topic blogs, see Homepage.
 

Keep lavender and rosemary in a dry garden space away from other plants that want lots of water.

   One of the more frequent questions beginning gardeners ask is “When do I water, and how much?    To which experienced gardeners respond, “It depends”.  Frustratingly unhelpful for everyone!  But, it’s true – it depends on many factors specific to each garden in each season, each plant and each gardener.  What extent of direct sun and shade does the garden get during each month of the year?  What kind of soil is in each garden, and are there different kinds in different places? What plants are growing, how deep are their root systems, and are they drought-tolerant or water-needy?  How attentive is the gardener – walking through the garden daily or weekly or only when there’s something to harvest? 
     Each of these elements balanced together provides a list of possible answers to that basic question of when and how much to water and what methods to use.  Now’s the time to fit these pieces together to get plants growing well as we move into our warm summer season.
 
When Do I Water?
   Frequency changes depending on the weather.  Mostly to this point, we’ve had a coolish spring, so that wonderful quantity of November and December rains that soaked into the soil has not evaporated beyond the surface inch-deep or so.  But, those couple of days of 90-degree air temperatures weeks ago, combined with the current high-80-degree temperatures means that established plants have begun actively growing and pulling moisture from the soil.  Which means that gardeners need to begin consistently replacing that moisture as the air warmth continues and new plants are added.
     A basic timing schedule for watering during each season is:

• Spring = Once every 3 weeks.  Soils are still cool, and roots are just beginning to actively grow.
• Summer = Once a week, with more according to the plants’ specific foliage bulk and respiration rate – like fully-branched-out tomatoes when air temperatures are above 90-95 degrees.  Above these temperatures, plants shut down to wait until cooler temperatures return, so more water will run the risk of drowning them.
• Fall = Once every 2 weeks.  Soil temperatures are still warm, but air temperatures and direct sun are lessened, so plant roots are more comfortable and growing.
• Winter = Once a month if there’s no rain. As cool as we get – perhaps into the low 40 degrees, plant roots basically go dormant and stop growing, so more watering than this will run the risk of drowning the plant.

     You may be surprised at how infrequent this schedule is.  But, it leads directly into our next element.    

How Deeply Do I Water?
    Watering depth stays the same year-round for each group of plants so their entire root zones remain evenly moist.  Each time you water, you apply enough water to reach each plant’s bottom-most roots.  This is why it’s important to grow together those plants that have similar root depths and moisture needs.

• Shallow – to 1-foot depth – carrot (depending on variety), celery, lettuce, onion, radish, potato
• Moderate – to 2-foot depth – bean, carrot (depending on variety), cucumber, eggplant, pepper, squash
• Deep – to 3-foot depth – asparagus, globe artichoke, melon, pumpkin, tomato

 

• Water needs of individual plants are another consideration when you plant.  For example, keep lavender and rosemary (which want little water) separate from basil and cilantro (which want more water). 

      When you water more frequently and not as deeply, as I’ve specified above, plant roots stay close to the surface since that’s as far down as the water goes.  When hot weather bakes the soil, these roots also get baked, and the plant dies or becomes so weak from heat stress that it succumbs to pests. 
     I used to have a neighbor that loved to sprinkle her garden every evening when she came home from work.  It gave her great pleasure to be in touch with her garden and its plants. This worked fine during the mild spring weather.  However, once the daily air temperatures rose above 85 and 90 degrees, her plants were perpetually droopy, even when she took to sprinkling everything before she left for work in the morning as well as when she returned home in the evening.  Within two weeks, the plants died – the shallow roots never had the relief of growing deeply into the cooler soil, and they rotted out due to drowning from being watered twice a day that pushed out all the air pores.

What’s Soil Got To Do With It?
   The soil in the garden determines how quickly water is absorbed and how widely it spreads underground.  Sandy soil drains quickly and mostly downward.  Clay soil is the opposite, draining more slowly and sinking broadly but shallowly.  Loam soil, the middle type, spreads somewhat and goes down somewhat. 
     Incorporating more organic material in the soil – no matter which type of soil – will help the soil both drain and hold water while providing lots of air spaces for roots to develop.  
 
Which Methods Do I Use?
   Depending on how often you like to wander through your garden, and how much time you’d like to spend communing with each plant – or not – there are several watering methods that may satisfy both your needs and the plants’ needs.  In my garden, I employ all five of these options in different locations and at different times under different conditions.

• Hand-Held Hose – Deal with specific plant needs like needing more water than its neighbors or washing down foliage undersides to get rid of pests.
• Overhead Sprinkler – Wash off dust on foliage for more effective photosynthesis. My father installed an overhead sprinkler for each fruit tree 60 years ago and left the water running overnight for deep watering.  This is impractical now, so I now use it once a month to wash the foliage.
• Mini-Tube Drip Emitter On Timer – Especially good for individual plants spaced far apart so water isn’t “wasted” in between plants. Make sure entire root zone gets moist, not just one limited spot due to the type of emitter.
• Soaker “Leaky” Hose Under Mulch – Made of recycled tires, it drips along the entire length of the hose.  Lay it about 9” apart to achieve moisture going to the entire root zone, especially on fruit trees and intensively-planted raised beds.
• Buried 5-Gallon Nursery Container With Bottom Holes – Fill with water to gradually release into soil 9-11” deep, directly to plant root zones.  Adding a small shovelful of manure or compost into the container will enable each watering to add fertilizer as manure or compost “tea”.  Because water is released so deep into the soil, evaporation is minimal and roots remain consistently moist however hot the summer temperatures are.

 
For more monthly tasks, go to March and April.
 
For major-topic articles by season, go to Homepage.
 

Freesias' first blooms

Phlomis purpurea on left, Phlomis fruticosa on right.

What crazy weather, huh?  Tons of rain in November and December – totaling our “normal” annual amount of 11 inches.  Then no rain at all, not even a dribble, during all of January and February, which are usually our rainiest months.  Indeed, not only no rain, but into-the-90-degree temperatures which made us all (including the plants) think that Spring had sprung and resulted in some fruit trees blossoming and lettuce bolting (going to seed).  But no, that weather didn’t stick either, and now we’re back to Winter temperatures of 40s at night and merely 60s during daytime.  At least for last week and this week.  We can’t tell what’s coming next, and the garden’s trees and plants just mellow along with whatever is happening at each moment.
 
A walk through my garden an hour ago – see the photos -- revealed that not only is nobody suffering -- quite the opposite – everyone is robustly growing, probably in part to the brief torrent of rain we got yesterday evening that sank well into the plants’ rootzones. And the coolness that they’ve gotten used to both in the air (despite that week’s hot spell we had) and in the soil (which probably stayed cold through that hot spell). 

​And now, as I post this, it's raining again.  Yay!
 
An added bonus is that so many of my succulents are blooming their heads off.  I’m glad that over the years I have inadvertently chosen succulents that color up and bloom and multiply at different times of the year – some with winter’s cold and low sun, and others with summer’s heat and brilliant sun.  So something’s always looking good.
 
At the beginning of our cool season in November and December, we were justifiably concerned with air temperatures dipping into the 40s and 30s because of the potential damage to our tree and plant foliage since they hadn’t yet acclimated to the coolness.  But, by this time of year, even with that hot spell seemingly disrupting their dormancy, most plants are doing just fine because they’re used to the lower temperatures so aren’t shocked by the even-lower temperatures.  And, the rain did help remind the plants that they should continue growing well. 
 
This should be YOUR reminder to make sure that plants – especially those in containers – should be kept watered sufficient to keep the soil or potting mix moist so that roots are kept hydrated.  Not wet, since plants do grow so much more slowly during low temperatures and in many cases – like deciduous fruit trees -- are dormant or close to it so you don’t want to literally drown them.
 
Still Time for Growing Peas
If you’ve not grown edible peas before, you still have through the end of April to get seeds into the soil, although earlier sowing will produce a larger harvest.  Peas, I think, are the cool-season version of must-grow plants like tomatoes are for the warm season.  The flavor and crunch of munching the just-picked raw pea is beyond delicious delight.  And I think this is the case perhaps especially if you don’t like cooked peas.  There’s just no similarity.  Even purchasing them at the grocery store means they’re at least several days old.
 
If you’ll be planting peas soon, I suggest that you purchase the Wando variety because it is more heat-tolerant than other varieties, since the plants will be developing as the weather warms. 
 
I grow three different types:

1. Flat-podded when mature, with small actual interior peas, and the entire pod is edible.  This year, I’m growing Mammoth Melting Sugar, Oregon Sugar Pod, Sugar Magnolia.
2. Full-podded when mature, with large interior peas, and the entire pod is edible.  These are my favorite.  This year, I’m growing Royal II Sugar Snap, Sugar Snap, Super Sugar Snap.
3. Full-podded when mature, with large interior peas, and the pod isn’t completely edible.  These are my husband’s favorite.  After enjoying pulling apart the pods and eating the peas, he chews the empty pod, extracting all of its crunch and juiciness, before throwing the remaining mess of strings into the compost pile.  This year, I’m growing Alaska, Cascadia, Frosty, Green Arrow, Kelvedon Wonder, King Tut Purple, Laxton’s Progress #9, Lincoln, Little Marvel, Wando.

 
For more timely tasks, see March.
 
For major topics from previous blogs, see seasonal listings on Homepage.

     After last week’s mid-90s daytime temperatures, this week’s back to almost-60s daytime temperatures with mid-40s nighttime temperatures is definitely a throw-back to our ideal late-winter weather, with even another rainstorm promised next week.  So, congratulations if you’d sown more seeds and planted transplants of cool-season veggies and posies so they can take advantage of this weather to settle in nicely.  If it doesn’t end up raining, be sure to keep soil moist so seeds can germinate well. 
     This weather is great for double-duty in the garden – sowing and transplanting more cool-season items, and transplanting first warm-season plants like tomatoes and peppers which will have no problem establishing themselves into their new homes.  I just sowed my second batch of peas, and also my first batch of pole and bush beans. 
     However, of the many warm-season choices we’re anxious to get started in our outdoor gardens, tomatoes and peppers are the only ones that will truly take off now.  Don’t even think about purchasing transplants of other warm-weather lovers like cucumber, eggplant, and squash which are just too tender to withstand further chill, especially when the soil is still so cold – they’ll just sit there and pout at you for subjecting them to such an undesirably chilly environment; and they may not even survive to when the weather becomes consistently warm.  Better to wait to get them in in another month -- or even two --  so they can truly thrive; ultimately these will bear much more prolifically.
     Each year, more and more nurseries – even big box stores – are carrying organically grown tomato and pepper seedlings of many more varieties earlier in the season.  I just purchased and transplanted sturdy-stemmed plants in 4-inch containers of my favorite tomatoes – Black Krim, Celebrity, Cherokee Purple, Stupice and Sungold.  Others I’m trying this year are a Brandywine Red and a Chocolate Sprinkles cherry tomato.
     For more of my favorites, I’ll depend on Tomatomania selections (some 200 tomatoes and 100 peppers at most sites) to plant as follow-up crops next month and into early April.  See https://tomatomania.com/ for the schedule of events. 
     I also transplanted 8 volunteer tomatoes that came up of their own accord in January, apparently from my compost that was spread around the garden and germinating as a result of December rains and January’s heat.  We’ll see whether it was worth giving them garden space when we harvest and eat them later this summer!
 
Planting Herbs
     Now’s a great time to take advantage of adding herbs to your garden for your culinary uses. 
     I sow cilantro and parsley seeds, and also transplant 4” containers of them.  I choose containers that are as crowded as possible, to make sure I’m buying as many individual plants as possible so I’ll have more to transplant, spacing them a couple of inches apart in my garden.  In between them, I’ll sow more seeds that’ll be edible after a couple of cuttings of the transplanted container ones.
     I’ll wait on purchasing or sowing basil, since it’s too tender to endure what might continue to be 40s-or even 50s-degrees nights. 
     Herbs that are drought-tolerant after they’re established include garlic chives, lavender, lemon balm, onion chives, oregano, marjoram, rosemary, sage and thyme.  These will need to be planted away from plants that need lots of water, like that cilantro and parsley.
 
     A warning about planting any mints – don’t plant it directly into garden soil unless you want a literally neverending supply.  Instead, plant it in a container with a drip hole that’s on pavement or other surface nowhere near the soil.  Mint roots are notorious for gaining access to soil and then taking over, so don’t give it even the possibility!  I learned this as a little kid – my Mom had planted mint under an orange tree, and by the time she decided that it had been too vigorous, it took 4 years of digging up new shoots to remove it all!
 
For more timely tasks, see February and March.
 
For major topics from previous blogs, see seasonal listings on Homepage.
 
 

      As lucky as we in Southern California are, being able to sow seeds and transplant seedlings every day throughout the year, some timings are potentially more successful than others.  And equally mysterious in trying to gauge what the future will bring.  Now is one of those times.  Should I continue to sow and plant more cool-season plants, with this week’s forecast of 80+ daytime temperatures? The short answer is yes, since we really don’t know what the future will bring, nighttime temperatures promise to remain in the 50s, and it is only February.  If it was mid-April or May, I’d say to shift to warm-season crops exclusively.  But, for now, continue to go with cool-season veggies and posies through at least March.
 
Start Watering:  Methods
     Since it’s been more than a full month since it rained, though, the garden will definitely need irrigation, so start applying water either by hand or via soaker hoses or drip irrigation or overhead sprinkler.  Each method differs in how it moistens the soil surrounding the plant, and consequently different plants do best with different modes.

• By hand is best for individual attention to plants when they need specific attention like filling a basin of a tomato plant.
• Soaker hose that weeps along its length (not just with holes a foot apart) can be strung about 9” apart throughout and around plants so the entire bed is moistened. This is ideal for closely-planted vegetable beds.
• Drip irrigation can be applied to individual plants that grow several feet from other plants. Be sure to use the appropriate head that will moisten the soil completely around the plant.  One great fault with this method is for the head to provide water only directly onto the center or stem of the plant alone, and leave the rest of the rootzone dry.
• Overhead sprinkler is ideal for grass.  The problem with its use for perennials or other ornamentals is that once they attain some size after a year or two, chances are the sprinkler spray will be blocked for any longer-distance plant.

 
Start Watering:  Depth and Frequency

• Depth of watering is consistent year-round depending on the individual plants -- however much is necessary to reach just below the full root zone of each plant.  For grass, this is 6”.  For most ornamentals, this is 12”.  For many vegetables, this is 12”; for tomatoes, it can be 3 feet! For trees, it’s 18-36”.
• Frequency of watering changes with the seasons because of the intensity of the heat and evaporation, and the bulkiness of the plant’s foliage.  Test how long it takes for water to reach the desired depth – water one day, and dig into the soil the next day to see how far down the water went.  Then, adjust the length of time you applied the water.  If your soil is heavier, like clay, you may have to water some on one day (until runoff) and then again more the next day (until runoff) to get the soil moist deep enough but avoid having runoff.  Timings may be as little as once a month during winter, once every two weeks in the Spring and Fall, but as frequently during our Summer as twice a week during our weeks of more than 100 degrees.

 
For more of what to do this month, see February’s Monthly Tips
 
For more main-topic articles from past blogs, see Home Page

     My garden hasn’t had frost – either hard or light – for many years, but I still consider that there are two separate ranges of dates for sowing vegetable seeds of cool-season crops.  The critical date is January 31, which is the average last frost date for my garden. 
     I consider this to split our cool season into two pieces.  Seeds sown prior to that date will develop during progressively cold weather and therefore probably bolt or go to seed as the weather begins warming in the spring.  Seeds sown after that date will develop during progressively warm weather and continue to bear food until they bolt in the summer. 
     So, I sow my cool-season seeds twice, during both timeslots.  Seeds sown in August through November will be for harvesting through the winter.  Seeds sown in February and March will be for harvesting through the spring.  I can’t count on the August-through-November plants to bear through till spring, because they’ll bolt as soon as the spring warmth tells them to set their seed.  So, my February-and-March sowing begins harvest when the first batch bolts. 
     I count on more of a yield with the earlier planting since it has several months of harvest, and less of a yield with the spring sowing because the plants have a shorter time to develop and me to harvest before they bolt.
     So, for example, I sowed parsley last fall, and we’ve been eating it since then, cutting several times.  These plants will bolt with spring’s warmth, so my parsley that I’ll sow in February and March will provide all the parsley we’ll need from then through early summer.  Then, I’ll sow it again next fall. 
 
What Are Frost Temperatures and Damage?
According to https://www.almanac.com/gardening/frostdates/, the classification of freeze temperatures is based on their effect on plants:

• Light freeze: 29° to 32°F — tender plants are killed.
• Moderate freeze: 25° to 28°F — widely destructive to most vegetation.
• Severe freeze: 24°F  and colder — heavy damage to most garden plants.

 
What Should I Plant When?
According to https://www.almanac.com/gardening/planting-calendar/zipcode/ (put in your own zipcode), there are listings of many vegetables and the general date range to start seeds indoors, plant seedlings or transplants outdoors, or start seeds outdoors.  Instead of the “N/A” entries, I recommend doing that activity at a date similar to the other entries.  For example, sowing beets outdoors from mid-February to mid-March.  Also, because we never really know what the weather will do, I recommend additional sowings later in the season (as April and May for those beets) for potentially more food!  If those additional sowings don't develop after all, that's ok -- because if they do, then you've got lots more food for that simple "gamble"!
 
Some Cool-Season Varieties I’ve Enjoyed

• Beets – Bulls Blood, Chioggia, Cylindra, Detroit Dark Red, Early Wonder, Ruby Queen
• Broccoli – Calabrese Green Sprouting, DiCicco, Purple Sprouting
• Broccoli Raab , Bok Choy, Other Greens – Aspabroc, Green Glaze Collards, Kailaan Chinese Broccoli, Komatsuna Japanese Spinach Mustard, Purple Lady Bok Choy, Rapini, Tatsoi, Toy Choy, Yellow Heart Winter Choy
• Carrots – Bolero Nantes, Danvers Half-Long, Little Finger, Romeo, Scarlet Nantes, Thumblina,
• Cauliflower – Cheddar, Romanesco, Sicilian Violet, Verde Di Macerata
• Kale – Lacinato, Red Russian, Blue Curled Scotch Vates,  
• Kohlrabi – Purple Vienna, White Vienna
• Leek – American Flag, French Baby, Giant Musselburg, King Richard, Primor, Striesen, White Lisbon,
• Lettuce – Bibb, Black Seeded Simpson, Bronze Mignonette, Buttercrunch, Butterhead, Butter King, Cimaron, Cosmic Crimson, Forellenschluss, Marvel of Four Seasons, May Queen, Red Salad Bowl, Rouge D’Hiver, Sanguine Ameliore, Speckles, Tennis Ball, Tom Thumb, Valentine
• Peas (Shelling) – Alaska, Frosty, Green Arrow, Kelvedon Wonder, King Tut Purple, Laxton’s Progress #9, Lincoln, Little Marvel, Maestro, Wando
• Peas (Edible Pod, flat) – Dwarf Grey Sugar, Mammoth Melting, Oregon Sugar Pod II,
• Peas (Edible Pod, full) – Cascadia, Royal II Sugar Snap, Sugar Ann, Sugar Daddy, Sugar Magnolia, Sugar Snap, Sugar Snappy, Super Sugar Snap, Tendersweet
• Spinach – Bloomsdale Long Standing, Dark Green Bloomsdale, Giant Noble, Merlo Nero, Oriental Giant
• Swiss Chard – Bright Lights, Celebration, El Dorado, Five Color, Fordhook Giant, Garden Rainbow, Italian Silver Rib, Neon Glow, Neon Lights, Peppermint Stick, Ruby Red

 

     That wonderful week of rain – 5 inches here in Pasadena – got me reading Amy Goldman’s exceptionally informative The Heirloom Tomato from 2008.  I made a list of tomato varieties according to her judgements as fresh-eating with excellent flavor and a pleasing balance of acid and sweet.  Although the book is from 2008, and she grew her crops in New York, I feel that her scientific breakdown of the Brix (sweetness) values equaled my subjective assessments from many of the varieties that I have grown, so am willing to accept her determinations about others I’m not yet familiar with.  At least until I grow them myself!
      I usually give a new variety three chances in my garden before I either add it to my must-grow list or don’t-bother-anymore lists for future years.  This extensive in-the-garden experience proves to me that either the variety is consistently good or it isn’t worth further space and effort in the garden. Consequently I’ve grown many MANY tomato varieties over the years and have a definite sense of which qualities my family prefers. 
 
Why Now?
     Why bother thinking about summer’s tomatoes at the beginning of January, when our nights are barely above freezing and daytimes are at best in the 60s?  Mainly because I’m already enjoying eating my overwintering cool-season crops and love planning for summer’s reason for gardening! 
     For you, if you’re someone who starts your own tomato seeds for transplanting in February and March, my lists may help you determine which varieties to choose.
     Or, perhaps more likely, if you’ll wait until you can purchase 4” seedling plants when they become available at local nurseries or upcoming Tomatomania locations or online, my lists may also guide your choices.
 
Tomatoes In Amy's Book That I’ve Grown and Will Again

• Big Rainbow, 5.5 Brix
• Black Cherry, 9
• Black Krim or Black Crimea, 5
• Flamme or Jaun Flamme, 6
• Green Doctors, 9.5
• Green Grape, 7.5
• Japanese Oxheart, 5
• Marvel Striped, 7
• Pruden’s Purple or Peruvian Black, 6.5
• Yellow Brandywine, 7

 
Tomatoes In Amy's Book That I’ve Not Grown But Will Try to Find

• African Queen, 6 Brix
• Aunt Gertie’s Gold, 6
• Aunt Ginny’s Purple, 5
• Aunt Ruby’s German Green, 5.25
• Believe It or Not, 5.25
• Bicolor Mortgage Lifter, 5.5
• Big Ben, 5
• Black Russian, 5
• Burpee’s Globe, 6
• Dixie Golden Giant, 6
• Gold Medal or Ruby Gold, 6.5
• Goldman’s Italian American, 7
• Great White, 6
• Green Giant, 5.5
• Hugh’s, 5.5
• Hungarian Heart, 7
• McClintock Bog Pink, 5.5
• Pink Salad, 6.5
• Radiator Charlie’s Mortgage Lifter, 5
• Red Brandywine, 7.5-9
• Red Rose, 7
• Sudduth’s Brandywine, 6
• White Beauty, 5
• Wild Sweetie, 10
• Yellow Peach 7

 
Varieties In Amy's Book That I’ve Grown, Didn’t Like, and Won’t Grow Again
(Amy listed their flavor as poor or fair)

• Ailsa Craig, 4.5 Brix
• Big Zebra, 5
• Black From Tula. 5
• Black Prince, 5
• Black Zebra, 4.5
• Copia, 4.5
• Costoluto Genovese, 5
• Green Zebra, 5
• Marmande, 4
• Persimmon, 5
• Purple Calabash, 6.5
• Red Zebra, 5
• Rutgers, 5
• Tiger Tom or Tigerella, 6

 
My 2021 Results:  Not Considered in Amy’s Book
     In 2021, I harvested 1013 tomatoes from 30 plants, 828 small ones and 185 big ones. 

• Varieties I’ll definitely grow again because of their high yield and flavor:
  • Isis Candy
  • Stupice
  • Cherokee Purple
  • Sungold
  • Celebrity
  • Cherokee Chocolate
  • Cherokee Purple

 

• Varieties I tried for the first or second time and may or may not try again:
  • Paul Robeson
  • Cherokee Carbon
  • Brad’s Atomic Grape
  • Atomic Fusion
  • Pineapple
  • Kellogg’s Breakfast
  • Indigo Gold Berries
  • Brandy Boy
  • Carbon

Happy Tomato-ing!

For more of what to do this month, see January’s Monthly Tips
 
For more main-topic articles from past blogs, see Home Page 

     What are “Chill Hours” and why do they matter for nut and fruit trees (except for citrus)?  Chill hours are accumulated when the air temperature is between 32 and 45 degrees minus the number of hours when the air temperatures is above 60 degrees.  As these chill hours accumulate, the trees stay “dormant” – literally taking a rest because their systems are shutting down to a bare minimum of activity.  With this week’s rain and chilly weather staying below 41 degrees during the nights and below 61 degrees during the days, fruit trees and other plants are definitely benefiting. 
     The number of chill hours is what determines the likelihood of successful fruit-bearing wherever they are grown.  It’s best to try to match the tree variety's required number of chill hours with where they’re grown.
     For example, when we lived in Davis, one of my favorite plum trees was Green Gage.  Since Davis generally gets between 800-1000 chill hours annually, many trees are successful there.  However, since my Pasadena area gets only between 350 and 450 chill hours (and I think that’s overly optimistic, given previous winters of drought and warmth), we have a much more limited group of possibilities for success.  Because Green Gage generally requires 700 hours, it’ll do very nicely in Davis but not so well here in Pasadena. 
     Even with wishfully hoping that the number of supposedly required chill hours for a particular tree variety is more than it can actually produce a good number of fruit, Green Gage is beyond my success.  I proved this to myself when we’d first moved back down here from Davis in 1994, when our winters still had a good amount of both rain and cold.  I’d purchased a Green Gage and planted it in a spot that got the most winter chill in my yard, so I thought that we might get even a minimum amount of fruit.  But that poor tree struggled for a couple of years, putting out progressively less foliage and few blossoms, and then it gave up completely.  Because my yard hadn’t provided anywhere near enough chill hours, the tree couldn’t go dormant and rest before each successive year’s push of new growth.  So it literally grew itself to death.
     One example of the number of chill hours between 32 and 45 degrees for several locations in Los Angeles County between November 1 and February 28/29 are:  Arleta 52, Chatsworth 19, Glendale 0, Long Beach 64, Monrovia 43, Palmdale 297, Palmdale Central 192, Pomona 68, Santa Clarita 55, Santa Monica 0, West Hills 43.  For other locations, see https://fruitsandnuts.ucanr.edu/Weather_Services/Chill_Calculators/ .
 
     Here are some low-chill fruit tree varieties (less than 300 hours) suggested by Grow Organic, https://www.groworganic.com/blogs/articles/chill-hours-what-are-they-how-do-i-count-them-and-why-do-my-fruit-trees-car --
Apples – Anna, Low Chill multi-graft, Dorsett and Sundowner
Apricots – Gold Kist or Katy
Plums – Methley, Burgundy, Satsuma or Mariposa
Pluot – Dapple Supreme
Cherry – Royal Lee, Minnie Royal and Royal Crimson
Peach – Red Baron, Low Chill multi-graft, Saturn, Babcock, Sauzee Swirl, Mid-Pride and Eva's Pride
Nectarine – Spice Zee Nectaplum, Double Delight or Snow Queen
Pears – most require over 300 chill hours. Asian pears require the lowest chill hours of all pears.
Figs, Pomegranates, Quince, Persimmons – all require 300 or less chill hours
Special Hybrids – Spice Zee Nectaplum or Flavor Delight Aprium

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