Welcome to the October Edition
Happy Sunday, everyone! The heat has finally let go, we've had a little rain, and the garden is shifting gears. This month I'm sharing a November planting guide for cool-season vegetables, including garlic and onions, which do best planted by mid-November, along with planning tools that help you plant in waves so the harvest keeps coming through winter. You'll also find details on Monday's garden cleanup livestream and a few local plant sales worth marking on your calendar. Keep reading on the website for the full issue.
Monday Livestream
Join me Monday, October 26, at 5pm for a new Garden Hangout live stream. This one is a garden cleanup stream, so come hang out while I get my hands dirty. I've moved the start time from 5:30 to 5pm so we don't run out of sunlight.
Join live: youtube.com/live/UMoZyyPIm1E
Since the newsletter is monthly now, the best way to get a reminder for each stream is to join the email notification list, or subscribe on YouTube and turn on notifications.
I'm also planning a marathon livestream, where I'll be on for multiple hours. More details coming soon.
Local Events
This Month
California Native Plant Sale Saturday, November 14, 9am–2pm Monrovia Historical Museum, 742 E. Lemon St., Monrovia
CNPS Events Calendar Plant sales, talks, and field trips from California Native Plant Society chapters across the state. Filter by chapter to find events near you.
California Botanic Garden Events Classes, walks, and free gardening mini-workshops in Claremont. The Garden's Grow Native Nursery also posts a weekly plant inventory.
In the Garden: Cool-Season Vegetables
The Heat Is Finally Over
The heat has finally broken. We've had a bit of rain, the mornings are cooler, and the garden is shifting gears. For a lot of us here in Southern California, this is when the vegetable garden really gets going again, and the next few weeks are a good time to get cool-season crops in the ground.
Before we get to what to plant, a quick note: everything in this article is a recommendation, not gospel. We all garden in slightly different zones and microclimates, with different soil, different sun, and different critters. Use this as a starting point, pay attention to what your own garden tells you, and adjust.
Prep Your Beds
Cool-season crops need room, so start by clearing out whatever summer left behind. Finished warm-season plants can come out and head to the compost bin, which frees up space and returns that organic matter to the soil. If your tomatoes are still hanging on and you’re not ready to pull them, I just released a video on late-season tomato pruning that may help.
There’s no need to turn or loosen the soil. When you pull a plant, snip it at the base and leave the roots in the ground, where they’ll break down and feed the soil life. The exception is soil that’s really hard-packed, where a little loosening may be worth it to give roots a way in. Otherwise, add a light layer of compost on top and let the soil organisms do the work. A couple of inches of mulch around transplants moderates soil temperature and keeps weeds down. Cool-season weeds sprout quickly this time of year, so it pays to stay ahead of them.
Plant in Waves
One of the best ways to keep a winter garden productive is succession planting, or what I call planting in waves. Instead of sowing a whole bed at once, you stagger plantings a couple of weeks apart so everything doesn't mature on the same weekend. Radishes are a good example: sow a short row every 10 to 14 days and you can keep harvesting through January.
Two planning tools can take some of the guesswork out of timing:
Seedtime builds a planting calendar from your area's average frost dates and can add succession plantings in a couple of clicks, so you can see when each wave goes in and when it should be ready to harvest.
Planter pairs a garden layout planner with a growing calendar that shows when to start seeds, transplant, and harvest. Be sure to enter your zip code so the planting dates fit your area.
Both have free versions, though some features sit behind a paid plan. Treat the dates either tool suggests as a starting point, and adjust for your own microclimate.
A November Planting Blueprint
This blueprint is written for Zones 9b to 10a, which covers much of the San Gabriel Valley and the surrounding foothills. If you're in a cooler or warmer pocket, shift your timing a little.
Alliums (aim for before mid-November)
Garlic: Softneck varieties such as California Early, California Late, and Inchelium Red. Plant cloves about 1 to 2 inches deep and 4 to 6 inches apart in rich, well-draining soil.
Shallots: Plant sets (French Red, Dutch Yellow) with the tips just beneath the surface, about 6 inches apart.
Onions: Short-day varieties tend to do best here, such as Texas Early White/Yellow Grano, Red Creole, and Southern Belle. Long-day or day-neutral sets sold at big-box stores may struggle to form good bulbs.
Leeks and scallions: Set transplants in trenches and hill up the soil as they grow, or broadcast scallion seed.
Large cool-season crops (usually easiest from transplants)
Cole crops: Broccoli, cauliflower, Romanesco, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, and kohlrabi. Space them 18 to 24 inches apart.
Leafy greens: Collards, Lacinato kale, Red Russian kale, and Swiss chard.
Lettuce and Asian greens: Romaine, butterhead, bok choy, tatsoi, and gai lan. Start from cell packs, or direct-sow in sheltered beds.
Root crops (generally do best direct-seeded)
Carrots and parsnips: Sow from the surface to ¼ inch deep in loose soil. Keep the soil evenly damp until they sprout (10 to 18 days) with a board, burlap, or a light dusting of sifted compost over the row.
Beets and turnips: Sow ½ inch deep, 3 to 4 inches apart. Soak beet seeds for 4 to 6 hours before planting.
Radishes and daikon: The fastest crop in the garden. Sow successive rows every 10 to 14 days for harvests through January.
Legumes
Fava beans: Sow 1 to 2 inches deep, 6 to 8 inches apart. If you're planting in fresh or disturbed ground, inoculate with Rhizobium.
Sugar snap and snow peas: Direct-sow along trellises or bed netting facing full south sun.
Winter herbs
Cilantro, Italian flat-leaf parsley, chervil, dill, garlic chives, and chives: Direct seed or divide.
Rosemary, winter savory, oregano, and culinary sage: These woody perennials establish good root systems now, before spring growth begins.
Things to Watch This Time of Year
Caterpillars: Cabbage loopers and imported cabbageworms stay active well into November in sunny foothill microclimates. Floating row covers over brassica transplants can keep them off, and Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) is an option at the first sign of holes in the leaves.
Santa Ana winds: When dry offshore wind advisories hit, a deep morning soak helps young transplants and seeded rows. Wind can dry out the top of the soil quickly, which is hard on emerging carrot and allium sprouts.
Frost: In most of our area, frost is rare and hard freezes are very unlikely in November. If you’re in a colder pocket, such as a low spot or closer to the foothills, keep an eye on the forecast on clear, still nights from December on. Most cool-season crops handle a light chill well, and many get sweeter for it.
Where to Find More
For a month-by-month look at what to plant and tend, Roger's Gardens has a November gardening checklist covering vegetables, herbs, fruit trees, natives, and more. It's written from the Orange County coast, so adjust the timing for your own microclimate.
Take what's useful here, adjust it to your own yard, and pay attention to what your garden tells you.
Thought of the Month: Planting in Waves
Earlier in this issue I talked about succession planting. Instead of sowing a whole bed at once, you stagger your plantings a couple of weeks apart. The reason is simple. If everything goes in on the same weekend, everything is ready on the same weekend, and you end up with more radishes than you can eat, followed by nothing at all.
I think life works the same way. It's easy to try to do everything at once: take on every project, say yes to every request, and pack the calendar until there's no room left. Sometimes that works for a while, but it usually leaves us with a big rush of effort followed by a gap, and we can burn out in between.
Spreading things out is a kind of planning. It means making sure we have what we need over time, whether that's energy, income, rest, or time with the people we care about. A few things planted now, a few more in two weeks, and a few more after that gives us something to harvest all season long.
So if you're feeling overloaded right now, you might look at what could be moved to a later wave. Not everything has to go in the ground this weekend.
See you Monday evening for the livestream!
