Simone Spotlight - Fall Garden

August 8th

🎉 Hey East Bay 🎉

There’s no denying it now. Fall is on its way, meaning it’s time to bid farewell to our summer gardens and start planting cool weather crops.

Here are a few tips from the manager of Our Garden, the Contra Costa Master Gardeners, and Bay Area News Groups’ demonstration garden, Janet Miller who offers her expert advice on what to plant now, later, and even into next year.

Make Room for your Cool Season Crops -

Miller advises that before planting anything, to prepare your beds. She recommends cutting down your summer plants at the base, leaving the root bulb and roots in the ground. Chop the other material into small pieces and scatter them over the bed to compost in place. Loosen the soil down to 12 or 18 inches with a broad fork or garden fork, then top with a layer of fresh soil or compost.
There are two planting seasons in the fall and winter: now through October and sometimes into November, and again in February through the end of April. December and January are too cold and wet to worry about planting.
Luckily in The East Bay, frost is not something that you have to worry about when planting your fall garden.

When to Plant Your Cool Season Plants for Your Fall Garden:

October-November: Plant fava beans, cowpeas, field peas, and phacelia. It’s important that you don’t leave beds empty. A lot of microbial life is in the soil and it needs the plants to survive and make your beds more fertile for the next garden season.

November-December: Good time to plant fava beans.

Late February-March: Plant onions and another round of broccoli, cauliflower, kale, chard, carrots, beets, lettuce, and arugula.

Here is a link to the farmer’s almanac if you want to create a planting calendar for your specific zip code:

https://www.almanac.com/gardening/planting-calendar/zipcode/94611