Fall Garden Help!

October 6, 2010 7:09 PM

What should I plant?

I have a 5' x 1' plot of soil in the East Bay, CA.

What can/should I plant in the fall season? Flowers? Produce? Tips on caring for fall crops?

Thanks!

posted by tessalations999 to Home & Garden (6 answers total)

It gets cold and much less sunny in the winter up there, so I'm not sure that many flowers would be a good choice. How do you feel about greens? This is prime time for lettuce, arugula, or even beets. Good herbs would include parsley, cilantro, chervil, and winter savory.
posted by Gilbert at 7:37 PM on October 6, 2010

Kale, peas, chard, lettuce, carrots, parsnips, beets, leeks, chives, shallots.
posted by elsietheeel at 7:43 PM on October 6, 2010

Standard guidance for fall/winter crops is root and leaf crops. You can help them by reflecting light onto them. In SLO county carrots do well year-round, not sure about your zone. Fall's a great time to prep soil and start putting in seeds, bulbs and corms for early spring blossoms if you want some flowers. Your local OSH probably has a good selection. Ranunculus, fresias, spraxis, babiana don't require much water and don't take up a lot of space but have rewarding flowers, plus the fragrance of fresias is great.
posted by X4ster at 8:08 PM on October 6, 2010

Oh, and as for caring for the crops, make sure you have a plan for cold snaps. This could be as complicated as a cold frame or row cover (rebar, pcv, cloth, and maybe some binder clips), or it could even be an old bedsheet weighted down with rocks. Below-freezing temps *will* mess up your leafy veggies.
posted by Gilbert at 9:18 PM on October 6, 2010

is it a sunny spot? what is the soil like? also, where in the east bay are you? east of the hills or west?
posted by juliapangolin at 8:40 AM on October 7, 2010

Response by poster: I am in Oakland, north of Lake Merritt, its pretty sunny but part of the plot is in the shade all the time.
posted by tessalations999 at 12:50 PM on October 9, 2010