Spring Gardening - Zone 8 - California

[vja4Him]

Anyone else planting a spring garden in Zone 8, California? I've made several spring plantings in thet past week:

-- several varieties of spinach
-- several varieties of Swiss chard
-- mustard greens (several varieties)
-- Chinese cabbage
-- red radishes
-- turnips
-- beets
-- cilantro
-- kale
-- peppers (nine different varieties so far)
-- tomatoes (pear, cherry and lemon)

Now I have to put up several fences by this weekend to keep out the bunnies ...

 

[lesa]

Welcome!! Sounds like you are off to a great start! I am in zone 4, and have planted many of the same things. Tomatoes won't go in till end of May!! As soon as the snow melted I could see my cilantro growing. That is one hardy herb. I can just about taste the salsa! Enjoy your new garden- we would love to see pics.

 

[ninnymary]

Live in Alameda, I've planted:

mix lettuce
mesclun
golden beets,
swiss chard
radishes
spinach
scarlet runner beans
kentucky wonder pole beans
carrots
fennel
cilantro
tomatoes (early girl, SF fog, hillbilly, roma)
jalapeno pepper
golden zuchini
cucumbers
crookneck squash
peas


Yet to plant:

basil
orange bell pepper
other heirloom tomatoe
eggplant

I have a small bed but everything is packed and some are in pots.

Mary

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

I'm in zone 7b and we had snow two days ago. sigh...

oh and all my seeds that I bought from Lowes never sprouted in my flats in my house. 100% failure; like eggplant, yellow tomato, cosmos, kale, and some other flowers.

 

[ducks4you]

, murphysranch!
...um... I don't know WHERE gold country is.

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

Way back when gold was found in CA, they penned Gold Country as being on the western side of the Sierra Foothills. In fact, I'm 10 miles from Angels Camp, where Mark Twain penned about the jumping frogs during the Gold Rush in the mid 1800's.

 

[vja4Him]

Welcome!! Sounds like you are off to a great start! I am in zone 4, and have planted many of the same things. Tomatoes won't go in till end of May!! As soon as the snow melted I could see my cilantro growing. That is one hardy herb. I can just about taste the salsa! Enjoy your new garden- we would love to see pics.

You have cilantro growing in the snow! I knew that it grew well in the cold, but I never imagined it was that hardy!

I've made several plantings of cilantro. I'm not sure just how it will do when the weather gets very warm .... We have already seen several days in April in the 80s, and will have a few days in the 90s. May will be even warmer, with the nights warming up even more. June will be even warmer yet, and by July, we will be into our very hot weather until the end of September.

 

[theOEGBman]

I would have finished cleaning the garden today, but it's been pouring!

Zone 8 here too, as you know, but all I have in the ground currently is onions.

 

[vja4Him]

Live in Alameda, I've planted:

mix lettuce
mesclun
golden beets,
swiss chard
radishes
spinach
scarlet runner beans
kentucky wonder pole beans
carrots
fennel
cilantro
tomatoes (early girl, SF fog, hillbilly, roma)
jalapeno pepper
golden zuchini
cucumbers
crookneck squash
peas


Yet to plant:

basil
orange bell pepper
other heirloom tomatoe
eggplant

I have a small bed but everything is packed and some are in pots.

Mary

Looks like you must utilize every square foot/inch that you can! I have most of my plants packed in very close. I've planted this way for years, due to lack of space.

So far, everything is growing just fine. I'm concerned about worms .... In the past I've had problems with worms on tomatoes, cabbage, peas, and other plants ...

Any suggestions what is good to use to get rid of those nasty critters?

I'll be planting several varieties (I think four or five) of basil, sunflowers, nasturiums, marigolds, pumpkins, corn, sage, and I'd like to plant a few more kohlrabi and collards.

It's raining too hard today, so I'll have to wait until at leasat Tuesday or Wednesday to plant outside. I have a bunch of Jiffy pots. I think I'll give them a try with the basil and flowers ....

 

[vja4Him]

I'm in zone 7b and we had snow two days ago. sigh...

oh and all my seeds that I bought from Lowes never sprouted in my flats in my house. 100% failure; like eggplant, yellow tomato, cosmos, kale, and some other flowers.

That's odd ..... Maybe you got a bad batch of seeds ... ???

I've always had very good success with kale. Last year I had poor success with planting tomato seeds. I think they soil (in small containers) dried out. I've never planted cosmos from seed. Planted a bunch of cosmos plants last year, but the gophers got them!!!