Re: Fall activities along the coast?
- Subject: Re: Fall activities along the coast?
- From: d* f*
- Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2001 19:22:23 -0700 (PDT)
--- Nan Sterman <nsterman@plantsoup.com> wrote:
>
> Do folks further north see fall as high garden time
> too?
>
> Nan
> --
> **********
> '''''''''''''''''''''''
> Nan Sterman
> San Diego County California
> Sunset zone 24, USDA hardiness zone 10b or 11
>
Nan,
In northern California, I think you could safely say
that fall is the best time to plant almost everything,
except as Jason mentioned, the more tender things
which might freeze, and would benefit from the extra
growth generated from planting in the spring. I
especially like to plant in October or November all
those new plantings which are going into gardens
without any automatic irrigation system. I find this
gives me the best guarantee of success without undue
attention to return visits to check on watering, in
case the client didn't pay attention to the new
plantings and the need to irrigate or not. I
generally like to wait until we've had at least a rain
fall or two, and find the ground is both easier to
dig, and can generally expect that the rains will
continue to do the work for me.
In my own garden or those I design with automatic
irrigation, I tend to plant things whenever I can find
the time, rather than by the season or
weather/rainfall, and love the flexibility of
irrigation timers which allow for multiple start
times, which are perfect for getting new things
established even in the height of hot summer weather.
I must admit this isn't the most efficient method to
minimize water use, but I don't design that many
gardens with all native plantings or summer water
sensitive plants. The mix of things like bromeliads
and succulents in many of my gardens can both do just
fine here with just a few minutes of wetting down a
day, even in summer, so they don't really require that
much irrigation, even if they aren't strictly
mediterannean in habitat.
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