So Cal April Garden Report - It's Melon Time!

Every time I think the greens will bolt it cools off again. It's summer! It's winter! It's summer! It's winter! Geeesh. Anyway, assuming we do not go into a deep freeze, it is time to plant the first melons. It looks like it will be warming up with night temps in the 40s or 50s but that is normal.

Anyway - What To Plant Now:

Beans, Bush
Beans, Pole
Beets
Cantalope
Carrots
Corn
Cucumber
Eggplant
Herbs
Jicama
Lima Beans
Melons
Onions/Garlic sets
Parsley
Peppers
Potatoes
Pumpkin
Squash, summer
Squash, Winter
Sunflowers
Tomato plants
Watermelon

Also this is the last really good month to plant potatoes, but you might get away with it until June.

Saw a fellow SFG forum member at the local Armstrong and we did not say one word to each other! LOL. It was at a tomato class and I had to leave for another appointment. We spoke by text, but not in person. Ah, the future is now.

Anyway, I am way behind with only one tomato plant in the ground (one of the gold ones) and a few bean seeds. But still harvesting plenty of salad greens, some carrots and the peas are starting to come fast and furious.

Btw, I have decided to build, plant and optionally maintain SFGs for people so feel free to pass this info on (San Diego and Riverside Counties). PM me here and I will give you my phone number. I am even having cards made! Love that Vistaprint.

What's happening in your garden? Some of you must be way ahead of me.

About a month ago:

Looks good to me. I'm in zone 9a and the winter was so mild my winter didn't do that great but I have a head start on the summer garden.

tomatoes

sweet peppers

hot peppers

eggplant

rosemary

greek orageno

cilantro

spring onions

passion fruit

cucumbers

green pole beans

lettuce

and flowers

Sounds good. I like to dedicate squares or a whole box to flowers too. Don't have a spare this year, but it is always a good idea. Most of the flowers I like do not make good cut flowers, but I find that zinnias do and they last about as long as mums but have a longer season.

the flowers I grow are in pots and I plant them to attract benefical insects. I like the pots so I can move them where they will do the most good;)

You are soooo lucky. I can't plant anything out until May! Last year it snowed here on Mother's Day. :-(

I'm down in zone 22, my lettuces bolted back at the beginning of March. My cukes and melon are struggling in their starters because of the cold nights.

Trying two new melons this year. Green Machine and Ananas D'Amerique A Chair Verte Melon The green machines aren't germinating very well, only 3/7. The Ananas did well with 6/6. The cukes also did well with 17/18. Was hoping the green machine would grow well as the hertitage melons like Ananas I tend to have funny problems with.

My raise bed I was planning on planting them in still get's a bit too much shade since it's early.

I was worried about bolting and when I thought it would for sure happen, it would cool off again. Like now. But I am currently tired of not having any free squares so will likely pull out the lettuce this week anyway. And I think the taste is starting to lean to bitter. I am in zone 18 right now.

I'm in the process of expanding the vermiculite content in my beds. Originally I needed to shortage the mix going more outdoor patio mix due to lack of Verm when I set up. I think the vermiculite makes a huge difference in SoCal in preventing over watering while at the same time helping the soil retain more water. i.e. the soil will stay moist without being soggy longer and helps prevent dry spots.

If you recall my failures last year, my drip set up did not keep up. I'm not switching from a drip set up to a spray system to cover the area and hopefully prevent dry patch spreading. We'll see. This weekend, I will need to rip out my bolting lettuce and amend vermiculite and compost. My bed settled about 30%. So it's a refluff and amend time and then transplant melons, cukes and a peppers if I find some good ones at Orchard or Armstrong.



Once I get the plants going, I have a bag of mulch to layer which will hopefully help with the summer baking. But it's kind of coin toss around my area, I could go cool and marine layered out or I could bake. Or I could both in the same week, like last week.

I do not think mulch is a bad idea anytime. When it is marine layer, no biggie and when it is hot, it helps. I used mulch in one bed a couple of years ago and liked it. Not all crops lend themselves to mulch - for some things there would hardly be any room.

I read an article that said if your lettuce bolt and taste bitter, 2 or 3 days in the fridge in a zippy bag will get rid of the bitterness............ not tried it though.

works to a certain degree. Does best when the bolting is just starting, but not so well in advanced cases.

Kay

well lets see
this month I harvested carrots, and carrots and carrots
radishes till I never want to see another, till next fall that is
last of the cabbage
still have a few romaines out there

My Garlic patch planted last fall looks like this fall I will have a bumper crop, this seems to be a good year for garlic
Basil, oregano, dill, rosemary, sage, all doing great and am starting to use them already

new squash and zucchini in and saw the first flowers today
Tomatoes look to have taken the transplant extremely well, the plants are putting on a lot of new growth, I was worried with the temperatures we had with the rain last week
Peppers, Tomatillos, in the ground and taking the transplant
Blueberry bush looking good

Corn is starting to sprout

I will be creating a new area for an asparagus bed this weekend as well as working the mow strip out front putting in flowers. and I have to decide about my mulch pile, I think I am going get one of those tumblers, my dog has decided he loves to dig in the mulch pile.

that is my April report

Subsonic, sounds great. You are way ahead of me.

After our 100 degree day I am taking out a square of lettuce and putting in some peppers. Just the sweet kind. I grew one per square last year but I am trying for two per square this year. We shall see. Have to go to my storage unit to get the compost for the square. LOL.

Bought some basil and something ate it! But not the cilantro in the same square or anything else. Odd.

Things are heating up and gardening really gets going now. We should all have some fun in the sun.