March: What to plant in Northern California and Central Valley areas

YS, My hear aches for you. Too bad you can't build a small "swimming pool" and collect rain water. Your water costs are plain highway robbery.

Yardslave wrote:As usual, I'm getting a late jump on the beds as the weather and life's diversions get in the way of getting some soil under my nails. I miss it! The rains have kept my gardening to a minimum and my compost pile is down to nothing but all of last season's compost- I really fell behind. Just this month, the the corporate water demigod (CalAM) received permission from the state water board to jack up the price of water 25 % -we already are paying a 100% increase levied by the board to offset the corporations' loss of revenue from voluntary cutbacks and state mandated cutbacks. So now we are paying more and using less.... going to be watering my garden with tears!

That's just WRONG! 

On the 9th I planted everything! Peas, beans, tomatoes, radishes, melons, squash, cilantro, oregano, cukes, zukes, peppers, sunflowers, pumpkins, and even cat grass to sell at the shop. Whew! I ran out of space inside and had to get creative. I double-stacked some on the heating pad, and the long-term seeds went into larger peat pots around the base of the brandywine tomatoes. This morning I checked the bottom level of Jiffy Pellets and MY YARD LONG BEAN SEEDS HAVE ALREADY SPROUTED!   (Picture taken before they sprouted.)

Look what I just saw!  I can move my plants outside now.  Guru Sanderson said so (a few years ago)!!  Yea...I get my dining room table back!!!  

"sanderson on Thu Mar 05, 2015 12:10 pm
 I permanently moved my seedlings outdoors yesterday since the nights are 40*F or higher. Some of my beds don't received enough sun and are still too cold to direct seed. I will be seeding okra, maybe pole beans in their warm beds.

I'm planting Dundale peas in the Rescue Garden, using a modified BTE method (not enough compost or wood chips). Since I use peas to improve the soil and don't expect much else from them, it should work out okay.

Mellen, Did you bring the seedlings in during the rains?

Mellen wrote:Look what I just saw!  I can move my plants outside now.  Guru Sanderson said so (a few years ago)!!  Yea...I get my dining room table back!!!  

"sanderson on Thu Mar 05, 2015 12:10 pm
 I permanently moved my seedlings outdoors yesterday since the nights are 40*F or higher. Some of my beds don't received enough sun and are still too cold to direct seed. I will be seeding okra, maybe pole beans in their warm beds.

I'm still bringing most stuff back in at night. I leave the celeriac out, but not the beans anymore (since the weatherman lied and it got down to 35 and killed some of them). I definitely bring in the spaghetti squash and lemon cukes. looks like the beans can go in the ground next week.  My daikon seeds were planted on the deck, but only 2 have sprouted so far. Our nights are even too cold for them.

countrynaturals wrote:I'm planting Dundale peas in the Rescue Garden, using a modified BTE method (not enough compost or wood chips). Since I use peas to improve the soil and don't expect much else from them, it should work out okay.

YIKES! I bought these because they were drought tolerant, worked my butt off getting them planted, then went looking for ways to cook and eat them. NOTHING! I just planted pig food and I don't even have pigs. 

Eat the young green pods like snow peas?

sanderson wrote:Eat the young green pods like snow peas?

I'm gonna try that. Also, I had more compost and mulch than I thought, so this is a nice 15" wide, protected, 8' long bed with the peas planted at the back. So that leaves me 8 nice unexpected squares to plant something else in front. Right now I'm too pooped to think about it, but I'll figure out something for it, soon. 

countrynaturals wrote:

countrynaturals wrote:I'm planting Dundale peas in the Rescue Garden, using a modified BTE method (not enough compost or wood chips). Since I use peas to improve the soil and don't expect much else from them, it should work out okay.

YIKES! I bought these because they were drought tolerant, worked my butt off getting them planted, then went looking for ways to cook and eat them. NOTHING! I just planted pig food and I don't even have pigs. 

One site called them a snow pea, so Sanderson's suggestion is a good one. And if you don't like them that way,
let them mature, harvest the dry peas, and sprout them. "Dundale peas are very yummy when sprouted and the young shoots are eaten fresh.": http://sustainableseedco.com/compost-cover-crops/dundale-pea.html

sanderson wrote:Mellen,  Did you bring the seedlings in during the rains?

 Whew!  I've been to-ing & fro-ing ever since I wrote that.  I put them out to catch a few rays and bring them back in for the night.

I spoke too soon.  I still don't have my table back.

So....will I ever been able to plant them?  I expected half to germinate and probably 90% did.  I've lost about 10% of those (because I still don't know what I'm doing).  Mostly those I lost can be direct seeded whenever things warm up enough.

I love this rain, but I really would like to get my garden planted.  It's APRIL for crying out loud.

(Stop Mellen!  Don't look a gift horse in the mouth!)

Mellen wrote:

sanderson wrote:Mellen,  Did you bring the seedlings in during the rains?

 Whew!  I've been to-ing & fro-ing ever since I wrote that.  I put them out to catch a few rays and bring them back in for the night.

I spoke too soon.  I still don't have my table back.

So....will I ever been able to plant them?  I expected half to germinate and probably 90% did.  I've lost about 10% of those (because I still don't know what I'm doing).  Mostly those I lost can be direct seeded whenever things warm up enough.

I love this rain, but I really would like to get my garden planted.  It's APRIL for crying out loud.

(Stop Mellen!  Don't look a gift horse in the mouth!)

I share your frustration!  The worst of it is that it means a very short growing season up here, because triple-digits will start July 1 with or without spring. Then everything comes to a screeching halt until fall.

It's that magic month of March with flavors of spring alternating with late frosts and rains.  I am very late getting the seedlings and sweet potato slips started indoors.  I was aiming for Valentine's Day but didn't get to it until March 2 - 9.  Hope all of you have done better than me.

You can scroll up this short thread to see what Gardenate.com recommends for planting in March.  Basically everything!

From members' generosity, I have seeded Comfrey, Brandywine and Cherokee Purple tomatoes, and thyme.  I am trying ginger from the grocery store for the first time in a smallish pot.  New varieties I'm trying are a red/yellow striped tomato from the Farmer's Market, a very large paste tomato from the Exposition in Santa Rosa, Rich Sweetness 132 and Charentais melons, Chinese 5 Color pepper (for flower beds), Amaranth Dreadlocks (for flower beds).  The new Teparay Blue Speckled beans will be direct sown after the rains.

All my seeds are finally planted! Only took 9 days what with having to order a couple of packets that were empty of seeds! Cosmos and some of the tomatoes have sprouted.

Scroll up to see what to plant or start indoors.

This is a great time in CA when garden activities can really start in earnest.  Final harvest of winter crops.  Amending beds with blended compost.  Checking trellises and irrigation systems for any repairs or reinforcements needed.  Indoor starts should already be underway.  Plant ginger and turmeric and early potatoes.  Start sweet potato slips.

For those of you who purchase a variety of composts for amending the beds, the pickings are slim in CA. Ecoscraps Compost, previously available at Lowes and Home Depot is no longer available in my area. Hopefully, this is a regional problem and the rest of you can find it. Nature's Care Really Good Compost is no longer carried by Home Depot. The only 2 I could find was manure based and Gardener & Bloome Purely Compost. Thank goodness I still had some home made compost from last year to supplement the limited bagged composts.

Amended bed with October garlic in the background.


Seedlings 3-6 getting some warm sunshine.

Starting a huge batch of seeds, including all of my vining crops. I want to try gourds this year, but my first batch of seeds failed entirely, so I'll include them in the mix.

I'm also going start my inverted cells on the top of the bed carrot experiment. I'll beat those blasted rollies, yet.

OhioGardener wrote: . . . CN, have you tried Sluggo Plus to get rid of the Roly-Poly infestation?

+1

sanderson wrote:

OhioGardener wrote: . . . CN, have you tried Sluggo Plus to get rid of the Roly-Poly infestation?

+1

No. I hate to use more chemicals. The only time I have a problem is if I direct sow. I now start everything else in Jiffy Pellets, but I can't do that with carrots. Hopefully, this experiment will solve the problem.

Started Birdhouse gourds, Dipper gourds, and Tennessee Dancing gourds, plus another 10 artichokes. I know the artichokes won't produce this year, but they should still be pretty plants. This is my 2nd planting for the gourds. Not a single one came up last time.

During the brief breaks in the weather, I managed to transplant onions, plant beets and parsnip seeds, tear out a few Tai pepper plants and replace them with 2 Delicata squash. Ran out of compost and vermiculite, so I'm going to have to consider busting out of quarantine and trade a pack of Charmin and some Fiji water for garden supplies. The gophers are invading the garden and one has managed to sneak into one of my boxes that is lined with 1/4" hardware cloth. I didn't know gophers had wire cutters! So far, I've caught 13 gophers- where's the cats when you need them?

Yardslave wrote: I'm going to have to consider busting out of quarantine and trade a pack of Charmin and some Fiji water for garden supplies.

Can you order from Amazon and not have to go out at all?

If you do, or even if you go out for stuff, be sure to wipe everything down or spray with disinfectant. Now they're saying the virus can live on plastic for 2 days.