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Planting · Harvesting

• Dig sweet potatoes before frost kills the plants.
• Dig and divide rhubarb.
• For winter salads, start vegetables like most leafy greens, green onions, carrots, and radishes in a cold frame.
• Plant garlic after our frost date, Oct. 21.
• Prevent erosion over the winter by planting a cover crop. The biomass will add needed organic matter when tilled in next spring, and legumes such as clover and alfalfa will further enrich the soil by fixing nitrogen. Alternatively, you can till organic matter like tree leaves into the soil, then mulch with shredded leaves.
  Cover Crops
  Summer Cover Crops
  Winter Cover Crops

Growing Small Farms list of recommended vegetable varieties

The chart below uses 10-day intervals based on our Orange County frost dates. We use conservative 10% frost date ranges of April 11–20 and October 11–20, meaning that there is only a ten percent likelihood of a later spring frost or earlier fall frost. Planting in the middle of a vegetable’s date range is the most reliable choice.

Pests

Insect control can be a challenge on fall-grown cabbage-family crops. Some of the best controls are organic. Strong water sprays or insecticidal soap work well on aphids. Don’t miss the lower leaf surfaces. For caterpillars, you can hand-pick or use weekly applications of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt).