As summer nears its end and cooler temperatures hint at an arrival, garden lovers in the Bay Area have an ideal window to prepare for a successful fall season. Proper planning in late summer, ranging from planting cool-season vegetables to pruning trees and controlling pests, can bring healthy growth and a plentiful harvest for your garden.
The following tips from University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources, Sloat Garden Center and Garden Design are a good start for a great fall harvest.
Plan and plant your fall vegetable garden
- Starting in September, you can plant broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, celery, kale, collards, peas and chard in the East Bay.
- Rotate crops to avoid planting the same varieties in the same location for consecutive seasons.
- Choose drought-tolerant plants that attract butterflies. Include nectar sources, such as lantana for adults, and host plants like native milkweed, California lilacs, buckwheat or dill for caterpillars.
- Begin planting cool-season crops, including cole crops such as broccoli, mustard and cabbage, along with beets, carrots, lettuce, green onions, potatoes and peas. In hotter climates, the UC Master Gardener Program of Alameda County recommends that you delay planting until September.
- Start seeds of cool-season annuals, such as calendula and stock. Continue adding cool-season plants throughout fall.
- Set out cool-season annuals, including pansies, primrose and stock, but wait until cooler months in warmer regions. (For more information, refer to the monthly guide from UC Agriculture and Natural Resources.)
- Support tall and vining vegetables with cages, stakes or trellises to prevent crop loss.
- Continue harvesting summer crops and add plant debris to compost unless it is diseased.
Pruning and plant maintenance
- Prune fruit trees in summer to control height, maintain shape and remove suckers.
- Cut back tropical milkweed to about 6 inches to encourage monarch butterfly migration. Remove foliage after cutting.
- Repot indoor plants that have outgrown their containers to allow them to adjust before winter. There are a few signs that tell you your plants need to be repot, such as soil that dries out too quickly and roots that grow out of the draining holes. (For more information, refer to this guide from Mahoney’s.)
- Refresh container plantings with new plants and feed with a balanced fertilizer.
- Maintain regular plant care routines, including fertilizing, watering and deadheading spent blooms.
Soil, mulching and water management
- Apply a slow-release fertilizer to vegetables and flowers to sustain growth and prevent your plants from burning.
- Mulch vegetable and flower beds to conserve soil moisture.
- Check mature plants for signs of water stress, especially on specimens more than 30 years old.
- Inspect and adjust irrigation systems to ensure they meet the needs of your garden, using a water-needs calculator as a guide.
- Check this water guide from Aggie Horticulture for more information.