Planting Your Garden In Winter
Into gardening or getting ready to give it a try, here’s your guide for planting during the winter months:
JANUARY
January is usually a dry month in the garden, so most years it is a fine time to plant roses and deciduous fruit trees, such as apples and plums. Click here for more details and ‘how to” on your planting.
For vegetables:
Plant in the ground: lettuce, carrots, beets, parsnips, potatoes, celeriac, radishes, spinach.
Plant in containers: lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, peas, fava beans, lentils, garbanzo beans.
FEBRUARY
Early February is still a good time to plant roses and deciduous fruit trees. It is also an excellent time to plant camellias. Click here for your February planting ‘how to’.
For vegetables:
Plant in the ground: lettuce (and other salad greens), beets, parsnips, radishes, spinach, purple beans.
Plant in containers: early tomatoes, basil, cucumbers, summer squash.
MARCH
Spring has arrived, though officially not until the 21st. Bulbs are already up and blooming, fruit trees perfume the air, and the days are getting longer. With the arrival of daylight saving time, gardeners get an extra hour outdoors for their favorite activity, and there is no shortage of things to do. If you never got around to planting bulbs and flowers last fall or winter, plenty of spring bloomers at nurseries will go for another month or more if planted now. So once again, click here for your March planting details.
For vegetables:
Plant in the ground: purple beans, lettuce, radishes, beets, spinach, set out plants of basil, early tomatoes, later in the month, sow early sweet corn.
Plant in containers: tomatoes, basil, peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, melons, all squash.
Thanks go to the LA Planting Guide for their Southern California ‘Cheat Sheet’, and to the LA Times for their Southern California Gardening Guide.