(Updated September 2021)
This is the first September in many years that I haven’t spent much of the month visiting friends and in-laws in Oregon. I love those trips. From a gardening perspective, they always put into focus how Southern California is different from most of the rest of the country.
In Oregon, in the Willamette Valley, in September of last year (2016) there were blackberries and raspberries to pick, tomato and pepper plants were in full production, apples and pears were ripe and falling from trees, and hops were being harvested.
Most gardeners in Oregon, as elsewhere in the U.S., are in full harvest and preserve mode. They are no longer planting, except maybe some greens. They have a single concentrated growing season, and in September there is already a bite in the morning air as fall arrives to begin shutting things down.
One time a friend was visiting from Oregon, and as we walked around our Southern California yard he asked, “Do you guys ever take a break?” For better or worse, no.
Gardening never stops in Southern California. We merely split our year into a warm season (approximately April – August) and a cool season (September – March). Not that September is cool, but we plant things in September that like to grow in the cool weather of fall and winter.
If you tend to only grow vegetables in the spring and summer, I encourage you to take advantage of growing in the fall and winter this year. It’s comparatively relaxing and rewarding. Here I wrote why “Fall is my favorite vegetable growing season in Southern California.”
In the vegetable garden, in September, we sow and plant:
– Sow seeds of: broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kohlrabi, lettuce, beets, carrots, parsnips, spinach, chard, peas, radish, turnips, parsley, cilantro, potatoes
– Plant seedlings of: broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kohlrabi, kale and other greens (mustard, collards)
(The photo at the top shows broccoli seedlings that I sowed in August and that I’ll plant late in September.)
Have any potatoes in the pantry that are sprouting like this one?
Stick them in the ground.
See my post on growing potatoes for details. By the way, if you have kids, harvesting potatoes is one of the funnest (yes, grammarians, funnest) things for them to do in the garden. If you plant in early September, you’ll probably harvest around Christmas.
Harvest and eat:
– Eat these vegetables in September (had you planted them): tomatoes, tomatillos, beets, peppers, eggplant, squash, basil, cucumber, melons, beans, corn
I once encountered a helpful way to remember the different vegetables we grow and eat in the warm season versus the cool season. In the warm season we mostly eat the fruits of vegetables. Fruits? Tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, eggplant, cucumbers, melons — they are all fruit, botanically speaking (“a structure that holds seeds inside”).
In the cool season, on the other hand, we mostly eat the leaves, roots, and flowers of vegetables. Think of the leaves of lettuce, the roots of carrots, and the flowers of cauliflower and broccoli plants (if you don’t pick them on time, their heads become globes of little flowers).
Among the fruit trees, in September, we harvest and eat:
– Eat these fruits and berries (had you planted them): pomegranates, passion fruit, figs, avocados (Lamb, Reed), raspberries, apples (Fuji)
You might also like to read my posts:
All of my Yard Posts are listed HERE
Thanks, Greg! Another informative post with awesome pics!
Thanks for saying so!
You are inspiring me to branch out and plant during the cool season! Love all the cute pics of your family!
Hurray! And thanks!
Just remember how low the sun’s angle gets in winter, and beware of planting cool-season vegetables just north of a tree, wall, or building. They might be in too much shade to grow well, particularly come December.
Hi Greg! As always, I am loving your website 🙂 Do you ever plant “green beans” in the fall? I am in Riverside, we have similar fall/winter weather to your area–I think. Thanks! ~Danielle
Hi Danielle!
While I don’t ever plant green beans in the fall, I have had some excellent green bean crops go into the fall. They’re similar to tomatoes in that if we have a warm and dry fall — like we’re having right now — the plants from summer will continue to produce well until beyond Thanksgiving. (Are you still getting tomatoes right now? I am still getting good ones, especially the small-fruited types.)
But I think you’ll find that if you start green bean plants right now (mid-November), they’ll start to grow but they won’t mature and produce beans by the time it inevitably gets too cold in December or January. My mature green bean plants have always finally gotten zapped by successive cold nights or little frosts sometime in December or January. That’s what normally happens.
Thanks Greg, your answer, as always, is very helpful. I do have tomatoes still growing right now and peppers. I started some green bean seedlings but will replace them with something else more weather appropriate . Your website and help are wonderful. Thanks again, your time is greatly appreciated!
Hi I just read your post about a year ago on the Dapple Dandy Pluot – do you fertilize your tree? Curious as to with what and when. I am making a chart for all of my trees. My tree is less than a year old. it did produce 2 pluots this year.
Hi Pam,
I don’t fertilize my Dapple Dandy pluot tree, not exactly. I do keep a layer of arborist wood chips under it for mulch, and those wood chips do break down to fertilize the tree eventually.
Hi Greg – we do the same, mulch, but I read where that depletes/negates the nitrogen in the break down process. Do you think if I baby it by placing plentiful handfuls of earth worms around it that will be “sufficient”? No 10-10-10 ???? Thank you
Hi Pam,
Don’t worry about the nitrogen depletion idea. I’ve never seen evidence of it on any species of fruit tree that I’ve grown or observed.
Read some more about using wood chips as mulch, and ultimately a source of nutrients, here: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315662938_Using_arborist_wood_chips_as_a_landscape_mulch_WSU_Extension_Fact_Sheet_FS160E
I want to plant lettuce from seed in September. Can I plant seeds directly in ground now? I am in Palos Verdes (zone 14). Thank you!
Hi Anna,
Yes, you can sow lettuce seeds directly in the ground here in late September in Palos Verdes. Just be aware that lettuce seeds need to be sown shallowly (don’t bury them under much dirt or compost) and they need to be kept consistently moist. So the challenge is just to maintain that moisture in the top level of soil while the seeds are germinating.