August Is the Perfect Month to Seed for 2nd Springtime
If you look in any old-time Southern California gardening books, you will find an interesting suggestion for something to do in August--start things from seeds. As unlikely as it sounds, August is one of the best times to sow seed--for vegetables, annual flowers and particularly perennials. As one early author put it, “August is the time to prepare for the second California springtime which the beginning of the rainy season ushers in.”
The vegetables and annual flowers you start from seed now are those that flower or ripen in the winter ahead. You will find these as small plants for sale at nurseries in the fall, but starting them now from seed is more of an adventure and, if you look through seed catalogues, you will find a greater selection. Starting them now takes advantage of the warm soil; seeds will not germinate in cold soil.
The safest way is to start them in small pots or trays. In pots, the seedlings will be safe from garden marauders and you can keep them out of the direct sun. Pick a place that is bright but not sunny. The location must be bright or the seedlings will become elongated. After they sprout, move them gradually into more sun.
Any good commercial potting soil will do but it is very important that the mix be moist when you buy it and that you never, ever, let it dry out, or you will have a devil of a time rewetting it.
Sow several seeds in a pot and then thin them about a week after they sprout so only one remains to go out in the garden. In trays, thin them to about two inches apart so they can be separated and then planted out when of age. It may take several weeks for some seeds to sprout; during this time you should never let the soil dry out. Water with the finest nozzle you can find so you don’t disturb the seeds or soil. Nozzles made for watering bonsai (though costly) are the best in my experience, as gentle as a spring rain.
It takes about six weeks for seedlings to gain the strength necessary to be planted out. If you sow now, this timing will put you in the heart of the fall planting season, when it is cool enough to be gentle on plants, but warm enough so they immediately begin growing. Wait too long and you will be putting your seedlings into the cold soil of November or December and they will make little progress until spring.
You can also start seeds directly in the ground, which was much more popular at one time than it is now. In fact, most of the early references speak of sowing seed in the ground in August. The best of its kind, “California Garden-Flowers” by E. J. Wickson, published in 1915, says: “It is interesting to try many other things with an August start on irrigated land, and a beginner will often be surprised and delighted over his achievements if he dares to defy the warning of the wiseacres who tell him he must wait for fall rains.” Planted in the ground, many flowers will grow and then bloom in late fall, lasting into winter and early spring. And vegetables such as broccoli and lettuce will be harvestable months earlier than if you had waited until fall to plant them.
Wickson goes on to say: “One more August opportunity looks beyond the fall bloom. Biennials and perennials which bloom the second year in wintry climates count a year in California as good as two years elsewhere, providing they are started so that they can grow in the latter half of one year and bloom in the first half of the next. The list is too long to even name the plants which thus declare their joy in coming to California.”
This, then, is the answer to the question “Where can I get the perennials that everyone is talking about?” If you haven’t been able to find what you want at a nursery, look in a seed catalogue.
Thompson & Morgan (P.O. Box 1308, Jackson, N.J. 08527), being English seedsmen, have the best selection, and almost all are illustrated in color. Following the lead of Wickson, I will not try to list all of the perennials that can be grown from seed. I will warn you that not all listed in the Thompson & Morgan catalogue will succeed, but therein lies adventure.
One thing that should definitely be planted in August, in the ground, are sweet peas. One early author states it simply enough, “Start sweet peas now if you want to have blooms by Christmas.”
Ernest Braunton in “The Garden Beautiful in California,” published in 1940, elaborates: “This is the best month for sowing sweet peas for winter bloom. If left until next month they will not make bloom until spring. You cannot trench too deeply or make soil too rich for sweet peas if fertilizer is sufficiently mixed with the soil before replacing it in (the) trench. The last move should be putting (the soil) through a half-inch mesh sieve as it drops back in (the) trench; then it’s mixed. Plant seeds in moist soil but do not water until plants are up.”
Just start early in the morning, or after the sun sets--screening soil is not easy work, nor is digging trenches.
