The sowing season

I started thinking about the fall and winter planting season back in August, when it was way too hot to garden. I could barely manage to sit in the shade and hurl epithets at purslane and other summer weeds, but I made lists and sketched plans of what I could do when it cooled a little.

By September, I was pulling on my leash, so to speak, impatient for the new season to arrive. I tucked a couple of plants into the ground during the first weeks of October, even though that can be a risky time to plant because the weather is apt to be what they call “unseasonably” hot. But I could wait no longer, and now I am planting with a passion.

Fall through early winter has been my favorite time to plant since I first put shovel to soil. I’m such a fan that I began a book about the gardener’s year in California with the fall months, not the traditional spring. In it, the fall and winter planting season begins about mid-October and runs into early March, a time that also could be called the “cool season.”

During this magic period, everything I plant turns to gold, or at least it rapidly takes hold; I can honestly say that nothing I’ve planted in this cooler season has died. I have planted things at other times of the year, but many of them have been killed with kindness and too much water.

Fall and winter are so much easier on plants than spring and summer. There is less need to water, so one is unlikely to overdo it, which -- as most gardeners have learned the hard way -- is the quickest way to do in a plant. In winter, plants seem to shrug off the over-watering perhaps because it is the rainy season, when soils are naturally moist or even soaked. In many ways, fall and winter are the most natural times in Southern California to plant.

The sun is much lower on the horizon, barely glancing off the ground, not beating down from overhead, so it is cooler and soils stay wet longer. If it rains or you irrigate, the soil remains damp for a week or more. Early in the fall, the ground is surprisingly warm, which really helps if you are trying to germinate seed or get small plants off to a fast start.

Planted now, bulbs, bedding flowers and vegetables will grow quickly, but perennials, shrubs and trees might seem to simply sit there. Not to worry: Roots are slowly spreading into the surrounding soil and, when spring arrives, the plants will explode with leafy growth.

For instance, a tree planted in fall or early winter immediately begins growing roots even if no growth is visible up top. By spring it has a healthy network that reaches well into your garden soil. It’s got the roots to support lots of new spring growth.

Now picture the unfortunate fellow planted in spring. There’s no time to grow roots; it’s programmed by nature to grow leaves in spring and starts right in. But there are not yet enough roots to quench its thirst, and all those new leaves need lots of water. So the gardener must irrigate often, and you know what happens if he waters a little too often.

The rapidly growing tree may even become top heavy, and with no roots to support it, it may fall over. That’s why you see so many persecuted trees tied like witches to their wooden stakes. Plant that tree at the proper time of year, and you soon can free it from its shackles.

If you think about it, the cool season would be the only time to plant in California if it weren’t for sprinklers. It’s our ability to fake rain that allows us to plant at other times of the year (which is perhaps why I am such a fan of fall; I still haven’t gotten around to installing sprinklers).

Not all things do well planted in fall. Subtropical plants, including citrus and bougainvillea, are on a different, exotic timetable. They love warmth and do their growing in summer, so they might actually rot and die if planted when it is too cool. Wait until early March. And roses are such a good deal when sold in January and February that I wait until then to plant.

But because so many things can go in now, some kind of ordering is needed:

Winter vegetables: Scatter seed of winter veggies -- favorites such as lettuce and mesclun mixes, broccoli, carrots or peas -- as soon as possible to take advantage of warm soils. They will sprout much faster now than in late November or December. In fact, rather than let the tomatoes and squash linger into autumn, I take them out and begin sowing winter veggies in September because they come up so fast, almost overnight. Later, it makes sense to begin with greenhouse-raised plants bought at a nursery.

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Bulbs and bedding plants: They can go in as early as you can find them at nurseries, except for tulips, which need a few weeks in the vegetable crisper of the fridge before planting. But such bulbs as freesia, homeria and sparaxis -- all originally from South Africa -- are a much better bet in our gardens, and they should be planted right away. Some experienced gardeners wait until December to put in bedding plants such as Iceland poppies and ranunculus so they will bloom after the winter rains, which tend to flatten them. Or put in bedding plants as space opens up.

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Perennials, shrubs and trees: These do great planted at any time during this cool period -- especially those from the Mediterranean, Australia or South Africa -- but the sooner the better so they are ready for summer’s heat and drought.

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Native plants and wildflowers: Plant these only in fall and winter, as far as I’m concerned. I’m not alone in this. One noted nurseryman who specializes in habitat restoration told me he can plant something in January, water it once and walk away, knowing it will grow on its own. He’s talking about tiny little starter plants, but it works nearly as well for the sizes you’re likely to find at nurseries. I plant natives November though January. If you want to sow seeds of California wildflowers, I’ve found that early November or late January work best. Last year, short on space, I scattered the seed of the low-growing baby blue eyes and a California poppy among the garlic bulbs in our raised vegetable beds. They bloomed in spring as the garlic slowly grew. Gilroy, meet the Antelope Valley.

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Put these on your to-do list

Here are the plants to put in the ground now -- as seed or little plants -- for spring bloom. Renee’s Garden seeds (at nurseries) include exciting new varieties of several winter-spring favorites:

In sunny areas: Agrostemma (two new varieties are Purple Queen and Pink Contessa), annual African daisy, sweet alyssum, calendula, Red Corn poppies (new variety is Legion of Honor), English daisy, forget-me-not (French Alouette is new), Iceland poppy, ornamental kale and cabbage (winter’s coleus -- grown for foliage), larkspur (Azure Bluebirds is new), Lobelia (also does well in warm season), pansy, annual phlox, ranunculus (also sold as tubers), stock, sweet pea (new varieties from Renee’s: fragrant April in Paris, dwarf Heirloom Cupid, the antique Queen of Hearts, plus one named after Orange County nurserywoman Mary Lou Heard), sweet William, viola, wildflowers

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In some shade try: Primroses, florist’s cyclamen, cineraria (where frosts are unlikely)

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Veggies too: From seed or small plants try beet, broccoli, Brussels sprout, carrot, cauliflower, celery, endive, garlic, kale, kohlrabi, leek, head and leaf lettuce, mesclun mixes, onion, pea, radish, spinach, Swiss chard and turnip.