If you don’t have a fall or winter garden, prepare for spring planting.
Repair damaged spots in cool-season lawns (such as tall fescue) by scratching with a rake, seeding, and covering with mulch. Keep moist until the new grass seedlings are well established. Warm-season lawns like Bermuda grass will soon be entering their dormant season, so bare patches should be covered with mulch to discourage winter weeds.Use spent vegetable plants and summer annuals to start a compost pile.Divide and thin perennials.Sharpen your pruning tools in preparation for fall pruning.To avoid a flush of new growth late in the growing season, do not apply fertilizer to citrus, avocados, or other frost‐tender plants.If the weather is cool enough, plant spring bulbs and annuals.Annuals: calendula, Canterbury bell (Campanula), pansy (Viola).Perennials: catmint (Nepeta), dianthus, fortnight lily (Dietes), Lantana.Fruits and vegetables: broccoli, cauliflower, parsley.Trees, shrubs, vines: barberry (Berberis), redbud (Cercis), fringe tree (Chionanthus), chitalpa.Tender leafy vegetables are best planted later in the month, and even then may require daily watering until they are well established.Annuals and perennials: fibrous begonia.Bulbs, corms, tubers: cyclamen.Trees, shrubs, vines: beautyberry (Callicarpa), bottlebrush (Callistemon), chitalpa.Fruits and vegetables: garlic, gourds, grapes, peaches.Fall color: Raywood ash (Fraxinus angustifolia), maidenhair (Ginkgo biloba).Cover remaining tomato and pepper plants with a garden blanket to extend the harvest season into November.Limit the size of fall vegetable gardens to avoid over-production. Plant only the varieties that you know you will use and enjoy, or that you can share with others.
Source: Adapted from A Gardener’s Companion for the Central San Joaquin Valley, 3rd edition, currently available from Fresno County Master Gardeners for $30. These can be purchased at our demonstration garden – Garden of the Sun (1750 N Winery (McKinley/Winery), open Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 9 am to Noon, and via email at mgfresno@ucanr.edu. Gardening questions answered as well at mgfresno@ucanr.edu. Prepared by Terry Lewis, Master Gardener UCCE Fresno County.
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