First weeks of spring bring plenty of warm-season activity
Tomato transplants now are in good supply in local nurseries, but when should you plant? Kathy Morrison
This is another in our “Food in My Back Yard” series, dedicated to edible gardening.
April is Sacramento’s gardening sweet spot: The weather is just about perfect for being outdoors. In the vegetable garden, cool-season crops are nearing maturity while warm-season favorites are ready to plant.
Managing space in these overlapping seasons can feel like juggling reservations at a popular restaurant – everybody wants that same sunny spot.
Don’t push out the peas before they’re done just because some tomatoes are lined up to take their place. Those cool-season crops took weeks or months to get to this point; why pull them (and waste their potential produce) just to get an early start on something else?
Vegetables are more flexible than people. The whole summer garden doesn’t need to be planted in one April day. Instead, focus on windows of opportunity and succession.
Planning and patience are important gardening skills. Planning lets gardeners make the most of available opportunities. Patience lets nature take its course.
Weather will be the biggest variable in any vegetable garden. (The seed packet may say those radishes are ready to harvest in 40 days, but only if they got enough sun, warmth and water.) So, plan for that, too. That’s succession planting; for example, plant a row of radishes a week over four different weeks instead of planting the whole seed packet at once. Spreading out the planting dates lengthens the harvest as well as makes allowances for less than ideal weather.
The same goes with tomato transplants. Don’t plant them all on one day; stagger their transplants over several weeks – or even months.
Last year’s tomato crop served as interesting lesson about the importance of staggered planting times. In our community garden, the bulk of tomatoes were transplanted the last week of April – the traditional tomato transplanting time in Sacramento. But intense heat in early and mid May – just as those young bushes were flowering – dried up tomato pollen, so those plants set no fruit.
But bushes planted in early April and June had abundant tomatoes, because their flowers were able to pollinate when it wasn’t above 95 degrees.
In addition, bushes planted really, really late – after the Fourth of July – produced big crops in October and November, thanks to warm fall weather.
So much for only planting tomatoes the last week of April.
There are some basic guidelines about when to plant, thanks to ag science. Remember: Only use guidelines designed for where you garden.
For Sacramento County, UC researchers crunched the numbers from decades of harvests for 54 different vegetables. They boiled down those results to create a detailed “Sacramento Vegetable Planting Schedule.” Find it here.
According to these guidelines, tomatoes can be transplanted anytime from April 15 to June 30.
Veggies recommended to plant in mid to late April from seed: Lima and snap bean, carrots, celery, celeriac, Swiss chard, corn, cucumbers, collards, melons, okra, potatoes, radishes, spinach, squash and watermelon. Transplants of tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and sweet potatoes can be set out in April, too.
And if the peas need more time, those veggies also can wait to be planted in May.
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Flowers in My Back Yard Series
May 5: Mums the word on Mother's Day weekend
April 28: Majestic Matilija poppy is worth a look
April 21: Celebrate roses, America's favorite flower
April 14: Small flowers with outsized impact
April 7: Calendulas do double duty
April 3: Make Easter lilies last for years to come
March 31: In praise of a pollinator magnet (small-leaf salvias)
March 24: Azaleas brighten shady spots
March 17: The perfect flower for beginners? Try zonal geraniums
March 10: Keep camellias happy for years to come
March 3: Fruit tree blossoms are a fleeting joy
Feb. 27: Are your roses looking rusty?
Feb. 24: Treasure spring daffodils now and for years to come
Feb. 17: How and why to grow wildflowers
Feb. 10: Let's talk Valentine's Day roses
Feb. 3: Why grow flowers?
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Garden checklist for week of May 10
Take it easy during that high heat – then get to work! Your garden is calling.
* Remember to irrigate your tender transplants. Seedlings need consistent moisture. Deep watering will help build strong roots and healthy plants. Water early in the morning for best results.
* Plant, plant, plant! It’s prime planting season in the Sacramento area. Time to set out those tomato transplants along with peppers and eggplants. Pinch off any flowers on new transplants to make them concentrate on establishing roots instead of setting premature fruit.
* Direct-seed melons, cucumbers, summer squash, corn, radishes, pumpkins and annual herbs such as basil.
* Harvest cabbage, lettuce, peas and green onions.
* In the flower garden, direct-seed sunflowers, cosmos, salvia, zinnias, marigolds, celosia and asters. (You also can transplant seedlings for many of the same flowers.)
* Plant dahlia tubers. Other perennials to set out include verbena, coreopsis, coneflower and astilbe.
* Transplant petunias, marigolds and perennial flowers such as astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia and verbena.
* Keep an eye out for slugs, snails, earwigs and aphids that want to dine on tender new growth.
* Feed summer bloomers with a balanced fertilizer.
* For continued bloom, cut off spent flowers on roses as well as other flowering plants.
* Put your veggie garden on a regular diet. Set up a monthly feeding program, and keep track on your calendar. Make sure to water your garden before applying any fertilizer to prevent “burning” your plants.
* As spring-flowering shrubs finish blooming, give them a little pruning to shape them, removing old and dead wood. Lightly trim azaleas, fuchsias and marguerites for bushier plants.
* Don’t forget to weed! Those invaders are growing fast.
Contact Us
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Food in My Back Yard (FIMBY) Series
Lessons learned during a year of edible gardening
WINTER
Is edible gardening possible indoors?
Hints for choosing tomato seeds
Why winter is the perfect time to plant fruit trees
When to plant? Consider staggering your transplants
How to squeeze more food into less space
Plant a fruit tree now -- for later
Win the weed war by tackling them in winter
Tips for planting bare-root trees, shrubs and vegetables
Time to give vegetable seedlings some more space
Ways to win the fight against weeds
FALL
Dec. 16: Add asparagus to your edible garden
Dec. 9: Soggy soil and what to do about it
Dec. 2: Plant artichokes now; enjoy for years to come
Nov. 25: It's late November, and your peach tree needs spraying
Nov. 18: What to do with all those fallen leaves?
Nov. 11: Prepare now for colder weather in the edible garden
Nov. 4: Plant a pea patch for you and your garden
Oct. 27: As citrus season begins, advice for backyard growers
Oct. 20: Change is in the autumn air
Oct. 13: We don't talk (enough) about beets
Oct. 6: Fava beans do double duty
Sept. 30: Seeds or transplants for cool-season veggies?
Sept. 23: How to prolong the fall tomato harvest
SUMMER
Sept. 16: Time to shut it down?
Sept. 9: How to get the most out of your pumpkin patch
Sept. 2: Summer-to-fall transition time for evaluation, planning
Aug. 26: To pick or not to pick those tomatoes?
Aug. 19: Put worms to work for you
Aug. 12: Grow food while saving water
Aug. 5: Enhance your food with edible flowers
July 29: Why won't my tomatoes turn red?
July 22: A squash plant has mosaic virus, and it's not pretty
July 15: Does this plant need water?
July 8: Tear out that sad plant or baby it? Midsummer decisions
July 1: How to grow summer salad greens
June 24: Weird stuff that's perfectly normal
SPRING
June 17: Help pollinators help your garden
June 10: Battling early-season tomato pests
June 3: Make your own compost
May 27: Where are the bees when you need them?
May 20: How to help tomatoes thrive on hot days
May 13: Your plants can tell you more than any calendar can
May 6: Maintain soil moisture with mulch for garden success
April 29: What's (already) wrong with my tomato plants?
April 22: Should you stock up on fertilizer? (Yes!)
April 15: Grow culinary herbs in containers
April 8: When to plant summer vegetables
April 1: Don't be fooled by these garden myths
March 25: Fertilizer tips: How to 'feed' your vegetables for healthy growth
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