Learn what to plant when with our year-round checklists: sunset.com/checklists.

Reported by MIKE IRVINE & JOHANNA SILVER

PLANT
Continue to set seedlings
for cool-season veggies such as
broccoli, brussels sprouts, cab-
bage, collards, and cauliflower.
Sow seeds for root vegetables,
including carrots and radishes.

Consider a cover crop to greatly
increase the fertility of a bed.
Try crimson clover, Austrian field
peas, or tyfon greens. They’ll
grow slowly through winter and
improve your soil when you till
them under next spring.

Fill pots with cheery color from
more cold-tolerant flowers such
as Iceland poppies, snapdrag-
ons, and violas. Or think bigger
and sink a small tree with vivid
fall hues—like a dwarf pome-
granate or a Japanese maple—
into a container for an impressive
show and a larger impact.

Scatter seeds of California pop-
pies over any bare patches in
your garden and cover with a
thin layer of topsoil—you’ll be
rewarded with an early spring
bloom. Keep the soil moist until
germination (7 to 14 days), and
if rains are insufficient, provide
regular water until the plants
get established.

MAINTAIN

As you clean up, use

leftover debris to start a new

compost pile. The easiest way—

known as cold composting—

involves throwing nondiseased

materials into the bin and not

doing much else. It can take a

few years for usable compost

to appear, but the upside is it’s

easier on your back.

Lay fresh gravel on pathways

to prevent mud and soggy con-

ditions when winter rains hit.

PROTECT

Scale insects or mealy

bugs leave a sticky residue on

houseplants. Look above the

honeydew coating to find the

pests, rinse them off, and treat

with a systemic insecticide.

HARVEST

Pick persimmons when

they turn deep orange, and

bring them indoors to ripen.

Flat-bottomed varieties such as

‘Jiro’ and ‘Fuyu’ are best eaten

firm or when they’re just soft to

the touch. Allow varieties like

‘Hachiya’, with round, pointed

tips, to ripen until the flesh is

mushy, almost pudding-like.

“Use archways to

frame a favorite

moment.”

MIKE IRVINE, GARDEN EDITOR

IDEA WE LOVE

Tunnel vision

Look to a supporting cast to pick up the slack as plants settle into dormancy. “As we transition into

colder months, the trellis becomes a piece of sculpture,” says artist Jennifer Asher , co-owner of

Los Angeles’ TerraTrellis. Here in the Sunset Test Garden, one of her steel arbors with a weather-

resistant finish becomes an elegant focal point sourrounded by the cloudlike seedheads of Muhlen-

bergia rigens and the vibrant fall foliage of ‘Navah o’ thornless blackberry. It’s autumn’s last call , but

the arbor will glisten with hints of morning frost and cast long shadows along the path throughout

the winter. Landscape by Homestead Design Collective; homesteaddesigncollective.com.

42 OCTOBER 2018 ❖ SUNSET

Home & Garden

CHECKLIST

NORTHERN

CALIFORNIA

SAMANTHA BROWN