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