Edible Landscaping - Winter Veggies for SoCal

Out and about this week getting back into the swing of work and we got to pay a visit to one of our gardens that was finished in November last year. We built raised vegetable beds for them out of dry stack stone from KRC Rock, and filled them with yummy soil from Great Soil. The clients got busy over the holidays and started planting up their herbs and vegetables. What a lovely sight for us to find.

Seeing their vegetable garden coming together inspired me to pull together a list of good crops to be planting at this time of year in San Diego County. Although its winter here, we still get great temperatures in the 60s and 70s, with the lows in the 40s to 50s. We may get a very occasional frost in inland areas, but it is usually very localized to low points in gardens, or low points in canyon areas.

Here is my list:

1. Artichoke
2. Arugula
3. Beetroot
4. Blueberries
5. Broad beans or fava beans
6. Broccoli
7. Brussels sprouts
8. Cabbage
9. Carrots
10. Cauliflower
11. Chard
12. Chicory
13. Chives
14. Cilantro
15. Collards
16. Cress
17. Dill
18. Endive
19. Garlic
20. Kale
21. Leeks
22. Lettuce
23. Mustard
24. Onion
25. Parsley
26. Parsnips
27. Peas including sugar snap, English peas and snow peas
28. Radishes
29. Rutabagas
30. Salsify
31. Sorrel
32. Spinach
33. Turnips

Good sources for vegetable seeds and starter plants would be:

• Renee's Garden
• Burpee's Seeds
• The Tasteful Garden
• The Natural Gardening Company
  

My own personal vegetable gardening success story was being able to pick fresh salad leaves over the holidays. They tasted yummy and it felt so good to be eating fresh salad to balance all the rich food of the season.

Diane E Downey is the owner of The Yard Fairy Inc, a North San Diego County based award winning landscape design and installation company creating low water, low maintenance landscapes that are as functional as they are pleasing to the eye. To arrange your consultation with The Yard Fairy, please call 760 804 1661 or email info at yardfairy.com today.