Welcome to September! In much of our country, this month marks about the time that the growing season for edible plants winds down. But here in Southern California, there’s plenty you can still successfully grow over the coming months — even in small spaces.
If you want to grow vegetables this fall and don’t know where to start, I’m here to help. I’ve worked and volunteered at farms and gardens around L.A., and I maintain a garden of my own at my Highland Park home.
Here’s my primer for how to get started on a fall garden. But if you’re looking for more information than one newsletter can offer, I recommend the Grow LA Victory Garden Initiative’s slate of fall courses. (More information about those is located in the next section of this newsletter.)
1. Start by determining where you are going to grow your veggies. In the ground, in raised beds or in pots of their own? And is that in your front yard, your backyard, on your balcony, on your windowsill or at a community garden?
All of those are viable options as long as they approach or exceed six hours of sunlight a day. You will benefit from tailoring your plan(t)s to your space. Also, keep track of how much sunlight your space attracts by checking in on it throughout a day and determine how you’re going to regularly water your space.
Leafy greens grow in a raised-bed garden in a backyard in Culver City.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
2. Pick your plants. September is a transition time. If you’re going to start, say, this week, you could conceivably opt for warm-season crops such as summer squashes and succeed. But in general, this is the time for preparing for cool-season crops. Carrots, beets, lettuces, spinach, turnips and chard can all be good fits outdoors. Outside or a windowsill, herbs such as chives or parsley can thrive with enough sunlight. Mint can too, but make sure it’s in a container to prevent it from becoming invasive.
3. Consider your space and what you love, what’s in stock at your local nursery and what seeds you can procure. Starting from seed is more cost-effective, especially if you’re growing on a large scale, but this way requires more time and maintenance. For a small-scale, first-time gardener, buying starts (young plants) might make the most sense. Take note of how many days until you can harvest your crops. With beets or select other crops, you can enjoy your harvest before Halloween — that’s if you get started this weekend.
4. Prepare your soil whether that’s existing dirt or prepared potting soil. Remember that plants will derive their nutrients from the soil, and microbes in the soil — think bacteria, fungi and earthworms — make those nutrients available to plants. So you want your soil to be as full of life as possible. You also want as much soil as possible. If you’re growing in a container, it is almost always better to go bigger.
Residents and staff work in the garden at Harmony House in South Los Angeles.
(Stella Kalinina / For The Times)
If you’re growing in the ground, it’s very likely that your soil will benefit from being amended in some way to support life. When I worked at Avenue 33 Farm in Lincoln Heights, we amended our soil before each growing season with a carefully calculated array of bulk fertilizers.
The best way to learn what your soil needs is to find out what it already has by testing it.
If you have the budget for it, you can submit a soil sample to Wallace Laboratories in El Segundo either by mail or by dropping it off. For $110, you’ll be told everything about your soil. You can also test your soil for certain key measures including pH and temperature more cheaply with tools from a hardware store.
Your soil will need continued nutritional enrichment during the coming months. Also, now’s a good time to start a compost pile or a worm bin to accompany what you will grow. Or you can periodically mix in packaged fertilizer.
5. You are going to fail, and that’s OK. My first gardening teacher, Carol Armour Aronson, liked to say that students would not become seasoned gardeners until they had killed at least 100 plants.
So, get to work!
Take that gardening course
Across Los Angeles County over the coming weeks, UC-certified master gardeners will teach 12- to 16-hour classes about starting a garden from scratch. Typically held over four weeks, the courses generally cost $70 (or $30 for those experiencing economic hardship).
There will be 12 hybrid or in-person courses, two of which will be bilingual in English and Spanish, and an online course offered in English. Check out the University of California’s Agriculture and Natural Resources department’s list of courses here. They are located as far north as Altadena, as far east as Pomona, as far south as Long Beach, and as far west as Hermosa Beach. Some start as soon as next weekend.
The same program also offers free handbooks in English and Spanish. Find links to those here.
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Remediate your soil DIY-style
If you have a sense that your soil might be in some way contaminated, one efficient way of ameliorating that is doing your own remediation. The Theodore Payne Foundation has been hosting DIY soil remediation workshops, and the next one is scheduled from 9 a.m. to noon Sept. 12. Community soil scientists Lynn Fang and Maggie Smart-McCabe will demonstrate filling mesh socks with compost, microbes and fungal mycelium. The goal of these mesh socks is to help clear contaminants in your soil. Fang and Smart-McCabe work for SoilWise and LA Compost, but the course is taking place at the Theodore Payne Foundation’s Sun Valley headquarters. It costs $100, or 25% off for foundation members.
Upcoming events (Sept. 1-15)
Sept. 5
Labor Day Restoration at Cheeseboro Canyon, 9 a.m. to noon in Agoura Hills. Join the National Park Service and Santa Monica Mountains Fund over Labor Day weekend to help restore Cheeseboro Canyon with plants native to the area. The event will be canceled if temperatures 90 degrees or higher are in the forecast or a Red Flag Warning has been issued. samofund.org
Identification & Harvesting Using Traditional Ecological Knowledge at the California Botanic Garden, 10 to 11:30 a.m. in Claremont. Seth Johnson, an enrolled member of the Gabrieleño San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians, will teach a class about key Southern California plant species and ethical gathering protocols. Participants will practice plant identification. Tickets are $45 (or $35 for members). calbg.org
Sept. 6
Hummingbirds at the Huntington, 10:30 a.m. to noon in San Marino. Huntington Gardens hummingbird specialist Cole Imperi will lead a talk on attracting hummingbirds to your yard or balcony. There will also be an immersive hummingbird-themed children’s story time and discovery session. huntington.org
Sept. 11
Adamson House Garden Tour, 10 to 11 a.m. in Malibu. Join a docent-led garden tour of the historic home along the Malibu coast recently written about in The Times’ neighborhood guide to Malibu. You will learn about the native and nonnative plants in the gardens. samofund.org
Sept. 12
Ancient Forest Tour at Descanso Gardens, 9 to 10 a.m. in La Cañada Flintridge. Join the gardens’ horticulture team on a guided walking tour throughout the gardens’ ancient forest. The forest includes some of the oldest plant species on Earth. Tour access is included with membership or admission, which costs $18 for adults, $14 for seniors or students, and $8 for children ages 3-12. descansogardens.org
Hidden Wonders at George F Canyon Preserve, 9 a.m. in Rancho Palos Verdes. The Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy hosts a nature walk along a willow-lined canyon stream with a restored coastal sage scrub habitat. The peninsula’s rare Catalina schist rock outcropping will be visible. pvplc.org
Sept. 12-13
“As You Like It” at the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden, 6 to 8:30 p.m. in Arcadia. Bardfly Theatre Co. will perform one of William Shakespeare’s beloved comedies amid the arboretum’s Mediterranean gardens. The source material features a forest, so it could be an ideal setting. Tickets are $35 (or $30 for members). arboretum.org
Sept. 13
Resonance: A Yoga and Sound Journey at Arlington Garden, noon to 1:30 pm. in Pasadena. Pasadena-raised yoga teacher and musician Qur’an Shaheed plays music with a peer and leads a free yoga and breath work session on the second Sunday of each month. Participating in the yoga session is optional, organizers say. Attendees are welcome to sit in the garden and listen to the music. livingearth.la
California Biodiversity Day Free Day at the California Botanic Garden, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. in Claremont. Admission to the garden is free all day, and there will be a number of bilingual English and Spanish events to celebrate Latino Conservation Week, including coffee, games and a tour of the garden’s production nursery. calbg.org
Succulents: A Botanical History Tour at the Peninsula Center Library, 2 p.m. in Rolling Hills Estates. The Huntington botanical content specialist Sandy Masuo will give a presentation about the history of succulents as part of the September meeting of the South Coast Cactus & Succulent Society. southcoastcss.org
What we’re reading
Times staff writer Lila Seidman researched figeater beetles, which I’ve been seeing a ton of in gardens this summer. August was indeed peak season for the bugs.
Times staff writer Deborah Vankin went to Venice to check out an apothecary that sells cooling herbs and features a “lushly landscaped courtyard adorned with … blooming white sage, lavender, lemon verbena and passion flower.” Her story is a fun read.
Times staff writers Noah Haggerty and Hayley Smith reported on the California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection’s unanimous approval of new Zone Zero rules, banning plants within one foot of homes and most combustibles within five feet for millions of homes in high fire-risk communities.
