Winter Garden Joys in Sacramento
It's winter! Well, really – it will be winter in a few days. But shhhh, don't tell the calendar that. Because we've been enjoying rain – YAY, snow – YAY, and a lot of chilly temperatures (not so YAY for me 🙂 ) already in the greater Sacramento area, including my home town of Roseville. My senior mom has been having fun with her fall – winter garden.
She usually only grows vegetables during the summer and is awesome when it comes to tomatoes and bell peppers. She rarely does a fall or winter garden and I think this is the first time she ever tried vegetables. so it's been an interesting learning curve for her. We tried yellow cauliflower but our results were a bit on the spicy side. According to this article from One Perfect Bite, it grows as big as a normal one and tastes milder. Ours never got that big – whether because we picked it too soon or it just didn't thrive. Either way, we decided to try white ones next year.
The broccoli she grew looks nothing like what you get in the store. BUT it tastes good and tastes like broccoli. And according to the discussion on a forum I visited, our experience is not uncommon.
Fall and Winter Garden Tips for Sacramento and Beyond
It's a bit late for this year to start over, other than garlic and a few other plants, but for future reference for you and me both, here are some crop ideas for fall and winter for the Sacramento area:
- Start Planting Your Fall Garden – Sacramento Bee
- What Fall Veggies to Plant in Sacramento? from Green Acres Nurseries.
- A Winter Vegetable Garden in Northern California.
And if we try broccoli again, we shall review these articles closely:
- Mother Earth News
- How To Grow Broccoli – Growing Broccoli In Your Garden by Gardening Know-How
- Growing broccoli 101
as well as marking the harvest dates on the calendar so we don't pick them too early. I'll also print out this great infographic-style guide from UC Davis that shows when to plant AND when to harvest. My senior mom will especially love it! In the meantime, she still has some broccoli growing, it looks a bit odd to us but tastes quite good, and she's happy puttering with her plants. Plus we have camellias getting ready to pop out soon.
Winter Garden Happy in Sacramento CA
So we are both garden-happy here in the Sacramento area. How about you?
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