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Sacramento's long growing season gives us two major planting seasons-- spring and  fall. In late winter- early spring, you'll plant warm-season vegetables like tomatoes, melons, corn  and beans. By mid to late summer, you'll be knocking on neighbors' doors with surplus veggies.

In late summer-early fall, our second crop, the cool-season crop, goes in the ground. Your choices include lettuce, spinach, broccoli, peas and more. Repeat plantings and your unique microclimate allow you to extend the two main growing periods.

Remember, crop rotation helps discourage diseases
.
Ambitious gardeners can start vegetables from seed. Convenience-driven gardeners can wait for small, ready-to-plant vegetable seedlings to show up in nurseries.


Some warm-season recommendations from
Redwood Barn Nursery owner Don Shor:
Corn: Silver Queen and Golden Jubilee are old standards. Try the supersweet or sugar-enhanced varieties as well.
Eggplant: Dusky (most heat-tolerant), Black Beauty, Ichiban(prolific)
Melons: Ambrosia is our all-time favorite. Burpee Hybrid is excellent. Sugar Baby watermelon is an excellent small-space watermelon; Charleston Grey is a huge fruit on a huge plant--fun to grow. Casaba is a good producer here.
Summer squash: Gold Rush , Ambassador , Sunburst, Summer crookneck, Cucuzzi.
Winter Squash: Sweet Meat, any of the Acorn varieties (Table Queen is very good), Spaghetti
Bell peppers: the familiar squarish, lobed peppers, with Yolo Wonder and Bell Boy and the more unusual Chocolate Beauty, Purple Beauty, Ivory Hybrid, Lilac Hybrid
Hot Peppers: Anaheim, Poblano, Jalapeno
Cucumbers: Burpless, Lemon, Armenian, Orient Express and many picklers.
Okra: Clemson Spineless is an old favorite.
Pumpkins: Connecticut Field, Jack O' Lantern for carving; Sugar or Pie for baking; Jack Be Little, Cinderella, and Lumina for decorating; Big Max for huge pumpkins
Beans: Blue Lake, Royal Burgundy, Tendergreen, Improved Golden Wax, Romano

Some cool-season recommendations from
Redwood Barn Nursery owner Don Shor:
Lettuce: Bibb, Black-seeded Simpson, Lollo Rossa, Prizehead, Romaine
Onions: Stockton yellow, Stockton red, Early California red, Fresno White, Red Torpedo, Walla Walla.
Carrots: Danvers Half Long or Little Finger for heavier soils. Chantenay does well
in raised planters or where soil is sandy.
Peas: Snow peas do well here, as do Sugar Snap and Sugar Ann. For regular peas I love Novella, a compact hybrid that is phenomenally productive.
Vegetable Planting Calendar for Sacramento, CA
Avg. frost date: last = 3/23 and first = 11/14
Requires Free
Acrobat Reader
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
NOV
DEC
JAN
FEB
MAR
Plant outdoors during the months marked in brown.
                     
                       
BEANS, lima (s)
plant 2 crops,
2-3wks apart
                       
BEANS, snap (s)
plant 2 crops,
2-3wks apart
                       
                       
                       
much better grown along coast...
                       
                       
                       
                       
CELERIAC
                       
                       
                       
                       
CORN, sweet (s)
plant early-, mid-and late-season varieties to extend harvest, or plant seeds of the same variety every two weeks during planting season.
                       
                       
                       
                       
                       
                       
                       
                       
                       
                       
                       
                       
                       
                       
                       
                       
                       
                       
                       
                       
                       
                       
                       
                       
                       
                       
                       
S = successive plantings, to extend harvest

Adapted from: UC Davis Vegetable Research and Information Center, and "Climatography of the U.S. No. 20, Supplement No. 1", 1988, National Climatic Data Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, and Complete Guide to Northern California Gardening, 1994, Maureen Gilmer.
 
Recommended Book:
cover
Vegetable Gardening
 
Links:
UC Vegetable Research & Information Gardening Page

1998 UC Master Gardener Tomato Variety Demonstration
2002 Heirloom Tomato Demonstration
Tomato Growers Supply Company
OG Magazine Vegetable Companion Planting Guide
Farmer Fred's 2002 Tomato and Pepper Trials