I know you can't believe it as you are just beginning to harvest the summer crops but it is time to start planting your fall garden. After years of small non-productive broccoli and cabbage, and miniature carrots in December, I finally realized I needed to start the fall garden sooner. Start cabbage, Brussels sprouts, broccoli and cauliflower now through early August. Sometimes I start a nursery bed of these plants in rich soil and then dig them up and transplant them to larger spacing when they are a few inches tall.  Parsnips also need to be started now (they take a long time to germinate so be prepared to keep the seed bed moist for a couple of weeks).  By early August I start thinking about fall carrots and beets and a new planting of chard or kale if I want more for the winter. Because the day length is so short in the fall months, most fall crops need to get established in August, though some like leafy greens can be started in September.  Also think about doing a summer cover crop of buckwheat if you have a bed sitting empty.  It grows really fast, is great for the bees, you can eat the young greens and it accumulates insoluble phosphorous and releases it in a more available form when it gets turned under.

	Volunteers tending broccoli.

Remember some plants will give you much higher yields if you keep them well harvested. Cucumbers, summer squash, beans and basil will keep on producing if you keep them harvested. If fruit is left on too long or flowers are allowed to develop on the basil, the plants move toward seed production and reproduction not production. Flowers will also have extended bloom if you keep them deadheaded.

Please note the location of events, as this calendar lists events for our Alameda, San Rafael, Santa Rosa and Sebastopol locations.