Offering up a smallish thread on 2024 cool season planting in urban #zone10
First, the season has been rough in terms of hotter than normal days and nights, as well as bad air quality.
This season's focus is to expand being a neighborhood insectary and to generate more native plant seeds.
Because of the challenges with the weather, the pics are quick. I hope they're useful.
2024 planting is resistance for 2025 hope.
1/N
Direct seeded a total of four beds, so about 135 sq ft. Mix of flowering plants & veg. For luck, all the beds have a sprinkle of California poppy, Eschscholzia californica.
Bed 1:
About 3' x 10'
Half of bed is established native yarrow, Achillea millefolium, grown from seed from Theodore Payne foundation
Other half of bed is Phacelia tanacetifolia from my own grown seed this year
Pic is of the rough chop of Romneya I use to help keep shade cloth row cover tucked in from birds.
2/N
Bed 2:
About 3' x 7'
Direct seeded with one row each of parsnips, chard, and beets from local nursery end of season sale.
Also one row of Phacelia seeds from my own harvest, like bed 1.
Pic is of the side of the bed. This spring I had a massive amount of cornflowers, so I used them as a kind of wattle fence along the sides of the bed.
3/N
Bed 3:
About 3' x 15'
3 total rows. Half the bed is Liatris from local nursery seed sale. Other half is cornflower, Centaurea, from my own seed harvested this spring.
Pic shows the end of the row. I didn't have enough length of shade cloth to protect from birds. So, I'm relying on some of my chipped Romneya to help discourage the resident Towhee family from rototilling the bed for me.
4/N
Bed 4:
About 3' x 13'
3 total rows planted in blocks of seeds I harvested this year: Rudbeckia hirta, Rudbeckia triloba, Phacelia tanacetifolia, Achillea millefolium, and Amsinkia sp.
I ran out of shade cloth, so picture shows my experiment to help keep the Towhees off the bed. I took long lengths of the Romneya and criss crossed them like pick-up sticks across the furrows. It's working so far :)
Edit: and a block of dill from my seed harvest this year, too.
5/N
And now switching over to the new native plants. All were from local nurseries and in 1 gallon pots.
Tagetes lemmonii
I will never tire of these cheery marigolds
6/N
Solidago californica. It's starting to show new growth in its rosette.
7/N:
Encelia californica. It is also pushing out new leaves. Looking forward to the many sunflower like flowers to come.
8/N:
Eriogonum arborescens, Santa Cruz Island buckwheat, is pushing out new leaves and a developing flowerhead
9/N
Eriogonum fasciculatum, California buckwheat. This buckwheat makes up so much of my local chaparral creating waves of greens to whites to rust as the season goes by
10/N
Eriogonum giganteum, St. Catherine's Lace buckwheat. This one will have dinner plate sized blooms. Cannot wait.
11/end
Eriogonum cinereum, Ashy Leaved Buckwheat. This plant was blooming in the pot and has not stopped! The flowers are tiny and gorgeous--showing off the tiniest of dew drops
@kellyromanych I have one in my front yard and it is really quite something. The flowers dry well, too.
@mazz fingers crossed this weather lets them get safely rooted.
@kellyromanych. Wikipedia says it is the most important native plant for honey in California. Grow more buckwheat please. #nativeplants, #pollinators, #zone10, #zone9.
@CindyWeinstein :) and each flower is no bigger than the size of a coin really.