Fall is the Time to Plant in the Southwest Garden

              

Fall is the best time of the year to plant in the Southwest Cottage garden. The temperatures are falling to a bearable level, the rains pick up, and the weeds are gone.  Now is the time to get your zone 9 gardens ready for fall planting. I have to admit I do a lot of my fall gardening in pots, where they not only provide fall and winter interest but offers a beautiful edible bounty by early spring. 

Fall has distinct planting benefits. Autumn's cooler air temperatures are easier on both plants and gardeners. The soil is still warm, allowing roots to grow until we experience a freeze.  

Preparation – Before you plant, you need to get the garden ready. If you are planting in the ground, be sure to add some horse manure or aged cow manure to give the soil extra nutrients.  I also inoculate the soil with mycorrhizae–myco means fungus and the suffix means root, so literally root fungi, a word used to indicate a symbiotic relationship between the two. Buy mycorrhizae to add to the planting bed especially around the roots of little plants. Since most of the zone 9b is dry, I add fertilizers to the soil that helps retain moisture. Besides the ones already mentioned you can add other nitrogen-rich additives such as rabbit manure, alfalfa, and cottonseed meal,  and for good vegetable and or flower production you also need phosphorus. I use rock phosphate. Also, don’t forget about the potassium. Potassium (or potash) helps plants use water. The best source of potassium for the organic garden is greensand. You can also add wood ash, but it is high in lime so it can lower your pH.

Planting: Don't overwater, but make sure the plants get at least 1 inch of water one time per week. If the temperatures stay hot, then water every day until cooler weather descends.

1. Vegetables: I usually grow Lettuce, spinach, radishes and collard greens and some kale and other greens with a short maturity time can be planted later in the season. Carrots are a must every year as they germinate quickly, and we do not have the usual pest that seems to harvest the root crops. Carrots taste sweeter when they're harvested after frost.

Perennials: In the long growing season of zone 9b the perennials get to monster size and need to be divided every season, and fall is the only time to do this successfully.

Peony, Irises, Echinacea, Shasta daisy, and mums are all best choices for hot, desert conditions. Geraniums are ideal for pots for winter blooming, but sadly go dormant or dead in the summer heat.

• Petunias are the perfect basket plant, they grow quickly and are healthy and fragrant at the same time.

• Spring  Bulbs:  I have tulips, daffodils, lilies, crocus, and several other varieties of spring bulbs that faithfully put on a grand show for me every year. Plant these in late October.

 Geraniums will perform best in pots for the fall and winter months. Bring them in if the temperatures dip down below 40 degrees. 

Stock is a cottage garden favorite and grows and blooms almost non-stop in the desert setting.

Nasturtium grows the best in the fall-winter months and will self-sow and bloom every year in the fall and winter.

Tree: Even though in zone 9b you can plant all year round, fall is a better time to plant trees. The love the cooler temperature to settle in and develop their roots.  The high heat of the summer months puts them into shock, and they don’t grow they just go into survival mode (as we humans also do).