CALIFORNIA GARDEN CALENDAR. 141 



graphy nor latitude, but by topography and environment, 

 by moisture-conditions, either natural or acquired, and by 

 the beginning and ending of the frost-free period. The 

 broken country of the northwest quarter of the State, and 

 the mountain elevations everywhere which are liable to 

 snowfall, constitute regions which differ from the Coast 

 valley, interior valley and foothill regions both north and 

 south, and are, therefore, to a certain degree out of our 

 calculation, though an effort will be made to include some 

 recognition of their practice. The outline to be made of 

 timely work is intended to cover the State in all parts ex- 

 cept where wintry conditions in greater or less degree in- 

 trude. 



Our seasons, shading into each other without striking 

 division lines, make it necessary to select a somewhat ar- 

 bitrary point of beginning for a garden calendar. The 

 point midway between the closing of one rainy season and 

 the beginning of another is, by virtue of its drought-and- 

 heat-effects on the rainfall garden, and its heat-effects 

 even on ground kept moist by irrigation or underflow, the 

 time when garden growth is about at its lowest point. It 

 is also a time when preparations are to be made for the 

 earliest sowing. The arrangement is somewhat arbitrary, 

 as confessed above, but it accords best with all matters 

 involved to look upon the month of July as the beginning 

 of the California year in vegetable growing. 



JULY. 



On ground moistened anew by underflow from rising 

 rivers or by percolation from irrigation ditches on higher 

 orchard slopes, or on land cleared of an earlier crop, irri- 

 gated and well worked, it is possible to plant vegetables in 

 July for late fall or winter use. String beans, carrots, 

 corn, parsnips, potatoes, salsify, squashes, turnips, etc., 

 will all come on rapidly in the interior heat, if adequate 

 moisture is furnished and frosts are reasonably late. Mel- 

 ons are also successfully thus sown and with heat enough 

 will mature in September from July planting. Near the 



