94 CALIFORNIA VEGETABLES 



These timely and important acts will not appear in our cal- 

 endar for the reasons first stated. They are always in order in 

 California, and if a man has to be told more than once to do them, 

 there are serious doubts of his ever having been called to be a 

 vegetable grower. 



CALIFORNIA GARDEN CALENDAR. 



As shown in the chapter on climate, the timeliness of certain 

 operations in California is not regulated by geography 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 which are everywhere liable to 

 snowfall, constitute regions which differ from the coast valley, in- 

 terior 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 except where wintry conditions in greater or less degree 

 intrude. 



Our seasons, shading into each other without striking division 

 lines, make it necessary to select a somewhat arbitrary 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 under- 

 flow, 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 vege- 

 table 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, irrigated and well worked, it 

 is possible to plant vegetables in July for late fall or winter use. 

 String beans, beets, carrots, corn, peas, parsnips, potatoes, salsify, 

 squashes, turnips, etc., will all come on rapidly if adequate moisture 

 is furnished and frosts are reasonably late. Melons are also suc- 

 cess fuly thus sown and with heat enough will mature in Septem- 

 ber from July planting. Near the coast, or in the interior, with 

 shade, cucumbers, lettuce, radishes and other salads will thrive. 

 Cabbage and cauliflower seed sown in proper beds or boxes, soon 

 give plants for later setting which will mature for Christmas and 



