I'm in Oxnard CA, & searched for my hardiness zone, so I know what to plant & when to plant them. Some places say I'm in zone 8, whereas some say I'm in zone 10. Does it matter? I appreciate any/all advice!

USDA zones are useful for judging whether to grow ceratin perrenials. Has little meaning for annuals, whicludes most vegetables. It is based on minimum winter temps. Lenght of season and summer temps are the most important factor in growing vegetables. Lenght of season is approximately the distance between last frost (spring) and first frost (fall) You are in southern California, so you most likely have few limits on what to grow climate wise. Accoding to weather data from Camarillo Airport, the lowest temp ever recorded is 25 degrees Fahrenheit, but otherwise rarely drops below 40. USDA Z10 As you go farther inland and higher elevations you might find a Z8

Hi Debbie, and welcome to NGA!

This says "10b, maybe 10a" and did not show any Zone 8.
http://www.plantmaps.com/inter...

Are there mountains nearby? Elevation can make it much colder within the same ZIP code.
Usually, the closer to the water, the warmer, but that map did not show it getting MUCH colder anywhere near Oxnard.

I agree with Framer Dill. The USDA hardiness zone only says how cold it is likely to get in an average winter, perhaps only briefly.

Normally I would say to look at your first and last average frost dates ... but Zone 10b won't HAVE any frost in an average winter!

Maybe check out this site's "planting calendar". I don;t know how accurate it is in the absence of frost dates, but maybe it can handle that case! It used to be in the far-left blue menu bar, under "Goodies".

I see Dave changed the name to "other tools": http://garden.org/apps/calenda...

Sorry! It says:

"You appear to be in an environment where frosts aren't an issue for you, so we can't properly advise you on planting dates. For advice on gardening in the frost-free areas of the world, we would advise to peruse our veggie-related discussion forum."

I might add, "or check out the PNW and CA forums".
http://garden.org/forums/view/...
http://garden.org/forums/view/...

One generic answer to unusual local conditions is to ask your local "co-op" or "ag extension" service, usually run by a local University. (Or a Master Gardener's group).

( top-level search: https://nifa.usda.gov/partners... )
whole site: http://ucanr.edu/

Gardening: http://ucanr.edu/Gardening/

Garden Q&A: http://cagardenweb.ucanr.edu/

??: http://cagardenweb.ucanr.edu/G...

Master Gardeners of CA: http://mg.ucanr.edu/

Y'know, after scanning their site for 5-10 minutes, I have yet to find anything I wanted to read or save!
I hope you have better luck with them.

Maybe you look through the lists of publications to find a planting calendar.

Or call the master gardeners and ask the same question. But unless they point you to more documents, it would help to go to them with a list of 3-10 things you would LIKE to grow, and they can tell you easy/hard/why, and hopefully "when".

Good luck! And if you find a good resource, I would urge you to go to one of the related forums, and tell people there about it. Many would appreciate that, and the rest might argue with its conclusions! (Or politely suggest alternative interpretations).

Thank you so much, Mr. Corey. There are so many resources telling you one thing or another; and for a beginner like me, it's all quite confusing. I think if I'm going to invest time & effort doing this, I want to educate myself to have some return on that investment. Some things I have learned by trial & error- but is very satisfying seeing how my plants progress & am super excited to enjoy the fruits of my labor. When I need vegetables to serve with dinner, I just go in my yard & pick them. I have so much to learn, however am proud to have whatever knowledge I have gained thus far. Everyone is so helpful on this site, I am grateful.

Part of the fun of growing is learning.

That is very true, Newyorkrita. I have learned so much thus far, by trial & error, as well as advice from the kind people from this website. The very first thing I planted was beets... They are flourishing, however, by looking at them, I now know to space the seeds a bit more apart next time I plant them. I suggest for any beginner (like me) to keep a gardening journal, with plant specifics, notes, pictures & anything pertinent so you can refer back to.

ChefDebbie said:That is very true, Newyorkrita. I have learned so much thus far, by trial & error, as well as advice from the kind people from this website. The very first thing I planted was beets... They are flourishing, however, by looking at them, I now know to space the seeds a bit more apart next time I plant them. I suggest for any beginner (like me) to keep a gardening journal, with plant specifics, notes, pictures & anything pertinent so you can refer back to.

If the beets are still crowded now simply thin them. It is never too late to thin them. Just pull out any that are much too close to another.

Debbie, I had one more thought to add to Rick's good discussion on zones for you. I am in zone 10-ish as well. I judge "when to plant what" much more by how warm the weather is expected to be, and don't worry much about cold, although we do (very rarely) get below 40, and even have had frost a few winters since I've been here. I have covers ready for cold nights in that event.

You need to look at the edibles you're growing and ask yourself "Do they need cooler weather to grow well?". Seed packets often have this info, or of course you can ask us. Here, things like salad greens, peas, anything related to cabbage like broccoli and kale, plus some of the root veggies like carrots and beets do much better in the winter, when the temps are rarely over 80 and the nights are reliably cool. I can start these plants indoors (in the a/c) in September but really can't put them outside until after a couple of cold fronts have reached this far south, and the Gulf water is starting to cool off. That's when the nights get cool enough to give the plants a nightly rest - usually mid-October.

Your USDA hardiness zone information doesn't tell you anything about how warm it is in spring, summer and fall. Only how cold it gets in your average winter. It's important to watch the weather forecasts for temperature fluctuations, and act accordingly to protect your plants from either cold or heat.

One of the best things you learn as a gardener is to be pro-active. You can prevent a lot of plant problems by anticipating them and being prepared.

I don't do edibles, but I had the same problems understanding what to do with ornamentals. Most of the country is first-frost/last-frost oriented, therefore most of the books, articles, etc., that you will find will be written by people who don't know anything about Zone 10. Ignore them. I do have one book that might be helpful - "Month-by-Month Gardening California" by Claire Splan. It covers everything, including edibles. Another possible is Pat Welsh's "Southern California Gardening: A Month-by-Month Guide" I think this one is more about edibles. Both are available at Amazon or B&N. Or maybe the library.

ChefDebbie said: ... I think if I'm going to invest time & effort doing this, I want to educate myself to have some return on that investment. Some things I have learned by trial & error-
...
I suggest for any beginner (like me) to keep a gardening journal, with plant specifics, notes, pictures & anything pertinent so you can refer back to.

Debbie, you may be relatively new to gardening, but knowing that we all have to learn by trial and error is the best and second-most advanced gardening wisdom I know. The MOST advanced wisdom is that you can't learn if you don't keep notes (I'm still learning that lesson).

BTW, Dave created a feature in the plant database that lets you keep notes where they will be visible to others. AND, their notes are visible to you. I think that's called "Grower Reports" , but I haven't used them yet. Maybe someone familiar with them would remind us how to enter one, and whether they are "just visible" int he plant database when you open up a plant record that someone added growers reports to. Things like "I planted these on XX date" and "picked my first snow peas on YY date".

If I were more energetic, I would keep notes on:
dates seeds started, size of cells room temp, whether or not a heating mat was used)
days to emergence
days to ideal transplant time based on rootball size
days to become root-bound
date actually transplanted out, spacing, recent weather
days to small leaves or pods
days for main harvest
pests

You all are incredibly awesome & will most certainly heed all the advice given. So glad I found this website!

I'm glad you did, too.

Debbie, Check out Sunset Western Garden.com Many of us on the west coast rely on it for our climate zones, because we have so many micro climates. It won't give you a planting calendar, but it will tell you what will grow in your Sunset zone and explain why. I agree that the Pat Walsh book is excellent.

Carol, thanks for the info, since we're in the same climate zone. With all the advice the wonderful people (from this site) have been giving me, anything I grow in my garden will surely be a complete success! Will be happy to pay it forward when I can. God bless.

If you do achieve complete success please let us know, with pics, so the rest of us can bask in your glory.

Carol, success for me is having any plant live longer than one month! Anything beyond that to me, is a home run... albeit how small it is, but I'll take it! It just builds up my confidence that I can do this & further develop my green thumb. 😃

This heat wave will be a test for you.

Isn't that the truth! I'm close to the ocean, isn't Santa Ana more inland? Even my beet greens looked a bit wilted with today's heat- and is only gonna get worse.

I'm in NE Santa Ana, On the border of Garden Grove, so about 10 miles from the water.

And I'm just now discovering which pots need water at least once a day. My moisture meter has never worked so hard. I don't know why I bother - I still follow up with a finger to make sure.