All About Veggies: A Planting Guide for Tehachapi!

Growing your own fruits and veggies can be so rewarding! Not only can you save a great deal of money, but you can have more nutritious, organically grown food that tastes better than anything you’ll find at the supermarket.

But having a vegetable garden can also be frustrating if you are just starting out. Tehachapi has a short growing season for many favorites but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a great crop. It just means that you have to know when and how to plant them. In this guide, we will outline the growing options you have on many popular foods and you’ll also find our fantastic planting calendar below. If you still have questions, plan on attending one of our free classes or just stop in to talk to one of our helpful Gardening Coaches.

How to Use this Chart

When planning your vegetable garden, you’ll have to budget both time and money. Use this chart to determine which you can save money on by growing from seed and which you can save time on by purchasing plants, bare root or bulbs.
What each column means…

• Seed – Direct sow seeds into the ground or outdoor container
• Transplant – Start indoor yourself to prepare for transplants
• Plants – Purchase starters at Old Towne Nursery

A few more tips…

In Tehachapi, we consider May 15th to be the safe date to plant all non-cold hardy plants. While you can certainly put your tomatoes in the ground sooner, you’ll need to protect them until that day (or risk starting over!)

You’ll also notice that the chart shows you many options on how to start your veggies. Use this information to help budget both your time and money by finding the right balance between starting from seeds (money saving) and purchasing plants (time saving.)

Finally, consider keeping a journal of what worked best for you so that you’ll do even better next year! This should include what, where & when you amended, planted, fertilized and harvested.

*Also see the article on Soil In your Garden to learn about proper amendments based on your soil type.