By Chuck Majors

MAY – A good time to start your small garden. Due to the short growing climate and conditions, you can start with winter crops that tolerate frost and light snow: onions, lettuce, beets, cabbage, carrots, broccoli, brussel sprouts and peas. Most winter crops you can grow all summer.
Indoors, start your (June 15) summer crop in small containers.

JUNE 15 – You can put out your summer crops like tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers and bush beans.
These plants should be started inside on May 1st to be ready. Due to the short growing season in the area, without excluding a day of frost, I would advise growing the summer crop under frost-protected cloth when planted outside.

RECOMMENDED LIST
Plants for High Elevation Gardens
and Estimated Days to Maturity:

Candy Onions (98-105 Days)
Red Ace Beets (53 Days)
Strike Bush Beans (55 Days)
Super Sugar Snap Peas ((66 Days)
Salad Bowl Lettuce (45 Days)
Red Lettuce (51 Days)
Early Dividend Broccoli (45 Days)
Noche Zucchini Squash (42 – 45 Days)
Sunburst Squash (50 Days)
Crookneck Squash (55 Days)
Early Girl Tomatoes (52 Days)
Legend Tomatoes (65 – 100 Days)
Super Sweet Tomatoes (65 – 100 Days)
Lemon Cucumbers (65 Days)
Armenian Cucumbers (50 day)

Chuck Majors has been gardening since he was a child helping his mom in their  family garden. He lived in Westwood for many years, growing a successful garden at 5,000 foot elevateion and then went on to start a commercial garden in Lower Lake, CA, raising his pesticide-free vegetables to sell at Farmers’ Markets.