Care:
Follow a regular watering schedule during the first growing season to establish a deep, extensive root system. Feed every 3 months with Dr. Earth Organic #7 except during winter while blooming. For a tidy, neat appearance, shear annually to shape. This plant will bloom better if water is withheld to natural rainfall in the winter.

If there is any room available in your vegetable garden, fill it with winter vegetables. Use either transplants of broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, lettuce, parsley, peas, and Swiss chard or seeds of beets, carrots, lettuce, peas, radishes, and turnips.

Artichokes, asparagus, and horseradish can be bought bare root. Horseradish grows like a weed in Southern California. It's well worth growing, but needs ample water plus plenty of room to grow. Confine it in a special place, such as a raised bed, or it can become quite invasive.

This is the best time of the year for lettuce. It's easy to grow and a money saver. Plant either from transplants, which will give you faster harvest, or from seeds, which will give you more lettuce over a longer period of time. Lettuce seeds germinate within a wide range of soil temperatures, but sprout more quickly at cooler temperatures than warm ones, so this is a good time to plant.

Growing from seeds also gives you more interesting varieties to choose from, such as Rouge d'Hiver, a red Romaine, or "mesclun," the French-termed mix of red and green lettuces with herbs - especially pleasing to the gourmet.