Do you have a planting calendar for your part of the state? What I do is check my calendar for each month. Then, when I have a spot, I can stick something else in it that can be planted that month.
For things that need planting ahead of time, I'm just always starting things under my porch roof. I've pretty much figured out approximately when things like tomatoes and cool weather veggies that need pre-planting need to get started by looking at the same calendar, which specifies seeds or transplants.
Just google planting calendar and your county and see what you find..
Then, same thing. Stick the transplants in the spot when they're ready and the calendar tells me to.
I'm starting to figure this year-round planting thing out. It's really different from living in the Midwest, that's for sure!

Does this help?

Here is a link that might be useful: When to plant

You should be able to locate help, perhaps a planting calendar, from your county's University of CA Extension Service office.

Locate your office using this map:
http://www.csrees.usda.gov/Extension/

Go slow and learn what you need along the way. All of us were beginners once.

Here is a link that might be useful: find your Extension Service office

My local garden retail shop publishes a hard copy document that shows what is plantable for each month. And our University extension office has a "Garden Planning" center online with planting dates. You might be able to find one for your zone.

I don't have beds, but I have limited space and have to plan ahead and track things, or I go nuts. I am a planner by nature, so I tend to overplan. Being an overplanner, I doubt some of my tips will work for you. But here they are.

I use a paint program that uses layers so I can color code. Like this:

{{gwi:75811}} Not all graphics programs offers layers, but I think Gimp (used to be free, it is open source) does, and Adobe Elements, an abbreviated but very capable version of Adobe Photoshop does, and you should be able to buy for under $50.

Here is the key I use to keep track of things:

The blue shaded areas are planted, those with a blue check were recently seeded and need to be watered daily. The bright pink S indicates I have started seed inside and will transplant later. The yellow-orange areas mark what I need to plant next, probably at the next opportunity. The pink areas need to be planted, but are not targeted for anything yet - still open. Using this little chart makes it really easy to plant in as small as 30 minutes chunks of time, which is all I have most of the time.

As far as what to plant, you need to make decisions based on what will grow in your area. I am in 8b, but on the east coast, or I would gladly share. But I don't want to mislead you.

Hang in there. I am only at it three years too, and I have much to learn. It helps to be an optimist - I harvested 14 pounds of tomatoes tonight, but I also have 7 dying squash plants. I look for the unexpected surprise sometimes. The gardener provides the framework, and sometimes needs to stand back and be a witness. So much is not up to us. The surprises are what amaze me the most. This morning I found another volunteer tomato, the third one. The first one is a gem. It probably is a Sungold descendent - it is dwarf and fully loaded with little tiny tomatoes. The Black Beauty Eggplant I bought is really a Fairy Tale and it does not care about this hot weather. We are having straight 95 degree days already, the peppers are shut down, the tomatoes look stressed, but here is this little dwarf eggplant setting fruit like nobodies business.

California's master gardeners have some great resources. Santa Clara's website is especially good (and easy to find -- they nabbed the mastergardeners.org domain) and probably applicable to you.

In general, Sunset 14, 8 and 9 are pretty similar. You can still plant green beans, okra, zucchini, corn, sweet potatoes, melons, cucumbers, peppers, eggplant, tomatoes and basil. Within about 6 weeks it will be time to think about starting fall crops from seed.

I have a couple of CA planting calendar links on the blog entry I'm linking to below

Here is a link that might be useful: My blog

Weather like this year is discouraging to all Angie but weather cycles are just another part of gardening. My solution after more than 40 years at it is to just keep on trucking as per normal. The old "ignore it and maybe it will go away" philosophy - the bad weather i mean. It gives you a sense of being in control when you really aren't. :) And most of the time it works.

Now gardening in your zone is very different than in mine. You can plant much earlier than me and then plant again for a late fall garden when it is too cold here. So maybe that due to heat etc. you may be heading into what is your down time in the garden. Possible? If so then focus on your fall plantings and fill those bare spots you have now with some fresh compost for the soil to get it ready.

But no matter where we live there are no "cast in stone" rules for what must follow what or even when. Experimentation teaches us what works in our particular garden. Soooo plant what you want to eat as long as it is a heat tolerant vegetable. Sick in a squash plant or a hot pepper plant or even a tomato plant in that bare hole you have and see what happens. Ever tried okra? Do you use herbs in cooking? If so plant some there. You can dry them for use all winter.

Hope this is of some help.

Dave

I can't believe how many of you have jumped in to help. I feel better already! Thank you for that.

I will spend some time going through the links you have all provided and see what I come up with. Sometimes, because of some coastal influence here we cool down in the afternoons faster than it does in the rest of the Santa Clara Valley (we are San Benito). And things can be like night and day here. For the longest time, I didn't even know for sure WHAT our zone was LOL. 20 mins north of here it's almost always at least 10 degrees warmer in Summer and then just 1 hour away there's the ocean and Monterey Bay. But it's colder there. I just need time I suppose.

Thank you very much. I've learned so much just by reading.

Angie

It looks like san benito's master gardeners don't have much online, but in case you haven't found it, Monterey and Santa Cruz have a joint site. I also wonder if maybe the San Luis Obispo Master Gardener's site would also be helpful?

I'm thinking that with your cooler marine influences you could also probably be planting chard, beets & radishes right now... maybe even other plants that like slightly milder weather than what I get up here in Sacramento.

Here is a link that might be useful: Monterey Bay Master Gardeners

That is a terrific idea, Lunita, thank you for the link. There's really not much available for our County online because I have looked. We are sort of non-existent it seems much of the time. I'll check out that link!

Angie

Skitchen Garden8, your guide looks too pretty to write on! And I am a planner---overplanner, but now I have planned so much that I can't remember what I read where and how to do it so I get very mixed up. Your 'map' is something I hope to get to very soon. Once I stop having to reseed things that I put in at the wrong time and pull out bolted broccoli that I put in, again, at the wrong time, hopefully I'll get it straight.

Angie

Angie: I'm kinda in the same space as you - I feel like I have been gardening just long enough I should know what I'm doing. Then how come I felt so much more confident last year? (Also, I used to live in Oakland, where the climiate is equally weird, so I know what you mean about being unsure about your zone!)

I'm forgetful and I get busy, too. Lists work for me. I started with the extension/master gardener planting schedule. I inputed all that into a Word document with lists of things I was supposed to do each week. Last year, I read a bunch about fall gardening (I'm in New England), and added that info. My list says when seeds should be started and when things should be transplanted. I jot down when to fertilize. I even included clean up and stuff to remind myself to actually do all that. As long as I follow my own to-do list each week, I should be fairly OK. I print it out and check it off. I also make notes on it if I think something should be changed for the next year.

..So, I actually know the reason I feel "off" is that I got busy/overwhelmed in the rest of my life and stopped following my list. As my friend said to me, though, it's just my garden, and my kids are doing well. I'll catch up, the important things are started, and we'll still have some produce.

...and my list now says not to try to grow so many annual flowers next year! I sure bit off more than I chould chew!