If you're not yet familiar with it, go to a library/bookstore and page through the Sunset "Western Gardening" book. It's absolutely amazing. A plant encyclopedia, Western gardening zones (due to microclimates in the West), when/where/how to plant vegs, fruits, herbs, perennials, etc., and on and on and on into the night. The 7th edition (2001) contained 768 pages; there's now an 8th edition available.

Sunset has been my mentor since the '80s.

Cynthia

I second the suggestion on Sunset's Western Gardening. I also highly recommend Pat Welsh's Southern California Gardening. And finally, I recommend myself, as I keep a blog that focuses on food and growing it here in Southern California. You can check out what I plant and when (and get occasional free seeds) on my website. See the link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: A Thinking Stomach

Di,

Why not post what town you live in or near. Perhaps there will be a Gardenweb member who lives near you. Also, have you looked in the start up page for Gardenweb to see if there is a California forum? I have never noticed. But if there is, that would be a good way to find more local gardeners.

George
Tahlequah, Oklahoma

Good luck. I am just getting back to a large garden after 7 years. My best suggestion is to start small so you can have time to learn about your plants..their amount of sun/shade, soil, bugs they get etc. You can also watch to see how much water they may require and if going organic, have time to pick/protect from bugs.

I have 2 raised, intensive beds going this year so am in the learning curve myself having just moved into this home and not doing raised beds before. I have already found that the cabbage butterfly likes my broccoli and cauliflower and had a bit of a messy morning squishing caterpillars. Ok not really messy because they were really tiny but kinda gross all the same. If I had a much larger patch of the broccoli and cauliflower I probably would not have caught them so early and now I know they are around, I can keep a really good eye on my 10 plants.

Since you are in S. Cali you may have shade requirements I do not get here in Michigan but on the really nice side, you have a much longer growing season than I have.

You may want to check out the 4 seasons gardening forum to get information on growing year long in your area. Kim

You should be near-ish to me (Riverside Cty), I can help with plantings and general stuff, but I don't have the deacades of experance some of the older members have. You'll find an ajustment in thinking happening, you may not get decient cherries (little chill hours) but you can grow awsome citrus and bananas. You should start with what you want to eat, rather than what a list says it's time for, then we can figure out what to grow when.

There is a California gardening forum here at GW. It looks fairly active. Perhaps a post there could get you a nearby gardener to email with questions.

Your local county extension office may be of great help. They may even have Master Gardeners who will take calls and answer questions.

thanks everyone great info!

I'm in Simi Valley, just north of L.A. will be emailing a couple of you and checking out the CA forum