As the frantic pace of late spring gives way to the steady thrum of early summer, we enter a distinct moment in the garden — a time when beds start to fill out. The soil is ready, the mornings are longer, and the air hums with rapid growth.
“We’re still very much in the garden of spring,” said Nicolas Whitaker, nursery manager. “It’s a great time to plant vegetables for a bountiful later summer harvest.”
Perhaps you took advantage of this year’s unseasonably early heat wave and got plants in the ground early. But if you didn’t, and are wondering if it’s too late to start a summer garden, fret not. June is the perfect time to sow and transplant sun-loving vegetables and herbs like tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, and squash.
These annuals, and many others, are now in abundance at the OAEC Nursery. After a multi-year hiatus from annual vegetable propagation, the nursery is once again offering open-pollinated, regionally-adapted, hard-to-find-anywhere-else annual vegetables.
“It’s a return to something that we’ve done well for a long time,” Nicolas said. “Most other nurseries you go to aren’t necessarily selecting for what will thrive in Sonoma County or the Bay Area.”
Regionally adapted vegetables are genetically tuned to the local climate, soil, and ecosystem. This means higher yields, better natural resistance to area pests and diseases, and excellent flavor and nutrition.
Take the ‘Goldini’ summer squash—currently available at the nursery—for example. The open-pollinated yellow zucchini was bred by Pacific Northwest grower Carol Deppe for heat tolerance, overall resilience, and excellent storage capacity. Unlike many standard summer squash that lose flavor when they grow too large, Goldini peaks in flavor and texture at one to two pounds.
In fact, a number of plant varieties on offer at the nursery were actually discovered, or bred, right here at the Occidental Arts & Ecology Center. Take the ‘Farallones Orange Beefsteak,’ a pale orange slicer tomato that first appeared as a volunteer in a compost pile in 1982, and the nursery has been saving seed on it ever since.
The nursery has 27 varieties of heirloom tomatoes for sale, including ‘Coyote’ — a wild cherry tomato variety from Veracruz, Mexico, famous for its complex, fruity flavor — and Andy’s Polish Pink — a meaty tomato variety grown from seed and given to Doug Gosling, former Mother Garden Biodiversity and Nursery Program Director, from a friend whose father brought it from Poland when he emigrated in the first part of the 20th century. While many of these popular varieties are flying off the shelves, there is still time to stop by and claim a few plants for your summer beds.
OAEC Garden Manager Miles Horobin recommends the traditional heirloom summer squash ‘Zapallo del Tronco’ native to Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile, which forms circular, light green fruit, about the size of softballs.
“They’re a little bit different than your standard supermarket zucchini,” Miles said. “They’re such prolific plants, plus the fruit is delicious and tender.” Unlike many common summer squashes, the ‘Zapallo del Tronco’ variety belongs to the Cucurbita maxima family, making it highly resistant to common pests like squash bugs and vine borers.
If you’re looking for a low-maintenance, drought-tolerant crop that can be planted throughout the summer, Miles suggests sowing a bed of beets. This root crop can even be “dry farmed”—a method of production that relies entirely on residual soil moisture from winter and spring rains rather than supplemental irrigation.
The versatile vegetable can be roasted, chopped raw for a salad, or even juiced. As an added bonus, beet greens—which can be prepared much like chard—offer a second harvest from the same plant. ‘Chioggia,’ an Italian heirloom variety known for its radiant red and white concentric rings, is currently available in the nursery and is an OAEC community favorite.
The late-spring, early-summer window is also a good time to plant slow-bolting perennial greens, which, unlike their annual counterparts, naturally resist going to seed and tolerate warmer weather.
Planting locally adapted perennial crops alongside annuals is a great way to make your garden more climate resilient and seasonally diverse, said Nicolas. By establishing plants that live for years, you do the heavy lifting of ground preparation and planting just once.
“Perennials are so much less labor-intensive,” Nicolas said. “You can set them and forget them.”
In fact, Nicolas sees this strategy as critical for the future of climate-adaptive gardening in California, and this year’s nursery offerings reflect that. Alongside our abundant selection of annual vegetables, we are featuring a number of specialty perennial food crops, including over 15 varieties of perennial greens.
For gardeners looking to build this kind of climate resilience in their home gardens, Nicolas highlights perennial brassicas like tree collards, as well as exceptional greens like Malabar or Okinawan spinach. These low-maintenance choices respond beautifully to regular pruning, bushing out to produce abundant, tender leaves.
June is prime time for planting annuals, but don’t overlook the perennial herbs, flowers, and medicinal plants that will keep your garden flourishing year after year.
“Tending the habitat of your garden is so much more than just veggie starts,” Nicholas said. “It’s about the pollinators you attract, and about the textures and smells that make your garden a place that you want to spend your time.”
In addition to propagating annuals, the OAEC Nursery is ramping up its selection of native Californian plants for sale this year. These perennials — which are uniquely adapted to the local climate — not only survive on significantly less water, they also attract native pollinators that rely on the plants for food and habitat.
The ‘California Goldenrod’ — a hardy herbaceous perennial known for its late-season display of wispy golden yellow flowers — for example, supports a wide array of pollinators, including native bees, honey bees, butterflies, wasps, and predatory flies.
Native milkweed varieties, too, are the required host plants for monarch butterfly caterpillars to survive. The perennial herb known for its milky white sap and pom pom-like flowers adapts well to most average garden soils and requires minimal care once established.
To round out your kitchen and wellness gardens, the nursery also offers a vibrant selection of medicinal, tea, and culinary herbs, like the highly aromatic Balm of Gilead, or the versatile and delicious Society Garlic.
While spring can feel like a mad dash to get plants in the ground, it also offers an opportunity to try new annual varieties or experiment with native perennial borders. We’re moving toward the explosion of mid-summer, when the fruits of our labor crescendo into an abundance of vegetables, flowers, and herbs. For now, though, comes the focused, embodied work of tending to the land.
Whether you are looking to design a backyard pollinator oasis or simply need help picking the right tomato variety for your microclimate, the team at the OAEC Nursery can help you map out your ideal summer garden.
We’ve changed things up this year by opening on weekdays, which is a great time to beat the weekend crowds and chat with our knowledgeable staff. Come visit us Wednesday through Saturday from 11 am – 5 pm.