Good news, we're in CA, the same zone, and you get 2 seasons! Start with what you like to eat (here that's tomatoes, cukes, garlic, onions, bell peppers), start your seeds indoors (may be still to hot to germinate them outside, then set out as transplants mid sept or so, and eat fresh food all fall > Jan (or 1st frost), lettuces, spinach, peas are all going to do well and are simple fall crops here. Aug is a great time to start out fall crop seeds for transplanting. If you got a list of what you'd like to *eat*, we can work backwards to when to transplant/start seeds for those crops.

It's not going to hurt you to try, you'll learn what will work and not work by doing. Now is the time to plant fall crops. What's easy for some is not necessarily easy for others. It depends on where you live and the environment (air and soil temps, soil quality, sunlight, etc.) along with variety of vegetable.

Check with your state's Extension Service. Each county should have it's own Cooperative Extension Office which provides free publications and information for the asking. They will have valuable vegetable/gardening tables available specifically for your area determined by universities and horticultural research scientists who have collected data from growing those crops in your state. Your tax dollars are already paying for this service so you may as well get some use out of it.

Vegetable Planting and Planning Calendar for Missouri (download the pdf) complete with spring and fall planting dates (underneath the spring planting dates for appropriate crops), how much to plant per person, etc. They can also tell you the average last frost date for your area and ideal planting times for specific crops and varieties in your area.

See how detailed this example is:

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One of the best things you can do for yourself as a beginner is to get a good all around vegetable gardening book and grow what you like to eat.

What's your favorite book about gardening?

Best Books about Vegetable Gardening

violet_z6, great suggestion! i will check to see if my county has any free publications. i am in the south bay area in CA which gets quite warm throughout the summer, and some rain in the winter. frost... some? sorry i am not very sensitive to the weather!

fishymamas, i love all veggie except the onion / leek family. i especially love arugula and swiss chard, as well as squash, bell peppers, broccoli, tomatoes, etc etc. i was just at another site checking out seeds for rainbow chards, and the color freaks me out a little - are they GM-ed to have that neon color?

Hey, I'm trying to do a three crop season. I have just planted peas and beans, okra and squash for a late summer crop before planting my fall/winter stuff.

confused: I lived in Clairemont, up above mission bay for 15 years (now I'm in GA) when there, although with limited space (I had 2 raised bed planters about 4 feet wide by 8 feet long) a small space behind my garage that was about 12 feet long and about 5 maybe 6 feet wide, which didn't get much sun at all but it sure didn't seem to mind because everything grew there..and I used a planting area that was at the top of and the length of my retaining wall for the stuff that needed more space...I grew a full garden of veggies, including squash, corn, tomatoes, beets, carrots, lettuce, peppers, herbs, basil, cucumbers, berries, grapes, celery, SWISS CHARD (one of my neighbors gave me a part of a divided plant) and it was among my most favorite things to grow and to eat...and it couldnt' be any easier...you just keep taking the leaves off and it keeps putting them back on!!! wonderful to eat....(*I actually was able to get some to grow here from seed in GA and am looking forward to them maturing enough to start peeling the leaves off and cooking them).

I also had very clay soil in SD...Rose Canyon...the ground was like rock about 2 feet down...I had a small tiller and worked in all kinds of compost etc...my soil was rich with worms and grew about anything..... One year I remember going back to my 10 year reunion (which was about mid August or maybe even September)and I had tomatoes that were loaded with fruit..I picked everything I could and gave them away to all my neighbors, I had 2 big containers full and weighed them just for fun...I had about 60 lbs of tomaotes!!! when I got back...I had almost as many as before I left...

So Cal was for me at least the most ideal place to grow stuff...now I'm really missing it after reminecsing (spelling?) about my wonderful garden there...and what else seems to be in my memory...NO BUG PROBLEMS, NO PLANT DISEASES FROM MOISTURE, MOLD ETC....Now maybe my yard was an exception there...but now I have to deal with all that stuff here and fight for a decent yeild of veggies....sigh...

My advice, just go for it, get your soil well prepared, make use of any space you have (I had peppers growing amongst my roses there too and strawberries all throughout my flower beds that produced amazingly) You will probably also have access to sources to buy plants to save some time instead of using seeds. Armstrong's? near Sports Arena area seemed to always have good stuff...and the people there are very knowledgeable.

GOOD LUCK (sorry for the novel)

belindach: peas, beans, okra and squash are all my favorites!!! hmm i need to try :) did you mean you just started to sow the seeds in, or are they germinated already? i hope it's not too late for me to start from seeds!

rjinga: thanks for the story; you gave me hope :) i am in north cal, about 30 minutes south of SF, so it is a bit colder than south cal... man, 60lbs of tomato!! i LOVE heirloom tomatoes!

Confused newbie- Where exactly are you?
You are getting responses from all over the place, but if you are just below the Bay Area, that could be the Montery area, San Jose, Big Sur etc.
Is your zone USDA zone 9 or Sunset Zone 9?
How bout your soil, raised beds, clay,loamy etc.
I'm up in Sonoma CO., USDA zone 8.
I have raised beds and am just starting to get the tomatoes, green beans, peppers, squash, basil, cucumbers. I didn't do corn, but the neighbor's corn looks like I need to sneak over there soon! LOL
I planted several kinds of lettuce in the shade this week and brite lite chard in the reg garden. I also planted some lemon basil in the shade of the tomatoes, cause the old ones looked kinda peaked. I have some brussel sprouts growing, but don't know how they grow, being winter veges!
You can TRY sowing spinach about now. I haven't had any luck with it so far.
Your best bet would be to go to a local nursery and talk to people who are "in the know"
HTH Nancy

Nancy: I am in Los Altos, it's south of Palo Alto and north west of San Jose. I used garden web's zone finder and typed in my zip code and it says usda zone 9... I don't know what type of soil I got, sorry... I feel like I need to take a class on this! There is a decent local nursery here so I should go there again; last time I went I asked about my fruit trees and I didn't feel like I should impose all my questions on the poor lady all at once :)

violet_z6: from your link, i found a few free workshops organized by the county on veggie gardening! that's nice, thanks!

Confused:
Get a copy of Golden Gate Gardening. It's written for the SF Bay area and while your weather doesn't match exactly, it is close enough to give you an idea of the uniqueness of California gardening. Most gardening books don't relate to the Calif conditions and won't give you the info you need.

I lived in Oakland 15 years and had a four-season garden.
-O

You have time to plant peas, beans, squash and okra. We will not have a frost until late November so go far it.

I found a copy of Golden Gate Gardening in my local library :) Very excited! I also got $10 seed packets from Walmart yesterday, although they are mostly out. So I only got lettuce and squash (that's all they have other than flowers). Okras are so expensive it's be good to plant some!

Hi again...side note about okra...(being new to southern gardening, and growing okra, and the fact that okra is a staple here ;) a old farmer and neighbor of my MIL, who has a wonderful garden and grows okra (usually several rows of it probably 40 feet long), kinda laughed at me when I told him that I had 4 okra plants growing....his snicker was that with only 4 plants, I might get enough for one "mess" (interpretation = one meal) well, he was correct, between the 4 plants, they produced a handful of pods...never really enough to even cook up for a meal...so you will have to keep that in mind if you want to harvest very many of them. more than 4 plants!!!

interesting! i will keep that in mind, never thought that okra plants produce so little, well that explains why they are expensive in grocery stores. this is what gets me excited; to see how each plant grows differently!

Okra seeds work best if you soak them in water about 2 hours before planting. I would suggest planting a seed every 3 inches and later thin to 6 inches. I had about 14 plants last year and it was fine for the two of us. In the beginning I would save okra a few days and accumulate a meals worth. Later I was able to blanch and freeze some. This year I will have a row about 12 feet or about 24 plants. Okra is nice in soups which is why I want more this year.

thanks for the info on okra! hmm couldn't find seeds from walmart today, will try local nurseries tomorrow.
i have a question regarding cantaloupe - i had this amazing organic cantaloupe from a local CSA program, and i saved the seeds wanting to plant them. can i plant them now? is it the right season? thanks!