You can check this site to find vegetables to grow in your area, or ask your neighbors see what can grow in your area.

http://www.burpee.com/gygg/growingCalendarWithZipCode.jsp?catid=1000&_requestid=298511

watch weather forecast to guess the best time to seeding

This post was edited by JCTsai on Sun, Dec 29, 13 at 13:19

Might be better off checking the CALIFORNIA forum. Also, check your county extension.

Kevin

Agree that your county extension office is a great source of info, especially for planting times in your area. Plus you'll find local gardeners over on the California Gardening forum here.

Otherwise what you can plant from seed all depends on what you want to eat and what size garden you have, If using containers then that is a whole other ballgame so check out the Container Gardening forum for the best tips.

Here is a link that might be useful: California Gardening

Count yourself lucky, since in your area you can grow just about everything, and the more you grow from seed, the better. Here are a few examples:

Root crops:
Carrots, beets, turnips, radish, parsnips. . .

Leaf Crops:
Spinach, Swiss chard, kale, brussel sprouts, cabbage, lettuce, arugula, endive, cilantro, parsley, and many others.

Brassicas:
Cauliflower, Broccoli, and as mentioned above.

Beans of all varieties, corn, squash, cucumbers, melons, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, onions, leeks, chives, and many other crops.

The famous demonstration garden built by Alan Chadwick at the University of California at Santa Cruz was just across Monterey Bay from were you live. This link will take you to a page that describes the methods to use to grow these plants from seed. You can also visit the UCSC farm project and see first hand what grows in that area. It's a great resource.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Biodynamic French Intensive System

This post was edited by CarloMartin947 on Sun, Dec 29, 13 at 16:50

The Ca board isn't very active.
I'm up in Sonoma County, and when I start seeds inside under lights, I usually start them by mid Feb to plant out in mid April. Our last date of frost is about April 15th, of course you'll want to check the weather reports anyway!
As the others suggested, I would check with your extention office and go to some farmers markets to see what they like to grow.
I'm sure you get more fog than we do. There might be some varieties o veges that do better with less heat/sun. I picked up a tomato plant that was specifically to be grown in SF fog! Good luck! Nancy

You want to talk to Marshall, super-experienced market gardener, he is in your region and frequents the HT forum.

Hey CarmelCalifornia, you are in an area with micro-climates. Are you right in Carmel proper, in the fog zone? If so some of the real heat-loving crops could be a challenge during the foggy summer, so if that is the case, you might not be able to easily grow eggplant and full-size tomatoes and such.

If you are inland a bit, and out of the fog zone, you can grow anything.

Right now, leafy and maybe root vegetables are probably your best bet. I think any of CarloMartin's list of root, leaf, and brassica choices could be planted now, since the daytime temps are projected to be in the 60s and 70s for a week or so.

I suspect you could plant garlic now, too, although it is considered very late, I bet it would come out OK anyway.

You can transplant tomatoes in mid-april. Or plant them from seed at about the same time. If you are in the fog zone, try to find a warm spot for the tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes will be more likely to do well than full-sized. If you are in carmel valley or something, then you can grow any tomatoes you want, as well as eggplant, watermelon, etc.

The two biggest threats to your garden are probably pocket gophers and deer. Make sure you take steps to protect against them.

--McKenzie

We plant all cole plants, root vegetables, and herbs during our cool seasons.