09/06/2026
SUNDAYS WITH SUE: Looking ahead to fall/winter food gardening, extra healthy salads, lush greens, and tasty roots come to mind. Navigating around shorter days, potential frosts, and winter dormancy can be challenging and a bit daunting. However, gardening at this time took on a whole new bit of excitement when I learned about the “Persephone Period”. It has been said that longtime legendary organic food gardener, Eliot Coleman, was the first to use the name, Persephone Period, to describe the period of time that our over-wintering plants go dormant.
The Persephone Period are the days, starting around November 19th, in Sonoma County, when the daylight begins to go below ten hours extending to when they finally work their way up to over ten hours, which is around January 23rd. (Plants either slow way down or stop growing altogether with daylight hours below ten). As the daylight lengthens in January, and the weather and soil warms, plants “wake up” and start growing again, usually by late February/beginning of March. Also, at this time, new cool-weather plants can be planted directly by seed or transplants, depending on their individual requirements. Many of you will be starting seeds of warm season plants indoors or in greenhouses, as well.
Even though I did not mention much about frost, it can be a factor in some areas. Making sure the plants you want to eat in fall reach maturity, look at your transplant label or seed packet to find the days to maturity, (plus you need to add 14 more days for diminishing daylight, perhaps even more time if you are planting seed!)
Upon finding out the above facts, count back from November 19th or the first projected frost date, in your area, whichever comes first. Veggies like radishes, lettuce, spinach, chards, peas, kale, beets, and mustards are only a few of the plants you can plant now and eat in the fall. Over-wintering plants like broccoli, cauliflower, and heading cabbage will need to be about 75% mature by November 19th, before going into dormancy.
If you are wondering about the term Persephone Period, there is a story from Greek Mythology explaining why this name. Persephone was the beautiful daughter of Zeus and the goddess of agriculture, Demeter. Zeus’s brother, Hades, of the underworld, admired Persephone’s beauty and abducted her, taking her back with him. Demeter, understandably, was so grieved, she neglected her care of the food for the earth which led to a famine. Frantic about this, Zeus tried to negotiate a deal.
There seems to be a problem with Persephone eating four pomegranate seeds, because when Zeus stepped in, he had to agree that Hades could keep Persephone in the underworld for four months. This in turn caused a period of dormancy which many, still, refer to as the Persephone Period.
With this and many other things, I will say that gardening never fails to entertain and teach me with its many relationships to nature and other worldly connections. Have a great week!
“Every day I see or hear something that more or less kills me with delight, that leaves me like a needle in the haystack of light.” Mary Oliver, author and poet
