The grape harvest may be all but finished, but there’s still plenty of time to plant for an abundant cool-season crop of salad veggies.

Napa gardeners who want to reap their own crisp, colorful and tasty salads can get a head start today at Copia’s fall plant sale, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the center’s new greenhouse on the north side of First Street.

Head gardener Colby Eierman said all the varieties on sale have thrived in Copia’s beds, making them good choices for other local gardens. The offerings include leafy greens, snap peas and the exotic-looking kohlrabi, as well as fruit trees.

Eierman and staff will also provide planting tips, composting workshops and demonstrations during the event, which will include food and wine sales to sustain gardeners as they shop.

Seedwoman shares wisdom

An attentive audience — including Eierman — got some expert advice in salad gardening last weekend when Renee Shepherd visited Copia Sept. 29.

The renowned founder of Shepherd’s Garden Seeds and her current seed label, Renee’s Garden, Shepherd told her listeners that autumn is a fine time to plant many vegetables, from the tender mixed greens called mesclun to snappy radicchio and crunchy cabbages.

In fact, cool weather brings out extra flavor in many hardy veggies, while tender greens can be easier to raise when the sun blazes less harshly, Shepherd said.

“Baby spinach loves cold,” the Felton-based garden innovator told the group.

In our region, late-season gardening can actually be less risky than planting early in the year: Shepherd said that in milder climates like Napa, when seed is sowed in late summer or early fall, “depending on the weather, either it’ll get ready by Thanksgiving or it won’t; and in that case it’ll grow very slowly and be ready in March or April.”

In short, she said: “If you get ’em in late, they wait.”

Gardeners unwilling to wait for spring can beat the North Bay’s chilly autumns with a lightweight product called “floating row cover” that insulates while allowing light and moisture to reach the growing crops.

Shepherd praised the innovation, which she also uses to shield tender greens from harsh sunshine in summertime; Eierman credited it with extending Copia’s growing season for several varieties.

“We’ll start carrots and stuff for a while now,” he told the group. With the row cover, “we go successive sowings into November — December.”

Fall recommendations

Shepherd’s company specializes in mesclun mixes: carefully-assembled combinations of assorted lettuce seeds meant to be planted thickly. The greens grow at approximately the same rate, allowing gardeners to scissor off successive flushes of three to four inch greens in the “cut and come again” method.

Growing lettuce heads is just as simple, according to Shepherd: “You can eat the thinnings,” she said. “They do double duty.”

Other fall vegetables Shepherd recommends for North Bay gardens include red and white scallions, escarole, beets (“underrated,”) and some exotic choices such as the Asian tat soi, with its tight green rosettes, and a perennial called rustic arugula.

She also praised the lemony leaf called sorrel as “almost foolproof” and good with salmon, and told her listeners that nasturtiums go well with seafood, eggs and even ham and cheese.

“Color equals antioxidants,” Shepherd reminded the group.

Asked about her cultivation techniques, Shepherd said she uses drip irrigation and liquid fish emulsion to nurture her home garden and seed trials.

Every seed variety offered by Renee’s Garden is tested in gardens around the U.S.A., she said, while revealing a surprising fact about her industry:

No matter where consumers buy them, seeds — even those of “heirloom” varieties we tend to associate with a specific region — are produced for sale without regard for their origins.

“I buy them from seed producers large and small, literally all over the world,” Shepherd said, naming a few source nations: “France, Holland, Italy, the United States, Thailand, Japan …

“When you’re planting a garden, you’re really doing an ecumenical task,” she said.

Native plant sale

If you’re not hungering to grow international edibles, but would prefer a drought-tolerant California native landscape, there’s another plant sale to be aware of this weekend: The California Native Plant Society holds its annual fall sale at Skyline Wilderness Park, today and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Some popular natives include purple-blooming ceanothus (California lilac) and the splendid white-and-yellow matilija poppy (fried-egg plant).

To reach the park, head east on Imola Avenue and watch for the entrance on the right as you approach the hills. Don’t miss the chance to visit the Martha Walker Native Habitat Garden, just off the parking lot.

Founded by the Native Plant Society more than 20 years ago, the peaceful, pesticide-free garden is both a 2 1/2 acre magnet for birds and a good way to get a feel for how California natives mature in the settings that suit them best.

Garden sales

Copia garden sale

Today, 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.

500 First St., Napa

Info, 259-1600

www.copia.org

The California Native Plant Society annual fall sale

Today and Sunday, Oct. 6,

10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Skyline Wilderness Park