In the Garden with Pat Rubin

Bee garden writer Pat Rubin writes about everything that grows, from flowers and trees to vegetables and lawns. Pat volunteered for several years as a Placer County Master Gardener and has written about gardening for many national and regional publications. In addition to gardening, she spends time raising and showing miniature horses and miniature donkeys.

In the Garden will include news, events, advice and other gardening tidbits. Pat will also answer reader questions.

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December 20, 2007

Tomatoes in December in Sacramento, but not Rio Linda

Rio Linda reader Patrick Connolly wonders why downtown Sacramento gardeners still have tomatoes growing when he’s had to protect his plants since Thanksgiving. “Mine are dying. How do they do it during winter?” he asks.

It has nothing to do with the green thumb of downtown gardeners. It has to do with heat.

With its maze of freeways, streets and parking lots, as well as the hundreds and hundreds of concrete and brick buildings, Sacramento is a heat sink. All that paving and all of those buildings absorb heat all day long and release it on chilly nights.

That extra heat makes it possible for downtown gardeners to have tomatoes growing far longer than gardeners in surrounding communities. It lets them grow banana palms, angels trumpet and other tropical plants with hardly a worry. The city is like a banana or citrus belt in the midst of the frosty suburbs.

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