"Second Spring" for SF Bay Area

I've read in a number of local gardening columns that falls is like a "second spring", allowing you to plant another crop in for certain plants. But I'm confused which I can plant safely and which wouldn't be well suited to the "second spring". For instance, I planted snow peas late this year and they didn't do too well. They were fine while the weather was sunny yet cool, but as soon as we had heat waves, they got hit by various thing and inconsistent watering was also an issue. I'd like to plant snow peas and haricots again but I'm not sure if this is the right time.

What do you consider "second spring" crops?

Oh, such a lonely thread...

LOL Spidra!
Lettuce/salad greens/spinach would be good second spring crops. After checking my Golden Gate Gardening book peas (all kinds) can be planted now, as can fava beans and cabbage.

Thanks muchly. I guess I can give a second try to growing snow peas.

As far as vegetables go there are lots that can be planted here in N. Cal that will benefit from the warm soil and the cooler autumn to winter air temperatures.
In the past I have planted a wide variety of lettuces, kale, chard and spinach.
peas and beets, carrots and broccoli .

In the ornamental shrub and flower catagory the list is endless but I always think of fall as 'Native Plant Planting Time '.
Some of our Californian natives do extremely well in establishing themselves during the mid fall to winter months, especially the finnicky Ceanothus family of plants which can be extremely difficult to plant and have survive during the spring and summer months.

You might also want to see if you can strike up a correspondence with Lynette Evans, one of the columnists at the SF Chronicle. Her most recent article is linked below. If you email her, it's a general e-mailbox for the Food columnists, so be sure to reference her name in the title of your email so they can forward it to her.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/09/15/HO6QS2J9I.DTL

The recent Home & Garden column in the SF Chron listed these tasks for October:

For the winter vegetable garden, plant bok choy, broccoli, Brussels sprout, cabbage, cauliflower, chard, Chinese cabbage, garlic, leek, lettuce and spinach from nursery-bought seedlings, and beets, carrots, onions, peas and radishes from seeds. The most interesting of the winter vegetables are cabbages. Like tomatoes, cabbages are better tasting when home grown - much sweeter. Plant seeds now, harvest in spring.

I love Endicott's monthly tasks lists. They're so helpful to me. She'll be presenting at the Alameda County Master Gardeners Fall Seminar this Saturday.

http://acmg.ucdavis.edu/

My biggest problem with second spring now is that my hands are hurting so much I can't get out and do the work.