Hello everyone,

I don't know much about California, but am planning a first time trip to San Diego to learn more, hoping to check it out as a potential relocation city (from New York).

Now, I'm familiar with Napa, Sonoma, and Santa Barbara as places that have great wineries, but are there any in the San Diego area as well? I'll only be there for 4 days, so a drive to Santa Barbara might be too long to make (unless I am incorrect).

Also, is there any agriculture in the San Deigo area? I have a green thumb and was wondering if gardens/farms are part of the landscape.

Your advice is greatly appreciated

Lots of great wineries just north of San Diego in the Temecula area. There are some in Escondido as well. Just up I-15. Here is a website to check out Temecula. Some of the wineries have restaurants - great spots for lunch.

http://www.temeculawines.org/

I'm not sure what exactly you're meaning by "agriculture". San Diego's best known "garden" is Balboa Park. Both the Zoo and the Wild Animal Park have huge plant collections. I wouldn't consider any of these to be agriculture.

There are some pockets of land within the city where crops like tomatoes and strawberries are grown. There are tomato crops growing a couple of miles from my house. There are orange groves, avocado groves and other fruits and veggies in areas of San Diego County (mostly north county?), but not really in the city other than in backyards. In the mountains around Julian there are apple orchards. There are a lot of groves and small farms in Valley Center, north east of Escondido.

Hope that helps a bit.

I forgot the winery!

In the San Pasqual Valley there is the Orfila vineyard and winery.

www.orfila.com

Good advice above.
I can only add that you may enjoy Quail Botanical Gardens.
http://www.qbgardens.org. It's been a while since I've been. Thanks for reminding me about this lovely spot in my own city.
Also Rancho Bernardo has a winery. It's off the 15 a bit of a distance from the Quail.

The Quail Botanical Gardens in Encinitas are very nice to visit. As Barbara said, there is a lot of agriculture in the North County San Diego area. I live in Fallbrook (very north) and am surrounded by avocado and orange groves. Bates Nut Farm is in Valley Center and you would see agriculature driving there (again mostly groves). You could also go to Pala Casino off Highway 76 and would see fields and groves driving there.

Julian is also very nice and is a cute country town to visit. If you decide to drive to Temecula from San Diego, you will see some of the groves, etc off Interstate 15 once you get north of Escondido.

Just to give you a timeframe for driving, most of the places I mentioned are about an hour drive north from the city of San Diego. This is without traffic. If you went north during the day, it probably wouldn't be too bad but the 15 has major traffic going north from about 3-7 pm. From San Diego to North County or Temecula and back would at least be going against the rush hour traffic but that doesn't mean you wouldn't run into any traffic.

In Temecula, Thornton Winery has a beautiful restaurant. Also, check out Wilson Creek Winery and their Almond Champagne.

Thanks everyone for the great info! I was curious as to whether or not the land in the San Diego area is conducive to growing crops, and it seems by your answers that it is. I wasnt sure if the land was dry, since there are deserts to the east.

Sounds like a great city, cant wait to visit!