The Digging Fork Mar-apr 2009

The Digging Fork A Davis Garden Newsletter March - April 2009 March Planting

see Plant Notes

Seeding directly into the garden

Cool season vegetables: seed potatoes Half-hardy annuals Perennials almost everything (mid March for citrus trees and frost tender plants) Warm season bulbs Cool season vegetables: beets, carrots, leeks, Swiss chard, parsnips, green onions, radishes Warm season vegetables: Beans (dry, snap)

see Plant Notes

Half-hardy annuals

April Warm season vegetables: best to wait until mid April to early May to plant:

basil, eggplant, peppers, tomatillo, tomato Perennials: most Warm season bulbs Warm season annuals Warm season vegetables best to wait until mid April to plant most seeds:

beans (dry, snap, lima), corn (and popcorn), cucumber, gourds, okra, melons, peanuts, summer and winter squash, soybeans, watermelon Warm season annuals

Fertilize

Citrus with citrus fertilizer. (if not fertilized in Feb.) Roses, flowers and lawns when growth starts Mature deciduous fruit trees fertilize with 1st irrigation

Pest & Disease Control

Snail, slugs and earwig damage –use baits or traps. Aphids. Can spray off with water and watch for lady beetle & parasitic wasps Scale. Control by keeping ants under control and rubbing off scale insect

Snail, slugs and earwig damage –use baits or traps. Aphids. Can spray off with water and watch for lady beetles & parasitic wasps

Tasks

Prepare beds for planting –

Prepare beds for planting. (see note in March)

don’t dig soils that are too wet. A handful of soil should crumble easily after being pressed into ball

Divide & replant perennials Prune evergreen shrubs when new growth appears Some tender perennials will be ready to prune – watch for new growth Weed control continues Soil sulfur – dig in around iron deficient plants Order warm season bulbs for late spring planting

Water

Paint trunk of young trees with diluted white latex to protect from sunburn. May need to start watering. Did you check out sprinklers & drip systems?

Weed control continues Prune deciduous shrubs and vines after they flower. Clean up the vegetable and flower beds to make room for warm season plants. More tender perennials will be ready to prune – watch for new growth Thin fruit of fruit trees, except cherries. First pruning of fruit trees to control size – can thin fruit at the same time. Water as needed.

Edible flowers: tulips, lilacs and bee balm

Onions, lettuce, broccoli, queen Anne’s lace & almost blooming calendula

Edible Landscapes Do you wish you could dash outside for some carrots or basil, picking a few peaches on the way back to the kitchen? More and more people are interested in growing vegetables and fruits in their yards. Nurseries are reporting increased sales for seed and transplants. But many of us don’t have a perfect, sunny spot set aside in our yards for a vegetable garden -- so we may need to be a bit more creative!! Yes, ripping out part of the lawn is one solution and one that is gaining in popularity, but incorporating edibles in the existing landscape is another. Most edibles need at least 6 hours of sun per day. If the sunniest spot is found in the front yard, this shouldn’t stop you. Edible gardens can be beautiful!!! The idea of a vegetable garden, with perfect straight rows, is changing. Some gardeners use a square foot method, allotting 6 leeks or 1 pepper plant or 50 carrots to one square foot. The square foot might be tucked among some flowers or another 5 square feet found along a path. A cabbage or two among flowers is striking. A patch of colorful lettuce is as pretty as a bunch of flowers. Many perennial edibles are easy to incorporate into existing sunny beds. Artichokes grow well in Davis and make a bold statement, alpine strawberries are great along paths, grapes are easy on arbors or fences, citrus trees can double as screens, and herbs can be dotted just about anywhere. Some nurseries still have deciduous fruit trees for sale and late March and April are great months to plant citrus. Edible flowers brighten the yard, and are also wonderful in salads, sandwiches and deserts. Dianthus, daylilies, lilacs, tulips, calendulas….might seem too pretty to eat, but eat them you can. If the broccoli, leeks or arugula bolt (flower), enjoy the color and eat them too. By now your mind has gotten to the picture of a tomato plant. How can we make that look attractive? A tomato plant is pretty enough; it is usually the support system that is ugly. A bunch of stakes with string going every which way or a dinky tomato cage that has fallen over and is propped up with whatever you can find just

don’t make for a pretty sight. So there are two choices for plants that need support – tomatoes, cucumber, peas, beans, etc. The support can be decorative and more like garden art or it can be downplayed and mostly invisible. Obelisks, rose pillars and other interesting wooden or metal supports are art-like options. Cages can be made with brown, rusty reinforcing concrete wire that almost disappears. Even spraying typical tomato cages a flat brown paint will help hide them. Wooden stakes are very visible, but rebar supports and tie wire can help stabilize cages and they aren’t very noticeable at all. This year try some baby corn. Since it doesn’t have to be pollinated by the wind, it doesn’t need to be planted in large blocks – a clump of a few plants here and there will add interest. Tuck in a few peppers, basil and eggplant as they are all very ornamental and there is just no need to hide these. In Davis, everyone should be able to find a spot for a tomato or two. Don’t forget to make a map or notes of where your edibles are planted. To avoid diseases vegetables need to be rotated each year.

Eatwell Farm photo

Plant notes! Here is more information about some plants mentioned in this newsletter.

Edible flowers – just a few of the many we can eat: Generally only the petals are eaten!! arugula Eruca vesicaria Spicy flowers. Herb often reseeds. bachelor’s button Centaurea cyanus Cool season annual. bee balm Monarda didyma minty, sweet, hot tasting flowers. Perennial.

calendula Calendula officinalis Flowers pretty tasteless. Perennial common lilac Syringa vulgaris Deciduous shrub. daylily Hemerocallis Sweet flowers. Eat in moderation. dianthus Dianthus Sweet clove-like flavor. Remove bitter white part at base of petals. Perennial

Johnny jump-up Viola tricolor Flowers have wintergreen flavor when eaten with the sepals (green part holding the petals).

pansy Viola x wittrockiana Can eat the whole flower, not just the petals. Cool season annual.

pineapple sage Salvia elegans Flowers have a sweet and fruity flavor. Tender perennial. Cut back in spring when new growth begins.

rose Rosa Perfumy flowers, remove the bitter white part of the petal. orange Citrus sinensis Evergreen tree. scarlet runner beans Phaseolus vulgaris both beans and flowers edible on this showy warm season annual vine.

snapdragon Anthirrhinum majus Flower is bitter and best as garnish. tulips tulipa Petals vary in taste. The bulb has also been eaten at times throughout history.

Santa Cruz -- one approach to edible landscapes

western redbud Cercis occidentalis CA native deciduous shrub.

Cool season vegetables – plants per square foot As much as possible spacing should be uniform. beets 25 carrots 50 potatoes 2 parsnips 12 green onions 50 Swiss chard 4 leeks 6 radish 50

Edible flowers To grow edible flowers, no chemicals should be used in the garden. Not all flowers are edible and many are poisonous, so know what you are eating!! Some flowers taste wonderful: sweet, spicy, minty and even perfumy. Others have almost no taste or are bitter. In most cases only the flower petals are eaten and the sepals (green part of the flower) is discarded, with violas and pansies being an exception. The white part at the base of the flower petal is often bitter and not eaten. Look for this on roses and dianthus. A website of many edible flowers you can be growing: http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/hil-8513.html

Warm season vegetables – plants per square foot As much as possible spacing should be uniform basil 1 beans 6 sweet corn 2 baby corn 4 okra 1 cucumber 1-2 (with a trellis) peanuts 1 peppers 1 eggplant ½ (that is 2 square feet required for 1 plant) tomatoes ¼ (that is 4 square feet required for 1 plant) melons, watermelon, pumpkins, winter squash and gourds ¼ sunflower 1 sweet potatoes 2 soybeans 4 summer squash and tomatillos ½

Tomatoes – some local gardeners’ favorites: (IND = Indeterminate, DET = Determinate) Sungold Hybrid orange/gold cherry tomato, VFF, IND Sweet 100 Hybrid red cherry, VF, IND Early Girl Hybrid red slicer, VFF, early, IND Shady Lady Hybrid red slicer, VFTA, DET Celebrity Hybrid red slicer, VFFNT, DET Principe Borghese Italian heirloom, sauce, drying, productive DET Brandywine Amish heirloom, pink/red, indeterminate Stupice Czechoslovakian heirloom, early, red, cold tolerant, IND Azoychka Russian heirloom, yellow/orange, IND Cherokee Chocolate and Cherokee Purple Tennessee heirlooms, deep red/purple/black, IND

Ace U.S. heirloom, red with low acid, VF, IND Mortgage Lifter West Virginia heirloom, pink/red, IND Copia Modern specialty developed in Napa, red-yellow striped, IND Green Zebra Modern specialty from CA, 2” green-gold striped, IND

Edible flowers: leeks, daylilies, California native western redbud

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seeds from tomatoes that do well here, thus developing an acclimatized strain; however, buying locally and selecting varieties that local gardeners recommend works well too. A tomato described in glowing terms by an East Coast gardener may not do so well here in our very different climate. In the Plant Notes we have listed cultivars that have found favor with various local gardeners. Remember, of course, that everyone has their own tastes! Next fall, get a few seed catalogues or go online and peruse the many tomato (and other) listings – great winter reading! Allow about 4 square feet per tomato plant and dig some compost and/or fertilizer into the soil, away from the roots. You can also add gypsum, which helps prevent blossom end rot, a problem with calcium uptake. Seedlings can be planted deeply, up to the first leaf, and they will grow more roots from the stem. Home gardeners can sometimes get away with earlier planting, especially if using something like a hotcap or water wall, but mid-April is really the preferred earliest time to plant. Planted earlier, the plants will often just sit until the ground warms up; frost is a risk and there is not a huge gain in early fruiting. Tomatoes are part of the Solanaceae (nightshade) family along with peppers, eggplants and potatoes, which should be rotated - grown in different locations - from other nightshades year to year. A three-year break in between growing tomatoes and other nightshades in one location helps avoid disease problems. Give your tomatoes a good, deep initial watering and then monitor. Consistent, deep watering is much more effective than shallow watering, contributing to deep root development. Plan on once or twice a week and modify based on weather. Go ahead and make your plans for drip or basin irrigation now because overhead watering promotes disease in tomatoes. Speaking of disease, looking for disease resistant cultivars will increase your chances for success, although it will also reduce your selection. Disease resistance codes often follow the name of the tomato, for example “Celebrity VFFNT”. Celebrity is resistant to the most common diseases in our area, which is why it is so successful. The codes and diseases are: V - verticillium wilt, F - fusarium wilt strain 1, FF - verticillium wilt strains 1 & 2, N nematodes, and T or TMV - tobacco mosaic virus. You may also see A - for alternaria or early blight, which seems to be rare around here. Please don’t ever smoke around tomato plants and wash hands thoroughly if you do touch any tobacco. A local farm had huge tomato losses when Tobacco Mosaic Virus spread through the fields after a single employee smoked and then worked with the tomatoes! One last thing -- think about a support system now, so that you won’t be caught unprepared later. The bottom line is to have fun with your tomatoes and not to worry about them too much – many a farmer calls them “weeds”! Tomatoes – Part II. More to come about irrigation, disease, fertilizing, seed saving, and other growing concerns.

Tomatoes – Part I One of the plants that brings great satisfaction to many gardeners is the tomato. It is fascinating to note that this plant, originally from the Andes of South America and introduced to Europe by the Spanish conquistadors, was considered poisonous for many years and only grown as an ornamental. Tomatoes were not grown widely as food in North America until the 19th century! We are fortunate to live in a climate that is extremely favorable for tomatoes so there is no reason not to plant one if you have a spot with at least 6 hours of sun. Without sun, it simply won’t work. The tomato is actually a tropical plant so if you had enough sun and warmth you could grow it all year long. There are many terms to keep in mind when you decide what kind of tomato to plant. Determinate (sometimes called bush) tomatoes bear their fruit over a short 3-4 week span and can be grown on the ground, while indeterminate (or pole) tomatoes yield over a longer period of time and are best grown with support. There are open-pollinated plants from which seed can be saved and hybrids which may have desirable traits such as disease resistance. There are heirloom tomatoes from long-saved seeds and modern specialty tomatoes (like Green Zebra), which are often grouped with heirlooms. Of course there are full-sized tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, and everything in between. Meaty, dense ones for sauce and juicy ones for fresh uses, not that they can’t be used the other way. There are short-, mid- and long-season tomatoes. Generally speaking, smaller tomatoes ripen sooner; cherry tomatoes are always the earliest. And tomatoes come in all the colors of the rainbow – really! In the Seed Savers catalogue there are literally thousands of varieties listed (about 200 out of 450 catalog pages). Tomatoes also have greatly varying yields. Generally, hybrids produce more fruit than heirlooms, sometimes much more. It is clearly important to decide what you want to do with your tomato (sauce, sandwich, stunning platter of many colored tomatoes, preserving for winter, etc.), and it’s wise to plant several tomato cultivars!

Eatwell Farm photo – thanks Nigel

March is too late to start your own seeds but, thankfully, there are many more cultivars available these days to buy as seedlings. Morningsun Herb Farm in Vacaville has an extensive selection and you can check the farmers’ markets, your local nurseries, and the Davis Food Coop. Sometimes it makes sense to buy desired cultivars when you find them. Do make sure that you get a nice, healthy plant, not root bound, and treat it well before you get it into the ground as well as after. In the long run, it is ideal to save your own

www.redwoodbarn.com Tomato cultivars and growing info. http://morningsunherbfarm.com/ssp/tomatorating08 Ratings from annual tomato tastings. http://ceyolo.ucdavis.edu/newsletterfiles/The_Yolo_Gardene r13541.pdf Master Gardener annual tomato tastings –pg 8. www.tomatofest.com Gary Ibsen is crazy about tomatoes. www.seedsavers.org A great organization.

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Plant sales, tours and events

Workshops and classes

Jepson Prairie Preserve – Vernal Pool Tours Saturdays & Sundays, March 14 to May 10

Davis Central Park Gardens

10 am

Integrated Pest Management Solutions to Control March 14 9 am Common Garden Pests Choosing Drought Tolerant Plants for Spring Planting March 14 10:30 am Planting a Summer Vegetable Garden with Water-Wise Drip Irrigation April 11 9 am Transforming Lawn into Meadow Plantings – Attractive April 11 10:30 am Drought Tolerant Ideas

Information http://www.solanolandtrust.org (707) 432-0150

Wildflower Wonders at Sacramento Earth Day Sunday April 26 11 am - 6 pm Wildflower exhibits, speakers and plant sale Information

www.sacvalleyCNPS.org

Davis Green Home and Garden Show March 21-22 at ARC Pavilion at UCD. Talks and booths. For information www.davishomeshow.com

For more information

Woodland Library Rose Club Spring Tour Sunday, April 26 12 - 5 pm The Gable Mansion, Woodland College rose garden and 7 private gardens Information 666-5096

Problem Solving in the Garden Wednesdays, March 25 to June 3,

[email protected].

Lots of great walks and tours coming up!! Member Appreciation Sale March 14 9 am - 1 pm Arboretum All-Stars Centennial Celebration and Sale April 4 9 am - 3 pm April 25 9 am - 1 pm Gardeners Fair and Sale 752-4880

Master Gardener Workshops Environmentally Friendly Gardening Workshops and March 28, 9 am - 12 pm Plant Sale

www.arboretum.ucdavis.edu

UCD ASLA Davis Garden Tour

Building and Maintaining Healthy Soil 9:00 am Vegetable Gardening Basics 9:35 am Bee-Friendly Gardens 10:10 am Water Wise Alternatives to Lawns 10:45 am Water Conservation Irrigation Practices 11:20 am

Sustainable Landscapes April 4 10 am - 4 pm $15 (http://asla.ucdavis.edu).

Pence Gallery Garden Tour Sunday May 3 12 noon - 5 pm featuring North Davis Gardens www.pencegallery.org

Backyard and Worm Composting April 25 9 - 11 am Earth Friendly Rose Growing April 25 11 am - noon

Davis Ace Hardware Many free gardening workshops

Workshops are free and held at Woodland Community College http://ceyolo.ucdavis.edu/Gardening_and_Master_Gardening/

www.davisace.com

Three Palms Nursery Spring Sale

May 2-3 and May 9-10

Information

www.3palmsnursery.com

UC Davis Pomology Orchards Workshop

9 am - 5 pm

Grafting and Budding Fruit Trees April 4

756-8355

UCD Project Compost Workshops

Saturday, April 18 Visit the many horticultural displays!

Backyard Composting Saturday, April 4 11 am Worm Composting Saturday May 2 11 am Workshops free, held at Student Tri-Cooperatives --UCD

Rose Day at UCD May 1 presentations, tours and sale, registration required May 2 tour and sales only – open to the public

For information contact Project Compost or http://projectcompost.ucdavis.edu/

For information http://ccuh.ucdavis.edu

Davis Flower Arrangers

Compost workshops in the spring! Free compost bin by taking Correspondence Class

identical containers, flowers and greens. Fun to watch!

M. J. Kelly arranges spring garden flowers April 1 7pm

Information

Above meet at Eleanor Roosevelt Circle Community Center

www.davisrecycling.org

(530) 757-5686

Woodland College

May 6

Gardening: Designing the Yard (short course)

Borton garden 7th & A Streets. Will honor founders. For information contact the President at 756-6722

Apr. 10 to 11 Fri 5:30-8:45 pm, Sat 8:30 am-1:45 pm Students will do a design sketch of a yard. For information 661-5720, [email protected] or www.yccd.edu for the fees required.

Plant Sales at The Gifted Gardener March 14-15

754-8227

City of Davis Worm and Garden Composting

Pandora’s Box March 4 7 pm Three arrangers are given

50 Anniversary Celebration!!!

9 - 11 am

http://ceyolo.ucdavis.edu/Gardening_and_Master_Gardening/

Picnic Day at UCD

th

5:45 to 7:15 pm

The goal of this new class is to use a garden setting to reinforce the fundamentals of gardening and learn how to approach design and gardening problems. Sign up early if you want the class to visit your Davis garden. Taught by Lyle Wilen and Patricia Carpenter Information www.djusd.k12.ca.us/AdultSchool 757-5380

UCD Arboretum

For information

http://www.centralparkgardens.org

Adult Education Class

9 am to 3 pm

18th and J Streets, Sacramento. Sales benefits local charities Information [email protected] (916) 923-3745

Ceanothus California Field Botanists Association Learn to key plants. Group meets about once a month at UC Davis Center for Plant Diversity

Friends of the Davis Library Book Sale April 3 (noon-7 pm), 4 (10 am-5 pm), 5 (10 am-3 pm) Often good finds on gardening books! $5/ bag on Sunday

Information www.ceanothusfieldbotanist.blogspot.com

Information 757-5593

San Francisco Flower and Garden Show March 18-22. Show is moving to San Mateo this year. UCD Arboretum has transportation Wed. March 18 $55 public, $45 members. Pre-registration, 752-4880 http://www.gardenshow.com/sf/index/index.asp Edible flowers: English daisy, garden dianthus, Dianthus ‘Cinnamon Red Hots’

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More gardening tips!

Growing upward Tomato cages can be made out of concrete (welded) wire with 6” x 6” openings, allowing room to reach in and pull out a tomato (or cucumber…). Find 5 foot wide wire and buy a 6 ft. length. If you are making more than one cage and purchase the wire at Hibbert Lumber in Davis, let them do the cuts into 6 foot lengths as it is well worth the $1 per cut charge. The 6 ft. length is wired together to make about a 22” diameter cage that is 5 ft high. These can be set on the ground or the bottom horizontal pieces can be cut out to produce spikes to push into the ground, making a 4 ½ ft high cage. With current prices of $1.66/linear foot, a tomato cage described above now costs almost $11 but will last many, many years. A 4 ½ foot cage will handle most of your needs but by using 7 foot wide wire ($1.96 per linear ft.) the cage is 6 ½ ft and will handle any vigorous tomato! Cages should be staked for added insurance as large tomato plants get top heavy and sometimes fall over. This cage can also be used to grow beans, cucumbers and even small melons in summer and peas or sweet peas in winter. In the photo, the bottom wire has been cut out so the cage can be pushed into the ground. Another cutout allows for a dripline.

Don’t plant warm season flowers and vegetables too early!! These plants will start appearing in nurseries soon and many gardeners think getting them planted early will help them mature earlier. In reality, they will just sit in the cold ground as very unhappy plants. Some, like eggplants, won’t recover and will never set fruit. Our last frost is usually late March but the ground isn’t warm enough for warm season plants or seeds until late April or even early May. Remember our late frost last year? On April 20th and 21st the temperature dipped to 33 degrees F or lower and many plants were lost.

Lemon Queen sunflower (Renee Seeds photo)

The Great Sunflower Project -- Citizen Scientists. A nationwide project is underway to help researchers study the decline of bees. You can help by planting annual Lemon Queen sunflowers in your garden and taking about 30 minutes to record your observations. They will even send you the seeds. Check out this website for more about this project and great photos and information about bees. http://www.greatsunflower.org/ Among gardeners, enthusiasm and experience rarely exist in equal measures. -Roger B. Swain

Can we cut our water usage by 20% and still have a garden? Absolutely!! Here are a few ideas: 1. If you are watering now, turn off the irrigation! It is unnecessary with all the rain we have had. An exception is if you have new plantings. 2. Watering needs vary during the year!! Learn how to use automatic timers -- how to turn them off during the winter rains and how to reset for less watering during the spring and fall. Most manuals can now be found online. 3. Once watering begins again, start watering deeply and less often. This will encourage roots to go deeper. 4. Mulch! 5. If you are now watering twice a week, try watering only every 5 days applying the same quantity of water. That is over a 20% savings. With deep watering and mulch, most of the garden should be able to be watered only once a week or less even in the heat of the summer. Vegetable gardens and lawns might need more water.

Where are the wildflowers blooming? Theodore Payne Wildflower Hotline http://www.theodorepayne.org/hotline.html (818) 768-3533 Carol Leigh’s Wildflower Hotsheet http://www.calphoto.com/wflower.htm

Emerging dahlias and other perennials.

Newsletter created by:

Many plants will start to emerge from the ground this month and the snails, slugs and even sometimes earwigs find them tasty treats. Hopefully you have marked the ground where coneflowers (Echinacea), delphinium, dahlias, hosta, Brugsmansia, hardy hibiscus, etc. are planted. Now is the time to bait, before the new tender leaves are eaten to the ground.

Patricia Carpenter -- Gardening Coach (Design and Education), with 35 years of Davis gardening experience. Frances Andrews -- Long-time organic farmer The bi-monthly newsletter is free if received by email. If mailed, the cost is $15 per year. To be added to the subscription list or to unsubscribe, contact us at: [email protected]

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