The Digging Fork Nov Dec 2008

The Digging Fork A Davis Garden Newsletter November – December 2008 November Planting

see Plant notes

Seeding directly into the garden see Plant notes

Fertilize Pest & Disease Control

December

Cool season annuals

Cool season annuals

Perennials: CA natives, most everything except frost tender plants

Bare-root ornamentals: trees, roses, shrubs and vines

Cool season bulbs

Bare-root fruits-vegetables: artichokes, asparagus, bulbing onions, rhubarb, strawberries, berries, grapes, fruit trees

Cool season vegetables: broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, cauliflower, artichokes, bulbing onions, garlic, divide & replant clumps of multiplying onions Cool season annuals

Cool season annuals

Cool season vegetables: arugula, beets, fava, carrots, kale and collards, green onions, cilantro, spinach, peas, radish, Swiss chard, turnips, miner’s lettuce

Cool season vegetables: fava, spinach, Swiss chard, cilantro, green onions

Spray nectarines and peaches at Thanksgiving for peach leaf curl.

Spray nectarines and peaches between Christmas and New Year’s Day for peach leaf curl.

Control for snails, slugs, earwigs and cabbage worms as needed. Protect seedlings from birds.

When pruning look for borer damage and cut off infected limbs. Continue control of snails, slugs, birds, cabbage worms.

Cut back herbaceous perennials (don’t cut back frost tender perennials until late spring) Divide and replant herbaceous perennials.

Tasks

Garden clean-up continues. Compost leaves and plant debris. After first frost (or before), pull out summer annual flowers and vegetables. Remove unwanted seedlings or transplant. Cultivate with a digging fork and mulch.

Finish November tasks Start pruning deciduous trees Can start pruning roses toward the end of the month. Garden clean-up and weed control continues.

Weed control continues

Water

If rains haven’t started, water as needed. Once rains start, turn off automatic irrigation systems. Make sure new plantings have the water they need.

Water as needed (under large eaves too) Well watered plants are less susceptible to frost damage!

Fall blooming perennial sunflower, Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ and white spider chrysanthemum

Red Baron peach blossoms in March

Fruit Tree Planting--Fruit Bushes With the bare-root season approaching in January, it is a good time to look around your yard to see if there is room for a fruit tree or two. Fruit trees can be allowed to grow to full size and make wonderful shade trees (sometimes a bit messy on lawns if all the fruit isn’t harvested). However in smaller yards many gardeners are growing “fruit bushes” instead. The trees are grown so they are no taller than an adult can reach when standing on the ground, typically no more than 7 ft. tall. Most any deciduous fruit tree is a candidate for a fruit bush. The advantages of keeping the fruit trees smaller are many. A fruit bush gives less fruit, but several can be grown in the space of one big fruit tree. If early, mid and late season cultivars are grown, the harvest is extended over a much longer period. Sprayings for peach leaf curl, pruning, thinning fruit, netting cherries to keep them from birds and fruit harvest are all much, much easier with the smaller fruit bushes. Fruit trees are grafted to rootstock and it is important to choose one adapted to your area and soil conditions. Trees grafted to dwarf and semi-dwarf rootstock will still grow pretty big. Fruit bushes are kept small not by the rootstock but by summer pruning of new growth. When there are less leaves with less photosynthesis occurring, the growth is slowed. Each year, the first pruning of shoots is in late April or May when about half of the new growth is cut off. The next pruning is late June or July when again half of the new growth is cut. Some find hedging shears useful as the tree definitely starts to look like a bush. If there is vigorous growth, a third pruning may be needed in late summer. Since the center of the tree needs light and good air circulation for fruit production, this is opened up as well with some pruning cuts in the center of the tree. Dormant

Local workshops and events

pruning, when the fruit bush has no leaves during the winter, is still necessary to help shape the tree in the early years. But dormant pruning stimulates growth so most of the pruning should be in the summer.

City of Davis Worm and Garden Composting Workshops given periodically during the year Free compost bin by taking Davis Compost Correspondence Class Information

www.davisrecycling.org

(530) 757-5686

Master Gardener Workshops Backyard and worm composting Saturday, November 8, 10 am – 12 pm Learn About Planting Cover Crops Saturday, November 8 1:30 – 3:30 pm. Wear appropriate clothing and help with the planting. Free workshops held at Woodland Community College Information 530-666-8736 http://ceyolo.ucdavis.edu/Gardening_and_Master_Gardening/

Davis Botanical Society

Peaches about ready to harvest

Southern Africa’s Botanically Abundant Cape Floral Region Speaker is Ernesto Sandoval Monday, November 24, 7 to 9 pm, free Blanchard Room (Yolo County Library) Botanical Illustration Workshop Saturdays, January 24 and 31, 9 am to 12 noon $45 for Society member and $55 nonmembers Advanced registration required.

The summer prunings are extra work, but they occur at two times that are easy to remember. The first pruning is when fruit is about marble size and needs to be thinned anyway. The second pruning is usually after the fruit is harvested. Fruit bushes can be grouped close together and planted so 3 or 4 trees act as one. For example, four different peaches and nectarines, with varying harvest dates, can be planted together in a square with about 2 ft. between them. Another idea is to make a hedge of several types of fruit bushes planting them as close as 3 ft. apart. To insure fruit bushes get off to a good start: 1. They need sun. 2. When planting new trees, plant them on a mound for good drainage. Year old trees should be cut back to about 2-3ft. above the graft to encourage lower branches that are easier to harvest. 3. To avoid sunburned bark, point the concave area of the graft toward the northeast and paint the whole tree with slightly watered down white latex paint. Fruit Tree Sources Locally: Lemuria Nursery, Three Palms Nursery and The Redwood Barn Nursery Yolo County Master Gardeners have planted fruit bushes at Woodland College. Free workshops. Fair Oaks Horticulture Center has planted many examples of fruit bushes.

Information http://herbarium.ucdavis.edu

UCD Arboretum Botanical Watercolor Workshop Sunday, November 9, 9 am – 4 pm $85 general/ $75 UCD Arboretum members Advanced registration required.

Lots of great walks and tours coming up!! For information www.arboretum.ucdavis.edu

530-752-4880

Ceanothus California Field Botanists Association Saturday, December 6 (9:00am-12:00pm) Learn to key plants. Group meets about once a month at UC Davis Center for Plant Diversity Information www.ceanothusfieldbotanist.blogspot.com

florist chrysanthemum

beautyberry

Friends of the Davis Library Book Sale December 5 (noon-7 pm), 6 (10 am-5 pm), 7 (10 am-3 pm) Often good finds on gardening books! Info. 758-4754

http://groups.ucanr.org/sactomg/Fair_Oaks_Horticulture_Center/

Tree Davis

Some useful websites: http://homeorchard.ucdavis.edu/ UC website for the California backyard orchard http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu Agricultural and Natural Resources, Cooperative Extension. Lots of publications for purchase and to download for free. The Home Orchard – Growing Your Own Deciduous Fruit and Nut Trees Publication 3485 http://www.davewilson.com/ Dave Wilson Nursery for backyard orchard culture.

Free shade trees available in November. Fill out the online application and sign up for a workshop “Neighborwoods” Tree Planting Opportunities!! Information http://treedavis.org

Davis Garden Club November 17, 7 to 9 pm Albert Crepeau from the Woodland Library Rose Club speaking about Roses December 12 & 13 Holiday Wreath Making and Sale For information 222-3052

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www.davisgardenclub.org

Tips from digging expert Margaret Lloyd

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

Bare-root plants: Plants will start showing up in nurseries in late December and on into January: ornamental and fruit trees, roses, shrubs, vines, artichokes, asparagus, bulbing onions, rhubarb, strawberries, grapes Red Baron peach Incredible dark pink flowers that look more like quince flowers than a peach. Yummy freestone peaches, too. Redwood Barn Nursery usually carries them. Descanso hybrid lilics Syringa vulgaris Purple, 12 ft. tall. These require less chill than most lilacs. ‘Lavender Lady’ is a very common cultivar.

my favorite French lilac (common name) Syringa vulgaris ‘My Favorite’ French hybrid cultivar, purple, double flowers. Lilacs can start blooming in late March in Davis. 10-15 ft. tall. There are numerous common and French lilac cultivars!! cut-leaf lilac Syringa x laciniata The flowers appear all along the stem, not just at the ends of the stems. 6-8 ft. tall and wide with airy foliage.

A chance digging lesson at the UCD Student Farm… The part of the foot you put on the digging fork matters! The ball and arch of the foot are the most likely to be injured. It is best to use the heel area of the foot for digging -- and then your leg also lines up perfectly with the handle of the fork allowing for more digging force. As you rock the fork handle back to loosen the soil, don’t bend over, but just rock your body back with it. Keep joints and back from bending whenever possible to avoid muscle soreness.

Fall blooming perennials: perennial sunflowers Helianthus maximilianii Native to southwestern US. Can grow 10- 12 ft. tall, but the stems usually arch over to the ground. Cutting the stems to a foot in early July will produce shorter, sturdier plants but may also delay bloom. sedum Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ 2 – 3 ft. tall. Cut back to the ground after bloom. Showy leafy rosettes during the winter and spring.

chrysanthemums (florist) Chrysanthemum x grandiflorum Many cultivars to choose from! Purchasing them in the fall, when they are blooming, helps with selection. beautyberry Callicarpa bodinieri ‘Profusion’ The deciduous shrub blooms in spring but the florescent purple-pink berries stand out in the fall. They bloom on new wood so are pruned late winter.

Fava beans (Vivia faba) take nitrogen from the air and fix it in the roots of the plant with the help of Rhizobia bacteria found in the soil. To insure the needed Rhizobium species is present, an inoculant may be needed when planting. Favas don’t produce as much nitrogen as some of the other legume cover crops, but are still worthwhile to grow since they are pretty plants and the beans can also be eaten.

Cool season vegetables and fruits: It is still possible to plant now!! There will be another opportunity to plant many cool season vegetables in late January and early February.

More gardening tips! Fragrant Lilacs. Two lilacs have done well in Patricia’s garden. Since lilacs need winter chill to bloom, many cultivars don’t thrive in Davis with the mild climates. Some also don’t like the hot weather. Lilacs do like the Davis alkaline soil and prefer sun.

Nitrogen-fixing rhizobia live in the nodules on roots of favas

A frost is coming!! Usually by the first of December we get freezing temperatures. Move or make provisions for protecting frost tender plants. In case you’ve forgotten what winters are like here in Davis, here’s an article. http://www.redwoodbarn.com/DE_weatherindavis.html

Herbaceous perennials die back, but with our mild

My Favorite French lilac

climate there are usually low clumps of greenery during the winter. A few herbaceous perennials, however, die completely to the ground and it is easy to forget there is a plant in that space. Often another plant gets planted on top or surrounding plants overrun the space. Plants that need marking include Salvia guaranitica, coneflower, balloon flower, dahlias, and phlox.

Cut-leaf lilac (UBC Botanical Gardens)

Descanso Hybrids, ‘Lavender Lady’ being a common cultivar, need less winter chill. A French hybrid whose common name is My Favorite French Lilac has done very well, maybe because it is in a very exposed location that is colder. A lilac on the Arboretum All Star list is the cut-leaf lilac. It has small, airy leaves and blooms along the stems rather than on the tips of the branches. Look for these during the bare-root season and spring Arboretum sales.

Newsletter created by: Patricia Carpenter -- Gardening Coach (Design and Education), with 35 years of Davis gardening experience. 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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