Wet/Dry Winter? Powdery Mildew….

A wet winter?  Dry winter?

If you think that might happen, excellent time to establish native plants and ground covers in your landscape, make raised beds in your veggie garden!  They don’t have to have a frame, in fact, you can ‘make more space’ by planting on the sloped sides, preventing erosion!  The plants that don’t like soggy feet, or would simply drown from too much water, will have excellent drainage.  You can make your ‘bed’ as small as a furrowed area, or make it two feet wide.  Either way, same result, drainage, less water molds and fungi, keeps oxygen your plants need in the soil.  Put a thick layer of pine needles, leaves, straw, something that will feed the soil, in the pathways.  That’s sustainable and your shoes won’t get muddy.  Re-layer as needed.    

Powdery Mildew is creeping right along…. 

Powdery Mildew on Peas

Hmph.  Powdery Mildew is windborne, and UC Davis IPM (Integrated Pest Management) says ‘Powdery mildews generally do not require moist conditions to establish and grow, and normally do well under warm conditions.  Good thing it’s getting cooler.  Ok.  So prevention, prevention, prevention.  A general home recipe is baking soda (sodium bicarbonate, 1 Tablespoon to a gallon, ¼ cup nonfat powdered milk, 1 teaspoon cooking oil (canola, soya, whatever), a drop or two of dishwash or soft soap (to disperse the oil and make it stick).  Spray or use a watering can whose spout can be turned so the water goes UP under the leaves.  Drench your plant, top to bottom so those inner bottom leaves get plenty of chances to get soaked.  The drips go into your soil, helping from there as well.  Do it on a sunny morning so your plants can dry well during the day. 

Please!  Be a good neighbor.  Prevent this common fungus, don’t let it blow into your neighbor’s veggies! 

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3 Kinds of Peas & Strawberries; Onions & Garlic!

Mesa Harmony Garden could use your VOTE!

They are in line for a $10,000 award from RainBird, to install water wise systems in their 3-phase Food Forest installation! It’s an awesome project in Santa Barbara CA, turning unused land into a model garden, to produce food for the Food Bank – the highest % of that goes to seniors and kids.  You can vote every day if you are willing, and it is sure appreciated!  http://www.iuowawards.com/Projects.aspx#search  Blessings!

November things to know about your veggies!

PEAS, if you please!   

• Go vertical!  Set up a trellis.  
• Get your peas.  There are 3 kinds of peas – English shelling peas, Chinese snow peas, fat crunchy eat-‘em-off-the-vine snap peas!  I plant and enjoy them all!  Stringless is nice.  Mildew resistant is great!
• At this time of year, plant from transplants.  Or.  Put in some from transplants at the same time as you put in some seeds.  That is equivalent to about a 6 week succession planting pattern.  Now through February, plant peas every month for continuous crop.
• Inoculate your seeds if you haven’t grown peas there for the last 3 years.  If you had an area where peas grew well last year, grab some handfuls of that soil and put it where you are planting this year!  Rhizobia makes for abundant production.  Just sprinkle it on the seeds when you plant!  At Island Seed & Feed, one T of inoculant for 6 LBS of pea seeds is only $2!  It’s where the bulk seeds are. 
• No manure, or very lightly, for peas, they make their own N (Nitrogen).  That’s what legumes do!
• Peas germinate well at 40 to 75 degrees F, but the colder, the slower.  Pre-sprouting is fair, in fact, makes sense!  Sprouted seed will grow in soils too cool for germination.  YES!  Don’t you love it?!  Easy peasy has true meaning here.  Wet a paper towel on a plate, arrange your seeds on one half of the towel, not touching each other, fold the other half over.  Put them in a zip plastic bag, seal.  Put on a spot that maintains about 70 degrees.  Check those pups daily, add a wee bit of water, spray the paper towel, if needed.  Your peas will sprout in 4 or 5 days!  Soon as they sprout, put them carefully into the garden, right below the soil level.  Gently firm the soil so they have good contact.  If any fail, start another round to fill the gaps.
• Space your pea babies about 2 inches apart.  If you are putting in seeds, put them in about an inch apart, then thin when they are of a likely height that looks like their survival is assured.
• Birds?  If those walk-abouts are a bother, get some of that garden netting, or lay or prop those narrow patterned plastic plant flats over them.  When you aren’t using the netting on your peas, in spring & summer use it to cover your strawberries.
• Water.  They like it.  Every day until seeds are germinated, then once a week deeply.  
• Now we are back to the trellis.  When your plants are 1 foot to 1 ½ feet high, start weaving twine through/around them to secure them against winds and rain-heavy weight.  Those cute little tendrils just aren’t enough to hold them.  Before wind, rains, are predicted, check everybody to be sure all is secure. 

Stinky Onions?!  You bet!  Onions are sensitive to temperature and day length, photothermoperiodic!  Whew!  They start bulbing only after enough daylight for a certain number of days.  To avoid bolting, in SoCal we need to plant seeds of short day onions in fall, or intermediate varieties in late winter.  Most sets are long-day types and won’t work.  Plant Grano, Granex, & Crystal Wax seeds in the ground Nov 1, today, to Nov 10, or bare root in January.  Granex stores a little better, all of them are sweet like Vidalia and Maui.  If you miss this window, plant intermediate onions in Feb.  Onion seeds sprout very easily! 

Garlic is so easy – separate the cloves, plant in full sun, about 1 to 2 inches deep in rich humusy soil, points up, 4 inches apart.  That’s it!  Water and wait, water and wait…. 

Strawberries Anytime! But which kind?  There are 3 types of strawberries.  Deciding on whether to plant June Bearing, Everbearing, or Day Neutral strawberries depends on your available space, size of preferred strawberries and how much work you want to put into the strawberries. 

• Everbearing (spring, summer, fall) and Day Neutral (unaffected by day length and will fruit whenever temperatures are high enough to maintain growth) are sweet and petite. They will not need much space and both are great for plant hangers. If you choose to plant them in the garden, be prepared to spend time weeding and fertilizing the plants.  Everbearing:  ♦ Sequoia, medium, heavy producer  Day Neutral/Everbearing:  ♦ Seascape, large 
• June Bearing, mid June, strawberries produce a nice, large and sweet berry. Because they only produce for 2 to 3 weeks, there is not so much work to take care of them. You do, however, need space because of the runners.  They are classified into early, mid-season and late varieties.  ♦ Chandler, large, high yield, large quantities of small fruit later in season  ♦  Short day, Camarosa is large. It can be picked when fully red, and still have a long shelf life. This variety represents almost half of California’s current commercial acreage.  ♦  Short day, Oso Grande is a firm, large berry, with a steadier production period than Chandler. 

Do not plant strawberries where tomatoes, potatoes, peppers or eggplant have been grown in the past four years, because these crops carry the root rot fungus Verticillium which also attacks strawberries 

Commercial growers replace their plants each year.  FOR THE BIGGEST AND MOST ABUNDANT STRAWBERRIES, REPLACE PLANTS EACH YEAR…

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Across-the-Plot November Garden Tips

Reminder:  My campaign this fall is for garden cleanup, and turning the soil to expose the fungi that affects our tomatoes, and other plants, so the fungi dries and dies!

Vibrant Yellow Chard!

November, though cooler, is a rich planting time!   

First do remaining fall cleanup of lingering summer plants still at it with the warm weather we have been having.  Now is a perfect time to weed and clear pathways. 

Last chance to plant wildflowers from seed for early spring flowers!  Germination in cooler weather takes longer, so don’t let the bed dry out. 

More transplants of winter veggies.  That’s Brassicas – brocs, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, turnips!  Plant super low calorie nutritious chard, a fast grower; and from its same family, beets.  Beets and carrots are a two in one – you eat the bulb/carrot, and can harvest the leaves to steam as greens, or chop and drop into your stew!  Bright Lights chard is a favorite of mine – it’s as pretty as any flower with its bright easy-to-harvest stalks.  Carrots near peas!  Celery near the water spigot.  Fava, parsley, potatoes.  The fru fru thin leaved varieties of lettuces, that are too tender for hot summer sun, now thrive!  Plant in easy to reach places, so you can continually harvest the big lower leaves.  

Plant seeds of onions for slicing.  Bare-root artichoke, strawberries.  Strawberry and onion varieties are region specific, strawberries (more to come on this soon) even more than onions.  So plant the varieties our local nurseries carry, or experiment!  Get your bare-root strawberries in between Nov 1 to 10.  

Fillers and accents, unders and besides, can be red bunch onions, bright radishes!  Try some of the long radishes, like French Breakfast, said to have a ‘delicate crunch and gentle fire’ or a quickie like Cherry Belle that matures in only 22 days – that’s only 3 weeks! 

Check out the amazing Health Benefits of Eating Radish

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Santa Barbara CA November 2010 Local Garden Events!

Please put these good events on your calendar and share rides!   

Louise Lowry Davis Center Landscape Gets a Facelift!   1232 De La Vina Street (at Victoria)
UCCE Master Gardeners of Santa Barbara County and the Santa Barbara Parks and Recreation Department will be conducting a series of hands on demonstrations that show how to convert the Center’s lawn and other planted areas into water-wise planted beds!  Sustainability is key.  Email our Master Gardener Daphne Page, Plot 32, if you want to assist or have questions!

Sat, Nov 6, 2010, 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Lawn and Plant Removal, Soil Preparation and Irrigation Basics

Sat, Nov 13, 2010, 9:00 AM – 10:30 AM
Foundation Plants in Design; Planting Trees and Large Shrubs

Sat, Nov 13, 2010, 10:30 AM -  12:00 PM
Shrubs, Accents and Groundcover in Design; Planting These Secondary and Tertiary Plants

Gaia Festival 2010, November 13-14, 2010  HEAL – LOVE – CELEBRATE MOTHER EARTH
Music / Healers / Art / Film / Meditation / Body Movement / Drumming / Ceremony / Community

The line up this year is incredible – Lisa Beck and Budhi Harlow of Panzumo, Santa Barbara’s most energetic West African drum and dance group; Gaia Fest fave and beloved Board Member Karen Tate; Stephen Gerringer of The Joseph Campbell Foundation, who tore up the stage in 2008! Check out our website for the full lineup and schedule.

Please continue to send out your powerful prayers for our beloved Mother Earth.  Drum for Her, sing for Her, and do what you can to help create a sustainable future.

Gaia Festival sponsors a charity or two each year and for 2010 80% of raffle ticket sales and a percentage of the ticket sales will go to Quail Springs Learning Oasis and Permaculture Farm to help them rebuild and recover after experiencing the devastating flash flood.  Sponsor someone to take their Permaculture Design Certification Course!

Nov 17 from 7 pm – 8:45 pm
Free class!  Patio Permaculture: Growing Food on your Balcony, Porch or Patio
South Coast Watershed Resource Center
Arroyo Burro/Hendry’s Beach, 2981 Cliff Drive 

At the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden!   

Santa Barbara Botanic Garden Holiday MarketPlace 2010!

2011 Master Gardener Class!  Applications are now being taken!  Have you, or someone you know wanted to become a Master Gardener?!!  Go to http://cesantabarbara.ucdavis.ecu/MasterGardener for info about the Program, and fill out your application.  Applications must be postmarked or received by e-mail by January 14^th.   

There will be an Open House for all interested parties on January 12^th, details to come
Interviews will be held the week of January 17th
Classes begin February 9th from 1-4 PM

It’s an awesome program!  Daphne Page, Plot 32, and myself, are both Master Gardeners.  Ask us any questions you have about the program, and, of course, garden questions.  If we don’t know the answer, we will try to find out for you!  The Master Gardener text/reference is the California Master Gardener Handbook, an invaluable reference whether you are a Master Gardener or not!  Put it right alongside your Western Sunset Garden Book & Pat Welsh’s Southern California Gardening!  Be prepared to make special new friends, step into a dedicated community, share truly inspiring projects.

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