Sol Food Festival 29th & Bagrada Bugs Update!

SOL FOOD FESTIVAL September 29th, 10am-6pm 

In Santa Barbara Ca at Plaza de Vera Cruz 130 East Cota Street, Santa Barbara, that’s across the street from the Saturday Farmer’s Market!   Join us for this great, local event geared towards growing & eating locally & sustainably grown food!

I’ll be talking on the Making Change Stage from 11 to 12 on What to Plant This Fall, and then Seed Saving!  You’re invited!  Bring family and friends! 

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Bagrada Bugs UPDATE!

Bless our marvelous community!  Here are some contributions to help you:

1)  One of our Master Gardeners wrote:  In the midwest, where there are large infestations of Japanese beetles, the solution is a pan of soapy water which is held under the plant while you try to catch the pests; they drop down into the soapy water and can’t get out.  Maybe that will work with the Bagrada bugs!

Thanks for the dropping bug technique!  That would work well because if you disturb the plant they drop to the ground and run like hell!  They disappear in seconds!  It’s amazing to see – the ground is covered with them, then they are gone!  If you held a large wide thin frying pan with a shallow bit of soapy water, under a section of the plant, it could be done section by section.  That would reduce populations very quickly, given their propensity to drop right where you would want them!   Yes, I do believe that would work terrifically!

2)  A Trinity Gardener reports:  I was at the [Farmers] market this morning and learned that John Givens has experienced an infestation of the Bagrada beetle that took out an entire bok choy crop. Since he is such a revered and long time organic farmer I decided to call him to learn how he chose to handle it.  Long story short he uses a product that requires a commercial license and when I looked it up (it’s called Ensure and is made by Dow although it’s OMRI certified) its main ingredient is spinosad. 

However, per San Diego Master Gardener, Vincent Lazaneo, UC Urban Horticulture Advisor, Emeritus, ‘…insecticides like Spinosad (an organic product) and carbaryl (Sevin) have a more persistent toxic residue which may harm honey bees and other beneficial insects.’  Read the article.  Please consider your choices carefully.

3)  Sep 28 This just in from Pacifica’s Organic Market Gardens founder and land manager Marshall Chrostowsky:

We small farmers have been badly affected this summer and early fall by the surprising infestation. I’ve been exchanging e-mails with some farmers whose fall-planting schedule has been thrown out the window. We tend to find growing many of the greens and cole crops easiest in the fall. Seedlings of all these tend to collapse and become stunted from feeding by the adults and younger instars. In the course of piercing and sucking out cell contents, these bugs seem to introduce a toxin or perhaps microorganism that stunts and deforms the plants.

More mature crops in the Kale, collard and other more rugged-leaved crops survive feeding pressure but Chard, beets, radishes tend to become badly damaged and flavors affected by the feeding pressure. When under attack, many plants put out phytochemicals to defend against further feeding. Other crops that I have that have feeding damage: some beans, Black Beauty eggplant, ornamental and weedy grasses (wheats are said to be a prime food source for the bugs.) The bug is also known to be attracted to plants in the landscape and may well overwinter in such habitats.

For controls, I have experimented with the following: frequent shallow cultivation (eggs are laid more in the soil than on the plants), shaking larger plants over buckets of soapy water, hand picking/killing, DE [diatomaceous earth] dust (works with very young bugs and maybe eggs), horticultural soap, Neem oil and BioNeem (alcohol-based), Spinosad (more a repellent). I may trial Red-hot Wax with garlic and chili oils but am reluctant. Plant-derived oils (canola, clove, rosemary, mint, etc.) might serve as repellents and offer some control but crops plants could be damaged.

I let out one of my chickens in one untreated section but she was more interested in dust bathing and chowing down on every plant just in case one kind was better than another.

4)  Speaking of birds, from Ron at Rincon Vitova insectary in Ventura. Mardena also recommends attracting “working birds” to the garden by putting out shallow water, preferably moving water. If you have a deep fountain, put rocks in it so birds can find shallow water.  He says:  Natural predators and parasites will eventually bring this down to being a minor pest.  [Very soon, I hope.]

5)  Excerpted and adapted from Trinity Garden Manager Rose Keppler Moradian:

SOAPY CLAY WATER

• Clean out all you old Brassica plants, weeds, ground cover [and mulch]
• Soak areas with SOAPY water
• Shoot any bugs down with SOAPY water, squish ‘em
• Mix SOAP and POWDERED CLAY (Kaolin clay sold by brand name”Surround” from Garden Alive, or just use powdered clay).  Both soapy water and CLAY kills them!  **Clay covers the plant with a white residue: LEAVE IT ON. It acts as a barrier and does not affect the plant’s ability to live.  When the bugs get the clay on them it smothers them.  Joe Palumbo, the foremost expert on them, agrees with me.

Don’t plant any Brassicas, that’s

kale
cabbage
broccoli
cauliflowers
radish
kohlrabi
Brussels sprouts
rutabaga
turnip
pac choi
mizuna
mustard

’til you’ve treated cleaned up areas for two weeks, with daily soapy clayey waterings.

An excellent variety of Kale I’ve been growing is “Fizz.” It’s very tough, with a naturally occurring gray/white coating on the leaves, which led me to conclude that the coating has something to do with the natural protection it had against the Bagrada.  This coating also makes it more drought tolerant, as most gray or “glaucous” plants are prone to be.

6)  So far, personally, I have daily handpicked and squished, and still lost several plants, the damage is quickly done.  Per last month’s suggestion to interplant with smelly plants, I have divided patches of bunch onions and society garlic and installed them between my Brassicas.  I’m not sure that’s working, but I’ve planted a patch of garlic chives to put among further rounds of Brassicas.  Gardeners’ nightmare.  Early discovery, and immediate and PERSISTENT action, will pay in this matter if you have a small garden. Again and again, I see it written to combine your techniques. Please refer back to Bagrada Bugs & Winter Veggies solutions as well. They are at the bottom of the post. And, again, if you are in a community garden, please tell other gardeners about this pest and ask them to keep watch also, especially newcomers and beginner gardeners. If they aren’t on our newsletter list yet, I would be grateful if you give them my info. Cerena@ItsAstroLogical.com

Please, please, please, check incoming transplants at purchase, and again before you bring them into the garden.  One small relief so far seems to be if a plant, like my broccoli and cauliflowers, reach a certain size, they seem to get beyond the Bagrada attack, they in the meantime killing the smaller plants.  But we will see when all the smaller ones are gone….  Probably a good thing to remove any mulch hiding places too.  I have found them mating in the straw.

For the latest info, please also see Independent article ‘Buggin’ Out!’  We are not alone.  The subtitle is ‘Bagrada Bug Onslaught Has Growers Scrambling’

Good luck to you all!  Please let us know your failures and successes.  The Bagrada bugs are here to stay.

   

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Bagrada Bug & Winter Veggies!

Now that we are planting winter plants, this creature is one to pay attention to because those are its favorites!  Infestations have already occurred in Pilgrim Terrace Community Garden on broccoli and kale.  The population explodes, overwhelming the entire plant.  The word infestation takes on true meaning here.

Small black bugs with orange and white spots.   Bagrada bug is a major pest of crop plants such as cabbage, kale, turnip, cauliflower, mustard, broccoli and radish.  In the U.S., harlequin bug is used as a common name for another species of shield bug, Murgantia histrionica.  It was first found in Los Angeles County in June 2008 and has spread widely in other Southern California regions since then.  It is not known to bite humans or carry any sort of disease.

Bagrada will also go after warm-weather crops such as papaya, potato, corn and beans, but is more lethargic in heat. It spends its time in the soil, laying eggs or hiding; heavy rains drive it out of air pockets and onto the plant du jour.  It prefers to eat seeds and succulent plants, so when local climates dry and reduce available food such as wild mustard in Southern California’s canyons, into town it comes.

Adults and nymphs suck juices from the plant. Feeding results in large stippled or wilted areas on leaves, white edges being one of the first signs.  Often the growth of newly formed central shoots or heads of plants become stunted.  The pest can stunt growth and kill plants.

Populations can build up quickly reaching damaging densities that require control. Heaviest infestations are typically observed at organic farms, community gardens, and residential vegetable gardens where little or no pesticides are used. Gardeners often think they have beneficial lady bugs, because Bagrada adults and larger nymphs are about same the size and coloration as ladybugs.  They are good at disguise. It also has a potent aroma. “Once you smell it, you will never forget it,” said Gevork Arakelian, senior biologist at the Los Angeles County Department of Agricultural Commissioner/Weights and Measures. “It’s very specific for stinkbugs, a pungent, intense, parsley odor. Birds don’t touch them. If they eat one, they disgorge it immediately.”

Usually all life stages are present together on plants and adults are commonly observed in copulation.  Since Bagradas lay most eggs in the soil, natural predators such as wasps aren’t effective controls. It is often not feasible to pick off by hand because the infestations are so thick and sudden.  If you try it, it takes two hands.  They see you coming, move fast, drop to the ground never to be found!  Put one hand underneath and close it fast when they drop.  If you step on them, be sure the squish factor has happened, because they are smallish, and just sink in rather than squish, get up and walk away to tell the story.  Sorry, just trying to give you the idea what you are up against.  Normal pesticides can be used to ward off a Bagrada bug infestation, but insecticides aren’t an option for many gardeners, and adult bugs will simply flee one garden for another, only to return when the residue of pesticide is gone.

–> If you garden in a community garden, tell everyone about this pest, ask your neighbor gardeners to keep a close watch after heavy watering or rains.  <–  I’m checking each of my susceptible plants daily and have found some of the bugs, which I immediately sent to Heaven.  I don’t know if they were already at the garden, or came in with the transplants.  Check for eggs on the undersides of leaves of transplants you purchase.

What you can do! From infonet-biovision, Nairobi, Kenya – they oughta know since this little pup hails from Africa!

Cultural practices
Monitoring- Regular monitoring of the crop is important to detect bagrada bugs before they cause damage to the crop.
Sanitation – Crop hygiene, in particular removal of old crops and destruction of weeds of the family Cruciferae prevents population build-up.
Hand picking - Handpicking and destruction of the bugs helps to reduce damage. This is particularly important in the early stages of the crop. Hand picking is only practical in small plots.
Cultivation - Eggs laid in the soil are readily killed by cultivation, so frequent light cultivation (once or twice a week) of the vegetable beds will help in controlling this pest (Keizer and Zuurbier; Horticultural Research Program, Botswana).
Irrigation - Watering and overhead irrigation disturb the bugs discouraging them from feeding on the crop. However, note that use of sprinkler irrigation may lead to increase of diseases such as black rot and downy mildew.
Mixed cropping - Growing strong smelling plants such as garlic, onion or parsley near the crop are reported to reduce infestations (Dobson et al, 2002).

Biological pest control
Natural enemies - Eggs of bagrada bugs are parasitized by tiny wasps. Bugs are parasitized by flies (e.g. Alphorn sp.).

Biopesticides and physical methods
Plant extracts - A mixture of chili, soap, garlic and paraffin has shown to be an effective control method in trials in Namibia (Keizer and Zuurbier).
Natural products - In Namibia there are reports that sprinkling the plants with crushed bagrada bugs repels other bugs. This can be used effectively in combination with frequent soil cultivation (Keizer and Zuurbier).
Soap solution - Spraying plants with a soapy solution (bar soap) has been found effective against bagrada bugs. It helps to wash off young bugs (Dobson et al, 2002; Elwell and Maas, 1995).

There you have it!  Due diligence, and if you believe in it, prayer!

9.28.12 see UPDATE!

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Mediterranean Understory & Guild Plants for Food Forests – Part 2

Please SEE Part 1 before you read this list!

Here is what a young Food Forest can look like in a part of your urban yard!

Linda’s List is intended for a Mediterranean climate like coastal Southern California has, one of only 5 in the world. The list in your area may be different. Check out your local gardeners’ successes, check with your local nursery. This list is not tree specific yet. We’re working on that!

More than a list of plants, Linda’s List gives tips for good growing, eating, and usage!
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Once our fruit trees are planted in their water-saving basins in a budding Mediterranean food forest, it’s now time to think about what else to plant in these usually moist wells and swales. Or up the trees? Or nearby? We need these companion plants to increase our food and medicine yield, and also to enrich the soil, provide habitat, pull up minerals and other nutrients from deep in the earth, draw nitrogen from the air and bring it into the soil, attract beneficial insects to control pests, create shade for delicate roots — and to provide beauty, a critical psychological and spiritual yield in every garden.

Thanks to the members of the Permaculture Guild of Santa Barbara and the Santa Barbara Organic Garden Club for their ideas and input. Additions and corrections are welcome.  Please email lbuzzell@aol.com.  Especially welcome would be input on what plants do best under specific fruit trees – so far I don’t have much information on that.

BERRIES
Blueberry. To grow well here, they need acid soil, so a container is often the best solution, since Santa Barbara soil and water tend to be alkaline. One gardener we know waters hers with a very dilute solution of white vinegar, plus puts pine needles, coffee grounds around the plant. Best in Mediterranean climates are the low-chill varieties like ‘Misty,”O’Neal,’ ‘Sharpblue’
Cane berries. Upright cane berries are fun to pop in here and there as understory plants and they take some shade. But we found out the hard way that you probably don’t want to put in sprawling, thorny berries (especially blackberry) that sucker underground – they pop up all over the yard and are hard to eradicate. When we buy new berries we limit ourselves to thornless varieties and our current favorites are ‘Navajo’ and ‘Apache,’ although the thorny varieties that still linger in our garden – and will probably be there for hundreds of years as they’re ineradicable – taste best. So we live with them and enjoy the berries.
Elderberry. Shrub. There is a California native variety. Produces edible fragrant white flowers (used to make elderberry syrup and wine) and edible small blue berries that the birds love. Ripe berries are safe to eat but leaves, twigs, branches, seeds and roots are toxic. Has medicinal uses. We use our elderberry as a sacrificial plant attracting birds away from other fruit trees.
Lemonade Berry (native). Rhus integrifolia. Can also control erosion.

BULBS AND ROOT CROPS
Placement of these may take special care, as you don’t want to plant them too close to delicate tree roots.
Carrots
Edible canna. Canna edulis –Achira. Flowers are smaller than most cannas and the root is edible, can be chopped and sautéed like potato.
Onions
Potato and sweet potato

EDIBLE FLOWERS (note: most fruit trees, veggies and herbs also have edible flowers. Always triple check the safety of any flower before eating!
Daylilies. Hemerocallis species. Buds are used in Chinese stir fry, Petals in salad.
Nasturtium (flowers, young leaves and buds that may be pickled like capers) Let the plants die back in place. They will reseed and form a straw mulch.
Roses (yield petals for salads, sandwiches, syrups, desserts; rose hips for tea, syrups, jam)
Scarlet runner bean
Scented geranium

HERBS (most have edible flowers in addition to other uses)
Borage
Chili peppers, including tree chili
Cilantro
Garlic
Italian parsley
Lavender
Lemon balm
Lemon verbena. A drought tolerant shrub with delicious leaves for tea.
Mint. Some fear its vigorous, spreading roots, but we welcome it into drier areas as ground cover, autumn bee food and a source of fresh leaves for cooking and tea.
Mustard (young leaves can be stir fried, flowers are edible, plus seeds for making mustard)
Pineapple sage (leaves and flowers make delicious herbal tea)
Oregano
Rosemary
Sage

SHRUBS/Understory trees
Guava. Psidium Tropical shrubs native to Mexico, Central and South America that yield white, yellow or pink fruit. Not to be confused with Pineapple Guava (Feijoa) Psidium guajava (apple guava) is one tasty variety. Also try lemon guava and strawberry guava.

VEGGIES (there’s no way to name them all – it’s fun to experiment to see what likes the soil under and around your fruit trees. Our favorites are those that overwinter and/or reseed themselves)
Artichokes. Plant away from tree roots, in baskets as the gophers love them.
Brassicas like broccoli, kale, collard greens.
Chard.
Dandelions. Leaves are great in salads and so good for us. Small birds like the seed heads.
Fava beans and other beans.
New Zealand spinach.

VINES
We often forget about vertical space in the garden, but it’s nice to increase your yield by growing edible vines up fruit trees, on walls and over arbors, fences and hedges.
Grapes. Note: the Permaculture Guild of Santa Barbara has a separate list of recommended table and wine grapes for our area. Contact lbuzzell@aol.com for details
Passion Fruit. A garden member says “mine is simply rampant, productive and trouble-free; gets little to no supplemental water.” The juice can be used to make a spectacular salad dressing (served at Los Arroyos on Coast Village Road in their tropical salad).

MISCELLANEOUS
Bamboo. Use clumping instead of running kinds to avoid it taking over your garden. Bamboo shoots are a delicacy in Asia.
Pepino melon.
Sacrificial plants. In permaculture designs we often plant trees, shrubs and other plants that are nitrogen-accumulators, “nurse” plants or fruit-providers for animals that might otherwise eat our crops. When they have performed their function, we “chop and drop” them around our fruit trees as a nutritious mulch.
Yucca. We’ve read that yucca yields edible fruit and flower buds. Anyone have more info on this?

BENEFICIAL ATTRACTORS AND NUTRIENT ACCUMULATORS
Ceanothus. Shrubs and ground covers that fix nitrogen in the soil.
Salvia, ornamental. These are treasures in the Mediterranean forest garden.
Tagetes lemmonii. Golden color is lovely in fall.

GROUND COVER
Easy-to-grow succulents can provide temporary ground cover for delicate roots. They can act as a living mulch until other plants take over that function. This crop is often free, as gardeners who have ground-cover sedums always have too many and are glad to share.
Pelargoniums and lantana are other easy, colorful ground cover that can be removed as needed.
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#1 Home Permaculture book in the world for seven years!

Per PatternLiteracy.com, Toby Hemenway’s home site, Gaia’s Garden has been the best-selling permaculture book in the world for the last 7 years. The enlarged, updated 2nd edition is the winner of the 2011 Nautilus Gold Medal Award.

The first edition of Gaia’s Garden sparked the imagination of America’s home gardeners, introducing permaculture’s central message: Working with nature, not against her, results in more beautiful, abundant, and forgiving gardens. This extensively revised and expanded second edition broadens the reach and depth of the permaculture approach for urban and suburban growers.

Treat yourself and your land to this incredibly efficient way of gardening. Wisely use ALL the space available to you in a good way. Nature is the Master Gardener – follow her lead.

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Divine December, Winter’s June here in SoCal!

Happy Winter Solstice/Yule, Dec 21st!

I like this saying I found at the Old Farmers Almanac:  Old Frost, the Silversmith has come:  His crisping touch is on the weeds.  – Charles Dawson Shanly

And, bless him, his touch will soon be on our veggies!  Some will love it; kales are said to taste better after a good frost.  Basils, some peppers and other tender plants will fold and die.  Gather seeds while you still can.  It’s tuck & roll time –  ready a stack of covers in case we get some hard freezes.  Keep a diligent weather watch.  Watering the evening before an anticipated freeze will help your plants withstand damage.

December is winter’s June, harvest time! 

Brocs, cauliflowers, peas, are all coming in now, especially if you planted in August, September!

Lettuces are thriving, keep plucking the lower leaves.

Keep harvesting your chard and beet leaves to keep ahead of the leafminers.  Don’t over water making the leaves too soft and inviting.

Cabbages take time to get to the stage to form that super head of tight fitted leaves.  Don’t despair, they are working on it.  Lay down Sluggo or do slug/snail maintenance around your cabbages to keep the pests from damaging your beauties.  Can you imagine what the plant would look like if the leaves were spaced out on a stalk?!  Pretty tall.  Feed lightly during winter to make Nitrogen easily available.  It’s cooler, so uptake is slower.

Your favas are busy gathering Nitrogen from the air, putting it into little nodules on their roots.  So are your peas, both legumes.  They do that!  Little to no feeding for them, they make their own N.

If you tuck in kitchen veggie trim, don’t be surprised if a few potatoes (they look like tomatoes, same family) pop up here and there.  If you like ‘em, let ‘em come if you have space!

If you have everbearer strawberries you may have few berries after a few warm days.  Even a single berry is such a treat!

Collards, kohlrabi and kales are very happy, providing excellent nutrition.  You can eat the leaves of all your Brassicas – brocs, cauliflower, collards, kale, kohlrabi, and, of course, cabbages!

Carrots are coming!  Plant another round near your peas!  All kinds!  Mix the seeds up for surprises later!

Yes, you can still plant!  Start a new garden with or put in successive rounds of artichoke (give them 3’ to 4’ space), arugula, asparagus – Pat Welsh (Southern California Gardening) recommends UC-157, beets, brocs, Brussels sprouts, bunch onions, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, chard, garlic, kale, kohlrabi, head and leaf lettuces, mesclun, peas, potatoes, radishes, and turnips!  As soon as one is done, plant another!

Put in some little bunch onion patches here and there but not by your peas!  Plant some of those little  Italian red ones – so pretty in your salad!  How about some garlic chives?  Mmm….

Remember, this is THE time to be planting your largest garlic cloves – they need twice the fertilizer, so make a super rich soil for them.  If you are so inspired, many plant on Winter Solstice day, Dec 21!  Plant skins on, or for more mojo, quicker sprouting, here is the way to prep your cloves Bob Anderson style:

• Soak in water and baking soda for 16-24 hours before planting.  Soak separate strains separately. (One T soda to 1 gallon water, or a half teaspoon in a cup of water).  Remove the skins – start at the bottom being careful not to damage the growing tip OR the bottom, because that’s where the roots grow from!
• Just before planting soak nude cloves in rubbing alcohol for 3-5 minutes and plant immediately.

SideDressing – seedlings up 2 to 3 inches get hungry!  Liquid fertilizer once a week is quick and easy for them to uptake.  Feed your other plants every 6 weeks.  That means, sprinkle fertilizer around your plants or down a row, and dig it in a little, especially before a rain!  Water it in.  Use ½ the strength of your summer feedings.  We don’t want a lot of tender new growth that a frost would take.  Some people love their manures, others love Island Seed & Feed’s Landscape Mix, and some love their stuff that comes in a pretty box!  Plants love a fish/kelp mix.  Try the powdered version for a little less stink.  If you decide to do foliar teas, pick a warm, dry, or breezy morning so your plants will dry well before evening.  Do what makes you and your plants happy!  If you haven’t been fertilizing, think about how hard your plant is working.  Big brocs, for example.  When it starts to head, when plants start to produce, that’s your cue to help them along.

Gophers.  You can still put in wire protective baskets or barriers, especially now while the soil is softer after the rains.  If you see a fresh mound, trap immediately.
Aphids?  Watch for curled leaves, squish or wash any or the colony away immediately.
White flies.  Flush away, especially under the leaves.  They are attracted to yellow, so keep yellowing, yellowed leaves removed.
Slimy Slugs, Snails.  Sluggo before they even get started, right when your seedlings begin to show, when you put your transplants in!  Once stopped, there will be intervals when there are none at all.  If you notice tiny children snails, lay down another round.

Make Organic, Sustainable Holiday Garden Gifts!  Plants themselves make wonderful gifts!  Start perusing catalogs for your Spring planting!

Happy Holidays, of all kinds, to you and yours! 
Garden Blessings, Cerena

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Winter Plants are Very Efficient!

Most of them are Cut and Come Again types!

Harvest your big greens – kale and collards, and lettuces, leaf by leaf rather than cutting your plant down. Many lettuces will ‘come back’ even if you cut them off an inch or two above ground. Leave the stalk in the ground, see what happens! Rather than pulling your bunch/table onions, cut them off about an inch to 2 inches above the ground. They will come back 3 to 4 times. After you cut the main broccoli head off, let the side sprouts grow and snip them for your salads or steam them. Cut cabbages off right below the head, then let them resprout, forming several smaller heads at the leaf axils. Potatoes? Leave a potato in the ground to make more potatoes.

Artichokes! Marilyn Monroe was crowned Artichoke Queen in 1948! An artichoke respirates differently from most other vegetables – it “breathes” better in our cool weather. Virtually 100 percent of all artichokes grown commercially in the United States are grown in California, 3/4 of those grown in Monterey County, nearly a third of those harvested March through May.

You have to want these babies! Not only are they strange and beautiful, they are BIG! A healthy mature ‘choke can easily take a 6’ diameter footprint. Do you want to use that much space for the return you get? It likes deep, fertile, well-drained soil; plant bare root so the crown is just above the soil surface. The perennial Green Globe is the dominant variety grown, harvested 5 to 10 seasons!!!!

Beets & Chard: The wrinkled beet/chard ‘seedballs’ are practically indistinguishable! Each seedball has 2 to 4 seeds, so you get as many as 4 plants per seed! At 4” to 5” tall, thinning with little scissors is easiest. They make tasty salad greens! Don’t pull because that may damage the neighboring plant’s roots. Avoid crowding your plants, and try not to wet the leaves. Water underneath and early in the day so wet leaves can dry well. That helps avoid diseases. Leafminers are the most common pest. Cover plants with fine netting or cheesecloth or floating row cover to protect them from adult flies. Handpick and destroy infested (mined) leaves. Control weeds. Beet and chard greens are super high in Vitamin A, and low calorie! When young, each can be used in salads, later on steamed is quite delicious. Harvest your beets young for tenderness.

Carrots: Plant your seeds in a flat low walled trench to hold moisture so your seeds stay damp and germinate sooner. The low sloping walls of your trench keep soil from filling the trench when you water, burying your seeds too deep. If you planted too close, just wait until they are miniature carrots and pull them to thin to the space you want. Tasty on-the-spot treats! Poke the soil back around the one that is left. Carrots enhance peas.

Celery: Needs lots of water to avoid bitterness. Plant near a water spigot or in a low spot, with other water lovers.

Lettuces: Lettuces LOVE winter temps and full sun! Plant all kinds! Many of them are as beautiful as flowers. Tuck them in here and there as fillers. Keep them well watered. Harvest the lowest leaves, they will keep right on producing!

Broccoli: Brocs are a hefty plant, so you can imagine they need good fat soil, and being fed some during the season. Cut the main head off just as it starts to loosen. Cut the stem at an angle so water runs off if, not down into the stem of the plant as the cut dries. This prevents rot. Use the leaves as greens or let the plant continue to grow. Many little sideshoot brocs will grow, perfect size for salads, or steamed! The flowers are edible, just sprinkle them on your salad. Broccoli is a biennial, but will grow even 3 years. Fresh is more nutritious than cooked.

Cabbage: Because cabbages are making such a dense head, they are one of the most efficient winter plants per the space they take up!  Because their leaves are so tightly together you don’t realize how much plant you are feeding! Give them great soil and feed them well.  Once your transplant is in the ground, or your young plant up a bit, step on the soil around it to make the soil firm to hold your heavy plant upright. That also packs nutrients right where they can get them! Cut the head small if you can’t eat a giant head and don’t want to freeze it, prefer it fresh. More smaller heads will grow if you cut the first head off just above the lowest leaves. I like my cabbages bigger, so I just put in more new plants.

See also Brassicas, the Backbone of Your Winter Garden!

Next week one of those topics of necessity – Real Gardening – Mice, Rats, Desperation

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February! SOIL & SEED Month!

Please see February 2010 for tips on aphids/white flies, slugs/snails, gophers, soil, seed starting basics! 

When there are warm days, it is ever so tempting to plant up summer veggies!  Don’t do it.  Not yet.  Start seeds. 

Depending on how much space you have, plant a last round of your very favorite winter crops – lettuces, beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, chard, kale, kohlrabi, potatoes, radishes, turnips.  Bare-root asparagus and artichokes.  I forgot to tell you last month, you could start zucchini!  At Pilgrim Terrace Community Garden we had an elder gardener who always started his in January, early February, and had great zucchini way before everyone else!  Other than zuchs, really look at those days to maturity, and add the number of days you expect for harvest duration.  If you plant a long maturing plant that would be harvested for some time, think if you would rather have that space for an early round of a summer veggie you love more.  Choose mildew and disease resistant varieties for your late peas.  

Keep sidedressing your producing plants, protect your tasty lettuces from slugs and snails.  Keep watch for aphids, and, if you disturb your plant and a little cloud of white things fly off, you have white flies.  Spray those little buggers off asap so they don’t spread to your other plants or someone else’s!  Keep up with your harvesting.  Wait until it warms up some more to prune frost damaged plants.  Even wait until next month to fertilize.  

But do prepare your soil for March summer veggie planting.  Dig if you must – I’m a no-dig, no weed person who leaves the living soil structure intact [see Gaia’s Garden, 2^nd edition, chapter on soil].  Instead, prepare your soil by layering good stuff on top, called Lasagna Gardening, sheet composting, composting in place, or on-the-ground composting!  Garden smart!  If it is already there, you don’t have to move it from the compost pile to where it is needed!  Build your soil in place or in your new raised beds!  If you are putting raised beds on top of your lawn, lay down several layers of heavy cardboard first, to stop the grass and weeds, thoroughly soak it, then layer, layer, layer!  When they get there, your plant’s roots will easily poke their way through the cardboard.  Definitely attach gopher proof wire mesh to the bottom of your raised bed frame before you start filling it, unless you are creating your garden on top of concrete or a roof.  If you are container gardening, check out Patricia Lanza’s book Lasagna Gardening for Small Spaces: A Layering System for Big Results in Small Gardens and Containers: Garden in Inches, Not Acres. 

Healthy layering should be 2 dry/Carbon to 1 wet/Nitrogen. 

Carbon – carbon-rich matter (like branches, stems, dried leaves, peels, bits of wood, bark dust or sawdust, shredded brown paper bags, coffee filters, conifer needles, egg shells, hay, peat moss, wood ash) gives compost its light, fluffy body.
Nitrogen – nitrogen or protein-rich matter (manures, food scraps, leafy materials like lawn clippings and green leaves) provides raw materials for making enzymes. 

• Lay twigs or straw first, a few inches deep. This aids drainage and helps aerate the pile.
• ADD dry materials – straw, leaves and wood ashes. If you have wood ashes, sprinkle in thin layers, or they will clump together and be slow to break down.  Fine chopped, smaller materials decompose faster.
• Lay on manure, green manure ( clover, buckwheat, wheatgrass ) or any nitrogen source. This activates the compost pile and speeds the process along.  Put on rinsed seaweed for minerals, scatter some yarrow sprigs to further speed decomposition, and, of course, your kitchen food waste. 
• Think how that pile is going to decompose lower and lower.  Build enough layers to get the amount of soil you need.  Could be 18” high.
• If you like, sprinkle some microbe rich topsoil over it all to ‘inoculate’ with living soil organisms that will immediately go to work.  Add a few handfuls of red wriggler compost worms.  Add any other amendments that make you happy.
• Install some pathways.  Don’t walk on your oxygen rich breathing brew and squeeze the life out of it, or crush your worms and soil structure!  Keep things fluffy for good soil aeration and water absorption.   
• If you need to, for aesthetic reasons, cover the compost with a pretty mulch that will break down slowly.  Spread it aside when you are ready to plant.  It could be down leaves; if you need your soil in that area to be slightly acidic, cover with pine needles (strawberries).
• If things get stinky, add more carbon.
• You want to plant NOW, or the same day you layer?  Can do!  Or your instant soil wasn’t so instant?  OK, here’s the instant remedy.  Make planting holes in your layers, put in some compost you purchased or have on hand, mycorrhizal fungi, and plant!  The rest will catch up, and the heat from the composting material underneath will warm your plants!  You WILL have a fine garden!  

If you do also need a traditional compost pile for spot needs, consider “No-turn” composting!  The biggest chore with composting is turning the pile from time to time. However, with ‘no-turn composting’, your compost can be aerated without turning.  The secret is to thoroughly mix in enough coarse material, like straw – little air tubes, when building the pile. The compost will develop as fast as if it were turned regularly, and studies show that the nitrogen level may be even higher than turned compost.  With ‘no-turn’ composting, add new materials to the top of the pile, and harvest fresh compost from the bottom of the bin.

So here are 3 ways to save garden time and your back!  1)  No digging!  2)  Compost in place, no moving it.  3) No compost turning!  Uh huh.

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Broccoli! Beautiful and valuable to your health!

Broccoli may be the most nutritious of all the cole crops, which are among the most nutritious of all vegetables. Broccoli and cauliflower (and other members of the genus Brassica) contain very high levels of antioxidant and anticancer compounds. These  nutrients typically are more concentrated in flower buds than in leaves, and that makes broccoli and cauliflower better sources of vitamins and nutrients than cole crops in which only the leaves are eaten. The anti-cancer properties of these vegetables are so well established that the American Cancer Society recommends that Americans increase their intake of broccoli and other cole crops. Recent studies have shown that broccoli sprouts may be even higher in important antioxidants than the mature broccoli heads. Other research has suggested that the compounds in broccoli and other Brassicas can protect the eyes against macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in older people.  If you choose to eat broccoli leaves, you will find that there is significantly more vitamin A (16,000 IU per 100 grams) versus flower clusters – the heads (3,000 IU per 100 grams) or the stalks (400 IU per 100 grams).

Vegetarians rely heavily on broccoli because it’s high in calcium.

Tasty Image from PlantGrabber.com – Bonanza Hybrid Broccoli

IN YOUR GARDEN….

• Companions:  Cilantro makes it grow REALLY well, bigger, fuller, greener!  Lettuce amongst the Brassicas confuses Cabbage Moths which dislike Lettuce.
• Brocs prefer full sun, though partial shade helps prevent bolting (suddenly making long flower stalks).
• Brocs LOVE recently manured ground.  Well-drained, sandy loam soils rich in organic matter are ideal.  Broccoli plants will grow in almost any soil but prefer a pH between 6.0 and 7.0 for optimum growth. A pH within this range will discourage clubroot disease and maximize nutrient availability.
• Seedlings should be 8″-10″ apart with 30″-36″ between the rows.  Broccoli yields and the size of broccoli heads are affected by plant spacing. The tighter the spacing the better the yields, but the broccoli heads will be smaller. If you intend to keep your plants for side shoots, plant taller varieties to the northmost so they won’t shade shorter summer plants you will soon be planting.
• Mulch will help keep the ground cool and moist as well as reduce weed competition.
• An even moisture supply is needed for broccoli transplants to become established and to produce good heads. Never let the seedbed dry out. In sandy soils this may require two to three waterings per day.
• Put a ring of nitrogen around cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower plants, to grow bigger heads.
• The center head produced by broccoli is always the largest. The secondary sprouts produce heads about the size of a silver dollar. Sidedressing with fertilizer can increase yields and size your side shoots.
• Cool weather is essential once the flower heads start to form. It keeps growth steady.

Brocs are truly susceptible to aphids.  Yuk.  Grayish greenish soft little leggy things that blend right in with the side shoot florettes.  If you snap your fingers on the side shoot, you will see the aphids go flying.  Those side shoots I remove.  If aphids are in curled leaves, I hold the leaf open and hose them away with a strong burst of water!  Then I keep my eagle eyes on them, each day, checking to get rid of them before another colony forms.

Important planting tip: There are less aphids when you plant different varieties of brocs together!

Broccoli varieties vary considerably, tall, short, more heat tolerant or cold tolerant, some make tons of side shoots, small heads, large heads!  For smaller heads, grow quick maturing varieties.  Packman is the exception!

Cruiser 58 days to harvest; tolerant of dry conditions
Calabrese 58 – 80 days; Italian, large heads, many side shoots. Loves cool weather. Does best when transplanted outside mid-spring or late summer.  Considered a spring variety.  Disease resistant.
DeCicco 48 to 65 days; Italian heirloom, bountiful side shoots. Produces a good fall crop, considered a spring variety.  Early, so smaller main heads.
Green Comet 55 days; early; hybrid, 6” diameter head, very tolerant of diseases and weather stress. Heat tolerant.
Green Goliath 60 days; heavy producer, tolerant of extremes.  Prefers cool weather, considered a spring variety.
Nutribud, per Island Seed & Feed, is the most nutritious per studies, having significant amounts of glutamine, one of the energy sources for our brains!  Purple broccoli, in addition to this, contains anthocyanins which give it its colour. These have antioxidant effects, which are thought to lower the risk of some cancers and maintain a healthy urinary tract as well.
Packman 53 days; early hybrid, 9” head!  Excellent side-shoot production.
Waltham 29 85 days; late, cold resistant, prefers fall weather but has tolerance for late summer heat.

If you still want to plant broccoli now, January, be mindful of the days to maturity, and when you think you will be wanting space to start your spring for summer plants.  When it gets late in their season, cut lower foliage off so small summer plants can start under them while you are still harvesting your winter plants.  The days to maturity on seed packs starts with when you put the seed in the soil.  The days to maturity on transplants is from the time of transplant.  And broccoli is notorious for uneven maturity, so you will often see a range of days to maturity, like DeCicco above.  So don’t expect clockwork.

Harvest the main head while the buds are tight!  Cut about 5” down the stem so fat side branches and larger side shoots will form.  Cut at an angle so water will run off, not settle in the center and rot the central stalk.

The respiration rate of freshly harvested broccoli is very high, so get it in the fridge asap or it goes limp!  It should not be stored with fruits, such as apples or pears, which produce substantial quantities of ethylene, because this gas accelerates yellowing of the buds.

Dying parts of the Brassica family of plants produce a poison that prevents the seeds of some plants from growing.  Plants with small seeds, such as lettuce, are especially affected by the Brassica poison.  A professor at the University of Connecticut says Brassica plants should be removed from the soil after they have produced their crop.

If you didn’t harvest your side shoots and your broccoli has gone to flower, harvest the flowers and sprinkle them over your salad, toss them in your stir fry for a little peppery flavor!  You won’t get any more side shoots, but if you want seeds, leave the flowers, let the seeds come.  Fine long little pods will form.  Let them stay on the plant until dry, then harvest your seeds.  Pop the pods, remove the seeds so no moisture will remain to rot them.  This large species crosses easily though, so probably best to buy sure seeds unless you don’t mind mystery results!

The trick to producing excellent broccoli heads is to keep the broccoli plants growing at a strong steady pace. Top-dress the plants with compost or manure tea; or side-dress with blood-meal or fish emulsion; and water deeply. Repeat this process every 3-4 weeks until just before harvest!  John Evans, of Palmer, Alaska, holds the world’s record for his 1993 35 lb (no typo) broc!  He uses organic methods, including mycorrhizal fungi!  And, yes, moose eat broccoli!

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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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Welcome to the Beauty of October Planting!

Happy October, Month of Magic!

The next months…so you can plan ahead!       

October  Transplants of all fall crops, but specially of cabbages and artichokes.  Cut Strawberry runners off to chill for Nov planting.
November  Seeds of onions for slicing.  Wildflowers from seed (don’t let the bed dry out).  Strawberries in no later than Nov 5.  More transplants of winter veggies.
December is winter’s June!  Crops are starting to come in, it’s maintenance time!      

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!     

Purple Broccoli, Bright Lights Chard, Cauliflower, Yellow Mangetout Snow Peas, Radishes or Beets of all colors, ‘Licous Red Lettuces!

This is Southern California’s second Spring!  Time to plant your winter garden, all the Brassicas, that’s, cabbage, brocs, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, collards, kales, plus celery, chard and peas, peas, peas!  All kinds!  And what I call the ‘littles,’ the veggies you plant all year, beets, bunch onions (the ones that don’t bulb), carrots (bonemeal yes, fresh manure no), radish, spinach, arugula, and, especially, all kinds of lettuces!   Plant gift plants or bowls or baskets for the holidays!  Start making holiday gifts, herbal wreaths, powdered herbs, pretty vinegars and oils, shampoos, soaps, or candles!      

Winter weather?  Bring it on!  Starting to cool down now!  Your plants will grow fast then start to slow down.  Less weeds and insects.  Aphids & White Flies are a winter crop problem (see below please).  Some people prefer the cool slower pace of winter gardening to the more phrenetic hot summer labor and work of big harvests, distribution, storage.  Harvesting cold hardy vegetables after they have been hit with a touch of frost can enhance the flavor and increase the sweetness of greens such as kale and collards.     

Extend the crop! Cut and come again!  Harvest your big greens – kale and collards, and lettuces leaf by leaf rather than cutting your plant down.  Many lettuces will ‘come back’ even if you cut them off an inch or two above ground.  Leave the stalk in the ground, see what happens!  Rather than pulling your bunch/table onions, cut them off about an inch to 2 inches above the ground.  They will come back 3 to 4 times.  Leave a potato in the ground to make more potatoes.  After you cut the main broccoli head off, let the side sprouts grow and snip them for your salads or steam them.  Cabbages?  Cut off right below the head, then let them resprout, forming several smaller heads at the leaf axils.     

Gather your last lingering seeds midday on a sunny dry day.  Dry a few seeds from your favorite tomatoes!  Sidedress continuing and producing plants.  Then cleanup!  Remove funky habitat for overwintering insect pests, fungi.       

Build wire bottomed raised beds for gopher protection.  For very useful information, please see University of California, Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Pocket Gophers.     

Prepare your soil!      

• If you are a new gardener at Pilgrim Terrace, ask other gardeners, or the previous person who had your plot, how the soil  was tended.  Some plots may need no amending, others may need a lot.  Add compost, manures, seaweeds, worm castings as needed.  Some people do the whole garden at once, others conserve valuable materials by preparing only where they will specifically plant, for example, a large plant like a broc.  If it is a lettuce bed that you will do repeated plantings in, you might opt to do the whole bed at once.
• Since mulch keeps the soil cool, some people pull it to the side in winter, to let the sun heat the soil on cool days.
• Simple soil test!  Test the soil by putting a drop of vinegar in a teaspoon or so. If it fizzes, it’s too alkaline. Then test it by putting in baking soda mixed with a little water. If it fizzes, it’s too acidic.

Garden Design       

• In addition to planting your veggies, plan ahead to plant flowers, to always have some in bloom, to attract pollinators.  Borage is a lovely plant, blooms all year, has purple blue star flowers that are edible and good for you!  Toss a few on top of your salads!
• Make habitat!  Plants for beneficial insects, poles for birds, rocks for lizards! 
• Plant tall in the North, the mountain end of our plots; plant shorties in the South.  This is especially important in our winter gardens because of the low sun long shadows.
• Give your big plants plenty of room to become big; plant fillers and littles (beets, bunch onions – the ones that don’t bulb, carrots, radish, spinach, arugula, lettuces) on their sunny south sides!
• Put plants that like the same amount of water together (hydrozoning). 
• Put plants together that will be used in the same way, for example, salad plants like lettuces, bunch onions, celery, cilantro.
• Biodiversity.  Planting the same kind of plant in different places throughout your garden.  It can be more effective that row cropping or putting all of one plant in one place, where if disease or a pest comes, you lose them all as the disease or pest spreads from one to all.
• Layering example:  Transplant peas at the base of any beans you still have.

How to plant!       

• This is the time to put your mycorrhiza fungi to work!  One of the great things mycorrhiza does is assist Phosphorus uptake.  Of the N-P-K on fertilizers, P is Phosphorus that helps roots and flowers grow and develop.  Sprinkle it on the roots of your transplants when you plant them!  More about mycorrhiza:  http://www.mycorrhizae.com/index.php?cid=468&    http://www.mastergardeners.org/newsletter/myco.html      Island Seed & Feed carries it.
• Use vigorous fresh seeds, choose vibrant not-fruiting transplants that preferably aren’t root bound (having a solid mass of roots).  If the transplant is pretty big for the container, pop it out of the container to make sure it isn’t root bound.  If it is the only one there, and you still want it, can’t wait, see what John R. King, Jr (2 min video) has to say on how to rehabilitate your plant!
• Lay down some Sluggo (See Slugs & Snails below) right away, even before seedlings sprout, when you put your transplants in, so your plant isn’t overnight snail and slug smorgasbord! 

Strawberry Runners!  Mid Oct cut off runners, gently dig up if they have rooted, shake the soil off.  Clip all but two or three leaves off, tie ‘em together in loose bunches. Plastic bag them and put in the back of your fridge for 20 days.  Plant them Nov 5 to 10!  Prechilling your plants makes them think they had a cold winter.  When days get longer and warmer, they will produce fruit, not as much vegetative growth.  You can then either keep your plants that produced this year, or remove and compost them, start fresh with new plants!     

Watering – Morning when you can because plants drink during the day, and we want them to dry so they don’t mildew!  Water underneath, especially late beans, and your new peas, who are especially susceptible to mildew.  Except for your short and shallow rooted plants, once a week and deeply is good unless there is a hot spell or rain.  Then, check ‘em.  Poke a stick in the ground to see if the soil is moist under the surface.     

Happy playing in the dirt!

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Three Great FALL/WINTER GARDEN STRATEGIES

Interplant - Lettuce between Cabbages

Interplanting, Cut & Come Again, Winter Watering! 

1)  Interplant!  

Plant peas at the base of your declining beans.  Keep harvesting beans while your baby peas are coming.  When you decide to remove your beans, clip the plant off at the ground, leaving the roots with their nitrogen nodules in the ground.  Onions stunt peas, but carrots enhance peas!  While you are at it, include space to put a row of lettuces at the sunny side of the base of your peas.  The carrot or lettuce foliage will help keep your peas’ feet moist and they like that.  You can harvest both standing in the same spot!  Peas are the only really keep-planting-more  winter crop, and the only really vertical (cages and trellises) winter crop!  Gophers love peas, and carrots, and lettuce, sigh, so I would definitely install protective wire baskets for their root areas before you put up your trellises or cages.  It is such a bummer to lose a producing pea plant. 
  

Your fall garden is going to look sparse when you start because plants like broccoli, kale, collards, cauliflower and cabbages have a big footprint, 1 ½’ centers.  Interplanting slow growers with fast growers between and among is good space usage, reduces weeds, and is downright pretty besides being edible!  The fast growers mature before the larger plants shade them out.  Carrots, though having slow growing roots, grow pretty tops quickly, and they won’t mind being among your Brassicas. 
  

Because your big guys will get big, you may need to leave a dedicated sunny space for your littles – lettuces, radishes, bunch onions, beets, carrots, colorful chards.  But once your Brassicas get bigger, except your cabbages, which will grow low to the ground, cut off the lower leaves on the south, sunny side.  Now you can grow shorter plants under your Brassicas again.   

If you have strawberries that produce most of the year, they are going to need a dedicated sunny space.  Make the space easy to reach for harvesting or plunk a large stepping stone in the center, then start planting around it like a wheel.  Don’t plant too close to the stone, so when you use it you aren’t stepping on your plants’ leaves and fruit.  Don’t plant so far from the stone that you can’t reach to harvest your fruit. 

Larger, Slow Growing Vegetables:  Bulb onions, cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, peas, parsnip.
Smaller, Fast Maturing Vegetables:  Beets, bunch onions, carrots, kale, lettuce, mesclun, radish, spinach, Swiss chard.    

2)  Cut & Come Again!   Since so many winter plants are cut and come again, there is not as much concern to plant successively, a new round every few weeks or month.  Cabbages planted on the same day just don’t all mature at the same time.  Nature, you know.    

3)  Water less often, deeply, at ground level, not on the leaves.  That reduces soil funguses and foliage mildews, especially on peas.  Harvest dry, water afterwards.  Wash your hands after handling mildewed or diseased plants before working with other plants.

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