Veggie Gardening Revolution: YOU & ONE SEED!

Thomas Jefferson was a gardening enthusiast, but his passion for growing food went beyond his own backyard. Apparently he believed that America was incapable of true democracy unless 20 percent of its citizens were self-sufficient on small farms. This would enable them to be real dissenters, free to voice opinions and beliefs, without any obligation to food producers who might hold their survival at stake. ~ Katherine Martinko

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You can start with any container you wish right outside your door, upstairs or downstairs, on the roof, for the freshest tasty organic veggies! (Haxnicks container)

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Winner of the 2012 Green Thumb Award for Outstanding New Product, the Vegtrug’s back-saving design allows you to garden while standing. Bad knees, bad back? No problem! Get outside, raise your spirits, improve your health! There are no age limits to veggie gardening!

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Any wall or fence will do! Be creative!

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Garden anywhere! The Balcony is perfect! Every which way but loose!

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Strawberries in Pallets on the ground…

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…to Rain Gutters overhead!

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Grow Fast food in space saver Tower Gardens at home, to feed the homeless, at the office or hospital!

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At owner/architect Norman Millar’s Arkhouse in the Los Angeles area, the rooftop veggie garden gets plenty of SoCal sun in between polycarbonate panels. Photo: Robin Horton.

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It’s a “liberating DIY revolution,” as writer Megan Mayhew Bergman calls it. In her article “Democracy needs gardeners!” which is an inspiring call for Americans to dig up their lawns, convert empty spaces, and utilize available windowsills, Bergman urges Americans to start gardening as an act of patriotism.

The Back 40 or a gorgeous Food Not Lawn front yard! Do it!

Guerrilla Gardening has changed the face of many a landscape, raised neighborhood pride, and often feeds many!

Started in 2009, Seattle’s 7 acre, 2.5 miles from downtown Seattle, Beacon Food Forest includes an Edible Arboretum with fruits gathered from regions around the world, a Berry Patch for canning, gleaning and picking, a Nut Grove with trees providing shade and sustenance, a Community Garden using the p-patch model for families to grow their own food, a Gathering Plaza for celebration and education, a Kid’s Area for education and play and a Living Gateway to connect and serve as portals as you meander through the forest. It’s all done by volunteers and the food is free for foraging!

Small to large, Community Gardens, often urban, but not always, give landless apartment dwellers, children, disabled and seniors the blessed and grateful opportunity to garden, enjoy the outdoors, events – weddings, concerts, art exhibits, share friendship, learning and beauty with each other!

Urban garden, Fort Mason Community Garden, San Francisco, CA

Per the GrowNetwork.com: Only a few generations ago, our recent ancestors all kept their own seed supplies. I’m not talking about ancient history… I’m talking about your great-grandparents. They traded their favorite seeds with their friends and neighbors, and they passed on the best seeds to their children. In doing so, they bred vegetable varieties that were tailor-made for their local climates. And they maintained a healthy level of genetic diversity in their food supply.

It’s important we do the same! SeedSaving is as simple as collecting seeds from your best plants. Over the fence seed trading has always been done. These days it can be buying from online seed houses, seed exchanges, like Southern Exposure that intend to preserve heirloom plants. You might trade seeds online like at Seed Exchange – GardenWeb! You may want to contribute to a Seed Library 
or get started with free seeds from a Library. Santa Barbara CA’s Foodbank offers free seeds and instruction to people in need to help them grow their own food! Local annual Seed Swaps are usually held in January so gardeners can plan their gardens, have plenty of time to start seedlings for spring planting.

Seeds are a precious resource. Take good care of them. In any natural disaster, they are the first thing I would take with me other than my dog! If you are political, work to secure our right to have non GMO seeds and the right to collect our own seeds.

Uncommon and common EVENTS! Local and international festivals, presentations, symposiums, exhibits and more! From Permaculture to rainwater catchment – graywater, soil building, seed gathering trainings, garden design, container gardening to farming, community gardens, vertical gardening, local food, edible flowers, bees, pests & diseases, organic, perennial vegetables, sustainability, to research! And then there are your favorite veggie & fruit festivals, the Gilroy Garlic Festival, The Avocado Festival, Pumpkins, Apples, Strawberries, Tomatoes! All bring out our very best and inspire more conscious gardening!

In the US, the National Heirloom Exposition in Santa Rosa CA is September 6th, 7th & 8th, 2016. There will be over 100 national and internationally acclaimed on-topic speakers. You can learn and grow with some of the top names in the pure food movement and young people speakers from age 17 up! Three Day Pass only $30, kids 17 and under free! 3 Days isn’t really enough! Three proud sponsors include the City of Santa Rosa, Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds and Mother Earth News!

The terms Permaculture, then Food Forests/Forest Gardening, have come into use. They have changed the ways gardeners approach gardening and their interactions with each other! Simply put, permaculture is the development of agricultural ecosystems intended to be sustainable and self-sufficient.

Forest gardening is a low maintenance sustainable plant-based food production and agroforestry system based on woodland ecosystems, incorporating fruit and nut trees, shrubs, herbs, vines and perennial vegetables. Making use of plant guilds, companion planting, these can be intermixed to grow in a succession of layers, to build a woodland habitat. Forest gardening is a prehistoric method of securing food in tropical areas. In the 1980s, Robert Hart coined the term “forest gardening” after adapting the principles and applying them to temperate climates. (Wiki)

The keyword here is sustainability! It’s a contribution to the planet. It makes living here a good quality option for our children. This is a revolution that makes sense and is well worth fighting for! Plant seeds today!

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Take super good care of yourself and your loved ones. Fuel your body, mind and Spirit with the very best!

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The Green Bean Connection started as correspondence for the Santa Barbara CA USA, Pilgrim Terrace Community Garden. We are very coastal, during late spring/summer in a fog belt/marine layer area most years, locally referred to as the May grays, June glooms and August fogusts. Keep that in mind compared to the microclimate niche where your veggie garden is. Bless you for being such a wonderful Earth Steward!

See the entire July 2016 GBC Newsletter!

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The Magic of Melons ~ Cantaloupe, Honeydew

Melons are total beauty queens! Their outsides are marvelous, no two alike! You can grow minis to monsters! The insides are beautiful colors! If you couldn’t see in color, their tastes would make up for it! Textures are plentiful! Some of them slither, others crunch! Warm and drizzly down your chin at the garden, ice cold on a hot day! Fruit salsa! You can cut them in a thousand ways, from cubes to balls, slices, astonishing intricate veggie art! They can be eaten with your fingers, put in smoothies, as part of creamy ambrosia. Sprinkle with spices, like chili pepper or cinnamon, toss with mint. Add coconut or walnuts! Make popsicles!

Besides all these delightful features, Melons are good for you!
CANTALOUPE (American) – 100% of Vitamin A, and 24% of Vitamin C
HONEYDEW – 53% of Vitamin C

Melons, like pumpkins, need heat! Melons are native to Africa, and the trick to getting the best-quality fruit in cooler climates is to duplicate the continent’s hot sun and sandy soil as best you can. Light, fluffy soils warm faster than do clay ones, and melons love loose, well-drained dirt! Amend with compost or leaf mold. Ideally, you would wait to sow seed until the soil has warmed to 70°F before planting squash and melons, but SoCal hits 60+ degree soil in April and you can plant transplants successfully then! Get out your soil thermometer and check the soil temp where you garden! Start seedlings indoors to get the soonest start, but don’t start the seedlings too soon! They grow quickly!

Pourous Windbreaks can do three things! You in cooler coastal areas really need the heat. Naked unmulched soil heated by hot sun does the job! No trellises for you. It’s several degrees cooler up in the air. Plant your melons in an area where they are sheltered or there is a windbreak so they get good and hot! Remember, a 50% porous windbreak works best. Dwarf fruit trees interplanted with maybe berry producing shrubs, like blueberries, can reduce cooling and drying winds, allowing the warmth of a food forest! Windbreaks of food producing trees, shrubs or tall plants do triple duty – give heat, save water by reducing drying winds, give food production!

Use clear or black plastic to heat up the ground. They absorb heat, warm the soil early, conserve moisture, control weeds, keep some pests and diseases away, and make harvesting a whole lot easier and cleaner. Or, use black landscape cloth instead of black plastic! The cloth allows the soil to breathe and water to pass through. Combine that with spun polyester row covers over transplants to give them a fast start. They increase the temperature by 5 to 8 degrees, and conserve moisture. Spun polyester is also handy because you can water straight through it. Or you can use a clear plastic film over seeds or young plants to generate more heat, and late melons can be ripened under plastic, too. Row covers must be removed when plants start to bloom so pollinating insects can reach the flowers.

If you choose the black plastic, and you don’t garden over winter, lay it over the future melon garden in late winter to start warming the soil. Weigh down the edges so it doesn’t take flight. When you are ready to plant, make five-inch, x-line cuts at least four feet apart on 6 to 8 foot centers depending on the size of the melon you are growing – if you are growing several plants in rows. If you commingle edibles and ornamentals, allow at least three feet in all directions around the cut-plastic x. Pull the plastic back and create a hill of soil (amended with lots of organic matter).

Green plastic film mulch For your consideration, green mulch is to melons, cucumbers, peppers, pumpkins and squash what red plastic film mulch is to tomatoes. According to reports of research trials in the Northeast and Oregon, cooler areas, it stimulates earlier and heavier yields of fruits. One person reported the green film was very thin. As a deterrent to weeds, it didn’t come close to black plastic. And at the end of the season it wasn’t reusable, so they had to discard it. Maybe things have changed since then or it comes in different weights.

If you have super good heat, keep your melons off the ground with super thick mulch and even then, put them up on sturdy upside down containers. You want them out of the munching bug and soil diseases zone. They will color up more evenly, consistently, and you can save space, if grown on trellises, making little slings to hold the fruits up. But if your area doesn’t get super hot, on the ground is better than up on a cooling wind exposed trellis.

Fabulous varieties!

In cooler coastal areas consider growing mini melons that don’t take as long to mature, or early melons, container varieties, that mature in 85 days or less. Consider growing spicy sweet Green Nutmeg, which has been around more than 150 years. Jenny Lind is another green-fleshed cantaloupe that weighs about a pound, 70 days. Early varieties have compact foliage. Vines and the distance between leaves (nodes) are shorter than larger, long-season melons. They flower early and have smaller fruits.

Heat and drought tolerant varieties per Southern Exposure Seed Exchange are:

Melons: Top Mark, Sweet Passion, and Kansas all have extra disease and/or pest tolerances. Edisto 47 is particularly recommended for hot, humid summers where fungal disease is an issue. Missouri Gold produces well through droughty conditions. If you live in SoCal coastal foothills, plant away. If you are in the cooler beach areas, if you think we will have a HOT summer, take a chance, plant if you have room! It’s recommended to wait until May to plant cantaloupe.

Watermelon: Crimson Sweet and Strawberry watermelon are good choices where heat and humidity make fungal diseases a problem.

**A clever strategy for instant succession planting, if you have space, is to plant melons that mature at different times. Growing small fast maturing melons AND late large melons = 2 harvests!

Soil  Slightly acid light, sandy loam with a pH between 6.0 and 6.5 is preferred. You might guess melons are very heavy feeders, they are making a lot of plant and a large fruit! Before planting, add in a little extra compost, and leaf mold, some well rotted manure, cow manure if you can get it. Put bonemeal in at planting time so it will decompose for uptake by when your plant starts to flower! Also add guano at planting time. It takes 4 months to decompose for uptake, helps your plants continue to bloom late in the season! Be sure it is the kind high in P – phosphorus (blooms) 1-10-0.2.

Plant! Seed soaking and presprouting definitely speed up germination! Plant three to five seeds two inches apart and about one inch deep. Keep them moist and watch them grow! Once the vines have two sets of true leaves, thin out the smaller or weaker vines, leaving the two strongest to grow on.

Male flowers come first so they can pollinate the females when they arrive! Not to worry if you don’t get fruit set at first. But if your weather has been overcast or it is unseasonably cool, or there are few pollinators about, hand pollination is needed. It’s easy to do, just takes a bit of time.

Valuable Companions  At the same time you plant your melons, put in radish, marigold, maybe nasturtium to repel Cucumber and flea beetles, squash bugs. Nasturtium can harbor snails, and spreads quickly, so you are warned….

Water! You are going to see a lot of recommendations to plant in basins on mounds. Here in Santa Barbara CA when we are in drought conditions or you need to save water, I recommend to plant in basins like the Zuni desert waffle gardens technique. You don’t need to make berms, just dig a basin lower than the surrounding soil. All the water goes to your plant, less is lost to evaporative wind that goes across the top of the basin, less water is needed less often. Moisture seeps to the lowest level and that area stays more moist.

Whether you mound or dig a basin down, make your basin big enough to accommodate feeder roots to the drip line of the main area of the roots. Melons like to be kept moist. Save more water by putting a tall stake at the center of the basin so you can see where to water when the leaves get big and cover the area! Water the roots only; don’t water the rest of the area that doesn’t need it and that watering would cool the plant and ground.

Melons need plenty of water to support quick vine growth in early summer! The rule of thumb is a minimum of 1-inch of water a week, 2 inches is likely better. If you use plastic mulch, it will retain moisture so check the soil under the plastic to see when watering is really required. Once the first fruit ripens, stop all watering. Too much water at ripening time dilutes the fruit’s sugars and ruins the sweet flavor. The melons don’t need the water because they develop a deep root system soon after they start to flower.

Sidedressing  Melons are a lot of plant and hungry! Fertilize every two to three weeks, using an organic all-purpose 5-5-5 fertilizer. In the root zone, put some spade fork holes around your plant. Add several inches of compost to root areas monthly. Water it in and it’s like giving your plant compost tea as the water and compost drizzle down into the holes! Especially sidedress melons when blooming starts and every 6 weeks after.

Diseases

• Fungus diseases, include Alternaria leaf spot, powdery mildew, anthracnose, and downy mildew. Water melons in the morning, ideally at soil level, so leaves dry before evening, preventing fungal diseases.
• Apply the home remedy Mildew mix! As soon as your little plants are up about 3″ or you put transplants in the ground, mix a heaping tablespoon of Baking Soda, 1/4 cup non-fat powdered milk, 1 regular aspirin, 1 teaspoon liquid dish soap in a watering can. Apply foliarly, both under and on top of leaves. The main ingredient is the bicarbonate of soda! It makes the leaf surface alkaline and this inhibits the germination of fungal spores. Baking soda prevents and reduces Powdery Mildew, and many other diseases on veggies, roses, and other plants! It kills PM within minutes. It can be used on roses every 3 to 4 days, but do your veggie plants every 5 to 10 days, or after significant rains, as the plant grows, because new plant tissues are not yet protected by your fungicide. See more details!
• To prevent powdery mildew, spray the leaves with wettable sulphur during late summer when the nights begin to cool down.
• At the first sign of disease, remove infected parts; remove and discard the mulch around the plant and replace it with fresh, clean mulch.

Pests  Spun polyester row covers are excellent for controlling cucumber beetles and vine borers. Vine borers are the worst melon pest in some states, but not in California. Check the IPM at the ag university nearest to your location. Though it may be written with squash in mind, just think melon, another cucurbit, as you read it. Remember, row covers must be removed when plants start to bloom so pollinating insects can reach the flowers. Once the row covers are removed, sprinkle diatomaceous earth on the leaves to protect the plants from cucumber beetles. Plant Radish with eggplant, cukes & zukes, and melons to repel wilt-carrying spotted or striped cucumber beetles. Eat some of the radishes, but leave others to grow full size. Plant your radish before you plant your susceptible plants so the radish will be up when you put your susceptible plants in.

Maturity, When and How to Harvest

Harvesting your cantaloupe at the right time is important!

Unlike other fruits, melons, cantaloupe don’t get sweeter once off the vine. Color and texture may change, but the taste won’t. When the skin color changes from green to gold, keep watch. When a crack forms at the junction of the melon and where the stem attaches, just pressure from your thumb should loosen it to harvest. It ‘slips’ from the vine. Don’t wait, take it then! If the melon falls off the vine on its own, it has likely become overripe, and both the taste and texture will be distorted as a result.

On very hot days melons can over ripen on the vine, giving them a waterlogged appearance. Most summer melons are fragrant when ripe. Sniff the skin; if you smell the flavor of the melon (the senses of smell and taste are interrelated), it is ripe for the picking.

Honeydew, crenshaw, and other winter melons are ready to harvest when they turn completely white or yellow, and the blossom end is slightly soft to touch. Since they do not slip, cut the melons from the vine. They will continue to ripen for several days at room temperature once they are picked.

The sweetest and most flavorful melons are those picked ripe from the vine and eaten right away. They may not be icy cold, but the fresh flavor and perfume more than make up for the temperature difference. Go ahead, open a melon and eat it right in the garden—without utensils—and let the sweet nectar run down your chin. That’s the true taste of summer!

Poor Flavor? It may be the weather: cloudy during ripening, too hot, too much or too little water, it rained a lot before harvest, or a combination of factors.

Saving Seeds is easy! When you save and store seeds, you help to continue the genetic line of plant varieties, leading to greater biodiversity in garden plants and preventing extinction of different varieties. A word to the wise! Like other cucurbits, melons easily crossbreed, so allow a ½ mile for reliable distance isolation between different types or cultivars. To be completely safe from any accidental cross-pollination, keep them away from other melons or family members including cucumbers, squash, and pumpkins. Baker Creek Heirlooms says: To ensure pure seed, isolate different melon varieties by 1⁄2 mile or try caging and hand pollinating.

• Pick melons for seed saving when the tendril nearest the melon is completely dried, then store the harvested melon intact for another 3 weeks before removing and cleaning the seeds. Scoop out the seeds, put them into a wire mesh sieve, then with running water over the seeds rub them gently against the mesh, using it to loosen and remove the stringy fibers. The final test: Healthy seeds will sink to the bottom of a bowl of water, while dead seeds and most of the pulp will float. Get your seeds as clean as possible to keep them from sticking to whatever surface you dry them on.
• Drain them in a strainer. Pat the bottom of the strainer with a cloth towel to pull extra water from the seeds after they have drained. Spread them on a piece of glass or a shiny ceramic plate to dry (they will stick to paper, even waxed paper). Place the glass or ceramic plate in a cool, dry shady spot for several days. After the seeds are dry, they can be carefully removed from the glass or plate and final-dried before being stored in jars.
• Your seeds will keep for up to 5 years if stored in a cool dry place, however, the shorter the storage time, the better. Date and Name your seed jar. Dry seeds well to avoid mildew. Fluctuation in temperature or moisture levels of stored seeds lowers their longevity significantly. Prevent insect infestations by adding diatomaceous earth, it’s non toxic, to the stored seeds in their jars. Add a few pinches to the seeds in a bowl and gently stir to thoroughly cover each seed.

All melons are flavorful enough on their own, yet you can enhance them with a sprinkle of ginger or salt. A squirt of lemon or lime juice will bring out the melon’s sweetness.

A popular treat offered by Los Angeles push cart vendors is fresh fruit sprinkled with salt, chili powder and a squeeze of fresh lime juice! It makes a quick, healthy snack or a vibrant side for a barbecue! 

Mexican Fruit Salad with Chili Powder

Choose 1, 2, 3 or more fruits and/or vegetables—here are some that work well:

• mango
• pineapple
• watermelon
• cantaloupe or other melon
• cucumber or fresh pickles
• jicama

lime juice
chili powder
salt, to taste or not at all! If you use salt, assemble your salad at the last minute—the salt begins leeching juice from the fruit right away.

May your life be sweet and spicy, and melon juice drizzle down your chin!

Updated 4.25.23

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Love your Mother! Plant bird & bee food! Think grey water! Grow organic! Bless you for being such a wonderful Earth Steward!

The Green Bean Connection started as correspondence for the Santa Barbara CA USA Pilgrim Terrace Community Garden. Both of Santa Barbara City’s remaining community gardens are very coastal. During late spring/summer we are often in a fog belt/marine layer most years, locally referred to as the May grays, June glooms and August fogusts. Keep that in mind compared to the microclimate niche where your veggie garden is.

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SoCal September: Harvest, Seed Saving, Soil Prep!

Love your Mother! Plant more bee food! Eat less meat. Grow organic!

We have been having a bit of an extended heatwave along with the drought, so things are different this September. Even the nurseries are affected.

Santa Barbara Area Fall Transplants Nursery Report:

• La Sumida – no veggies now, their vender went out of business (drought?), waiting to see what happens with possible new vendor
• ACE/Home Improvement – Same as La Sumida, only two veggies in stock currently while inventorying
• Terra Sol – tooooo hot, won’t get fall transplants for another 2 to 3 weeks
• Island Seed and Feed – They grow their own, but too hot, need cool nights. Not even planting this month. Will start early October.

So the answer is, plant your own from seed, but not quite yet! Gardeners planting from seed now are reporting good germination, but the seedlings are dying from the heat, shaded or not. Gardeners are clearing their summer plants that are finished, and instead of planting, are doing soil prep and mulching deeply to protect the new soil beds. And it’s still way too hot to plant green manure mixes.

Tomatoes are doing well, but even they aren’t flowering or keeping their fruit in these hot temps. Eggplants are sporting some great purple fruits! Some bush beans are thriving. My Rattlesnake pole beans are doing as they are supposed to, making beans in up to 100 degree weather. I’m saving a lot of their seeds, so if you would like a few, come to the Jan 31, 2016 Seed Swap!

It’s time to get heat and drought tolerant seeds and plants like from Florida, Texas and other southern states!

Labor Day Weekend fall planting may be doable in your location! That, in the past, has been a favored planting time, with the weather cooling as it gets on into September. For those of us in hotter SoCal areas, you may try planting another round of summer plants. But, it’s weird. Plants started late summer often just don’t thrive, nothing like as they do planted in Spring days getting longer and warmer! I think late plantings get confused. Even though it is hot, the days are getting shorter. Scrambles their circuits. The soil is somewhat spent from heavy summer use, and amendments added to hot dryish soil don’t seem as helpful. This is a time when gardeners who have somewhat shaded gardens might do better than usual and better than others in full sun!

With this hot weather planting beans and tomatoes will still be ok. That’s about it. If you could find lettuce transplants, some would do well. One that did really well for me in this summer’s heat was the Nevada – a Green Crisp/Batavian! It grew BIG, didn’t bolt, and was totally crispy! Check out this page at Johnny’s Seeds!

If you didn’t order this fall’s seeds last winter, or you want to try some new ones that nurseries don’t stock, rummage around online and see what you can order up that they still have in stock! If you do plant fall seeds, plant them a tad deeper than you would in spring. The soil is moister and cooler an extra inch or two down. You know you have to KEEP THEM MOIST, not swimming, but moist. Water daily for sure…even twice a day on the hottest days. Plant on the sunny side of taller plants, but devise some shade for the seedlings. Immediately put down slug & snail bait. Mulch well.

If it cools down later in September, it is so easy to sprout peas! Spray a paper towel to moisten it. Put the seeds on it a bit apart, fold the towel over them. Keep them moist a few days until the seeds sprout little tails! Put up your trellis, ASAP pop your sprouted seedlings into the garden early AM or evening when it is cooler. Once they get started they grow fast! If it is still hotish, devise some shade for them.
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Plant Sweet Peas for spicy scented Christmas bloom! Plant gift plants or bowls or baskets for the holidays! Onions For the biggest, sweetest harvests, late summer and early fall are the prime times to sow seeds of short- or intermediate-day onions. Fall-sown short- and intermediate-day onions tend to yield more and are larger and sweeter than those seeded or transplanted in early spring.

Bagrada Bugs are happening now at Pilgrim Terrace. So wait until October cooler weather to plant any Brassicas. Brassicas are their favorite and it only takes minutes for them to kill a seedling. They can kill a 2′ tall plant in 2 to 3 days. Brassicas are broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbages, cauliflower, collards, turnip.If you don’t have Bagrada Bugs, also in later cooler days, plant sprinters – arugula, mustard, turnips, and crispy red radishes that are ready to pick in little more than a month. Pretty Asian greens, such as tatsoi or mizuna, grow so fast you will have baby plants to add to stir-fries and soups just three weeks after sowing. For a quick payback on your table, select the earliest maturing varieties available. Go ahead and plant spinach, lettuces and chard since they are not favored by the Bagrada Bugs.

Pest and Disease Prevention If you are so lucky as to get in some September planting days, drench young plants, seedlings getting their 3rd and 4th leaves, and ones you just transplanted, with Aspirin solution to get them off to a great start! One regular Aspirin, 1/4 C nonfat powdered milk, 1/2 teaspoon liquid dish soap (surfactant), per gallon of water. Aspirin, triggers a defense response and stimulates growth! Powdered milk is a natural germicide and boosts their immune system. Do this on planting day or the next day! Reapply every 10 days or so, and after significant rains.

Harvest reminders! In our hot foothills and further south, watch your melons, big squashes and pumpkins for their best harvest time – when their stem is brown and dry, or they ‘slip’ off the vine. Hold off irrigating melons about a week before they will ripen so their sugars will concentrate. Harvest okra while it is small and tender – bigger is NOT better! Let your winter squash harden. When you can’t push your fingernail in it, it’s ready.Keep letting your strawberry runners grow for Oct harvest.

Tend your precious soil. Clear away finished summer plants. Make compost. It will finish faster in the heat. Add compost, worm castings and manure to your soil. Get the best compost you can buy if you don’t make your own. Get the ones with worm castings, mycorrhizal fungi, etc. Get manure blends to get the best results, especially mixes that include cow (not steer) manure. Big winter plants like brocs, collards, cauliflower and chard, and small plants like leaf after leaf lettuces are heavy producers, need plenty of rich soil food!

The exceptions are peas and carrots. If a bed is a little tired, add some food for the peas, otherwise, they, legumes, gather their own! No manure for carrots, and give them regular watering, though not too much, to prevent them being hairy and splitting.

If you don’t have Bagrada Bugs, leave your mulches down, add more if it’s thin. Mulch your new planting beds deeply, and keep your remaining summer plants well watered out to their drip line where the tiny feeder roots gather water and nutrition. If you have Bagrada Bugs, remove any habitat like mulches.

Save Seeds! If plants are still going strong, let them. Let plants bolt, bloom and seed! I just gathered radish and more celery seeds. The carrots have made mega seed heads, Arugula has flowered and seeded. My basil is strong, big leaved and dark green, so I will soon let it flower and seed. If you have lettuces that have bolted, snip off the little seed heads when they are ready. See how to process tomato seeds below. Peppers are easy. Let cucumbers yellow on the vine and fully nourish the seeds before you collect and dry them. Let your biggest bean pods get fat as can be, dry on the vine, then pop them from their pods. As always, seeds are your second harvest.

Make notes on how your plants did, which varieties were the most successful. These seeds are adapted to you and your locality. Each year keep your best! Store your keepers in a cool dry place for next year’s plantings. Bag or put in a snazzy little jar, with label and ribbon to give as gifts to other gardeners, at any event that makes them happy! Any extra bag up to take to the January Seed Swap!

Of course, some seeds are edible! Cilantro is coriander. Fennel is good in rice dishes. Peanuts and sunflower seeds are a protein source. Roast or toast pumpkin seed snacks. Hard beans get added to soups and stews, cooked and et. Celery seed in pickling, potato salad and coleslaw. Corn for popcorn!

REST and RESTORE an AREA

1. When it gets a lot cooler, plant some hefty favas or a vetch mix for green manures to boost soil Nitrogen. Plant them where you had summer’s heavy feeders like corn, eggplant, summer squash, tomatoes and/or where you will plant heavy feeders next summer. The vetch mix can include Austrian peas and bell/fava beans, plus oats that break up the soil (they have deep roots). Favas are big, produce one of the highest rates of compostable organic material per square foot! If you change your mind, you can eat them! 🙂
2. Or, if you don’t have Bagrada Bugs, cover an area you won’t be winter planting with a good 6″ to a foot deep of mulch/straw and simply let the herds of soil organisms do their work over winter. That’s called sheet composting or composting in place – no turning or having to move it when it’s finished. If you are vermicomposting, have worms, add a few handfuls to speed up and enrich the process. Next spring you will have rich nutritious soil for no work at all!

Build some lovely new raised beds. Install gopher barriers! Do a little terracing. If you are gardening at home, put in a gray water system and put in a rainwater capture system plus bioswales for water to flow from your rain gutters to water your fruit trees and veggie garden! Slow, spread, sink your water!

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The Green Bean Connection started as correspondence for the Santa Barbara CA USA Pilgrim Terrace Community Garden. We are very coastal, during late spring/summer in a fog belt/marine layer area most years, locally referred to as the May grays, June glooms and August fogusts. Keep that in mind compared to the microclimate niche where your veggie garden is. Bless you for being such a wonderful Earth Steward!

See the entire September GBC Newsletter! Mulching – When, With What, How Much; Bagrada Bugs and Brassicas, Blossom Sustainable Community Garden Pawtucket RI, Fermentation Festival, National Heirloom Exposition in Santa Rosa CA, Seed Swap in January!

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SEED SWAP, Greenhouse, Speaking Dates!

FREE 7th Annual Santa Barbara Seed Swap
January 25th, 11:00 to 3:00, SB Public Library, Faulkner Gallery 

Seeds, plants, cuttings and garden knowledge to swap. Activities for all ages, with music and special speakers. More information: 962-2571, margie@sbpermaculture.org

I will be presenting at 1 PM, Intro to Seed Saving! Would love to meet you, see you there! Santa Barbara’s average last frost date is Jan 22! I would say this is divine timing!

If you are from out-of-town but near enough, and enjoy adventurous journeys, come make a day of it in our fair city!

If you don’t live in our area, please check to see when Seed Swaps will be in your area! If there are none, if you are willing, please, please, please, contact local permaculturists, garden groups/clubs, to see about starting one! Preserving our heritage, not GMO but heirloom seeds, is vital to our continued nutritious future, and for our children’s healthy futures!

ONLINE SEED SWAPS! As the National Gardening Assn says: One gardener’s extras are another’s treasures! Here’s how they do it!

See Seeds Rock! Choosing the Perfect Ones for You!
See How to Seed Swap! 

With great gratitude to you and all our ancestors!
Happy seed hunting!

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Pilgrim Terrace Gardeners: The refurbished Greenhouse is ready for its first spring use! Starts begun at the end of January will be ready for March plantings!

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Walk or bike to 2015 events as possible! Heal the land, heal yourself.

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Feb 17, Little Garden Club, From Your Own Garden! If you are a member of the Little Garden Club, or can come as a guest, come to see my lovely presentation, a garden is more than the food you eat. Natural History Museum, 2 PM!

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Feb 28 brings the Master Gardeners’ presentation Year Round Edibles! 2 to 4 PM Onsite at Mesa Harmony Permaculture Garden. Planting times, seasonal garden practices, and food storage! 4 Speakers presenting, I will be first! This will be a super useful gathering! Bring your notepad, digital recorder, best garden friends!

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Saturday April 25 Santa Barbara Food & Farm Adventures! I will lead the Pilgrim Terrace Tour! 10 AM Bike Tour to Community Gardens; No Biker left behind! The Terrace will be first, then up they go to Trinity Garden! Enjoy seeing these very different gardens.

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October, SoCal’s 2nd Spring, Winter’s Feast Starting!

Love your Mother! Plant more bee food! Eat less meat. Grow organic!

Many of us SoCal veggie gardeners have been delayed by Bagrada bugs, so it is definitely planting from transplants time, with a side o seedlings! The lovely gain from that is two successive plantings at once! The transplants have a 6 week head start on the seedlings. There will be two harvests, a third if you plant from transplants again in November!

Lettuces are bounding up! Any non Bagrada fall crops are great to plant now! Beets, chard, peas!

Shape your land! Put in bioswales, drainage, Hugelkultur, terraces, whatever your land calls for or is capable of. Remember, Slow, Spread, Sink your water. Keep that precious resource on your property to water your trees, your garden, improve our water table. Set up grey water and water capture systems. We will pray for rain! If you do raised beds, make your soil Rosina’s way!

Install gopher barrier perimeters or make baskets. Plant happily, sleep fearlessly and peacefully.

Prep your Soil for fat growth!

• Clear away weeds, debris, spent or unhealthy plants, habitat for overwintering pests/diseases.
• Most winter plants are heavy feeders. Brocs, caulis, kale, cabbages are big plants making lots of huge leaves! Chard, cabbages and lettuces are nothing but leaves! So now is the time to lay in that compost you have been making, and some worm castings – castings are most effective when a smaller amount is used—just 10-40 percent of the total volume of the plant growth medium that you put it in!  Add some manure to your lettuce, parsley and garlic beds, Brassica areas.
• Peas and carrots are the exceptions. Peas are legumes and make their own Nitrogen, but sometimes they can do with a tad more if that soil is depleted. Too good a soil makes carrots hairy and they fork. Depending on how you use your carrots, some of us don’t mind those two for one forked carrots! Over watering, irregular watering, however, can make them split and that opens them to diseases.
• Establish your pathways, put up your trellises or cages for peas.
• Plant, plant, plant!

It’s Transplant Time!  Put in cabbage and artichokes. Cilantro loves cool weather and is said to repel aphids on Coles/Brassicas – broccoli, kale, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts!  

• From Seeds:  MORE arugula, beets, brocs, carrots, celery, chard, lettuce, mustard greens, peas, parsley (keep moist 20 days unless you presoaked your seed), radish. Fall marks the end of the season for small red radishes and the beginning of the season for larger daikon-type radishes.
• Potatoes?! Oh, yes!  Reds, fingerlings, Yukon Gold – your favorites! 
• Check those lettuce packets for seed planting depth.  Some you spread on the ground and simply pat in, water very gently. Others go in 1/4″ deep. True. 
• Did you already plant fall veggies in August, Sept, or both? Excellent! Plant another round!

Trap plants or not?! Trap plants attract Bagrada bugs! If you do decide to plant trap plants, interplant plenty of mustard every couple of weeks. Fast grower Giant Red is a good choice. Plant some among your lettuces to keep them off it. Don’t be surprised to find them on your Arugula too, another Brassica. Or don’t plant Brassicas – that’s all the Coles, broccoli, kale, collards, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, nor Mizuna, mustard, radish, arugula or turnips until the weather cools.

Green Manure  Each year choose an area or two to let your soil rest, be restored.  Decide where you will put your tomatoes next summer and plant a patch of favas there! Buy the organic seeds at your natural foods store bulk bins!  Presprout your favas! Presprouting equals 100% germination and mucho time saved since favas have a notoriously low germination rate! It’s a no-brainer since it is so easy to do! Just be gentle when you plant the babies. If fava is too tall and would shade out other plants, put in a vetch green manure ground cover mix. It gets only 4-5′ tall. In Santa Barbara get it bulk at Island Seed & Feed. Be sure to get a packet of inoculant for the beans, peas and vetch.

FIRST GARLIC? Indeed. It’s Vampire Time! Plant late October through Winter Solstice day. That’s at least two rounds, why not make it three?!  See a LOT about GARLIC! for tasty planting information. 

Harvest any lingering seeds.  Special notes about your Winter Squash:  Harvest and Curing – Fruit should be left until the vines are brown and withered, but should be harvested before frost or they will not store well. Optimum is when the stem is drying and the squash is well-matured, the rind hard and not easily broken with the thumbnail. With pruning shears, cut from the vine leaving 2 to 3″ of stem, and cure for 10 days in the field, or indoors in a cool place if frost is likely. Undamaged, they will keep for several months if stored in a cool dry place. Dampness is bad.

Cut your strawberry runners Oct 10 to 15 to put in fridge to chill at least 20 days until you plant them bareroot Nov 1 through 5! 

Those of you with container gardens, dump out that old spent summer soil, pop in some tasty new mix, install a trellis for the peas, anchor that pot! Get going – put in your seeds, baby transplants! You will soon be having holiday table treats, like crisp lettuces, bunch onions, colorful chard, nutritious kale!

Give your babies a boost! Drench young plants with Aspirin Solution, + 1/4 cup nonfat powdered milk, to get them off to a great start! Do this immediately for transplants!

Winter’s plants are incredibly productive! Cut and Come Again! Kale, collards, lettuces, leaf by leaf. Cut bunch/table onions 1 to 2” above ground. They will come back 3 to 4 times – you will be amazed how fast! After you cut the main broccoli head off, let the side sprouts grow. Snip for salads/steaming.

Enjoy the beautiful fall weather and nutritious feasting!

See the entire October 2014 Newsletter!

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September Change of Season!

Love your Mother! Plant more bee food! Eat less meat. Grow organic!

Bountiful fall crops are on their way! Labor Day weekend is the favorite fall planting time for many gardeners. Some like it even more than spring planting! Fall is cooler, slower paced, quieter. When and where there isn’t a drought, there is less watering.

If you want specific varieties, not standard fare at the nursery, you plant from seed. Plant them in a ‘nursery’ area in the shade of finishing summer plants, in 6 packs, under the grow lights, in the greenhouse! Plant your fall seeds outdoors a tad deeper than you would in spring; soil is moister and cooler an extra inch or two down. It’s the law to keep them moist. If you plant successively for steady fresh table supply, plant a batch in September, again in October. Days will shorten and start cooling, but you are taking advantage of a fast start because your plants will grow quickly in the warmer weather now than later on. Sep plant from seeds, Oct from transplants.

Tasty morsels to plant!

• If you have plenty of space to accommodate a bad weather ‘error,’ and anticipate an Indian Summer, you can chance plant bush beans, summer squash, container type varieties of small tomatoes. At least plant earliest in Sep .
• Beets, Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, are a big yes! And carrots, celery, leeks!
• Colorful Chard is the ‘flower’ of your winter garden! Mid-August is one of the best times, Sep certainly is good too! Marigold don’t mind cool days; lovely on a dark day.
• Plant more heat tolerant lettuces.
• It is so easy to sprout peas! Dampen the paper towel; spray the towel to keep it moist. Pop them into the garden by the trellis – if it is hot, devise some shade for them.
• Onions For the biggest, sweetest harvests, late summer and early fall are the prime times to sow seeds of short- or intermediate-day onions. Fall-sown short- and intermediate-day onions tend to yield more and are larger and sweeter than those seeded or transplanted in early spring.

I like what Better Homes & Gardens has to say – Sown in September, sprinters such as arugula, mustard, spinach, turnips, and crispy red radishes are ready to pick in little more than a month. Also try pretty Asian greens, such as tatsoi or mizuna, which grow so fast that you will have baby plants to add to stir-fries and soups just three weeks after sowing. If you would enjoy a quick payback on your table, select the earliest maturing varieties available.

Plant Sweet Peas for Christmas bloom! Plant gift plants or bowls or baskets for the holidays! 

Keep letting your strawberry runners grow for Oct harvest. Get your pallet ready if  you want a strawberry pallet that sweet first week in November!

Brassica (that’s your broccoli, kale, kohlrabi, B-sprouts, cabbages, cauliflower, collards, turnips) Companions are aromatic plants like sage, dill, chamomile. Carrots, chard, beets, peppermint, rosemary, celery, onions, potatoes, spinach, dwarf zinnias. Brassicas are helped by geraniums, dill, alliums (onions, shallots, garlic, etc), rosemary, nasturtium, borage. Dill attracts a wasp to control cabbage moth. Zinnias attract lady bugs to protect plants. Avoid nightshades and strawberries.  Notice there are contradictions – potatoes are in the nightshade family. And usually we would avoid mustards, but now we have Bagrada bugs, we use the mustards as a trap plant for the Bagradas.

COMPANIONS!  Cabbage babies need to be planted 12 to 28″ apart.  A healthy plant will take up much closer to that 28″! They take a long while to grow, head, head tight. Plant carrots, or other fillers, that mature sooner, in the space between them. You can do this at home amongst your ornamentals, and/or in containers too! Fillers can be beets, or onion/chive types to repel Bagrada Bugs. Short quickest growing winter radishes can be among the long slower growing carrots among the slowest growing, your cabbages.

Brassica pests!

• Brassicas are the very favorite of Bagrada Bugs.  Keep a keen watch for them especially when temps are above 75°F. Bagrada bugs tend to be most active and visible during the warmer parts of the day, so that’s when to look for them. Bagradas make white spots on the leaves as they suck the juices out of your plant. They carry diseases and overnight the leaves start to wilt. If you don’t get rid of them ASAP, you lose your plant in short order. And that’s when they are polite. A plant can be so infested it is swarmed and it looks like the plant is moving.Per UC IPM, as an alternative to greenhouses, screened tunnels or floating row cover fabric can provide plant protection in gardens. The mesh of the screening material must be fine enough to exclude the Bagrada bug nymphs and should be elevated so that it does not touch the plants because the bugs can feed through these coverings. The edges of protective covers must also be buried to prevent the bugs from crawling underneath to the plants, and they must be applied before Bagrada bugs get into the crop.
• Lots of ants and lengthwise curling leaves are the giveaways for aphids. Aphids carry viruses. Aphids come in fat gray or small black. Avoid over watering that makes for soft plants, tender leaves that aphids thrive on, and ant habitat. Spray the aphids away, make the ants leave. Get up under those leaves, and fervently but carefully do the tender growth tips. Do it consistently until they don’t come back.

Make your fall planting beds extra yummy – add compost, worm castings, manures.  We want rich soil for those big plants.  We want lots of those marvelous leaves for greens.  Winter plants like brocs, collards, cauliflower, chard, are heavy producers, need plenty of food.

BUT NOT CARROTS!  Too good a soil makes them hairy and they fork.  And over watering, irregular watering, can make them split. Build your beds up so they drain well, are above the coldest air that settles low down. PEAS, the winter legume, make their own Nitrogen, so feed only lightly if at all.

Keep your water steady for plants still in production. Remove mulch habitat in areas where Bagrada bugs have been seen.

Build your new raised beds. Install gopher barriers! Put up a greenhouse.

RESTORE OR REST AN AREA  Plant some hefty favas or a vetch mix for green manures and to boost soil Nitrogen. Plant them where you had summer’s heavy feeders like corn, eggplant, summer squash, tomatoes or where you will plant heavy feeders next summer. The vetch mix can include Austrian peas and bell/fava beans, plus oats that break up the soil (they have deep roots). Favas are big, produce one of the highest rates of compostable organic material per square foot! If you change your mind, you can eat them! 🙂 Or cover an area you won’t be planting with a good 6″ to a foot deep of mulch/straw and simply let the herds of soil organisms do their work over winter. That’s called sheet composting or composting in place – no turning or having to move it when it’s finished. If you are vermicomposting, have worms, add a few handfuls to speed up and enrich the process. Next spring you will have rich nutritious soil for no work at all!

Pest and Disease Prevention  Drench young plants, ones you just transplanted, with Aspirin solution to get them off to a great start! One regular Aspirin, 1/4 C nonfat powdered milk, 1/2 teaspoon liquid dish soap (surfactant), per gallon of water. Aspirin, triggers a defense response and stimulates growth! Powdered milk is a natural germicide and boosts the immune system.

September is Seed Saving time! Make notes on how your plants did, which varieties were the most successful. These seeds are adapted to you and your locality. Each year keep your best! Store your keepers in a cool dry place for next year’s plantings.

See the entire September 2014 Newsletter!

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August! Beauty and Bounty!

Some of you gardeners may be a wee bit tired of picking prodigious batches of green beans, but keep up with harvesting, it keeps your plants producing! I hope you have been canning, freezing, fermenting, storing, drying!

There are HOT August days, and ones that have a hint of fall. Days are a tad shorter; shadows in different places now. It is the time of the turn of the seasons here in coastal SoCal! Though crazy busy with harvests, gardeners are making their first fall plantings mid August, especially from seed! Often they are made in semi shaded ‘nursery’ areas to be transplanted as they get bigger and space becomes available. Plant your seeds far enough apart to get your trowel in to pick your little plants up to move them one by one to their new home. Some are planted under finishing plants to take the finishing plant’s place, like peas under beans. Pop in some kale between the tomatoes and peppers. Safe in a greenhouse is wonderful too!

Already, get your seed packs for celery, chard, mustard greens, parsley, peas, winter radish varieties, and Brassicas: cabbage, brocs, Brussels sprouts, collards, cauliflower, kale babies, kohlrabi, turnips. See below for help on choosing the very best varieties! Winter plants that get a good start while there is still some heat, will be producing a lot sooner than plants started while it is cooler, and you will have a much earlier crop.

Make your own Seed Strips! They are great for radish, carrots, any seeds that are small and hard to handle. It’s an easy, satisfying evening activity that saves your back, and seeds, when you are planting!

If seeds don’t work for you, don’t have time to do the extra watering, you will be away at the critical time, keep harvesting, do your soil preps, and wait for September or October transplanting. Labor Day weekend is the big planting time for many gardeners, and that’s only a month away now!

Summer plants you can still plant for early fall harvests, are beans and early maturing tomatoes and corn. Corn is more disease prone at this time though.

Tuck in your year-round fillers, beets, bunch onions, carrots, summer lettuces, radish, to keep a colorful variety for your table.

Plant sweet potato slips in late summer for harvest around Christmas.  Jenny Knowles, then at Plot 16, harvested these tasty beauties Dec 28, 2011!  She let sprouted taters grow into plants while on her kitchen window sill. She planted them in August/Sep, on the sunny side of her black composter. Clearly, between the super compost nutrition, and the heat of the composter, both from the black color and the warmth of the decomposing compost, she succeeded! She got several smaller pups before she took the main plant and the large central potatoes. I was lucky to witness this fine harvest!

ONIONS  For the biggest, sweetest harvests, late summer and early fall are the prime times to sow seeds of short- or intermediate-day onions. Fall-sown short- and intermediate-day onions tend to yield more and are larger and sweeter than those seeded or transplanted in early spring.  Onions have stupendous flavor and come in white, yellow, red!

Give your heavy producers a good feed.  Eggplants have a large fruit, beans put out a ton of beans, tomatoes are big and working hard, peppers can be profuse!  They like a tad of chicken manures scratched in, bunny poop and straw (pick up at Animal Shelters), well aged horse manure and compost makes them dance with the faeries in the night time!  Fertilizers highest in P, Phosphorus, keeps blooming and fruiting at an optimum.

Keep your watering steady to avoid slowing or stopping production or misshapen fruits – that’s curled beans, odd shaped peppers, catfaced strawberries. In hot late summer weather water short rooted high production plants like beans, cucumbers, lettuces and strawberries more frequently.  Keep them well mulched, especially the cucumbers.  Keep them off the ground to protect them from suffering from the wilts fungi. I put down straw a good 3″ deep.

In our hot foothills and further south, watch your melons and pumpkins for their best harvest time – when they ‘slip’ off the vine.  Hold off irrigating melons about a week before they will ripen so their sugars will concentrate. Harvest okra while it is small and tender – bigger is NOT better!  Let your winter squash harden.

Design Your Fall Garden! Move plants from the nursery area as space becomes available. But have a plan too. Tall plants, trellises, to the North or on the shady side, then plants of graduated sizes to the South or sunniest areas. Peas need a string or wire trellis for their tiny tendrils. They aren’t like beans that twine anything. Few winter plants need support, but big brocs, tall kales sometimes need staking. If they ‘lay down,’ if you have the room and want more plants, they will grow baby plants along their stems! Otherwise, put your plants back up and stake them securely. Build your new raised beds. Install gopher barriers!

Think soil, soil, soil! When an area is done, clear away insect hiding places. Remove and throw away any mulches from under where diseased plants were.  If your soil is high for the area, plants there were diseased, and you have a plentiful compost stash, maybe remove the couple top inches of soil and generously lay on some of that tasty new compost!  Dig it into the top 4 to 6 inches. Amend your soils per the plant that will be grown in the area per your design.

Keep turning your fall compost pile, start one if you haven’t! This warmer weather will help the pile decompose faster, and your plants will be blessed when you give the compost to them! If you aren’t hot composting, remember, thin layers and smaller bits decompose faster. The ratio is 1 wet/green to 2 dry/brown. Throw in whatever kitchen trim, torn tea bags, coffee filters/grounds, crushed eggshells – anything worms can eat will decompose faster. I’m talking faster because starting now is a little late, so this is what you do to ‘catch up!’ Sprinkle with a handful or two of living moist soil to inoculate your pile, and some red wriggler worms here and there to make your pile jump up! Turn it as often as you can to aerate and keep things humming. Once a day if possible, but do what you can. Compost improves your soil’s water holding capacity and adds and stabilizes N, Nitrogen!  Yes!

SeedSaving! Allow your healthiest top producers to seed. Seeds are your second harvest! Each year keep your best! Scatter some about if they would grow successfully now! Store your keepers in a cool dry place for next year’s plantings.  Remember, these seeds are adapted to you and your locality. If you are willing, take your extras to a local Seed Bank!  While you are there, pick up some of your fall favorites and some new ones to try out!

Love your Mother! Plant more bee food! Eat less meat. Grow organic!

See the entire August 2014 Newsletter!

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Seeds Rock! Choosing the Perfect Ones for You!

Are you stepping into the magical world of veggie seeds for the first time?! After great soil, choosing perfect seeds, vibrant with life, great producers, is an exciting step!  They are all so differently shaped, many sizes, colors! Many are so beautiful; others are strange and marvelous, humbly do their job.  

Seed catalog season starts in December! Would you believe nearly 70 percent of gardeners have said they buy most of their seeds from mail-order vegetable seed companies? Oh, Lord, do you have budget and the space to plant all the ones you would like to try?! Happiness torture.

Your locality is one of the most important things to know first. Updated USDA Zones Map as of 2012

• Cold/hot temps ranges, temperate/extremes, sunny/semi shady, wet/dry – rainy or desert, clay/sand soils. Is your area mixed, varies per year?
• Do you have the right soil, amount of water and sunlight required.
• Will you be gardening in the ground or in containers?

When to Plant  Select seeds with the proper day length!  Onions are sensitive to day length. Get the varieties that suit your purpose.  Strawberries are June bearers, or ever bearers that produce whenever conditions are right for them, most of the year!

Depending on where you live, you may have one small planting window, and you better pounce on it or build a greenhouse or cold frames. If you are in desert land, winter planting is your time.  In southern areas you might be able to plant all year and have two distinct ‘seasons’ with summer plants, and winter plants. That’s true in coastal Santa Barbara CA. We can plant 3 rounds of both summer and winter type plants!  Our winter plantings start in August! With planetary weather pattern changes those dates may be becoming different now. We do have to factor in day length. So know that some plants can be planted early, but still won’t produce until all conditions are right.

Plant Footprints!  Do you have space? How many of those plants will fit there? Will you plant dense then thin, put in smaller but fast growing plants in the spaces between for until the others get their mature size? If so, you will need seeds for those filler plants too. What is the return per square foot of your planting choices?

• If you are on a balcony, patio, doing containers, get the lovely smaller varieties – dwarf, patio. Rather than tall pole varieties that may topple in the wind, get bush varieties, determinate tomatoes.
• Tomatoes – Determinate grows to a certain height and quits. Indeterminate vines forever and ever! You can plant 3 rounds of determinate tomatoes depending on your temperature zone.
• Varietal differences – ie Broccolis can get 5′ tall or 2′.  Some are known for sideshoot production while others make a huge head and that’s about it.  Some brocs make large sideshoots; others make minis.
• Colors – You may be astounded at your options!  Some are more nutritious for different purposes. Yellows and oranges, more Vitamin A. Red, blue, purple for antioxidants.

How many do you need?  That depends on who likes what in your family and how many can you eat?! Zucchini is a famed reliable monster producer all summer long. For most families, 2, max 3, are all that are needed. So if you were at a seed exchange event, you would need only maybe 6 seeds, maybe 9, for those ‘in cases’ they don’t come up or survive the first planting(s). Depending on what you are planting, a bulk Tablespoonful from your local farm nursery might be a perfect amount. Think in terms of successive rounds of planting, possible failures due to nature or gardener error, and get enough for several rounds.

Dates to Maturity  One of the biggest planning choices is based on how long a plant takes to mature in your climate and time of year. In the north and colder areas, there may be but one choice, hope for a huge crop, and preserve like crazy! You need to choose varieties that mature sooner than later. In SoCal, you are deciding how many rounds you can plant of your favorites to keep that fresh food on the table all year!

Special Features!  AAS, All America Selections, are just about synonymous with great plants! If you see an AAS designation, that tips the scales in its favor as a choice you can trust!

• Heat/cold tolerance are critical to your location. Some plants thrive in cold, like Brassicas that don’t mind a light frost at all.  Tomatoes, peppers and strawberries stop producing in heat. Lettuces head better in cool weather, and there are heat tolerant varieties for summer growing.
• Disease Resistance/Tolerance  Wilts and fungi drive us crazy. Certain pests are locality specific. Your nursery can advise you and getting seeds of plants that have resistances is so more satisfying and productive.
• Bolt resistant  Lettuces and cilantro bolt commonly, bless them. Temp changes and changes in day length are triggers. So, clearly, know the right times to plant your seeds, and if bolting conditions occur, be ready to plant another round.  In fact, keep rounds going anyway. What you don’t use you can give to a happy recipient. Bolting in Veggies

Important Preferences

• Heirloom or Other? This choice depends on what you want to do.  Some heirlooms are not very disease resistant/tolerant. Some hybrids are marvelous and rather than saving seed and not knowing what you will get next time, you will simply buy more true seed each year. That cost is not great.  Try them and see for yourself. See Seed Swaps
• Organic? Of course! New Mexico-based Seeds of Change has a fine reputation.
• Non GMO

Viability Current?!  Seeds vary in the time you can keep them and they will still germinate.  A year to 5 years is possible if you store them properly. If you are at a seed swap, be sure to check for viability. If the seeds aren’t labeled, inquire. See the storage instructions and this viability table at High Mowing in Vermont. Check the pack date on seed packets; buy from reliable seed sellers. With viability years in mind, check out end-of-year specials at various seed houses, up to 50% off!

Seed Strips?  Yes! Buy them or make your own! They save seed loss and spacing is perfect!

If you are a beginner  Choose easy-to-grow basics, like cherry tomatoes, beans, lettuce and spinach, cukes and zukes, peppers and eggplants, beets and chard, carrots and radishes! And, if you have space, try at least one radical experiment! Choose something exotic, maybe foreign, or a different color! Have fun with your gardening as well as superb nutrition! Many seed companies have learning pages. Check those out. You may enjoy some of Renee’s Seeds variety packs. Renee’s is in Felton, CA (Santa Cruz County).

For unusual plants, check out reliable seed trade sites like the Seed Savers Exchange. It is likely the most well-known of the heritage seed companies, a nonprofit organization that operates the largest nongovernmental seed bank in the United States. It sells heirloom vegetable seeds to nonmembers, but if you join you gain access to an additional 12,000 varieties. It also provides instructions on how to save your own seeds!

Seed Saving and/or Who to buy from?! If you save seeds from your best plants, you know you have the best for your micro niche. Your local nurseries that operate farms and sell bulk seed will have seeds best adapted to your area. If you buy from an out-of-your area specialty farmer that grows perfect plants of the kind you want to grow, again you have the best from their area. If you buy from a seed company, know your USDA zone and the zone of the company you will be buying from, the zone where the seeds you are buying from them come from. At first this may sound a bit overwhelming to you, but in time it will become second nature. The more you save seeds, choosing your favorite plants, adapting them to your soils and ways, your plants will be adapted not only to your area, but to your tastes as well!

The very best to you with your seed hunting and saving!  Seeds make the difference!

“I have great faith in a seed.”  THOMAS JEFFERSON

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Political Statement! Sad to report that several seed companies we have trusted now carry seed owned by Monsanto. Either specifically inquire or don’t by any seed from them.

* Territorial Seeds
* Totally Tomato
* Vermont Bean Seed Co.
* Burpee
* Cook’s Garden
* Johnny’s Seeds
* Earl May Seed
* Gardens Alive
* Lindenberg Seeds
* Mountain Valley Seed
* Park Seed
* T&T Seeds
* Tomato Growers Supply
* Willhite Seed Co.
* Nichol’s
* Rupp
* Osborne
* Snow
* Stokes
* Jungs
* R.H. Shumway
* The Vermont Bean Seed Company
* Seeds for the World
* Seymour’s Selected Seeds
* HPS
* Roots and Rhizomes
* McClure and Zimmerman Quality Bulb Brokers
* Spring Hill Nurseries
* Breck’s Bulbs
* Audubon Workshop
* Flower of the Month Club
* Wayside Gardens
* Park Bulbs
* Park’s Countryside Garden

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September! Brassicas, Carrots, Favas, Fall Favorites!

Labor Day Weekend is upon us! Perfect time for fall planting!

Planting faster growing carrots among slow growing cabbages is pure genius!
Beautiful image – From Dirt to Dinner, Julianne Idleman

Take a look at this DigitalSeed Vegetable Planting Schedule – This table lists the recommended times to sow vegetable seeds for the typical Southern California climate (Zones 23-24). When buying transplants, remember to adjust for the age of the plant (about 1-2 months).

Notice August is not their favorite planting time, yet many consider that to be the first SoCal plant-from-seed fall planting month.  Others say it is just too hot and there is often a hot time at the end of August and Labor Day weekend!  If you want specific varieties, you plant from seed.  Plant them in a ‘nursery’ area in the shade of finishing summer plants, and it’s the law to keep them moist.  If you plant successively, and started in August, to keep fresh table supply, a batch every month or so, then do your second planting now in September!  Likely days will start cooling, but you are taking advantage of a fast start because your plants will grow quickly in the warmer weather than later on.  Notice, in the list above, the big difference between Sep and Oct!  Oct is when to plant from transplants – hopefully you started your favorites you can’t get from the nursery from seed!  If not, then get what you get from the nursery – try special ordering if they don’t have what you want on hand.

My thinking on the DigitalSeed list:

• Unless you are in a hot spot, and have plenty of space to accomodate a bad weather ‘error,’ planting even bush beans, summer squash, is chancy in Sep.  At least plant earliest in Sep, hope for an Indian Summer.
• Beets, Broccoli, Brussell’s Sprouts, are a big yes!  And carrots, celery, leeks!
• Colorful Chard is the ‘flower’ of your winter garden!  Mid August is one of the best times, Sep certainly is good too!  Marigold don’t mind cool days; lovely on a dark day.
• Plant more heat tolerant lettuces.
• It is so easy to sprout peas! Dampen the paper towel, spray the towel to keep it moist.  Pop them into the garden by the trellis – if it is hot, devise some shade for them.

September is Seed Saving time!  Keep watch so the birds don’t get them all first!
Make notes on how your plants did, which varieties were the most successful.
Make your fall planting beds extra yummy – add compost, worm castings, manures.  We want rich soil for those big plants.  We want lots of those marvelous leaves for greens.  Winter plants like brocs, collards, cauliflower, chard, are heavy producers, need plenty of food.  BUT NOT CARROTS!  Too good a soil makes them hairy and they fork.  And, over watering, irregular watering, can make them split.
Build your beds up so they drain well, are above the coldest air that settles low down.
Plant your September seeds outdoors a tad deeper than you would in spring; soil is moister and cooler an extra inch or two down.
Keep letting your strawberry runners grow for Oct harvest.
Plant Sweet Peas for Christmas bloom!  Plant gift plants or bowls or baskets for the holidays!

I like what Better Homes & Gardens has to say – ‘Sown in September, sprinters such as arugula, mustard, spinach, turnips, and crispy red radishes are ready to pick in little more than a month.  Also try pretty Asian greens, such as tatsoi or mizuna, which grow so fast that you will have baby plants to add to stir-fries and soups just three weeks after sowing.’  If you would enjoy a quick payback on your table, select the earliest maturing varieties available.

Brassica Companions (that’s your broccoli, kale, kohlrabi, B-sprouts, cabbages, cauliflower, collards, turnips):  Aromatic plants like sage, dill, chamomile.  Carrots, chard, beets, peppermint, rosemary, celery, onions, potatoes, spinach, dwarf zinnias.  Brassicas are helped by geraniums, dill, alliums (onions, shallots, garlic, etc), rosemary, nasturtium, borage.  Dill attracts a wasp to control cabbage moth.  Zinnias attract lady bugs to protect plants.  Avoid mustards, nightshades, strawberries.  Notice there are contradictions – potatoes are in the nightshade family.

COMPANIONS!  Cabbage babies need to be planted 12 to 28″ apart!  A healthy plant will take up much closer to that 28″.  They take a long while to grow, head, head tight!  Plant carrots, or other fillers, that mature sooner, in the space between them. You can do this at home amongst your ornamentals, and/or in containers too!  Fillers can be onion/chive types to repel Bagrada Bugs, beets.  Short quickest growing winter radishes can be among the long slower growing carrots among the slowest growing, your cabbages.

Brassicas are the very favorite of Bagrada Bugs.  Keep a keen watch for them and for aphids.  Lengthwise curling leaves, and lots of ants, are the giveaways for aphids.  They come in fat gray or small black.  Avoid over watering that makes for soft plants, tender leaves that aphids thrive on.  Spray the aphids away.  Get up under those leaves, and fervently do the tender growth tips.  Do it consistently until they don’t come back.

Favas?  Oh, yes!  They are a legume and put Nitrogen in your soil.  Plant them where you had summer’s heavy feeders like corn, eggplant, summer squash, tomatoes or where you will plant heavy feeders next summer.  Delicious favas are loCal, high in protein, iron and fiber. The tender tops are a wonderful steamed green. They become green manure when you chop them when they first flower, and till them into your soil. They are a great winter cover crop, producing one of the highest rates of compostable organic material per square foot!

Pests and Diseases  Drench young plants, ones you just transplanted, with Aspirin solution to get them off to a great start!  Add a quarter cup non-fat powdered milk to the mix too!

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July Harvests, August – First Fall Plantings!

July is ripe with harvests!  Harvest beans, cucumbers, squash, and tomatoes at least every other day to keep them coming.  It’s your summer religion!

Hot as it is, it is a garden transition time.  You are already noticing the shorter day lengths.  Get and start seeds for your first fall plantings in August.  Build your new raised beds, make compost, install gopher barriers!  As plants finish, prepare your soils.  Add compost, worm castings, as appropriate for what you will be planting there next. Many think we will be having a long summer that some call an Indian Summer.  It has other names in other places.  St Martin’s Summer in Britain, Old Ladies’ Summer or Crone’s Summer in Belgium, Hungary & Lithuania (Norse origins); in China, this period is called “qiū lǎohǔ” (秋老虎), which literally means ‘a tiger in autumn’.  So, if you have particular summer favorites, it is likely worth the chance to plants just a few more!  🙂

Transplant basil, celery, chard, cucumbers, dill, kale, leeks, summer-maturing lettuce, green onions, white potatoes, summer savory, New Zealand spinach.  In our hot foothills and further south, go for more melons, okra, pumpkins, summer & winter squash.  Corn is an exception – late plantings often develop smut.  I’ve tomato transplants and seen bean seeds started in August produce plentiful crops into October!  See what’s growing at Pilgrim Terrace Community Garden right now!  (Santa Barbara CA)

Transplant late afternoon or evening so plants have the whole night to begin to recover before they’re hit with a full day of sun and heat. Water well and provide shade from intense mid-day sun.  Prop up and secure some of those plastic plant flats that have the finer pattern to filter the light.  Keep your transplants moist for at least a month or until they’re well established. Mulch to save water.

At the end of the month, sow carrots (they do best from seed), celery and cole crops–broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage (especially red and savoy types, which resist frost better), cauliflower, and kohlrabi. Keep the soil moist and shaded until they’re up, and then gradually allow them more sun over a week’s time.

Get better germination during summer’s heat.

• Sow seeds thickly in flats or beds.
• Mulch the seeds thinly with sifted compost instead of heavy soil, which easily crusts over.
• Frequently sprinkle the flat or bed to keep it moist, or leave a mister on for several hours each day.
• Shield the bed with a piece of burlap or plywood–this will keep the seeds cooler than the air temperature, give them the moisture they need, and keep the soil surface from crusting.
• Remove the shade board or burlap after one-fourth of the seeds have germinated. Continue keeping the bed moist until most of the seedlings are up.
• If flats are used, place them in an area with less than full-day sun, and pay close attention to keeping them moist.
• Transplant the seedlings when the second set of true leaves develops. These are the ones that look like miniature versions of the mature plant.

Carrots, parsley, and other slow-comers need to be kept moist.  Sow seed on the north side of a furrow, or right in the bottom of the furrow where it’s most moist.  Make the sides of the furrow low sloping, and sprinkle with water so you don’t degrade the sides of the furrow.  Cover the seeds lightly with potting soil or fine compost, and shade with cheesecloth, windowscreening, or slats of wood until they start to come up.

Still producing plants are hungry!  Manure can be applied as a mulch directly onto globe artichokes, asparagus, cabbages and other cole crops, cucumbers, melons, sweet corn, and squash–but don’t let it touch the stems or foliage, as it will burn them. Keep high-nitrogen fertilizers away from beans, beets, carrots, parsnips, sweet and white potatoes, and tomatoes, or there’ll be more foliage than fruit.

Big plants need a lot of water!  Tomatoes and other large plants may need about one inch of water every three days of hot dry weather. Rinse the undersides of leaves with water to discourage spider mites.  Water and fertilize melons deeply once a week for juicy, fleshy fruits. Hold off irrigating melons about a week before they will ripen so their sugars will concentrate.

Protect vine crop fruits like melons and squash from snails and slugs by lifting the fruits or vegetables onto cans, berry baskets, or boards.  Metal cans speed ripening and sweetening of melons by concentrating the sun’s warmth and transferring it to the melons.  Place ripening melons onto upside down aluminum pie pans or cans to keep them off the damp soil. The reflected heat and light will help them ripen evenly and sooner than when they are shaded by foliage.

To your health and happiness!

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