- Author: Toni Greer
We left last month with Capitol Kitty, just to remind you.
Southwest of the Unruh Building is the Earl Warren Walk. The path he wore in the grass on his many lunchtime trips to the Sutter Club was named in his honor.
There are 10 Deodar Cedars on the west side of the Capitol. These Cedars are part of the Capitol's original 12, planted in 1872. There's even a Bunya-Bunya Tree! It's native to Australia and named by the Aborigines there. It was planted in 1887 and can reach 80' tall and produces a pineapple-like cone that can weigh up to 15 pounds!
The water-wise garden is a cooperative effort between several agencies and is meant to “educate the public about the importance of wise water use and demonstrate that low-water gardens do not necessarily mean low-color or high maintenance”. You will find Emerald Carpet Manzanita, Skylark Blue Blossom and Red Flowering Currant, all watered with a drip irrigation system. Just outside the west entrance I saw the large bronze Great Seal of the State of California and the Native American and Spanish-Mexican Commemorative seals.
Points of interest for me were the:
*English Hawthorn which marked the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Girl Scouts (yes, I was one)
*President Franklin Roosevelt's centennial birth is marked with a Japanese Flowering Cherry
* Also, a Japanese Flowering Cherry tree was planted and dedicated to mark the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Peace with Japan
The “Mac” McKeown Rose Bed honors a man who, once a month for over twenty years, gave a rose to each female legislator as a reminder of their importance in bringing issues vital to women to the forefront in the male-dominated Capitol. Wouldn't that be wonderful had that happened at my job!?! A rose named “Mac Rose” is included in this bed in his honor.
In Section 3 (north) I found a Tulip Tree, Chinese pistache and Valencia orange which are numbered. The numbers are small round brass plates. My question was finally answered. These plates mean that these trees are the largest of their species. The Cork Oak in this area was planted in 1879. Also, I found the Pioneer Camellia Grove in this area. It was established in 1942 by the Native Sons and Daughters of the Golden West. Sacramento is now knows as the “Camellia Capital of the World”. The Civil War Memorial Grove was the first monument in Capitol Park. Trees from many battlefields and historic sites were once thriving here, but only a few are now surviving.
In Section 3 (South) there is a Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides), which is the only deciduous Redwood and it changes colors throughout the seasons. It was thought to be extinct. A Chinese botanist found a surviving specimen in 1945 in a remote area of interior China. Did you know that both the Coast Redwood and the Giant Sequoia are the State Trees? That was designated in 1937. The name Sequoia pays honor to the Native American who developed the Cherokee Alphabet.
The “Insectary” was built in 1906/07 and housed researchers who explored methods of using good bugs to destroy bad bugs that were damaging California crops. I guess you could say that this was the days of the early IPM system.
During my walk, I stopped to take a break beneath a huge tree, and I mean HUGE tree! The light was shining thru its branches. This tree took my breath away. It is one of my two favorite trees, the Maidenhair tree, also call the Ginkgo biloba. I've never seen one this magnificent. This particular tree is the largest of its species and deserved the awe that I felt. Also in this area I found the “Senator Sheila James Kuehl” Native Plant Garden. It was created “to display the beauty and wisdom…of using native plants in landscaping applications”. This section is also the home of two memorials that touched me to my core—the Firefighters Memorial and the California Veterans Memorial.
The International World Peace Rose Garden was created by T. J. David in 1988. He was known as Sacramento's “Rose-man”. While walking thru the garden, stopping to smell the various blooms I noticed plaques which have been placed throughout the beds. On the plaques I found poems and thoughts from students from a range of grades and ages. Just the plaques themselves were worth the walk through the rose garden. Also in the same section as the rose garden is the California Vietnam Veterans Memorial. For me, just a touch of the wall said it all. The sculptures, like the many other sculptures throughout the park, looked as though they could converse with me, in many ways they were.
Section 5 is full of trees, flowers, plants and shrubs. It's also where our state flower the golden poppy, was cultivated within the California Native Plant Section.
While the trees planted in the Capitol Park range from the Algerian Fir to the Yoshino Flowering Cherry Tree, I'm positive that you will find your Favorite! And…a favorite monument…and shrub…and pathway…and bench!
It's worth taking the time to visit our State Capitol and journey back in time. You can do this as I did, simply by visiting the park at your leisure or on a tour. Whichever you decide to do, I'm sure that it will be informative, educational, relaxing, calming and awe-inspiring!
- Author: Launa Herrmann
In the early 1990s, while traipsing through a local nursery, I encountered my first English rose. It was love at first sight — a David Austin variety named “The Graham Thomas.” The next year I added “Gertrude Jekyll” to my Bay Area garden.
A move to Vacaville ten years ago did not end my love affair with these fragrant fascinating roses. I enjoy their abundance of petals and the charming shape of each flower. Today “James Galway, Grace, Crown Princess Margareta, Charlotte, William Shakespeare” and “A Shropshire Lad” grow beside the lavender and salvia in my yard. Sure, they occasionally pout in the summer heat, yet faithfully bloom a second or third time especially after fall's first rain. In fact, I'm picking marvelous blooms right now. This year I added two more to my collection and planted them in large pots, “Lady of Shalott” and “Tess of the d'Urbervilles.” Both are growing well. Needless to say, the versatility of David Austin's English roses continues to surprise me.
The history behind this now 90-year-old rose breeder is a fascinating story in itself — from tending a small garden plot his grandmother gave him, reading garden magazines at his school library, learning alongside his father to farming himself. It was for the love of gardening and the love of roses that this son of a Shropshire farmer turned a hobby into a career. Since creating his first English rose in 1961, “Constance Spry,” David Austin and his team worked to combine the fragrant beauty of Old Roses with the disease-resistant repeat blooming characteristics of modern hybrids. Today, his garden roses number 233 so far, each one repeat-blooming from late spring through fall.
I'm certainly glad David Austin didn't retire at age 60 and settle for a boring life on a couch. Not only would the world have missed out on some exceptional roses, but my gardening years would have been so much less without them.
NOTE: Permission granted for editorial and educational use: Source for photos is David Austin Roses: http://www.gardennewsbreak.com/david_austin/editorial_images/gallery/2017-Introductions/51/page1/
- Author: Trisha E Rose
Basil and tomatoes in October! I continue to be surprised with lovely tomatoes, basil and parsley mid-October, well parsley not really but my basil was put in early spring and as you can see the bushes are still quite large. This year I kept pinching back the blossom tips which has resulted in wonderful basil for my family to share. The Purple Cherokee tomatoes just gave us a tangy BLT for lunch and the black cherry tomatoes with candy appeal are going to our daughter's family later today. Parsley just keeps coming, so much so that this year it went into a pot rather than the raised bed where it continued to grow and grow last year, not a tidy plant and doesn't play well with others, but very useful in my kitchen.
- Author: Cheryl A Potts
Surprisingly, the second best thing I like to do with potatoes, the first, of course, would be eating them, is not planting them, but digging them up. I become like a little kid finding a new toy hidden by my parents in a toy box or an adult, finding a twenty dollar bill in a pocket of a pair of jeans not having been worn for over six months. I never know how many I am going to find, or what size they are going be. Almost every time I do any digging in the vegetable garden area of my yard, I find a potato I missed the first time around. Yea! Lunch!
I have learned that I am only to grow plant certified seed potatoes. Previously, I would plant the eyes of any organic potato I happen to buy, but these store bought spuds perhaps have been treated with a sprout inhibitor and/or may have a potato virus which will cause my crop to be less than desired. The appropriate seeds can be found in most any seed catalog. Each year, one of the catalogs I receive sells potatoes exclusively.
The soil for the potatoes (Solanum tuberosum) needs to be loose, slightly acidic and well draining, so do not plant in clay. Well mulched, composted soil works best.
Potatoes can be planted in this area in February through March for a summer crop or July through August for a winter crop. These plants do not like excessively hot weather but so far mine have done fairly well in this Vacaville heat.
The actual planting of these seeds is a bit different than with other plantings. You take the potatoes and cut them up, making sure you leave at least one eye on each piece. Then you set these pieces of potato aside, somewhere that is room temperature and slightly humid, for one to two days. This causes the pieces to develop what is called a callus, which will help the seed not rot once in the ground.
To actually plant the seeds, place one in a hole about three inches deep. Your plant rows should be about thirty-six inches apart according to the information I have read, but I must admit, I do plant them a bit closer together, with the plants six to ten inches apart in the row. Cover with soil to ground level and then in about a month, add three more inches of soil to your row. Water needs to consistent, but relatively light, as they are shallow-rooted. Do not allow the soil to dry out as a second growth will start when and if the soil becomes moist again, That is if your first crop has already formed. This will cause those real knobby tubers, the ones impossible to peel or cavities called "hollow hearts" in the center of the vegetable.
It is time to dig up your potatoes when the vine dies, the only death I look forward to in my garden. Cut the vine away before digging, then carefully dig up the soil and find your treasures. Kids, I have found, love digging up potatoes, so use your grandchildren well.
Potatoes should be cured for about two week somewhere where is it relatively cool, 55 degrees and humid. Then the they can be stored. Be careful not to store potatoes with apples.
My favorite is Yukon Gold, but there are many other varieties that do well here. White Rose, Russet Burbank and Norgold Russet are a few. The above mentioned potato-only catalog has some great sets of various varieties in one package, which can make for a really fun potato patch.
There are some pests to watch out for. One is that proverbial aphid, and he is rather easy to deal with. Another is the potato tubermoth. He, too, can be dealt with by simply making sure that your seeds are always covered with soil, meaning, watch out for cracks in the soil. There is also a fellow named the Colorado potato beetle, a stubby, round bug with a big appetite for the leaves. Watch for him, and when you find him, throw him away. Then look closely for any eggs that have been laid on the underside of the leaves, especially the early ones, and wash them off with insecticidal soap or clip off the leaf entirely. The eggs are bright orange, so rather easy to fine.
Potatoes can be grown in pots, and some enjoy growing them in big containers such as a garbage can. As the plant grows, more soil is added, so potatoes grow at many levels. Just be sure your container can drain.
Just for your information, the growing of sweet potatoes or yams are a completely different story, and perhaps fodder for another blog.
- Author: Karen Metz
In June I wrote a blog about the April removal of my dead lawn and replacement with drought tolerant plants. At the time some people asked that I later update the status as things progressed. So these pics represent just after planting in April and then what it looked like at the end of October. I am pretty pleased. The plants have really started filling out. Some have almost tripled in size. I've even had blooms from the Russian Sage, Perovskia atriplicifolia, Dwarf Plumbago, Ceratostigma plumbaginoides, and Euryops.
The blue fescue makes a nice contrast with all the green. The Ceanothus griseus horizantalis didn't bloom much, but is very healthy. My favorite though is the Acacia cognate 'Cousin Itt'. This was my only new plant, I had fallen for it after seeing it in a catalog. I had a hard time locating three specimens at the time the landscaper was ready to plant. Two were fine but one looked very sickly. The healthy plants have grown like gangbusters and are lush very green and very reminiscent of Cousin It from the Addams family. The sickly plant has gotten even more sickly and actually looks like it is at death's door. I want to replace it with a healthy specimen, but I thought it might be wise to first see how the 'Cousin Itts' do this winter. If they survive the winter I will definitely get another one.
Either way my neighbors are deliriously happy that they are no longer looking at dead lawn. I know just how they feel I couldn't stand it anymore either.