- Author: Help Desk Team
Most of us in urban and suburban areas don't have enough room for a large edible garden. Our space is limited for growing vegetables, so we need to try different techniques to maximize our yields.
The Family Garden Bed at Our Garden demonstration garden in Walnut Creek is a tangible example of what a family can accomplish when planting vegetables in their own backyard. Over the past couple of years, our 5'x20' plot has yielded roughly 500 pounds of produce each year.
Our Family Garden Bed was created 6 years ago when our garden team decided to dedicate one of our 30 existing garden plots to create and demonstrate what a family can accomplish in a small space in their own backyard. The plans for the bed evolved into a square-foot gardening concept resulting in greater vegetable yields.
Our most successful and prolific vegetable plantings are sweet potatoes, squash, onions, and tomatoes, so we plant these vegetables every year. However, we are not planning to plant sweet potatoes this season to make room for other experimental vegetables.
We have had a few failures. For example, one year we experimented with corn which took up a full square yard of space in the bed. Unfortunately, the corn provided a surprisingly low yield for our efforts. Because corn takes up a lot of space, requires a lot of water, and robs the soil of nitrogen, we no longer grow it.
The family bed continues to evolve with enhanced emphasis on edible greens that produce quite nicely during the colder months. We now have an antioxidant section featuring beets and leafy greens such as kale and spinach. We also have an “Asian” greens section featuring tatsoi and bok choy.
With the approach of spring, our Family Garden Bed Team has started to propagate seeds for the coming growing season. We plant one seed for lettuce, bok choy, tatsoi, and kale per cell in plastic six packs to get started. These seedlings will be planted in the ground in 4 to 6 weeks. Once these plants get growing, we propagate tomatoes, squash, melons, cucumbers, and other summer crops. All this is according to the master plan set down on a color-coded excel file that directs our weekly adventures.
Here is an example of our color-coded file:
OR
Here are some tips for getting the most out of every inch of space in your own Family Garden:
• Location, Location, Location: Summer crops, such as tomatoes, squash, beans, melons, and peppers all need at least 6 hours of full sun daily. A garden bed is best placed lengthwise east to west to take advantage of the sun throughout the day. Plant taller plants so they do not shade shorter plants.
• Soil and Water: Amend your soil so that you end up with what would be described as a loamy texture. Use a good compost (your own if possible), and organic fertilizers which will help build a healthy soil environment for plants over the long haul. How often you water will depend on the time of year, rainfall, how the soil retains water, the needs of your vegetables and how deep their roots grow.
• Trellising: You can maximize your bed space by trellising tomatoes, pole beans, cucumber, squash, and melons. This technique can provide shade for the lettuces that will produce longer if protected from direct summer sun.
Planning and Tracking
• Create garden plans for both warm weather and cool weather. We suggest starting small and experimenting.
• Select vegetable crops, based on what your family likes to eat, adding in something fun or new each year.
• Research and document vegetable requirements on seed packages or plant tags:
• Look up plant spacing, Days to Maturity/When to harvest, Start date to seed or plant.
• After you figure out vegetables to plant, then determine the number of plants required for your space. Since the Family Bed is 5' x 20', mini beds are designated, usually 3'x3' or 4'x4', or any configuration that will work for each vegetable. Have fun by creating a focus, such as a salsa bed, pizza bed, salad bed, antioxidant bed, etc.
Bed Layout — Getting the most out of each inch of space
• Intensive planting using the triangulation method. Place a plant at each corner of an equilateral triangle, where the length of a side is the plant spacing requirement. For example, you can plant 5 instead of 4 cabbage heads or broccoli in a 3'x3' plot.
• Intercrop planting: Mix in smaller faster-growing vegetables such as lettuce, spinach, radishes between larger, slower-growing crops such as broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower. For warm weather vegetables, plant lettuce, radishes, basil, etc., between tomato plants.
• Multi-vining tomato plants (2 to 4 vines) to get more variety of tomatoes in a bed.
• Trellising / Vertical planting: Plant upwards: indeterminate tomatoes, squash, melons, cucumbers, etc. Plant smaller, fast-growing plants under the trellis. This technique can provide shade for lettuces that will produce longer if protected from direct summer sun.
• Fill in blank spots by adding edible flowers for beauty and pollination.
Our Family Garden Bed has been a work in progress, and we learn new things every year much to our surprise! We highly recommend keeping track of what you plant each season to help you make plans for the future.
For more tips on successful gardening, check out the Edible and Sustainable gardening resources on our website: https://ccmg.ucanr.edu/
And please visit the Family Bed at our demonstration garden this spring! Our Garden is located at the southwest corner of North Wiget Lane and Shadelands Drive, just north of Ygnacio Valley Road, in Walnut Creek. We're normally open to the public from 9:00 am to noon on Wednesdays April through October.
Hope to see you at Our Garden!
Help Desk of the UC Master Gardeners of Contra Costa County (JCM)
- Author: Help Desk Team
Bermuda buttercup (Oxalis pes-caprae) has become a tenacious and frustrating weed throughout California. From November through April, bright yellow flowers on leafless stalks and green shamrock-like leaves pop up in many of our landscapes. While it was brought from South Africa as an ornamental plant, it escaped cultivation on its route to being a chronic nuisance. It competes with other plants and is very difficult to control.
Bermuda buttercup develops from underground bulbs that produce a single vertical stem. A loose rosette of leaves will appear at soil level after the first rain. Small, whitish bulblets develop on the stem, and new bulbs form underground. Each plant can produce about a dozen small bulbs each year that easily detach from the plant and will increase the plant's spread quickly.
A couple of our favorite vertebrate pests (gophers and voles) consider oxalis bulbs to be a yummy food source and can spread the bulbs to new locations as they carry them back to their underground dens.
The best way to control Bermuda buttercup is to prevent its introduction into your garden. Don't move soil or plants from an infested site to another location that is free of the weed. Unfortunately, for many of us, it's too late for that tactic. So, what can we do when faced with the cheery yellow flowers popping up throughout the landscape?
Hand pulling can provide control if the entire plant is removed, including the underground rhizome and bulb. It's difficult to find all the bulbs without sifting the soil very carefully. Repeatedly removing the tops of the plants will eventually deplete the bulb's resources, but it can take years to be successful. It's important to remove the tops of the plants before they flower and form new bulbs.
It is difficult to smother Bermuda buttercup with thick mulch or even weed block cloth because it is a strong plant. If cardboard covered with a thick layer of mulch is used to try to smother the weed, continued vigilance in monitoring and pulling new growth will be needed in subsequent years. In one garden, weed cloth was laid under a brick walkway. The following winter, Bermuda buttercup pushed its way up through the weed cloth between the bricks. This made removing the plants even more difficult because the plants were being held in place by the weed cloth.
Several herbicides will effectively kill the tops of the plants, but will not kill the bulbs, so regrowth will occur.
Whatever method you choose to combat a Bermuda buttercup invasion, you will need to be persistent and prepared to continue in subsequent years.
For more information about managing Bermuda buttercup, see this web page: https://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7444.html
Help Desk of the UC Master Gardeners of Contra Costa County (SEH)
- Author: Help Desk Team
Many of us have seed catalogs arriving in the mail this month, so now is the time to start thinking about your summer garden. We are publishing this article again because starting plants from seed is a great way to lower costs and increase the variety in your vegetable garden.
The seeds of many vegetable plants can be planted indoors several weeks before the usual outdoor planting date. In addition to the bonus of earlier harvest times, your young plants are protected at their most vulnerable stage from inclement weather and the hungry pests that love to feast on small, tender vegetable plants. Planting from seed also gives you access to a much wider variety of vegetables than you would get when purchasing seedlings from local nurseries or big box stores.
Most of us are not lucky enough to have a heated greenhouse or cold fame. Despite that, you can have success starting seeds indoors as long as you provide the conditions they need to germinate and grow. Here are some tips for successful indoor seed starting:
· Purchase your seeds from a trusted source. Fresher, higher quality seeds will have a higher germination rate (meaning more will sprout). Know your local climate zone and last frost dates and choose varieties that are appropriate for your area.
· Some vegetables do best when their seeds are planted directly into the garden. Peas, beans, and most root crops such as carrots, beets, and radishes are some of them. Check the information on the backs of seed packets and consult the CCC Vegetable Planting Guide below to find out which of the plants you wish to grow can be started early, and those that should be directly seeded in the garden.
· Time your seed planting. Not all vegetable plants grow at the same rate. From seeding to planting in the garden, tomato plants can take 5–8 weeks, while cucumbers or melons take 3–4 weeks. Plan your seed planting so that your plants are ready to go outside when the soil and air temperatures are sufficiently warmed up. A good rule of thumb is to wait to transplant outdoors when nighttime temperatures are consistently above 50°F. For more information on the timing of planting, check the backs of seed packets and the CCC vegetable planting guides provided below.
· Use a seed-starting mix. These mixes don't contain any actual soil, but they provide ideal conditions for sprouting seeds. Most importantly, they provide a good balance of drainage and water-holding capacity. Soilless mixes commonly contain some combination of these materials: peat moss, sphagnum moss, perlite, and vermiculite. Don't use garden soil as it doesn't drain well and may harbor plant diseases.
· Container choices. A wide variety of containers can be used- just make sure they are at least 2 inches deep. Recycled containers such as empty plastic yogurt or takeout containers work well. Make sure to poke holes in the bottom that will allow excess water to drain out. Used plastic plant pots, six-packs and flats are good choices and can be reused for many years but should be sanitized before reuse.
· Sanitize previously planted containers. Remove all soil and debris by scraping, brushing, and rinsing. Use a solution of 9 parts water and 1 part bleach to kill any possible plant pathogens. Soak plastic and other non-porous containers in a bucket of this solution for 10 minutes. Porous containers such as terra cotta should be soaked for 3 hours to overnight. Rinse thoroughly and allow to dry before using.
· Plant seeds at the proper depth. Check the seed packet for planting depth recommendations. You don't need to be too precise, just be sure not to plant any deeper than the directions suggest. The general rule is to plant the seed two to three times as deep as the seed is wide. For example, large seeds like beans should be sown about an inch deep, and very tiny seeds should be barely covered by the soil mix. Tamp down the soil very gently after planting and water right away to thoroughly moisten the soil (until excess water runs out of the drain holes). You will not always get 100% germination, so plant a few extra seeds.
· Don't forget to label all your containers. Do this before or while you are planting your seeds. Use materials that will stand up to wet conditions. Pencil on plastic or wooden stakes will work well.
· After sowing, set the containers in a warm location. Most vegetables germinate best at temperatures between 65° and 75°F. A warm location in your home is one option. Another is to invest in an electric heat mat. They are made specifically for starting seeds and growing indoors, are an excellent way to provide consistent warmth, and will last for many seasons. Find heat mats online or at local garden shops and nurseries.
· Keep the seed-starting mix moist, but not soggy. Plant roots need both air and water. Saturated soil can cause seeds to rot and seedlings to die. Also do not allow soil to dry out. Check daily and water as needed. Clear plastic dome covers or plastic bags (be sure to keep them from touching the soil surface) can be used to help keep the soil evenly moist. Remove the covers after germination to allow for air circulation and to help avoid fungal diseases.
· As soon as seedlings emerge, make sure they get bright light. Placing them next to a sunny window is an option, but containers will need to be turned occasionally to keep the plants growing straight. Better results can be obtained by providing additional light from 40-watt cool white fluorescent tubes. Suspend the lights about 4¬–6 inches over the tops of the plants and keep them on for 14–16 hours each day. Be sure to move the lights higher as the plants grow taller.
· When the seedlings have one or two sets of true leaves, it's time to thin and transplant. If planted in individual pots, you will want to remove all but one seedling per pot. Cut or pinch extra seedlings off at the soil line. If several seeds are planted in flats or small cell packs this is the time to transplant them into larger individual pots. Four inch or quart size containers will give seedlings enough room to grow until it is time to plant in the garden.
· Begin to fertilize weekly. Plants that remain in the seed starting mix will now need added nutrients. When your seedlings have one set of true leaves (see illustration below), use a half-strength fertilizer (liquid fertilizers are easier to use and apply). Organic mixed fertilizers are a good choice. Many of them will provide a range of nutrients that include micronutrients. You may decide to transplant your seedlings into a potting mix that already contains added nutrients, in this case adding fertilizers may not be necessary.
Illustration and photos courtesy of S. Hoyer
Seed Sources:
https://sonomamg.ucanr.edu/files/29795.pdf
Vegetable planting guides:
Contra Costa County Vegetable Planting Guide-Interior Regions
Contra Costa County Vegetable Planting Guide-Coastal Regions
Climate zones and last frost dates:
https://cagardenweb.ucanr.edu/Your_Climate_Zone
Local Frost Dates for Garden Planning
More information on vegetable gardening can be found in the links below:
https://cagardenweb.ucanr.edu/Vegetables/
Vegetable Gardening Handbook for Beginners
Help Desk of the UC Master Gardeners of Contra Costa County (SMH)
- Author: Help Desk Team
The answer is YES! And it is easy!
If you prune, your rose flower bushes will
• Be larger
• Have more flowers
• Will be more balanced and fuller
• And the health of your plant improved!
Most roses need to be pruned only once a year. All types of rose bushes benefit from pruning and if roses are not pruned regularly, they deteriorate in appearance and flowers will become smaller.
When to Prune?
Most roses should be pruned when they are dormant. In this area of California, roses are generally dormant between December and February and anytime in that time frame is fine.
Objective
The pruning objective is to work toward an open, airy, well-shaped and balanced V-shape cane structure.
What you will need
• A pair of sharp, clean pruning shears
• A pair of clean long-handled lopping shears
• Thick gauntlet gloves to protect your hands from the thorns
• A small hand saw for larger cuts
• Alcohol and a cloth for cleaning your tools
How to approach the task
These pruning practices pertain to all garden roses regardless of type:
• Use your loppers to cut off the top one third to one half of the plant to better see its structure.
• Clear the area underneath the plant from all leaf and other organic debris to expose the crown/canes and sucker origins.
• Make your pruning cuts with your shears at a 45 degree angle about 1⁄4” above an outward facing bud. The angle should slope away from the bud. A cut made at this point will heal rapidly and water will drain away from the bud.
• Remove all dead, broken or damaged canes down to the crown.
• Undesirable canes have discolored pith or hollow centers indicating disease, insect or weather damage.
• Remove any crossing canes keeping the best looking ones.
• Remove spindly canes (smaller in diameter than the size of a pencil).
• Remove any suckers. These are extra vigorous shoots arising from rootstock below the bud union.
• Suckers should be removed completely, not just clipped off where they emerge from the soil. This can be done by moving the soil away from the trunk until you can see where the sucker is connected to the trunk. Grab ahold of the sucker close to the trunk and pull downward to break it off.
• Choose 3–6 strong, healthy, outside canes per plant to keep and leave 3–5 buds on each cane.
• Remove EVERY leaf from the newly pruned bush as diseases and insects tend to over winter in old leaves.
• Consider applying an insecticidal soap or horticultural oil after pruning and while roses are dormant. Soaps and oils smother overwintering scales and insect eggs and are least harmful to beneficial insects. A good time to apply is when no rain or fog is expected within a day.
• Shape your rose bushes as they grow. Keep the branches balanced and the centers open for airflow.
General pruning techniques for various types of roses
Hybrid Tea, Grandiflora, and Floribundas Roses
• Cut back between one third and one half of the previous year's growth on all the canes you plan to keep (4 to 7 canes). The average pruning height for Floribundas and Hybrid Teas is between 12 and 18 inches, but taller growing Hybrids and most Grandifloras may be left at 2 feet. For most hybrids this means leaving between 5 to 10 buds per cane.
Miniatures Roses
• Miniature roses are 6 to 12 inches high, with tiny blooms and foliage. Miniature roses do not need special pruning. Just cut out dead growth and remove the hips.
Rambler Roses
• Old-fashioned Rambler roses have clusters of flowers, each usually less than 2 inches across. They often produce canes 10 to 15 feet long in one season. Rambler roses produce best on one-year-old wood, so this year's choice blooms will come on last year's growth. Prune immediately after flowering. Remove some of the large old canes. Tie new canes to a support for the next year.
Climbing Roses
• Large-flowering climbing roses have flowers more than 2 inches across, borne on wood that is 2 or more years old. Canes are larger and sturdier than those of Ramblers. Many flower just once in June, but some, called ever-blooming climbers, flower more or less continuously. Often this group is pruned in the autumn, any time before cold weather sets in. First cut out dead and diseased canes. After this, remove 1 or 2 of the oldest canes each season to make room for the new canes. The laterals, or side shoots, are shortened 3 to 6 inches after flowering. If the plant is strong, keep 5 to 8 main canes, which should be tied to the trellis, fence, wall, or other support. If it is not strong, leave fewer canes.
Link for rose pruning video: https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=16947
See this UCIPM site for more information on rose care:
https://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/GARDEN/PLANTS/rose.html
Help Desk of UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County (PDS)
- Author: Help Desk Team
At the end of the gardening season, there is an instinct to uproot spent plants and clear the soil for a fresh start, whether it be for a cover crop, a winter vegetable crop, or next year's summer crops. There are some really great reasons why pulling out roots after cutting back the plants' top growth is not necessary and can even be detrimental.
The roots that remain after removing your vegetable plants in the fall or cover crop plants in the spring are slowly decomposed underground by worms, bacteria, fungi, and other beneficial soil organisms. These organisms perform a vital role in the soil. As leftover roots decompose, they release organic matter and nutrients into the soil.
Decomposing roots enhance soil structure, making it more porous and helping with aeration. They contribute to the soil's water retention capacity. Organic matter released during decomposition acts like a sponge, holding onto moisture. This creates a good environment for beneficial soil organisms like fungi, bacteria, and invertebrates.
The network of roots left in the soil helps prevent erosion. The root systems act as anchors, binding the soil together and reducing the risk of it being washed away during heavy rain. This is especially important on slopes to maintain the integrity of the topsoil.
And finally, leaving the roots saves gardeners time and energy!
What if you want to plant something in that bed with the roots still there? Seeds or seedlings can easily be planted through and around the remaining roots. Those decomposing roots will help feed the new plants.
Is there ever a reason to remove roots? Yes. Occasionally inspecting the roots of plants you're removing is a good idea to check for root knot nematodes or other root problems. These microscopic roundworms attack a wide variety of plants. They cause swellings (galls) on roots that interfere with the nutrient and water transport system. If you noticed some of your plants didn't look as healthy as they should, it would be valuable to take a look at the roots. For more information about root knot nematodes, see this link: https://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7489.html
Help Desk of UC Master Gardener Program of Contra Costa County (SEH)