By Penny Pawl, UC Master Gardener of Napa County
Winter isn't over, but in my garden it feels like spring has sprung. This is my favorite time of year. I discovered a bearded iris in bloom today, two months early and a great surprise.
The first thing on my to-do list in February is to weed. The weeds loved those early rains and now it is warming up. They need to be removed before they go to seed.
One weeding tool that works well for me is a weed torch or flame weeder made specifically for gardening. It uses a propane tank and a wand. You wave the flame over the weeds to kill them. It works best on small, young weeds growing in hardscape or gravel, and it doesn't damage the soil as many commercial herbicides may do.
Don't use a weed torch during dry spells or on hot, windy days. Keep the flame away from dead or brown material or flammable items like fencing. Wear sturdy shoes and have water nearby to stop any possible flare-ups. Some areas have bans on flame weeders, so check with your local fire department before investing in the equipment.
It's not too late to do sheet composting for weed control. You can find a lot of information about this method online. Basically, you are smothering the weeds by covering them with sheets of cardboard. If you want to plant something before the cardboard has decomposed, just cut a hole in it and dig your planting hole.
One year I experimented by planting half of my broccoli seedlings in soil covered by cardboard and the other half in uncovered soil. The plants in soil covered by cardboard did better.
If you haven't already done so, it's time to prune roses, fruit trees and other shrubs and trees. You can control growth better if you prune before the leaves and flowers come out in the spring.
Plant any bare-root trees and roses now. Remember to water them as they settle into their new home.
We know that drought conditions may continue so keep that in mind when planning your garden this year. Look online for information about the water-wise French intensive method of gardening. If you are planting a new landscape, consider California native plants, which tend to be drought resistant.
Snails and slugs are just beginning to appear so watch for their damage. You can purchase commercial products to control them or try some more homespun methods. One tactic is to lay a board down where you see damage. Snails and slugs like to crawl underneath, so the next day you can stand on the board and crush them. You can also pick them off by hand if you go out at night with a flashlight.
Snails and slugs are hermaphrodites, which means they all lay eggs. They lay about 80 eggs four times a year, so it's important to keep them under control.
If you have plants in pots, now it the time to repot them. Use fresh soil and trim the old roots to make room for new ones. Try to match the potting soil to the needs of the plants. Most container plants need soil that drains well.
It's also a good time to move any plant that's in the wrong place in your garden. To make sure the top and the root ball are in proportion, trim both back when you transplant.
Start seeds for summer vegetables and other plants in February and March. I use a commercial seedling mix for this process. It is especially designed for newly emerging plants.
Be sure to read the seed packets for sowing instructions. Some seeds take longer to sprout than others and some need to be planted deeper than others. Keep your newly planted seeds by a sunny window. If you have a heat lamp or a seed-heating pad, they will appreciate that special treatment and sprout more quickly. Keep the soil damp but not soggy to prevent seeds from rotting before they sprout. You can also make a mini hothouse by inverting a large bottle over your seedling pot.
If the dry weather continues, monitor your in-ground plants and container plants. If the soil is dry, it's time to water. I have noted that some of my pots have dried out even though it has been cool this winter. Also, if we have a hard freeze, plants will survive better if they have moisture. I know this from experience.
Food Growing Forum: Napa County Master Gardeners will host this forum on “Planning & Record Keeping and Crop Rotation” on Sunday, February 13, from 3 pm to 4 pm. Register to receive the Zoom link at https://ucanr.edu/2022FoodForumFeb.
Workshop: Napa County Master Gardeners will hold a workshop on “Weed ID, Frost Protection and Drip Irrigation” on Saturday, February 26, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., at Las Flores Learning Garden, 4300 Linda Vista Avenue, Napa. Register: https://bit.ly/3J1QFl8
Workshop: Napa County Master Gardeners will hold a workhop on “How to Improve Home Vineyard Soil Health for Grape Quality and Climate Change” on Saturday, February 26, from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Whether the workshop will be in person or via Zoom is still being determined.
You must register to attend. Registrants will receive an email a few days before the event with the workshop location or Zoom link. Register at https://ucanr.edu/2022HomeVineyardSoilFeb
Workshop: Napa County Master Gardeners will hold a workhop on “Your Soil Can Save Us! Garden Soil and Climate Change” on Sunday, February 27, from 1 pm to 3 pm, at Yountville Community Center, 6516 Washington Street, Yountville. Details: https://napamg.ucanr.edu
Got Garden Questions? Contact our Help Desk. The team is working remotely so please submit your questions through our diagnosis form, sending any photos to mastergardeners@countyofnapa.org or leave a detailed message at 707- 253-4143. A Master Gardener will get back to you by phone or email.
For more information visit https://napamg.ucanr.edu or find us on Facebook or Instagram, UC Master Gardeners of Napa County.
- Author: Cheryl Cozad
In the wild areas on our planet, trees, bushes, and grasses grow on ground that has continual additions of new layers of dead and dying plant matter. Leaves fall from trees and shrubs, grasses dry in the summer: these materials cover the soil and gradually decompose. No Till gardening takes its cue from this natural process. There's no double-digging. No bi-annual rototilling. No weed pulling.
Soil is inhabited by billions of microscopic organisms. It is this abundant life, attracted to the sugars put out by plant roots, that creates a mutually beneficial feeding relationship with plants. Breaking up the soil by tilling, digging, or weeding disrupts these vital organisms.
No Till aids the soil's ability to retain water. The roots of previous weeds and other pre-existing plants create pathways for water to penetrate and be stored in the soil.
When you avoid tilling you'll have fewer weeds in your garden, since tilling brings weed seeds to the surface where light signals them to grow.
A No Till garden requires less work on the part of the gardener. Ultimately, a No Till bed will need less weeding, less watering, and less digging.
There is no need to wait before planting in a No Till garden – you just plant on top of the decomposing plant life.
There are several different approaches to creating a No Till garden. The simplest method is described here.
Materials you will need:
- Cardboard (with tape & labels removed) or newspapers (newsprint only – no colored ads or glossy pages).
- Compost, well-aged manure, worm compost, or organic soil mix. Organic blends are a little more expensive but they will do a better job of supporting the growth of your subterranean microbes, which help your plants get the nutrients they need for optimal growth and resistance to pests and diseases.
- Plants and seeds.
- Mulch (wood chips, straw, grass clippings, or pine needles).
- Select a sunny site. Think small. Two 5 x 10 - foot beds can grow a lot of produce. Even No Till gardening can get overwhelming if you take on too much.
- Cut existing vegetation to the ground and water the area well. Avoid burying large clumps or a thick layer of fresh green vegetation under a compost layer. Anaerobic decomposition can be detrimental to root growth.
- Apply a 4-to-6- inch layer of a well-composted mix. Well-aged horse manure (often available free from stables), plus worm compost makes a terrific mix. The City of Chico Compost Facility on Cohasset highway (currently closed due to COVID-19) sells finished compost that can be mixed with an organic soil mix or worm castings as another option.
- Cover the compost layer with overlapping pieces of cardboard, or 5 to 10 thicknesses of newspaper (overlapping them by one-third). Dousing the sheets of newspaper in a bucket of water will help stabilize them.
- For large deep-rooted plants (like tomatoes, peppers & eggplants) cut a circle in the cardboard or newspaper. Scoop out soil, add 2 to 3 shovelfuls of compost mix, and plant. For shallow-rooted vegetables or flowers, cut an X to open the cardboard or newspaper and plant smaller plants.
- Water well.
- Cover the bed with 4 to 6 inches of mulch. This will weigh down the cardboard or newspaper, prevent soil from drying out, and keep light from activating weed seeds. It also looks attractive.
- Install a drip or micro-sprinkler system or make a hand-watering schedule. Plan to water your No Till bed daily for the first week. Gradually taper off to every 3 to 5 days.
- Repeat! When a crop is finished, cut it to the ground, add compost, tuck in new plants, and mulch heavily.
Plants love the even moisture and lower soil temperatures created by No Till and mulch. Give it a try. Your microbes and your back will thank you.
For inspiration, browse the California State University, Chico Regenerative Agriculture website. For specific vegetable planting times, see our Planting Guides for the Chico Valley Area and for the Foothills.
The UC Master Gardeners of Butte County are part of the University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) system. To learn more about us and our upcoming events, and for help with gardening in our area, visit our website. If you have a gardening question or problem, call the Hotline at (530) 538-7201 or email mgbutte@ucanr.edu.
- Author: Lois Vanderville
- Contributor: Growing Vegetables Subject Group
- Editor: Kamille Hammerstrom
Attention gardeners! Do you want loose, fluffy, easily worked soil? Increased nutrients and nutrient availability? Improved drainage? Reduced dependence on fertilizers and pesticides AND superior weed suppression? All this is yours for a minimal investment, but you must act now!
It may sound too good to be true, but whether you're looking to improve an existing vegetable garden bed or to start up a new bed for the first time, the good news is that there are a variety of things you can do now to get Mother Nature working for you and have a fertile garden plot ready and waiting for you next spring.
Sow a cover crop
For a previously unworked patch of soil, you'll need to start by removing any weeds, then scratching up the soil a little and spreading your seeds around as evenly as possible. Cover lightly with soil and water regularly to keep the surface damp until the rains start. If we should have another dry winter, you'll need to continue watering to ensure the survival of your crop.
Here in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties, the best time to start a cover crop is late fall, but if your garden is “sun-challenged” like mine you'll need start a little sooner while there is still enough sunlight to get the seedlings started. I sow cover crop seed between my veggie plants in late September. The plants germinate, grow for a couple of months, then stop, wait for the sun to get back above the treetops and start again.
In the spring, before your crop goes to seed, and three to four weeks before your first spring plantings, cut it down and turn it gently into the soil. To aid in decomposition, water if necessary to keep everything damp.
A few winter cover crops for Santa Cruz/Monterey Areas – plant in Oct/Nov
- Fava or bell beans
- Vetch
- Clover
Grasses that break up hard soil and suppress weeds
- Annual rye grass
- Winter Oats
- Barley
Check your local garden supply or feed store or search online for cover crop seeds, some offer a mix of legume and grasses.
Bury your vegetable waste
Another easy way to condition your soil for next spring is trench composting. You can make this as simple or sophisticated as you wish, but if you can dig a hole, you can trench compost. The basic idea is to bury compostable materials such as kitchen scraps and yard trimmings directly into your chosen garden plot, in holes or trenches about a foot deep. If you have an existing garden, you can bury them in holes between still-growing plants, or, once the plants are done, you can create a rotating trench system. By next spring, the materials will have decomposed into compost, ready to nourish your seedlings.
Sheet compost
If you're a little more ambitious, you can try sheet composting, aka lasagna gardening. This involves putting down a layer of cardboard or newspapers to smother existing weeds, and then topping it with one or two feet of layered green and brown organic matter—leaves, pulled weeds, kitchen scraps, lawn clippings, shredded paper, compost, anything you can get your hands on--and top it with a layer of mulch. By spring this will have broken down into a rich growth medium, and as a bonus, it will help to loosen soil under the cardboard by attracting earthworms (apparently, “tastes like cardboard” is a compliment coming from an earthworm).
Keep it covered
If all of this still sounds like too much work, at the very least cover your future veggie plot with a thick layer of mulch—rice straw is easy and relatively cheap, but leaves or any other brown matter that won't fly away in the wind will do. Layer it at least six inches deep.
New to gardening? Start small.
Whichever of these methods you choose to try, the advantages of fall garden soil preparation are numerous:
- Take advantage of the winter rains to provide the moisture required.
- Give nature the time it needs to do all the work for you! All those earthworms and microorganisms in the soil are just waiting to get started.
- Recycle organic materials that may otherwise end up emitting greenhouse gases in a landfill.
- Suppress weeds, increase fertility, lighten heavy soils, and make sandy soils retain water!
Feed your soil and it will feed you!
For tips to troubleshoot your composting problems, click here. If you have questions about winter soil prep, ask the Master Gardener Hotline!
By Eve Werner, Butte County Master Gardener, May 9, 2014
Are you ready to reduce water consumption by removing your lawn? Fortunately, this doesn't have to be an expensive, back-breaking, or toxic undertaking. Sheet mulching, also known as sheet composting, is a non-toxic method of lawn removal that requires inexpensive materials, simple skills, and average physical ability.
Sheet mulching is effective on all types of lawn, including Bermuda grass. It works in either sun or shade. It can be started any time of the year. It will take six to ten months to kill a lawn using this method.
Materials:
- Newspaper or plain cardboard. Don't use glossy colored pages as they may contain metal pigments.
- A hose with a spray attachment.
- A one- to two-inch layer of compost or worm castings, if your plan is to create an edible garden or a traditional landscape garden once the lawn is gone. No compost is needed for most native plant gardens. Quantity calculation: (Area in square feet) x .08 to .15 ÷ 27 = cubic yards of compost required.
- A five- to six-inch layer of wood chip mulch. ‘Walk-on' type bark, available at landscape supply yards, has longish strips of bark that help it knit together. Trees companies can supply chipped wood/bark for much less cost; verify with the supplier that it is disease free. Quantity calculation: (Area in square feet x .41 to .5) ÷ 27 = cubic yards of mulch required.
Preparation
- Scalp your lawn with the mower set at the lowest setting.
- Water the lawn thoroughly. If soil is compacted, prevent runoff: apply water for a short period, let it soak in, and then repeat as needed.
- To reduce spillage of mulch onto adjacent paving, dig a shallow beveled trench at the perimeter of the lawn area. Flip excavated lawn pieces upside down onto the remaining lawn and flatten with the back of a shovel.
Process
- Sheet mulching is most efficiently done by three people working together: one to spread the paper, one to sprinkle the water, and one to spread the compost and mulch.
- For an area where you intend to create an edible or traditional landscape garden, spread compost to a depth of one to two inches over the lawn. Omit this step for most native plant gardens.
- On a windless day, place newspaper (in thickness of five to ten sheets) or cardboard over the grass to be killed, overlapping it like shingles. Lightly sprinkle the newspaper with water as you go to prevent it from blowing away. Make sure there or no gaps or holes.
- If you are laying the sheeting around existing plants, keep the paper twelve inches away from the plant stems.
- Apply the mulch as you lay down the paper to prevent the paper from tearing or blowing away. Put a five- to six-inch thick layer of mulch over the entire area.
Leave the sheet mulching in place. Allow nature six to ten months to complete the work of killing and composting your former lawn.
The process I use is called sheet composting, and it is simply a method of building a compost pile in place. You can not only use this procedure on well-turned vegetable beds but also on a lawn, or part of a lawn, that you would like to use differently.
I gather materials for sheet composting throughout the year so that by fall I have a big pile of clean cardboard. I avoid the type of cardboard with slick sides because it takes longer to break down and contains clay. I also gather dried leaves, newsprint, decaying plants without seeds, some compost and aged chicken manure. In short, I use the same materials you would use in a compost or worm bin.
If you plan to sheet compost in an area that has never been dug, then turn the soil to a depth of two feet. This process aerates the soil so air and water will move through it more easily. If you are sheet composting in a grassy area, then loosen and turn the sod over so it will die. You will build your pile on top.
If I have old vegetable plants still in the beds, I cut them up and leave them in place. I may also put some kitchen waste on top of that. Then I build alternating layers, as if making lasagne. You can use whatever organic materials you have. I usually use cardboard, leaves and newsprint (laying them out in sheets – no need to cut up) or shredded paper. Then I repeat the layers. I top off the pile with aged compost and chicken manure. If my garden plot has diminished in height during the growing season, I may add more clean soil or compost when I construct the layers. I moisten each layer, then wet everything again. Then I cover with a plastic tarp, making sure it is secured on the sides so it does not go flying in the wind.
Watering each level is important because it encourages the microbes and other creatures to wake up and go to work. The red wigglers used in worm composting will start to move in and munch on the foods they love. They especially like cardboard and will move inside the corrugation. They enjoy the glue that keeps the cardboard together, and I often find that the cardboard layer disappears first.
Depending on the rain, you may not have to water the pile during the winter. However, it is a good idea to check the pile from time to time and water again if necessary to keep the layers moist.
In late April or early May, remove the plastic and see what has happened to your compost pile. It should be full of red wigglers and other creatures, and you may see some little white bugs hopping around. These creatures worked the pile for you, so you don’t have to do spring digging. As they worked through the compost, they turned the soil for you.
Sometimes the cardboard or other items are not completely decomposed by spring. I plant in the bed anyway by cutting holes in the cardboard where I want my plants to grow. On other occasions, I have covered the soil with cardboard and cut holes for my plants. This cardboard layer helps conserve soil moisture.
I once sheet-composted a bed in July and covered it with plastic. In late September I removed the plastic and found no trace of the materials I had layered just a few weeks before—only a bed of wonderful soil.
The droppings that the worms leave behind (known as worm castings) are beneficial to plants. They are a mild natural fertilizer containing all the trace elements. Some call these castings “worm gold.” It sells for about $600 a yard. When I plant in the spring, I do dig in some more chicken manure and worm compost from my worm bins.
Napa County Master Gardeners welcome the public to visit their demonstration garden at Connolly Ranch on Thursday mornings, from 10:30 a.m. until noon, except the last Thursday of the month. Connolly Ranch is at 3141 Browns Valley Road at Thompson Avenue in Napa. Enter on Thompson Avenue.
Master Gardeners are volunteers who help the University of California reach the gardening public with home gardening information. Napa County Master Gardeners ( http://ucanr.org/ucmgnapa/) are available to answer gardening questions in person or by phone, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 9 a.m. to Noon, at the U. C. Cooperative Extension office, 1710 Soscol Avenue, Suite 4, Napa, 707-253-4143, or from outside City of Napa toll-free at 877-279-3065. Or e-mail your garden questions by following the guidelines on our web site. Click on Napa, then on Have Garden Questions? Find us on Facebook under UC Master Gardeners of Napa County.