Garlic is a species in the onion genus Allium, and therefore related to onions, shallots, leeks, and chives. It is flavorful, nutritious, and easy to grow.

There are two types of garlic: softneck and hardneck.  Softneck garlic is the easiest to grow.  It lasts longer in storage and produces flavorful bulbs. The flexible stems of softneck garlic are easy to braid. Hardneck garlic has larger cloves surrounding a stalk or ‘scape' that terminates in a beautiful flower. When the stems of hardneck garlic dry, they become ridged and impossible to braid. Hardneck garlic grows best in colder climates. You will also find “elephant garlic” in grocery stores, but it is not a true garlic; it is more closely related to leeks, but is cultivated the same as garlic and has large mild-flavored cloves.

You can purchase a variety of different ‘seed' garlic from online seed sources or catalogues. But you can also plant the garlic you have in your pantry that you may have purchased from a grocery store.  

Several garlic varieties grow well in our climate.  “California Early White” is a mild-tasting variety developed for the garlic industry, known as Gilroy garlic. “Susanville” is an improved selection of the “California Early.” “Chesnok Red” is a medium hardneck garlic with purple stripes. “Inchelium Red” is a softneck garlic that tastes mild at harvest time but increases in flavor during storage, gaining a touch of spicy heat.

Planting           

Garlic is the last crop of the year, planted in late fall at least two weeks from first frost (mid-October through the end of November in our area). It is harvested in early summer (June or July).

As with most edible crops, it helps to prepare the soil before planting, by amending it with compost so that it is loose and rich in organic matter. Break the garlic head into individual cloves. Make sure to retain the root and the papery covering on each clove. Choose the largest cloves to plant because they will yield larger garlic bulbs. Each small clove of garlic will grow into a bulb.

Plant the cloves four to six inches apart and one to two inches deep with the root side down and the tip up. Fertilize once after planting and again in the spring when the weather is warmer; choose a fertilizer that is high in nitrogen because garlic plants are heavy feeders. Water lightly; too much water can cause the bulb to rot. Soon you should see green stems or scapes appear. A few of these can be cut off to add to soups or sautés over the winter. Beginning in May, reduce watering until the garlic tops turn yellow.

Harvesting

The garlic bulbs will be ready to harvest in June or July, depending upon the weather:  heat will speed them up and cold will slow them down. When most of the stems are turning yellow and brown it is time to harvest. Gently lift the bulbs from the soil with your hands or small tools, being careful not to damage the bulbs.  Avoid pulling them out by the stem because that can cause the stem to break off from the bulb.

Curing garlic

Let the harvested garlic dry intact outdoors in a warm shady place. When the outer skin of the bulb looks papery, brush off the dirt and clip the roots. Braid the stems while they are still flexible if you wish, or simply cut the stems off.

Store garlic in an area that is cool and dry. The ideal storage temperature is 55-70 degrees. Remember to set a bulb aside to plant the following fall.

Planting garlic is easy to do in your vegetable garden or in containers on your patio. You will be rewarded with the addition of the wonderful flavor that is waiting in every bulb.

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, email the Hotline at mgbutte@ucanr.edu (preferred) or call (530) 538-7201.

Imagine a healthy garden that grows, blooms, and produces food for you, your family and your neighbors, a garden that costs you very little money because everything it needs is already provided. Welcome to the sustainable garden! The Cambridge Dictionary defines   sustainable as “causing little or no damage to the environment and therefore able to continue for a long time.” Sustainable gardens are resource efficient and able to perform their intended functions indefinitely with minimal negative impact on the environment. A garden that grows and produces well, doesn't drain resources and money, and has a positive impact on the environment: this sounds like any gardener's dream, right? But it's not difficult to achieve. You can create a sustainable garden in your own yard by following some simple techniques.

A trip to the garden department of any large home improvement store might give you the impression that gardening requires a vast and confusing array of products:  fertilizers, pesticides, bags of soil amendments, something specific for every situation. Sustainable gardening takes a different approach; instead of products, there are ways of doing things (cultural practices) which result in a garden that sustains itself.

Placer County Master Gardener Elaine Kelly Applebaum has put together a helpful document that outlines the principles and practices of sustainable gardening (What is Sustainable Landscaping?).  She writes “What we do in our home gardens can greatly impact the environment, for better or worse. By making the right choices of what to grow and how to care for our landscapes, we can make a positive difference, not only in the health of the environment, but in our own health as well, now and into the future.”

One simple example of a sustainable gardening practice is to select the right plant for the right area of your yard, making sure that the plant will get the correct amount of sunlight and have adequate space to grow. Every yard has different “zones” that are appropriate for different kinds of plants: places that are sunnier or shadier, areas that have better or less good growing conditions for particular plants. You can observe hours of sunlight throughout the day for each season of the year and select plants accordingly. You can also make sure that when plants get larger they will not be cramped for space. This may seem like a “no brainer,” but the truth is that people often fail to place plants in locations where they will thrive.

Another important sustainable gardening practice is to feed your soil. Why feed soil? The simple answer is that if you feed your soil, the soil will feed your plants, and you won't need to buy that bag of fertilizer or bottle of plant food. One of the best ways to feed your soil is to make your own compost using organic materials you get for free, like fallen leaves, grass clippings, wood chips, straw, paper, cardboard, kitchen vegetable scraps, and twigs and small branches pruned from plants in your yard. You can construct a simple compost bin from reclaimed materials like wooden pallets, chicken wire or cinder blocks. For the basics on composting, see Improve Your Soil With Compost.

Compost is dug into the soil or laid on the surface, where it continues to decompose and release nutrients into the soil. A sustainable practice that goes hand in hand with composting is mulching, which involves laying organic material in a thick layer (four to six inches) on top of the ground around your plants.  Wood chips, sawdust, chopped leaves and straw are examples of organic materials useful for this purpose.  Mulch breaks down slowly over six to ten months, suppressing weeds and conserving water as it does so.

Growing your own manure is an easy way to feed your soil; and no, you don't have to fill your front yard with goats! Cover cropping, a sustainable cultural practice in use for over 3,000 years, involves growing a crop specifically to cover and protect the soil from erosion; a cover crop that is chopped up and turned back into or onto the soil is referred to as “green manure.”  Since ancient times, cover crops such as legumes, clover, mustards and grasses like wheat or rye have been grown specifically to protect and enrich the soil. Green manure feeds your soil (by increasing soil organic material and nitrogen), aerates (by penetrating compacted soil and improving soil structure), improves water infiltration and retention, and provides food and habitat for soil microorganisms, beneficial insects and pollinators. Best of all, if you grow your own green manure, you will reduce or eliminate the need to buy fertilizer! For details on cover cropping see Choosing & Using Cover Crops in the Home Garden & Orchard and Improve Your Garden Soil: Grow a Cover Crop.

Cover crop seeds and seed mixes cost money, but they're not expensive if you go to a feed or farm supply store where you can buy seeds by the pound. Once you have your seeds, you simply scatter them over the soil, rake them in with a garden rake, pat them down to make good soil contact, and water. Cover crops are often planted in the fall and cut in the spring, three to six weeks before planting any new vegetable crops in the same soil, but warm season cover crops can also thrive in the summer.

You may be thinking that your tiny garden is not big enough for cover cropping, or your year-round vegetable garden has no empty space for this practice, but consider the fact that a low-growing cover crop like Dutch white clover can be sown in between the rows of your fall or winter garden crops. In the spring, you can cut the clover, compost the tops or use them as mulch, and plant your summer garden among the roots, which you leave in the ground. Plant clover again in the empty rows after you remove your winter garden, as white clover tolerates summer heat with minimal irrigation. Clovers, like other legumes, add nitrogen to the soil through a symbiotic relationship with bacteria that inhabit nodules on their roots, Rhizobium spp.  Rhizobial bacteria “fix” or “grab” nitrogen from air in the soil and convert it into a form (ammonium) that plants can use. Once the clover plant dies, the root nodules release their nitrogen into the soil, so it is important to leave the roots in the ground. One additional note: make sure that the clover seed you buy is inoculated with the bacteria Rhizobium spp.

Feeding your soil and choosing the right plant for the right spot in your garden are two sustainable gardening practices, but there are many more! For additional information, go to What is Sustainable Gardening…. and why it is important?  Sustainable gardening practices support the effort to work with nature rather than against it, right at home in your own garden. In the words of author Michael Pollan, “The garden suggests there might be a place where we can meet nature halfway.”

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, email the Hotline at mgbutte@ucanr.edu (preferred) or call (530) 538-7201.

Summer is almost over, but it's not too soon to begin planning next summer's garden.  Many bulbs flowering in late spring and summer should be planted this fall and winter: they are available at nurseries and online right now.  

This article highlights three varieties of lilies which can enliven your garden with a succession of blooms from late spring into early fall when planted together. These lilies are hardy and long-lived, require low to moderate water, and little in the way of maintenance except for deadheading.

Daylily: ‘Stella de Oro'

Often the first to bloom is the Stella de Oro daylily, a variety in the genus Hemerocallis. The name Hemerocallis comes from the Greek words for day (hemera) and beauty (kallos) while ‘Stella de Oro' translates as “star of gold,” combining the Italian word for star with the Spanish word for gold.

‘Stella de Oro' is a deciduous perennial with two- to three-inch scented trumpet-shaped gold-yellow flowers.  The foliage is also attractive, forming a dense clump that can function as a ground cover. It requires sun to light shade, low to medium water, and well-drained soil.

It is valued as a compact plant and an early bloomer, reaching a height of just one to two feet with a similar spread.  In fact, its ability to rebloom over a long period and its adaptability to a wide range of planting zones and conditions make it perhaps the most popular of the daylilies. It blooms from May through July and sometimes into the fall, flowering most profusely if the spent blossoms are deadheaded. Pinch or cut the flower stem (with ovary) with your thumb and index finger or snap the flower stem off the scape in a quick, downward motion. Deadhead the flowers every third day, finally removing the stems when flowering has finished. Divide by splitting apart in fall or early spring.

‘Stella de Oro', and daylilies in general, are often grown in borders and massed in beds. They are rabbit-proof and deer-resistant. You can cut the flowers to bring inside, add them to salads for a peppery flavor, or leave them to attract butterflies.

Lily of the Nile: ‘Storm Cloud'

The Lily of the Nile genus ‘Agapanthus' derives from the Greek words for love or friendship (agape) and flower (anthos).  Agapanthus africanus ‘Storm Cloud' agapanthus is a low-maintenance perennial that can be deciduous or evergreen, depending upon weather conditions. The plants are two to three feet wide with abundant dark green, glossy, strap-shaped leaves.  In late June the large umbels (clusters) of deep blue, trumpet-shaped flowers rise far above the foliage on strong three- to four-foot stems and persist through August. Plant in full sun or part shade and provide moderate water. ‘Storm Cloud' can survive a pretty brutal drought, perhaps looking a bit shabby but recovering nicely. It is hardy to 20-25 degrees Fahrenheit.  Bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds love it, but deer steer clear. Agapanthus is toxic to humans if ingested.

It is best to divide overcrowded clumps of Agapanthus after flowering, but it can be done any time. Use a very sharp knife to cut a clump into sections, each with roots attached.  This is a job that needs to be done only every five years or so.

‘Storm Cloud' looks particularly nice paired with light blue Agapanthus ‘Peter Pan', which blooms seven to ten days earlier.

Naked Lady:  Amaryllis belladonna 

The Amaryllis genus derives from the Greek word for sparkle; in Classical Greece, “Amaryllis” was a typical name for a country girl or shepherdess. And many will already know that the species name belladonna means “beautiful woman” in Italian.  Amaryllis belladonna is an amazing plant that produces clumps of bold, strappy leaves in fall and winter. The foliage dies by early summer and bare stalks emerge in mid-July to August. Each two- to three-foot stalk develops a cluster of up to 12 sweet-smelling, trumpet-shaped four- to six-inch blooms in shades of light rosy pink. Because these bare stalks seem to pop up out of nowhere, the plant is often known as a “naked lady” or “surprise lily.”  It is native to South Africa but has naturalized throughout California.

Amaryllis belladonna plants thrive on neglect.  Bury the bulbs in groups of three or more in well-drained soil, about six to twelve inches apart so the tops are level with the soil surface. Water from winter rains and an occasional summer irrigation are adequate. Divide Amaryllis lilies only when necessary – that is, when they have developed very large clumps of bulbs and have stopped flowering. The best time to transplant is just after fall bloom, as leaves are starting to emerge. Separate the clumps gently and plant the bulbs into a new spot that has been watered. Bulbs can be transplanted at other times but may not flower for a few years.

An Artist's palette

The trick, of course, is to imagine the possibilities of these lilies together. Flowers, foliage and leaves come and go at different times of the year, adding rhythm and variety to the garden. Perhaps a table would help:

Plant	Flowers	Leaves	Height	Flower Color
Hemerocallis ‘Stella de Oro'	May – June Sept – Oct	spring / summer / fall	1 – 2 feet	golden yellow
Agapanthus ‘Peter Pan'	mid-June to July	spring / summer / fall	2 feet	light blue
Agapanthus ‘Storm Cloud'	late June to August	spring / summer / fall	3 – 4 feet	deep blue
Amaryllis belladonna	late July to August	late fall to June	2 – 3 feet	light pink

Hemerocallus and Agapanthus have opposite foliage seasons to Amaryllis lilies, and together can be used to fill a garden bed year-round.  ‘Stella de Oro' has a very long bloom period (if deadheaded) and short stature, making it suitable to plant in front of taller plants such as Agapanthus. Agapanthus ‘Peter Pan' works very well in front of ‘Storm Cloud.'  The foliage of Amaryllis belladonna provides lush greenery throughout the winter and spring, and then in late summer its pink flowers combine beautifully with blue Agapanthus. The fun is in experimenting with different combinations of summer-blooming plants, and in this endeavor, lilies of many varieties have a great deal to offer.

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, email the Hotline at mgbutte@ucanr.edu (preferred) or call (530) 538-7201.

The following recommendations for safely clearing ash from outdoor surfaces, including ornamental and edible plants, come from the US EPA, Oregon State University Extension Service, Waste Management, and the Sacramento Bee.

Basic Guidelines:  Wait until air quality levels are safe for being outdoors.  Close all windows and doors to your home before cleaning the ash outside.  Protect your lungs and skin: if an N95 mask is not available use a double-thickness cloth mask, and wear long sleeves, long pants, shoes, and gloves. To minimize stirring the ash back into the air, lightly mist or spray the surface to be cleaned, using as little water as possible. Do not use leaf blowers; do not sweep dry ash. To avoid tracking in any ash particles, remove protective clothing and gear before going back inside your home.

Cleaning your entire property (including hardscape, garden plants, shrubs, and lawn) isn't always necessary. A thin dusting of ash on plants (with green plant color still visible) isn't likely to have long term effects on plant health before fall rains wash it away.

Patios and Walkways: Concentrate on the most traveled areas. After lightly misting, use an old broom to clean patios and paths, and gently sweep ash off surfaces. You can also use a gentle low-pressure stream of water. In either case, don't wash ash down the storm drain; instead, direct the rinse water or swept ash into low-traffic grassy or ornamental areas. This acts as a natural filter, especially once the rains come. Large amounts of ash can be lightly dampened then swept into a pile, bagged in plastic sacks, sealed, and thrown away. Never deposit ash in recycling or green waste containers – it is only safe to put it in the trash receptacle.

Plants: The same precautions apply to ridding plant surfaces of ash. Focus on clearing heavier amounts of ash from food-producing plants and plants that you regularly come in contact with, such as those near windows, doors, or air handling units.

Edibles from Your Garden: Once properly cleaned, these should be safe to consume, as smoke and ash do not usually penetrate the protective skin covering fruits and vegetables. However, according to the OSU College of Agricultural Sciences, “safety becomes more of an issue…if your garden has a heavy layer of ash or is located near a structure that burned. Burning buildings contain different toxins than a forest.” OSU goes on to recommend that you “peel produce like tomatoes, apples, and root crops and strip the outer leaves of lettuces and other greens. For a more thorough cleaning, soak vegetables and fruits in a 10% white vinegar solution (1 cup vinegar to 9 cups water), which can lift soil particles off vegetables and fruits.”

Please be safe in your garden, but also, as soon as is feasible, enjoy the out of doors. Plants and sunlight offer healing properties to humans.  

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, email the Hotline at mgbutte@ucanr.edu (preferred) or call (530) 538-7201.