August is my favorite month of the year. Who could not love tomatoes, peppers, corn and basil? Once again I planted too many tomatoes and peppers. The extras I will donate to the local food bank.

Two years the Napa County Master Gardeners were treated to a workshop by the Master Preservers from Del Norte County. This used to be a program available in most counties, but with budget cuts, it is no longer as popular. (Search for their website at Master Preservers, Del Norte, Cooperative Extension.) I have been putting up veggies for two years and now I make my own ketchup, tomato sauces, and can or freeze a number of veggies for use in the winter. This year I made zucchini pickle relish, and I think that it tastes better than the cucumber relish. And it uses up some zucchini!

For the home gardener, August and September can be the busiest and the most rewarding. The number one thing to remember is to watch the irrigation in the garden; keep it on track by checking the soil daily. These hot and windy days can speed up evaporation. Squash has a propensity to wilt in the afternoons; if it looks OK in the morning, then it does not need water.

Veggies do need to be fed on a regular schedule. Check the back of the fertilizer box for the recommended schedule. I use a blend of four parts compost, one part worm compost, and organic fertilizer with a low nitrogen number. Nitrogen is the first number on the box. Too much nitrogen will produce much vegetation, but little fruit, and a tomato is botanically classified as a fruit.

Weeding is an important chore right now; do not let weeds flower or their seeds will sprout in your winter garden.

If you had a viral soil problem this winter, July and August are the best times to solarize your soil. Put a layer of clear plastic over the infected soil and tuck into the soil. It takes about 60 days to get rid of the viruses, pests and their eggs. The soil will be ready to plant this September.

This is a good time to shear your alyssum and other ground covers. Water them and they will come back as new, or even better in September. Many perennial woody herbs can be cut back now. Save some cuttings and start with new, not so woody plants.

Other chores this month include: cutting back perennials after flowering; removing any spoiled vegetables or fruits before they attract pests and keeping the yard clean. The cleanup helps discourage pests this year and prevents overwintering of viruses and insect eggs.

Deep water your trees and shrubs to help them fend off borers and other pests during the stress of the hot weather to come.

To harvest, you will have tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, herbs, and peppers. Plant lettuce, parsley, and cilantro in the shade of other plants and you can enjoy them throughout the summer to fall. The shade keeps them from bolting so fast.

Fruits to watch for are: figs, stone fruits, pome fruits (apples and pears), and plums. Thinning these fruits will produce larger and more succulent fruit. Keep an eye out for the many pests that attack these fruits.

In the vegetable garden, watch for pests. Those pretty white moths produce larva that can damage your plants.

It is not too early to start seeds indoors for the fall and winter garden. As you pull up each plant in your summer garden; refresh the soil by adding compost and scratching it in about an inch. Research has shown that rototilling is not good for the health of your soil. The flora and fauna that inhabit the soil are disturbed by the deeper invasion of their habitat and have trouble returning. Besides, as one of the local Master Gardeners likes to say; “The noise of the rototiller gives the worms a headache.”

Invest in a Ball Blue Book to preserve some of your harvest. This is still the best book for all types of preserving. It covers safety, non-pressurized canning, freezing, and other methods of preserving your harvest.

Enjoy the fruits of your labor this month. You deserve it.

Vegetable Workshop: Napa County Master Gardeners will lead a workshop on “Cool Season Veggies” on Sunday, August 18, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Yountville Community Center, 6516 Washington Street, Yountville. Grow your own vegetables even when days are short and nights are cold.  The key is starting while weather and soil are still warm.  Learn which vegetables will thrive in cooler temperatures, how to protect them from heat when they are getting started, and how to time plantings for months of harvest. $15 per person ($10 for Yountville residents). Register through Town of Yountville, Parks and Recreation: Mail in or Walk in registration (cash or check only). For additional information, call (707) 944-8712 or visit their web site.

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? 

Open Garden Days: Napa County Master Gardeners welcome the public to their Demonstration Garden at Connolly Ranch every Thursday, except the last Thursday of the month, April through October, from 10:30 a.m. to noon. Master Gardeners will be on hand to answer questions and chat about plants. Connolly Ranch is at 3141 Browns Valley Road in Napa.

In early 2008 I was watching the news on television. The economy had started its decline and the story concerned a woman in Pennsylvania who had been laid off from her job. She was filmed pushing a shopping cart out of a grocery store and was asked what she had purchased with her final paycheck. She proceeded to show the reporter all forms of processed foods in cans, boxes and plastic containers.

The first thing that struck me was here was someone who had just lost their source of income, but they had also gained something they may not have had before and that is time. Now she could prepare more time-consuming but less expensive, more nutritious food for her family. Yet she had chosen to purchase food that required minimal preparation time, was costly and for the most part lower in nutrition.

The second thing that struck me was that this woman now could have the time to devote to gardening for food to feed her family. I don’t know if she had a yard with room for a garden, had access to a community garden plot or had a friend or relative with room for a garden but if she did, then gardening for food was right for her. She could feed her family fresh veggies and also preserve some of the bounty of the garden for later consumption. Eating more nutritious food at a lower cost is a win/win situation. This is especially true as the bounty of summer gardens begins to fill our tables.

I’ve been gardening for food for many years, not because I can’t afford to buy processed foods but because I want the freshest, most nutritious organic and non-genetically engineered food possible. I want to know where my food comes from, how it was grown and I want it year round. I started with several 4 ’x 8’ raised beds and every year I added one or two more until I now have 32 raised beds. No one needs 32 raised beds for a family of two, so much of what I grow is given away and I take great pleasure in being able to do this.

Gardening for Food includes home-grown veggies such as tomatoes, summer squash and eggplant that you plant in the spring to eat in the summer plus winter-planted veggies such as garlic, onions and potatoes that can be stored and enjoyed months after harvest. The garlic we grow usually lasts for almost a year. Onions will last for months and we never have to buy potatoes between June and December.

Another spring or early summer veggie I love are shell beans as they last forever, and when you grow your own and get used to eating beans that are less than a year old you realize how much more flavorful they are at a young age. A few years ago we started growing Floriani Red Flint Corn, which is widely planted in Italy for grinding and making polenta. You’ve never had polenta as rich and flavorful as that made with your own Floriani Red Flint Corn.

Last but not least are the veggies that are planted in late summer to early fall. These include broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, kohlrabi, chard and lettuces. It’s very rewarding to watch them grow and be available to you.

Gardening for food also includes preserving some of the harvest through canning, freezing or drying so that you can enjoy the production of your garden months later. In our house, there is no such thing as too many tomatoes. Some of what isn’t eaten fresh is skinned and seeded, becoming first tomato sauce and then catsup, chili sauce, BBQ sauce, marinara sauce or reduced until it becomes tomato paste. Other tomatoes are canned whole or chopped up and canned as salsa. Chile peppers are roasted and then frozen for use later in many southwestern dishes. We dry chiles, tomatoes and herbs for use as seasonings year round.

It’s been over five years since I saw this story on the news, but I haven’t been able to get the woman out of my mind. My hope is that one person will read this article and start gardening for food and then tell another person until we have everyone eating less expensive and more nutritious food day in and day out.

Vegetable Workshop: Napa County Master Gardeners will lead a workshop on “Cool Season Veggies” on Sunday, August 18, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Yountville Community Center, 6516 Washington Street, Yountville. Learn how to grow your own vegetables even when days are short and nights are cold.  The key is starting while weather and soil are still warm.  Learn which vegetables will thrive in cooler temperatures, how to protect them from heat when they are getting started, and how to time plantings for months of harvest. Cost is $15 per person ($10 for Yountville residents). Class size is limited and pre-registration is required. Register through Town of Yountville, Parks and Recreation: Mail in or Walk in registration (cash or check only). For additional information, call (707) 944-8712 or visit their web site.

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?

Open Garden Days: Napa County Master Gardeners welcome the public to their demonstration garden at Connolly Ranch on the first Thursday of every month, from April through October, from 10:30 a.m. to noon. Master Gardeners will be on hand to answer questions. Connolly Ranch is at 3141 Browns Valley Road in Napa.

 

 

When I was a child in Ireland, my mother was much given to reciting aphorisms--jewels of what might be called common sense. “Trifles make perfection, but perfection is no trifle” she would remind my siblings and me if we attempted to belittle her injunctions of tidiness and order.

It is surprising to me today how many of these counsels have remained in my recollections. One in particular, concerning the importance of patience, has had a lasting effect on my life:

Patience is a virtue

Catch if you can

Seldom in a woman

But never in a man.

The fact that this homily had a gender bias probably added to the attraction for my mother.

I am the very model of a patient gardener. I realized many years ago that you can’t rush things in your garden. A seed may take what seems like forever to germinate. Many fruit trees relax for three years or so before fulfilling their fruiting mission. Patience is also required when dealing with those slimy visitors that regard our carefully cultivated plants as a banquet.

I’ve had some moments of trauma on this front. On one occasion I purchased a flat of beautiful marigolds. I planted them in my garden, looked admiringly at them, smiled a well-pleased kind of smile and then retired to dream.

The next next morning, my first mission was to visit my baby marigolds: how had they fared on their first night? Had they survived the creatures moving around in the darkness?

Lighthearted and expecting a joyful scenario, I approached the marigold bed. Expectant joy turned to eye-popping horror. Gone. Vanished. Nary a petal to be seen. Was this some kind of horrifying chimera? Had thieves in the night come and abducted my neonates? Had some malicious being spirited them away? 

I immediately identified with the image of a desolate Silas Marner when he discovered that his gold hoard had been stolen. His gold coins were as children to him. He loved them. Their disappearance was a devastating trauma. He put his trembling hands to his head, and gave a wild ringing scream, the cry of desolation.

I didn’t scream or cry but I allowed thoughts of vengeance to grow in my gardener’s heart. On the night after this shocking discovery, armed with a powerful flashlight, I patrolled my flower beds. The perpetrators were sashaying in extraordinary numbers all over my garden.

With violence in my heart I eliminated that night’s promenaders, dozens of them. Night after night, patiently and methodically, my process of decimation continued until I knew the most fragile of flowers would be safe in my garden, day or night. Since that time, it has been my practice to patrol my garden for a number of nights at the beginning of each planting season to ensure a snail-free environment for my vulnerable seedlings and buds. This effort requires a little patience, but patience is more effective than snail bait. I have not seen a snail in my garden for several years.

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?

You can do a lot with zucchini. The zucchini plant (Cucurbita pepo var. melopepo) is a generous one, whose harvest can be used in appetizers like fried zucchini and zucchini fritters, or in entrees like stuffed zucchini or zucchini parmesan. Zucchini can be pared lengthwise and used as a fresh, light substitute for pasta, or grated and patted into a pie pan with some grated cheese and a few other additions for a wheat-free “pizza” base.  

At my house, zucchini appears on the table steamed, shredded, roasted, grilled, dressed and plain. When I have an abundance of zucchini, it finds its way into soups, vegetable loaves, frittatas, quiches and ratatouille, the Provençal summer vegetable stew.

Grated zucchini is a great addition to sweet and savory breads, adding moisture and reducing the need for fats or oils. In a chocolate cake, zucchini is undetectable to all but the most discerning child. And zucchini is easy to grow.

Most zucchini grows on non-vining bushes. The variety known as zucchino rampicante or ‘Tromboncino’ can travel quite a distance around the garden. It is warm enough now to plant zucchini from seed. Plant again halfway through the summer and replace tired plants.

Zucchini is a heavy feeder, so provide generous helpings of compost and a rich mix of nutrients. Like most squash, it also needs consistent and ample moisture to yield well.

Zucchini plants have both male and female flowers. Female flowers appear first on heirloom varieties and second on hybrids. Male squash flowers do not produce fruit but have long, slender stems and a center of golden pollen. Female blossoms are large and squatty, with a tiny squash embryo at the base.  

For squash to develop, pollen from the male must be transferred to the female. If you have ever noticed tiny squash that did not develop and then fell off, those were female blossoms that were not successfully pollinated.

Gardeners sometimes wonder why they see many flowers on their squash plants but no squash. That could be because both male and female flowers are not yet present. If you do have flowers of both sexes and still no squash, you may have a pollination problem.

If pollinators are scarce in your garden, take matters into your own hands. Find a small paint brush. Locate one of the smaller male flowers on a slender stem, collect the yellow pollen on your clean paint brush, and dust it into the squattier female blossom. Baby zucchini should follow in due time.

In many parts of the world, zucchini flowers are considered as delicious and useful as the squash.  Zucchino da fiore is a variety favored in Italy for the abundant blossoms the plants produce, but any squash blossom, male or female, is edible. Pick blossoms early in the morning and transport them carefully to the kitchen. Stuff with mozzarella, dip in flour or batter, and fry.

At the store or farmers’ market, look for perky blossoms with no sign of wilting. Handle carefully and use within a day or two. Blossoms are fragile and do not hold up long. Best to pick them in your own garden the morning you are going to use them.

By picking and cooking some of the blossoms, you slow the avalanche of zucchini that a good growing season can bring. For a variety of squash-blossom recipes, check out http://www.bonappetit.com/ideas/zucchini-blossom-recipes/search.

It can be hard to decide which zucchini to grow as there are many good choices. ‘Tromboncino’ (shaped like a trombone) is a long, curving, light green to tan zucchini that can reach three feet in length yet still stay tender and creamy. ‘Ronde de Nice’ is a round zucchini, light green or celadon grey. Picked when only two to four inches across, it is great for stuffing or individual servings.  

Consider a traditional dark-green zucchini, such as ‘Raven’ or the striped ‘Romanesco’ or ‘Safari.’ Tender-skinned pale varieties include ‘Clarimore,’ ideal for grilling or steaming. Shred and freeze extra zucchini in plastic bags to pull out for fritters, cakes, soups and breads later.  

Workshop: Napa County Master Gardeners will lead a workshop on “Succulents in Your Garden” on Saturday, June 15, from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at Napa Valley College’s Upper Valley Campus, 1088 College Avenue, St. Helena. Learn what succulents will grow best in our climate and how to utilize them in your garden design.  Learn how to care for them and keep them looking good and free from pests and diseases.

Online registration (credit card only)
Mail in registration (cash or check only)

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?