You would have been completely justified in comparing me to a broody hen at this point. Spritzing with water three to four times a day, covering and uncovering to keep the seedlings warm and rotating the trays to ensure good light coverage only briefly describes my actions.
A long-planned trip occurred during my “broody” period and I was nervous about passing the reins to my husband. He did well. I do not think that he had to make an emergency run to the nursery to replace any plants.
Upon returning from my trip, the thinning transpired without a hitch. However, I could not bear to waste the thinnings so I teased them apart and planted them as well. When the workshop date finally arrived, I was like a new mother, so proud of my baby kale.
If you would like to try your hand at a winter garden, here are some tips. Choosing the correct plants is the first step. Plants like corn, peppers and cucumbers are killed by frost; they are for summer gardens only.
Plant cool-season crops so they mature in spring or fall. Some of these crops are damaged by frost; others are not. The hardier options can survive temperatures of 25°F to 28°F.Edibles in this category include broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, collards, English peas, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, mustard greens, parsley, radish, spinach and turnips. Frost actually makes collards, spinach, cabbage and kale sweeter.
Semi-hardy plants prefer temperatures between 40°'F and 50°F and tolerate light freezes for a few hours. These vegetable include beets, carrots, cauliflower, celery, Chinese cabbage, endive, potatoes, lettuce, radicchio, rutabaga, salsify and Swiss chard. Most cool-weather edibles do not like temperatures above 75°F. With heat, they tend to bolt, which means they stop producing and set seed.
Keep winter's short days in mind. Make sure your winter garden gets at least five hours of sunlight. Remove weeds and any other unwanted vegetation. Break up the soil and amend with compost or planting mix if needed.
Starting seedlings in smaller pots, as opposed to direct-seeding them in the ground, gives you more control over their care and progress. You don't need to be as neurotic as I was. Once planted, seedlings should not be disturbed and should be kept moist. Root vegetables like beets and turnips do not transplant well and prefer to be direct-seeded. Thin them as they sprout. They need room to spread and grow.
Use a balanced fertilizer and follow package directions.Check the forecast. If it is going to be partly cloudy with mild temperatures, that's a good time to transplant. If hot days are forecast, postpone until the weather cools.
Keep seedlings watered until nature takes over. A thick layer of mulch keeps roots cool, conserves water and controls weeds. Protect young seedlings from our Indian summer heat. I use cute paper umbrellas but floating row covers work as well.
Watch for pests, whether it's the family cat that loves the feel of carrot seedlings under its tummy or slugs and snails. The University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources web page has abundant information on how to control or correct common gardening problems. I laughed when one of my friends said that she does not wear her glasses when she harvests to avoid seeing aphids on the plants.
I am still a vegetable-gardening beginner but I highly recommend the experience. I get so much satisfaction from watching a tiny seed grow into a productive plant.
Garden Tour: The Master Gardeners of Napa County invite you to attend their sixth garden tour, “Down the Garden Path,” on Sunday, September 13. On this self-guided educational tour, you will see seven gardens owned by Master Gardeners in and around the City of Napa. These gardens illustrate how Napa County Master Gardeners use University of California research-based horticultural information to develop and maintain their own gardens. Tickets: $30 advance / $35 day of event. Purchase tickets here: http://bit.ly/1fqLJZe. Or you can purchase tickets at the Master Gardener office (address below). For more information, call 707-253-4143.
Workshop: Napa County Master Gardeners will present a workshop on “Cool-Season Vegetables” on Saturday, August 22, from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., at the University of California Cooperative Extension office, 1710 Soscol Avenue, Napa. Discover the joy of a vegetable harvest from your own garden in fall, winter, and early spring before those summer vegetables would even think of growing. Topics include soil preparation, watering, fertilizing, harvesting and managing pests.Online registration (credit card only)Mail-in registration (cash or check only). The Napa Master Gardeners are on Facebook.
Other crops that gardeners will be enjoying this month include beets, carrots, shallots, peppers, eggplant, summer squash, potatoes, sweet corn, cucumbers, melons, endive, lettuce, peas and beans of all varieties. If you have more than you can use, consider donating to the county food bank, or call the U. C. Cooperative Extension office (707-253-4221) for canning, pickling, freezing and drying techniques to preserve your fruits and vegetables. You will welcome these fresh tastes of summer in the dark of winter.
One sign of a beginning gardener is a reluctance to pick the fruits of one's labor. But as experienced gardeners know, harvesting vegetables, herbs and flowers often encourages the plant to produce a new flush of growth. The reason plants make fruits and flowers is to ultimately produce seed. When you harvest your garden's bounty, many of your plants will make another effort to produce seed. The result is often a whole new crop.
Between enjoying and preserving your harvest, keep up with watering and fertilizing. After a few hot August days, a morning or two of fog from the coast often cools our valley, but the garden's water needs remain high. Patrol your garden each day to note how plants are doing. A wilting plant may mean a clogged water emitter, or a critter eating roots or tunneling beneath.
Weeds have often gone to seed by now. Remove them carefully to avoid spreading their spawn across your planting beds. I like to sneak up on big, seedy weeds with an open garbage bag and a sharp pair of shears. I slip the garbage bag over the head of the weeds, gently closing the bag around it and then snip or pull out the rest of the plant. My method contains the seeds and saves me time scraping them out of the bed again when they germinate after fall rains.
Now is the time to till beds for fall plantings. After removing the weeds, dig in well-composted organic matter and add fertilizer if needed. U. C. Extension recommends composting and aging any fresh manure, including chicken, cow and horse manure, before you add it to your garden beds. If you buy bags of manure at your local garden center, it has usually been aged. Give your beds a thorough soaking, and then let them rest at least a week before planting your next crop.
Ready to start producing compost at home from your garden and kitchen waste? Good soil is important to all gardens, and the best amendment for all soil types is compost. Compost lightens our heavy Napa County clay soils, helps soil retain water, increases microbial action (a good thing) and furnishes or replaces nutrients necessary for plants to grow. To learn how to make your own compost, come to the Napa County Master Gardener workshops on August 23 in St. Helena and September 6 in Yountville. (Details follow.)
Except for peas, which can be planted directly in the garden now, most winter crops are heavy feeders. Sweet peas and edible peas both fix nitrogen, the element most other plants need.
If you had peas or beans in your summer beds, consider replacing them with autumn cole crops, such as Brussels sprouts, cabbages, collards, or kale. You can start seeds for these vegetables now, or buy seedlings next month to plant out then.
Seeds can go directly in the ground now for your winter kitchen garden.
Carrots, turnips, rutabagas, chard and Asian greens can all be sown directly in the garden now, as can almost of the lettuces, mustards and endives.
Spring-sown annual flowers might be looking a little peaked by now. Cut them back or pull them; cut back perennials when they finish blooming.
The season for garden color is not over. For instant gratification, set out petunias, chrysanthemums, marigolds, zinnias, wax begonias and bedding dahlias for color until frost. Sow seeds of calendulas, poppies, primrose, violas, wildflowers, sweetpeas, and snapdragons for late winter and early spring blossoms.
If your mulch is getting thin in spots, plump it up now. Mulch will help keep weeds down and soil from eroding when the rains finally come.
Workshop: Join Napa County Master Gardeners for a “Back to School, Back to the Garden” workshop on Saturday, August 9, from 10:15 a.m.to 12:15 p.m., at the U. C. Master Gardener Demonstration Garden, Connolly Ranch Education Center, 3141 Browns Valley Road in Napa.
The back-to-school season is a busy time for students, teachers and parents alike. Mid-August is also the best time to start planning the fall and winter garden. This workshop will introduce participants to the concept of year-round garden planning based on the school calendar. It will include many family-friendly activities that can fit into a short amount of time in the evenings or weekends to ensure a successful year-round harvest.Demonstrations and activities include: making compostable seed pots, creating a soil-less seed-starting medium, preparing to start crops from seed, sowing two kinds of kale, and transplanting fall/winter crops into the garden. This workshop is suitable for parents, teachers and children (if accompanied by an adult). Bring a hat, gloves, trowel (optional) and water bottle. Online registration (credit card only)
Mail in registration (cash or check only)
Workshop: Napa County Master Gardeners will conduct a workshop on “Cool Season Veggies” on Sunday, August 17, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., at the Yountville Community Center, 6516 Washington Street, Yountville. The workshop repeats on Saturday, August 23, at U.C. Cooperative Extension, 1710 Soscol, Napa. Grow your own vegetables even when days are short and nights are cold. Learn which vegetables thrive in cooler temperatures, how to protect them from heat when they are getting started, and how to time planting to ensure months of harvest. To register for the Yountville class, call the Parks & Recreation Department at 707-944-8712 or visit their web site. To register for the Napa workshop: 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? Find us on Facebook under UC Master Gardeners of Napa County.
Napa County Master Gardeners welcome the public to visit their demonstration garden at Connolly Ranch on Thursdays, from 10:00 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.
If you have ever noticed that your zucchini plants start to form little squash, only to have the fruit wither and fall off, the culprit could be that some of your garden partners aren't doing their job. Squash and their relatives in the cucurbitaceae family, cucumbers and melons, require a pollinator such as bees to set fruit.
Look closely at the blossoms and you will notice that there are two kinds on these plants. Male or staminate blossoms have simple, straight stems, while female or pistillate flowers have a small, fruit-like receptacle at the base of the flower. To set fruit, pollen from male flowers must be transferred to the female flowers. If your local bees or other insects have not visited your zucchini plant, no squash will form.
You can compensate for this lack by doing the pollinating yourself. Using your finger or a brush, gather some pollen from the male flowers and put it gently onto the female flowers. It's best to do this in the morning when blossoms first open, as they are only viable for the first 24 hours. To encourage bees, avoid using insecticides of all types and consider planting bee-friendly flowering plants near or among your vegetable crops.
I plant my tomatoes together so I can set up a watering system that meets their specific needs: regular deep watering about once a week. So why do all of the plants look healthy and strong except for one, which is wilting?
By poking around into the soil at the base of the plant, I find that the watering system has not failed, but that the roots have been disturbed by gopher activity, drying the plant roots by exposing them to air. Shoving moist soil and compost into the tunnels can usually rescue plants that have been disturbed in this way, especially if they were mature plants with large root systems.
Do your cucumbers taste bitter? Researchers have found that bitterness in cucumbers is due to a chemical compound called cucurbitacin. Production of this compound is controlled mostly by genetics, and appears to vary from year to year and from location to location.
The first line of defense is to plant cucumbers that don't produce the chemical compound. I think one reason lemon cucumbers are a popular heirloom variety is that they are seldom bitter. If you do have a cucumber variety that tastes bitter, note that the cucurbitacin is likely to concentrate in the stem end of the cucumber as well as in and just under the skin. You can cut off those parts and still enjoy the fruit.
If you are growing lettuce in the summer, it too can become bitter as it ages. Lettuce is a cool-season vegetable and prefers temperatures below 80 degrees. When the weather gets warm, lettuce will start to produce a flowering stalk, and at that point the leaves will taste bitter.
Since you can't leave lettuce in the summer garden for long, plant small amounts a few weeks apart and harvest the plants regularly before they get too old. Planting lettuce where it will be shaded in the afternoons can help keep it from bolting too soon. Also, if you like crisp lettuce for your salads, pick and refrigerate your lettuce in the morning. If you wait to pick in the afternoon, the leaves will be somewhat limp.
If you planted melons, the big question is, are they ripe yet? Many types of melons, such as cantaloupe, signal their ripeness by “slipping." A slight crack completely circles the stem where it is attached to the fruit. If the fruit comes off easily, leaving a smooth cavity, the fruit is ready to eat.
Some types of melons, such as Crenshaw, casaba, and honeydew, do not slip. Watch fruit for a change in color, usually to yellow, and feel the blossom end to see if it is softening. Some melons give off a wonderful aroma when ripe.
Watermelons are a different genus from other melons, and assessing ripeness is different. Rapping the side of the fruit with your knuckles is a tried and true technique. A light or metallic sound indicates that the fruit is still green. A dull, hollow sound indicates ripeness. Watermelons also will have a white or yellow spot where the fruit rested on the ground, and tendrils close to the fruit will darken and dry up.
Napa County Master Gardeners are ready to answer these and all your garden questions, all summer long. Enjoy your summer produce.
Workshop: Napa County Master Gardeners will conduct a workshop on “Cool Season Veggies” on Sunday, August 17, 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. Learn which vegetables thrive in cooler temperatures, how to protect them from heat when they are getting started, and how to time planting to ensure months of harvest. To register, call the Parks & Recreation Department at 707-944-8712 or visit their web site. Workshop fee is $10 for Yountville residents, $12 for others.
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.
Napa County Master Gardeners welcome the public to visit their demonstration garden at Connolly Ranch on Thursdays, from 10:00 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.
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.
