By Susanne von Rosenberg, UC Master Gardener of Napa County
It's the middle of October, we haven't had any rain yet, and I'm working on and thinking about my spring vegetable garden. How can that be?
First of all, the middle of October is more or less the latest time that you can get some cool- season vegetable seedlings into the ground. Most of them, such as the brassicas (broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and kale), will not mature before the cold weather sets in. However, they will get a head start in becoming established, develop a strong root system and reward you with rapid growth as soon as the days lengthen and warm up in the spring.
You can still get in one more round of some leafy crops such as fast-growing lettuce or Asian greens. Even if they don't get as big as they would if we had more sunlight and warmth, they will still form a harvestable crop by mid- to late November. Make sure that you protect your little darlings from birds and other critters. At this time of year, anything green and juicy is appealing to wildlife.
Another part of planning for my spring vegetable garden is deciding where to put those October vegetable starts. That means deciding which of my summer crops are ready to come out. This is a good time of year to harvest the last of your tomatoes and cut the plants to the ground or remove them. Tomatoes that ripen later are generally not very tasty and also more likely to succumb to diseases.
Similarly, my pole beans are largely exhausted and ready to be removed. I can't take out all of my squash plants yet because a few are still ripening fruit. However, those that have yielded enough or have only very immature fruits are also coming out. By the way, you can treat those very young winter squash like summer squash; they are edible and tasty.
Because I'm a great fan of cucumbers, I usually coax my cucumber plants as far into the fall as I can. You may also have vegetables that you just really don't want to let go of. That's part of the planning process as well. If you're saving seeds for next year, remember to do that before you remove the plants.
Not all of my summer vegetable plants have to come out at the same time because I don't need all that space for planting. The areas that I'll be planting next spring are great candidates for growing cover crops right now. I like to use fava beans, which are easy to plant. You can eat the young leaves (steamed like spinach) and the flowers (fun in salads), and you can leave some of the flowers to develop into fava beans. I usually like to let the plants mature in those areas where I'll put warm-season crops in late April or May.
Another thing I like to do in the fall is to refresh my vegetable beds, if needed. I have hardware cloth (often referred to as gopher wire) underneath all of my vegetable beds. This year, the gophers broke through in one bed and took out my acorn squash and mini pumpkins.
The other aspect of my spring-garden planning is determining what to plant where and when. I figure out when I need to plant various seeds or seedlings so I can harvest a crop around a certain time. Then I plot where I want to put those plants. I always rotate crops. It's important not to grow plants from the same family in the same spot every year. Crop rotation helps control pests and diseases and also helps balance the nutrient demand in the garden.
Once I know where those plants are going and when, I can decide where to put cover crops and which ones I'll leave in place to harvest. Then I check my seed supply. I make sure that I have the ones I want and that they are fresh enough to use. Some seeds, like lettuce seeds, don't last long, so it's best to purchase new seed ever year. I don't know anyone who plants a full packet of lettuce seeds every year, unless they are growing them as baby lettuce. If you know you won't need all those seeds, consider sharing with friends.
Most brassica seeds, as well as summer vegetable seeds such as tomatoes, squash, melons and beans, are viable for two years. When seeds get too old, they don't sprout as well, and even if they sprout the plants they produce won't be as vigorous. By knowing which vegetable seeds I need, I can order early to make sure I get the seeds I want and they arrive on time.
As you can see, even though the warm weather is winding down, there is still a lot going on in the garden.
Food Growing Forum: Last Sunday of the month through October. Register to get Zoom link at: http://ucanr.edu/foodgrowingforum2020
Sunday, October 25, 3 pm to 4 pm, “Planting Onions, Leeks and Other Alliums and What Else to Do Now”
Napa Library Talks: First Thursday of each month. Register to get Zoom link. http://ucanr.edu/wildlifehabitat2020
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 http://napamg.ucanr.edu or find us on Facebook or Instagram, UC Master Gardeners of Napa County.
By Iris Craig, U. C. Master Gardener of Napa County
January is a month for setting intentions, and many of us set intentions for our gardens. For some of us, the big goal is to be more organized.
How can you improve the organization of your winter garden? One way is to keep a journal. Describe the weather, your maintenance, what you planted and when you harvested. Your journal can include a photo or drawing of the garden for each month. By keeping track of what is going on in your garden, you start to see patterns.
You can also schedule tasks so you complete them at the best time. In most areas of the country, winter is a time when gardens rest. In Napa County, a winter garden can be just as much fun to care for and as productive as in June. Plus, you can turn off the irrigation and allow rain to water the garden for you. Tasks that are best accomplished in winter include replacing your lawn, planting annual flowers for color, planting bare-root trees or shrubs, improving your soil and caring for fruit trees.
Good soil enables plant growth. To preserve your soil structure, refrain from walking on it or tilling it while it is wet.
We can affect climate change through our soil maintenance practices. Soil is an ecosystem itself. It can sequester carbon, making it a carbon reservoir. Over-tilling soil tends to deplete it of organic matter and reduce the ability of plants to absorb water.
To protect and improve your soil, and to sequester carbon, plant a cover crop. Cover crops reduce soil compaction and protect the soil from erosion. They improve soil structure, increase organic matter and fix nitrogen.
Common cover crops include fava beans and other legumes. Legumes add nitrogen, and nitrogen is the main plant nutrient commonly lacking in our soils.
Another good cover crop is lacy phacelia (Phacelia tanacetifolia). It is in the borage family, native to California and grows well. It attracts bees and blooms all winter. Cover crops compete with weeds, often choking them out. However, while the soil is damp, you can easily control weeds by hand.
Should you decide to remove a lawn, now is the ideal time. You can use the lasagna method. Instead of digging out sod, cover it with sheets of cardboard topped with soil and mulch. The rain and soil organisms will do the rest. Within three to four months, you will find rich soil in place of the lawn.
With planning, you can have blooming plants in your garden all year. Choose shrubs that blossom in winter and plant them as soon as the soil is dry enough to work. (It should be crumbly.) Flowers for winter bloom include primroses (Primula vulgarius), violas, Iceland poppies, pot marigolds (Calendula) and sweet William (Dianthus). All will bloom early and tend to last through the rainy season. You can plant them in a container or planter box if the soil is too wet.
If you plan for it in late summer, you can have a winter vegetable garden in Napa County. Suitable vegetables include bok choy, kale, mustard greens and Swiss chard, as well as broccoli and cauliflower. You can also plant root vegetables in early fall for winter harvest; consider beets, carrots, turnips, kohlrabi and radishes.
If you missed this window, begin planning your spring garden. You can start many leafy spring vegetables from seed now and transplant the seedlings into the garden in early to mid-March. Most root vegetables should be sown directly in planting beds.
If you have frost-sensitive plants, such as citrus trees, or want to get a head start on your spring vegetable garden, protect your garden from frost with burlap or floating row cover. Create a frame with plastic tubing to drape the fabric and prevent it from touching plants. Anchor the fabric to the ground to keep out snails and birds. Remove burlap every morning so the plants can receive sun during the day. You can leave floating row cover in place; it warms the soil on sunny days.
To get more organized in your garden, consult the Master Gardeners publication, “A Month-by-Month Guide to Gardening in Napa County.” It makes gardening recommendations for each month and includes a section where you can record important information. The publication is available for purchase in the Master Gardener office (address below).
Next workshop: “Flowers and Foliage for the House, growing Flowers for Bouquets” on Saturday, April 27, from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., at the University of California Cooperative Extension, 1710 Soscol Avenue, Napa. For more details & online Registration go to http://napamg.ucanr.edu or call 707-253-4221
The UC Master Gardeners of Napa County are volunteers who provide UC research-based information on home gardening and answer your questions. To find out more about upcoming programs or to ask a garden question, visit the Master Gardener website (http://napamg.ucanr.edu) or call (707) 253-4221 between 9 a.m. and noon on Mondays, Wednesdays or Fridays.
By David Layland, U. C. Master Gardener of Napa County
Climate change, also called global warming, has been in the news lately because of the devastating wildfires in Northern and Southern California. Climate change refers to the rise in average surface temperatures and is due primarily to the use of fossil fuels which releases carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the air.
The gases trap heat within the atmosphere, which can have a range of effects on the environment including rising sea levels, severe weather events, and droughts that render landscapes more susceptible to wildfires.
There are two ways to mitigate the environmental damage done by fossil fuels. The most common way is to reduce the use of fossil fuels—by driving a hybrid or electric car, for example, or using solar or wind power. The second way, carbon sequestration, involves pulling carbon out of the air and storing it in the ground.
I don't drive a hybrid or electric car but I do have solar power. It provides 90 percent of my electricity at home so I've done something toward lowering emissions.
Carbon sequestration is new to me. In researching what I could do to help pull carbon out of the air, I discovered that I'm already using several carbon-sequestration practices in my garden. To some extent, these practices are what organic gardeners have been doing for a long time.
Make compost: One of the primary differences between organic and conventional gardening can be boiled down to a simple change in perspective: Instead of worrying about feeding the plants, we should worry first about feeding the soil. Take care of the soil and the plants will take care of themselves.
By composting all of our food scraps and garden waste, we aren't just providing valuable nutrients for plants. We are providing food for a huge ecosystem of bacteria, fungi and insects, all of which help to absorb carbon from the environment and keep it locked up in the soil. You can add cardboard and other paper-based waste to your compost, too. High-fiber composting works, and it's another way to lock up some CO2.
Don't dig: Many old-school gardeners may scoff at the idea of no-dig gardening, but there are good reasons to abandon the rototiller and dig only when necessary. No-dig gardening could have a significant impact on preserving soil carbon.
By slowing down the rate of decomposition in the soil, you help increase soil carbon and save yourself some labor. More than 15 years ago I purchased a rototiller because I thought I “needed” one for my garden and vineyard. I used it for a few years, until I realized I didn't need it. It sat under a tarp for a few more years until I found a new home for it.
That was an expensive lesson. Not using a gas-powered rototiller also means you are not using fossil fuels and are not spewing pollutants into the atmosphere. And you're not killing the hard-working earthworms that are improving your soil health.
When you refrain from tilling, you avoid exposing the soil to excess oxygen and sunlight. You can achieve the same thing by mulching, but an even better way is to plant cover crops, or so-called green manures, which can later be hoed in or mowed down. Doing so will add carbon to the soil while helping the root system keep soil in place. Cover crops also provide a habitat for soil life when you don't have edible crops.
Lose the lawn: This recommendation was easy for me. Before my wife and I moved to Napa, we had a lawn that was more than an acre and, of course, we had a riding lawnmower. After four years of mowing this lawn I never wanted to have another one.
The standard lawn requires a considerable amount of costly maintenance, water and chemicals if you want that green carpet to look perfect. There are many environmentally-friendly alternatives to a lawn. In Napa, I opted for decomposed granite. There's no maintenance and the permeable surface allows water to reach the soil. I added a few drought-tolerant plants for color and trees to shade the house. And I'm saving fossil fuels by not using a gas-powered lawnmower.
Grow lots of stuff (except a lawn): To store the maximum carbon, always keep the soil surface covered with growing things such as trees, turf, vegetables, flowers and cover crops. The more variety, the better. Grow plants with deep, extensive root systems and coarse, woody roots; shallow, fine roots decompose too easily. If I had it to do over again, I might not use as much decomposed granite as I did. At the time, I was focused on lawn alternatives, not on carbon sequestration.
So there you have some tools for carbon sequestration at home. Now go out there and do your part to fight climate change.
Workshop: U. C. Master Gardeners of Napa County will host a workshop on “Rose Pruning” on Saturday, January 13, from 10 a.m. to noon, at University of California Cooperative Extension, 1710 Soscol Avenue, Napa. Why do we prune roses? Is winter the only time to do it? What will happen if we don't? Should hybrid teas be pruned differently from floribundas? Join the Master Gardener Rose Team at this popular forum where resident experts will answer your questions about basic rose pruning fundamentals with research-based information. Topics include rose types, how and when to prune, what tools to use and how to care for them, safety and sanitation. No doubt each Master Gardener will have some suggestions for new plantings, too. Online registration (credit card only);Mail-in/Walk-in registration(check only or drop off cash payment).
Master Gardeners are volunteers who help the University of California reach the gardening public with home gardening information. U. C. Master Gardeners of Napa County ( http://ucanr.edu/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.
By Denise Levine, U. C. Master Gardener of Napa County
October is a colorful month filled with ripe but dwindling summer produce. Tomatoes are at their reddest, hoarded and appreciated; peppers are hot crimson and sweetly gold. Cucumbers are finally big, but the vines are slowing down. Squash and melon plants have sprawled and are looking spent and ready to come out.
But the first peas are big enough to pick, figs both black and white are ripe for the picking, and days are cool enough that lettuce and radishes are beginning to thrive again.
Pull out your bare-root fruit tree catalogs or call local nurseries for lists of the trees they will be offering this winter. Take advantage of October's mild days to prepare holes for the apple, peach, plum and pear trees you want to purchase bare-root in January, when the soil may be too waterlogged. You will thank yourself in January if you do this work now. Then your rainy-season planting will be easy and successful.
October is also a good month to order compost and have it delivered. Heavy trucks will compact softened, rain-soaked soils and leave you with deep ruts to remember them by.
Are we getting at least an inch of rain a week this month? If not, continue watering shrubs and plants. Feed citrus and other shrubs such as azalea and camellia. They are all prone to chlorosis (yellowing) from iron deficiency. A trip to your favorite nursery or garden center for chelated iron may be in order.
Yellowing in other leafy plants is often a sign of nitrogen deficiency. Diluted fish emulsion, applied with a watering can, will typically “green up” leafy plants and give them a new flush of growth. But as winter approaches, the Master Gardener Month-to-Month Guide recommends feeding the vegetable garden one more time with an ammonium form of nitrogen to reduce leaching when the rains come. Your garden center can show you the options.
Are you lucky enough to have a big garden or good-sized beds? Are you replenishing this soil with cover crops yet? If you now have bare beds that produced melons, corn or other crops all summer, consider planting a cover crop to grow through winter.
Cover crops, also called green manures, protect your soil from erosion caused by winter rains. They pull up minerals deep in the soil, making them accessible to future crops. And they serve as a living mulch, smothering weeds, creating habitat for worms and other soil-forming organisms and providing pleasing visual texture through cold gray months.
For your green manure, consider fava beans, golden mustard with its sunny yellow blooms, or oats or barley planted with clover. University of California Cooperative Extension has helpful information on cover cropping for the home gardener (http://ucce.ucdavis.edu/files/filelibrary/5842/25997.pdf). Plant cover crops now so they can grow through winter. In spring, till them into the soil. Three weeks later, the green biomass will have decomposed and the beds will be ready to plant.
Clean up your vegetable and flower garden this month and eliminate hiding places for pests and diseases. Rake up and discard fallen fruits and vegetables and spent annuals like zinnias and sunflowers. Start a new compost pile. Making these efforts now will mean fewer hiding places for snails and slugs and new soil for your garden when you need it next spring.
Now is a good time to dig up and divide crowded perennials like Shasta daisies, agapanthus, nepeta, daylilies or echinacea. Give extra plants to friends for their gardens, or expand your own beds.
If your dahlias look unhappy, let them die back and then gently dig them up and store them where they will not freeze. Keep them dry; do not wash them off or they could rot or become diseased before replanting in spring.
Chrysanthemums are still in their full autumn glory. Whether you cut them by the armfuls for indoor bouquets or enjoy them outside, examine them closely for aphids. If you spot these pests, wash them off with a good blast of water from your hose or spray bottle. Repeat diligently until you no longer spy them.
Continue planting your vegetable garden. Sow seeds of fava beans, carrots, spinach, lettuce and arugula, and plant seedlings of cabbages, Brussels sprouts, broccoli and cauliflower. All of these brassicas appreciate a floating row cover to thwart moths, aphids, birds and critters.
Native Plant Sale: U.C. Master Gardeners of Napa County will have an information table at the California Native Plant Society Napa Chapter's plant sale on Saturday, October 15, and Sunday, October 16, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., at the Martha Walker Native Garden in Skyline Park in Napa. Volunteers from both organizations will help you choose the right native plants for any spot in your garden. The preview party for CNPS members and guests is Friday, October 14, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., at Skyline Park.
Master Gardeners are volunteers who help the University of California reach the gardening public with home gardening information. U. C. Master Gardeners of Napa County ( http://ucanr.edu/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.