Advice To Grow By Workshop -Winter Chores and Tool Maintenance

By Andrea Peck  Master Gardener

As winter sinks her icy claws into our coastal landscape, you may be wondering how to keep your garden at its holiday best. This month’s Advice to Grow By workshop addresses your winter garden concerns. Tool maintenance will be demonstrated as a bonus. The workshop, put on by the University of California Master Gardeners, will be held on Saturday at 10 a.m. in the Garden of the Seven Sisters, located at 2156 Sierra Way, San Luis Obispo. Bring a comfortable chair, a notepad and be prepared to take notes.

 Did you lose a plant last year to frost? There are many ways to protect plants from freezing weather. The Master Gardeners can show you tried and true methods, plus answer your questions on this topic. Interested in saving on your water bill? Find out how to get the most out of the rainy season. Winter is the time to alter water schedules and adjust irrigation systems. As you look around your garden, you may be disturbed by plants that look dead.  Before putting up a “for rent” sign on those empty garden spaces, learn about dormant plant care. Did you know plants love to be kept warm with a blanket of mulch? Mulch also keeps erosion at bay and retains moisture. Winter is a great time to prune. Come and find out which plants and trees appreciate a good winter thinning. Learn how to keep the garden in tip-top shape to discourage pests and decrease the spread of disease.

Tools, often neglected, or used and replaced without a second thought, will get their day of pampering at this workshop. Come and learn how to sharpen and clean those steady workers. You’ll go home with a new appreciation of those “extensions of your arm.” Maybe you’ll even learn about a new tool or two to add to your quiver.

Get the most out of the workshop. Wear comfortable clothing and sunscreen and please park in the lot adjacent to the demonstration garden. Most of all, enjoy!

photo by Noni Todd

Advice To Grow By Workshop

Winter Chores & Tool Maintenance!

Come and join the San Luis Obispo County Master Gardeners for their monthly Advice To Grow By workshop on Saturday November 17th from 10:00 am to Noon.

This workshop will have two topics covering the basic chores for winter preparation of your garden, as well as a demonstration of tool sharpening and maintenance.  Winter garden preparation will cover protecting sensitive plants, adjusting irrigation schedules, dormant plant care, and more. So come on out and join us in the Garden of the Seven Sisters and learn how to make your garden winter ready! 

If it is raining the workshop is held in the auditorium next to the garden.

The UCCE Garden of the Seven Sisters is located at 2156 Sierra Way in San Luis Obispo. 

See you in the garden!

November Chores

By Ann Dozier Master Gardener

I’m cleaning up my garden and pulling out summer tomatoes and squash.  Can I plant in November for a harvest of winter vegetables?  Dan P. Arroyo Grande

In winter, a sunny plot can grow beets, carrots onions, peas, chard, onions, radishes and turnips from seed.  Seedling plants would be a better choice for slower developing broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower. In mild coastal areas, you could grow various salad greens, though it’s probably too cold in North County for tender lettuce to survive. 

In planning your garden, remember you can discourage soil borne pests by not planting crops from the same family in the same spot for two years running. If your problem with root disease is serious, you might even consider a four-year crop rotation; e.g. corn, tomatoes, squash, beans.

If you should decide against growing winter vegetables this year, you might plant a cover crop of clover, fava beans, rye or vetch to enrich the soil for next season’s veggies. 

 After you have cleaned up the vegetable garden, give the rest of your garden a clean-up.  Rake up leaves, cut back grasses and perennials. You can still divide perennials like iris and daylilies before frosts. Cut back berry canes to the ground, leaving new young canes to bear next year’s fruit. Late fall is a good time to plant biennial flowers like hollyhocks, Canterbury Bells and foxglove – they need cold weather to produce a good show next spring.

You can also add some flowers to your winter garden. Narcissus of all kinds can be planted until late fall (until Christmas along the coast). They will naturalize in spots where they are happy – give them well drained soil and avoid regular summer water.  If you want to plant tulips and hyacinths for spring bloom, bulbs should be purchased now and chilled in the refrigerator for six weeks before planting out.

Finish up fall garden chores by mulching everything. A good layer of mulch will keep down weeds and make them easy to pull when they do appear. It will retain moisture if this is a dry winter and prevent erosion if big storms arrive.

Cover Crops

by Andrea Peck  Master Gardener

If you’ve been keeping up on your fall chores, your garden has been raked and trimmed. The last of your tomato plants have been plucked. Your compost bin is full of summer detritus and even the minutest of pest hiding spots are done away with. Your garden beds are clean as a whistle while they lay idle for spring.

 Suddenly, the garden appears a bit sterile and well, clean.

But, there is a solution: Cover crops. Like a good renter, cover crops use your bed for a short time and actually improve the plot while they’re there. Cover crops to sow during autumn include berseem clover, rose clover,  crimsom clover, fieldpeas, sweet clover,  vetch and cereal grasses  such as, barley, oat, rye and wheat.

While you are renting your beds out, you can expect a number of benefits. Cover crops increase water permeability and nutrient holding capacity by creating looser, more porous soil. They compete with weeds, thereby lessening their hold, while reducing soil borne diseases.   Great for erosion and dust control, and reduction of muddy areas, cover crops attract beneficial insects and nematode worms. Legume cover crops provide nitrogen to the soil as an extra perk.  All that and they provide a bit of life during the darker winter months.

By the time spring arrives, your beds will be far from empty. From here, you can do one of two things: you can till your crop into the soil and wait a few weeks for decomposition to take place. Keep in mind, planting is not recommended at this time because a temporary shortage of nitrogen will occur during the decomposition process. Alternatively, you can cut and pull out your renters and deposit them into the compost bin for later use. With this method, you can plant away.