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Day-to-day life in the garden

Gifts for Gardeners

11/18/2020

 
With the holiday season nearly upon us and shelter-in-place orders on the rise (with good reason), finding the right gifts for those nearest and dearest to our hearts can be difficult. For the gardeners on your list, this should help.
Hand tools

Hand tools are invaluable to the gardener, and they have a big impact on how easy the work can be. When shopping for hand tools, avoid the flashy, inexpensive models. The rubberized handles become sticky, blades come apart from their handles, and the edges are either too dull to be useful, or they start rusting as soon as you use them. Instead, invest in high quality, well made tools.

​This set was a splurge gift that I use every single day. They are comfortable in my hand, have enough weight that the tools do most of the work, and, hey, they look fantastic! One well-made, high quality hand tool can easily become a favorite of the gardener in your life. This is a gift that will be used for many years.
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Fisher Blacksmithing garden tools
Seed collections

To a gardener, seeds present a world of opportunity. And you can create a custom seed collection that won’t break your bank and is sure to delight the gardener in your life. You can create a seed collection around any theme. Here are just a few ideas:
  • purple produce: purple beans, cauliflower, kale, and peas looks great in the garden and they are easy to find, come harvest time
  • tea party collection: combine chamomile, lemon balm, mint, and other fragrant tea-related seeds along with a tin of shortbread cookies
  • herbs often make the meal and you can provide the seeds to grow the herbs in Italian, Mexican, Asian, and many other favorite menus
  • native wildflowers: search online for a list of flowers native to your region and help your gardener friend increase biodiversity and pollination rates, while making their garden look lovely
  • pizza garden seeds: it may not include pepperoni and mozzarella, but basil, oregano, tomato, and pepper seeds are always welcome!
  • salad garden seeds: there are plenty of different lettuces and other salad greens to choose from, plus cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, and maybe even some groundcherries
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Purple cauliflower (Kate Russell)
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Fresh salad greens! (Kate Russell)
Really, you are limited only by your own imagination and the recipient’s climate. Pack the seeds in a nice sturdy harvesting basket or make them a seed box and you can be sure they will enjoy your gift.

​Gloves

Gardeners go through gloves. Seriously. This is something we buy on a pretty regular basis. Personally, I don’t know about those strange looking claw-tipped gloves, they give me the creeps, but a nice pair of breathable, rubber- or latex-coated gloves are sure to come in handy. And a pair of heavy duty work gloves are always nice to have on hand.
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Seed box (Kate Russell)
Trees and shrubs

Winter is a good time to order bare root trees and shrubs. Fruit and nut trees provide a bounty for many years and your gardener friend will be delighted at your thoughtfulness. Just be sure that the tree or shrub you select matches the number of chill hours your recipient’s garden gets before you buy.

A basket of bulbs

A nice basket filled with saffron crocus, tulip, garlic, and onion bulbs can add color and edibles to your friend's spring and autumn garden.

Work benches, knee pads, and tool belts

As we get older, all that bending and kneeling can get difficult. Portable benches and kneelers are available with handy pockets for tools, allowing gardeners to sit or kneel more comfortably as they work the soil. Knee pads can provide relief and allow your gardener friend to stay at their hobby longer.

Moisture meters, soil tests, and other tech

I’d love to tell you that those bug hotels make great gifts, but they don’t. Not in the long run. As charming as they look online (and in the garden), they often end up harboring diseases and I do not recommend them. Instead, you can help your gardener friend attract beneficial insects with insectary plants or seeds.

Moisture meters are excellent garden tools and they aren’t expensive. Help the gardener in your life conserve water while ensuring that their plants get the moisture they need. [You may want to order one for yourself, while you’re at it!]

Soil tests are invaluable at helping gardeners provide for their plants, but those colorful little plastic tubes are not the way to go. Instead, reach out to a local (to your recipient) soil test lab and get a gift certificate for your loved one.

Solar lights add a nice touch to gardens, as do many types of garden art. Just make sure that you are not adding toxins to your loved one’s vegetable patch with your gift. Birdbaths and trellising make nice gifts, too.
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Bird baths attract a variety of local birds (Kate Russell)
Self-watering containers are great for areas with super hot summers, food-grade garden hoses and soaker hoses are always nice, and your gardener friend may even want to try their hand at raising worms! Or, honey bees!

For the children
​
Seeds and child-sized tools can be a great way to introduce gardening to the youngsters on your holiday shopping list. They will get a lot out of the experience (and your company!) as they plant their very own sunflowers, radishes, and peas, or create a storybook garden themed after their favorite bedtime story.

Shopping for gardeners is, in my opinion, a lot easier than shopping for tech enthusiasts. You don’t have to be knowledgeable about gardening to be able to pick great gifts.

What’s your favorite gardening gift?

Getting Help in the Garden

10/28/2020

 
Gone are the days of barn raisings and community grain harvests, which is unfortunate. But that doesn’t mean you have to do all your garden work by yourself.
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A barn raising, DeKalb County, Indiana, USA, about 1900 (J.E. Curtis) Public Domain
Let’s face it - gardening is work. It’s work that we enjoy, certainly, but sometimes we need a little help. Knowing where to look and how to ask for help doesn’t come naturally to everyone. This should help.

For the big jobs, like irrigation systems and tree work, you are better off calling in the professionals. Tree work can be very dangerous. It requires special training and equipment. As a bonus, after an arborist works on your trees, be sure to ask them for a free load of wood chips. Arborist chips make an excellent mulch that retains moisture, reduces weeds, stabilizes soil temperatures, and ultimately feeds the soil and improves soil structure. Installing irrigation systems, ponds, and similar big projects require skills that many of us do not have. Ask friends and neighbors for local referrals.
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Arborist (Capella Tree Service) CC BY-SA 4.0
If all you need is information, the Internet and your local library can be very helpful. Librarians are trained professionals who are very good at finding information and they can help you track down the books you need to become a better gardener. Most libraries currently offer drive-by book exchanges.

When conducting an online search for gardening assistance, it helps to be as specific as possible. “What’s wrong with my tomatoes” is too generic. Instead, try typing “tomato leaf black spots” and you are sure to get helpful information about the fungal disease, Septoria leaf spot, and its prevention: remove infected leaves, provide good air flow, and avoid overhead watering. Just be sure to avoid the sensationalists and track down science-based information.
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EWULibraries CC BY-ND 2.0
Master Gardeners are another excellent resource. Many chapters offer helplines, by phone or online, to answer gardening questions. Master Gardeners are familiar with and knowledgeable about local plant pests, diseases, and other issues. Contact your local County Extension Office for more information. 

When you need more than information and less than a project manager, don’t be afraid to reach out to family, friends, and neighbors for help. All too often, we convince ourselves that no one wants to help us when, in fact, no one knows we need help. Simply by asking for a hand moving a heavy stone, digging a hole for a bare root tree, or figuring out a better way to trellis a grape vine, we might discover that that casual [masked] neighbor has shared interests and provides good conversation, along with help in the g
arden. Scouts, 4H, and other organizations may be able to help, as well. It doesn’t hurt to ask.
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Your neighbor's teen may need some pocket money (Pixnio) Public Domain
Finally, there are literally billions of helpers just waiting to be invited to your garden. They are ready, willing, and able to eat aphids, parasitize hornworms, and pollinate your crops. They are the insects. And you generally do not have to buy anything to coax these autonomous helpers to your garden.
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Carrot flowers attract hoverflies and other beneficial insects (Kate Russell)
Planting flowers, leaving wild spaces, and minimizing garden clean-up is all it takes. If your landscape provides pollen, nectar, prey, water, and shelter, beneficial insects will find your yard and get right to work, without any future effort on your part.

Who are you inviting to be part of your garden?

Yellow Sky Days

9/9/2020

 
If a global pandemic and a worrisome election weren’t problems enough, Colorado and many of the western states have been on fire for weeks, creating ominous yellow skies and a sense of foreboding.
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Smoke-filled sky (Kate Russell)
While there isn’t much we can do about any of it, besides wearing masks, maintaining social distance, voting intelligently, and practicing fire safe gardening, knowing more about how our plants are being affected can help us take better care of them.

Atmospheric adages

Many of us grew up with the old adage: Red sky at night, sailors delight. Red sky at morning, sailors take warning. Truth is, that quote comes to us from the Bible in a slightly different form, but for the same reasons: Red sky at night, shepherd’s delight.  Red sky in morning, shepherd’s warning.

In both cases, the redness of the sky is caused by particles in the atmosphere. Yellow, orange, red, and brown are longer wavelengths and they are able to pass through particles in the air. Blues and greens have a more difficult time. This is called Rayleigh scattering and it explains why sunsets are so colorful - the light has to pass through more of the Earth’s atmosphere, hitting more particles, so we get pinks and purples. But I digress.

According to the old saying, if there are a lot of particles floating around in the evening, clear weather is likely the next day. If the sky is red in the morning, it may mean a storm is on its way. But we don’t need old sayings or Spare the Air alerts to tell us something is wrong. Spending time outside this summer causes itchy, burning eyes, a raspy voice, and general ill ease, both physically and emotionally.

But what do these wildfire conditions do to your garden and landscape plants? Is it harmful or helpful? You might be surprised to learn that it can be both.

Not too long ago, forestry experts learned that controlled fires are an important part of forest ecosystem health. Some trees need fire to release their seeds. Fires kill pests and pathogens. They clear out dead and dying materials. Surprisingly, there are other benefits.

Smokey shade and photosynthesis

We all know that shade protects plants from sunscald. The smoke and other particles currently flying around in the air is providing similar protection for your plants. Of course, too much shade interferes with photosynthesis. Unless the smoke is really thick, rather than blocking sunlight, the particles diffuse sunlight, bouncing it around in more directions. This provides sunlight for photosynthesis to plant parts that don’t usually get enough sunlight to do much good.

Carbon and carbon dioxide

​Many of the particles found in wildfire smoke are carbon-based. There’s more carbon dioxide in the air. Plants use carbon for food and carbon dioxide in photosynthesis. To that degree, the fires and smoke are good for plants, but that’s probably where the benefits end.


Since more than trees and grasses are burning in all these fires, we have to assume that pollutants are also coating our plants (and us). These pollutants come from burning furniture, vehicles, plastics, and other man-made substances.

Also, research has shown that many of the normal substances found in wildfire smoke can cause several problems for plants:
  • destroy chlorophyll
  • reduce photosynthesis
  • deactivate the Calvin Cycle
  • disable antioxidant enzymes
  • interfere with proteins (K+ channels) responsible for sending electrical signals between cells

Fires and smoke can also result in atmospheric pressure changes and other conditions that cause plants to close their stomata. Stomata are, in essence, breathing holes. Fires also increase ground level ozone. Ozone is very bad for plants. Basically, once ozone enters a plant through the stomata, it is transformed into a reactive oxygen that breaks down cell membranes and damages the contents of cells. Symptoms of exposure to high concentrations of ozone include:
  • bronzing
  • flecking
  • reddening
  • stippling
Further exposure can lead to chlorosis, early senescence, and necrosis. Put another way, many plants are holding their breath, suffering ulcers, and their cell phones have died. It’s tough being a plant right now.
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New growth on lemon tree infested with leaf miners (Kate Russell)
If all that weren’t bad enough, stressed plants are more susceptible to pest infestations and infections. My perfectly healthy young lemon tree was inundated with leaf miners in just two days. I can’t help thinking it must have something to do with all the particulates in the air. I could be wrong, but it makes sense to me.

After the fires are gone

What about after everything gets back to normal? It’s all too easy to think that everything is okay once blue skies return, but that may be premature. Most of the pollutants and other particles that were floating around end up on the ground and on your plants. Rain and irrigation water washes those chemicals into the soil.

It’s a good idea to have your soil tested after a major fire episode to check for contaminants. It’s also a good idea to wash your produce even more thoroughly than normal. Just in case.

As for us mammals, just like our plants, we need to stay clean, hydrated, and protected.

Too Many Plants?

6/6/2020

 
Too many plants? How can that be?

There’s always room for that new variety of an old favorite, a gift plant from a fellow gardener, and all those seeds that beg to touch soil. How can a gardener say no? Is there such a thing as too many plants?
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Seed starting opens a world of possibilities! (Kate Russell)
Many gardening enthusiasts (myself included) seem to collect more and more plants until it starts getting difficult to find a place with enough sunlight and soil. But there is more to the idea of too many plants than simply real estate.

A matter of time

We may enjoy tending our plants, but there are only so many hours in a day. For people who work and have children, those hours are severely limited. Personally, I’m a housewife under quarantine. I have all the time in the world - you might think. But there are household chores, meals, dogs, chickens, converting this blog into a book, ZOOMing with chorus and friends, and playing video games online with my out of state son. All of these things take time. And this week, some of my plants paid the ultimate price for my limited attention.

Seedlings I had just put in the ground didn’t make it. It was one of those I-thought-he-watered, he-thought-I-watered situations. After just one day of scorching heat, there were casualties. That’s a shame, too, because of the time, soil, and water put into getting them started. Of course, by the time July rolls around, I’ll be so busy canning and freezing zucchinis and other summer squashes, tomatoes, beans, and apricots, that I probably won’t even notice the loss. But time lost is never regained and that’s the whole point of this post. Having too many plants, or the wrong sort of plants, can take its toll on gardeners of any skill level.

The wrong sort of plants

Just as the wrong sort of friends can lead you down paths you wished you hadn't taken, trying to grow the wrong sort of plants means wasted time, money, and water. How much time do you invest in battling invasive weeds? Do you regularly prune shrubs that you don’t even like? Do you find yourself nursing along plants that never seem to thrive? And what about plants that are not suited to where you live? My blueberries know they really belong in Maine someplace, not in an open expanse of California heat. And when summer heat hits, how much time do you have to spend watering to keep everything alive and healthy?

Water, a limited resource

The water may come out of your tap or spigot easily enough, but we all know that it’s a valuable resource and that there are limits to what we can responsibly use. This is especially true in drought-prone areas, such as California. Installing plants that use a lot of water means spending time watering those plants. Do you have an hour every morning in summer to water your garden? ​
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Hand watering at the base of plants reduces fungal disease and takes time (Kate Russell)
Limited real estate

Whether your garden consists of a strip of balcony or acres of farmland, there is a limit to the number of plants your space can handle. Cramming too many plants too closely together is an invitation to pests and diseases that will mean more work for you.

Stop fighting the same battles

​If you find yourself fighting the same battles on a regular basis, try a new attack. If f
ungal disease is a problem in your garden, space plants more widely and water at ground level. If you can’t say no to that new plant, put some serious thought into where it will go while it is still in quarantine [not yours]. If specific pests arrive every year, make a plan of attack before they arrive.
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Sticky sheets hung in trees can thwart many flying pests (Kate Russell)
If you regularly forget to water something that really needs it, create a routine. In our house, we use a bucket to capture shower water as it heats up. In summer, that water always goes to the raspberries. Making it a habit makes it easier to remember.

If you have too many plants, especially the wrong sort of plants, you may find yourself wondering why in the world you ever started gardening in the first place. Do yourself and your garden a favor and aim for just the right number and type of plants for you, your soil, and your garden with these actions:
  1. Only install plants that are suited to your microclimate.
  2. Provide plants with enough space for good airflow.
  3. Group plants according to their water usage.
  4. Remove plants that are not thriving or which require more effort than they are worth.
  5. Create routines that lighten your load.

Rather than feeling overwhelmed and exhausted because of too many plants, put your time, effort, and water into plants worth having.

Keep mosquitoes away!

5/29/2020

 
People have been battling mosquitoes for a very long time and with good reason.

Mosquito bites are no fun. They itch like crazy, no matter how much you scratch (which you shouldn’t). Worse than that, mosquitoes carry diseases that can make you very, very sick, or even kill you.
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Female mosquito feeding (Global Panorama) CC BY-SA 2.0
Diseases carried by mosquitoes

Malaria and dengue fever certainly come to mind when you think of mosquito borne diseases, but they aren’t the only ones carried and transmitted by mosquitoes. Each year, nearly 700 million people around the world become infected with mosquito borne diseases and more than one million of those people die. In the US, over 3,000 people a year die from mosquito borne diseases, such as Zika and West Nile, as well as malaria, dengue, yellow fever, chikungunya, and St. Louis encephalitis.

I had never heard of the last two before, so I had to look them up. Chikungunya [chicken-goon-ya] showed up in the Americas in 2013. It causes joint pain, headache, and fever. If you get St. Louis encephalitis, you might feel nothing, or you may experience fever, headache, nausea, tiredness, and vomiting. In both cases, you might die. COVID-19 is not believed to be carried by mosquitoes, but canine heartworm is.

Different species of mosquito tend to carry different diseases, but I can’t tell them apart. I do know that if I get bitten, it’s by a female mosquito.

Mosquito feeding

Male and female mosquitoes both eat nectar, but female mosquitoes need blood for their eggs. They get that blood from mammals, from us. When a female mosquito lands on you, she drools numbing, anti-coagulating spit on your arm before inserting her mouthparts. That’s why you often don’t feel the bite until it’s too late. And that saliva can contain deadly viruses. What’s a gardener to do?

Interrupting the mosquito cycle

Mosquitoes need standing water in which to lay their eggs. Unfortunately for us, mosquitoes can lay those eggs in as little as one tablespoon of water. That handful of water might be found in rain gutters, planter saucers, old tire swings, or a trowel that was left behind in the yard. Eliminating all of those potential egg-laying locations goes a long way toward reducing mosquitoes in the garden.

What about ponds, fountains, rain barrels, birdbaths, and pet water bowls?

These water sources can also be used by mosquitoes for egg-laying, but adding one simple  ingredient eliminates the problem: mosquito dunks.
Mosquito dunks are made out of a dried bacterium that mosquito larva love to eat. The bacteria kills the mosquito larva, but it is safe for people, pets, livestock, wildlife and plants. This bacteria, Bacillus thuringiensis ssp. israelensis, also called Bti, is also toxic to some moths, flies and beetles. Mosquito dunks are approved for organic use. A single mosquito dunk lasts for 30 days and can treat 100 square feet of water. Each donut-shaped dunk can be broken into smaller pieces, depending on the area being treated. The same bacterium is also available as granules that can be sprinkled on soil infested with fungus gnats. You may also be able to contact your local Vector Control office for free mosquitofish.
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Mosquito dunks work!
Plants that [supposedly] deter mosquitoes

You may have heard that there are plants you can add to your landscape to deter these pests. The lists and descriptions certainly are enticing and convincing. Sadly, research has not held up those claims in the field. It’s one thing to smear yourself with a concentrated mix of essential oils in a laboratory (assuming you aren’t allergic). It’s something else entirely to stand 30’ away from a patch of citronella grass or a rosemary shrub and expect significant results.

Will these plants deter mosquitoes? Probably not enough to make a difference. But maybe, if you plant enough of them, and you rub your hands through them every once in a while as you enjoy your garden, it might help. If nothing else, these plants look and smell lovely in a landscape, and many of them are edible:
  • allium family - garlic, onions, shallots
  • basil - delicious tender annual
  • bee balm - gorgeous flowers loved by honey bees and other pollinators
  • catnip - invasive mint with purple flowers that may lure local cats
  • citronella - an attractive ornamental grass for warm regions
  • lavender - drought-resistant, low-maintenance, and the honey bees love it
  • marigolds - attractive, self-seeding annual
  • mint - delicious, nutritious, and invasive!
  • rosemary - delicious and drought-resistant
  • sage - delicious and drought-resistant
  • scented geraniums - lemony fresh scent; grows best in warm regions

Sorry for bursting any bubbles out there. I think that these plants do provide some help, just not as much as many sources claim. The only exception I could find was oil from the lemon eucalyptus (Eucalyptus citriodora syn. Corymbia citriodora) plant, but few of us are able or willing to grow this 60-foot tall Australian herb in our yards.

To safely repel mosquitoes while outside, the CDC recommends using EPA-approved repellents that contain at least one of these active ingredients: DEET, picaridin (known as KBR 3023 and icaridin outside the US), IR3535, oil of lemon eucalyptus (OLE), para-menthane-diol (PMD), or 2-undecanone. They also suggest applying permethrin to clothing.

And get rid of any standing water.

May Day Garden Tour

5/1/2020

 
Happy May Day!

I decided to try something new today and give you a walking tour of my garden.

The video is 10 minutes long, so you might want to grab a cup of something before starting.

The chickens and other birds are making a bit of a racket in the background, with it being spring and all.

This is my first attempt at a walking tour, so bear with me. There were a couple of errors. I called my sago palm a saguaro and then I called the beans in my patio strip peas. The sound isn't always consistent, but I think you'll get the idea of what I'm doing.

I hope you enjoy this tour of my daily garden!

Birds, Bugs, and Seedlings

4/24/2020

 
I got a peek at the baby doves this week. They are growing fast, but I still haven’t heard a peep out of them. Now that the babies have some feathers, mother and father doves are able to leave the nest and spend some time together. It’s clear they enjoy each other’s company.
Two partially feathered baby Baraby dove chicks in a basket nest.
Baby Barbary doves in a basket nest (Kate Russell)
This week, I saw another fascinating insect. At first, I thought it might be a blister beetle, but there were no stripes or spots on its wing cases. And, as far as I know, there aren’t any lightning bugs west of the Rockies. That’s when I realized it was a soldier beetle. One of the Good Guys. Soldier beetles eat aphids and the eggs and larvae of many moths, beetles, armyworms, and other pests. I was happy to let it go where I it, among the forest of borage plants that appear each spring.
Adult soldier beetle with reddish-orange legs, thorax, head and initial antennae segment and brownish-black wing covers on a white background.
Soldier beetle (Kate Russell)
Another insect has me baffled. I collect insects when I find them and try to identify them. Until I know what they are, I keep them in clear plastic containers. In this particular container, I had a piece of netting covered with what I thought were stink bug eggs, a butt-less honey bee I came across while collecting honey, and a cottony cushion scale egg sack. Early this week, a bunch of tiny black flies appeared in the container. I assumed they were male scale insects but then learned that those are much smaller than these flies. I still don’t know what the flies are, but I did get some photos of the male scale insects, so that was exciting.
A dime at the top of the image, on a wooden table, provides size comparison to three reddhish-orange male cottony cushion scale insects which have been circled in red.
Three male cottony cushion scale insects next to a dime (Kate Russell)
Underside view of small black fly.
Tiny mystery fly (Kate Russell)
Ten tiny dead black flies on a dime on a wooden table.
Several tiny mystery flies on a dime (Kate Russell)
My perennial beets have started to produce flowering stems. The first time it happened, it really surprised me. Beet stems get pretty tall and then they hang, willow-like. They are very pretty and I will collect seeds when they are mature.
Two mature beet plants preparing to flower. Orange tree and cattle panel in the background.
Mature beet plants preparing to flower (Kate Russell)
Overhead view of beet plant starting to form flowers.
Beet forming a flowering stem (Kate Russell)
Speaking of seeds, I’ve lost count of how many varieties of tomatoes, beans, and peppers I started this week, along with carrots, chard, and basil. There were arugula, cabbage, and sunflower seedlings to transplant and the lettuces and chicories are thriving.

​Every year, my asparagus harvest gets better. The first year, nothing looked like it was going to grow. The second and third years, all I got were skinny, ferny growths. But now, I am getting some delicious, fat, juicy, purple asparagus shoots that never make it into the house.
Purple asparagus shoot growing through mulch
Purple asparagus growing through mulch (Kate Russell)
Finally, I rigged some netting around my young pear and apricot trees. I have no intention of losing any of those crops to squirrels and birds!

I hope that you are staying safe and well and are able to spend more time in your garden. 

Remember, you may have neighbors who could really use some of your extra produce during quarantine. Let’s keep shopping trips to a minimum.

April Antics in the Garden

4/17/2020

 
Six weeks into quarantine and I still have plenty to keep me busy in the garden. In fact, April is usually pretty busy and this year is no exception.

Temperatures are slowly rising and I have started more beans, a batch of tomatoes and peppers, and even some melon seeds. I’ve discovered a new pest, there’s something odd happening in my corn patch, and my nectarine tree isn’t doing well. The big news this week was my first honey harvest.
Orange trees and shrubs in the background. Two beekeepers working a hive in the foreground.
Harvesting honey while masked and suited up (Kate Russell)
Honey harvest

​While many beekeepers are struggling to keep their hives healthy and productive, mine came through the winter healthy enough to swarm a second time. My friend, John, came over to collect the swarm and he helped me swap out heavily laden frames from one super and I added a new super on top. The bees were pretty calm about the whole procedure. Some of the honey had crystalized, but I ended up with 27 pounds of honey and 6 pounds of beeswax. I guess I’ll have to try my hand at candle-making.
Stack of honey-filled frames
Honey-filled frames ready for extraction (Kate Russell)
Apparently, swarming is hard work for bees. I caught this one napping.
Sleeping honey bee hanging from netting.
One tuckered out little honey bee (Kate Russell)
Corn crop quandary

After caging one of my raised beds and planting corn, lentils, and yellow watermelon, I noticed one half of the corn is coming up beautifully and the other half doesn’t seem to be doing anything at all. It may be that they are different varieties, but, more likely, it has to do with the fact that the corn planted on the right was from last year’s seed. It may make it and it may not, but the corn on the left is doing well. If you look closely at the photo, you can see peas growing along the back, which I had thought failed, and, in the middle, you can see new growth on a broccoli stalk I had cut back to soil level. These plants never cease to amaze me.
Raised bed caged with chicken wire. New corn plants seen on the left and peas in the back.
Raised bed with thriving corn on the left (Kate Russell)
Potato crop rotation

I decided to move my potato crop from a raised bed close to my patio to the bed farthest away. Once potatoes get established, they don’t need a whole lot of attention or protection. They had been growing in the same bed since 2015 and crop rotation is a good way to disrupt potential pest or disease problems.
Soil and plants being removed from raised bed.
Rotating potato crop (Kate Russell)
PictuFat grubs and yellow wireworms in metal bucket.re
Grubs and wireworms in bucket (Kate Russell)
Digging up all the potatoes and potato plants, I discovered dried fruit beetle grubs and wireworms. Wireworms are the larval stage of click beetles. They are bright yellow and a little more than one inch long. They have hard bodies and they burrow into root crops and stems of peas, beans, and melons, so I’m glad I decided to move my potatoes. My chickens were happy about it, too, but for different reasons.
I also found a paper wasp nest. That’s some good news. Paper wasp nests look like tiny gray umbrellas and paper wasps feed on beetle larvae, caterpillars, and flies, along with nectar. Paper wasps are also effective pollinators. Paper wasps are not very aggressive, unless threatened.

Something bothering my beets
Close-up of small paper wasp nest.
Paper wasp nest
Speaking of soil-dwelling pests and being bothered, I discovered a new one in my beet patch. Harvesting a couple of beets for dinner, I discovered that the roots were significantly smaller than they should have been and that some very tiny, white centipede-like creatures were crawling around on the surface. Dang it. My beets have symphylans. Also known as garden centipedes, these tiny, fast-moving pseudocentipedes are not really related to centipedes at all. They are their own thing and they are a pain in the garden. Their presence explains why nearby kale seedlings never thrived. The only thing I can do is remove vulnerable plants, till the area a few times, and hope the symphylans don’t migrate into other areas of this 25’ long raised bed. Since these pests frequently burrow down 3-feet into the soil, chemical treatments are rarely helpful. I’ve read that beans aren’t as vulnerable, so I’ll plant beans there and see what happens.
Picture
Garden centipede, a pseudocentipede (Soniamartinez) CC BY-SA 4.0
Rats and ripe oranges

This is the time of year my Navel oranges get really sweet. They are so sweet that rats come out at night and feast to their hearts’ delight. I don’t mind losing an orange or two, but the idea of rats in my fruit trees and garden is something else entirely.

Warty leaves on nectarine trees
Hollowed out orange rind hanging in a tree indicate rat feeeding.
Rats leave hollowed out oranges hanging in the tree
Once again, my nectarine tree has been infected with peach leaf curl. Our recent heavy rains made applying fixed copper ineffective and provided the perfect medium for fungal growth. Hopefully it won't lead to other problems, and I still have plenty of nectarine preserves from last year.
Warty patches on nectarine leaf indicate peach leaf curl infection
Initial signs of peach leaf curl on nectarine
Warty patches on nectarine leaf indicate peach leaf curl infection
Peach leaf curl infection on nectarine leaves
I’m not sure, but I think the Barbary dove eggs have hatched. There was much cooing back and forth between the parents a couple of days ago, though I haven’t seen any frequent feeding trips yet.

I hope you are all staying home and well, and enjoying time in your garden!

Looking Ahead

3/27/2020

 
Still sheltering in place and with no real idea of how long this will last, many gardeners are looking ahead to what they can grow, how they can care for what they have, and where they might find new places to grow edible plants. This gardener is no exception.
Three shelves held at an angle against a white wall support numerous small planter pots filled with soil. Wooden popsicle sticks indicate the contents of each container.
A south-facing wall and a pumpkin ladder make a great place to start seeds
In past years, spring was always a lighthearted look at what I might like to try my hand at in the coming summer months. This year, planning has taken on new meaning. I’m not a Prepper or a Doomsayer, but we’re not through this pandemic yet and some groceries might become harder to come by. I am finding myself wondering where I might add new edibles, which harvests can be canned or dried, and which Regulars are not worth the real estate. For me, tomatoes, beans, salad greens, cabbages, potatoes, squashes, melons, teas and herbs, and my fruit and nut trees will be getting the most attention and space. And protecting my crops has become more important, as well.

Beans

Even though I knew it was too early/cold/wet to start beans last week, I did it anyway. Most of the seeds have rotted in the ground or been tossed around by foraging birds. The few that germinated have been gnawed to nubs by sowbugs, with only a couple of exceptions. This week, I will be starting bean seeds again, but in small containers that I can protect and keep warmer. As they grow and temperatures rise, I will place them where I want them.
A pale green bean plant emerges next to a whitewashed wooden  trellis post. A wooden popsicle stick in the foreground identifies the plant as a red noodle bean.
A pale green red noodle bean plant emerges next to its trellis
In the meantime, I should probably make sowbug and earwig traps. The traps are super easy to make. You just take rolled up wet newspaper, held together with rubber bands, and place them in areas where sowbugs and earwigs have been a problem. Those pests will use the newspaper rolls as shelter. In the morning, just throw them in the trash. It won’t get them all, but it puts a dent in the pest population.

Compost

The compost was finally ready, so I spread it in most of my raised beds and around my fruit and nut trees. I know the compost improves conditions for the sowbugs that seem to be causing so many problems already, so I followed the compost with a light sprinkling of slug bait.

Corn

​For the third time, I am going to try growing 
corn. The first year I did it, not a single seed survived the birds and squirrels. The second time I tried, I actually got a few measly, scrawny looking ears. Unfortunately, it was a traditional Indian blue corn variety that was probably great for grinding into cornmeal, but it was practically inedible. This year, I am planting two sweet corn varieties in the same raised bed and I have fenced the bed in, to protect against the normal marauders. If everything goes as planned, I should have a decent harvest for this year’s 4th of July picnic. [Fingers crossed]
Red wooden fence background, raised planting bed with a chicken wire cage built over top, red geraniums on the right and  white picket fence on the left.
Chicken wire sides and netting on top should keep squirrels and birds out of this corn patch
Perennials

The rhubarb is coming in, as well, but you can see damage from sowbugs and slugs already. These reliable perennials have been coming in for 7 or 8 years now. ​
Small rhubarb plat growing in bed of wood chips and some straw. The leaves show circular feeding holes commonly caused by sowbugs, slugs, and earwigs.
Young rhubarb leaves show signs of feeding damage by slugs, sowbugs, and earwigs
My giant container of purple sweet potatoes has also begun showing signs of life. I love the deep purple color of the new growth, pushing its way through its winter bed of straw. By mid summer, this planter will be a lush, draping plant with attractive green leaves. All you have to do is burrow your hand into the soil and fish around for a couple of purple sweet potatoes for supper. I think I have been growing this vine for 5 or 6 years now.
New purple sweet potato growth emerging from bed of straw. Stems and leaves are reddish-purple.
New spring growth of containerized purple sweet potatoes
Like legumes, sweet potatoes can fix atmospheric nitrogen, but they still need to be fed other nutrients, so it is time for me to top dress my sweet potato container with some of that aged compost. I might need to add a little bit of acidifier. I’ll have to check the pH first. It needs adjusting every once in a while, even in containers, because our water supply is very alkaline and sweet potatoes prefer acidic soil.

Salad greens

At a time when I have no desire to go to a store (or anywhere else), I am so glad to have a garden at home! Our salads are abundant and diverse, with red leaf lettuce, radicchio, baby beet greens, butter leaf lettuce, kale, arugula, chicory, spinach, and curly endive free for the picking. They are all coming up nicely in raised beds and containers. Having let the endive and lettuces go to seed in previous years, I am also finding these plants growing on their own, wherever it happens to suit them. I should probably plant more this week.
A variety of fresh salad greens are spread out on a cutting board. Going clockwise, starting in the upper left: red leaf lettuce, radicchio leaves, baby beet leaves, curly endive, chicory, arugula, kale, and butterleaf lettuce.
Salad greens are easy to grow
Speaking of planting more, I spent yesterday afternoon filling flats with potting soil and seeds, enjoying the sunshine and the promise of future harvests. I ended up planting peas, sugarloaf chicory, more beets, arugula, Swiss chard, and some sunflowers. I also transplanted several cabbages and some early cucumbers. I think I'll start some tomatoes and eggplants this weekend. And those beans.

I gave the Barbary doves a reason to ignore me and my dogs by tying a nesting basket in the corner of the pergola where they have been hanging out. They still fly away when I walk by, but I keep seeing their lovely gray heads peeking out over the rim of the basket. I love the way they sound!

All this new growth and bird courtship reminds me that everything will continue. Life goes on. Hopefully, we will get through this quarantine with a greater respect for getting by with less stuff, staying home more with family and friends, and recognizing that we are all in this together. Globally.

Hunkering Down

3/20/2020

 
Wow. What a surreal time it is.

Today is the first full day of spring, but I just learned that day and night are not actually equal on the equinox, that the sun we see each sunset has already dropped below the horizon. The more I learn, the less I know…

The rain has come and we are grateful, but the streets are often empty. The sky is cleaner than it has been in decades. Neighbors I have never seen in the 8 years I've lived here are out walking and chatting (from a distance). No stores. No errands. A friend texts and asks if I have any eggs available. I am happy I can tell her I do.
Picture
Chickens make good use of a skinny side yard (Kate Russell)
Suddenly, my hens and my garden have taken on greater meaning. Being older and immunocompromised, going to a store is too risky. My husband is willing, but we both know he might just as easily bring COVID-19 in with the groceries.

​Luckily, I was very poor when I was young. I learned the importance of shopping wisely, buying storable things on sale, and always making sure you had beans, rice, lentils, flour, sugar, and canned vegetables on hand. We are, for the time being, self-sufficient in San Jose.


None of us know how long this will last. A month, two months, a year, forever. We simply do not know. My guess is that we will have this under control before summer. In case I am wrong, I am shifting my garden design to be more in line with a survival garden than just a fun thing to do.
Picture
Artichokes are sturdy, productive perennials (Kate Russell)
But gardening is fun and that’s where a goodness equal to the food I harvest comes in. Gardening in these uncertain times provides me with a grounding, a centering, a wider perspective. Summer and autumn will come. The trees will produce sweet juicy nectarines, crisp apples, and delicious almonds. I will plant seeds, pull weeds, and repair a patch of netting. I will clean and sharpen my garden tools, toss my compost pile around, craft the shape of ornamental and edible trees and shrubs, and collect eggs.
Picture
A freshly tossed compost pile steams in the cool, early morning air (Kate Russell)
I will, as I always do, can tomatoes and green beans, and make marmalade, fig jam, and nectarine preserves, regardless of whether or not it’s safe to go or be anywhere else. The plants don’t know or care about COVID-19. Either do the bees and other pollinators.
Picture
Clusters of fuzzy, immature almonds are a common sight in spring (Kate Russell)
It is spring and the cycle of life is continuing as it always has out in the garden. The artichokes have started to come in. My almond tree is covered with baby almonds. The lettuces, chicories, kale, and chard are gearing up for heavy production. The compost pile is cooking itself into an excellent top dressing for my raised beds. A pair of Barbary doves are considering building a nest under my pergola. Everything is going to be alright.
Picture
A pair of Barbary ringneck doves survey the yard from on top of a raised garden bed (Kate Russell)
Stay home. Be well.

If you have even the tiniest space that gets a few hours of sunlight, plant a seed. Watch it grow. Care for it. You’ll both be better off.

Saving Daylight

3/13/2020

 
Daylight saving time messes me up. I don’t like it and I’m not even on a clock. Each time it changes, it feels as though the world is off kilter for a couple of weeks. The plants and chickens don’t seem to notice, so I should probably just follow their lead, and leading they are!
Small pear tree with whitewashed trunk and covered with white blossoms. Circular red scalloped brick surround the trunk and a piece of rusting yard art in the form of a red heart and a silver treble clef are next to the tree. A concrete birdbath and lawn can be seen in the background along with two orange trees.
Young pear tree in bloom (Kate Russell)
Close-up of a cluster of white, five-petaled flowers with several white anthers with dark tips in the center of each flower. Leaves can also be seen.
Close-up of pear blossoms (Kate Russell)
The young hens are laying blue eggs every day and even one of my older girls has been giving me lovely brown eggs. Things are blooming everywhere I look. The nectarine and pear trees are covered with lovely blossoms and the honey bees are all over them. ​
Despite the concerns of several visitors, bees and other pollinators seem to have no problem getting through the tree cage netting. Of course, that also means codling moths can get through, as well. But the birds can’t and the rats and squirrels haven’t yet tried. I guess we have to pick our battles, eh?

​My 
apple and fig trees are just about at budbreak and there are even some tiny figs starting to form! Did you know that the only way a fig can form is if a little wasp gets trapped inside? The fruit of a fig is actually a cluster of flowers that form on the inside. How weird is that?
Close-up of fig stem with unfurled leaflets and marble-sized new fruits on a blurred background.
Fig leaflets and new fruit (Kate Russell)
Anyway, the almond tree is in full leaf and our daily salads have been full of delicious variety with sugarloaf chicory, radicchio, Swiss chard, beet and kale leaves, and red leaf lettuce, along with baby purple broccoli shoots. We have even gotten our first taste of this year’s purple asparagus. [Can you tell we like purple food around here? Wait until it’s time to harvest the purple sweet potatoes!]
Single thick stalk of purple asparagus emerging from wood chip mulch.
Purple asparagus (Kate Russell)
The compost pile is coming along nicely. Following the USDA’s guidelines for safely using manure in compost, I am checking the temperature every day and flipping the pile most days. If you look closely at the image below, you can see that the center line of the pile, which has had its top removed, is nearly white, while the rest is yellowish-brown. That white is made up of fungal filaments that are decomposing the bigger bits into smaller molecules that can be used by plants as food. The steam that comes out in the morning when I flip the pile is a pretty impressive sign that chemistry is actively taking place in my simple pile of chicken bedding and yard waste!
Overhead view of compost pile with the top layer removed to show white fungal filaments speeding decomposition.
Compost pile actively decomposing (Kate Russell)
A couple of weeks ago, I posted concerns I had for my California poppies. I have been diligently removing stems that show signs of fungal disease and have been brutally thinning plants to provide better airflow and it seems to be helping.
Thick greenery and bright orange California poppy flowers peppered with some large rocks.
California poppies in bloom (Kate Russell)
Temperatures have been so high lately that a renegade tomato seedling emerged in my front yard. It must have been dropped there last year by a bird. I wonder which variety it is! I decided to follow the rouge tomato's lead and started a bunch of different bean seeds. Hopefully, the soil is warm enough. This year I am growing red noodle beans, wax beans, stringless beans, purple pole beans, lima beans, red swan bush beans, and a few others. I guess I should call this my bean year. I figure beans are easy to store dried and I can do some canning, as well.
Young tomato seedling growing out of wood chip mulch.
Tomato seedling (Kate Russell)
My biggest pest this week seems to be sowbugs. I decided to give this little Gerbera daisy a manicure because it was looking chewed upon and congested. What I discovered was that it was thoroughly infested with sowbugs! Check out this little bugger, tucked comfortably into a new leaf, munching away to its hearts’ content.
Clustered greenery of Gerbera daisy plant.
Gerbera daisy (Kate Russell)
Close-up of Gerbera daisy leaves with center leaf rolled up and  filled with a sowbug.
Sowbug feeding on Gerbera daisy leaf (Kate Russell)
Needless to say, I cut out most of the damaged leaves, pulled the mulch away from the whole thing and thinned out the center a fair bit. Let’s see if I can get more blossoms and less bugs.

​
I hope you are all able to spend some time in your garden this weekend. What’s keeping you busiest or bringing a smile to your face out there?

Marching Towards Spring

3/6/2020

 
Spring is getting closer by the day and my fruit trees are in full bloom.
Small tree with trunk and branches whitewashed and covered with bright pink blossoms. A pale yellow sun face with rays in the foreground and trees and shrubs in the background.
Abundant pink nectarine blossoms indicate a good harvest this summer (Kate Russell)
Raising chickens creates a lot of really good compost, but it only works if you have enough green material to mix in with all that dirty straw. This week, I collected all the straw from my chicken run and used it to create a new compost pile. Then, I took all the bedding from the coop, moved it to the chicken run (for my next batch of compost), and gave them fresh straw in the coop. They don’t seem to care, but it makes me happy!

Then I took lawn mowings, fava bean trimmings, and some other green materials to mix into the pile. I mixed it all together, watering each layer as I went, to give those helpful microbes everything they needed to get the job done. It must be working because the compost pile heated up to 154°F yesterday morning and there had even been patches of frost on the lawn! Yay microbes!
Pile of straw bedding on cement patio in the foreground. Blue plastic trash can used as a rain barrel and a metal covered trash can used to store chicken feed, various gardening tools and planting containers in the background.
This new compost pile needs more green materials (Kate Russell)
Bird battles

The netted panels I put on my raised bed have worked wonders at keeping birds away from seeds and seedlings. ​
With lawn on the left, and a sidewalk and some low-growing plants on the right, the main image is a 25' long, 3' wide, and 2-1/2' tall raised bed made with weathered redwood boards with new pine wood frames covered in netting used to protect the seeds and seedlings.
Netted panels between the post of my raised beds keep birds, rats, and squirrels out (Kate Russell)
​There have been many battles over the birdhouses that I mounted on my tree cages, however. The original holes were the right size for indigenous bluebirds, finches, and wrens, but a Nuttall’s woodpecker kept making the openings larger, so English sparrows claimed all four boxes.
Sparrows are loud and aggressive toward the native birds, so I installed shower rod holders onto two of the openings to block the sparrows and now two Nuttall’s woodpeckers have claimed the other two boxes. I’m still waiting to see if the smaller native songbirds will have a go at the other two boxes. Occasionally a male sparrow will try and commandeer one of the woodpecker’s boxes, but the woodpeckers are quick to reclaim their territory.

It’s feeding time!

Since my soil tests indicate I already have too much of everything besides iron, all my compost will be used to top dress the raised beds, once it has been properly aged, making the manure safe. This will add nutrients, shade the soil, and increase soil organic matter.
Homemade rustic birdhouse mounted on tree cage pole has shower rod holder attached over the opening to keep out larger birds.
A shower rod holder keeps sparrows out of birdhouses
The actual soil on my property got nothing but nitrogen and iron, since that’s all it needs. I gave my roses and fruit and nut trees their spring feedings of urea, an excellent source of nitrogen.

​
Lawn leanings

I’ve given up on removing lawn grasses with a spreading habit. There simply aren’t enough hours in the day to be that picky. I’ll just have to keep it mowed as short as possible during the cooler months and remove only the most obnoxious specimens.

​
Weed report

​Hairy bittercress
 has begun to appear, so I am diligently removing them every time I see them. You know what they say, “One year of seeds, seven years of weeds.” Last year was my hairy bittercress weed year and I was not as diligent as I should have been. Bermuda buttercup is trying to invade, as well. I actually like the flowers, but I know how invasive these plants can become, so I hoe them down every time they come under the fence.
Close-up of green hairy bittercress, a weed with rosette growth, rounded leaves, and purplish flowering stems supporting tiny white flowers growing in mixed mulch, dead leaves, and grass blades.
Hairy bittercress (Rasbak) CC BY-SA 3.0

Waning Winter

2/28/2020

 
As much as I would love to say spring is here so I can put things on track for spring planting, I don’t dare.

​It’s pretty hard to believe we still have two weeks of potential 
frost, seeing as how the weather folks are predicting a high of 80° today. My artichoke plant is going crazy!
Picture
Artichoke plant is growing strong! (Kate Russell)
Seedlings

I did break down a couple of weeks ago and planted some more cool season crops: beets, arugula, cabbage, chard, and spinach. And I couldn’t resist starting some basils, as well. I have them all on my pumpkin ladder, under a piece of row cover at night. The seedlings seem to be doing well, so far.
Picture
Pumpkin/melon ladder keeps seedlings off the ground and warm under a sheet of row cover (Kate Russell)
Almond tree

The almond tree is in full bloom and some of my bees seem to be enjoying the nectar and pollen, though not as many as I recall from last year. It may be early, because there are plenty of bees out and about, in and out of the hive all day. The nectarine and baby apricot trees started blooming this week, as well. It feels early, but when I look at my calendar entries from previous years, they are right on schedule.
Picture
Dwarf almond tree covered with white blossoms (Kate Russell)
If you’ve never used a garden calendar, you might want to give it a try. I enter budbreak, or first bloom, for all my fruit and nut trees. I also add recurring reminders for tasks like feeding, pruning, dormant and delayed-dormant sprays, and fruit thinning. It helps a lot.

I was a little worried about all the fruit and nut trees this year. This winter isn’t feeling nearly cold enough for most of them to get the chill hours they need to stimulate fruit production. [Being from Upstate New York, I can hear all of you in the Midwest and New England talking about blizzards and snow!] I decided to look up my local CIMIS station (California Irrigation Management Information System) and found that the numbers weren’t nearly as bad as I had thought. While there aren’t any stations here in San Jose, the Gilroy station numbers told me that we are actually well above normal for the number of chill hours accumulated this season. Yay science!

Poppies

Speaking of blossoms, the California poppies gave me a super bloom last year that was truly exceptional. This year, the plants came in bigger and thicker than ever.
Picture
2019 super bloom of CA poppies (Kate Russell)
I got my first blossom as few days ago, but things are looking a little worse for the wear. I am seeing a lot of chlorosis on outer stems and some spots that look like fungal lesions. Since I was spraying fixed copper on the trees, roses, and the lawn anyway, to treat rust and scale insects mostly, I decided to give the poppies a squirt, too. Fingers crossed.
Picture
CA poppies with chlorosis and lesions (Kate Russell)
Picture
CA poppies with chlorosis and lesions (Kate Russell)
Irrigation

Last fall I ended up losing several of my cauliflower and broccoli plants to damping off disease, so I am being more cautious about watering my seedlings. That being said, we are super low on water around here. San Jose has only gotten 5” of rain this season, compared to our annual average of 17”. Luckily, the surrounding areas have done far better, keeping our groundwater numbers within acceptable ranges. That’s great for California, but it means a lot more irrigation here at home. I have 5 rain barrels that collect water from the roofs of my house and chicken coop, but I expect all that water to be gone by mid-March. Ah, the joys of living in a drought-prone area.

​What’s going on in 
your garden?
Picture
Rain barrels come in handy in drought-prone areas (Kate Russell)
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