You’ve just savored that juicy tomato fresh from your garden – vine ripened and still warm from the sun. A little salt is the only accompaniment it needs. And that tree ripened July peach – so juicy you had to lean over the grass to keep the drips off of your front. There is more harvest from your backyard to come: grapes, apples, figs, winter squash and . . . mercy(!) another couple of zucchinis to bake into zucchini bread.
We’ve had some record breaking heat this summer, and our usual run of the mill heat, which kept me running to the hose for in-between-the-schedule-watering. So it seems like a good time to consider a few ideas for trimming your water use for your next garden. But no worries, we will never water shame you!
Tips for Saving Water
What better way to use a precious resource than growing your own bountiful garden full of tasty produce?
Prepare your soil well with compost (Bumper Crop and G & B are two we like) and replenish yearly. Or make your own from all those fallen leaves, grass clippings, and kitchen scraps. Compost acts like a sponge to hold water.
Water use is mainly influenced by temperatures. Schedule plantings for the appropriate season. Cool season veggies: leafy greens, peas, broccoli, etc. grow well in the fall and spring and are less water intensive than warm season veggies.
Soak soil to saturate root zones and below so that a reservoir of soil water is available for the plant to draw from, eliminating the need for frequent, shallow watering.
Reduce tomato watering after the fruit has set and is beginning to color up.
Heat wilting of big leafed plants (squashes, pumpkins etc.) on hot afternoons is normal and doesn’t always mean the plant is thirsty.
Prune fruit trees in summer. A more compact tree uses less water.
Try an Earth Box. It’s a space saving growing system with a built in reservoir and soil cover and is surprisingly productive.
Provide a bit of afternoon shade with taller, more sun loving plants (tomatoes) planted south of those that could use a break from broiling afternoon sun (peppers, eggplant, cucumbers). Or set up your beach umbrella temporarily.
Squash, pumpkins, cucumbers, and melons are all susceptible to mildew as the days of summer begin to shorten. The weeks into late summer and fall can be very productive for many veggies as the milder fall temperatures coax new leaves to grow. Many vegetables are preparing for an encore performance but Mildew is also waiting for an opportunity to take hold. Don’t let it rob productivity. It’s normal for leaves to begin to look a bit weather worn and tattered now but productivity can continue if a disease does not set in or insects take over. Keep a watchful eye out for problems and don’t assume its time for a swan song just because your plants don’t look as prime as they did at the peak of summer. You may see fresh new leaves emerging now, with the agreeable climate, you might also see older leaves touched with mildew.
If mildew is allowed to establish it will be tough to control and will eventually send your plant to the compost pile. Keep an eye out for odd spotting, early signs of mildew, and treat quickly to hold the disease at bay. Hand picking leaves can help before a thorough spraying on both top and bottom sides of leaves. We have had good results with Bonide Copper Fungicide.
An old shiny silver orb sitting atop a tomato cage graces our small Veggie Demonstration Garden at the nursery. Why on earth is it there? Does it reflect more light around so the plants grow better? is it a bird deflector? A fun house mirror for the squirrels? All good reasons, but no, not really. It’s just an impromptu decoration for the garden – simple, charming and eye catching. Helping to add some height to the initial short plants, it makes a nice focal point for your eyes to rest on. Do we care if the veggie garden has a focal point? Well, it is one way to bring in some thoughtful style to your yard, which can ramp up your enjoyment of it. When you are sitting out in your yard on one of our delicious summer evenings after you have just enjoyed some of your garden’s bounty, take a look around and envision some of these ideas to enhance your edible garden design for the next season:
Focal Points
Add some interest. Make it fun . . . or elegant or modern or Japanese or gnomish or whatever your personal style is. Think colorful glazed pottery, metal artwork for the fence or wall; simple painted bamboo teepees for cucumbers and beans to climb; a burbling fountain alive with glinting splashing water.
Evergreen/Deciduous
Play off deciduous and evergreen plants with each other. Wow does Sweet Bay Laurel make a beautiful hedge or tree (use the leaves fresh for seasoning!), and it pairs so nicely with other edibles which go dormant during winter months, such as blackberries, raspberries, dwarf peaches and nectarines, and even figs. Other good looking edible evergreen trees or small shrubs are Loquat, Chilean Guava (the variegated variety is uber gorgeous), Strawberry Guava and Kumquat.
Why not companion plant a row of deciduous fruit trees (apples, plums, pears, etc.) with some evergreen flowering shrubs that attract our pollinator friends? Ceanothus, rosemary, manzanita, grevillea, and alyssum are all terrific choices to help with fruit set.
Edging
Neaten up and define the borders of beds with a nice little planting of thyme. Or chives or even some of the greens like chard or colorful lettuces.
Layout
Create spaces in your planting areas as places for you to be in, instead of long static rows. If you are planning more than one raised bed for veggies, why not arrange them with space in the middle between them for a small bistro table and chairs (or that focal point). You can use gravel or flagstones for the flooring. Use a triangle plant spacing for a lusher look.
Start small or with an overhaul – Plan one or two weekend projects, or develop a whole new master plan. It’s all about increasing your enjoyment of your own little piece of the neighborhood while harvesting the freshest possible produce ripe from your own yard!
The first tomatoes to ripen in Tri-Valley gardens are often marred by a leathery brown patch of brown known as blossom end rot. Usually, blossom end rot is caused by a calcium deficiency. Spraying Monterey Foli-Cal will quickly provide the necessary calcium to reduce or eliminate this problem. You can also reduce blossom end rot by growing a larger set of roots.
Early in the season, tomato root systems are not large enough to pull an adequate supply of calcium from to soil into the leaves to meet the production needs of the plant. Deep infrequent watering throughout the projected root zone of the plant will help establish a large network of roots to pull in calcium, other nutrients, and water from the soil.
Deep watering provides a large reserve of water in the soil below the plant. Infrequent watering forces the roots to grow larger in search of water. Short, frequent watering can hinder this process.
Get ahead of the game by spraying the leaves now with Monterey’s Foli-Cal. Foli-Cal is designed to supplement the plant’s calcium needs with foliar feeding, reducing or eliminating the condition on tomatoes.
Apply at 14-day intervals throughout the growing season.
If space is limited, if salad eating pests are a problem at ground level or you’d just like a hanging accent in that sunny spot, consider a suspended salad basket.
Decide how low you’d like the basket to hang. Bend the wire hanger ends all at once to ensure a level hanging basket. Attach wires to basket edge by bending them around the top wire rim. Moisten the sphagnum moss (EZ-Wet Soil Penetrant speeds the process, 1tbs/gal water). Take the moss and line the basket with it. An inch thickness will be just enough to hold the soil in. Place moss all the way up the sides of the basket and make it extra thick around the top rim. We suggest you place a Soil Moist Mat for Hanging Baskets over the moss in the bottom of your basket. It contains water holding polymer.
Now put about 3″ of soil into the bottom of the basket.
Add 1 Tbs. of Osmocote slow release fertilizer and mix into the soil. Carefully make an opening in the moss wall from the inside. Take a baby lettuce plant and gently coax the root ball through the opening, ending up with the roots well inside the basket and the leaves out. Plant 3-6 plants like this on this layer.
Cover the roots with 1-2″ of soil mixed with Osmocote slow release fertilizer and repeat with another layer of plants. Fill the basket for the final time to within 1″ of the top. This provides watering room. Add the final 1 Tbs. Osmocote slow release fertilizer. Mix in and plant the top of the basket with the remaining plants. Hang; water well. Keep evenly moist, grow and enjoy fresh salad greens all winter long.
Try this with violas too. In spring replace lettuce with Herbs
Saffron Crocus and Caper bushes are 2 plants that gardeners often ask for and we seldom have in stock. Saffron is only available in the fall as a bulb so the window of opportunity is narrow. Caper bushes are grown by just a few growers; we see them here once or twice a year. We now have beautiful plants and bulbs in stock so we’re letting everyone know; come and get yours!
Saffron is known as the world’s most expensive spice. Saffron is the delicate thread-like female portion of the saffron crocus flower. It is easy to grow but labor intensive to harvest. One or two dozen bulbs will provide enough saffron for a few dishes. As the bulbs multiply over the years, so too will the harvest. Plant crocus in good draining soil with protection from afternoon sun.
Caper bushes are Mediterranean plants known for producing the cape, an immature flower bud which is pickled for use in salads as well as meats and pasta dishes.
Plant caper bushes where the soil drains perfectly; they typically grow in sloped, dry locations where they receive very little extra water… Almost like a California native.
It’s normal for leaves to begin to look a bit weather worn and tattered now but productivity can continue if a disease does not set in or insects take over. Keep a watchful eye out for problems and don’t assume its time for a swan song just because your plants don’t look as prime as they did at the peak of summer. You may see fresh new leaves emerging now, with the agreeable climate, you might also see older leaves touched with mildew.
Deep watering provides a large reserve of water in the soil below the plant. Infrequent watering forces the roots to grow larger in search of water. Short, frequent watering can hinder this process.![vegbasketbar[1]](https://www.aldenlane.com/m/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/vegbasketbar1.jpg)
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