Monthly Archives: April 2012

edibles, gardening tips, sustainable gardening, vegetables

Tomatoes for the Santa Cruz Mountains

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The spring sun has started to warm the soil. I'm already having visions of eating ripe, luscious tomatoes later in the season. I have several friends who are tomato fanatics and share their trials, tribulations and successes with me. Every year brings new hope to a gardener who is excited to grow the best tomatoes ever.

One friend who loves her tomatoes is going to finally start a gardening journal in a binder. With a page devoted to each of her tomatoes, complete with color pictures, seed grower descriptions and space for her own notes, this year her tomatoes just can't fail to be delectable.

During the last couple of years, cool spring and early summer weather  took its toll on tomato production and taste so this year she is trying some different types for cooler climates. Many of these tomato varieties originate from cooler growing areas in Russia and other northern growing areas. She chose from Alaska, Amber Colored, Anna Russian or Azoychka varieties that are all Russian heirlooms,  Alicante from England or Black Krim originally from the Isle of Krim on the Black Sea in the former Soviet Union. Of course, Black Cherry, the only true black cherry tomato, is on the list. With a description of "irresistibly delicious with sweet, rich, complex, full tomato flavor that bursts in your mouth" , who could resist?

This tomato aficionado planted out her early "tried and true" varieties that she started from seed in the ground the last week of March in Wall O' Water season extenders to keep them warm. Night time temps in March were pretty cold so they needed all the help she could give them. The regulars include Early Girl, Stupice, Carmello and Sun Sugar.

New seedlings she bought and recently planted include Purple Cherokee, Paul Robeson, Northern Lights, Black Plum, Green Zebra and Sunset Red Horizon. She is also trying "a Red Brandywine that didn't do well last year but if we are lucky enough to have a warmer season if may do better".  She is "looking forward to the addition of new colors ( green striped, black, purple, marbled orange and red)  and hoping to enjoy the nuances of flavor that accompany them".

Renee's Garden Seeds has lots of great tomato varieties available online at www.reneesgarden.com. One is a colorful trio of treasured heirlooms that consists of Black Krim, the glowing orange Sweet Persimmon and traditional Italian Costuluto Genovese. She offers a total of 13 varieties including  heirloom Camp Joy cherry as well as everybody's favorite Sungold. For containers, there's Super Bush and for that burger, Big Beef Beefsteak tomato.  I'd like to try a Chianti Rose or the Italian Pompeii plum tomato.

According to Renee's website, tomatoes are native to South America and were carried to Europe in the 1500's by the Spanish conquistadors. Southern Europeans began enjoying their fruits early on, but in England they were viewed with suspicion and grown as ornamentals only as they are members of the nightshade family. In this country, Thomas Jefferson grew tomatoes to eat although most Americans didn't start cultivating tomatoes for the kitchen until the end of the Civil War.

Hope springs eternal for a tomato grower. What tomatoes are you growing this year? What were your best producers in years past? I'd love to hear from you as the season progresses and I'll share this with readers later in the summer or early fall.
 

California Native Plants

California Native Plants in Spring 2012

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It's always a breathtaking experience taking a walk at this time of year. You might see the cobalt blue flowers nearly covering a ceanothus or a stand of dicentra formosa with their pink bell-shaped flowers backlit in the spring sunlight. These are just two of our local native plants. Everywhere you look nature is beginning the season fresh with anticipation and promise.

April 15-22nd this year marks the second annual California Native Plant Week. Legislation in 2010, sponsored by the California Native Plant Society and introduced by Senator Noreen Evens of Napa, assigned this week to be dedicated to the appreciation, education and conservation of California's fabulous flora. The goal is to protect our native plant heritage and preserve it for future generations.

What exactly are native plants? According to CNPS ( California Native Plant Society ) "native plants are those species that have evolved…with our climate, soil type and rainfall. These plants continue to co-evolve with native animal species that depend upon native plants as familiar sources of food, shelter and refuge. As water becomes a more limited resource, native plants are the choice for sustainable and ecologically sound gardening. Natives are able to flourish with minimal irrigation beyond normal rainfall and require little to no fertilizer, pesticides or maintenance".

Visits recently to Quail Hollow Ranch County Park and Henry Cowell State Park allowed me to see many or our California native plants that are in full bloom. Here are just a few of the highlights.

Common in shady redwood forests, the Western Wake Robin or Trillium ovatum is a sweet plant to look at but don't eat the thick, fleshy underground stems or you'll get quite sick. Member of the Lily-of-the Valley family, they were utilized by Native American tribes for just this purpose but they would also cook and eat the greens. The flower starts out white but ages to dusty pink. Trilliums get their nickname of wake robin as they come out even before the robins return from their winter haunts in colder parts of the country.

I also came across the somewhat uncommon Globe Lily or Calochortus albus growing in a shaded, dry area under the oaks. Also known as Fairy Lanterns, these flowers are seldom seen except when blooming. The bulbs are nutritious and were eaten by California Indians either boiled, roasted or steamed in fire pits. Dried they could be ground into flour for later use. The Globe Lily is native to California and endemic to California alone.

The silver lupine are just beginning to open in Quail Hollow while other lupine species were in full bloom. I enjoyed the rich lilac flower spikes blooming alongside the sweet blue Western Hound's Tongue. Cynoglossum grande is one of the first flowers of spring and is common in mixed evergreen forests in our mountains. Small hairs on the surface of the leaf give it a rough texture and somewhat resembles a dog's tongue if you really use your imagination.

From the blossoms of Fat to Slim Solomon's Seal, from the blue and white ceanothus flowers humming with bees to Western Bleeding Heart, spring is afoot. Take an active role in preserving the majesty of California's native flora. Including native plants in your home landscaping can cut your water use from 60-90% over conventional gardening. California native plant gardening has a positive impact on our watersheds, to habitat recovery and to curbing catastrophic wildfires.
 

birds, California Native Plants, color in the garden, Design trends, gardening tips, hummingbird plants, low maintenance gardening, plant care, sustainable gardening

Trials & Tribulations of a Test Garden

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While at the Watsonville Terra Sole Nursery recently, owner's John and Sherry Hall shared with me their experiences growing and experimenting with plants in their own landscape and nursery. From these personal trials, they decide what to propagate and sell in the small, independent nursery they operate on their property.

With a philosophy to share what they learn with their customers, they grow native and unusual plants and other drought tolerant plants that are adapted to our dry summer climate. Sherry told me that they grow their plants as sustainably as possible, hand pulling weeds and collecting snails by hand. They said they propagate and grow their plants without growth regulators or dangerous chemicals. I saw many birdbaths both in their own landscape and in the nursery. Sherry told me they encourage feathered friends like the Western Bluebird to live in the garden to eat bugs. It's a win-win situation.

Sustainable doesn't just get lip service at this nursery. They don't use labels on their containers making it easy to recycle them. And John makes his own succulent garden boxes from 100 year old barn wood. They looked awesome planted up with a collection of various succulents propagated in the greenhouse.

I commented on the hardy geraniums and other plants coming up through the gravel on the nursery floor. John and Sherry both laughed as they told me "it's the best place to propagate some of the plants. Our son works at a big grower nearby and can't propagate some of these plants even in his $10,000 greenhouse".

What were some of my favorite plants that I saw on the tour and which do they think are the best performers?  
In the test garden, a Lemon Fizz santolina, with foliage so brilliant it looked like a lit light bulb, nestled at the base of a burgundy phormium. A blooming euphorbia completed the vignette. Santolinas are drought and deer tolerant. One important thing Sherry has learned from the test garden is how close to plant things. "They get a lot bigger than you'd imagine from seeing them in that cute little gallon can".

They have an extensive coral bell or heuchera collection that they have been testing for the past 4 years. Starting with 80 plants of different kinds, 90% have survived. The fancy hybrids do need some summer water and compost to look their best. The variety Pinot Gris, with molasses colored foliage, really stood out among the rest.

The echinacea were just emerging from dormancy and will bloom during the summer.  They are very dependable in the garden unless the gophers get them, I was told. Agastache is another one of their favorites and the hummingbirds love them, too. They grow many colorful cordyline from clumpers to tall types. They are doing great, Sherry said. "Maybe a little too great" as they get big fast. Gaillardia have been disappointing but maybe they received too much water at the wrong time, she confessed.

In the nursery, I was drawn to the hardy geranium, 'Bill Wallace'. Loaded with purplish-blue flowers, this mounding perennial blooms for a long time. In another spot, I couldn't miss the rich, dark burgundy flowers of the camellia "Night Rider". "It's the only camellia we grow", the Hall's explained. A very slow grower, it's perfect for containers.

At the Spring Trials they bought a flat of a new acacia called 'Cousin Itt'. This plant is very different from the invasive tree we see blooming each winter. A well behaved 30" mound of soft, emerald green foliage it's drought tolerant and would look great near a dry stream bed.

With so many plants to talk about, we ran out of time and ended with the "under-used, under-appreciated" Beschorneria.  This genus of succulent plants belong to the subfamily agavoides and is native to Mexico. The Hall's are concentrating on propagating a variegated variety in their nursery. A tall blooming red spike had emerged from one of the green species.

This is just a taste of the many plants I learned about that day at Terra Sole Nurseries. From drought tolerance, disease resistance, cold and wildlife compatible the experiments continue.

You can find out more about this small nursery at www.terrasolenurseries.com.