Category Archives: Design trends

Design trends

What is a Cover Crop & Why Plant One?

Orin Martin of UCSC’s Alan Chadwick Garden shows the
extensive root structure of bell beans. Photo from 2013.

Every time we get a bit of rain I run out to see how deep it has penetrated the soil. Wishful thinking on my part but now through the end of November is the time to sow cover crops to enrich your soil and prevent erosion. You might need to irrigate lightly a couple times per week if it doesn’t rain. You can also wait to sow just before the rains really start. Be careful about working overly wet soil, however, as you can ruin the structure of your soil.

Not that long ago I got an email from someone whose house burned down in Bonny Doon. The site has no water yet but the owner wanted to plant something now to cover the soil and prevent the prolific succession plant Yerba Santa from taking over the area. After a bit of research from the National Resources Conservation Service of Santa Cruz County website, I discovered that Santa Cruz Erosion mix, which used to be widely recommended, would “crowd out native bunch grasses, degrade rangeland and diminish wildlife habitat.” It contains non-native plants with very weedy attributes including Blando brome grass, Rose clover and Zorro fescue. These weeds are rapidly spread by wind, water, animals, humans and equipments and once established they are almost impossible to remove.

If you need to stabilize soil quickly you could sow sterile grass that will germinate in winter, stabilize the soil quickly and not become invasive. These would be Common barley and sterile wheat. If you are looking for long-term erosion control, native shrubs and grasses grow deep. Some grasses to consider are Meadow barley, Blue wild rye, Creeping wild rye, Purple needle grass, Nodding needle grass or California brome.

If you are looking to increase fertility in an area, cover crops like bell beans, vetch and fava beans are especially valuable as they increase nitrogen levels in the soil in two ways. Atmospheric nitrogen can be “fixed” and left in the soil to fertilize subsequent crops. This is in addition to the nitrogen left from the foliage of the legume. Growing a cover crop also increases beneficial soil bacteria.

Cover crops are called green manure when they are chopped up and turned into the soil in spring before going to seed. The planting of legumes like peas and beans can actually increase nutrients in your soil giving you a net gain which is needed to offset what you take out of the soil when you harvest fruits, vegetables and flowers.

A mixture of grasses and legumes tilled into the soil in spring increases soil fertility.

Recent research now recommends planting a mixture of grasses and legumes. Annual cereal grasses such as oats, rye and barley germinated quickly to hold and shield the soil until the legumes take hold. Bell beans, fava beans and vetch, which are the best legumes for our area, grow slowly the first 3 months then take off growing 70-80% in the last 3 months. The ratio of grass seed to legumes can vary from 10% to 30%.

There are other legumes that fix nitrogen but nowhere near as efficiently as bell beans. Crimson clover seed is more expensive, needs lots of water to sprout and competes poorly with weeds. Mustard causes competition with the fruit trees as bees will concentrate on the mustard flowers instead of the fruit tree flowers.

Work the soil lightly with a metal bow rake then broadcast 8-10 seeds per square foot. Weeds should be already cleared but this step doesn’t have to be perfect. Afterward the area should be raked again lightly 1-2 inches down and covered with 3-4 inches of straw. Wood chips would be fine, too. Mulch heavier if you have bird competition. Cover crops are vigorous and will come up through just about anything. Water in lightly.

If you plan to let your small vegetable garden lie fallow over the winter instead of planting it with a cover crop you can cover it with manure and straw.

Design trends

Our Horticultural Heritage

Wisteria are long lived and yours might just have been planted by early settlers.

The CZU Fire destroyed more than 86,000 acres and 1490 buildings including 911 homes. It destroyed a lot of our horticultural history, too. I have driven up Jamison Creek Road and Alba Road many times since the fire. Empire Grade through Bonny Doon was a magnificent drive past huge redwoods, oaks and Crest Ranch Christmas Tree Farm. Much of that is gone now.

This area is rich in history. I love to look at old photos and try to identify what the early settlers planted around their homes in the Santa Cruz mountains.

I’ve spent hours reading through the history of the Alba Schoolhouse on the website
https://rebuildalbaschoolhouse.org/learn-more-2/. Besides the history of the actual schoolhouse, which dates back to 1895, there are many first person accounts of who grew what crops and how the land along Alba Road was used and is part of our local horticultural history.

Did you know that vineyards stretched along the west side of Empire Grade opposite the eventual route of Alba Road? In 1884, as many as 2000 gallons of wine was produced? The Burns family also had cattle on their ranch. A 1915 photo of their house show palms and hollyhocks, too. Ben Lomond became known for fruit other than grapes. Orchards of prize winning apples, peaches and plums were planted as well as strawberry plants. These crops thrived in the sunshine created by the clear cutting of timber.

Out on Bear Creek Road, the Ercoli villa featured yucca which I saw in many early photographs. Most likely they originated from the deserts in the southern California and Mexico and were brought north by the missionaries.

California fan palms and canna lilies appear in many early landscapes. The Middleton house in Boulder Creek was heavily planted with native western sword ferns. Black locust trees planted for their fragrance and flowers and are still seen here today where they have naturalized. Originally planted for erosion control, particularly on strip mined areas, their durable timber was used for homes.

Hollyhock seeds were probably brought to California by early settlers.

Many settlers arrived from the east coast, the Midwest and Europe and brought with them seeds and starts of plants. As early as 1871, nurseries in San Francisco were importing plants such as pittosporum tenuifolium and the 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition in San Francisco allowed many more plants to become available to homeowners. Hebe from New Zealand was all the rage. The brochure for this World Fair describes a Palace of Horticulture and Tower of Jewels as …” a great garden, itself, a marvel of landscape engineering skill… one side of a magic carpet on which these beautiful palaces are set with its floricultural splendors for a wondrous beauty, has never been equaled.”

The 1915 Panama Pacific Expo introduced more than plants to the public. In 1916, construction of a home in Brookdale featured timber, flooring and doors shipped from the Expo to this area by Southern Pacific railroad. When the house was finished in 1926, photographs show a beautiful home surrounded by hollyhocks, roses and wisteria.

My interest in early local horticulture started after looking at a friends family photographs from the early 1900’s. His family had a resort with a natural spring and rock-lined forest paths close to Highway 9 in South Felton. This was very near the Big Tree Grove resort ( now Toll House ) that opened in 1867. I remember looking at the photos and marveling at all the flowers surrounding the dwelling. The redwood trees have now grown back but at that time there was lots of sunshine, a by-product of clear cutting. I could see roses, lilacs and Shasta daisies in the photo surrounding a wrap around porch.

I wasn’t able to find out much about the early horticulture history of Scotts Valley. I see from the Chamber of Commerce webpage that “beginning in the 1930’s, peat moss was removed from Scotts Valley and taken to San Francisco to supply soil for difficult indoor plants such as gardenias. When the peat ran out, sand and gravel were quarried and sold.

I’d love to hear from those whose families lived in our valleys in the early 1900’s and what they know about the plants and crops that were grown back then. You can tell a lot about landscape plants from old photographs. It’s a fun trip down memory lane and part of our horticultural heritage. You might even plant a historical garden for the fun of it.

Design trends

Halloween Ideas from the Garden

Carved pumpkins will last a long time if they are carved from
a hole in the bottom, leaving the stem intact.

My little neighborhood goes all out decorating for Halloween. It’s fun to see what the kids have created with some simple supplies. I only have a small display with a pumpkin, colorful winter squash and mums along with some DIY ghosts made from dinner napkins. I do have lots of orange and rust perennials in my little garden. Here are some other tips for this time of year from the garden.

If you want to decorate for Halloween there is plenty of plant material you can harvest from your own garden or nearby woods. Manzanita branches can often be found on the ground and make great arrangements combined with nandina or other berries. Some of the trees have started to turn color and their leaves can also be used for wreaths. The leaves of New Zealand flax last a long time and add fall color in bouquets.

it’s time to bring in any plants that you plan to overwinter in the house. Whether they’re the houseplants that you put out on the patio for the summer or frost tender plants that you want to save, this is the time to bring them in and here’s why.

Although our nights are still above freezing, plants need to acclimate to the indoor environment before you start turning on the heater regularly. Be sure to wash them thoroughly and inspect them for any insects that may have taken up residence while they were vacationing outside. Usually you can dislodge any hitchhikers with a strong spray of water but if that doesn’t do the trick, spray them with a mild insecticidal soap or one of the other mild organic herbal sprays like oil of thyme.

Another tip: Fall is not a good time to prune. Wounds heal slowly, leaving them more susceptible to disease. As a general rule, don’t prune when leaves are falling or forming. Wait to prune most trees until late in the dormant season or late spring after leaves and needles form. To avoid sap flow on birches and maples, prune after leaves mature.

A Blue Hokkaido along with traditional carving pumpkin

Several years ago a friend gave me a Blue Hokkaido winter squash to decorate my front entry and eat afterwards. It was delicious. Another year, I received a Cinderella pumpkin (Rouge viv d’Etampes) to decorate my front entry. It is said to have been the inspiration for Cinderella’s carriage. This French heirloom pumpkin was very popular during the 1880’s and will be tasty in pies and savory dishes later this fall. For now, the glowing orange-red color contrasts magically with the very pronounced lobes and flattened top.

Many gardeners feel the Cinderella pumpkin is the very best pumpkin to grow in your garden. It’s the first to set fruit, first to ripen and is mildew resistant. Their bright orange creamy flesh is perfect for baking. Oven roasted they produce a pumpkin puree that is neither watery or bitter. Delicious in pumpkin spice muffins, pumpkin soup, or with vegetables and sausage. I even found aa recipe for pumpkin mac n’ cheese baked in a pumpkin. I’m so excited.

Pumpkin was a staple food for the early pioneers. It was easy to grow as a few seeds dropped into a shallow hole grew into a mature fruit. Yes, technically they are a fruit not a vegetable along with summer and winter squash and gourds. Their thick rind would allow them to be kept almost indefinitely.

If you decide to grow the Cinderella pumpkin next year, you can start inside in pots or wait to plant in the ground when night temps are 55 degrees or over. In the garden, group them with other deep rooted plants that grow rapidly and need lots of water such as corn, cucumbers, melons and tomatoes.