gardening lore

The Origin of The Mountain Gardener & Other Stories

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Which came first, the gardener or the writer?  I think a writer who gardens can’t help but put their thoughts down on paper. Think ‘The $64 Tomato’ or ‘Green Thoughts’ by Eleanor Perenyi. Actually it was my father who started me on this path. I remember his tomatoes- red, orange, yellow, lavender. I loved them all. And he gave me my own patch in the garden where I grew those giant pansies with faces.

My father always wanted me to be a writer and researcher for National Geographic, encouraging me to take writing and science classes. My interest in nature and photography was the easy part. It was the 60’s, though, and if you grew up then you know that one didn’t always do what was expected of you. I did study science at Humboldt State and Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo acing plant taxonomy class.

After I moved here, I started working at The Plantworks Nursery which really wasn’t work at all. Then one day several years ago I had an idea. I typed up a sample column and marched into the editor’s office for The Press Banner. Little did I know that he had taken horticulture classes himself and so had a soft spot for my idea to write a weekly gardening column. Next thing I know he’s saying he wants 5 columns, 400 words each, excluding prepositions, on his desk by Friday and the column would be called ‘The Mountain Gardener’ and not ‘Ask Jan’ which I had suggested. I knew my father would be proud. I was a newspaper columnist.

So on this anniversary of my 300th column I want to share with you some interesting gardening lore and a story about  one of my own gardening faux pas. 

I confess, I’m not one who talks to plants. Although I have a huge hosta seboldiana named Bob as well as an offset that I cleverly named Bob the Second, I don’t address them personally. Maybe that’s going to change. I was very intrigued reading a recent article in Audubon magazine by Nathan Ehrlich.  Scientists have discovered that plants give off electrical impulses in response to threats. Polygraph expert and former CIA interrogation specialist Cleve Backster confirmed this when, on an impulse, he hooked up a tropical dracaena to a polygraph and threatened the plant with a flame. The dracaena displayed the same electrical signals that people do when they lie. From lettuce to bananas, the results were similar.

Biologists Baldwin and Schultz have published work suggesting that some plants can communicate through the air. When the researchers threatened poplars and maples they found that nearby trees with no physical contact released defensive chemicals than inhibit digestion, thus hindering predators’ ability to consume the trees leaves or bark. Now I know what my hosta Bob’s doing when Bambi comes calling and why he’s never so much as been nibbled.

File this story under "what was I thinking?"  You understand if you’re a gardener that nothing will deter you from planting something you really want. Lack or space or sun or time- nothing will get in your way.  So it is with me and tomatoes. I dream about biting into those luscious gems right off the vine, juice dripping down my hand. One year I had what I thought was a great idea. I’d let the vine grow out into more sun off the side of the deck. Well, as summer progressed I marveled at how many tomatoes I was getting. This was going to be a banner year.

Then came the the day to start the harvest. I reached out to pull in the vine like it was Rapunzel’s hair. As you know, tomato vines aren’t like hair or rubber bands. Even a 5th grader would have seen the flaw with my plan. Guess my little gray cells needed some rest. I spent the rest of the season harvesting only the part of the plant I could reach and had to wait until fall to get the ones that were remaining.

Live and learn Hope springs eternal in gardening as it is in life.  I hope you have enjoyed reading the last 300 columns as much as I’ve enjoyed writing them.
 

organic fertilizers

The Wonder of Manure Tea

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There’s nothing like the long days of summer to get you thinking you could really get used to this. The plants are blooming, the veggies are finally producing and it seems summer will go on forever.

For many, gardening is a way to recharge their batteries. Planting, mulching, pruning or weeding- they are happiest with their hands in the soil.  For others, maintenance is a prison sentence. I fall somewhere in between. Spring finds me out in the garden planting till dark, but now I’m ready to sit back and enjoy the garden more.

Here’s a tip that’s easy enough even for me to tackle this time of year and will make all my plants ever so happy. A drink of manure tea is just what the doctor ordered.

Manure tea experts start with well composted manure because fresh manure may contain E. coli bacteria. If you buy composted manure or sufficiently compost your own, the E. coli should be long gone. Manure from animals raised organically usually do not have e. coli or salmonella in their gut. The Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association recommends that manure tea be applied 60 days before harvesting vegetables and 120 days before harvesting root crops just to be sure.   Cow manure is the most common type used but composted horse, rabbit, chicken or sheep manure can also be used.

To get started, you need a 5 gallon bucket, a generous shovel full of pure manure and water. Put the manure in the bucket, then fill with water and mix vigorously. Allow to sit covered for three days, stirring once each day. This allow time for nutrients to infuse the water and all the solids to separate. The result is a liquid enriched with all but the organic matter from the manure. At this point, it may be too strong to apply to plants. Thin it with fresh water until the color is like ice tea, then you don’t have to worry about it burning any of your plants. You can work the residual organic matter into the soil or add it to your compost heap.

For a large garden make your manure tea in 50 gallon drums. Keep the drum in the garden all the time adding manure and water as you use up the current supply. With such a large container, you can dip a smaller bucket to water down the strong stuff. Another way to make large quantities of manure tea is to use a 40 gallon trash can. Fill a burlap bag with about 8# of manure and place it in the water filled can. Raise and lower it occasionally. Always cover your containers to keep insects out.

As the growing season rolls along, you may find your vegetable garden slowing down. This is because the original organic matter and fertilizer you tilled in have been used up. Manure tea is the perfect way to refuel your garden so it’s geared up to take advantage of the cooler fall days. If well fed, you can coax many plants, especially greens, to put on enough growth for a second harvest season.

Manure tea makes a fine transplant solution when diluted 3:1. Diluted tea can also be used on potted plants, shrubs, trees and perennials.

Remember organic fertilizers of any kind are beneficial to the soil. They build up the organic content which improves its drainage and structure. By improving a soils structure you also increase its ability to hold and release nutrients.

 

landscaping history

Historical Landscaping in San Lorenzo Valley

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The history of our area is fascinating. Being a gardener, I’m especially interested in the landscaping and plants that surrounded homes in earlier times. A friend of mine lives in a home off Hwy 9 in Ben Lomond. Her house was built in 1960 replacing the original cabin-style home from the turn of the century. In a tour of the property I learned some of the history of this beautiful area.

Pictures of the property from 1937 show grapes, fruit trees, a pampas grass and flowers bordering the clearing for a flag pole. One of the original Gravenstein apples is still producing. A horseshoe pit figures prominently in the yard. You can see the sparsely forested  Ben Lomond mountains behind the house.

Fast forward to 1960 when the present ranch style house was built. According to a neighbor who’s family has lived in the area for decades, The Bird of Paradise was one of the prized plants installed at that time and has survived many a winter, blooming spectacularly this year. Other plants that have lived in the garden for over 40 years are Cecile Brunner roses, camellias, daphne, Atlas cedar, hawthorn, yew and interior live oak.

The current steward of the property is a fellow landscape designer and has created a personal arboretum. She took me on a tour pointing out favorite trees and other additions she has made since 1987. I’ll start with the trees.

In full bloom is a 20 ft Himalayan flowering dogwood which has sported its huge white petal-like bracts for over two months now. Each flower is over 3" across and makes quite a show. The fruit is edible for birds. Another prized tree is her Fernleaf Fullmoon maple, which at 25 ft is tall enough to be underplanted with red flowering currant and hydrangeas. Sweet violets cover the ground along with a large stand of omphaloides. Resembling forget-me-nots this groundcover doesn’t reseed itself from those pesky, sticky seeds that used to stick to her yellow lab Banjo and cat Toby.

In another corner of the garden grows a Drimys winteri, commonly known as Winter’s Bark. This evergreen, slender tree has aromatic mahogany-red bark and leathery 5-10" long fragrant leaves. Small clusters of jasmine scented, creamy white flower appear in winter and spring. Underplanted with a black calla lily, columbine, coral bells and mimulus it makes quite a statement.

Two clematis, a burgundy Ernest Markham and a purple jackmanii grow over the arbor framing a white picket fence. A woolly blue curls blooms happily in a barrel along the driveway. The veggie garden, complete with a well-dressed scarecrow, guards the ripening San Marzano paste tomatoes as well as boysenberry, blueberry, artichokes and citrus.

On the way to the frog pond, we pass her collection of lacecap hydrangeas, fuchsia, foxglove, more omphaloides, ribes, campanula and a large butter-yellow flowering kerria japonica. A 22 year old native western azalea also claims a spot in this border next to the hachiya persimmon.

Back at the pond, the Pacific tree frogs are mostly quiet this time of year. Mating season is over and there is little reason to attract the attention of potential predators. She informed me that the frog population varies from year to year and has noticed that 10 years ago the frog chorus started about March but now mating starts earlier-about Christmas time.

Surrounding the pond are native stream orchids, appearing mysteriously here and there in the garden, ferns, blue oat grass, loropetalum, hellobore, polemonium and fuchsia thymifolia. Anemone, aucuba, ribes and a yellow rhododendron contribute color and texture as the season progresses.

We ended ours tour at the back garden. A border of Chinese ground orchids, spice bush, wax myrtle and rhododendrons surround the red fescue lawn allowed to grow long gracefully. Sitting at the table, nibbling on bruschetta with heirloom tomatoes and enjoying a glass of wine, we speculated what it might have been like to garden back in the early 1900’s. From the pictures it looks like it was very different than gardens today.

 

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