Tag Archives: Homegrown vegetables

color in the garden, vegetables

Marigolds, Vegetable Gardens and Variegated Foliage

Leave a comment

Raindrops on roses and clusters of cherries.
Bright copper grasses and ripe, juicy berries.
The fragrance of jasmine on warm summer evenings.
These are a few of my favorite things.

Ruffled begonias to light up the shade.
Orange and pink sunsets just before they fade.
The sight and sound of hummingbird wings. 
These are a few of my favorite things.

Some of my other favorite things include plants with variegated foliage like Abelia Kaleidescope or Confetti. The first sports gold and green leaves as a pretty backdrop for the white bell-shaped flowers that attract hummingbirds with their nearly year-round nectar. Confetti has creamy white variegated leaves that turn maroon in cold weather. Both are showy, compact plants 2-3 ft tall by about 4 ft wide.

Hebe Tricolor is another of my favorite variegated shrubs. This 3 ft beauty has colorful leaves of burgundy, creamy white and green. As an added bonus it blooms with violet flower spikes in summer. Easy to grow in full or half day sun with good drainage and regular water. This evergreen shrub is perfect as an accent or in the mixed border.

I like all Abutilons.You may know them as Flowering Maple or Chinese Lantern. Pink, red, yellow, orange or white flowers-I like them all. Those with variegated foliage always catch my eye, though. Some are strikingly variegated with creamy yellow or white patterns in the leaves. Others look like taxi-cab yellow paint was splattered on their leaves. They bloom continuously throughout the season and are a favorite of hummingbirds.

Out  in the vegetable garden , don’t slack off picking your ripening produce. it’s an easy thing to do with the distraction of summer heat and vacations. Your veggies, on the other hand, want nothing more than to reproduce.
The summer solstice signaled to plants that days are getting shorter and to stop concentrating on new stems and leaves. Instead, shortening days say better get to flowering and fruiting for the season will be ending all too soon.

Pick veggies everyday if need be. Even one zucchini allowed to grow too big and ripe can tell the plant its job is done and seeds are mature enough to ensure next year’s crop.

Your goal as a gardener and picker is never to let that seed form so the plant is tricked into producing  more flowers and fruit in its never-ending quest to reproduce. This is the secret to keeping your plant hard at work for as long as possible. Even if you don’t eat it, pick it anyway and give it away.

Also in the garden the question pops up frequently about marigolds. Do they help with pest control and which type is the best?

Like other members of the daisy family, marigolds provide nectar to beneficial insects, such as syrphid flies, who prey on aphids and other insects that attack garden plants. Parsley and dill flowers are even better but daisy family flowers keep the nectar flowing longer.

Marigold have been shown to have some slight effect in repelling cabbage worms. A variety called Stinking Roger repels flies that bother cows and other domestic animals but I’ve never seen this marigold available around here.

It’s the common that has been shown to control nematodes. You need to plant them thickly as a cover crop and allow them to grow for many weeks to be truly effective.
Gem marigolds are a favorite food of slugs and Japanese beetles and can act as trap plants. On the other hand, they may just attract more of these pests than there would have been otherwise.

So now you have the rest of the story. The bottom line, plant marigolds as they do have some beneficial effects but mostly because they’re pretty.

fruit trees, shrubs, vegetables

Progating Heirloom Veggies, Fruit Trees & Christmas trees

Leave a comment

‘Tis the season. No, not that season but the time to propagate and increase the number or your plants. Maybe you want to save seed from your heirloom vegetables or start more shrubs inexpensively. How about getting more fruit trees or even trying your hand at starting your own Christmas tree?

Let’s start with saving seed. When your vegetables start to produce this summer, you may want to save some of the seed of plants that produced the best-tasting, earliest ripening fruits. These will be strains that are particularly adapted to our climate.

You can only save seed from open-pollinated varieties– those vegetables that are bee or wind pollinated. All . You cannot save seed from F1 hybrids as their unique traits, such as specific disease resistance and early maturity, are uniform only in the first generation of seed. Seed saved from hybrids they will not come true when replanted.

Hybrids have their place in the garden especially if you have a very short or cool season, not many hours of sunlight as you’d like or a serious nematode problem.

If you enjoy saving seed, it’s fun to identify your best plants to save and use every season. Become a backyard breeder and develop your own unique cultivars for your garden.

Propagating fruit trees involves more than saving seed because 99% of all seedling trees bear fruit inferior to that produced by the parent. It may be the same species but it is unlike that of the parent in flavor, color and date of ripening. To obtain a true-to-type fruit tree that is a clone of the parent tree, it is necessary to graft or bud on a desired rootstock. The graft wood, called a scion, should be collected in January so you have lots of time to ask the neighbor for a small, pencil-thin branch of their peach tree to add to yours or to get a branch grafted onto your tree that would pollinate your cherry, apple or whatever you might need. You can even graft different trees together if they are compatible such as an apricot on plum rootstock or almond on peach.

Mid-July to early September is the best time to propagate broadleaf evergreen shrubs. The growth flush is complete, the wood is firm and the leaves have matured. Using cuttings 3-6" long and rooting hormone they will root in 4-6 weeks. Ceanothus, manzanita and camellia are just a few of the shrubs that can be rooted this way.

And what about those visions of starting your own Christmas tree? It’s difficult to start a tree from a cuttings unless it’s a very fresh cut tree and the cutting is taken from currents seasons growth near the base of the plant. Most evergreen trees used for cut Christmas trees start their lives from seeds. These seedlings grow 1-2 ft in a year or two. After transplanting, they become 6 footers in 5-8 years. So if you are patient you can grow your own from one of those started seedlings. Doug fir, Scotch pine and Noble fir are popular varieties.

There are so many types of plants and methods to increase your collection. Perennials, houseplants, berries and grapes all lend themselves to propagation. I f you have a favorite plant or just want to increase your plants inexpensively there’s a way to do it. 
 

fragrant plants

Gardening for Your Health

Leave a comment

There are few activities that are as healthy for you as gardening.  It makes you fit while also being fun and rewarding for mind, body and spirit.

Think about it. Fragrant flowers feed the senses and the soul. Homegrown vegetables feed the family and are delicious and nutritious. Shade trees provide food and shelter for you and the birds while shrubs and colorful perennials give you a gentle workout as you trim branches and deadhead fading flowers.

From early recordings of civilization, man has harvested roots and leaves from the earth to feed himself and help him feel better. it is not simply what is ingested, however, that is good for us.  Working in dirt or even viewing a landscape has been proven to assist in the healing process. It’s been shown in studies that patients recover quicker and need fewer pain drugs when their rooms have a view of trees instead of just walls. Plants and flowers have a calming effect on both patients and the rest of us. Caring for and connecting with nature are ways to heal the spirit, too.

Most of us love flowers and plants with fragrance in the landscape. A few unlucky people have allergies to strong smells but most of us can’t help but swoon over a fragrant rose or a bouquet of lilacs. A garden’s fragrance can be as unforgettable as its appearance. The scent of a particular flower can make you remember past times and places. Plant fragrant plants in just a few spots to provide a mystery perfume that wafts through the garden. Plant them in containers to scent a deck or patio or locate them beneath a window and let their aroma drift indoors.

There’s a new Erysimum available that bears bright golden-yellow flowers which are very fragrant. Called Gold Rush, this perennial grows 8" tall and would look great along the edge of a path where its scent could be enjoyed as you walk by.  Wallflowers like the sun and deer seem avoid them. Yeah !

Then there’s lightly scented Tulbaghia fragrans. This drought tolerant society garlic has thick, wide leaves and looks quite different than the traditional variety although the flower is similar. The fleshy leaves are deer-resistant,too.

In spring there may be nothing quite as spectacular as a wisteria vine loaded with purple, pink, blue or white fragrant flower clusters covering an arbor or pergola. In San Lorenzo Valley, where I live, you can see them growing high in the trees along Hwy 9. They are true survivors. If you’ve ever tried to get rid of one (heaven forbid) you can attest to their tenacity. In the right spot, their scent is divine.

There are many fragrant native plants, too. Philadelphus or Mock Orange is one of the best, but spice bush, ribes viburnifolium, carpenteria, Ca, rose and some ceanothus are mildly scented, too.

I can’t leave out the old fashion border carnation. Their clove-scented flowers are born in profusion making them a nice addition to the mixed flower border and containers. Cinnamon Red Hots, a newer variety, bears inch wide bright red flowers that attract butterflies and need no deadheading.

So warm up before you grab the spade to prevent injuries. Break up your tasks so you aren’t trying to tackle everything Saturday morning. Remember that tired muscles are more prone to injuries. Plant something to eat that you especially like. And most of all take the time to let the healing powers of your garden do their magic.