Rain on a broccoli, the photographer
and his camera. We are grateful for the rain - even if it is just so-called
'negligible precipitation.' Lack of water is our plague and we need
to garden in ways that keep moisture in the ground. These little
showers are precious even if they aren't the be-all and end-all for
us.
One of the wonderful things of living
in Southern California, this close to the Pacific Ocean is the
delightful, mild weather we enjoy. This is both a blessing and a
curse. Further inland and on almost all of the North American
continent, 'gardening' this time of year means looking in the seed
catalogs that have begun to fill your mailbox. If you aren't getting
seed catalogs on a regular basis, you haven't been gardening a long
enough – they will come like aphids to new growth.
One of the truisms I try to practice is
to 'garden with passion and gusto.' Gardening to me means growing it
yourself from seed to final product and learning what works and how
it works. At the beginning of the year, with all the promise of
newness and resolutions, this is an exciting time for me in the
garden. On days it isn't raining, the cool weather makes some of the
more strenuous work a little less onerous and on warmer days it is
usually not severe enough to make such work too difficult.
So this is the time to do more than
simply think about a general garden cleanup and
get busy if you haven't done it already.
It is still time to look after the
plants of perennial food growing in your garden. If I haven't yet, I
begin to prune my fruit trees. This is one of 'those jobs' I tend to
procrastinate as long as I can.
If you have no experience at fruit tree
pruning, do your trees a favor and order a pruning handbook from
University of California’s Agricultural and Natural Resources
Division (ANR)1
or purchase a reputable pruning book. Remember that these trees will
live a lot longer than a typical pet and we wouldn't treat our cats
or dogs with the indifference many people show trees. Pruned
correctly, an apple, plum or peach will produce luscious, tasty fruit
for many years. It's actually harder on you (and the tree) to prune
incorrectly, so find out how and do it as right as you can in the
first place. There are very few 'professional' gardeners who actually
know how to prune fruit trees. Some trees will only fruit on old wood
and some only on newer wood. If you or the person you hire doesn't
know this, you could ruin the tree for many seasons to come. Get
someone who knows fruit trees and pay them or learn how to do it
yourself! Make the cuts with clean and sharp tools and follow a few
simple rules.
This is the tail end of the 'dormant
season' when one typically purchases deciduous fruit trees, apples,
apricots, grapes and perennial ornamental plants such as roses. If
you are putting perennial herbs in the ground (sage, rosemary and
thyme – parsley is a biennial, with apologies to Paul Simon), this
is the best time to put them in the ground – even though you may
plant them year round here. Buy your trees or vines from someone who
knows where you live in order to insure you are getting plants that
will produce for you. A local neighborhood nursery will only carry
plants that will do well in your climate whereas a big box outlet
will carry things that are more likely to grow over a much wider
area. You'll also find the selection at most big box stores to be
woefully short and the staff indifferent, at best, to your needs.
Mail order suppliers are excellent
venues for purchasing trees. One of my best finds was from a mail
order nursery. I called and talked to one of the staff asking a few
questions. There is no replacement for a person with knowledge. Based
on where I was gardening, he suggested I try my luck with Dorsett
Gold apples. I took his suggestion and have been blessed with a
delicious, sweet and crisp apple that has wowed visitors to the
garden ever since.
In the past, when pruning fruiting
trees, without fail, I followed the pruning by spraying the tree with
'horticultural oil' which was what I was taught back in those days.
Horticultural oil is highly refined petroleum oil that pests have
never developed immunity to. It is deadly stuff. At one time,
everyone was taught to spray this stuff whether you needed it or not
on all your fruit trees to prevent future infestations. After doing
this for a number of years, I opted to not spray. Guess what. Most of
the time, I found I was wasting my time, labor and money on trees
that did not develop problems in the following year.
Well, what happens when you don't spray
and the tree gets the ickies? Nothing really. Any insect you spray
for is not going to kill your tree, it will, at worst deprive you of
a crop, but not usually. If anything, you might get a smaller crop of
apples or get apples with scab or some other non-fatal disease. The
only disease that will kill your tree (fireblight) is not phased one
iota by any spray.
When I began to spray on as “only as
needed basis,” I learned that more than 90% of the time I was
merely throwing my money and time away. I don’t need to do that, do
you? If you get a problem that needs spraying, read a different
book. I'm done with spraying anything.
Spraying has ramifications to honey
bees – an insect we cannot do without. Simply not spraying for
them, makes more sense than spraying for whatever prophylactic
reason. Please consider not spraying at all. We are counting on our
trees for food, so we will want to be proactive in their care, but we
also need to be intelligent in our use of killing agents in our
environment, and in particular around our food. Much of the problems
we face in our world today are the result of mankind's irreverent and
reckless use of “-icides” of all types and over using them 'just
in case we might get an insect” instead of only if and when
absolutely needed.
Somehow, our culture has become
convinced that warring with nature is a fight we can win. We are
foolish when we spray “just because.” If you have pests, deal
with them as the year goes along – and deal with them in ways that
avoids all “-icides.” We can be a lot more intelligent in our
dealings with the critters that compete for our food supply; spraying
admits we have failed to deal with something in a more positive
fashion.
We were talking about pruning, right?
So, on the other hand, all of your citrus fruit trees are evergreen
and therefore can technically be pruned at any time of the year when
they are not in flower or actually fruiting (some lemons you just
have to look for a slow production time because stopping is not in
their vocabulary). These trees are best pruned when there is nothing
better to do and the day is not too warm, so the person doing the
work doesn’t overheat.
This may be a cold month and, if we are
blessed, rainy. But we still have to keep our eyes out for Santa Ana
winds – sometimes hot and sometimes cool, but always dry and
desiccating to all garden plants, and plants in pots suffer even
more. If your skin is crawling and you need more skin cream, or lip
balm, you can bet your plants need more moisture too! It’s best to
get out there with a hose and help your irrigation system keep up –
you’ll enjoy your garden more – the “best fertilizer is the
farmer’s shadow.” Still.
Are you ready to think about summer
yet? You mean you never stopped thinking about summer? If you are
like me, you are completely overwhelmed with seed catalogs and
drooling over their wonderful photos and the several hundred new
mouth-watering, absolutely irresistible new varieties that all must
be tried… in your one10’ square garden bed. If you aren’t
getting these free catalogs, you haven't ordered from one yet. What
have you been waiting for? Go to the list of seed houses (Appendix
A) to make your day! Maybe your month!
Of course, you could skip buying seeds
altogether and join with your neighbors in creating a seed library.
Like a library of books, a seed library lends seeds, all 'open
pollinated.' You allow some of the plants to flower and set seed and
at the end of the growing season, return to the library the same
amount you borrowed. It is a win/win situation in many ways (The
Seed Library of Los Angeles, which I had a hand in starting,
is described in Appendix B is one of them and it's for free! Well,
$10 for a lifetime which is pretty close to free! Doesn't get a lot
better than that. )
So, what will it be this year? Eight
different sweet peas, half a dozen different lettuce plants? Look at
all those tomatoes for sale and how about that new radish? If I knock
down the neighbor’s garage, I think I could add some squash and
pumpkins…. do you think they'd mind too much? Probably not if I
give them the chance to eat some...
In the Garden, we are still putting out
plants of broccoli and cabbage, chard and Brussel sprouts and we can
still sow seeds of beets and carrots. Lettuce, the golden child of
our winter gardens is the great hole-stopper – whenever any plant
has to come out, have a six pack of lettuce on hand – preferably of
different colors of lettuce – and plop one in the hole. One of my
favorite tricks is to use red lettuces with green lettuces – or
different shades of red and green to make a colorful food garden.
Lettuce should be a top selection on everyone's list of border
plants! Merveille des Quatre Saisons (about the only French
I can say without sounding foolish, a marvelous red/green butter
lettuce that performs well all through Fall to late Spring), next to
Black Seeded Simpson (a very light green leafy lettuce) make a
stunning color combo – but I also like Merlot, very dark wine red
(aptly named!) alongside Black Seeded Simpson or Parris Island Cos,
the quintessential Romaine lettuce. Color and shape, texture and form
all come together in the lettuce patch – I swear I can't get
through a seed catalog without ordering one or two more packets of
lettuce seed. It is an addiction for me! The lettuce loves of my
life right now are Merveille des Quatre Saisons, Black Seeded
Simpson, Drunken Woman Frizzy Head (I'm not lying!), Parris
Island Cos, Red Yugoslavian, Rossa di Trento, Tango and Winter
Density. All I have to do, however, is look through a new catalog and
I'm easily swayed into the leaves of another. And as if all that
wasn't enough, I even like homegrown head lettuce; it's not nearly
the garbage found in stores – the ribs are thick and filled with
water making a marvelous refreshing salad for a warm day.
No one, no matter what kind of soil you
have, should ever step into a garden bed. We want to keep the soil in
these beds as fluffy and light as grandma's meringue (not my grandma!
Some theoretical really-good-baking grandma!). Adding lots of
organic matter will do that for you, but you must stay out of the
beds – your footprints will ruin the 'fluffy' we are hoping for our
roots.
If you have clay soils, be especially
careful to not step in your garden beds. Make paths around the beds
and make the beds small enough to reach the center without stepping
into the bed – if you have the opportunity to collect tree chips
from an arbor company, collect as much of the stuff as you can use or
keep to use. Spread it three or more inches deep wherever you have to
walk while gardening. You will need to replenish this every so often,
but you'll find it so helpful as it keeps weeds from growing in the
paths near your garden beds and provides you with the opportunity to
walk all around your garden beds without getting mud on your shoes no
matter how wet the day! Under the top layer of mulch, the wood chips
will be breaking down 'growing' really lovely soil through the years.
Each chapter will have a chart like the
one below. I indicate the months that are best for starting different
vegetable seeds. “Start These in Containers” means you will plant
the seeds in some kind of pot in a sheltered location (hopefully away
from pests) to later “Move to the Ground from Containers.” The
rest we start directly in the ground in the place they will grow to
maturity. Some seeds can be done either way and, if that's the case,
I will usually do both. The ones started in containers and moved to
the garden will often mature later than the ones started in situ.
This way you have two different harvest times if all goes well,
but if not, the different strategies may pay off if one of the
plantings gets hammered by a weather event or insects.
Start These In Containers
|
Start These In The Ground
|
Move to the Ground from Containers
|
Ultra-early tomatoes
|
Carrots
|
Broccoli
|
Broccoli
|
Beets
|
Cabbage
|
Cabbage (early)
|
Fava beans
|
Chard
|
Lettuce
|
Parsnips
|
Peas
|
Spinach
|
Lettuce
|
Fava Beans
|
Fava Beans
|
Spinach
|
Lettuce
|
Lentils
|
Spinach
|
|
Cilantro
|
Kale
|
|
Peas
|
Cauliflower
|
|
Garbanzos
|
Garbanzos
|
|
Lentils
|
Here is the recipe for January, when chard and chickpeas (garbanzos) are
in season:
Moroccan
Spiced Chickpeas & Chard
Chard should be in abundance right now
and that often leads to 'chard overload,' how many times can you
steam chard and hit it with lemon juice and still wolf it down with
glee? I'm limited but this recipe never seems to fail to satisfy.
The ingredient list only looks
daunting. Most of that list is simply a plethora of spices and you
will find you already have a lot of them and need to use them up
sooner rather than later. I have made this missing a spice here and
there and missing raisins (don't make it without raisins if you can
help it they really add a delightful sweetness). It doesn't take long
to make and the flavors run the gamut from sweet to savory and it is
a delightful mélange. Serve with rice or quinoa for a satisfying
vegetarian dinner.
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive
oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• ½ sweet onion, minced
• 1 teaspoon paprika (sweet or smoked
according to preference)
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• ½ teaspoon turmeric
• ¼ teaspoon thyme
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ cup golden raisins
• 1 tablespoon organic tomato paste
• 1 bunch chard (about 8 ounces)
washed, center ribs removed, and chopped
• 1 cup cooked chickpeas plus 1 ¼
cups of their cooking liquid, or 1 can organic chickpeas with liquid
plus ½ cup water
• 1 teaspoon hot sauce or ¼ teaspoon
cayenne (optional)
Add the olive oil, onion, and garlic to
a heavy-bottomed Dutch oven or 3-4 quart pot, and turn the heat to
medium. Allow to cook for about 5 minutes, then add the paprika,
cumin, turmeric, thyme, salt, and cinnamon. Stir together and cook
for a minute or two until fragrant. Add the remaining ingredients,
cover, and turn the heat down to medium-low.
Be sure to stir every 3-5 minutes to
ensure that the bottom does not burn and that your ingredients are
evenly combined. You can add a tablespoon of rice flour if you like
your stew thicker. Remove from the heat after 20 minutes. Serve with
rice or quinoa.
1The
book I use is sold by UC's ANR: Home
Orchard: Growing Your Own Deciduous Fruit and Nut Trees Publication
Number: 3485, Author: C. INGELS, P. GEISEL, M.
NORTON ISBN-13: 978-1-879906-72-3 Copyright
Date: 2007
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