Gardening In LA
  • Home
  • About
  • Services
    • Garden Coaching
    • Speaking
    • Photography
    • Writing >
      • List of Articles
  • Blog
  • News
  • Monthly Tips
    • January
    • February
    • March
    • April
    • May
    • June
    • July
    • August
    • September
    • October
    • November
    • December
  • Events
    • Submit Your Garden Events
    • Botanical Gardens' and Other Organizations' Garden Events
  • Jobs
  • Web Links
  • Newsletter

Moving Ahead With Tomatoes, Peppers, and Herbs

2/20/2022

2 Comments

 
Picture
Daffodils mean Spring!
Picture
August Pride peach blooming.
Picture
Fig's "bebra" crop on last-year's wood that'll ripen in June. Fruits of the main crop to ripen in August will set on this year's wood.
Picture
Mulberry fruit ripening alongside blossoms.
Picture
Pakistan mulberry blossoms.
Picture
New tomato planted at center, admist chard on left, cilantro on top right, and breadseed poppy at top left. Volunteer tomato at top center is blooming already, and another volunteer is at the right, leaning over the buried water bucket. Central tomato is will be watered both in its own sunken area and via the water filling empty buckets on either side. The water in the buckets is released through holes at their bottoms to the root zone about 9" below the surface.
Picture
White calla lily and red Iochroma coccinea.
Picture
Blossoms surround Rio Oso Gem fruit.
Picture
Bulbine frutescens yellow and orange.
Picture
Mary Lou Heard rose.
Picture
Creamy yellow amaryllis.
Picture
Species stock -- the original, single, very fragrant one.
Picture
Brugsmania Double White.
Picture
Brugsmania Charles Grimaldi.
Picture
This Brugsmania appears ripped.
Picture
Ferraria crispa turquoise.
Picture
Ferraria crispa brown with gold edging.
Picture
Ipheion spreads nicely with teeny tiny bulblets.
     After last week’s mid-90s daytime temperatures, this week’s back to almost-60s daytime temperatures with mid-40s nighttime temperatures is definitely a throw-back to our ideal late-winter weather, with even another rainstorm promised next week.  So, congratulations if you’d sown more seeds and planted transplants of cool-season veggies and posies so they can take advantage of this weather to settle in nicely.  If it doesn’t end up raining, be sure to keep soil moist so seeds can germinate well. 
     This weather is great for double-duty in the garden – sowing and transplanting more cool-season items, and transplanting first warm-season plants like tomatoes and peppers which will have no problem establishing themselves into their new homes.  I just sowed my second batch of peas, and also my first batch of pole and bush beans. 
     However, of the many warm-season choices we’re anxious to get started in our outdoor gardens, tomatoes and peppers are the only ones that will truly take off now.  Don’t even think about purchasing transplants of other warm-weather lovers like cucumber, eggplant, and squash which are just too tender to withstand further chill, especially when the soil is still so cold – they’ll just sit there and pout at you for subjecting them to such an undesirably chilly environment; and they may not even survive to when the weather becomes consistently warm.  Better to wait to get them in in another month -- or even two --  so they can truly thrive; ultimately these will bear much more prolifically.
     Each year, more and more nurseries – even big box stores – are carrying organically grown tomato and pepper seedlings of many more varieties earlier in the season.  I just purchased and transplanted sturdy-stemmed plants in 4-inch containers of my favorite tomatoes – Black Krim, Celebrity, Cherokee Purple, Stupice and Sungold.  Others I’m trying this year are a Brandywine Red and a Chocolate Sprinkles cherry tomato.
     For more of my favorites, I’ll depend on Tomatomania selections (some 200 tomatoes and 100 peppers at most sites) to plant as follow-up crops next month and into early April.  See https://tomatomania.com/ for the schedule of events. 
     I also transplanted 8 volunteer tomatoes that came up of their own accord in January, apparently from my compost that was spread around the garden and germinating as a result of December rains and January’s heat.  We’ll see whether it was worth giving them garden space when we harvest and eat them later this summer!
 
Planting Herbs
     Now’s a great time to take advantage of adding herbs to your garden for your culinary uses. 
     I sow cilantro and parsley seeds, and also transplant 4” containers of them.  I choose containers that are as crowded as possible, to make sure I’m buying as many individual plants as possible so I’ll have more to transplant, spacing them a couple of inches apart in my garden.  In between them, I’ll sow more seeds that’ll be edible after a couple of cuttings of the transplanted container ones.
     I’ll wait on purchasing or sowing basil, since it’s too tender to endure what might continue to be 40s-or even 50s-degrees nights. 
     Herbs that are drought-tolerant after they’re established include garlic chives, lavender, lemon balm, onion chives, oregano, marjoram, rosemary, sage and thyme.  These will need to be planted away from plants that need lots of water, like that cilantro and parsley.
 
     A warning about planting any mints – don’t plant it directly into garden soil unless you want a literally neverending supply.  Instead, plant it in a container with a drip hole that’s on pavement or other surface nowhere near the soil.  Mint roots are notorious for gaining access to soil and then taking over, so don’t give it even the possibility!  I learned this as a little kid – my Mom had planted mint under an orange tree, and by the time she decided that it had been too vigorous, it took 4 years of digging up new shoots to remove it all!
 
For more timely tasks, see February and March.
 
For major topics from previous blogs, see seasonal listings on Homepage.
 
 
2 Comments

Start Watering The Garden

2/7/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture
Purple cauliflower -- beautiful and sweet!
Picture
Multi-harvest: broccoli, bok choy, purple and white cauliflower chard, cilantro, lettuce. The white cauliflower has matured to the "rice" stage since it's teeny florets look like grains of rice; it's still tender and sweet.
Picture
Succulent blooming.
Picture
Succulent blooming.
Picture
Succulent blooming.
Picture
Succulent blooming.
Picture
Aeonium 'Sunburst' succulent.
Picture
70-year-old jade tree blooming.
Picture
First bloom: purple bearded iris.
Picture
First bloom: Chasmanthe aethiopica.
Picture
First bloom: Chasmanthe floribunda 'Duckittii'.
Picture
Row of peas have begun to bloom and set fruit. Each cage is a different variety, hence different heights and schedules for blooming and bearing pods.
Picture
Alaska pea blooms and pods.
Picture
King Tut pea blooms and pods.
Picture
Laxton's Progress pea blooms and pods.
Picture
Arctic Star Nectarine blooming.
Picture
Iochroma coccinea continues to bloom with nary a break.
Picture
The difference a couple of weeks makes: from one to many camellia blooms.
      As lucky as we in Southern California are, being able to sow seeds and transplant seedlings every day throughout the year, some timings are potentially more successful than others.  And equally mysterious in trying to gauge what the future will bring.  Now is one of those times.  Should I continue to sow and plant more cool-season plants, with this week’s forecast of 80+ daytime temperatures? The short answer is yes, since we really don’t know what the future will bring, nighttime temperatures promise to remain in the 50s, and it is only February.  If it was mid-April or May, I’d say to shift to warm-season crops exclusively.  But, for now, continue to go with cool-season veggies and posies through at least March.
 
Start Watering:  Methods
     Since it’s been more than a full month since it rained, though, the garden will definitely need irrigation, so start applying water either by hand or via soaker hoses or drip irrigation or overhead sprinkler.  Each method differs in how it moistens the soil surrounding the plant, and consequently different plants do best with different modes.
  • By hand is best for individual attention to plants when they need specific attention like filling a basin of a tomato plant.
  • Soaker hose that weeps along its length (not just with holes a foot apart) can be strung about 9” apart throughout and around plants so the entire bed is moistened. This is ideal for closely-planted vegetable beds.
  • Drip irrigation can be applied to individual plants that grow several feet from other plants. Be sure to use the appropriate head that will moisten the soil completely around the plant.  One great fault with this method is for the head to provide water only directly onto the center or stem of the plant alone, and leave the rest of the rootzone dry.
  • Overhead sprinkler is ideal for grass.  The problem with its use for perennials or other ornamentals is that once they attain some size after a year or two, chances are the sprinkler spray will be blocked for any longer-distance plant.
 
Start Watering:  Depth and Frequency
  • Depth of watering is consistent year-round depending on the individual plants -- however much is necessary to reach just below the full root zone of each plant.  For grass, this is 6”.  For most ornamentals, this is 12”.  For many vegetables, this is 12”; for tomatoes, it can be 3 feet! For trees, it’s 18-36”.
  • Frequency of watering changes with the seasons because of the intensity of the heat and evaporation, and the bulkiness of the plant’s foliage.  Test how long it takes for water to reach the desired depth – water one day, and dig into the soil the next day to see how far down the water went.  Then, adjust the length of time you applied the water.  If your soil is heavier, like clay, you may have to water some on one day (until runoff) and then again more the next day (until runoff) to get the soil moist deep enough but avoid having runoff.  Timings may be as little as once a month during winter, once every two weeks in the Spring and Fall, but as frequently during our Summer as twice a week during our weeks of more than 100 degrees.
 
For more of what to do this month, see February’s Monthly Tips
 
For more main-topic articles from past blogs, see Home Page
0 Comments

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

© 2015 Yvonne Savio. All Rights Reserved.                                                                                                                                                         Web Design by StudioMAH.