Wild & Windy Protection

In winter many gardens are ravaged by cold winds. Now's the time to plan for next year's planting of a windbreak or shelterbelt. In mild winter areas, it's still not to late to plant before the rains get too heavy. (We can only hope for rains that "get too heavy" in the 3rd year of drought in California.)

The shelterbelt's height should be 1/5th to 1/20th the distance to be protected. While a windbreak can reduce the wind's speed by 50% for a distance of up to 20 times its height, the best area of protection usually extends distance of about five to ten times the height of the windbreak. Plan your windbreak so that the mature size of the trees is sized to the area you wish to protect.

All windbreaks work best when their length is perpendicular to the prevailing winds. Shelterbelts needn't have a angled slope of short to taller trees to be effective. In fact, vertical, narrow windbreaks are usually the most effective in keeping the stronger winds lofted over the largest sheltered area. One row of the right tree is much more effective than wide, multi-row planting.

A completely solid windbreak causes some of the wind to whip up over the top and down to create a blustery vortex, like a sideways tornado, on the very side you're trying to protect. Allowing some of the air to pass through a windbreak makes the best diversion. A partially permeable windbreak allows some of the wind to slip through and form a gentle buffer of laminated air. This blanket of layered air helps to keep the blistery wind aloft after it passes over the top of the windbreak for a much longer distance than if there were no permeability. The most effective windbreaks are 50 percent permeable. (Not like the picture above. Taken at an uninformed suburban landscape.)

Other important considerations with windbreak designs include:

- Use evergreen trees for winter protection and deciduous trees when only summer buffering is required.

- The wind's speed is also reduced in front of the windbreak, the windward side, for a distance of two to five times the height of the trees. (This is a good place to plant young tree seedlings which can grow to be sturdy, well-rooted trees without the need of staking.)

- Don't leave any gaps in the windbreak as the wind will be funnelled through the opening at a speed up to 20 percent greater than its normal velocity.

- Make sure the windbreak is far enough away from the house to not cast a shadow on south-facing windows in the winter.

- Most edible trees make poor windbreaks, exceptions include: wild plums, Russian olive, Siberian peashrub and hackberry.

- Remember, the roots of the wind break are .5 to three times wider than the foliage and will compete for water and nutrients with other landscaping, water and feed accordingly.

- All the research and diagrams for windbreaks are based upon flat land. Those with hilly property will have to carefully observe the wind's patterns and plan carefully, predicting the wind's flow on complex topography can't be done without a $10 million dollar Cray computer.

Let me know what you think.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

Root Rot, Phytothphora spp.

Another round of rain is on the way. The soil is still a bit warm due to 75-85F days. It's time to watch out for root rot.

Many western and Mediterranean plants, especially those from certain desert and chaparral communities, are quite sensitive to overwatering or even to a single irrigation in an otherwise normally dry summer. A primary cause of death for such drought-resistant plants is crown- or root rots caused by Phytothphora spp. and other species of fungi in moist, warm soils.

In the wet winter the soils are to cold for the Phytothphora to survive. In the warmth of summer there isn't enough moisture neat the surface to encourage Phytothphora. Add water during the summer and you have a recipe for disaster.

Rosemary, as pictured above, is a good indicator plant for Phytothphora problems. The plant doesn't always die, but shoots are killed off by a partial girdling of the crown of the roots. These yellow-browns "strikes" are the first signs of Phytothphora in the soil or a soil too heavy with clay to allow enough drainage. That why I always recommend planting on a mound (as seen above), especially Mediterranean and California natives from dry parts of the state.

Let me know what you think.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

Ocean Horizons

I love to photograph the vague boundary between the Pacific ocean and the sky as seen on the left. (Sorry land-locked folks.) The photo on the right is a very rare phenomena of a green zone between the ocean and the sky. Enjoy.

Happy Halloween

My costume for tonight. I hope Barbie doesn't mind.

(Actually from Jeff & Maxine's eccentric garden.)

More on Green Manures, free nitrogen

Please scroll down to the bottom after reading the query. (Photo of clover green manure.)

Heidi Hunt, Assistant Editor

Mother Earth News

1503 SW 42nd St.

Topeka, KS 66609

(785) 274-4322

www.MotherEarthNews.com

Dear Ms. Hunt,

I have a simple article proposal to destroy the myths about “organic” blood meal and colloidal phosphates. They are, respectively extremely energy intensive and unsustainable. Then I will explain how to avoid them altogether using green manures.

Title: How Sustainable are “Organic” Fertilizers? (And what to do about it.)

Fact 1: Environmental Costs of Making Blood Meal

Heating [blood meal] is initiated at 82°C (180°F) and progressively raised to 94°C (200°F) for about three hours, then elevated to 100°C (212°F) for 7 hours. (That’s a LOT of energy.) Drying is complete when the final moisture level in the dried product is about 12 percent.

Fact 2: Environmental Costs of Making Colloidal Phosphate

Phosphate ore must be chemically processed with sulfuric acid. When sulfuric acid reacts with the phosphate it produces a slightly radioactive byproduct known as phosphogypsum. According to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, there are a billion tons of phosphogypsum stacked across the state and 30 million tons are generated each year.

Followed by a discussion of how to skip these fertilizers using the production of corn with the use of home-grown green manures as an example.

Up to 1500 words. Photographs and line drawings available.

Thanks for your time,

Robert Kourik

NOTE:

Her response, from the magazine that has for decades been the steadfast promoter of living off the land and all things organic, was:

On Oct 28, 2009, at 6:22 AM, Heidi Hunt wrote:

“Robert, thank you! Can you please tell me what your green fertilizers are? Also, it looks as though the article is based on commercial corn growing. But we deal just with home gardens and always encourage the use of natural fertilizers.”

What has become of our gardening media? Who’s minding the store?

Let me know what you think.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

Compostin' Galore, a tribute

Fall is the time to rake up leaves in much of the country. Can’t burn ‘em anymore. Your city or you’ll have to make compost.

My Dad was trained as an engineer and has always looked upon science as a firm, reliable basis for much of modern life. He always used the most modern, chemical gardening products. For years, I imagine he looked upon my organic escapades as voodoo science at best--until he started to visit my California gardens and my client's landscapes. It was the highlight of my compost crusader period to get a phone call from Dad saying that he had begun a compost area for each fall's bounty of leaves. I think he appreciated the tidiness of the compost bins I used. Being a resourceful guy, he decided to use free pallets instead of the expensive, solid redwood walls I built. He gathered pallets from various loading docks to make the walls of each bin. He alternated six to eight inch layers of leaves with two inch layers of horse manure with bedding sawdust and adds 30-0-0 fertilizer if a pile didn’t heat up enough. At first he made only two bins. After seven years of leaf composting, in the same dedicated and ambitious style he has brought to everything in his life, he had six bins, with a total capacity of 22 cubic yards--nearly half the size of a small garage! He is certainly was the "Captain-of-Compost" of Olivette, MO.

The best hot compost piles requires a minimum size of one cubic yard. This is the smallest size for a proper ratio between the mass of the interior, which must stay at a certain temperature and moisture content, and the surface area of the pile's exterior, which is giving off valuable heat and moisture. Virtually none of the expensive plastic or metal compost bins for sale have an interior volume of one cubic yard. I think my Dad had the right idea for a good bin material at an appropriate cost--wooden shipping pallets, for free.

(I use past tense as he sold the house three years ago after taking care of a ½-acre lawn – and a family of four – for 40 years. He happily lives in a much smaller place with no lawn to mow or compost to make. At 86, it’s time to retire—some.)

Let me know what you think.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

Forest Farming, the dream

One of my earliest reasons for getting into edible landscaping was the exciting work of and book by Robert A. de J. Hart. He wrote Forest Farming back in 1975. It stimulated my interest with the idea of a mixed forest that could support grazing animals like cattle and pigs. From this “free” food source would fall a plethora of nuts and fruits to be “harvested” by the animals below. In his own words: "I developed by own '3-D' system, which I called OPS--Organic Perennial Subsistence farming. That involved 'cultivating' my hedgerows by encouraging the growth of plants that contained substances particularly nourishing for cattle, such as the elder, wild rose, and hazel, and sowing some perennial pasture herbs.”

As things evolved after the publication of that first book, he added people: "But my primary aim was self-sufficiency, so I extended my system beyond livestock farming to include trees and other plants--mainly perennial--which would contribute to the health and welfare of human beings. In time, I had adopted a vegan diet.” (Note, A vegan diet. One of most strict of diets that excludes any animal products at all, even leather shoes.)

In his words, he evolved to a layered forest-like “garden” that starts with: "An old orchard, unless the trees are severely diseased. My forest garden was planted in a twenty-five-year-old small orchard of apples and pears, some of which were in a pretty poor condition. But the abundant aromatic herbs that have been planted beneath them seem to have rejuvenated them; a decrepit- looking 'Red Ellison' apple was given a new lease of life when Garnet grafted three young 'King of the Pippins' shoots onto it-- a trick that was known to the ancient Romans. These old trees constitute the 'canopy' of the forest architecture. If one is starting a forest garden from scratch, the best way to form a canopy is by planting standard apples, plums, or pears at the recommended spacing; twenty feet each way. Then fruit or nut trees on dwarfing rootstocks can be planted halfway between the standards, to form the 'low-tree layer,' and fruit bushes between all the trees to form the 'shrub layer.' Herbs and perennial vegetables will constitute the 'herbaceous layer,' and horizontally spreading plants like dewberries and other Rubus species, as well as creeping herbs such a buckler-leaved sorrel (Rumex scutatus) and lady's mantle, will form the 'ground-cover layer.' For the root vegetables, mainly radishes and Hamburg parsley, occupying the 'rhizosphere,' a low mound can be raised, so that they will not be swamped by the herbs. As for the climbers that constitute the 'vertical layer': grapevines, nasturtiums, and runner beans can be trained up the trees, while raspberries and hybrid berries, such as boysenberries and tayberries, can be trained over a trellis fence, forming a boundary to the garden."

Notice, no traditional annual vegetables except radishes.

When I visited him in 1998 he was elderly (he died in 2000) and somewhat feeble. What remained of the forest was a thicket of actual perennial edibles. But mostly cane fruits and an enormous kiwi. How many kiwis can one person eat? The local Permaculturists had opened up a “meadow” in the forest and were reintroducing traditional annual vegetables.

He lived in a very humble single room. Perhaps the most impressive action of his life was that he took care of his elder brother who was too “mentally challenged” to care for himself, Robert cared for him for his entire life. In fact, his brother had a house bigger than Robert’s room.

I left him with a copy of my Edible Landscaping book.

At the gate as I left, a “Meals–on-Wheels” type group delivered his evening meal.

(As a brief follow-up. Patrick Whitehead, who has written some of the most popular books on forest farming, took me to see his edible forest. At 15 years, it was the oldest in the UK modeled after Robert’s work. On the way he said: “It’s really just a jam and jelly forest.” When I arrived, “meadows” of apple trees, other fruit trees, and conventional vegetables were being planted.)

Little did I know a book on the subject was in the works and was called: Forest Gardening: Cultivating an Edible Landscape, and published in September, 1996.

Let me know what you think. (This from he UK: "Hello Robert

I believe that the main title came from Robert Hart himself, but I remember that the subtitle of the US edition was put on by Chelsea Green at the time, as they didn't like the rather flowery one that we had used for our edition ("Rediscovering nature and community in a post-industrial age"). As you say, Robert was a very humble man; rather Gandhian in nature, a real pioneer and very idealistic. This resulted in him handing over his house to the community he formed, and it was then taken from him by another member of the community - at least, that's what I've been told. He ended up living in rather sad circumstances, in a kind of lean-to on the side of the main house. It seems that his goodness and idealism was exploited by others.

Best wishes

John E."

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

Green Manures, free nitrogen

It's almost too late plant fava beans, a legume, in the fall. The soil needs to be somewhat warm. This may work in gardens in sunny gardens in the west and south-west gardens. Alfalfa works the best with corn, but this is just for planning next years spring garden. Leave room in your plans to grow some green manures. I'm using another fava bean flower as it's the only one I have without scanning a slide, which I'm to tired to do this morning. :=)

Legumes have gotten a lot of attention because of their ability to fix, via symbiotic bacteria that colonize the plant's roots, atmospheric nitrogen gas into available, "free" fertilizer. Because gardeners are preoccupied with the amounts of nitrogen in their soil, they are often fixated on legumes as a green manure. While legumes are important in a green manure mix, they are not a panacea. And a myth, or lack of understanding, about how this nitrogen fixation really works has confused gardeners and reduced their chances to maximize the nitrogen cycle.

The common perception that growing beans and corn together will help fertilize the growing corn plants is incorrect. Nitrogen-fixing plants, in temperate climates, didn't evolve to directly share the accumulated nitrogen with other plants. The ability to fix free nitrogen "out-of-thin-air", in the bacterial nodules on the roots, is a competitive, evolutionary development. This allows leguminous plants to colonize nutrient-poor soils. Legumes are some of the first plants to inhabit disturbed soils such as landslides, cliffs, beaches, sand dunes, and fire-scorched soil. When you think about it, the compacted clay subsoil that's left after most houses are built is really a disturbed soil. The legumes use all the nitrogen they accumulate to grow and make high-nitrogen seed. While the plant is growing, the nitrogen from the nodules on its roots is temporarily "banked", or stored, in the stems and leaves of the plant. This provides plenty of nitrogen for rapid assimilation into the blossom once seed begins to form. Consequently, the green bean plant growing up a corn stalk isn't about to share its nitrogen with the corn, during the current growing season. The mature beans contain 70 to 90 percent of the entire plant's total nitrogen. After the bean drop is harvested, the roots and their nodules have as little as three to six percent of the plant's total nitrogen--not much of a legacy, or fertilizer portfolio for the "heirs". So, to harvest a bean crop and till under the dry tops of the plant means you'd be getting only a very tiny amount of nitrogen back into the soil because the seed has most of the nitrogen, little nitrogen is left in the stems, roots, and leaves, and the tops are too carbonaceous for easy decomposition. (See illustration on pg. 265 of my "Edible Landscape" book.)

During the growth of a legume, very limited amounts of root nodule nitrogen can become available when the stress of grazing, mowing, drought, or death causes some of the nodules to wither, die, and rot in the soil. This is why the old way of grazing animals on pastures of mixed grasses and legumes works so well. When the cow grazes the pasture, some of the nodules on the legume's roots "shed"--they don't really jump anywhere, they just decompose--the grasses are able to quickly absorb the freed-up nitrogen for their growth. This makes for more pasturage, which entices the cows to eat some more. Meanwhile, the nitrogen-rich legume plants and bulky grasses makes for a goodly amount of nitrogen to be recycled via the bovine posterior--with deposits called meadow muffins, pasture patties, or cow chips.

"Free" Nitrogen with Good Timing

The optimal time to till under a green manure crop for maximum nitrogen (for a subsequent crop) is just before the blooms appear. The conscientious green manurer, must "sacrifice" beautiful blossoms for the optimal amount of nitrogen. I was visiting Ros Creasy one year when almost one third of her front yard had Crimson clover in full, glorious bloom. I timidly mentioned that the best effect for nitrogen occurs prior to bloom, or up to 20 percent of bloom. "Yes," she replied, "I won't get as much nitrogen, but look how absolutely gorgeous the bloom is! I don't mind giving up a bit of the nitrogen for the floral display. Besides, Crimson clover has a decent amount of nitrogen to spare and my soil isn't in horrible shape." Yep.

Let me know what you think.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

Hey, What About Those Hay Bales?

Growing annual vegetables on hay bales is a way to rapidly add lots of compostable organic matter to the soil’s surface in a short period of time. Here’s the recipe (See illustration from Designing & Maintaining Your Edible Landscape - Naturally) based on my trial garden in 1977!

· Place four or more bales of hay (which has lots of fresh, green nutrients) or straw (with more carbon than green nutrients) in a cluster. Place the bales on their sides, with the end grain facing up, and leave the strings on them.

· Thoroughly soak the cluster of bales..

· Add an three-thick layer of fresh manure to the top (in this case, the exposed end grain) of the bales.

· Add four or more inches of soil to cap off the top of the bales. (All right, I know this requires some digging. But it’s only a one-time effort to start of a remarkable process.)

· Water all the layers again.

· Plant potatoes with plenty of loose straw on top—six inches or more.

· Keep the potatoes and bales moist.

Et voilá! The bales will grow potatoes above the ground where no gophers can get to them.

After one seasonof planting and harvest, the bales will have rotted down quite a bit. (See the photo.) Plant them with bush beans, fava beans, other types of beans or potatoes again.

Let me know what you think.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

My Virgin Kiwi Fruits

I usually cut my kiwi vines back very hard to allow for their cascade of foliage to keep my house cooler during the summer and the Indian summers. This year I was rushing to finish the revised edition of Drip Irrigation, for Every Landscape & All Climates, so the vines didn't get pruned. I've had flowers before, but this year one of the two vines brought forth dozens of flowers. Now I have dozens of fruit even though the male vine did not bloom. This is called "parthenogenesis". Fruit produced without any male fertilization. Explain that to me! Will wonders never cease. If it's like the last time this happened ten years ago, the fruits won't ripen until March! (Here the vines are cascading down two stories and out 15 feet.)

Let me know what you think.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

Collodial Phosphorus, Cool or Not So Cool?

(The view looking down on one corn plant. The top six inches of roots.

Each square is one-foot square. Applies to the previous blog)

Purplish strips at the edges of corn leaves usually indicates a deficiency in phosphorus. Some organic gardeners use colloidal phosphate as the solution to this deficiency, but consider this: colloidal phosphate is often strip-mined in Florida, washed with water (and Florida has a big problem with supplies of fresh water), loaded on train cars, and shipped to places as far away as California and Washington, where it’s sacked up and shipped to your local garden-supply store.

[As a side note: Florida mines 75 percent of the phosphorous used by American farmers and about 25 percent of the entire world production. Phosphate ore must be chemically processed with sulfuric acid. When sulfuric acid reacts with the phosphate it produces a slightly radioactive byproduct known as phosphogypsum. According to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, there are a billion tons of phosphogypsum stacked across the state and 30 million tons are generated each year.]

And the total amount of phosphorus (P₂O₅) in the sack is only 16 percent of all the bagged-up bulk, of which a mere two percent is available the first gardening season since the phosphorus is locked up in a mineralized form that requires the activity of soil microbes, soil bacteria, and exudates. (Exudates come from the roots and aid in the nutrient-release process by releasing; sugars, organic acids, and other compounds to dissolve minerals into a soluble state and stimulate the soil’s microbial action.) Unnecessary water use, exploitation of limited resources and wasted energy—all wrapped in a single bag. Add to this the fact that there is a limited supply of easily mined colloidal phosphorus. It’s much like oil: will we have enough in the future? Will we be able to find enough new supplies if the current mines are exhausted? Some say the U.S. supply will be gone by 2035. The world supply make be depleted in 50-100 years.

Choosing to buy commercial colloidal phosphate really means making a very important environmental decision. This is especially clear when one compares the environmental cost of imported amendments to the energy-efficiency of “growing” phosphorus at home by planting legumes and tilling the young foliage into the soil. Thus the gardener has two choices: (1) import nutrients, organic or not, to force an intensive yield, or (2) use wider spacing when planting and/or rotate heavy-feeder crops with a season of legumes to cut down on the competition for available nutrients. Whichever you choose, don’t grow corn in the same spot every year, as it will exhaust much of the nitrogen. Instead, alternate corn crops with green manures—that also increase available phosphorus.

Let me know what you think.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

Let's Get Real About Sustainability in Gardens

Consider corn as a way to look at true sustainability. Corn plants produce a massive root system that consumes large amounts of moisture and nutrients. The root system forms quickly: by the time a corn plant has formed just eight leaves it has produced 15 to 23 main roots with a total of 8,000 to 10,000 lateral roots. A mature plant can generate roots that have “ramified” (grown through) as much as 180 cubic feet of soil. (As seen in my book Roots Demystified, 2009.)

Corn plants need lots of nitrogen, and leguminous plants, as long as they’re not too crowded can provide it with all the nitrogen required. In a “natural” garden, the ultimate goal would be to eliminate almost all imported nutrients and other “inputs”. Horse manure, cow manure, sacks of bone meal, blood meal, green sand, bat guano, phosphates, or many other options—all add additional fertility, can qualify as “natural,” but come with various environmental costs attached; such as mining, transportation, energy use, and wasted bulk.

As an example of the energy invested in nitrogen for corn, consider blood meal. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization’s regulations, blood is introduced into the (processing) tank as a coagulated mass, previously obtained by a steam-action process. Ideally, as much liquid as possible should be squeezed from the coagulum. Heating is initiated at 82°C (180°F) and progressively raised to 94°C (200°F) for about three hours, then elevated to 100°C (212°F) for 7 hours. (That’s a LOT of energy). Drying is complete when the final moisture level in the dried product is about 12 percent.

Choosing blood meal at the nursery or organic supplier really means making a very important environmental decision compared to “growing” nitrogen at home by planting legumes and tilling the young foliage into the soil.

No matter what your source of imported nitrogen, whether for soil preparation or as a summer application for growth. It’s most effective to spread it relatively far from the cornstalk itself in order to feed the massive width of the corn root system most efficiently. One method of doing this would be to fertilize between the rows rather than on the rows themselves or at the base of each plant. If you plant intensively, be sure to add plenty of nutrients for this hungry crop.

Thus the gardener has three choices: import nutrients for intensive yields, or use a wider spacing and/or, rotate your crops to cut down on the competition for available nutrients. Don’t grow corn in the same spot every year, as it will exhaust much of the nitrogen. Instead, alternate it with green manures—legumes like fava beans (the flowers pictured above) tilled into the soil to provide nitrogen from the atmosphere. A good green manure should be tilled in before too much blooming.

Let me know what you think.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

Lessons From "Our" Droughts

As winter approaches, gardeners in the west now have three things on their minds—water, water, and water. Or, rather, the lack of it. The pale, arid shadow of a dusty drought now extends over much of the American west and southwest.

The drought, which has settled into much of the west over the past three years, doesn't make much noise. You can't hear the sound of the mud drying in the bottoms of empty reservoirs. You don't hear any noise from the leaves as they turn brown and fall off the trees in mid-summer. And you can't hear anything coming from the countless wells which have run dry.

The first drought for me, after moving to California, was the so-called Big Drought of 1975-1977. Our current drought, which has lingered for three long, parched years, has had its impact on wild lands, suburbs, and cities. Now, I get to improve my skills with gray water systems, drip irrigation, and xeriscape (drought resistant) planting techniques.

My first experiments with gray water systems—collecting water from sinks, showers, and laundries to irrigate fruit trees and ornamental landscaping—were during the 1970's drought. The systems I installed in the basements and crawl-spaces of clients throughout Marin county in those days were, in retrospect, a rag-tag, baling-wire collection of bizarre-looking gizmos. Now I’ve learned a lot more. See the photo on the left of a system designed with current “technology”.

In my experience, gray water is not a crisis-intervention scheme, but one of the many "tools" which allows my garden to flourish. The overwhelming feedback, and my personal experience, has been: "My plants are growing better with gray water than with any other water source."

I knew nothing about drip irrigation until the drought of the 70's. Again, the "Big" drought introduced me to a new gardening tool which has become commonplace in the 1990's. The technological advances in drip irrigation since I first started messin' with drip irrigation in 1975 have practically exceeded that of the revolution in the computer industry.

After experimenting with countless drip irrigation widgets and gadgets I've settled on my favorite emitter technology—in-line emitters. (As described in my updated edition of Drip Irrigation, For Every Landscape and All Climates. 2009) Unlike the more common punched-in emitter, which you buy separately and insert into a hole you've punched into solid drip irrigation tubing, in-line emitters come pre-fabricated inside the one-half inch drip irrigation hosing. On the right, see the interior of several emitters that become encased in ½-inch tubing. There is also a clear piece of tubing to reveal the emitter. All the real tubing is black or brown. Old-fashioned, punched-in emitters get brittle in the heat and sunlight and easily snap off during routine garden maintenance—which leads to tedious hours of repair. In-line emitters have nothing exposed to break off, are securely housed inside a sturdy one-half inch plastic tubing that'll take to abuse of weeding, gardening, and mulching, and are far less time-consuming since the emitters are preinstalled. With in-line emitters, I avoid the so-called "spaghetti" tubing which seems to somehow mysteriously move and knot itself and ends up resembling its namesake, a heap of tangled noodles.

The drought of the 1990's taught me how to plant so as to practically eliminate the need for drip irrigation. I've come to discover many ornamental Mediterranean plants are actually more drought-resistant than a lot of California native plants. There are small 18-year-old test plantings around my house which were planted at the beginning of our fall rainy season, and never irrigated again.

The first drought for me was the so-called Big Drought of 1975-1977. (By the way, how can a reduced amount of rain, be "bigger"? How can you have more of less?) Anyway, there have been plenty of "bigger" and longer droughts over the past 400 years. Tree ring analysis in the central portion of Santa Barbara county, the Santa Ynez Valley, indicates two periods of 60 years of drought (below "average" rainfall) since the 1500s

So, watch out, don’t count on a break in the drought.

Let me know what you think.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

"Natural" Gardens?

Their really is no such thing as a natural gardener-made landscape. All gardens are constructs made by people, not by nature. Our gardens ultimately serve our needs, our sense of aesthetics. This means every gardener is really servicing their own ego. Our gardens do look nice, but they don’t really look natural. A natural garden would look as if nobody planted it or tends it. Therefore, a truly natural landscape would not satisfy most gardener's egos. If nobody recognizes the yard as the product of another person, nobody gets any compliments. A purely natural landscape would look so naturalized that most people would just walk by without noticing. The ultimate goal of an ego-free landscape designer or gardener would be a garden which no one identifies as manmade. But I've never met such a gardener.

Our gardens will always be a constant dialogue about the following terms: natural-like, naturalized, earth-friendly, sustainable (the latest buzz word), or environmentally-sound. Unnatural doesn't mean malevolent. We can have reasonably natural-like gardens that meet every definition of beautiful. Such landscapes are nice and unnatural.

Given that we are growing artificial gardens, exactly how natural-like can we get? More environmentally responsive than we may think. But the answers are in the details. Here's some pointers:

Gardeners usually try to do too much. Some yards have plenty of natural landscape to begin with. The typical approach is to remove almost everything that's there, buy a bunch of topsoil and plants and put completely new stuff back. Far from natural. And costly.

Don't even think of planting until you've fully realized the potential of what nature already provided. All that's often required is to selectively thin, prune or remove. The idea is to sculpt your existing plants to reveal their hidden form and texture. It's like Michelangelo carving away bits of stone to reveal the magnificence of the David.

Carefully trim limbs from a tree to reveal a serpentine or wonderfully-textured trunk(s). Or, shape existing native shrubs to reflect the line of a nearby tree or a distant hillock. Pull out weedy exotic shrubs to display the curve of a tree trunk, the rugged shape of an immense boulder or the multiple trunks of a large shapely shrub. Weed out exotic grasses to leave behind a scattered pattern of native grasses.

Or, as photographed here, carefully open up an odd-shaped hole in a tree's canopy to provide a slice of the distant horizon, a nearby lake or the silvery ocean. This is a garden in Big Sur, CA that is simply composed of trimming the upper limbs of a native coast oak (Quercus agrifolia) and a planted, but carefully placed Ceanothus spp. (known as tick brush or wild lilac, NO relation to the popular common lilac – Syringa vulgaris). This section of the garden is the closest to a constructed, native landscape I’ve seen.

Let me know what you think.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

Mounds #2

Here's a drawing about mounds and swales I found. It might help with building the mounds I referred to in the previous blog. It may be too small. Try double clicking on the image for a slightly bigger view. I think I could post it on my web site in a bigger format if you like. Let me know. (It's from my first book - Designing & Maintaining Your Edible Landscape - Naturally)

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

Mounds, not the candy

I like to plant trees and shrubs on constructed
soil mounds as opposed to planting them in
flat ground. If you’re working with slightly
heavy clay/loam soils, the mounding is
especially critical to preventing root or crown
rot (Phytophthora spp.—a fungal disease of the
upper portion of the roots, near the soil surface).
Many ornamental and fruiting tree and shrubs die
of crown rot without the gardener ever suspecting
the culprit. The fungus damages the sapwood,
either killing individual limbs or the entire plant.
Once the symptoms (pale-yellow, wilted leaves)
appear, it’s too late to do anything about it.

So, mounds help stave off root rot.

In areas where the summers are dry, make your
planting mounds in the fall; then all you have
to do in early spring after bare root roses, fruiting
and ornamental trees, and berries arrive is open
the winter wet soil enough to place the roots and
cover it with native soil. In areas where it rains in
the summer, wait until the soil drains after a rain
so that it’s moist, not wet.

Here you can see the cross section of a mound made
of composting chips and leaves from a tree service.
The mound is capped with six to ten inches of soil and immediately
planted. All plants are still planted on small mounds on the composting mound.

Based on my book Roots Demystified.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

The Dutch Win

This is the last landscape I installed before moving to the Farallones Institute Rural Institute to run the Edible Landscape Program. I inherited the plans from a student of the Harvard School of Landscape Design. He specified a herbal lawn mix between the redwood rounds. I didn’t approve of the redwood rounds for the patio as I knew there was too much white sap wood for them to last very long. Nonetheless, I followed the plan. I had already seen the “herbal lawn mix” at a public display garden. I knew one section was always blocked off due to too much usage, spilled sodas (maybe), and unknown spillages and urines.

The mix was composed of: creeping thyme (Thymus serpyllum), dwarf yarrow (Achillea millefolium), Roman chamomile (Chamaemelum nobile, usually listed in catalogs as Anthemis nobilis), and Dutch white clover (Trifolium repens).

I dutifully planted the mixture between the rounds. A year later, only the Dutch white clover remained. It is an aggressive plant. When grown as walkways between vegetable beds as a nitrogen source, it requires constant attention to control its spread.

Luckily the clients have no children as clovers leave nasty stains and are very attractive to bees.

Yet, it did provide a nice green mosaic between the rounds.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

Error in Paris

Last year I traveled to Paris. In one of the oldest parks in Paris was one of the oldest Sycamore trees in the city. This sign shows that all that history and current science has got it wrong about root growth. They need to read my book Roots Demystified. If they read it, they would understand that all tree roots are at least 1/2 times wider than the canopy (dripline). In a sandy soil the roots can grow three to seven times wider than the dripline.

I think the last paragraph talks about the root system and nutrients, but I can not read French. Maybe someone reading this blog could translate it for me and others. (Click on the image to get a full screen view to make it easier to read.)

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

Invasion of Color

I've lived in California for 39 years. When I go back to Missouri (pronounced Mazzuhra

by the locals) in the fall I'm reminded of the amazing display of fall color in that almost

entirely deciduous forest. In California, near the coast, we have to rely on exotics from

ecosystems near and far. One of the trees now blazing away is the ornamental Chinese

Pistache (Pistacia chinensis). Here are two photos of this stunning introduction from

parts of China. Enjoy it while you can. In Texas it's considered an invasive plant.

It's showing up in Sacramento riparian habits as an escapee.

Soon to be on the hit list of the native plant enthusiasts in California.

Please post a comment - I want to know what you think.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

Bean Hole Beans (?!)

It’s end of summer and the rainy season roared in with a vengeance—three to 15 inches of rain in northern CA. Great start to the rainy season. Didn’t add hardly anything to the reservoirs and thus the drought continues.

Alas, the beginning of the rainy season means the end to the “bean hole” season. I’ve been cooking beans underground in a Dutch oven buried under 12 inches of sand for 20-24 hours for over 15 years. People beg me to prepare a pot of bean-hole beans when they are invited to an evening of food and conviviality.

I started by digging hole big enough to be able to line it with bricks and still have enough space to accommodate a Dutch oven with room to spare. My hole is lined with bricks and as well as the bottom and is about 24 inches deep.

I soak the beans for at least 2 days and change the water two to four times, I cheat a bit and use a pressure cooker to soften the beans a bit, but make sure they are still firm. (These steps plus the slow cooking time seem to make for flatulence-free beans.)

The next part of the “recipe” starts with a large fire fed by scrap wood–hardwoods work the best–to develop a huge pile of hot coals and to store plenty of heat in the bricks. Takes 3-4 hours depending on the wood. (I live in dry-land forest. For protection, I make a cone of ¼ inch hardware clothe to trap the occasional drifting ember. There’s also a gravel four-foot radius circle around the bean hole for extra protection. And I hose down the nearest foliage.)

Next I take out ½ of the coals into a metal wheelbarrow. Put the Dutch oven filled with the “secret” bean mixture in with a few layers of moist newspaper to protect from getting sand in the Dutch oven. Then the rest of the coals go back on top of the Dutch oven. Sand is added to mound up to 12 inches above the top of the Dutch oven. The beans slow cook for 20-24 hours for eating the next evening.

[Footnote: I found some discarded clay features that look like a large spine. I added them next to the bean hole to prove this was an ancient BBQ place dating back generations and when lost Italians in the 1800s (many of my neighbors are Italian) stopped to feed themselves.]

Here, never revealed before is my “secret recipe” for the bean-hole beans.

Bean Hole Beans Recipe

2# beans, kidney, black, or white (slightly pre-cooked in a pressure cooker)

½# bacon (Can be deleted by vegetarians, vegans, the overweight, or potential heart attack victims.)

3 TBS Mustard

¾ TBS black pepper, freshly ground

½ cup dark molasses

2 (or more) large heads of garlic, peeled and diced into big chunks or left whole

1 cup of your favorite hot sauce

1TBS chopped rosemary leaves

1 TBS or less, fresh-ground French roast coffee grounds (The real secrete ingredient.

Combine all the ingredients and fill the Dutch oven.

My oven is big enough to feed six to eight people, depending on their waist size.

You can cook the beans for hours in a Dutch oven in an oven. But where’s the fun in that!

Enjoy!

Please post a comment - I want to know what you think.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

Oaks, Watered to Death

I rained 4+ inches yesterday. This got me thinking about water and native coastal oak trees.

I live in the arid Mediterranean zone of California where the oak trees get no rain from May through September. To native oaks, summer water is a poison which can quickly kill. These trees spent a millennium, or more, evolving to thrive without summer rain. In the process, oaks were able to tolerate a number of hitchhiking fungal hosts. These predatory mycelium—examples include crown, armillaria, and heart rots—need two things to thrive: moisture and warm soil. As evolution arranged it, the soil is plenty moist during the wet California winters—but too cold to promote fungal growth. During the dry summer, the soil is warm enough to stimulate fungal growth, but the upper layer of the soil has dried out enough to retard most fungi. These seasonal alternations insure that there's very little time when both necessary ingredients are in abundance together. Thus whatever limited amount of fungus survives is not enough to threaten the 300 year life expectancy of the oak.

Adding irrigation in the summer insures the rapid growth of the sometimes fatal fungi. There is little more unnatural than watering beneath a oak tree in the summer. Such trees can die from rot in 25 to 50 years—a rather quick demise for something that could live another 100 to 300 years. Most houses are owned by two or three families in the quarter century it takes the tree to slowly die. Thus, the actual culprit who installed the irrigation system isn't around when the tree meets its brutal end.

One of the debates about oak trees revolves around how far away summer irrigation should be kept from an oak's trunk. The conservative answer is a zone free from summer irrigation for radius of six to eight feet from the trunk. Yet the more prudent gardener would agree that an unirrigated area equal to the width of the canopy—called the dripline—is the minimum distance. As described in my book Roots Demystified, the greater portion of any tree's roots, especially the majority of the tiny absorbing root hairs, are well beyond the dripline. In a heavy clay soil; roots, as a general rule, roots growth half again as wide as the dripline. A sandy soil, because of its lower resistance to root penetration, allows tree roots to grow as much as three times wider than the canopy. If nature selected oaks for no summer water, than the natural landscaper should avoid all summer water within the entire root system—up to three times the canopy's width, or more. Alas, if there are two or more oak trees on the typical suburban yard, this means the entire yard should be irrigation free—period. This brings up the delicate art of denial. Most homeowners rationalize—if they even give it any consideration—that some lawn or a few irrigated shrubs under part of the oak's foliage is alright. But this does shorten the oak's natural life—period

Fortunately, nature has developed plenty of species of plants which thrive beneath California oaks without summer moisture. The trick is to plant these special plants in the fall, in October or early November, so the winter rains can establish a healthy root system before the parched winds of summer arrive.

Please post a comment - I want to know what you think.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

Persimmons & More

I love persimmons. The first crops are coming into the specialty supermarkets. Soon, I'll be eating some from my own trees. I was fortunate enough to visit and taste some of the 81 varieties in the Wolfskill collection near Davis, CA.

The photo on the left documents that foggy, exciting day. The one on the right is just a few of the rare varieties of persimmons.

The Wolfskill collection is a fascinating occurrence between the private sector (Francis Wolfskill’s) and the public sector (the University of California at Davis.)

In 1934, when John Wolfskill’s daughter Francis died, she left approximately one hundred and seven acres of the grant to the Department of Pomology of the University of California, Davis, with the understanding that the property was to be used as an experimental horticulture station and the line of olive trees planted by Wolfskill in 1861 was to remain standing.

The collection is a virtual Noah's Ark of common and uncommon fruits and nuts such as:

As of 2009:

Actinidia (kiwi) 79

Diospyros (persimmon) 81

Eriobotrya (loquats) 36

Ficus (figs) 303

Juglans (walnuts) 552

Morus & Maclura (mulberries) 69

Olea (olives) 148

Pistacia (pistachio) 239

Prunus (all stone fruits) 1457

Wingnut (Pterocarya stenoptera, used to develop rot-resistant walnut rootstocks) 31

Punica (pomegranate) 180

Vitis (grapes) 3113

TOTAL # of varieties in the entire collection = 6309

USDA National Clonal Germplasm Repository (NCGR),
Wolfskill Ranch,
4334 Putah Creek Rd., Winters, CA

Here’s how to get some scions for your edible landscape:

Almost all plant material from the Davis gene bank is distributed as cuttings and deadlines for orders are those appropriate for such cuttings. These cuttings must be rooted or grafted/budded to produce a plant. Material of Juglans, Pistacia, and most Prunus are very difficult to root and the recipient must obtain appropriate rootstocks prior to receipt of scion cuttings.

Domestic orders are sent Priority Overnight by Federal Express. A packing list and certificate of quarantine compliance are shipped with the plant material when required. When orders are shipped within the U.S, it is necessary for the recipient to obtain and submit a Fed Ex account number. Fed Ex account numbers may be obtained by calling 1-800-GO-FEDEX.

Please indicate dormant cuttings, budwood/scionwood, or summer cuttings or budwood. Please use accession numbers when ordering material. Orders for dormant cuttings or budwood must be received by December 1^st, and are shipped in January/February. Orders for summer budwood/cuttings and open-pollinated seeds must be received by May 1^st, and are shipped in June-August. Orders for pollen must be received by January 31^st, and are shipped at appropriate times for each crop.

*Summer request for Punica and Morus germplasm should only be made if propagation will occur under mist.

*Due to great demand for dormant cuttings and their higher rooting success rate, we will no longer have routine distribution of Ficus summer cuttings.

Please be sure to include a phone number, email address, and Fed Ex/DHL account number.

Orders must be submitted via email to Bernie Prins (bernard.prins@ars.usda.gov)

Please post a comment - I want to know what you think.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

Santolina

Some sub-shrubs last–even thrive–in our deer-ridden, drought-resistant landscape. One of my favorites is Santolina. Lavender Cotton better known as just Grey Santolina (Santolina chamaecyparissus) shows up in most of my designs as it is also free of pests. Pictured on the left is a mixture of Grey and Green (Santolina virens) Santolinas in bloom. This was planted in 1983. The photo on the right is 26 years later. The foliage was still in pretty good shape. Down at the base is a trunk over four inches in diameter. Pretty good life for a wonderful plant.

Please post a comment - I want to know what you think.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

Spooky

It’s getting to be Halloween time. Here’s a fun arrangement from Maxine’s eccentric garden. Always the theme of death in eccentric gardens. As mentioned in my blog of September 14^th 2009. Enjoy.

Please post a comment - I want to know what you think.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

Shame on Bambi

Oh deer! (Old pun. Sorry) The bane of a forest gardener. As discussed in my blog of May 4^th 2009, lots of plants that were deer resistant in my garden are now readily consumed or dead. I lost all my red-hot poker plants (Kniphofia uvaria), also known as torch lily, over time. They went untouched for maybe 12 years when the deer started to nibble on the leaves. Soon all the leaves were eaten to the ground and no flowers ever formed. They were eaten so severely that the plants eventually died.

Now 10 years later it’s all starting over. The victim this time is the fortnight lily (Dietes iridioides). What’s so amazing is that one plant is untouched (on the left) while, only 40 feet away, another fortnight lily is being heavily grazed. Notice the number of severed leaves on the right. I predict that it will take only five years or less before the plant is too heavily browsed to survive. I like this perennial plant as one of the few straight, vertical lines in my garden. Drat. I’ll have to come up with another “deer-proof” vertical accent plant for these two guardians of the straight lines.

Please post a comment - I want to know what you think.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

A Chinese Puzzle

In 1998, my Dad & I went to China—before the outbreak of hideous air pollution. Our on-the bus-off-the-bus tour was misleading because we toured mostly cities—not the rural, farming communities which make up 70 percent of China’s population of over 1.2 billion. Where there are no cities or towns, there are provincial farms—especially during our cruise up the Yangtze River.

What was unexpected was the corn. Rows and rows of corn planted five to eight feet apart, but always planted straight up-and-down the slopes, not on the contour. Our guide Paul remarked that the corn was used expressly for feeding hogs for market. But the steepness of these unmulched slopes with a nitrogen-hungry crop was completely boggling to my gardening experience. With no mulch present on such precipitous hills, it was plain to see why, in part, the Yangtze River was a silty, murky-brown color. I wondered if vertical rows was a time-honored tradition, or a recent plundering of the soil’s fertility before the Yangtze River dam (which is now the world’s largest) inundates the area. The answer wasn’t available from our urbane guide, another enigma in this land of contrasts.

But, in talking with: Mr. Joshua Muldavin, Professor of Geology, Co-Chair of International Development Studies, UC Los Angeles, CA.

(Fluent in Chinese, spent seven years in China, talked directly with farmers along Yangtze river.)

I found out:

“The lower areas near the river have poorer soil and are prone to flooding. So, the farmers don’t want to invest the time and effort required for terraces. The terracing is done higher, above the flood zone. Also, the vertical rows allow the water from a storm’s deluge to go directly into the river. Contour planting collects water in the furrows between the rows of mounded soil where the seed is planted, this often leads to root rot. Sometimes the collected water in the furrows breaks through, washing some of the corn away—along with the soil of the planting mound.”

Who would have guessed it? Not me!

Please post a comment - I want to know what you think.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

Garden Angel

This is another unique sculpture carved by the wonderfully-eccentric Marcia Donahue in Berekely, CA. See also the blog entitled "Rot". The arms can be moved to suit your mood. There are two sculptures, one acts as a shadow of the other one.

Please post a comment - I want to know what you think.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

Indicating Past Fires

I’m chopping firewood and remembering all the old native Pacific madron trees (Arbutus menziesii) that used to grace pockets of the forest around my house. The trees rarely occur in pure stands. Some had trunks three feet or more in diameter at breast height (DBH). (I don't know who's breast.) Over the past 22 years all but a handful have died a natural death and were resurrected as firewood.

At only 80-100 years, these are so short-lived trees compared to the mixed coastal oak (Quercus agrifolia), Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), tanoak (Lithocarpus densiflorus), the California coast redwood (Sequoia semperviren) – with a DBH of 8-25 feet - and California bay trees (Umbellularia californica) in “my” forest. This is because the madrone, while drought resistant, is a colonizer of fire-scorched earth. They are among some of the first trees to sprout after a fire. It is said the seeds need fire to germinate. (However, most germination in nurseries is done by freezing the seed before planting in flats or tree tubes.) These trees at first grow more rapidly than the Douglas fir trees associated with a more mature forest. They help to stabilize the soil. Eventually the Douglas fir trees grow above the madrones and shade them to death.

To maintain madrone in a mixed Douglas fir, oak, and redwood forest, the tree needs fire. Not a firestorm in the tops of mature trees, but frequent fires about every five to 50 years. Pacific madrone depends, on these periodic fires to eliminate or greatly reduce the beginning of a Douglas fir overstory.

However, the forest here hasn’t burned in over 100 years. (A 1/2-acre fire last week a mere two miles from my house was quickly extinguished. What a close call and a relief!) The amount of “kindling” (dead trees and shrubs as well as the invasion of foreigners along parts of the forest’s edge like Scotch broom (Cytisus scoparius), which act like little balls of standing gasoline because they burn so easily and hot) on the ground is tremendous. When the next fire comes the burning grasses or Scotch broom will leap up the trunks of the trees to form a crown, or canopy, firestorm. Nothing, except the noble redwoods, will be left. Including my house.

This photo is of one of the few Pacific madrone trees left on the property as it snakes toward sunlight from beneath the maturing Douglas fir trees.

Please post a comment - I want to know what you think.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

Winterize Your Drip

It got down to 36F here last night. So, it's almost that time of the year when light frosts begin to glaze the flowers. Soon many parts the country will be having hard freezes.

I've outlined how to get your drip system as described my book Drip Irrigation for Every Landscape & All Climates. Here's an excerpt.

A proper drip irrigation system is too valuable to leave neglected like an abandoned garden hose at each winter’s nippy return. Shut off your system’s water supply at a point inside the house where the water supply is protected from freezing. Loosen all unions at each main assembly to drain all water out of the pipes, filters, pressure regulators, and check valves. Make sure you don’t loose the O-ring which seals each union. Be sure to open the flush ball valve on the Y-filter so the filter chamber doesn’t crack. Better yet, bring the filter or the entire main assembly indoors. Also bring inside any battery-powered controllers which you have attached to faucets.

The drip irrigation hose can stay in place in the landscape, but as much water as possible should be drained out. The photo on the left shows draining a system with a figure eight closer device. Open the end-closures on all lines, let all water drain out, and close. Start at the highest elevation and work downhill. I prefer to use threaded end caps because the Figure-8 end closures (The photo on the left. Not my finger nails.) will quickly wear out the kinked end of the hose. I prefer the threaded end cap for its strength. (The photo on the right.) It’s essential that the water is drained from every low point of the system.

A deep mulch will help protect in cold winter climates. You don’t want anyone stepping on cold plastic tubing, but since many drip systems are primarily located in perennial plantings, the risk of trampling the tubing is low. Some compulsive people do lift out the entire assembly of header and lateral lines, roll up the tubing and store it in the garage for the winter. Porous pipe and in-line emitter tubing make this a lot easier than hose with emitters punched in or hose with, God forbid, spaghetti tubing with emitters.

If possible, lay out your drip irrigation lines so they can all be drained from the low ends. Otherwise, install your drip lines so they naturally drain to various low spots, install an access box at the lowest spot in each line of the system for the winter. Install a manual drain-down valve a simple ball valve. Each fall, the metal drip irrigation ball valve should be opened to fully drain the line.

Lonnie Zamora, a former rooftop-gardener and irrigation designer in New York City, used drip irrigation for over four years on most of his jobs, even in the flower boxes for a penthouse on the 27th floor of a Manhattan apartment building. To winterize his client’s drip irrigation systems each fall, he would:

l Drain the pressure regulator.

l Close the faucet at the home’s wall.

l Attach a 110VAC air compressor with the necessary fittings to the female hose thread at the beginning of the drip system.

l Set the timer to run each line or zone for five to seven minutes.

l Run the air compressor pumps at 25 psi or less to blow out all the lines.

l Manually drain all lines on multilevel, terraced gardens.

l Open the Y-filter’s ball valve to drain the filter cartridge chamber.

Finito!

Please post a comment - I want to know what you think.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

Lavender Butcher?

I’m trying another bold experiment. Radical pruning of aging lavenders. I tried this two years ago and it worked. However, this plant (Lavandula angustifolia ‘Munstead’) is much bigger.

I was consumed by finishing my drip irrigation book (Drip Irrigation for Every Landscape and All Climates, revised 2009.) and traveling back-and-forth to St. Louis to help my Dad and greatly neglected my lavender plantings. They got heavy with bloom on long stems. They sort of flopped open a bit. This allowed the sun to cause tiny buds to grow far down into the plant. On stems many might call “dead” wood. (See the photo on the left after removing most of the foliage.) But far down the stems the unpruned plant sprouted many very tiny buds, as seen on the other two photos.

These tiny buds grew on a small plant I pruned this way two years ago and nobody suspects it use to look like the photo on the left.

So, the guy who wrote the lavender book (The Lavender Garden, Chronicle Books, 1998) is disobeying his own guidelines about leaving three to five healthy buds just above the mature leaves. Ha. It’s never too late to experiment.

We had a week of 90-100F days after this pruning experiment. So, I don’t know how the lavender will react. But it does look well right now. I’ll keep you posted on another blog.

(PLEASE, don’t do this in cold-weather climates. It’ll probably kill the poor plant. Just for us west-coast gardeners near the ocean to try.)

Please post a comment - I want to know what you think.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

Falling for Fall...well, sort of

The heat waves of the past month have produced a semi-deciduous forest. The leaves pictured here belong to the native bay tree (Umbellularia californica) - also known as 'pepperwood', 'California laurel' and, in Oregon, 'Oregon myrtle', or simply myrtle. This is NOT the leaf found in the store that is sold as a bay leaf (Laurus nobilis). This is yet another late summer drought strategy to reduce the surface area transpiring ever-dimensioning moisture supplies. The lane that leads to my house is littered after a strong wind with needles of the redwoods and the leaves of bay trees. But many needles and leaves remain in this evergreen forest.

We do have leaf fall in my neck of the woods. It’s just a few: the native horse chestnut (Aesculus californica), thimbleberry (Rubus parviflorus), wild currants (Ribes spp.), spice bush (Calycanthus occidentalis), and maple (Acer macrophyllum). The colors appear washed out or muddy if there is too much heat. A cool, late summer will make the maples glow yellow against a dark-green evergreen forest. The horse chestnut loses all its shriveled-up brown leaves a month or two before the chance of rain as a drought-protective “strategy”. The only bright and clear colors come from the poison oak (Toxicodendron diversilobum) snaking up a Douglas fir or Coast oak, with the most vibrant reds and oranges of any other native plant around my house.

Back in the ‘70s I was experimenting with friends on wild, native, and lesser-known edibles. We skinned the bay fruit, slit the seed’s skin, extracted the nut and proceeded to cook it in a pan until almost a coffee substitute. Tasted “interesting”. It seemed to be only a last-ditch survival food. Little did we know that some lists and books consider the California bay tree to be a toxic plant. This includes the leaves that we so naively used as a free substitute in a sauce for spaghetti – long before it was called “pasta”.

Except for this uncontrollable twitch, I seem fine. So it probably didn’t effect me.

Please post a comment - I want to know what you think.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

A Carnival of Trees

Some horticulturists exhibit superior technical skill. Others possess monumental drive. A very few manifest pure art. Axel Erlandson, a 20th-century visionary who sculpted trees into never-before-seen shapes, combined all of these traits. This retired surveyor and nurseryman literally bent nature to his will, creating a body of work unrivaled in the history of horticulture. Over a 20-year period, Erlandson grafted, shaped and pruned 70 trees on a quarter-acre lot in Scott's Valley, California, into the most amazing shapes. In time, this fantastic collection came to be known simply as "The Tree Circus." Legacy or lunacy? Serious horticulture or pure theater? It's all in the eye of the beholder.

It's hard to describe what Erlandson actually did with trees. Although he used grafting on occasion, his Fellinisque forms also required careful bending, shaping and tying to armatures. He used pleaching (plaiting or interlacing limbs, usually to form arbors) to join together many parts of each living sculpture into a single fabulously-patterned tree. The word topiary applies to clipped and shaped foliage, but here the foliage grows mostly above the main "composition" of limb and trunk. His techniques defy neat classification.

In his early 40s, he began a hobby sculpting living trees. In 1946, due to the promise of developing a roadside attraction and a more hospitable climate along the coast, he and his wife Leona moved 75 miles west. Erlandson barerooted and transplanted nine "living sculptures", the fruits of 20 years' work in Turlock, to new land in Scotts Valley.

The collection was dubbed the "Tree Circus" by Erlandson's daughter Wilma after listening to the comments of guests. Her father devoted himself full-time to his trees, and never put off a visitor He draped sheets to isolate each tree for photographs.

How Erlandson trained the trees is mostly based upon the recollections of a few contemporaries and horticultural deduction, as he jealously guarded his "trade secrets." In Scotts Valley he started many specimens behind a privacy fence, and each grafted or pleached union was wrapped in cloth bandages, not only to protect the healing wound from the sun but to conceal his technique.

Erlandson died virtually broke. From 1947 through 1963 only about 1500 visitors came through in a good year." Though he tried to sell the place in the last few years, he never trained anyone in his methods. A year later, he put up a sign inviting visitors to "See the World's Strangest Trees Here."

Hearing that a developer planned to clear the trees, nurseryman Michael Bonfante purchased them in 1985, and 30 of the healthiest specimens were boxed up and transported to Bonfante's Tree Haven Nursery. Now a horticultural “Amusement Park” near Gilroy, CA. (Some of the 28 which survived the move are pictured here.) Bonfante has replanted these rarest of trees in an amusement park slated for a neighboring parcel, hopefully the final home for the last living "performers" in Axel Erlandson's Tree Circus.

Please post a comment - I want to know what you think.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

The Spread of Lavender

These are photographs of the Cloisters in New City and the outside the present-day Abbey of Senanque, Near Gordes, Provence. Tucked away in the background of the Cloister’s gardens is a lavender plant. This authentic reconstruction of an Abbey, including the food and medicinal gardens. This lavender is often referred to as “English” lavender. It is associated with England with the large industry that once carpeted England’s agricultural lands.

This species of lavender (more accurately Lavandula angustifolia.) never originated in England. It’s true “modern” –see below- origins are from far away in the upper altitudes of the southern Alps in France. In the “regionale” of Provance.

As mentioned in my book The Lavender Garden, on a special sale on my web site, “In spite of over 2500 years of recorded use, the origins of lavender are shrouded in mystery. Some varieties of the plant are thought to have first been domesticated in Arabia. It may then have traveled with Greek traders of around 600 BC to what are now the Hyères Islands on the southern coast of France, from whence it spread to the areas now known as France, Italy, and Spain.” (All a matter of great discussion. Let me know what you think is the early history, origins of lavender.)

The botanical name comes from the Latin word for "to wash". The Romans used it to disinfect their baths. Some think it is most likely the Romans brought it with them when they conquered England. The medicinal gardens of various Monasteries and Abbies incorporated “English” lavender into their plantings. The common names of various species named after countries, especially English and French, are at least ambiguous – if not flat wrong. Knowing the Latin name is the only way to be 100% sure you have the correct variety. The medicinal lavender is only Lavandula angustifolia, not the inferior lavandines such as “Grosso”pictured on the left. It is really Lavandula X intermedia “Grosso”.

Some of the medicinal uses of Lavandula angustifolia by the monks include: anti-spasmolytic, antiseptic, carminative powers, restlessness, insomnia, nervous stomach irritations, Roehmheld's syndrome, meteorism, nervous intestinal discomfort, and lack of appetite

The Cloisters in NYC are a testament to empire-building and religious-herbal gardens for the spread of this favored herb.

(NOTE: If you go to the Cloisters, be prepared for a huge surprise. The buildings are surrounded by many busy streets on two sides. The photos never prepare one for the intense din surrounding this former holy place.)

Please post a comment - I want to know what you think.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

Splitting in the Wind

The Douglas Fir tree in the left photo didn’t commit suicide. It was just “squeezed" off by the other poorly attached branches. This phenomena is called included bark – and occurs on defective V-shaped crotches in which the bark grows inward and on itself, causing a physical weakness when the co-dominant leaders meet. [Two vertical trunks about the same height.]

Notice the fallen branch was sharing the same area of the trunk with three other branches. This tree was topped during a wind storm some 40 to 60 years ago. The loss of the single leader [tallest, vertical shoot] caused four side limbs to compete to become the new leader. In the process, the interior tissue had to share increasingly smaller amounts of tissue. This lead to a structural weakness that allowed a slight wind to cause one of the limbs to jetison. The close up shows the darkened wood where the attachment was very weak.

The photo on the right is a Liquidambar tree [also known as a Sweet Gum tree in the Midwest] that exhibits the same problem – included bark. As mentioned above this happens when two shoots share the same location of growth. The trick to preventing this, as cabling is not an option, is to buy trees without two trunks attached at the same point. Or, prune off one of the leaders when the tree is young.

Please post a comment - I want to know what you think.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

Gettin' Gophers

Even though it's summer, the little ground rats are taking down some of my plants. So, a different look than previous posts on killin' gophers.

I’ve had good results with the “California box trap”. I think the box trap is easier to use if you’ve never set gopher traps before. The box trap in the photo here shows the installation, but the trigger has been activated – see the wire in the up position. [The gopher from the same trap pictured above would fill the entire box!]

To set the box traps, locate the main tunnel with a probe. I use a 24” piece of rebar. The permanent or main burrow [as opposed to the feeding runs] can be found by probing about eight to 12 inches from the plug side of the visible mound and is usually located six to 12 inches deep. When the probe penetrates the gopher’s burrow, there will be a sudden, noticeable drop of about two inches. You may have to probe repeatedly to locate the gopher’s main burrow, but your skill will improve with experience.

Use a shovel or garden trowel to open the tunnel wide enough to set traps in pairs facing opposite directions. By placing traps with their openings facing in opposite directions, a gopher coming from either end of the burrow can be intercepted.

Box traps are especially useful when the diameter of the gopher’s main burrow is small (less than three inches.)

Some claim it is a good idea to use lettuce, carrots, apples, alfalfa greens, or a drop of anise oil as bait. I rub all surfaces I’ve touched with grass or weeds and be sure to rub the trap trigger. [Or, use hospital disposable gloves.] Then I leave a piece of grass or whatever then it has been eating behind the trap’s wire.

After setting the traps, exclude light from the burrow by covering the opening with dirt clods, sod, cardboard, or some other material. Fine soil can be sifted around the edges to ensure a light-tight seal. If too much light enters, the gopher may plug the burrow with soil, filling the traps and making them ineffective. I place a large piece of plywood or cardboard over the entire “excavation” to make sure no light gets through.

The theory is that the gopher feels the flow of air and wants to plug the breach of the tunnel system. The gopher runs through the tunnel and is in the box before it knows it because the flashing on top of the box excludes light but allows air to escape.

Check traps often and reset them when necessary. If a gopher is not caught within 24 hours, reset the traps in a different location.

This is adapted, in part, from: Publication 7433, University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources. Revised January 2002.

Please post a comment - I want to know what you think.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

Fallin' for Garlic

September is the time to plant garlic. For advice, I turn to my friend Chester Aaron who has gathered 90 varieties over 20 years. Here he is shown planting in a raised bed. The wooden sides have ½-inch hardware cloth below to keep out the ravenous gophers.

After soil prep, he lays down 3-5 sheets of black & white newspapers. He water the papers so the wind doesn’t blow them around. Each clove is inserted three to four inches into the soil via a hole in the newspaper. Next rice straw, which has no weed seeds, is applied six to eight-inches deep. It is watered to hold it in place against winds before the straw naturally settles.

Come July, it’s time to harvest the bane of vampires.

Please post a comment - I want to know what you think.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

Nervous in the Forest

It’s going to be 100F or higher with very low humidity for at least two days this week. While other parts of the country don’t find this so unusual. It is not common to this California Coastal guy.

My ears perk up. My nose goes into sensitive mode. My paranoia level rises. And old memories arise.

I when through the 1991 fire in Santa Barbara, California fire; helping a friend evacuate due to impending flames. The sky was filed a strange, beautiful yet evil-colored smoke, as seen in the photo to the left above. The fire raged for days and dozens of homes burned down. People died. The flames raced through dry brush of the chaparral almost faster than a motorcycle cop trying to get away from the roaring flames.

The same year there was a murderous fire in the urban setting of Oakland, California. [The photo on the right.] I photographed the scene after the coals were no longer warm. The amazing lesson to learn was how fickle a firestorm can be. Some houses were burnt to the ground except for the brick chimney, while the house next door was untouched—much like Santa Barbara.

The hair on the back of my neck stands up as the hot winds roll from the inland area towrd the sea, the reverse of the normal movement of air. Where I live, the forest around my wooden house hasn’t burned in over 60 years. I get very edgy and scan the sky for the smoke and fumes I experienced in Santa Barbara. And I lock all my fire safes.

There really are no plants that can withstand a firestorm; except, perhaps, for a well-watered lawn. Some of the houses in Santa Barbara were saved by a short stone fire wall just at the top of the slope surrounding the home and before the flat lawn. The flames raced up the hill like being in a chimney. The wall deflected the flames and what flame or cinders fell on the lawn found things too moist to ignite. The other best defense is to scrap the land to bare soil around the house like the house in the middle photograph. This home is only protected from a grass fire. However, the trees within the bare soil can easily ignite from embers during a firestorm. A friend in Santa Barbara is on the volunteer fire department. He encouraged Joe Cocker to strip all foliage to the ground 60 feet down the hill below the house. The fire burned to the edge of the chaparral and stopped at the bare soil. The house was saved.

I’m surrounded by trees. No hope during a canopy firestorm except to jump the fence and wade into the reservoir lake developed for the vineyard next door. Sit it out and watch everything go up in smoke.

Please post a comment - I want to know what you think.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

Norfolk Lavender

A number of years ago I traveled to England, in part to see the renowned Norfolk Lavender fields - the oldest and largest fields of "English" Lavender of what was a substantial industry. English lavender [Lavandula angustifolia] really a type of lavender originally found in the wild in the mountains of northern France and traveled its way to England - perhaps via monks and their apothecary gardens.

I had a hidden agenda. I wanted them to carry my book The Lavender Garden in their gift shop. Mr. Head, carrying on the family tradition for at least four generations, perused the text. With a bit of anger he said "You say that lavender plants only last 8-10 years. We've got 25-year-old plants!" My response was that to say in the book that lavenders live to be 25 would greatly disappointed the gardener that doesn't reach that lofty goal. I said if I say 8-10 years and the gardener gets more than 10 years of healthy growth they'll be proud. He didn't buy my defense and they never carried the book.

The photo on the right is my current early fall pruning of a 18 year-old Spanish lavender [Lavandula stoechas]. It won't last much longer as the trees have grown so high the plant isn't getting enough light to keep it from being leggy. Alas "only" 18 years. Still a good run in our wet climate with 50+ inches of Mediterranean rain each winter.

Please post a comment - I want to know what you think.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

Garden Rot [not roots]

Every eccentric garden I’ve been in pays some homage to death. Here the face offers a slightly oblique reference to death. Rot. All gardens have compost, mulch, and rotting fibers and critters. Rot [as well as death] is just a natural part of every garden.

[This unique comical sculpture was carved by the wonderfully-eccentric Marcia Donahue in Berekely, CA.]

Please post a comment - I want to know what you think.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

Root Bondage

Here’ a view from above of what’s left of an apple tree’s roots growing in a wire basket.

Wire baskets around here are becoming required planting additions for perennials, shrubs, and trees. I once had a wire basket protecting the apple tree in the photo. The wire was four inches above the mulch. That didn’t stop a gopher from climbing over the wire to be encaged with all those succulent roots. The tree leaned over and simply died.

As the photo shows [I’m the only person I know of that has excavated the roots as they grow when using wire baskets] very few of the roots got out of the basket to explore a bigger volume of soil. For practical purposes, this tree should have been treated like a container plant—keeping all the moisture, fertility, and mulch within the basket’s diameter. BUT, the wire must extend 6-12 inches above the mulch to have a shot at excluding these pesty critters. Such a wire basket is very hard to make and isn’t to be found commercially. Your up to your own to make a Rube Goldberg machine-made, anti-gopher basket .

However, wire baskets can work with smaller plants.

Please post a comment - I want to know what you think.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

Elvin Bishop Stays Tuned to the Seasons

Elvin Bishop loves to garden. And though perhaps best known for his gold-record Rhythm-and-Blues classics like "I Fooled Around and Fell in Love,” he's been cultivating a medley of flowers, vegetables, herbs, berries and fruits around his Marin County, California home.

Besides the art of the Blues, Bishop has mastered something few San Francisco Bay Area gardeners even attempt—the art of year-round food production. His floral kitchen garden even continues to produce through winters which, though moderate in temperature, can reach a low of 15° F and drop over 40 inches of rain. Working this flourishing half-acre has become a grounding note in Bishop's life, a steady rhythm anchoring life’s more unpredictable melodies.

A plain passive-solar greenhouse furnishes ornamental and edible transplants year-round; in summer, it shelters crops of trellised Japanese cucumber, melons and ‘Naga Imo’ (Diascorea sp., a Japanese root-crop in the yam family). In winter, it protects bok choy, various Chinese mustard greens, lettuces, diakon and mizuna from frost and battering rains.

Bishop's interest in Asian vegetables was initiated by his marriage 14 years ago to Cara Wada, whose Japanese-American heritage and traditional cooking style brought more far-eastern vegetables into her husband's diet, then into his garden. “Cara's family made me aware of different tasty Asian vegetables. I figure if it tastes good, then it’s worth growing. Besides, it’s nice to have vegetables to give away to the family.”

Many Asian vegetables are members of the cabbage or crucifer family (Brassica sp.) and thrive in moderate weather. In the Marin-County "Mediterranean" climate, winter gardening makes good sense; plenty of winter rain keeps things moist and, after temperatures drop, the cold keeps most pests (including the aphids and root maggots which can thwart summer plantings, but not, unfortunately, slugs and snails) at bay.

The secret to a garden which can be harvested from mid-winter through the following spring is timing, and Bishop’s sense of the rhythm of the seasons is finely tuned. His brief recipe for cultivating Brassicas : choose seed for early-, mid- and late-season crops to spread the harvest. Seed everything on June 1st in six-pacs, using sterile potting mix. In two to three weeks, transplant deeply into four-inch pots. Set out into the garden at the beginning of July. Shade for several days if the weather is hot. Water till the rains begin. Weed as needed and harvest when ready.

In addition to its other rewards, Bishop's garden offers an abundance of produce; each year he personally puts up about 300 jars of beans, corn, pickled beets, dill pickles, applesauce, apple juice, peaches, plums, pears, tomatoes and various jams, including kiwi.

Elvin Bishop may sing the blues for a living, but in his garden, life is sweet.

Please post a comment - I want to know what you think.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

Bracken Ferns for Potassium

It's late summer and I'm pulling out what feels like a "grove" of bracken ferns (Pteridium aquilinum). They seem to have spread faster than in any prior year. Then I remember how I once turned this "pest" onto fertility.

bracken fern hovers protects my tiny pond as with a graceful open palm. Sheep ranchers hate this plant because if eaten by sheep they get sick and can die. The fern also spreads to replace good forage. Bracken ferns are at least last 55 million years old and is found everywhere outside of Antarctica. Bracken fern is also one of the most common plants around the world in part due to human disruption of farms, the edges of the forest and meadows.

Use of brackens in a garden is very uncommon. Some harvest the young “fiddle heads” in the early spring before the leaves become poisonous. But the green, lacy fronds of the spring are good for vegetable gardens. The fresh foliage is very high in potassium so high that during World War II the plant was used to help make soap.

As is traditional in some gardens in England, I once gathered the fronds in the spring until early-summer, when they’re full of vigor and potash. A wide and deep trench was spread open in the earth. The fronds fill the trench nearly half full. The soil is mounded over the freshly-cut foliage. I place dried-sliced potato “eyes” on top of the warming-spring soil, and a mulch of crisp rice straw like thin blanket. The searching roots of the potatoes wandered through the upper soil and soon find the extra phosphorus and thrive. These potatoes are more likely to be free of disease. A time-honored style of gardening has slipped “over the pond” from the former ruler of our colony. This uncomplicated act of gardening joins two countries, two continents with a simple act of nurturing.

Please post a comment - I want to know what you think.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

Random, Natural Plantings

Nature conceals the pattern of the placement of plants. Each hopeful seedling, each successful mature tree; grows in a haphazard pattern. If we want a truly natural look garden and feel to our constructed garden, we must avoid human constructs. Even attempts at gentle chaos often reveal a noticeable intent. True randomness means letting go.

Here’s a test for planting in a truly random fashion: Take five or more golf balls and throw them up onto the air over the area you want to plant. Where each ball falls is where you plant. The real task is not to move any balls—”oh that one looks so close to that ball”. Untouched balls can mean some very odd combinations—just like the forest or meadow.

We usually buy a plant, look in a book to see how far apart it should be planted, and plant with loving care. The difficulty with the random-balls approach is some patterns require buying more plants than you anticipated. Because several balls are clustered together, the gardener may feel the cost of extra plants is a burden. A forest of meadow has no expense account. Plants sprout, die, and thrive—all at the same time. Thousands of seedlings or plants have died where we see a glorious specimen in nature. Such a pattern is within the natural flow of the random sprouting and growth of all natural things. Rejoice in the spontaneity.

(The manipulated Polaroid print can be found, with others, on my web site www.robertkourik.com)

Please post a comment - I want to know what you think.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

Beneficial insects slide down to chow

Each white cocoon looks like a droplet of water at the end of a thin, gossamer strand. In the above photo it’s hard to see the threads that hold each green lacewing egg, Chrysoperla rufilabris, above the colony of orange aphids. The green lacewing has deposited her eggs right above breakfast. The larvae of lacewings look ugly and evil. So, as with many beneficial insect larvae, they are mistaken for a bad bug and squashed or sprayed with an insecticide – chemical or organic. It’s thought that by having each strand holding the cocoon slightly different the hatches larvae will climb down the strand at different rates. This prevents too many reaching the plant at the same time as they will eat each other as well as the aphids. Sad day when the good bugs eat each other!

Please post a comment - I want to know what you think.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

Green and Tasty Lavender

I’m pruning back my green, almost chartreuse, lavender [Lavandula virens]. Seen here is a flower of the green lavender with a typical blue lavender color. I’m cutting as far back on wood with some buds still visible. These prunings don’t go to the compost pile. They go to the grill to cook chicken in a way you probably haven’t imagined. As described in my book The Lavender Garden, here is the recipe for a spice/herb you’ll never find at even the farmer’s market:

Chicken "Pressada" with Green Lavender

"Pressada" is the my coined American/Italian term for chicken pressed between two layers of herbs. This adaptation is based on a dish made with thyme which I enjoyed in Italy while traveling south of Naples. The recipe cooks chicken very quickly and infuses an intense lavender flavor throughout the meat as the oils of the lavender “steam” the chicken. The act of cooking Chicken Pressada is more theatrical than any other barbecue method I know, and is a great way to impress your friends. This is a true gardener’s recipe because few non-gardeners could afford to buy the amount of fresh lavender it calls for.

Serves 6 to 8.

Utensils

Barbecue pit or grill.

A medium-sized bag of briquettes.

Fire-starter paper, wooden kindling and matches.

A 10-by-20-inch cast-iron pancake griddle.

A cookie sheet as big or bigger than the griddle.

Five to 10 bricks.

Two pairs of long barbecue tongs.

Cooking oil (olive oil works fine) and a natural-hair pastry brush.

A serving platter with garnish.

Ingredients

6 to 8 boneless and skinless chicken breasts, or other boneless cuts.

A five-gallon bucket loosely filled with lavender foliage and flower-stalks.

Without the grill on, light enough charcoal briquettes to form a layer one or two briquettes thick beneath the entire surface of your griddle. Use newspaper and kindling to start the fire so the petrol taste of lighter fluid is eliminated. After the coals have white edges, put the grill on and the griddle on top of the grill. Make sure the griddle is directly above--less than one-half inch--the hot charcoal.

Harvest the lavender while the coals are heating the griddle. Trim more foliage than flowers, as the leaf adds more flavor. (You can use this as a chance to trim back plants to a more compact form.) Woody stems are not a problem, but younger, more succulent growth will release more fragrance.

Remove the skin from the chicken (if not already deskinned). Rinse chicken parts thoroughly under cold running water and pat dry.

Once the flames are out and the briquettes are glowing white at the edges, rearrange the coals in a layer beneath the griddle. When the griddle becomes nearly orange hot, and a drop of oil dropped on the grill will dance and sizzle, you're ready to begin.

Cooking the Chicken

Quickly coat the griddle with the olive oil. This is to keep the herbs from sticking and to make it easier to clean the griddle. Don't use a brush with plastic bristles as the intensely heated metal will melt the bristles.

Quickly layer up to two inches of lavender prunings on the griddle with the stems all running in one direction. Be sure to cover the griddle thoroughly with the lavender and leave no holes.

Quickly lay the boneless chicken breasts across the top of the lavender, with the lengths of the pieces perpendicular to the lengths of lavender.

Quickly cover the chicken thoroughly with another two inches of lavender foliage. Put the cookie sheet on top of the chicken-and-lavender "sandwich." Stack the bricks evenly on top of the cookie sheet to compress the lavender and chicken together (the “pressada” part).

Because the heat supercharges the volatile oils in the lavender, the steam and oil mixture quickly cooks the chicken. If the griddle was nearly orange-hot, the chicken may only need five to ten minutes per side (it may take fifteen to twenty minutes per side if the charcoal wasn’t hot enough).

After the proper time (which you’ll learn in short order by practicing), remove the bricks and the cookie sheet and use the tongs to turn the entire "sandwich" over as quickly as possible (applause is permitted). The lavender and chicken will usually hold together enough to allow you to turn it as a unified whole. You'll either amaze your friends or have to reassemble the lavender-and-chicken sandwich while eating humble pie. Practice make perfect.

After the proper length of time on the second side, remove the bricks and cookie sheet. Remove the top layer of the lavender, lift the chicken off the bottom layer of foliage and place on a platter.

Remove the lavender and the griddle from the grill. Quickly restoke the coals to a hot temperature and place the chicken breasts on the grill diagonal to the line of the metal . Brown briefly. Turn the chicken to create a brown cross-hatching. Repeat on the other side.

Serve the browned chicken on a rice pilaf or a bed of colorful mesclun salad greens.

While eating, you can add the leftover lavender foliage to the coals to produce a hazy romantic atmosphere infused with a heady smoky-lavender fragrance. Or, use the leftover lavender to grill pork chops, turkey drumsticks, turkey breasts, salmon, hot dogs (don’t waste these on the kids), tuna, or sausages for use during the coming week.

Please post a comment - I want to know what you think.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

Good Flowers, Good Bugs

Most gardens need more flowers during the mid- to late-summer because it's the bugs that are also blooming. Why? Because good bugs (properly called insects) use the pollen and nectar of flowers to fuel their relentless pursuit of what we call pests. Bug scientists (entomologists) have discovered plants which seem to attract beneficial bugs. Many of these helpful plants belong to the parsley and sunflower plant families.

The parsley, or carrot, family of plants has a large flat-head of tiny flowers—often white or yellow. The tiny flowers make it easy for small bugs to tank-up. Many culinary herbs belong to the parsley family—anise, dill, parsley, caraway and fennel. Other parsley family attractors of beneficial bugs include: angelica (Angelica spp.) and carrots (Daucus carota)—when left to flower.

The cilantro (Coriandrum sativum) (along with CA poppies) pictured here is a spice in traditional Mexican cookery. The small, accessible nectar-bearing cilantro flowers have been observed by entomologists to attract a large array and high number of good bugs—specifically a beneficial fly called the Tachinid fly which is a parasite of grasshoppers, beetles, sawflies and caterpillars.

The sunflower family, the Composite Family, also has tiny, readily-accessible flower parts. A tremendous number of our ornamental flower garden plants are in this large, floriferous family. Examples include: marigold, dahlias, daisies, Artemesia spp. (wormwood), chamomile, zinnia, asters, cosmos and ornamental thistles. Edible Composites include: burdock, dandelion, chicory, calendula (flowers), sunflowers, lettuce, endive and both the Jerusalem and regular artichoke. Some Composites found by entomologists to attract good bugs are: camphorweed (Heterotheca subaxillaris), coyote bush (Baccharis pilularis), wild lettuce (Lactuca canadensis) and yarrow (Achillea spp.).

Please post a comment - I want to know what you think.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

Foggy Tourists

Poor tourists. They read about sunny California and come for their summer vacation traveling the scenic Highway 1 only to find days of fog. Fall and late spring often have much less fog than in the height of summer.

I just returned from two wonderful days on the coast 100 miles north of San Francisco. I got lucky with glorious fog-free weather. What visitors and locals fail to notice along the coastal Highway 1 is the extra 32 to 123 inches of "rain" each year. Although actual summer rain is scarce-to-nonexistent in the Northern California Mediterranean coastal zone where I live, another type of "rain," consisting of droplets of condensed fog, is a frequent occurrence. Moist summer fog condenses on the leaves of plants, mostly tall trees.

Shortly after moving to my mountain ridge, I noticed that a foggy summer evening produced the sound of steady rain beneath the tallest trees, while the meadow 20 feet away remained dry. I became obsessed with fog drip.

I put a rain gauge beneath a 125-foot tall Douglas fir tree near my garden and another 100 feet away in open grasses. The needles of the Douglas fir have an immense surface area for condensation. The Douglas fir tree averaged up to 2-1/2 times more "rain" year-round than the open field a mere 100 feet away. I discovered over 10 years of records that this single tree can gather one or more inches of water during a single heavy fog—six inches during one very foggy August! That rare six-inch fog drip equaled 163,000 gallons of water for every acre of tree foliage! It is fog drip that helps water the edges of redwood grove just around the corner from my house and allows the redwoods to expand their growth into the adjacent fields, shrubs, and smaller trees. (The trees at the edges of the forest get much more of the fog drip than those inside the grove. The perimeter trees strip most of the fog moisture from the sky.)

Fog drip is so uncommon that it is rarely found even two miles inland from my garden. I learned that microclimates can indeed be very small, special places. A microclimate that never shows up on the evening weather report. Nature sure has extraordinary niches as part of its fabric of life.

Alas, coastal-bound tourists are not impressed at all with fog drip. It rains on their parade— especially if camping in a tent beneath coastal redwoods.

Please post a comment - I want to know what you think.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

Go Pher Them

Pocket gophers, with Botta's pocket gopher (Thomomys bottae) being most widespread of the five species found in California, are a gardener’s the greatest fear in the west. [Those who garden east of the Mississippi river are free of these elusive pests.] When the Russians settled just north of Santa Rosa on the coast in 1812, the story goes “we could have made a good living if it weren’t for the land rats”.

These pesky critters are burrowing rodents that get their name from the fur-lined external cheek pouches, or pockets, that they use for carrying, and short fur that doesn't cake in wet soils they dig and tunnel constantly. If they don’t constantly make tunnels their teeth will curl up toward the brain and pierce it.

They spend a lot of time on the surface at night and are the prey of barn owls. Many vineyards, in their futile attempt to appear environmentalists, build barn owl boxes. They don’t know that the great-horned has a territory of up to ¼ of a mile from its nest. The one near my house and next to a vineyard, has this large predation area and keeps out the barn owls. Ever year I hear the great-horned owl gradually find each other for mating with hours of hooting. The vineyard is 100 feet from my house. Not many barn owls near me. Furthermore, the usual diet for a barn owl eats only one gopher each night. Thus, the gardeners in my area have resort to trapping (killing) these “ground rats”.

Unlike moles, gophers “throws” or mounds are crescent- or horseshoe-shaped when viewed from above. [See the left photo.] Mole mounds appear circular and have a plug in the middle is more likely volcano-shaped. Unlike gophers, moles leave a raised ridge to mark their path. Also, moles are carnivores and gophers are vegetarians.

Pocket gophers live in a burrow system that can cover an area of 200 to 2,000 square feet. Feeding burrows are 6 to 12 inches below ground, whereas they nest and food storage chamber that may be as deep as 6 feet. [I’ve dug into food stashes of dozens of gnawed carrots.] Gophers seal the openings to the burrow system with earthen plugs. Short, sloping lateral tunnels connect the main burrow system to the surface and are created during construction of the main tunnel for pushing dirt to the surface.

The University of New Mexico says “… [gophers] may occur in densities of up to 16 to 20 per acre”. Ha! They’ve never been in my garden!

So, trapping is a must. The other photo is a eight-inch long gopher caught in a California box trap. These ingenious traps worked on the fact that gophers maintain their main “highways” six to 12 inches below the surface, not the surface feeding tunnels. If the trap is put in the main run with the metal strip on the top-rear of the box slightly raised and all sides covered with dirt. This allows air to escape but excludes light. Usually the gopher wants to protect its main “highway” when it feels air rushing out. Running toward the open hole, the gopher is in the trap before it knows it because there is no light to give it a clue as to the breach of the tunnel. Gotcha!

Please post a comment - I want to know what you think.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

Invasive Exotics

California alone is home to 4,200 native plant species, and is recognized internationally as a "biodiversity hotspot." Approximately 1,800 non-native plants also grow in the wild in California. Here’s a short list of just some of the invasive plants in California alone.

Data is from the USDA. NAL. National Invasive Species Information Center.

It’s strange that this list does not include three major invasive plants: ice plant [pictured here, Mesembryanthemum ssp.], pampas grass, [Cortaderia selloana], and Periwinkle [Vinca ssp.].

The photo on the left shows how ice plant is invading the native Buckwheat [Eriogonum spp.] The photograph on the right shows a native lupine [Lupinus spp. and subtle red hills covered almost completely by ice plant. Sadly, ice plant was introduced to help stabilize sand dunes. It has escaped from captivity and has spread with a vengeance.

NOTE: "3:1 rule: For every year you delay controlling an invasive plant infestation, it will take three years to regain control."

Air Potato (Dioscorea bulbifera) Autumn Olive (Elaeagnus umbellata) Beach Vitex (Vitex rotundifolia) Brazilian Peppertree (Schinus terebinthifolius) Canada Thistle (Cirsium arvense) Chinese Tallow (Triadica sebifera) Cogongrass (Imperata cylindrica) Common Teasel (Dipsacus fullonum) Dalmatian Toadflax (Linaria dalmatica) Diffuse Knapweed (Centaurea diffusa) Downy Brome (Bromus tectorum) Fig Buttercup (Ranunculus ficaria) Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata) Giant Hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum) Hairy Whitetop (Lepidium appelianum) Houndstongue (Cynoglossum officinale) Japanese Stilt Grass (Microstegium vimineum) Japanese World Climbing Fern (Lygodium japonicum) Japanese Honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica) Japanese Knotweed (Fallopia japonica) Japanese Spiraea (Spiraea japonica) Johnsongrass (Sorghum halepense) Kudzu (Pueraria montana var. lobata) Leafy Spurge (Euphorbia esula) Medusahead (Taeniatherum caput-medusae) Mile-A-Minute Weed (Persicaria perfoliata) Multiflora Rose (Rosa multiflora) Musk Thistle (Carduus nutans) Old World Climbing Fern (Lygodium microphyllum) Oriental Bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus) Princess Tree (Paulownia tomentosa) Purple Star Thistle (Centaurea calcitrapa) Quackgrass (Elymus repens) Russian Knapweed (Rhaponticum repens) Russian Olive (Elaeagnus angustifolia) Saltcedar (Tamarix spp.) St. Johnswort (Hypericum perforatum) Scotch Broom (Cytisus scoparius) Scotch Thistle (Onopordum acanthium) Spotted Knapweed (Centaurea stoebe) Tree-of-Heaven (Ailanthus altissima) Tropical Soda Apple (Solanum viarum) Whitetop (Lepidium draba) Witchweed (Striga asiatica) Yellow Star Thistle (Centaurea solstitialis) Yellow Toadflax (Linaria vulgaris)

Please post a comment - I want to know what you think.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert

Deceptive Flies

The syrphid fly, also called a hover fly, (Syrphidae spp.) is often mistaken for a bee or wasp. With the various horizontal yellow and black striping they look like a pest. The subsequent larvae eat lots of aphids. Often a single larvae can eat many more its body weight in aphids. The adults should be treasured as the fly from flower to flower to gather the nectar and pollen to survive. Here we see one on a poppy. Because the larvae look like tiny slugs they are also mistaken for a pest and squished or sprayed. Poor little guys get it on all fronts. And don’t forget that all sprays organic or chemical will kill its favorite – aphids; but, as well, all insects whether they are beneficial or not. So, hand strip the aphids or spray them off with water and watch to see if the plant has such a low level of aphids that it is not a problem and leave the plant alone as nature maintains its natural balance. The good guys can’t survive without some of the bad guys.

Please post a comment - I want to know what you think.

Visit my web site to learn about my new book on drip irrigation and other gardening books.

NOTE: The comments section at the bottom of the post has disappeared. Click on the "___ Comments" button or the title under the "Blog Archives". Thanks, Robert