In the Garden with Pat Rubin

Bee garden writer Pat Rubin writes about everything that grows, from flowers and trees to vegetables and lawns. Pat volunteered for several years as a Placer County Master Gardener and has written about gardening for many national and regional publications. In addition to gardening, she spends time raising and showing miniature horses and miniature donkeys.

In the Garden will include news, events, advice and other gardening tidbits. Pat will also answer reader questions.

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May 08, 2008

Looking for an organic approach

Q: I’m interested in using natural and organic ways of controlling pests in my vegetable garden, but I’m not sure exactly what to do. I’d like to make homemade insecticidal soap. Can I use dish soap?
Julianna Haubeck, Carmichael

A: I applaud your commitment to the organic approach. I’ve used this method for years, and find it comforting to know the vegetables and fruits that come out of my garden are chemical free.

Steve Zien, president of Living Resources Company and an authority on organic gardening, offers these tips to get your organic garden started.

If you have pest damage, identify the culprit first, Zien says. Don’t just start spraying things.

Find the most benign approach. “For pests like aphids, a blast of water does the job,” Zien says. He also cautions: “Pests are the symptom, not the problem.”

The most important thing you can do to make your garden organic is to start by looking at your soil. Healthy soil begets healthy plants, and that means more beneficial insects and few harmful critters.

“Soil is alive,” Zien says, “and full of microscopic organisms that make nutrients available to roots and also fight off diseases. If you want a healthy environment, feed your soil.”

Know your soil. Do a soil test and find out what in there and what isn’t.
Start a compost pile. Zien highly recommends worm castings.

If you feel you must fertilize, purchase organic fertilizers, and look for the initials “OMRI” (Organic Materials Review Institute) on the bag.

In time, Zien says, these measures should bring the soil into balance. “The compost will act as a buffer against anything bad. If your soil Ph is out of balance, the compost will buffer the situation, make it less of a stress on plants.”
Finally, Zien says, give plants a foliar feeding with fish emulsion or seaweed, preferably both.

“Even if your soil is perfect, you may have environmental stresses. It’s too hot, too cold, you forget to water. Stress means the roots don’t function properly so foliar feeding on a regular basis guarantees they won’t go through nutrient stress.

“If people would use fish emulsion and seaweed,” Zien says, “they’d have everything covered: The fish emulsion provides nitrogen, phosphorus and potash, and the seaweed provides growth hormones, vitamins and 55 trace minerals.”

Educate yourself. Try “The Organic Gardener’s Complete Guide to Vegetables and Fruits,” (Rodale Press) and “Teeming with Microbes” by Jeff Lowenfels and Wayne Lewis. Subscribe to Organic Gardening magazine.

Finally, making your own insecticidal soap can be tricky. Using too much soap or the wrong kind of soap can damage plants. You’re better off buying insecticidal soap rather than risking injury to your plants.

Posted by Pat Rubin at 11:05 AM | Comments

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May 07, 2008

The joy of radishes

I remember as a child planting radish seeds in school. They sprout quickly and produce plump red radishes in a matter of weeks.

The garden books say you can plant radishes every two weeks through July for a continuous crop. I like to plant them around the tomato cages, or wind rows of them in and out of the other vegetables in the garden.

They're one of the easiest crops to grow. And it's nice to be able to harvest something while waiting for the tomatoes, peppers, squash, eggplant and corn to ripen.

I don’t need all the radishes I plant. Two or three sliced thinly in a salad is enough for me. But I love their cheerful colors and shapes. And it wouldn’t be a garden without pulling a radish out of the ground, washing the soil off and then biting into it. The tangy, peppery taste makes me wince and then reach for the nearest glass of water. It's become sort of a tradition when walking through the garden.

Posted by Pat Rubin at 11:06 AM | Comments

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May 06, 2008

Red Japanese maples need sun

Q: I have 2 ‘Bloodgood’ Japanese maples in pots on my patio. They’re five to seven years old. The problem is they no longer stay red. The new growth is red, but then as the leaves mature they turn green and stay that way until fall. Is there anything I can give them to get their color back?
Laura, Antelope

A: Bloodgood (Acer palmatum ‘Bloodgood’) is one of the most popular Japanese maples, and prized for its red color. The plant normally keeps its red color all summer. Its foliage turns to bright crimson in the fall. In the ground it grows to about 20 feet tall and as wide. It can take a lot of sun, though probably likes a bit of light shade.

I called Chris Aycock of El Dorado Nursery in Shingle Springs for an answer. Aycock is a dedicated Japanese maple aficionado.

As soon as I mentioned the maples were losing their red color, Aycock wondered how much sun they were getting. People assume Japanese maples need a lot of shade, he says, but for Bloodgood to keep its beautiful red color all during the growing season, it needs sun.

Since the maples are in pots, perhaps it’s possible to put them on pot stands with rollers and pull them out into the sun.

Aycock also says maples in pots often lose their color during summer months, and speculates it’s because potted plants are watered and fertilized more often than ones in the ground, so the plants spend more time actively growing.

“But the biggest thing is people think they can’t take the sun. They can,” he says.

Posted by Pat Rubin at 09:57 AM | Comments

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May 05, 2008

Bee Garden bounty

A couple of hours ago I harvested a head of lettuce, dozens of radishes, arugula leaves, chives and parsley from the Bee’s Square Foot Garden. And most of that produce became today’s lunch. It doesn’t get much fresher than that.

It’s a wonderful feeling to sit down to a meal and be able to say “This lettuce came from the garden.” It’s such a feeling of accomplishment to grow a vegetable garden. The Square Foot Garden method has been trouble free, and very little work. But in all fairness, so has the rest of the garden thus far.

And everywhere I look in the garden I see either bounty or promise.

The lettuce is growing great guns. The arugula is making masses of leaves. The radishes are healthy and growing quickly. The tomatoes are beginning to bloom. The cucumber seedlings are finally stretching out. The eggplant looks healthy and happy. The Romaine lettuce is beautiful and the basil is putting on lots of new growth.

I see the earwigs have been nibbling on the marigold leaves. If giving them marigolds to eat keeps them off the lettuce, then I guess that’s a good trade-off. And I’m still getting plenty of orange/red/gold flowers.

As I sat watching the garden today, several finches stopped by to nibble on the sunflower leaves growing in another raised bed. Hummingbirds came by, too, and even stopped to rest on the tomato cages.

The garden is a happy place, and I love sitting and looking at it grow.

Posted by kmckenna at 03:20 PM | Comments

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April 30, 2008

Worm composting update

My vermicomposting project is doing well. I’m using a worm bin called Can-O-Worms, which is a series of three trays that sit on top of a fourth tray. The top three trays are where the worms live and eat. The bottom one is designed to catch excess water so the worms don’t drown.

When tray 1, which is the lowest tray, gets filled up, you add tray two. As the worms finish with tray one they migrate to tray two, then eventually to tray three. At that point tray one will be full of compost and need to be emptied into the garden. It then becomes the top tray.

My worms are in tray two, and it’s about half full. I feed them decomposing kitchen scraps, wetted cardboard and paper, coffee grounds and tea bags. The instructions say you can even feed them the dust and lint from vacuum cleaner bags. I haven’t tried that.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how easy it’s been. I check them every few days, make sure they get food once or twice a week, and that’s it.

I have to admit, though, the bin is still in the kitchen. It’s unobtrusive and there’s no odor. I put it in the garage for a while, but I find when it’s where I see it every day, I pay attention to it. Plus the temperature is milder in the house than outside. I worry about them getting too hot in the summer, even in the garage or in a protected spot outside. That's probably silly, but, oh well.

Posted by Pat Rubin at 01:20 PM | Comments

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April 29, 2008

Plants the deer don't eat

Q: What is good deer resistant groundcover? We live at 2000 feet, occasionally get snow, and am looking for something easy to maintain, pleasant to look at. Flowers are OK. One side of the house is sunny, the other shady.
Tony and Jo Ann Creel, Placerville

A: I have great appreciation for the perseverance, frustration and patience gardeners in deer country must have to keep gardening. It wasn’t until I moved from rural Auburn to more rural Meadow Vista that I appreciated a deer’s insatiable and varied appetite.

They seem to eat everything. But they don’t. In fact, I’ve been pleasantly surprised at what they don’t eat.

Here are a few suggestions gleaned from “Deer in My Garden, Volume 2: Groundcovers and Edges” (Garden Wisdom Press, 2008, 210 pages, $19.95) by Carolyn Singer who has gardened among the deer in the Grass Valley area for many years.

Achillea: Also called yarrow, it comes in many sizes, from a tight ground-hugging mat to a 30-inch tall clump. Drought tolerant, sun-loving, the taller varieties needs some clean-up each year.

Ajuga: One of my favorites for covering lots of ground. it has gorgeous green/purple foliage, and in late spring sends up spires of blue flowers. It tolerates lots of conditions, prefers sun, likes regular (weekly) water.

Creeping manzanita (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi): This one can spread ten feet wide, but usually stays around a foot tall. Can grow in full or part sun, isn’t picky about soil, doesn’t need a lot of water once established. The leaves are a pretty gray-green, stems have a reddish tinge.

Artemesia: If you’re looking for something a bit more on the shrubby side, and love silver, this is your plant. ‘Powis Castle’ makes a great groundcover, rooting as it goes. It gets a bit bedraggled in the winter time, responds well to being cut back, and is a tough plant.

Cotoneaster: Singer says C. apiculatus ‘Tom Thumb’ is reliably deer resistant. It makes a mound less that six inches high and spreads to about two feet. Leaves are dark green. It gets small white flowers in summer. Leaves turn red and gold in the fall and when they’re gone, the plant has tiny red berries.

Erigeron: Also called Santa Barbara daisy, it makes a mounding groundcover covered most of the season with tiny white flowers. Singer calls it a great edging plant, though it goes dormant in winter.

Lamium: Easily available in green or silver leaved varieties, lamium is a groundcover for shady areas. It likes good soil, regular water. Beautiful year round.

Creeping Jenny (Lysimachia nummularia): A stunning groundcover with rounded, yellow-green leaves. Sends out trailing stems that grow almost flat to the ground. Prefers part shade.

Creeping Oregon grape (Mahonia repens): A shrubby groundcover, it can grow to three feet high. Glossy green leaves, bright yellow flowers in spring. Spreads by runners.

Rosemary: Trailing stems of needle-like dark green leaves, blue flowers all summer, rosemary makes a great groundcover you can almost ignore completely once established.

Lambs ears (Stachys byzantina): Soft, fuzzy silvery gray leaves. Spreads by underground stolons, can be a pest, but what a beautiful one.

Thyme: Check your local nursery for the many varieties of thymes. There are green, silver and yellow leaved varieties. Most creep and crawl along the ground, some hugging the ground tightly,others growing to three or four inches high. The taller sorts can be sheared back like a lawn, and they’ll respond with beautiful new growth.

Posted by Pat Rubin at 03:15 PM | Comments

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April 28, 2008

It's not too late to start a vegetable garden

Q: Is it too late in the year to start vegetables? The only vegetables we have ever grown were tomatoes, but your grid garden has got us excited about the possibilities.
Matt Shadle

A: No, it isn't too late at all. In fact, now is the best time to plant because the weather is dependbly warm. Summer vegetables like tomatoes, cucumbers, beans and squash love warm soil and warm days. Those of us who planted our gardens earlier in April have watched them just sit there and not do much growing. In fact, we risked losing tender plants like basil to frost.

Bottom line: get planting.

Read more about our square foot gardening method in The Sacramento Bee.

Posted by Pat Rubin at 01:09 PM | Comments

Spittlebug season

It’s spittlebug season.

You’ve seen them. They look like masses of foamy spit against the stems of plants. In my garden, they seem to love the yarrow, the asters, the mint and the roses. Whenever I see them, I wash them away, and after a few days, that seems to discourage them enough that they don’t come back. Look when you wash the spittle away, and you'll see a soft looking, little greenish-brown insect, only about ¼ inch long, hiding inside. That’s the spittlebug nymph, and, like the spittlebug adult, it sucks plant sap. A large infestation can weaken plants.

According to “Insect, Disease & Weed I.D. Guide” by Jill Cebenko and Deborah Martin, (Rodale Press, 2001, 308 pages), they’re also called froghoppers. Adults are brown or green, oval shaped, with a blunt frog-like head. Nymphs are wingless. They feed inside the frothy bubbles for as long as seven weeks, then molt to the adult stage. The adults lay their eggs in August and September, and the eggs overwinter until the following spring when the cycle starts again.

Cleaning up debris each fall - cutting away the herbaceous plants, cleaning up old mulch, raking leaves, and hauling away or composting the remains - will help cut down the number of overwintering spittlebugs.

Posted by Pat Rubin at 11:51 AM | Comments

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April 25, 2008

Drat those gnats

Q: I have gnats in one of my houseplants. Any suggestions on how to get rid
of them?
Phyllis Percival, Sacramento

A: They’re more of a nuisance than they are destructive to the plants, but I agree, the gnats need to go. I’ve had them in house plants, too.

Called fungus gnats, they aren’t directly harmful to plants, says Seth Taylor, sales manager for Capital Nursery on Freeport Boulevard in Sacramento. “They’ll lay eggs in the soil, and the larva feed on decomposing matter in the soil and on some of the plant’s root hairs. They aren’t harmful to the plants unless you have a large infestation or a really sensitive plant.”
The gnats we see flying around live only a few weeks, but the larvae can live for two or three months in the soil.

Fungus gnats show up when we water too much. They’re attracted to the moisture, Taylor says.

“To control the gnats, let the surface of the soil dry out between waterings, and they’ll start to disappear,” Taylor says. Adding a layer of sand to the soil surface can also help, he says, since it dries out so quickly. Next, make sure the plants don’t sit in saucers of water. He suggests using sticky whitefly traps placed near the plants to attract the gnats.

Chemical controls are available. Bonide Systemic Houseplant Insect Killer, which sells for about $6, is a granule that kills fungus gnat larvae.
For an organic approach, you can use beneficial nematodes, which are microscopic organisms that can control fungus gnat larvae.

The nematodes are available in a sponge-type product that costs about $17.
“It’s a sponge impregnated with the nematodes,” Taylor says. “You put it in water and the nematodes are released into the water and then you water the plants with it. A little goes a long way.”

Bottom line, however, is to cut back on the water. Not only does overwatering attract fungus gnats, it will eventually kill the plant.

Posted by Pat Rubin at 12:16 PM | Comments

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April 24, 2008

Growing great guns

The Bee garden is just a few weeks old, and already it’s changed
considerably. It doesn’t look anything like its early pictures. The
cucumber seeds have sprouted. The arugula has grown six inches. The
romaine seedlings are now a few inches high. The radishes are ready to
pick. Ditto the red and green lettuce. In fact, the lettuce has filled its
square.

Amazing.

Also, there have been a few minor problems. The recent cold weather
damaged the cucumber seedlings just a bit. It looks like only the seedling
leaves were damaged and the plants will grow out of it and be fine. The
tomatoes, eggplant and pepper plants made it through the cold unscathed,
but haven’t grown much yet. I suspect the chilly weather is to blame.

Still, I’m ready to harvest the radishes and plant something else. I’m
thinking of either red romaine lettuce or peppers. I have several heirloom
varieties of peppers still to put someplace in the garden.

So far the square foot gardening method has been easy. It’s been fun. The
checkerboard of plants looks beautiful.

Posted by kmckenna at 04:08 PM | Comments

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April 18, 2008

Check out our online interactive raised bed garden

www.sacbee.com/hg

Posted by Pat Rubin at 12:50 PM | Comments

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April 16, 2008

The cucumbers have sprouted

It didn't take long with the nice weather we had for the cucumber seeds to sprout in The Bee Garden.

I planted them April 7, and on April 14 there they were peeking their cotyledons out of the soil.

I planted more than I needed, of course. I'll gradually thin the clump to one seedling. I'll see which one is the toughest, biggest, most promising.

Posted by Pat Rubin at 03:58 PM | Comments

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April 14, 2008

First harvest

The Bee’s Square Foot Garden is already producing cool weather crops.

Radishes are ready, as well as red and green lettuce, arugula and endive. I couldn't resist adding a few marigold flowers for a festive touch for this photograph.

When I started picking lettuce leaves it didn’t seem like much at first. Then suddenly I realized I had enough for salad for two.

Amazing.

Posted by Pat Rubin at 03:17 PM | Comments

No broccoli now

Q: I planted 6 broccoli plants in October and they have each grown a leaf or two, and no broccoli crowns have appeared. The tag said they would mature in 60 days, which would have been around Christmas time, but they certainly didn't do that. Should I continue to wait for them to grow or pull them out?
Sue Gilson, Roseville

A: I doubt you’re going to get any broccoli now. Most likely the plants will send up flower stalks, which means as far as they are concerned the season is over and it’s time to make seed for the next one.

Broccoli should be planted in August or September. October is just too late.
Pull them out, and try again this August.

Posted by Pat Rubin at 03:11 PM | Comments

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April 11, 2008

Looking for inspiration

Q: I am finally able to rid my front yard of a thirsty lawn and wanted some
ideas for plants, shrubs and flowers that are California natives, have low water
needs, are compact for a suburban front yard and may also attract
butterflies for our young son to enjoy seeing (I am hoping he'll love
gardening someday). Do you have suggestions or resource ideas?
Karen Goldstein

A: There’s nothing like visiting gardens filled with the sort of plants you love and desire for inspiration, so I suggest taking a few field trips to some stunning local gardens that are open to the public.

WPA Rock Garden: An acre or more of California natives, Mediterranean-climate plants and succulents. Paths lead you through the garden. Located in Sacramento's William Land Park across the parking lot from Fairy Tale Town.

Ruth Risdon Storer Garden/Mary Wattis Brown Native Plant Garden: Both part of the UC Davis Arboretum. The Storer Garden highlights valley-friendly plants designed to give color or interest year around and many attract birds and butterflies, while the native plant garden restricts plantings to California natives, many of them wonderful garden plants.

Water Efficient Landscape Garden: Features deer resistant, fire-safe, low maintenance, low water use perennials, shrubs, etc. 9935 Auburn Folsom Rd., Granite Bay

Hamilton Square Perennial Garden, Old City Cemetery: A delightful perennial garden full of color in the heart of the Old City Cemetery. Plants chosen for their ability to stand up to our summers, provide color, attract beneficial insects, butterflies. 1000 Broadway, Sacramento.

Fair Oaks Horticulture Center: A stunning garden that integrates low-water use plants, plus a demonstration vegetable garden and home orchard. A great example of what you can create in limited space. Located at Fair Oaks Park, 8100 Temple Park Drive, Fair Oaks.

Posted by Pat Rubin at 10:00 AM | Comments

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April 09, 2008

Flowers & veggies mix it up in the garden

I can’t resist planting flowers - mostly marigolds - in the vegetable garden. To me, it wouldn’t be a vegetable garden without flowers, including marigolds, pansies, petunias, asters, zinnias and, of course, masses of sunflowers.

I started planting flowers in the vegetable garden after the earwigs ate the marigolds that I’d planted in the flower bed. Overnight they’d turn them into ragged skeletons. It was ugly. So I started putting the marigolds among the tomatoes, then next to the eggplant, alongside the peppers or as a edging along the raised beds. Then a few cosmos sneaked into the garden, followed by asters, zinnias...you get the picture.

I’m told the flowers can attract beneficial insects or act as trap plants for the bad guys. Doesn’t matter to me. I just think they’re pretty and they make the garden a fun place to be. I can gather produce for the evening’s salad and pick flowers for the table at the same time.

Posted by Pat Rubin at 11:04 AM | Comments

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