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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« April 2008 | In the Garden front page

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

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

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

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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