Sanhedrin Nursery – Garden Blog

• Mother’s Day is the perfect time to give a gift of a living plant. Roses, lilacs, hanging fuchsias and ivy geraniums or even a delicate African Violet will be sure to please her.

• Gladiolus make wonderful cut flowers throughout the summer. Plant some every two weeks for continuous blooms.

• Plant the vegetable garden this month, but remember that late frosts can still nip tender young plants.

• Colorful Gerberas with their large, daisy flowers are a standout in containers. Water them infrequently and give them plenty of sun for flowers all summer.

• Wisterias are large, vigorous vines that are blooming right now with their long clusters of purple, pink or white fragrant flowers. Give them a strong arbor to climb on.

Delicious, Homegrown Tomatoes

There are still a few things in the world you cannot buy: one of them is the full flavor and juicy texture of a vine-ripened tomato. Perhaps this is why the tomato is the most widely grown vegetable in American gardens. There are varieties which will grow wherever there’s at least 6 or 8 hours of warm sunshine a day.

Admittedly, Willits isn’t the best tomato-growing area, but by choosing the right varieties for your situation, you can count on delicious, juicy tomatoes by late summer. We have a short growing season here because spring frosts can occur through May, and a killing frost usually arrives in October. In addition, the summer nights are generally cool, with temperatures often falling into the 40’s, which slows down the growth of warm-season crops like tomatoes and peppers.

For these reasons, short-season varieties like ‘Early Girl’, ‘Champion’, ‘Heartland’, ‘La Roma’, and ‘Oregon Spring’ are popular. You can always try a few of the longer-season varieties like ‘Beefsteak’, ‘Beefmaster’, ‘Brandywine’, ‘Cherokee Purple’, and ‘Giuseppi’s Big Boy’ if you have a good, warm spot for them.

Then there are the midseason favorites like ‘Ace 55’, ‘Better Boy’, ‘Big Beef’, ‘Celebrity’ and ‘Park’s Whopper’. Planting several different types will give you lots of delicious fruit for fresh-eating and canning.

Tomatoes are divided into two types. Determinate varieties grow on strong, stocky bushes that don’t need staking. All the fruits on a plant ripen at about the same time, making these good canning tomatoes. ‘Ace 55’, ‘Celebrity’, ‘Homestead’, ‘Heartland’, ‘La Roma’, ‘Patio’, and ‘Oregon Spring’ are determinate varieties.

Most tomatoes grow on vines, and these varieties are called indeterminate, which means that they would keep growing indefinitely, if frost didn’t kill them. They need strong stakes or cages to hold the plants up off the ground.

For variety, be sure to include yellow and orange tomatoes in your garden. Many of them are low in acid, which some people prefer, and all of them are colorful in salads. ‘Golden Jubilee’ is the standard, low-acid tomato. But try ‘Lemon Boy’ for its bright, lemon-yellow fruit and ‘Hillbilly’ or ‘Pineapple’ for a red-and-yellow slicer that is sweet and fruity.

“Cherry” tomatoes are nice in salads. Try ‘Yellow Pear’, an heirloom variety with small, pear-shaped fruit, and ‘Sun Gold’, a golden cherry-type with delicious flavor. ‘Black Cherry’ is sweet and rich-flavored, and ‘Juliet’ and ‘Jelly Bean’ have grape-shaped fruits with sweet flavor.

One of the most common tomato problems is “blossom end rot.” It leaves a hard, brown splotch on the bottom of the fruit. It is caused by sudden changes in soil moisture, or lack of calcium. Watch your watering practices and be sure to throw a handful of bone meal in the bottom of each hole at planting time.

Tomatoes are subject to two serious diseases: Verticillium wilt and Fusarium wilt. They cause the leaves to yellow and drop off from the bottom up. The best way to avoid problems is to “rotate your crops” by planting your tomatoes in a different part of the garden each year. If you have had trouble in the past, look for disease-resistant varieties, designated by the letters V and F after the variety name.

Try planting 3 or 4 different varieties of tomatoes this year. Plant mostly the “tried and true” varieties and then try something new. You just might find that perfect tomato this year.

• Flowering dogwood trees are blooming now to help you choose a beautiful small tree for a focal point in your garden.

• “Topsy Turvy”®Tomato and Pepper Planters are a fun and convenient way to enjoy these popular vegetables hanging right outside your kitchen door.

• Enjoy the bright yellow colors of goldfinches outside your window by putting up thistle feeders for them.

• Prepare for planting season! Turn in cover crops and do a soil test if your garden had trouble last year.

• Flower seeds can be sown directly in the garden now. Cosmos, marigolds and zinnias will give you beautiful flowers all summer.

Spring Houseplant Care

Spring is a time of growth for houseplants. Plants start to wake up from their winter rest, and begin to grow faster as the day-length increases. This is a great time to catch up on needed plant maintenance, such as repotting, fertilization, and propagation. Here are some tips on spring houseplant care.

As houseplants begin to show increased growth in the spring, you can start fertilizing them more frequently. Do this slowly at first then increase the frequency and dosage of fertilizer as the weather warms. Be sure to follow directions on the container, as each type of fertilizer works differently.

Re-potting is best done during the springtime, so that plants will have the opportunity to grow into their new pots. When repotting, choose pots that are only an inch or two bigger than the existing pot. Choosing one that is dramatically larger will result in a large volume of soil that stays wet for a long time when you water, because it is not full of roots to take up the available water. This may encourage root rot, so smaller is better.

Houseplants may need to be watered more frequently since they dry out faster when light intensity increases. During this cool, damp spring they may require less water, depending on house temperatures, but as daytime temperatures increase, watering needs increase as well. Keep an eye on your plants, especially those unforgiving ones like Nerve Plants, orchids and ferns.

Spring is also a great time to take cuttings, and to propagate some of your favorite houseplants. Take 4 to 6 inch cuttings from vigorous, healthy shoots. Cut just below a node (where a leaf is attached) with a sharp, clean knife, and root in water or moist vermiculite.

Some plants may have become leggy over the winter and now is a good time to give them a trimming. This will encourage new growth so that they can fill out and be more bushy and attractive.

Give your plants a thorough grooming by removing dead and dying foliage. Take this opportunity to look for insects, especially if the leaves look mottled or pale. Treat plants for any problems you discover.

Most houseplants will benefit from being moved outdoors during the summertime. They should be placed in a semi-shady place where they will be protected from wind and sun. They will need more frequent watering outdoors, so check them daily in hot weather. Fertilize them monthly, and check occasionally for insects or diseases that may attack them outdoors. Remember to move them indoors by mid-September before the cool weather returns.

House plants make a beautiful addition to any indoor space, adding color and texture to the room. As you gain experience caring for your houseplants, you will enjoy them more and more.

• Begin spraying roses now for insect and disease problems. Neem oil is a good product for a less toxic solution.

• The average date of the last frost in Willits is May 12. So protect young flowers and vegetables on clear, cold nights.

• Hang up Codling moth traps now to reduce the number of wormy apples in your harvest this year.

• Begonias bulbs can be started indoors now and set out after danger of frost. You’ll enjoy their beautiful flowers this summer.

• Tomatoes and peppers can be set out now, but be ready to cover them if cold weather returns.

Crop Rotation

Deciding what to plant and sketching a layout for this year’s vegetable garden are
among the joys of gardening. When planning your vegetable garden, remember the importance
of crop rotation.

To keep your vegetable garden happy and healthy year after year, it is important to rotate your crops. You do this by shifting the locations of crops within the garden each season so the same crop does not grow in the same place year after year. This practice cuts down on pest and disease problems and balances the soil nutrients.

Another reason to rotate crops is that different crops have different nutrient requirements, and they affect the soil balance differently. Growing the same crop in the same spot can deplete the soil of those nutrients.

Some plants, like corn and tomatoes, are heavy feeders that quickly deplete the nitrogen and phosphorus in the soil. Root vegetables and herbs are light feeders, and peas and beans add nitrogen to the soil but need lots of phosphorus.

To rotate crops, divide your vegetables into root crops (carrots, beets, onions), legumes that feed the soil (peas and beans), leaf crops (including broccoli, cabbage, lettuce and other greens), and fruiting crops (tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, squash, cucumbers and corn). Plant each group of vegetables in a separate bed or two and then establish a rotation order. Where you plant peas and beans one year, plant leaf crops the next year and fruiting crops the year after that. Follow these heavy feeders by light-feeding root crops the next season. Then start the rotation over again.

Since legumes add nitrogen to the soil, they are followed by nitrogen-loving leaf crops, which reduces the need for fertilizer. Root crops break up the soil, so they are followed by legumes that like the loose soil texture.

Try not to plant crops from the same family in the same bed two years in a row. This will discourage the build-up of diseases and pests that prefer one group of vegetables. When plants change from year to year, the disease organisms don’t have a chance to build up large populations. Leave at least two and preferably three or more years between the times that you plant members of the same family in an area of your garden.

Potatoes are a little tricky to work into the rotation. They can be planted with the root crops, but be sure they’re planted in a section of the bed that has not recently held tomatoes, peppers, or eggplant, which are in the same family. Instead, plant them where the squash and cucumbers were the year before.

The concept is simple, and keeping a notebook of your crops from year to year is a great way to keep your crop rotation in line!