Sanhedrin Nursery – Garden Blog

• Plant seeds of broccoli, cabbage, lettuce and other spring vegetables now.

• Spray for peach leaf curl with copper spray. Peach and nectarine trees may suffer from this fungus disease without a protective spray.

• Bare root fruit trees, grape and berry vines, and ornamental trees, roses, wisteria and lilacs are still available.

• English daisies are an early-blooming perennial with showy red, pink or white flowers. They will bloom all spring in partial shade.

• Strawberries can be planted any time now. Get them in early, and you’ll be picking strawberries this summer.

Natives Berries for the Landscape

California’s redwood forests have a unique community of plants which grow in the sun-dappled shade at the base of the towering trees. In this special ecosystem, sword ferns, rhododendrons, salal, huckleberries and many other shrubs, trees and wildflowers thrive under the dark, moist grandeur of the redwoods.

One of the great delights of late summer is to come upon a patch of wild huckleberries that are ready to pick. This slow-growing, native evergreen shrub has delicious blue berries which ripen in late summer and early fall and are enjoyed by humans and wildlife alike.

Evergreen huckleberries vary in height from 3 to 8 feet tall depending on their growing conditions, but can be kept smaller with pruning. They grow taller in shady locations and are smaller with greater sun exposure. A handsome choice for woodland gardens, berry patches, and even containers, evergreen huckleberry is an ideal “edible landscape” shrub.

Known botanically as Vaccinium ovatum, this lovely shrub has small shiny leaves that are dark green above and pale green underneath, with copper-colored new growth. The spring flowers are particularly attractive. They hang like clusters of pink, urn-shaped bells very much like heather or manzanita blossoms, to which they are related.

Huckleberries make excellent landscaping plants since they have such attractive, glossy, evergreen foliage and showy edible fruit. They are good for anchoring soil and flourish in sun or shade with some summer watering and good drainage. They like acidic soil that is low in organic matter, and tolerate everything from sandy soils to clay, and are drought tolerant once established. One inch of organic mulch will keep them happy.

Evergreen huckleberries are excellent plants for creating wildlife habitats. The flowers attract butterflies and the berries are eaten by scarlet tanagers, bluebirds, thrushes, and other songbirds. Deer and rabbit browse freely on the plants. Because of their food value to wildlife and their dense shrubby growth, evergreen huckleberry is a good addition to hedgerows.

In fall, the plants are covered with delicious, juicy, purplish-black berries. They are delicious fresh and also make excellent jelly, pies, pancakes and muffins. They can also be frozen and used for up to 6 months.

Huckleberries were a traditional food of Native Americans who sometimes traveled great distances to harvest them. They ate the berries fresh, usually with oil, dried them, and partly mashed them and pressed them into cake form. The leaves and berries, which are high in Vitamin C, have a variety of herbal uses.

The flavor of huckleberries, especially wild huckleberries, are generally much stronger than blueberries. Ripe huckleberries should be sweet with a little tartness. They are generally sweeter than blueberries when they are fully ripe.

Vaccinium ovatum is harvested commercially, not for its berries, but for the use of its foliage in the floral arrangements.

Edible plants can be important additions to your landscape, providing beauty as well as tasty and healthy treats for your family.

• Spring vegetables can be planted now from nursery starts. Begin your garden with broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, spinach, chard and onions. It pays to grow your own – especially this year!

• Pansies and violas will fill your spring flower beds with their bright faces in many shades of blue, yellow, red, pink and purple.

• Flowering dogwoods and tulip magnolias can be planted now during the dormant season from balled & burlapped specimens.

• Prune wisteria trees and vines by cutting out unwanted long runners and removing old seed pods. Don’t damage flower buds that are clustered at the end of short branches.

• Choose a peach tree for your orchard and enjoy luscious fresh peaches in the summers to come.

Home-grown Peas for Sweet Picking

Peas are loved by young and old alike. They deserve their popularity, because they are both good for you and easy to grow! Peas have been around since the earliest times, primarily as dried peas. Lots of breeding has been done on peas, so there are now many different kinds with different characteristics.

Peas come in dwarf or bush types which grow 15-30 inches high or in climbing varieties which grow 4-6 feet and will become tangled if you don’t give them something to climb on. Peas are classified into three types:

• Shelling peas have tough pods that are too fibrous to eat, with sweet, tasty morsels inside. A 10-foot row will yield 4-6 lbs. or 1-1½ qts. of shelled peas.

• Snow peas or sugar peas are flat and have a few small peas inside. They are eaten whole when their pods are still young and tender. This is the kind used in Asian stir-fry meals.

• Snap peas also have edible pods and they snap like green beans when they are ready to eat. The pod grows tightly around the peas. They should be picked when young and tender. Check for strings along the center vein, as some cultivars need to have the strings pulled before eating.

Peas are a cool season crop. They should be planted when the soil temperature is at least 55°F, but before it gets too warm. This usually means March in Willits where heavy soils are slow to warm up.

Sow seeds about one inch deep and two inches apart in the row. Low-growing varieties can be grown in rows 18 to 24 inches apart. Climbers need three feet between rows, or plant a double row six inches apart on either side of a trellis. Protect them from birds, and they should germinate in 10-14 days. You can also find starter plants at the nursery.

Once peas begin to reach the appropriate stage for harvesting, they should be picked at least every other day to assure sweet, fiber-free pods. Shelling peas have the best quality when they are fully expanded but immature, before they become hard and starchy.

Snow peas are harvested when the pods have reached their full length, but the peas are still small and the pods are flat. This stage is usually reached 5 to 7 days after flowering. Sugar snaps are at their best when the pods first start to fatten but before the seeds grow very large. At this point, the pods snap like green beans and the whole pod can be eaten.

Vining types of both sugar snap and snow peas continue to grow taller and produce peas as long as the plant stays in good health and the weather stays cool.

Peas are best used as soon as possible after harvest, but may be stored in the refrigerator for a few days if cooled immediately. For best quality, freezing and canning should be done within a few hours after picking.

When peas are planted in a new area, you can increase the yield by inoculating peas with a nitrogen-fixing bacteria called an inoculant. In an established garden, inoculation is less necessary, but it is a relatively inexpensive process that will increase vigor and yield.

Enjoy fresh peas straight from your garden by planting them now when the time is right!

• Primroses, in their rainbow of colors, will light up your flower beds and boxes this winter and spring.

• Witch hazels bloom in the middle of winter with their interesting and showy, fragrant yellow or red blooms. One might look good in your garden.

• Strawberries can be planted any time now. Get them in early, and you’ll be picking strawberries this summer.

• If you’re short on space in your orchard, you can plant 2 or 3 varieties of the same fruit in one large hole. This will allow cross-pollination among apples, pears, plums, cherries and Asian pears.

Drought and Orchard Trees

Fruit trees will do all they can to survive drought conditions. They will lessen water use by eliminating tree parts, so you may see wilted and scorched leaves or the shedding of leaves and fruit. Twigs and branches will die if necessary and fruit trees will go into semi-dormancy to cope with the lack of water. It is best to prevent fruit trees from needing to resort to such measures by providing them with all the water they need, but in extreme drought conditions you may have no choice. The following tips will help fruit trees to endure a water shortage.

Mulch with 3-4 inches of organic mulch (leaves, aged sawdust, wood chips, or straw) from the trunk to the drip line and beyond if possible. Don’t mulch more than 4 inches deep, and keep it 4-6 inches away from the tree’s trunk. Apply the mulch after the soil has been irrigated or after a good rain so that the soil is moist. Remove weeds and cover crops under the tree’s canopy before placing the mulch.

If water supplies are extremely limited use breathable landscape fabrics underneath the organic mulches to slow down water evaporation even more. Cardboard or biodegradable paper mulches can be used in place of synthetic landscape fabrics.

Fruit trees will naturally drop more fruit during droughts to minimize their water loss. Help them by removing all fruit on trees under three years old and most or all fruit on older trees. Do any thinning of fruit within 30 days of fruit set.

If the fruit trees lose their leaves then paint their exposed limbs and trunk with white latex paint diluted by 50% or spray with kaolinate clay found in a product called “Surround.”

Slow down transpiration of water by thinning out some of the leaves and shading the tree with shade cloth. Do not use anti-desiccants as they can do more harm than good.

Do not fertilize with nitrogen as it encourages growth, which requires more water use. Also, do not severely prune during a drought because it stresses the tree’s ability to cope with adverse conditions. Do not till or cultivate under fruit trees.

If you have more orchard trees than you can irrigate sufficiently, prioritize them: Newly planted or young trees under 4 years old must have water. They need far less water than older trees but it is essential for their future growth. Water favorite bearing trees over less favorite or poorly performing trees.

Give water to fruit trees with higher water needs first. Peaches, nectarines, plums, cherries, pears, and apples on non-dwarf rootstocks need more water than jujubes, pomegranates, olives, persimmons, figs, mulberries, black walnuts, hazelnuts, grapes, almonds, apricots, and apples on standard or M-111 rootstocks.

The most important time to irrigate fruit trees is from their bloom period to their harvest. After harvest, watering can lessen or stop. Water in the evening or at night to minimize evaporation and water slowly so that there is no runoff.

The easiest way to apply water to a newly planted tree is to make a basin 2-3 feet wide with 4-6 inch berm around the tree and fill it with water following the suggested amounts below. Expand the basins as the trees grow to enable the tree’s spreading root system to receive water.

If older trees have not been given regular, supplemental watering, don’t begin now. They have established a root system that will cope with a drought. On the other hand, trees 5 years or older that have been dripped or flood irrigated regularly must be given sufficient water or they will be harmed by a drought. Provide them with the recommended amounts of water in the chart.

………………………Fruit Tree Water Recommendations
………………………..(Gallons of water per week)
Age of Tree…………………….New …….1-2 years …..3-4 years…..5 + years
From Bud Break to June………5…………10………………20……………..30
July to Oct. ………………………10…………15………………30……………..60
Nov. to Dec. ……………………….5…………10………………20……………..30