Winter gardens often get the cold shoulder from tired gardeners with too many green tomatoes to count. But there are many wonderful, nutritious crops you can plant in the fall before the coldest months of December and January. Here’s a list of plants you can put in your garden right away.
Mendocino Local Food has a great Planting Guide that you can use to determine whether to start your vegetables from seeds or starts. The Gardens Project also has resources online with vegetable gardening basics and tips.
Be sure to either look at the information on planting from your seed packet or if you buy starts from the farmers market, ask the farmer! Growing will be slow during the coldest months of January and December, but as soon as it starts to warm up a little in February or March your garden will pick up speed.
This Saturday, the Gardens Project and the Mendocino Agriculture Department is holding a row covers and hoop houses workshop! Learn how to use simple tools to prolong the life of your garden this fall and winter!
Location: Mendocino College greenhouse 1000 Hensley Creek Rd., Ukiah
Time: 2pm
Instructor: Tom Gervase There will be Spanish translation offered
Now is the time to get your cool season crops in the ground because even though many vegetables will mature and keep well during cold weather, most need warm soil temperatures to germinate and grow to a sufficient size in order to withstand those cooler temperatures. There are many crops that fair well in the winter months. These include:
-Fennel
-Beets
-Carrots
-Turnips
-Lettuce
-Peas
-Spinach
-Cauliflower
-Broccoli
-Cabbage
-Onions
-Swiss Chard
-Kale
Here is a great winter salad recipe from seriouseats.com made with the very nutritious and delicious green: Kale!
2 tart yet sweet apples, sliced into thick matchsticks
3/4 cup pecans, toasted if desired
Procedures
1
Combine the olive oil and pancetta in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring frequently, until pancetta is golden and crispy. Strain the pan drippings into a small bowl and leave the crispy pancetta off to the side to cool. Add the Champagne vinegar, maple syrup, salt and pepper and whisk well.
2
Combine the radicchio, kale, apples and pecans in a large bowl. Toss while adding the dressing, little by little, until salad is well dressed. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Garnish with crispy pancetta.
For more information about seasonal planting check out the Mendocino Local Food Planting Guide.
The first three gardening workshops of the year got Mendocino residents out gardening!
We kicked off the workshops on Earth Day, April 22nd, with a cob building party at the Talmage Preschool Garden at MCOE. Cob is a natural building material made of clay, sand and straw and we used it to build counters around an already existing outdoor oven. The preschool will use this outdoor kitchen to bake bread and chop up veggies and fruits from the garden for snacks.
After the cob party, Ron Woolsey, of Living Sculpture Studios, led a "Planning a Summer Garden Workshop" at the preschool garden. For more information about Ron's workshop, check out this article from the Ukiah Daily Journal! Ron will be teaching more gardening workshops soon: "Weeds, Mulch & Compost" in June and "Hoop Houses & Row Covers" in October, so keep your eyes open for details coming soon on those workshops!
This was followed by a "Seed Starting Workshop" by Nona Carpenter and Louisa Aronow, of the Master Gardeners at the Grace Lutheran Church Community Garden. Louisa will be teaching a "Planning a Fall Garden" workshop in July, so look for details on that as well.
On 5 de Mayo, Peter Reynolds, of Down to Earth Landscaping and a Plowshares garden volunteer, taught a Drip Irrigation workshops at the Plowshares Garden. The Plowshares garden provides fresh vegetables for the Plowshares Peace & Justice Center kitchen, which serves several hundred people a day. Peter installed the fantastic drip irrigation system for this garden, and demonstrated how to install a system like that at the workshop.
All of these workshops were a great success and we look forward to the next 10 workshops of the year! Details coming soon.
The Ukiah Saturday Farmers’ Market: Alex Thomas Plaza/School Street
The Food & Seed Working Group of Transition Ukiah Valley is sponsoring an Earth Day Seed Exchange at the Saturday, April 21 Ukiah Farmers' Market, Alex Thomas Plaza and School Street, 9:30 am to noon.
Bring your dried seeds in labeled envelopes; planting directions, growing conditions, and ease of growing would be helpful. Vegetables, flowers, natives, and herbs are welcome: share your bounty and pick up some new varieties. For those who cannot attend Saturday, but wish to contribute, please leave your seeds at Mulligan Books, 208 S. State Street, beforehand.
Ron Woolsey, of Living Sculpture Studios in Willits, will be teaching an hour long workshop on Planning a Summer Garden. He will include techniques for all sizes and types of gardens, including his unique "Wedding Cake" garden for small spaces. Admission is free. Dress for gardening, rain or shine.
Louisa Aronow and Nona Carpenter of the Mendocino County Master Gardeners program will be teaching an hour long workshop on Starting Seeds and Preparing a Garden. They will specifically discuss starting seeds in the ground, as now is the time to sow your garden! Admission is free. Dress for gardening. We will be outside in the sun or inside in the rain.
Peter Reynolds, a Plowshares volunteer and owner of Down to Earth Landscaping in Redwood Valley, CA, will be teaching a two hour long workshop on Drip Irrigation. Learn about drip irrigation and help out the Plowshares Peace & Justice Center at the same time! Admission is free. Dress for gardening, rain or shine.
For more information on these and other gardening workshops, visit our Events Page.
Now is the time to start growing your medicinal herb garden! Check out our new resource under the "Herb Gardens" section on our "How to: Grow Food" page, all about herbs that grow well in this area of California, including their care instructions and companion plants!
Wintertime is a great time to start your plants indoors to extend your growing season and beat wintertime blues!
Mother Earth News just published a great story on how to start seeds indoors, the link to the article is on our "How To: Grow Food" page. Check it out for more information on seed starting!
Some great tips from the article: Don't start beans, peas or root crops indoors, they don't transplant well. Use 1/3 coir 1/3 compost and 1/3 soil. Moisten the mix before sowing your seeds, plant 2-3 seeds per cell/pot. Cover with a plastic dome or plastic wrap until seeds sprout. After that, water only when soil is almost dry. After 4-6 weeks, move them outside on a porch or protected area during the day, inside at night for one week, then transplant into your garden!
Invasive plants are plants that evolved in one part of the world, that humans moved to another region. They can crowd out native vegetation and the wildlife that feeds on it because they no longer are controlled by their natural predators. Learn more by visiting the new section on Invasive Plants in the How To: Grow Food section of our website!
Mendocino College has several options of hands-on agriculture classes for Spring 2012. If you're interested in learning more about plant propagation, soils, nursery production or plant ID, check out their class listings!
Mendocino College Agriculture Classes--Spring 2012 New accessible class times! Enjoy hands-on learning in our beautiful botanical gardens and nursery
Plant Propagation AGR 102 Sect 5492 3 Units Plant propagation will explore both the science and art of plant propagation. Students will gain experience with many different techniques and methods of sexual and asexual plant propagation such as, seeding, layering, breeding, cuttings, grafting, budding, tissue culture and sporulation. T& Th 6:00 - 8:20pm
Soils & Fertility Management AGR 108 Sect 4023 3 Units Learn what your soil consists of and how to assess and improve your soil for agricultural and natural resource uses. This applied soil science class, includes formation of soils, chemical and biological properties, plant nutrition soil and fertilization management and erosion mitigation. T & Th 9:30pm – 11:50pm
Nursery Production and Management AGR 144 Sect 4021 2 Units This hands-on class will teach you the entire process of of developing and operating a nursery in the north coast . This course will focus Commercial nursery operations; propagation of plants, soil preparation, transplanting and potting, greenhouse field management, disease and insect control, and irrigation and fertilizer applications. M 1:00pm – 6:05pm
Spring Plant ID AGR 241 Sect 5528 3 Units Whether plants are your passion or profession you can learn how to identify and appreciate plants in this fun hands-on interactive class. This course will focus on attractive and useful spring plants and give you the skills needed to confidently identify the plants in your surroundings. M & W 9:30am – 11:50am
You might think there's no gardening you can do in January, but think again! Now is the time to start your herbs and other plants inside for those of you who garden indoors or in a greenhouse. This site has plenty of useful information about container gardening. Remember, most potting mix is too strong for most plants and doesn't drain well. It's important to use a mix of 1 part potting mix to 1 part volcanic rock, like pumice (don't use vermiculite!) Start your seeds in a flat or 1-2" pots, then each time your plants start to outgrow their containers, transplant them to a pot 2-4 time the original size. For example, if you start seeds in a flat, transplant the seedlings to a 2" pot, then transplant the established plant to a 1 gallon pot, and as it grows move up to a 5 gallon and then 15 gallon pot. Also, check out this site for tips about small container planting using a vertical shoe rack! If you think you don't have enough time or space for vegetable gardening indoors, try an herb garden! This site has information about starting a basic beginner's herb garden. Just use the container gardening information above for your herb garden. This site has information specifically about growing herbs indoors. Enjoy your mini gardens!
Remember to check our "How To" page for more gardening tips!
Here at the Gardens Project we LOVE winter gardening and think it should get just as much attention as summer gardening does. Winter gardening is the time for vegetables that make great soups for rainy and chilly days. Beets, broccoli, chard, kale, collards, herbs, leeks, onions, garlic, peas, salad greens, turnips, radishes, olives, persimmons, pineapple guavas and mushrooms are all ready to harvest. December is also a great time to make use of hoop houses to extend your season, build a greenhouse or toolshed, spruce up your garden paths, or work on your garden plans for next year. It's also time to direct seed your fava beans, bell beans, vetch and peas; and when it rains, you can plant barley, rye, oats and wheat. You can also sow flats of lettuce to transplant and plant cover crops to nourish your soil for your spring garden.
Michelle Obama is busy getting the White House Kitchen Garden ready for winter too! Check out their website, complete with recipes to help your garden sustain you throughout the winter.
With the change in temperature and weather, most activities this time of year center around clean-up and composting of fallen fruit, mulching any leftover perennials, making compost, sheet mulching, preserving any of your remaining harvest and general clean up. It is a great time to clear out your green tomatoes and make delicious canned green tomato pickles and relish for your winter pantries. You can also divide and transplant hearty root plants like artichokes and comfrey.
Finally, you’ll want to prepare for frost protection of your plants. The first hard frost is usually around the beginning of December. For those who grow and either cure or press their olives, it is almost time to plan for picking. For some of the tender citrus plants you’ll want to build canopies for those trees and move your container plants into a safe zone where they won’t fall victim to frost damage. I move all of my tender container plants up onto my covered deck. Please refer to the Frost Protection for Citrus and Other Subtropicals guide from the University of California Cooperative Extension for additional information on the impact ofhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif frost damage to plants and frost damage prevention measures.
What to plant?
In November you can directly sow onions and garlic. It’s also time for cover crops and fava beans.
For more Gardener's Tips, please click Inland Mendocino Planting Guide(Peter Huff and Kate Frey's Monthly Planting Calendar for Inland Mendocino, also found at the "How to - Grow Food" page on The Garden's Project Website).
When in doubt, there is a tremendous body of knowledge about gardening in California, provided by University of California Cooperative Extension. This site, geared toward the home gardener can be found at http://cagardenweb.ucdavis.edu/.
Cover crops make a great blanket for your empty garden beds during the winter.
Benefits of cover crops include:
Replacing soil organic matter
Recycling nutrients
Supplying nitrogen (only provided by legumes)
Protecting soil from raindrop impact
Reducing runoff and erosion
Protecting water quality
Suppressing weeds
Common cover crops belong to one of three groups:
Grains and grass
Legumes
Other broad-leaved plants
A few commonly used cover crops are clover, barley, rye, fava beans, winter peas, and buckwheat. Legumes are an especially great cover crop because they supply nitrogen to the soil rather than extracting it.
To learn even more about planting cover crops check out this website.
July is a very exciting month in the garden! Robust leaves and early fruits should be prominent and plots containing your more sizeable plants are probably approaching jungle status!
What to do in your garden this month?
Onions should be fully developed and can be harvested and prepared for storage. Other plants like broccoli, peas and cauliflower will be coming to a completion as well. Strawberries are hanging in there and producing pretty consistently and beautiful ripe red raspberries should be popping out all over the place! Be prepared to get your harvest on this month! All those big beautiful zucchinis, cucumbers and juicy ripe tomatoes are right around the corner. This time of year tends to be very hot and dry so you need to be on the top of your game when it comes to watering. Your garden needs about one inch of water each week. Early morning is the best time to water. Evening watering is less desirable because plant leaves that remain wet through the night are more susceptible to fungus diseases. Check the soil moisture of container grown vegetables and flowers daily. As the temperature rises, some plants may need water twice a day. A reapplication of straw mulch can be applied to plants to reduce water lose and improve yields. You may also want to apply a mid season fertilizer to assure consistent production through the rest of the growing season.
What to plant this month?
Continue to make successive plantings of crops like beans, cucumbers and sweet corn to provide a continuous harvest until fall. A small garden will produce a large quantity of vegetables if replanting is done throughout the summer. Although the excitement of ripe summer vegetables make it hard to think about fall and early winter crops timing is everything when it comes to planting. For a sufficient fall/winter harvest of lettuce, radish, broccoli, turnips, kale and spinach, sow seeds in late July.
Final Thoughts?
Once again, make sure to weed, weed, weed! It’s a continual process, and a daunting task, I know, but keeping your beds free of weeds will allow your plants to thrive without having to fight for sunlight, water and soil nutrients. Also perform frequent plant prunings. When you think of pruning you probably don’t think about vegetables, but snipping off wilted branches and dead or pest-munched leaves allows the plants "support system" to send vital energy and nutrients to healthy areas, provides better air circulation and stimulates more vigorous growth.
Thanks to Cate Oliver from the MCGROW program for this months' garden tips!
Although the rain and cold hung over us for longer than expected, heavy precipitation has ceased and the dreaded last frost is long behind us. Now is the time to really dig in and get growing!
What to do in your garden this month?
Beautiful splotches of red ripening strawberries will be prevalent and can be harvested as ready. The majority of greens that have been steadily producing over winter and spring-swiss chard, lettuce, spinach, mustard greens-will be starting to go to seed and be ready for a final harvest. All beds and areas where plants have recently been removed should be turned and amended. Make sure that a reliable watering system is in order as the weather will be getting hot hot hot! If using irrigation it should placed around plants appropriately to allow for even watering throughout the garden bed. Mulching your garden with a seed free straw and being careful to water during the cooler times of the day will provide better water retention and minimize water loss through evaporation. What to plant?
It’s transplanting time for all of those scrumptious summer fruits and vegetables starts that have been waiting to get in the ground. Squash and pumpkins can be planted on mounds of their own due to their enormous growth size. Zucchini also need amble space. Climbing plants such as beans and cucumbers need suitable trellising and plenty of room. Tomatoes and tree collards benefit from stakes or cages that prevent them from toppling over when their size becomes too large. Peppers, cilantro, basil, eggplant, corn and melons can also be planted.
Final Thoughts?
The large size of some plants can be utilized as shade for other plants that don’t particularly enjoy extreme heat and direct sun. Take some time to research what you are planting and check out what some of their companion plants are. Tomatoes and carrots flourish when planted together; same goes for the “three sisters,” corn, squash and beans. Plan out your garden beds so as to position plants in areas where they will be most benefited and not overtake others. Never let your weed guard down! Even in the heat of summer they ALWAYS come back, so make sure to keep up on the removal of these pesky plants! Now get outside and soak in the sun!
The beds are ready, the soil has been amended, the tools are cleaned and organized, the irrigation system has all been given the “once-over” for leaks or to see if any parts need replacing. Seeds have been started indoors for my favorite vegetables and flowers. The garlic that I planted a few months back is really starting to take off. I started to do some serious pruning of my citrus trees now that the bulk of my citrus fruit has been harvested. I’ll finish off my citrus pruning and feed with a good citrus fertilizer. I still need to exercise some caution and some restraint. For this is the time of year where you see flower and veggie starts everywhere at your farmers markets, local grocery and local nurseries and I am usually overcome by temptation to buy, buy, buy! But beware, there is still a risk of the dreaded frost that lingers for just a few more weeks.
Fortunately or unfortunately for me, my husband has instituted a “same day planting” rule in our house that I must abide by. You buy it, you plant it… 24 hours or into the compost heap it goes. (Can you imagine??? What a dreadful thought and I think he might actually be serious!)
What to plant?
In April, beets, carrots, chard, kale, lettuce, potatoes, celery and turnips can all be directly sown into your garden.
You can start seeds indoors for lettuce, chard, cucumbers, melons, zucchini, summer squash, pumpkins.
This month you can take your lettuce, leeks, onions, brassicas, chard and kale that you started last month outdoors to transplant.
Brighten up your yard and home by directly sowing cold sensitive flowers such as Morning Glory, Nasturtiums, Alyssum, etc. You can also directly sow dill and cilantro. Indoors, you can start basil and parsley from seed. Final thoughts…
So last month, I nagged you about the rain bringing weeds! Unfortunately as the weather warms, those weeds will go from pesky, little, ugly green things to pesky, large, still ugly green things but soon they will have flowers and they’ll be ready to spread their seed in the millions all over your garden area. The larger your weeds get, the more inhabitants they will attract such as damaging insects and critters like voles. Prevention is still the best measure, so be sure to stretch your limbs in the garden and continue to take a few minutes each morning or evening to pull up a few new weeds. It may look daunting but the more you pull early, the easier it will be on you in the long run.
For year round tips on what to plant, click Greater Hopland Planting Guide (Peter Huff and Kate Frey's Monthly Planting Calendar for Inland Mendocino, also found at the "How to - Grow Food" page on The Garden's Project Website).
As always if you have a question about what to do in your garden, there is a tremendous body of knowledge about gardening in California, provided by University of California Cooperative Extension. This site, geared toward the home gardener can be found at http://cagardenweb.ucdavis.edu/.
Now is a great time to get out in the yard in between the rain showers and refresh your garden.Thinking of expanding your garden??Now is a great time to add a few new raised beds and to fill them with fresh soil and compost.Consolidating?Try some vertical planting if you are out of room but still want to add new plants this year.Climbing plants such as vining cucumbers and beans are great candidates for vertical gardening.You can use objects that you have laying around the house or yard to create solutions to garden space problems.For example, you can make great plant supports from leftover pig fencing, twine, strips of wood or bamboo.
I also love to add unique plant additions every year to see how they do in my microclimate just south of Ukiah.This year I am trying my luck at Horseradish root.
What to plant? (This is where things get really exciting!!!!!!!)
In March, spinach, radishes, carrots, turnips, beets, peas, lettuce, broccoli, fennel and Asian greens such as bok choy and mustard greens can all be directly sown into your garden.
You can start seeds indoors for onions, lettuce, brassicas (broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi, cabbage, etc.), chard, kale, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, melons, zucchini, summer squash, pumpkins.
This month you can take your lettuce, leeks, onions, brassicas, peas and Asian greens that you started last month outdoors to transplant.
Brighten up your yard and home by starting flowers from seed.You can start Lobella, Alyssum, Limonium, Zinnias, Amaranth, Petunias, Marigolds, Cosmos, Tithonias, Ageratum, Strawflowers, Calliopsis, Cleome, Celosia, Sanvitalia, Morning Glory, Nasturtiums, Dahlia, Heliotrope, Gomphrena, Geraniums, Sunflowers, Impatiens, Nicotiana and Thunbergia.
Final thoughts…
Rain brings weeds!Take a few minutes each morning or evening to pull up a few new weeds in your garden area.
For year round tips on what to plant, click Greater Hopland Planting Guide (Peter Huff and Kate Frey's Monthly Planting Calendar for Inland Mendocino, also found at the "How to - Grow Food" page on The Garden's Project Website).
As always if you have a question about what to do in your garden, there is a tremendous body of knowledge about gardening in California, provided by University of California Cooperative Extension.This site, geared toward the home gardener can be found at http://cagardenweb.ucdavis.edu/.
