August in the Garden

In southern California the main garden chores for August are watering, harvesting, and pest control.

In the first part of the month, any summer vegetable can be planted. Especially those that love the heat: Okra, cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplant, watermelons, squash and really any crop that will finish before the days get too short in the fall. We'll be direct seeding Okra, squash, limas, dill, basil, and cukes; setting out transplants of the others.


Near the middle of the month, we will be starting our fall crops from seeds for transplant in September and October: broccoli, cabbage, kale, and cauliflower.

Give your roses a light pruning.

Feed fushias, ferns, tropicals, roses.

Do not fertilize deciduous fruit trees.

Prune berries.

We also prune our deciduous fruit trees after the last peaches come off the trees. This mostly is to control the size of the trees. We will prune again in January.

Gather and dry herbs.

Apply compost and mulch to retain moisture in the soil.

Shade plants that may need afternoon protection from the hot sun.

August is a good time to solarize empty beds to kill weed seeds and disease pathogens: Water the soil thoroughly, then seal it with clear plastic for 6 to 8 weeks.

Edibles for Shade

Do you have a shady spot in your yard needing some plants? Want to plant edibles rather than ornamentals? Here is a list of possibilities.

EDIBLES FOR SHADE

Arugula

Chard

Cutting celery

Hops

Kale

Lettuce

Nasturtium

Parsley

Peas

Rhubarb

Endive

Mints

Sorrel

Ginger

Fiddleheads of Pako Ferns, High Climbing Ferns, Swamp Ferns

Spinach

Beets

Akebia a.k.a. Chocolate Vine (fruit)

Scallions

Mushrooms

Train Your Plants To Grow Deep Roots for Water

(and let your plants train you how to water)

When plant roots grow deeply into the soil, the plant needs less irrigation during hot weather, and any other sort of weather, for that matter. Whether the plant is lettuce with shallower roots or tomato with deep roots, the roots will be deeper in the soil and have less need for water during hotter days--an inch or two for a lettuce may mean the difference between you having to water everyday in August, or every other day. You can do the math here; training the plant to send its roots deeper it going to save you time in the long run.

No, you don't have to call a plant whisperer. You can train the plant to reach down for water as you train yourself how to water your plants. You have to do some testing. No, not pen and paper exams, or a CAT scan, just some simple digging and observing.

To test how deeply your irrigation water is going, water your garden for your usual length of time. Then, push a trowel or shovel into the soil. Push the soil to one side or lift it out. Look at both the depth of the roots (you'll have to be close enough to the plant to see some of the roots, but not so close so that you damage the plant) and the water line in the soil. If the water line (the darkened, moist soil) is not past the longest visible plant roots, water some more and then test another spot. Repeat until the water line falls below the root zone.

Keep track of the total time you watered. That's how long you'll have to water each time to get your plants' roots deep down into the soil. Hint: Turn down the volume of the water and let it just trickle down, if the water begins to run off before you reach your total tested time.

Don't water again until two-thirds of the root zone is again dry. (This means you'll have to use the shovel again to inspect the soil near several plants to see how quickly the soil is drying out.)

Now, you've trained your plants to force their roots deeper into the soil, and they've trained you to know just how long and how often to water.

How We Grow Tomatoes

Introduction

It seems that everybody grows tomatoes, or at least most gardeners do. It is the most popular vegetable grown (...it's actually a fruit...), and there is no wondering why--there is absolutely no comparison between the pink-orange, cardboard-textured, flavorless, plasmic blobs sold in many produce sections as tomatoes and the vine-ripened-to-perfection, just-picked, home-grown, real-life tomatoes!

There is nothing like a vine-ripened tomato for taste or texture, or for satisfaction of having grown something wonderfully made by our Creator.

And besides, tomatoes are one of the easiest plants to grow. They are at home in the garden, in containers, and even in the hydroponic greenhouse.

 Read More >>

Sore Throat Relief

Some of us had sore throats a couple of months ago. We didn't have much of anything in the medicine cabinet for relieving sore throat, so we went to the Internet to see what home remedies are out there. This is the one that seemed most likely to work, and it did--the pain was gone, quickly, almost instantly!

Sore Throat Remedy

Ingredients

    3-4 garlic cloves minced finely
    1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
    1 tbsp raw honey

Instructions

Mix it all together and give 1 tsp every hour until throat is better. Make more as needed.

Why does it work? 

The Cayenne pepper contains Capsicum, the compound in peppers that make the heat.  While Capsicum can cause pain (as in that salsa that was oh so "hot"), it can also alleviate pain. The sweetness of the honey does tone down the heat just a bit.  If you're not a spicy heat lover, you could substitute cinnamon, which is probably a good idea when giving this to younger children (especially those under two) anyway.

The Garlic has antibacterial and antiviral qualities.  It’s best to use it in crushed form (for you garlic and culinary purists, this is one of those times it's okay to use a garlic press) to release the allinase enzyme which makes it’s antimicrobial allicin.

The Honey, while making the cayenne palatable, also offers antimicrobial benefits.  Also, honey has long been used to ease coughs and sore throats by coating the throat. 


If the sore throat doesn’t go away in 24 hours or so, and/or is accompanied by a fever, take it to the doctor--it may be strep.

Gardening Principles

We grow only useful things. We grow food in preference to lawn. The average suburban home has around 2500 sq feet of lawn. We have about that much "lawn" in the back yard that now serves as "pasture" for our poultry flock. The front lawn, however, has been turned into raised beds for veggies. There are also avocado and citrus trees out front. We are planning some planter boxes and trellises out there for even more plantings. We have some ornamental and foundation perennials here and there, but for the most part everything we plant has more than aesthetic value.

Homegrown food tastes better because homegrown food is fresher, and in season, which delivers better taste. (Read about tomato harvesting--commercial vs. homegrown.) Homegrown food is also healthier because we can pick, eat, and/or preserve foods when they have their highest nutritional value, that is, when they are ripe and just picked. Homegrown food is safer for our family because they are handled less than supermarket food and have not been exposed to any contaminants--no chemical pesticides, herbicides, growth- or ripening-enhancers, or preservatives. We pick what we need on a given day and bring it in to be prepared. No E. coli.

Where we garden matters. In our Mediterranean climate, most seed packet and catalog info doesn't apply. For us, it's not so much a question of what to grow, but rather what to grow next. With proper planning and crop rotation, we can garden literally year-round. A garden paradise, right? Well, mostly. The increased growing brings increased demand on the soil. Nutrients are constantly used up, and so need constant replacement.We have relied on Pat Welsh's Southern California Gardening: Month by Month to guide us on what to grow and when and how.

We are continually building our soil. We are constantly making and adding compost to our soil. We also mulch heavily. We avoid tilling the soil so that the soil food web will remain in tact. "I am starting to believe you about this compost thing," said one of our Kids Garden Club moms a few years ago. She had tried gardening with and without  mulch and compost and was learning that compost and mulch make a huge difference in weeding and crop yields.

We water deeply and less frequently rather than shallowly and often. Seedlings and transplants need to be watered just about everyday. The soil around them should never dry out. However, once they are established, they can be "trained" to send roots farther down into the soil for nutrients and water. We accomplish this by watering deeply once or twice per week, depending on the summer heat. Our plants develop deeper root systems and are less susceptible to wilting in the heat and are pulling up nutrients from deep down that would otherwise be unavailable.

We try to work smarter, not harder. Sometimes work makes more work. Tilling your soil every year or every time you plant a new crop makes more work. For one thing, weed seeds that were buried deep in the soil are brought to the surface and sprout. Now you have weeds to pull. A better plan would be to mulch your garden beds regularly, and when you are ready to plant, pull back the mulch and put in your seeds or plants. Little chance for weed seeds to get the sunlight they need to sprout. The soil microbes will be happier and healthier this way, too. When they're happy, your plants will be happier--they'll have fewer pests and other problems. In other words, work with nature instead of against it: you won't have to work so much.

We try to pay attention to our plants and keep notes. We have notebooks in which we have kept notes and diagrams of some of the gardens we have tended. Detailed notes help you to plan future gardens. These days, more and more of our garden notes are on computer spreadsheets. What ever your method, keep good notes on which varieties you plant, what pests or problems the variety has, how much harvest and how soon, and also how the harvest tastes. Some varieties may not do well in your climate, or you may prefer one variety over another for greater harvest or better taste.

We try to keep in mind that failure is part of the process. "Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently." --Henry Ford

July in the Garden

    Set out fall tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants late this month.
    Sow Halloween pumpkins.
    Clean up the garden, then mulch the bare soil to conserve moisture.
    Tend the compost pile so it will be ready to work into the soil in preparation for fall planting.
    Add 2 to 3 inches of mulch to retain water.
    Keep roses well watered to promote bloom into late fall.
    Early in the month, cover fruit trees with nets to protect fruit from birds.
    Protect peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, and lettuce from sun scald by providing partial shade.
    Start seeds of collards, okra, eggplant, southern peas, and heat-resistant tomatoes.
    When working outdoors in heat, take frequent breaks and drink plenty of water.

Good Food from Fresh Ingredients

We agree with Julia Child, who said, "You don’t have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces – just good food from fresh ingredients."  Tonight we enjoyed the kind of supper we strive for, one made with fresh ingredients from our mini-farm. The main dish was duck from our flock with a side dish of green beans picked this afternoon from the garden, and for dessert, peach sherbet made with peaches picked this evening and this morning's milk from our herd.

The ducks were our Khaki Campbells. We chose this variety of ducks

Khaki Campbells

because they are prolific egg-layers, not a meat breed. However, some of us cannot eat the eggs. So we are now culling our flock of these. Though they don't have a lot of meat on them, they are very tasty. Today, we slow-cooked two older ducks, expecting them to be a little tough as older birds tend to be. We were pleasantly surprised! Tender and tasty. One drawback to using the slow-cooker is that the skin is not browned and crispy, unless of course it is browned in the oven first or to finish or both. We skipped this part. Yummy anyway. We'll let the drippings cool and skim off the fat to use for future cooking.

Purple, green and yellow pole beans

The green beans didn't start green. We grow a pole variety that produces purple pods. This makes them easier to pick--they contrast with the green leaves of the vines. When cooked, the beans turn a dark green--letting the cook know that they are heated through. So these beans show you where to find them and show you when they're done! Easy.

Our latest oberhaslis, Ilsa and Inga

The milk is from our oberhasli goats. These Swiss goats are compact, quiet, and good milkers--perfect for our situation.

The peaches for our sherbet are from one of our three peach trees. We grow three different varieties that ripen at three different times, extending the harvest. We also planted all three trees in a space less than four feet square. In this small space the trees compete with each other for water and nutrients, slowing the growth of the trees. This helps us to keep the trees pruned and trimmed to a manageable size. We prune them after the harvest to control upward growth, and then in the winter to encourage the most fruit possible. Read more here at Dave Wilson Nursery.

 Peach Sherbet Recipe

Peach sherbet in the ice cream maker

4 cups ripe peaches, chunked (you can leave the skin on)
1 1/2 cups milk
1/3 cup honey (more to taste)
pinch of sea salt
juice from two lemons

Put everything into the blender. Blend until smooth. Chill in the fridge for an hour or two.

Once mixture is chilled, freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's directions.

We served ours right away and it was perfect. You could spoon it into a container and let it firm up in the freezer for a couple of hours.

This is the electric ice cream maker we use. We like the old-fashioned crank-style better, but this one does pretty well and isn't as much to clean up. We're not too keen on some of the recipes that come with it, however. The internet has plenty of yummy recipes--just about any combination of ingredients you can think of is out there.