DaveTheGardenGuy

Fall & Winter Veggie Garden Considerations

Fall is here and it's time to address the veggie garden.  Fall is, in most locations, the best time to think about re-organizing, planning, and scheduling your upcoming crops.  It is also the best time to get manure and compost into the garden, plant perennial crops, vines, and trees, as well as adding a fresh layer of mulch.  Most gardeners don't get to the dreamy planning stage of gardening until late December when all is dormant, days are short, and the seed catalogs have come... but that's really too late for this winter's crops and even for getting a head-start on next spring.  Below I've put together some ideas for consideration:

Putting the Garden to Rest:

Traditionally, the gardener had two options... let the land go "fallow", or put in a "cover crop".  Here in Marin we've got more options- and for this we're grateful, but we now know that the "fallow" option is not a good one, no matter where you garden.  Leaving soil bare invites erosion and depletes the soil biological diversity and activity.  At the very least, a heavy layer of organic mulch should be applied so the earthworms and the rest of the remaining soil ecology has some food, is protected from temperature extremes, and hopefully, the possibility of either water or wind erosion is reduced as well as reducing any wind-blown weed seeds from germinating.

A better solution would be to use a cover crop.  A "green manure" crop, as they're sometimes referred to, is generally a mix of a legume and a winter grass; the legume helping to add nitrogen and the grass to increase Organic Matter,"OM", in the form of cellulose -hydrocarbons.  The legume would increase nitrogen through a symbiotic relationship with the bacteria Rhizobia that inhabit the roots of the plants and fixes nitrogen from the atmospheric nitrogen found in air within the pore spaces of the soil.  A legume cover crop can add around 80 lbs of nitrogen per acre.  The other concept is that the "rhizosphere" is kept alive... we now know that plants have co-evolved with various ecto- and endo- mycorrhizae fungi that help them breakdown, transport, and uptake nutrients into their roots in exchange for sugar.  These populations of fungi plummet when the living root matrix is removed from the soil ecology.  Keeping a crop in the soil helps maintain increased and balanced populations of beneficial fungi, bacteria, and other soil organisms.  Vetch and Rye is a good combination of a legume and a grasse, as are other blends incorporating clover or beans.  Fava beans are a favorite as they can also be eaten (edamame) and also grow to impressive size which is good for weed suppression and for younger gardeners who are impressed and inspired by the plants.

In the home garden, space and time is usually limited and the three to four weeks that most cover crops take to decompose after being tilled or disked under is too long to wait.  This can be easily remedied by harvesting the cover crop for the compost and putting finished compost back in it's place.  This way, the garden returns to production, the soil ecology maintains good populations, and the compost gets a big burst of nitrogen and organic matter to heat it up.  This makes no sense, of course, if you're dealing with any sizable agriculture, but the typical back yard raised bed and compost systems can benefit from the quick switch.  That having been said, one must really think about other options before devoting precious soil space to a cover crop.  Legumes should be part of a regular crop rotation program anyway, and most crops can provide a ready supply of organic matter for the compost.  In addition, ready-made compost is now  available from local suppliers who are working diligently to reduce the amount of green waste going to the landfill.  Supporting our local resource recovery and composting facilities is important and many now offer certified organic composts at very reasonable prices.

Adding compost to the soil is most important in the fall.  Our winter rains stir up the earthworms and other soil biota and the organic matter is converted into active humus, releasing more nutrients, and helping to build better soil structure for the following season's crops.  Humus is the glue that holds the texture of the soil -sand, silt, and clay- together into soil aggregates and allows for better tilth -increased soil pore space that equates to increased aeration, water infiltration, and water holding capacity.  If budget allows, for the small home garden, adding bulk compost and continuing with productive food crops might make the most sense, keeping the available space alive, active, and productive year-round.

Heat:

Fall and Winter Crops are all about night-time and soil temperatures.  Not much happens when everything goes below 50 degrees.  One can think about the Winter garden as a huge outdoor refrigerator, keeping greens, tubers, and stems fresh for harvesting or overwintering for a head start on spring.  The trick is to get your crops far enough along to be able to harvest throughout the coldest days and then keep the beds warm as long as possible and protect the plants from extreme conditions -prolonged frosts and pounding wind and rain.

Raised Beds help a lot.  By just adding regular helpings of Organic Matter -"OM" and digging, the planting beds will naturally be higher than the paths in between.  Just a few inches may make the difference between frosted and non-frosted plants.  Raised beds can help add much more height and warmth, not to mention a great framework for garden organization, helping to schedule crop rotations, intercropping, succession planting, and companion planting programs.  They also help reduce compaction as they are designed to eliminate the need to walk on the garden beds.  Raised beds also form a good framework on which to apply cold frame "lights" to help protect plants in the worst of conditions.  Here in Marin, there is generally more damage done from inadequate venting of cold frames -they can get really hot even in the winter!, but wax-based pistons can help automate this task and reduce the risk of cooking the plants you are trying to save from frost.  The ideal top day-time temperature in a cold frame is in the 60-65 range... perfect for the plants to harden off and prepare for the cooler nights ahead.

One tool in our toolbox for frost (and pest!) protection is the floating row cover.  These fine spun fabrics can go right over the crops, or be suspended by metal or pvc hoops, wires or poles, to protect most crops from a number of various pests along with protection from frost.  (Think camping in a tent vs. out in the open on bare ground...)  They are fine enough to allow light and water to penetrate, but still offer protection -usually 4-8 degrees difference.  I've also found these especially helpful in mitigating the effects of leaf miners on chard, spinach, and other brassica plants, not to mention birds, raccoons, and even pets.  When things get really cold, shade cloth and burlap tarps an also add layers of protection.  In those dire situations where we dip below freezing, all these measures, along with irrigation, can work synergistically to keep fresh greens on your menu.

Biology equals heat.  As a side note, I've heard of many stories of fresh manure and straw being placed below raised beds to keep them warm as well as chickens being used as a heat source for greenhouses.  Frost protection is an open playing field for the gardener with ingenuity and persistence.  Routing the dryer vent into a greenhouse might make a lot of sense.

Hygene vs. Habitat:

Winter is the traditional time to clean up the garden and eliminate sources of fungal spores and such from reintroducing themselves to next season's growth.  While this makes sense, one has to take the whole Web into consideration and think about how the beneficials will overwinter.  Our biological buddies are out there working at reducing our pest populations naturally and for free.  Eliminating their winter food and habitat will be at our loss the following season.  The old system of stripping the land bare, burning the pile of debris, and starting over in spring has given way to a new paradigm of knowing our pests and their natural predators, and promoting healthy populations of beneficial organisms that, along with proper cultural techniques, keep pest populations in a low, stable population that is below our acceptable threshold but high enough to support the population of beneficials.  With this in mind, for example, it IS important to make sure that rose and peach leaves get removed and composted -to reduce various fungus diseases from completing their life cycle- but it might be good to leave some of the herbs as well as some composite and umbelliferous plants in place to allow for parasitic wasps to have a nectar source.  Be on the lookout for Lacewing eggs, aphid mummies, and other signs of our natural garden helpers.  A healthy and biologically diverse garden ecology will remain healthy while a bare bones sterile environment is a prime candidate for pest explosions in the spring.

While on the topic of pests... our first rains around Halloween also mean the start of our mollusk season.  While this may not be as exciting as the deer or duck season to some hunters, snails and slugs can be easily trapped in citrus rinds, various trap crops, or killed outright with iron phosphate... an ingenious use of an effective bait that is also a fertilizer -and not toxic to pets, kids, or the environment when used as directed.  This is especially true for those acid loving plants that tend to become iron deficient in alkali situations.  Placing a meager bounty on the heads of these one-footed foes can also entice children to scour the garden for spare change.  Again, know thy pest and where they hide.

Mud and Darkness:

As the garden gets closer to the Winter solstice, two elements help keep the gardener away:  The mud and the dark.  Both these problems can be easily solved:  Address the garden paths in the early Fall and add a key tool to the garden tool box:  a head lamp.  Adding a fresh layer of wood chips, rice straw, or some other mulch -with a layer of cardboard or weed fabric if needed/desired, can quickly eliminate the mud -and the reluctance to venture quickly out there to cut greens and herbs.  Likewise, a lightweight headlamp hanging by the door along with your pruners can eliminate the other hinderance to winter gardening and open up a whole new world for those who get home from work after dark and "can't" garden...

The Plants:

I've identified over 25 good candidates to consider for the Fall/Winter garden but I'm going to save this for a follow up Blog.  Those of you in Marin who are interested in this topic and missed my two recent Seminars at Sloat Garden Center can hear more on this subject this Thursday at the Marin Art and Garden Center for the first Continuing Education event of the Marin Mater Gardener Program.  It starts at 6:30.

 

 

 

Gardening in the Space-Time Continuum

 Gardening has evolved.  Today it's not uncommon for people to wait years on a waiting list for an opportunity to get a small plot in a community garden in which to partake in the heady emotions and both psychological and physical benefits that come from a direct connection to our Earth mother along with the priceless feelings of having tasted the contentment that can come from that connection as well as the knowledge that one has been a good land steward here on the planet, connected with the community, and produced healthy  nutritious food for one's self, one's family, and one's friends and neighbors.  These benefits are truly life changing, utterly basic in their ability to fulfill the needs of the human condition, and yet so precious as to be rare on the planet in this post industrial age.

Once one gets a garden plot, where to begin?  How does one maximize these benefits?  The food is surely secondary.  The feelings achieved from digging fresh compost into a plot, the knowledge of increasing the biodiversity, the  tilth, and the humus content of the soil along with all the good negative ions, beneficial bacteria, and insects that one can attract is intoxicating. The new gardening camaraderie of your fellow gardeners is also where it's at in terms of basic feelings of well being and right livelihood.  Luckily, our species has been at this for quite some time, co-evolving alongside our photosynthetic friends, molding them to our liking through breeding and hybridizing programs that stretch back beyond recorded history, and we are now the beneficiaries of this heritage heirloom knowledge.

All the tricks to success, once one gets past acknowledging the soil food web mentality, tend to favor the saving of both space and time.  Moderns science now tells us that the two are one and the same and yet together they make up the fabric of reality as we experience it.  To the gardener of a small plot with a busy schedule, however, space and time can become the limiting factors of how much priceless benefits one can glean from their gardening experience.  Even though it may seem we are going fast, we are no where near the speed of light, and our mass will not be bending the fabric of space-time any time soon.  Below are some simple and yet time-tested strategies for saving both time and space in a small garden plot:

Succession Planting:  This operates like clockwork.  Our climate here in Marin allow us to garden in a prolonged season that can accommodate multiple seedings, setting out of starts on successive dates, and a prolonged harvest.  This is especially true of baby green crops and short lived corps.  Tables that describe the "days to maturity'" or "days to harvest" can be consulted for planning this for the greatest benefit. Seeding every two weeks for most greens is a good start.

Intercropping: Some plants grow fast, some slow.  Some plants take up more space later in their lifespan.  Some plants do better when shaded and protected by other plants.  Growing two crops in one area can greatly increase the productivity of a given plot of soil.  Lettuce and onions along with a quick radish crop are classic examples.  There are many more.

Companion Planting: Some plants can actually benefit others by providing nutrients, attracting beneficial organisms, or repelling unwanted pests.  A good example would be how marigolds inhibit the root knot nematode that affects tomatoes.  Another might be how blooming cilantro (coriander) can attract parasitic wasps that keep aphids in check.

Crop rotation: Traditionally the four square garden rotation of root, fruit, grass, and legumes has proven successful.  Now, rotating plant families is used to help maintain healthy soil ecologies along with balancing carbon and nitrogen levels.

Row Covers: These spun agricultural fabrics can help extend the growing season as well as protect young crops from birds and other pests such as keeping leaf miners from laying eggs on chard plants -or even keeping dogs and cats out of a newly seeded bed.

Sheet Mulching: All the rage in sustainability gardening, the use of recycled cardboard as a weed barrier beneath a layer of mulch can smother perennial weeds and stop the cycle of annual weeds in one season while improving soil organic mater content and increasing earth worm populations. Less time weeding and more space for desired plants just makes good sense.

Cover Crops: Although it's possible to keep a bed in production year-round here, cover crops are far preferable to leaving land fallow.  Soil ecological diversity takes a dive when there's not an active rhizosphere in place.  Blends of grasses and legumes can add nitrogen and organic matter -but rather than turning them under and waiting for them to decompose, it's more efficient to compost them and add ripe compost right away, thus keeping the beds alive and productive with minimal downtime.

Drip irrigation and ET based controllers: Here's the big time saver: automatic irrigation.  If the time a gardener spends irrigating can be spent gardening, much more can be accomplished.  Modern controllers that blend historic averaged evapotranspiration curves with on-site weather data are now affordable and easy to implement, making efficient irrigation possible with little input of our time.  Pressure compensating and self-flushing emitters and related advances in in-line drip tubing makes  getting water where it needs to be when it needs to be there in just the right amounts a realistic possibility.

Head Lamps:  For those of us who have a busy life, juggling jobs and kids, those who need fresh herbs after dark, maintain compost and worm bins after hours, and those who take advantage of our climate to extend the growing season on both ends... modern head lamps can show us the light.  Nocturnal feeders are now exposed, daylight is not a limiting factor, and yes, you are now a bona fide garden geek.

The list goes on, but these strategies will save you both time and space, get you closer to the garden nirvana we all crave, and make you a hero around the community compost pile.  Go forth, live long, and prosper. I know your garden will.  Happy Gardening!

Local Hero... just amazing results

Gardens & Gables regularly installs raised veggie beds in Marin.  We generally build them out of rough redwood.  They are easy to build, look fantastic even with nothing growing in them, but can also make the most impact on our client's lives.

I've found that having a raised bed filled with weed-free organic soil with an automatic irrigation system is THE best way to get clients excited about their gardens.  Most people do not have time to grow vegetables if they have to cultivate, amend, weed, water, and tend the plants.  With a raised bed, all they have to do is tend the plants -and harvest the bounty.  It's really easy, quick, and can be so satisfying.

I've been installing raised beds in Marin for over 15 years in so many locations -including many steep hillsides!- land that was not being used being made productive and a focal point of pride and production.

I've had some people complain that by using redwood we're using a precious natural resource that's in limited supply. However, when I see the beds still in great shape and super productive for over a dozen years, I think the use of this material is warranted.  Please NEVER use pressure treated wood.

Here's a few pointers for installing the beds:

• Always build the beds near a water source.  Install a hose bibb near the beds if necessary.
• The beds should never be more than 5' across -or you'll end up stepping through them.
• The beds should never be more than 12' long -or you'll end up stepping through them.
• The main paths between beds should be 3' wide; the secondary paths between beds should be at least 2-1/2' wide.
• The beds should be near a compost area.

The above rules apply because you don't want to compact the soil, you want easy access even when they're overflowing with plants and produce, and you don't want to haul hoses out to them or cart compost away.

General building:

• The ideal beds are 4' wide, and multiples of 4' long; 4',8',or 12'.
• They should be built out of rough redwood 2x12's and/or 2x6's.
• The ends should be butt jointed; no mitered cuts.  The ends should be screwed together with torx bit screws rated for exterior use.
• Rough redwood 4x4's should be placed at each corner and at ever 4' increment along the bed on the inside.  The posts should extend 12" below the bed.  Concrete is not needed.
• Usually 12" high works fine.  At 18" with a cap of rough redwood 2x6, they offer a comfortable place to sit while tending them.
• At 24" tall they offer wheelchair access.
• I like to put a finishing touch on the beds using a 5/8" qtr round with a router.  This eliminates any possibility of splinters, makes kneeling against the side more comfortable, and gives the beds a finished look.

For the paths between the beds, I prefer to put down a layer of weed fabric and cover it with "playground fiber", available locally and sometimes called "WonderPlay".  I like it because it is clean, it doesn't get stuck on pet's fur, it doesn't get tracked into the house, it can be easily composted, easily added to, and is a pleasing contrast to the darker mulches used in planting areas.

The soil I like to use is called "Local Hero" and is a wonderful organic soil blend available from American Soil & Stone.  Throughout the years and especially recently, I've had people raving about the results they've gotten by sticking little vegetable "starts" (2-4" plants from a local nursery) into the beds ... and waiting.  With the automatic irrigation and the incredible richness of the soil, the young plants grow amazingly fast.  Clients who didn't think they could garden are so proud when they tell me about how much they are harvesting for their family and friends to eat, sometimes within two months of us building the beds.