The Coastal Gardener - March, 2006
Starting the new vegetable garden
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I am always thinking of facts and details to add to each Roundup column, some obvious, but important observations; others
details that are not so obvious. One is about onions.
I just got my onions in the ground a few weeks back. Every year I purchase onion sets, which are year old seedlings sent
bare root. Once planted, the sets plump up into large round bulbs that are ready to harvest in August. I could grow onions
from seed, but I would have to wait until winter for harvest leaving the bulbs more likely to be attacked by pests. I
purchase short day length onion varieties from Dixondale Farms. They offer short and medium day length onions, such as
Southern Belle and Stockton Red. Onions need a certain amount of day light hours to form large bulbs. When buying, select
onions that will perform in the short day length summers (10 to 12 hours of daylight) of Big Sur and southwards. Higher
latitudes, such as Vancouver or New York or London, have longer days (14 to 16 hours) in summer where gardeners grow varieties
often seen in stores. It's one of those little things that you never hear about but is so important to growing good onions.
As March progresses, tomatoes will start to appear at every garden center and nursery. I don't care for tomatoes myself (which
is still a huge mystery to my friends. I spend so many summer dinner parties being lectured across a salad plate on the virtues
of a vine ripe fruit), but I spend much time examining seed catalogs to choose the best varieties for my garden. Looking back
through my garden journals, I note that I have grown the golden cherry tomato Sungold for with much success. Sungold is very
small, about the size of a nickel, golden to brightest chartreuse, sweet and delicious (I rely on my dinner guests as taste
testers), perfect for snacks and in salads. I harvested Sungold starting in late May and plucked the last fruit in November.
The long harvest has a lot to do with it being an indeterminate tomato, that is, a tomato that has no definite fruiting period.
Indeterminate plants will fruit over a long period, perfect for our long summer, but have a rampant rangy habit that is hard to
control. A single healthy indeterminate plant can be 10 ft across in September. Determinate tomatoes fruit during a brief
window of time and are better for people with short summers or who are interested in canning. Determinate plants grow as smaller
neat bushes and often need no staking.
Despite last month's cold weather, the roses are making lots of progress. I have already given them one good feeding of
balanced organic fertilizer and will do so again right away this month. Getting them off to a good strong start is very
important to getting a full head of blooms in April. Roses should be fed a granule food about every 3 weeks, or a liquid
food like Kelp Sea Life every week. I also dose them once with Azomite granules that provide micronutrients and calcium
necessary for healthy, disease free leaves and good flower color. I swear by this stuff now and seem to have very good
luck with producing strong stocky annuals and bedding flowers if they get Azomite at planting time.
I have planted a carpet of Campanula muralis under the 'Mutabilis' roses out in the orchard. This tough little perennial
grows as an evergreen mat covered in summer with blue bell-like flowers. The plant will spread by underground runner
through out the bed slowly and provide a carpet of color to compliment the pink and buff shades of the rose above it.
Muralis is the most sun tolerant of the low growing Campanulas and really valuable for adding a splash of blue anywhere
from the spaces between patio pavers to hanging baskets.
Watch for gophers this month. These furry miscreants seem to suffer from Spring fever and get really interested in your
garden, even though there are lots of tasty weeds to chew just outside the fence. A McAbee gopher trap and some sweet
fruit flavored gum like I talked about in November will do the trick. I found one had snuck way into my garden and cut
off my Granny Smith Apple at the soil line. I figure the poor tree stood there about a week completely rootless before
it keeled over. And not a single other plant was chewed, a purely vindictive kill!
Must have plant of the Month: Ceanothus 'Vandenberg'. I have been growing this compact selection to aobut 4 feet tall
and wide for several years now. Medium blue flowers thickly cover the stems between very dark green, tiny leaves.
Ideal for where you need a burst of blue with drought tolerant perennials or along a wall. This ceanothus is native
to the sandy mesas around Vandenberg Air Base.
Dave Egbert, The Coastal Gardener
