Elephant Garlic Escape Pod

Posted on June 6, 2013 by

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Lots going on in the garden these days…  Where to begin?  The elephant garlic – Allium ampeloprasum var. ampeloprasum, botanically more leek than garlic – is ready for harvest.  It produces one or more fat, flavorful cloves, some of which are saved for October planting in the garden proper.  Each plant also produces a few smaller “escape pods,” cloves with rather hard shells, which are perfect for planting out in the various food forest plots.

In other news, the walnut is doing fine, five of eight hibaku seeds (three hackberries and two ginkgos) germinated and are growing, and many of the fig and pomegranate and golden currant cuttings I took in the spring have rooted, and some I’ve even planted out.  The summer garden – potatoes and peppers and tomatoes and eggplants and beans and cucumbers and squashes of various kinds – is chugging along, enjoying the warm weather of late.  I’m crossing my fingers for a good harvest!

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Seeds of History: Hibaku, the A-Bombed Trees

Posted on April 18, 2013 by

A few years ago, I became aware of Hiroshi Sunairi’s Tree Project (see http://treeproject.blogspot.com/), a documentary film and accompanying effort to distribute seeds from trees that survived the bombing of Hiroshima.  There weren’t any seeds available at that time, but today I received a package in the mail containing a few of these precious seeds.

Enoki!

Specifically, Hiroshi sent four Enoki/Hackberry (Celtis sinensis or perhaps jessoensis), three Ginkgo (Gingko biloba), and one Tsubaki/Camellia (probably Camellia japonica).  As you can see from the photo above, the hackberry seeds arrived ready to roll, so I potted those up this afternoon, and put the ginkgo and camellia seeds in water to soak overnight.  I’m so excited to have these trees join the Felix Gillet quince (my other “history” tree) in the food forest.  Should they germinate and thrive, I’ve been thinking about trying to find a public home – Folsom Lake College, the new El Dorado County Master Gardeners Demonstration Garden, or perhaps at the Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Colony Farm – for one of these historic trees, with some sort of accompanying plaque.  History!

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Lungless Salamander with Herbs

Posted on March 24, 2013 by

Signs of spring are everywhere.  The shiso and epazote self sowed as I hoped, and are popping up all over the place.  The almond and Felix Gillet quince are waking up, as are the pomegranates, grapes, kiwis, figs, nectarine, peach, Asian pear, asparagus, rhubarb, and saskatoons.

Have a look at this handsome beast, unearthed in the process of moving some piles of bark and wood chips.  I think it’s probably Ensatina eschscholtzii platensis, the Sierra Nevada Ensatina.

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I used the aforementioned bark to mulch some paths out in the food forest, to help alleviate soil compaction and maintain soil moisture.  I’ve been working on building out the herbaceous layer, and seeded toothache plant, yarrow, feverfew, mugwort, chamomile, mountain mint, catmint, catnip, sorrel, sage, cumin, papalo, pimpinella, stinging nettle, hyssop, dill, celeriac, lovage, and garden cress in speedling trays, and red clover, daikon, hollyhock, yarrow, salsify and columbine directly into the food forest.  I also planted mashua tubers, and relocated some strawberries, horseradish, comfrey, mint, and lingonberries into the partially shaded area just inside the tree line.  Some perfectly timed rain in the forecast for the end of the week should provide lots of moisture for emerging seedlings and spring ephemerals.

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Seed Stories

Posted on March 20, 2013 by

Seed Story the First
I’ve been following the Bootjack Garden blog for a while, and this post about the making of a seed library inspired me to start one at the college. A generous interlibrary loan from Kate’s seed library arrived in the mail the other day, full of wonderful and beautiful seeds!

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Seed Story the Second
My dear friend Jason Toal (@draggin), a skilled gardener, blogged recently about some sunflowers he had grown from seeds provided by Harry, the son of friends Brian and Keira, who’s Vancouver BC garden (and gentle prodding) inspired me to create this very blog nearly two years ago.  Jason offered to send seeds to the first five commenters on the post, and my seeds arrived Monday!

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With any luck, the sunflowers will grow, and I’ll be able to pay them forward, including sending some to the Mariposa County Seed Library.

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Signs of Spring, Golden Currants and a DIY Greenhouse

Posted on March 9, 2013 by

Spent the whole day in the garden, puttering, pruning, and propagating. The rhubarb is waking up, another sign that spring is here, and the Nanking cherries I planted last year are blooming – pictured below is the one planted in the horse food mound.  It would be great if they were to fruit this year, as the old cherry in the inner yard is on its last legs, and besides, the robins typically get the lion’s share of the produce from that tree..

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Last week I attended a Master Gardener Advanced IPM training at the San Joaquin County Ag center in Stockton, CA.  Outside the center is a lovely demonstration garden, and I asked for and received permission to take a few cuttings of the golden currant (Ribes aureum) bushes therein.  Currant cuttings generally root especially well, so I have not doubt that at least a few will survive to join their black and red cousins in the food forest.

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Today I planted the blue honeysuckles and European elder in the food forest, and then spent some time seeding spring and summer vegetables, including roselle, peppers, pickling melon, and ajowan (Trachyspermum ammi).  These I put in the glass display case topped with a heavy sliding glass door that is serving as a temporary greenhouse until I can get my “proper” greenhouse set up.  It seems to keep the soil warm, which is perfect for germinating seeds.

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There’s always something to do in the garden, and I still need to get the strawberry bed in order, manure the annual rows and ready them for transplants, set up the tomato infrastructure, and weed the garlic bed. I counted the garlic today, and there are about 103 plants, all hardneck varieties. With hardneck garlic, every clove planted yields about five cloves. The garlic won’t be ready for harvest until June or July, but remind me to save ~20 of the biggest for planting in October.

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Constantinople Quince!

Posted on March 3, 2013 by

I traveled to the Sierra Seed Cooperative’s seed exchange to pick up the Constantinople Quince I bought from the Felix Gillet Institute.  It’s a nice tree – well rooted, lively and healthy.  I put it in the ground in the food forest, atop a hügelkultur mound I prepared a few weeks ago.  So excited to have this piece of local history in the garden!

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I wasn’t able to spend much time at the event, but I did pick up a handful of interesting packets from the lovely Sierra Seeds display.  These folks are doing good work, and I hope to attend (and maybe even trade seeds) at one of their future events.

UntitledI planted a lot of seeds this weekend – here’s a list of what I can remember:

Amaranth (Golden Giant)
Celeriac (Brilliant)
Dill (Mammoth)
Hyssop
Lovage
Pimpinella
Quinoa (Faro)
Stinging Nettle
Tobacco (San Juan Nicotiana rustica)
Tomatillo (Purple Keeper Landrace)
Tomatoes (Super Sioux, Beefsteak, Red Calabash, San Marzano, Cherokee Purple, Mortgage Lifter, Pruden’s Purple, Oaxacan Pink, Yellow Perfection, Santiam, and Japanese Black Trifele)
Currant Tomatoes – Solanum pimpinellifolium (Sugar Cherry and Red Currant)

I was also able to scrounge up a few for the FLC Seed Library, which went live last week.  I’m talking with some local MG’s to get one started at the county Master Gardener office – stay tuned.

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Blue Honeysuckle and Red Currants

Posted on March 3, 2013 by

Good news – the Lonicera caerulea cuttings I acquired last spring are showing signs of life, and I think that both (zarnitsa and blue velvet) will be ready for planting out in the food forest in the spring.

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In other news, I’ve been working on on various propagation chores, seeding certain things, potting up cuttings, and the like. Given how readily currants seem to respond to ground layering, I’m performing an experiment. I cut a hole in the side of a 4″ pot, wounded a branch of red currant (to induce rooting), leaving it attached to the mother plant, and stuck it through the side of the pot. I filled the pot with rooting medium, and have every reason to believe that in a month the plant will root, and I’ll be able to cut it free and replant it elsewhere. Plants are amazing.

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Friendly Neighbor with Horses and a Front Loader = Sweet Pile of Manure

Posted on February 10, 2013 by

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My neighbor, a horse owner and all-around nice guy, recently acquired one of those sweet Kubota tractors with the front loader attachment.  I spent part of the afternoon over in his horse yard, loading up the truck with lots of well composted manure.  Lucky me.

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It’s been relatively warm and sunny for the past few days, although still frosty in the morning, and lots of plants are looking like they believe spring is here. Buds on the nectarine, peach and plum trees are starting to swell, and the onions and garlic have resumed growth mode after being asleep for the past couple of months. All this early spring business is likely to lead to ruined flowers and a severe reduction in fruit set, as late February often brings snow and rain.  There is, however, nothing whatever I can do about the weather, and so I remain content that ladybird beetles see fit to visit the garden.

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Felix Gillet – Plant Superhero

Posted on January 30, 2013 by

I recently became aware of Felix Gillet, a pioneer nurseryman and all-around fruit and nut tree superhero who did much of his work in Nevada City, not far from my neck of the woods.

Felix Gillet (born March 25, 1835, Rochefort, Charente-Maritime, France; died January 27, 1908, Nevada City, California, United States) was a California pioneer nurseryman, horticulturist, sericulturist, and writer who made several important introductions of superior European deciduous fruit and nut trees to California and the northwestern United States. Beginning in 1869, on his Barren Hill Nursery in Nevada City, Gillet cultivated his own imported scion wood and home-grown nursery stock, experimented with grafting and hybridizing, and continually wrote articles on horticulture and his plant selections, while remaining active in Nevada City civic affairs.[1] Publishing his own nursery catalog for 37 years and advertising widely, he sold his walnuts, filberts (hazelnuts), chestnuts, prunes, figs, strawberries, grapes, peaches, cherries, citrus and dozens of other fruit and nut varieties throughout California and the Pacific Northwest. The commercial walnut variety “Felix Gillet” was named in his honor.
Source:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Gillet

Some folks at the Felix Gillet Institute (http://felixgillet.org) are doing the work of maintaining Gillet’s legacy, propagating and making available cuttings from some of his trees, many of which are still bearing more than 100 years after their establishment.  I’d like to have a quince (Cydonia oblanga) in my garden, so I’m going to see about ordering one from FGI – I love plants with a story to tell.

Plum Blossom | PennsylvaniaPhoto CC BY 2.0 courtesy of *Arielle*

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A Seed Library, Andean Vegetables, and How To Fold a Seed Bindle

Posted on January 30, 2013 by

At Bootjack Garden, a fantastic blog about a garden not so far from my own (~146 miles south and east, near Yosemite), Katie recently posted about the idea of seed libraries, and I was immediately inspired to see about getting one started at Folsom Lake College.  I did a little research, talked to some gardeners and librarians on campus.  I hope to talk to some more folks tomorrow, and kick this thing off quick – hopefully get can get a bunch of seeds together in time for spring planting.  I also took some time this evening to draw up some instructions on how to fold a seed bindle, and the kind folks in Printing Services at the college offered to create some square pads from recycled scratch paper for this purpose.

How To Fold a Seed Bindle

Here’s a CC BY-NC-SA PDF of the diagram, in case you have some use for it.

If all goes well, I’m going to see about establishing seed libraries at the local Georgetown library, and perhaps in the Master Gardener office as well!

In other news, I ordered some mashua (Tropaeolum tuberosum) tubers.  I’ve grown oca (Oxalis tuberosa) in the past, and though it didn’t do very well, I’ve had good luck with yacón (Smallanthus sonchifolius), and if I can get some ulloco (Ullucus tuberosus), I’ll give that a shot as well.

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