Cowichan Valley Garden Club

Nov 15th November 11, 2023

Mulching and November tasks 

This month’s garden theme is mulch, mulch, mulch…. fall leaves are the perfect free mulch and with lots of leaves coming down this week, now is the time to collect them.   They are ideal for protecting roots of plants in the garden from cold injury.   Since we want an insulating effect, the fluffier the mulch, the better, so don’t shred the leaves:   even really big maple leaves can be used whole.   Right now, start working leaves (or other mulch, such as straw, chopped crop waste) in between plants to cover the soil with a couple of inches of mulch. Don’t cover the foliage though, as hardy vegetables are still growing and need the light.   Once in place for a few weeks, wet leaves become matted enough to stay in place during winter winds. If mulching with new straw, which is very light and blows around easily, lay it down just before it rains. To hold fresh leaves or straw in place over a bed you can lay down chickenwire, stucco wire, branches, garden prunings, corn stalks, etc. on top until the mulch is soggy enough to stay put. Also, don’t forget to put a thick layer of mulch on empty garden beds to protect the soil from erosion and prevent weeds from sprouting.

Despite internet myths, all kind of leaves are fine. Oak and arbutus/madrone leaves take longer to break down, but they don’t make the soil more acidic as some fear. Use them alone or mixed with softer leaves, such as apple or willow, to keep the soft leaves from compacting too much. Black walnut leaves (but not other kinds of walnut) may the only ones to be wary of because tomatoes and a few other plants are sensitive to a compound (juglone) from the leaves. Most plants are not sensitive to this and, indeed, some experts are not convinced that black walnut leaves cause significant problems. If you do have black walnut leaves, it is probably a good precaution to compost the leaves to break down the juglone before using them on a food garden.

Keep a pile of leaves aside for the second stage of mulching:

With the first forecast of below freezing weather, usually in early December, I do another round of mulching, bulking up any thinner areas and piling mulch over cabbages and well up the stalks of leeks and celery. Also at this time, I pile a very deep layer of mulch right over the top of root crops, entirely covering the foliage and making the bed into a living root cellar. Don’t do this right now as you don’t want to suffocate plants that are still growing. The mulch prevents frost damage to the shoulders of roots, especially those that, like some beets and celeriac, often stick up above the soil surface. Once damaged by frost, the roots rot and attract millipedes and slugs to the decomposing material. There is no need to cut off the leaves of carrots, beets, etc. before mulching. The thick mulch also serves another purpose in the early spring: by excluding light and warmth, it keeps carrots and other roots in the dark (literally!) about the arrival of spring and helps delay the start of spring growth. When overwintered roots start growing again, they sprout side roots and flavours deteriorate as the plants use sugars stored in the roots to grow flower stalks.

Stockpile extra leaves for use next summer: 

Remember how hard it is to come by mulch materials in the summer?  Winter leaf mulches break down pretty quickly in the spring once earthworms, insects, and the myriad of soil micro-organisms have re-awakened from their winter dormancy.  By summer there is very little leaf material left to cool the soil and conserve soil moisture; straw does last longer, up to two years before completely disintegrating. The drier the leaves are, the better they will keep without decomposing so try to collect the driest leaves possible for stockpiling. Store them where they will be protected from rain, such as in a wire bin covered with a tarp or in closed leaf bags.

Plan for winter cold snaps [when temperatures drop below -3 to -5 degrees C (23-26 F)]:

Hardy vegetables in unheated greenhouses or coldframes are all set, but if you don’t have such structures, stockpile tarps or plastic sheets to use for temporary covers in the garden.   Also, collect rocks, bricks, or boards to hold down the tarps.  Arctic outbreaks on the coast are usually accompanied by strong outflow winds so heavy weights are needed to keep tarps in place.   Since it is too cold for plants to photosynthesize, tarps don’t have to be clear, just waterproof. Lay the tarps directly on plants with reasonably strong stems (such as broccoli, cauliflower).   For softer plants, such as leafy greens, you can also lay the tarp over them, however, for better results, put some kind of support under the covers to prevent plants from being squashed by snow or water accumulating on the tarps.   Supports could be low hoops, a row of short blunt stakes, or a length of stucco wire bent into a low arch.   Keep the supports low so the covers don’t catch the wind.    The wire seed bed covers I originally made to keep birds out (the 1-inch welded wire boxes are 2×4 feet and 6-8 inches high) have been excellent to support plastic over lettuce and spinach beds and were strong enough to hold up a considerable weight of wet snow last winter.   Once the cold weather breaks, you can fold up the tarps and put them away until needed again.   With an El Niño influenced winter this year, we might not have such severe cold spells as we have had in the couple of years, but given the increasing erratic weather it is best to be prepared for anything. 

Pest notes:

Climbing cutworms are, as usual, chewing on leafy greens at night.  It is well worth a few minutes with a flashlight just after dark for a few evenings looking through lettuce and leafy greens for cutworms. See: http://www.lindagilkeson.ca/leaf_chewers.html#25   They are such voracious eaters that one big fat caterpillar can do a lot of damage so you may find that damage stops once after you just find a few.  Of course, slugs are going to continue to  chew on plants over the winter too….

Light up your citrus:

If you are growing citrus outdoors and haven’t installed winter protection yet, it is time to do that, whether you are using plumbing heat cables or Christmas lights.   Lots more notes on this in my November 22, 2022 message http://www.lindagilkeson.ca/gardening_tips.html 

Late sowing:

Sowing hardy varieties of lettuce, spinach and other leafy greens so late in the fall that they don’t germinate until early spring has been working well for me for the last few years.  I will be scattering seeds for these early crops over an empty bed in the next week or so and will use one of my wire covers to keep birds away from the seeds and to support a sheet of plastic during cold snaps.  

Garlic:

If you still haven’t planted your garlic, DO it!   Planting this month works fine, but don’t put it off any longer….

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PLEASE do not reply to this message (I won’t see your message and it may be automatically rejected by the listserv). To subscribe,  unsubscribe, or send me a message, contact me: info@lindagilkeson.ca

Please note that both my gardening classes for 2024 have been filled by people who were on the wait list of folks that didn’t get into the 2023 classes.

See my web site for hundreds of photos of pests, beneficial insects, diseases and disorders to help you identify problems.   Also, under the Presentations menu, there are pdfs of talks on growing vegetable seedlings, saving seeds, climate resilient gardens, the issue of global loss of insects and even one on how to identify coastal butterflies.  

Oct 15th October 2023

Gardening Newsletter
by Linda Gilkeson
October 1, 2023
Fall Pests & Diseases, Planting Garlic & Strawberries

Well, that seemed like a rather quick transition from summer to fall last month!  Here are a couple of pest and disease issues and planting notes that are top of mind for this month:

Insect barriers:  A common question is when it is safe to remove insect netting from beds of carrots and cabbage family plants.  With the long, warm summer we just had, it is likely that adults from a large third generation of carrot rust fly and cabbage root maggot are still around, laying eggs on warmer evenings–so don’t take a chance on uncovering beds too early.  It is best to keep plants covered until end of October or after the first hard frost, whichever comes first.

Powdery Mildews:   The usual late summer dusting of fine, whitish powdery mildew spores have been appearing on leaves.  Different species of PM fungi infect different host plants so just because it shows on one kind of plant doesn’t mean it will spread to unrelated plants.  The most common PM species infects squash leaves, peas and various ornamentals; in some years there are PM species that infect Swiss chard or kale and other leafy greens in the mustard family. More rarely, tomato plants have powdery mildew.   The onset of wetter weather this month will slow the spread and, eventually, rainy weather stops PM infections as the leaves become too wet for the spores to germinate.  There is no need to cut off infected squash leaves as that won’t really help to control the disease.  Just compost infected leaves and plants at the end of the season and plant squash in a different bed next year.  There is also no need to discard kale or other hardy vegetable plants that have PM on their leaves now.  New leaves that will develop during fall rains and that grow next spring won’t be infected.   

Garlic:   If your harvested garlic had grey, mouldy areas around the neck or root end of the bulbs or if the peeled cloves show, pinkish-orange lesions, those are signs of various root rots.  These rots continue to spread during storage so rather than lose the crop, you can salvage any intact cloves by peeling and freezing them (no blanching necessary).   Get a new supply of healthy garlic to plant in October for next year’s crop and be sure to plant them in soil that hasn’t been used to grow garlic, onions or other related plants for at least 4 years.   Most garlic root rots can be prevented by rotating crops and ensuring only healthy cloves are planted.   The one symptom that is rarely serious comes from a fungus called Embellisia.  Tiny spots on the bulb expand into blotches under the papery outer layers; it looks like you handled the bulbs with sooty fingers.  The cloves inside usually aren’t damaged and can be stored as usual in dry, cool conditions (i.e., not in a garden shed, which is much too damp).  Unlike soil-borne root rots, Embellisia spores spread on the wind so although crop rotation is helpful, it won’t prevent all infections.  If your garlic is otherwise healthy, you can use your own cloves for planting this fall.

Planting garlic:   Which brings me to planting garlic, which is usually best done in October after the soil has become cool and wet.   This reduces the risk of infection with Blue Mold Rot (Penicillium spp.), which thrives in warm, dry soil.  Amend the soil with lime to raise the pH if your soil is acidic and incorporate a generous supply of compost.  A complete organic fertilizer might be needed to improve fertility in new gardens and in beds where previous crops didn’t grow as well as they should have.  Lightly comb the amendments into the top layer of soil and plant the cloves deep enough that tips are covered by soil.  Spread a thick mulch of leaves or straw over the bed for winter.

Other planting this month:   As warm-season crops vacate the space in my small greenhouse, I dig up enough leafy greens and salad plants from my garden to fill the greenhouse beds.  This includes Swiss chard, as well as other leafy greens, lettuce seedlings, a parsley and arugula plant or two, sweet marjoram and other half-hardy plants.  With care and in cool, cloudy weather, even mature chard plants can be moved into greenhouses or tunnels. Just dig deep enough to keep the long tap root intact and harvest the largest outer leaves to relieve the plants of leaf area until their roots get established. Smaller plants of lettuce and other leafy greens from mid-summer sowings are easier to transplant.

Strawberry plantlets that develop on runners from the main plants can be transplanted at this time of year to start a new bed.  Ideally, you carefully removed runners all summer and left only enough to provide any new plants needed. In reality, however, strawberry patches often end up matted with runners shooting off in all directions with little plants and secondary runners criss-crossing the bed.  Now is a good time to sort that out to avoid overcrowding and loss of production next year.  Crowded plants compete with each other and their flowers often aren’t properly pollinated because they are jammed under leaves.  From each main plant carefully follow along runners to find the little plants.   Dig them if they have rooted in the soil and remove any secondary runners growing from them.   If the little plants have good roots, transplant them directly into the new bed. If they aren’t well rooted, plant them in small pots of good soil, but leave them still connected to the runner from the mother plant until they are firmly rooted. It might be necessary to pin them down with a stone or a wire pin for a couple of weeks to keep them in the pot until roots develop. Cut the runners and plant the newbies in their permanent bed as soon as the roots are well grown.

Fall is an excellent time to plant fruit trees and berry bushes if you can find the varieties you want at plant nurseries at this time of year.  Their roots become established over the winter, have a head start over spring planting and will require less water next summer.  While the soil is still fairly dry, prepare any planting holes so that you can put the trees or shrubs into the ground as soon as you bring them home. 

Sep 9th September 9, 2023

Linda’s List for September 9, 2023:

Now that we are well into September, with rapidly shortening days and cooler nights, there are a few things to do now: 

Pinch Brussels sprouts:

Right now is good timing to cut or pinch out the tips of the Brussels sprouts plants to force the formation of sprouts lower down, along the stem.  If your plants already have nice big sprouts this isn’t necessary, but it is essential if your plants currently have only pea-sized nubs where the sprouts should be.  With tip growth stopped, the plants quickly start plumping up their sprouts.  Even if your plants are still small because they were planted too late, this is worth trying because it might force a few sprouts to form.  As regular readers know, if you don’t have good-sized sprouts on the plant by the end of October, they likely won’t form at all because in the spring these biennial plants bypass making sprouts and go straight to flowering.

Check thinning:

This applies to any crops sown for winter harvest, but especially to carrots and beets.  Leafy greens and lettuce should also be checked for overcrowding.  If your summer sown carrots are not baby-carrots sized by now, they may need to be thinned some more or have a few doses of liquid fertilizer this month to promote growth.  Use commercial fish fertilizer or make nutrient rich ‘tea’ by soaking a shovel of good compost in a bucket of water for a day.  There isn’t much growing season left!  Although last fall was abnormally warm through October, we can’t count on that happening again to help out late plantings.  Make sure your fall plantings are well-spaced, watered and, if necessary, have supplemental liquid fertilizer.

Last seed sowing:

If you have a cold frame, tunnel or greenhouse, you can still sow leafy greens, such as hardy lettuce, spinach, Chinese cabbage, leaf mustard, possibly radishes under covers.  You can still plant seedlings outdoors, but it is too late to sow these directly outdoors for fall harvests.  You can sow corn salad seed outdoors now: try sprinkling seeds under tomatoes, peppers, beans and other crops that will be finished in October.

One of my favorite planting schemes is to sow frost hardy varieties of lettuce (eg., Winter Density, Rouge d’hiver, Arctic King, Continuity, Merveille des quatre saisons) at the end of September for spring harvests.  The tiny plants grow a little bit in the fall, survive winter and produce a surprisingly early lettuce crop from March onward.  It can also work to sow lettuce, spinach, dill, cilantro (and maybe other crops—let me know what works!) in November, late enough so that the seeds don’t germinate before winter, but come up very early in the spring.   November is also good time to scatter seeds of perennial flowers, both cultivated and native species, to provide pollen and nectar for beneficial insects next summer.  In order to germinate, seeds of many flowers require stratification, which is exposure to wet, cold conditions (winter, in other words).

Stake up loaded branches:

With late season apples, pears and even plums still hanging heavy on trees and the possibility of fall wind storms any time, install temporary supports for branches that might break.

Avoid splitting:

If there is a heavy rain this month, late tree fruit and maturing vegetable crops that have been short on water can take up water too fast, which causes them to split.  There isn’t a heavy rainfall in the immediate forecast, but keep an eye on the weather in case a September storm dumps a lot of rain.   In advance of a heavy rain forecast, if you have the capacity to provide some extra irrigation of fruit trees, root vegetables and cabbages for few days before the storm, it will increase the rate of water uptake in plants and decrease the stress on cells.   This late in the season, you may also be able to harvest fruit before a storm hits.  Most at risk are tomatoes, soft tree fruit, such as late plums, but even apples will split if conditions are right.   Among the vegetables, carrots, potatoes and other roots are prone to splitting, also cabbages, melons and squash that are close to maturity.   If fruit or cabbages do split, they should be harvested and used immediately as they will rot quickly.   Split root carrots usually keep on growing (despite being deformed) and can be harvested later and salvaged for cooking.

Upcoming Zoom presentation open to all: 

September 19, 7:00-8:30 Do You REALLY Know What the Problem Is?  Without a correct diagnosis first, there is no way to successfully treat a problem.  Damage caused by poor growing conditions and extreme weather are increasingly common (there was a lot of that this summer!) and are often mistaken for pests or diseases.   This online workshop provides tips on diagnosing crop problems, including how to tell whether damage to fruit and vegetables is caused by pathogens, insects, mites, physical injury or growth disorders.  This is a fundraiser for the Salt Spring Island Farmland Trust and is part of their Knowledge Series. To register: https://give-can.keela.co/linda-gilkeson-presents-whats-your-problem

PLEASE do not reply to this message (I won’t see your message and it may be automatically rejected).  To subscribe,  unsubscribe, or send me a message use: gilkeson@shaw.ca or go through the Contact page on my web site: www.lindagilkeson.ca

Also on my web site you can see hundreds of photos of pests, beneficial insects, diseases and disorders to help you identify problems.   I have also made pdfs available of presentations on growing vegetable seedlings, saving seeds, climate resilient gardens, the issue of global loss of insects—and there is even a pdf on how to identify coastal butterflies.  

May 14th April 2023

April 21, 2023   Onions, Carrots, Spring Pests

Like the last two springs, this year is also off to a late, cold start.   With the Pacific circulation projected to change over from the La Nina pattern to an El Nino pattern over the summer, we can expect a shift to the warmer, drier weather typical of El Nino, but whether it will be a rapid shift in June or a slow transition over the season isn’t yet known.   In any case, it is still too cold to plant much, but after the weekend the weather looks much more promising to sow or transplant the hardier vegetables: lettuce, spinach, radishes, mustards, kale and other salad-y plants, peas, Chinese cabbage, potatoes.   Although hardy, Swiss chard is readily vernalized by cool weather (see below for more of an explanation) so I always wait until the first week of May to sow the new crop to avoid the risk of plants bolting to seed this summer.
It is getting to past time to plant onions (both sets and seedlings).  Onion varieties grown at our northern latitude form bulbs in response to the long days/short nights in the weeks around June 21.   To grow good-sized bulbs, onions need to be planted as early as possible so they develop a good root system before they initiate bulbing.   Onions planted too late (after mid-May) often won’t make proper bulbs at all, but they can be used up as scallions.   The tricky part is that, like chard, onions are biennial plants so can respond to a period of cold spring weather by going to seed in the summer instead of making bulbs (for more on this, see my message about vernalization Feb. 20, 2022: http://www.lindagilkeson.ca/gardening_tips.html ).   Premature bolting can occur when large onion sets (nickel-sized or larger) or large onion seedlings (the size of a pencil) are planted while the weather is still too cold. When smaller onion sets and seedlings experience cold weather, they are too small to change their developmental pathway so they don’t go to seed after a cold spell, but if planted too early they might not survive at all.   With the warmer week coming, plan to plant all onion family sets and seedlings, including leeks, if you haven’t put them in already.

Grow your own onion sets:  These miniature onions are grown from seed sown directly in the garden one year, then cured and stored like crop onions for planting out the following year. By growing your own sets you can have exactly the varieties you want, it saves time and space in the garden because they mature a month earlier than crop onions grown from seed, and, most importantly, it avoids the risk of importing root diseases to your garden on field-grown sets from elsewhere.   To keep these little onions as small as possible, sow them late to keep them small, but not so late that they won’t make bulbs. I sow them the first week of May as I find that seeds sown after mid-May usually don’t make bulbs.   Choose a storage variety, sow very densely, 3-5 seeds per square inch, in good garden soil, but don’t fertilize or amend the soil with compost before sowing.   You can grow a lot of onion sets in a 1-foot square patch! Harvest and cure the tiny bulbs at the same time as crop onions and store them in a dry, cool place until planting next year.   There are always a few sets that grow too big (as described above), but I set those aside and plant a dozen or so of those now and them throughout the year to use as scallions (this even works in a winter greenhouse).\

The carrot conundrum:  Carrots are tricky because it can be hard to get a good stand of seedlings started; after that they are fairly easy to grow.   Carrots can be sown from now until the first week of July.  Because carrot seeds are slow to germinate (10-14 days in the spring), providing good conditions for the entire germination period requires care.   The soil must be evenly moist during the entire germination period and not allowed to get too hot as carrot seeds won’t germinate if soil is too warm.   While warm soil is usually a concern for later plantings, we have had heat waves occur as early as the first week of May that wiped out germinating carrots.   To maintain cool, moist soil, be ready to cover seedbeds with burlap, white plastic (such as cut open compost bags), or other shading material should there be high temperatures during the germination period.
Once germinated, tiny carrot seedlings and others, such as lettuce and beets, may be scoffed up by slugs, cutworms, or pillbugs.  To avoid cutworms, sow after the first of May as cutworms have developed to the pupal stage by then and have stopped feeding. To deal with slugs, I step up slug patrols before carrots and other seeds are planted. Immediately after sowing carrots, I also sprinkle iron/ferric phosphate slug bait granules over the seedbed to control slugs during the period before carrots emerge. There isn’t an easy solution for pillbugs, but if cutworms and slugs have been ruled out and you are still losing tiny seedlings, go out after dark with a flashlight to see if what’s eating them. If there are a lot of pillbugs, you may have to resort to starting carrots in seed trays and transplanting them, at least for the early crop.   Later on in the summer, with faster germination and warmer and drier conditions, pillbugs are much less of a problem.   They can only chew tiny seedlings so the quicker seedlings grow, the sooner they outgrow the risk of harm. It is a myth that spreading cornmeal on the soil kills pillbugs, but they are attracted to fermenting starch so it might deflect them from eating seedlings–on the other hand, it is just as likely to attract even more pillbugs to eat seedlings.  Rotting wood is a haven for pillbugs (they feed on fungi, on decaying, as well as living, plant material). To reduce their numbers, remove all rotting wood in or around the garden and replace decaying wood on raised beds with non-wooden materials (or don’t use sides on the raised beds at all).   Diatomaceous earth (silicon dioxide) is a dust that works on pillbugs because it causes them to dry up, but I never use it outdoors because it also kills insects, including the many beneficial species, that might walk across it. If you do use this pesticide for pillbugs, limit it to just the immediate row or patch of soil where carrot seeds have been sown. Another pesticide option if you are a US gardener is iron phosphate slug bait that has Spinosad included for pillbug control (not available in Canada).
Prevent root fly attack: Cabbage root maggot and carrot rust fly are two common spring pests to watch out for. Carrot rust fly attacks roots of carrots, parsnips, parsley, celery, dill and related plants.  Cabbage root maggots attacks roots of mustard/cabbage family, including radishes and turnips (for photos, see: http://www.lindagilkeson.ca/book_photos.html#root_feeders ).  The adult root flies come out at dusk to lay eggs at the soil line around the stems of their host plants. From there, the maggots burrow into the roots; damage ranges from slight stunting to complete loss of plants.  There are 2 or 3 generations a year, with the late summer/fall generation being the largest and most damaging.   There is a lot of detail in my “Spring Pest Edition” message, April 25, 2021 on how to use insect netting and stem barriers to prevent damage from these pests.   I won’t repeat it all here, but I have been asked whether seedlings are at risk of being attacked before they are set out in the garden. Bearing in mind that insect netting has to be in place before the flies lay eggs, the question is whether seedlings need to be kept under netting.   While seedlings are indoors they are obviously safe, but what about when they are moved outdoors to harden off or when they are grown in cold frames or greenhouses that are open during the day? This early in the spring, overwintering flies are not about, but they are likely to be emerging in the next week of warm weather.   The flies don’t come out to lay eggs until dusk, however, so seedlings set outdoors in the sun during the day, but brought indoors or put into a closed greenhouse by late afternoon would be safe from attack. The same goes for seedlings in cold frames or greenhouses that are closed up at night.   Seedlings left outdoors on a warm evening should be covered with insect netting or floating row cover to prevent eggs from being laid at the base of the stems—but if evenings are that warm, it would be much better to plant them and put the barrier in place at transplanting time. Seeds sown directly in the garden should be covered with insect netting or floating row covers before the first shoots appear because the adult root flies can detect tiny plants.
Tent caterpillars: In some areas, such as Salt Spring, tent caterpillars are having a high population year again this year. The eggs are starting to hatch now and the first clumps of tiny fuzzy black caterpillars are beginning to feed on leaf buds.  The webs are small, but not hard to see on bare branches.  Keep inspecting apples and other fruit trees for nests so you can remove them as early as possible.   If you can reach them, pull the small nests off the branches (use gloves) and drop the caterpillars in soapy water; if you can’t reach them by hand, prune them out.   Lots more details on tent caterpillars are in my May 24, 2021 message.
Plan for summer: We can expect some heat waves this summer, so now is a good time to plan how you are going to protect vegetables from the heat this year.   Lace curtains or tablecloths work fine, but it may take some time to scour thrift shops for such fabrics.   If buying horticultural shade cloth, look for material that provides 30% to 50% shade. Shade fabrics range from 30-80% shading so be sure to get material that provides 50% or less shade (the higher shade factor fabrics are for delicate ornamental, ferns, orchids, etc., not vegetables). Knitted monofilament fabrics are light weight, tough and durable for many years; they can be laid directly on top of larger plants or supported on stakes or hoops over seedlings.   I don’t recommend woven polypropylene materials: when cut, the edges unravels bits of plastic all over the garden and I found that if laid on top of plants they heat up enough to burn leaves where the fabric touches.   Oh, and no, don’t plan to use floating row cover to shade things—it is designed to hold in heat.

Nov 2nd Early November 2022

Linda’s list for November 2:   More mulch, pest notes, late sowing

With frosty nights forecast this week and even a chance of snow in some places (!), mulching the garden is top of mind. The problem in my area is that many trees still have most of their leaves due to the long warm fall. I find myself standing under my biggest maple, exhorting it to get on with it! The soil is still warm enough now that there is no risk of frost damage to roots in the soil, but if you have mulch to spread this week, the priority should be roots crops that have “shoulders” sticking above the ground. Beets, in particular, push up out of the soil, especially the long Cylindra types, so they are at the top of my list, along with celeriac, to get the first mulch.

Empty beds are another priority for mulch to protect the soil from erosion and prevent compaction in the heavy rains that have been arriving in storm after storm. I expect it will take a week or two yet for all the leaves to drop so just keep raking between storms and mulching as you can. Now that leaves are wet, they stay put in the face of winds. If using new straw as a mulch, lay it down right before it rains to get it wet quickly and keep it from blowing away. Ideally, try for a couple of inches of fluffy mulch (more is better) around all plants and over empty beds. By the end of November/early December (or before there is a really cold spell) pile a deep layer of mulch over the tops of root crop by the end of November. Some people cut off the leaves of carrots, etc. before mulching, but there is no need to do that; just leave the leaves on the plants to help mulch the beds.

Pest notes:

You can safely take the insect netting covers off of carrot beds and other crops now. I was quite surprised to see how many leafminer eggs were still being laid daily throughout October on spinach leaves, which was likely an indicator that root flies were also still laying eggs. Another surprise was finding a couple of enormous climbing cutworms one evening as I was out with a flashlight. Looks like those critters also grew quickly in October because they are usually much smaller at this time of year.  This week it would be well worth spending a few minutes just after dark looking through lettuce and leafy greens for cutworms. If you are not sure what to look for, see:  http://www.lindagilkeson.ca/leaf_chewers.html#25   They are such voracious eaters that one can do a lot of damage so even if you only find a couple of cutworms, that may be all there were. Of course, slugs are going to continue to do a certain amount of damage.

Given the unpredictability of weather these days and the fact that we are still in the La Niña climate pattern, it would be a good idea to prepare now for periods of cold [which I define as several degrees below freezing, -3 to -5^oC (23-26^oF)]. If you have a greenhouse or cold frames for winter crops you are all set . But if you don’t have such structures, temporary covers work just fine.  Stockpile light tarps or plastic sheets where they will be handy if needed. At the same time, make a stack of rocks, bricks or boards to hold down the tarps.  Cold snaps on the coast are usually accompanied by strong Arctic outflow winds so heavy weights are needed. Since it is too cold for plants to photosynthesize, tarps don’t have to be clear plastic—just use anything you have, as long as it is waterproof. Lay the tarps directly on plants with reasonably strong stems (such as broccoli, cauliflower).  For softer plants, such as leafy greens, you can also lay the tarp down on them and anchor it, but putting supports under the covers do prevent plants from being squashed (even flattened plants usually do stand up again after tarps are removed). Such supports could be low hoops, a row of short blunt stakes, a length of stucco wire bent into a low arch.   Just keep supports low so covers don’t catch the wind.   Last spring I made wire covers to keep birds out of my seed beds (1-inch welded wire boxes, 2×4 feet and 6-8 inches high).   These should be perfect to support plastic over lettuce, spinach, etc. this winter.

Another approach for those with greenhouses or tunnels is to dig up garden plants and move them into beds under cover. I always dig about half my Swiss chard plants as well as some lettuce, leafy greens, parsley and other salad greens to fill my greenhouse beds where tomatoes, peppers have finished. These mature plants transplant surprisingly well and recover enough to start growing again whenever there is enough sunlight to warm the greenhouse to growth temperatures.

Late sowing experiment:

Something that works some years is sowing lettuce and other greens so late in the fall that they don’t germinate until spring. If all goes well, these pop up much earlier that you would expect. I will scatter such seeds later this month in a small bed close to the house to beef up the spring lettuce supply. One of the benefits of saving your own seeds is that you have a lot of seed to experiment with! As our weather gets ever less predictable, we will need to be very flexible with planting schedules and keep on trying different timing.

Upcoming presentation open to the public:     Tuesday, November 29, 6:30 pm.

I will be giving a talk via Zoom on Resilient Gardens for a Changing Climate.   Our regional climate is changing as the global climate changes with extreme weather events reaching record levels last year.  What does this mean for our food gardens and landscape plants? Learn how extreme weather affects plants, including trees, how to design resilient food and ornamental gardens and help plants survive extreme weather. Also find out the role gardeners can have in mitigating climate change, including designing landscapes to capture carbon.   Sponsored by the Vancouver Botanical Gardens Association.

To register: https://www.amilia.com/store/en/vanduseneducation/api/Activity/Detail?activityId=xO9PeKA

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PLEASE do not reply to this message (I won’t see your message and it may be automatically rejected).  To subscribe,  unsubscribe, or send me a message at:  gilkeson@shaw.ca or go through the Contact page on my web site:  www.lindagilkeson.ca

On my web site you can order books, look at hundreds of photos of pests, diseases and disorders to help you identify problems and also view pdfs files of my talks on how to grow vegetable seedlings, saving seeds, climate resilient gardens and the issue of global loss of insects.  

My  teaching and speaking calendar for most of 2023 is full so I won’t be adding more events to my schedule.

Oct 2nd October 2022

September this year was certainly a far cry from the cool, wet month we had last year.  After being away for a couple of weeks I was surprised to come back to such warm weather, but happy to have the extra warm days making up for the late start to summer this year.

Garlic:
Top of mind garden task this month is planting garlic, which is best done in October. You can pretty much plant garlic any time in the fall, but believe it or not, it is best to wait until the soil is cold and wet. Planting while the soil is still warm and dry as it is right now can increase the risk of infection with Blue Mold Rot (Penicillium spp.). This fungus is short-lived in the soil and thrives in dry soil at soil temperatures of 22-25oC [71-77oF]. It is well managed by good sanitation (crop rotation, planting only healthy cloves) and by waiting to plant until the soil is cold and wet. If you have already planted garlic, tough, don’t worry about it!
If you prepare the beds now, before the soil become too soggy to handle, you will be all ready to plant when the rains start. Amend the soil with lime to raise the pH if your soil is acidic and incorporate a generous supply of finished compost. A complete organic fertilizer might be called for to increase fertility in new gardens and in beds where the previous crops didn’t grow as well as expected. Lightly comb the amendments into the top layer of soil and wait for colder, wetter weather to pop the cloves into the beds, then cover with mulch.

Collect leaves:
Another key task this month is collecting fallen leaves for winter mulching and to stockpile for next summer’s mulch. Usually, the first leaves I rake in the fall are dry so I set aside a good supply for use next summer. Leaves don’t decompose if they are kept dry over winter under some kind of cover or in big plastic bags. Leaves that have been rained on can go straight onto the garden as they are brought home. Start mulching around the base of plants and
cover the surface of any beds that don’t have crops. Try for a layer of dry leaves 15 cm/6 inches deep everywhere; this will pack down somewhat with rainfall and as they winter wears on. Keep aside some mulch to use in late November or early December to cover over the tops of carrots, beets and other root crops. That late in the year the plants will have stopped growing so don’t need to see the sun. Piling a thick mulch right over the whole bed makes a living root cellar out of it and protects the roots from freezing no matter how cold it gets.
Any kind of leaves are fine to use as mulch, with the exception of black walnut, which should be composted before being used on a garden (some plants are sensitive to compounds in black walnut; there is no problem with English walnut). For some reason internet rumours persist that bigleaf maple leaves or oak leaves or Arbutus/Madrone leaves are bad for gardens, but ignore such advice. For winter mulching, keep leaves whole. They break down more slowly, provide better insulation against cold and protection again erosion from rainfall.  When you want leaves to disappear into the soil system quickly, shredding or mowing helps, but that is not what we want to happen with winter mulches. Where fall leaves aren’t available, any coarse organic material works for mulching: straw (expensive, but an excellent mulch), crop debris that is dry and fibrous (e.g., shredded corn stalks, dry bean and pea plants), even bracken ferns, prunings from flower beds and shrubs, etc.
Many people have been wondering whether it is OK to mulch with leaves of bigleaf maple infected with powdery mildew. On some trees, the leaves looked nearly white this year due to the fungus, but despite this, it is fine to use the leaves for mulching or to make compost. The fungus that causes this mildew doesn’t infect other maples species or other kinds of trees and plants. Especially for people with dust allergies or asthma, however, it might be a good idea to use one of those face masks we all have these days to avoid breathing in spores while raking up mildew-y maple leaves.

Powdery Mildews:
After the prolonged dry weather, powdery mildews have been showing up on Swiss chard, kale and other plants that you might not expect to have mildew infections. Infected leaves have a fine whitish dusting more or less evenly spread over the surface; it is usually most obvious on oldest leaves. These are different species of fungi than the powdery mildew commonly seen on squash and cucumbers at this time of year. Like other powdery mildews, the fungi will stop spreading when the rains start and leaves become too wet for spores to germinate. I don’t harvest infected leaves to eat, but I do retain them on the plants so they can continue to feed the roots. There is no need to get rid of infected leaves or remove the plants because new leaves that sprout later in the fall or in the spring won’t be infected. It is a good idea to keep track of varieties that seem to have the worst mildew infections (or other problems) so you can avoid the most susceptible varieties in future. For example, I am going to quit growing “Bright Lights” chard as it always seems to be infected first and worst when we are having a season with a lot of powdery mildew about.
Reminders for overwintering crops:
–  If you haven’t done it yet, go out today and pinch out the tips of Brussels sprout plants (and kalettes, too) to force growth of the sprouts this month.   (Kalettes are a cross between Br. sprouts and kale that make little rosettes of leaves along the plant stems, where sprouts would be on a Br. sprout plant)
–  Continue to keep carrots covered with insect netting until the end of October or until after the first hard frost. With this warm fall, adult carrot rust flies are still active and laying eggs.
–  If your garden crops have been chewed on by rats this year, see my October 12, 2021 message about controlling them: http://www.lindagilkeson.ca/gardening_tips.html
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PLEASE do not reply to this message (I won’t see your message and it may be automatically rejected). To subscribe, unsubscribe, or send me a message use:  gilkeson@shaw.ca or go through the Contact page on my web site:  www.lindagilkeson.ca
On my web site you can order books, look at hundreds of photos of pests, diseases and disorders to help you identify problems and also view pdfs files of my talks on how to grow vegetable seedlings, saving seeds, climate resilient gardens and the issue of global loss of insects.
My teaching and speaking calendar for most of 2023 is full so I won’t be adding more events to my schedule.
_______________________________________________
Lindaslist mailing list
Lindaslist@lists.resist.ca
http://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/lindaslist

Aug 24th Late August 2022

August 24, 2022

The days are getting shorter and with less than a month left until fall officially starts, it means it is too late to plant some things people have asked me about this week, including beans, peas, Brussels sprouts. We are out of time to grow chard, kale, spinach, or Chinese cabbage from seed before winter, but if you can find seedlings right now, they should succeed in gardens that are still getting a full day of sun. With the sun lower in the sky these days, gardens in forested areas or urban neighbourhoods where buildings and city trees cast shade, now have fewer hours of direct sun than gardens in wide open spaces with sun from sunrise to sunset. In gardens with more shade, planting earlier helps to compensate for the fewer sun hours this time of year.
There is still time to sow the small leafy greens (winter lettuce, corn salad, arugula). These can usually can be sown up to the first week of September in most gardens, but last fall was colder than normal so late seeding didn’t work as well as usual.  The same may happen this year because the La Niña ocean circulation pattern, which gave us the cold, wet weather last fall, is likely to continue through this fall. SO, just in case we have lower than normal temperatures in September again, I suggest you sow these last greens sooner rather than later. If you are sowing in a greenhouse or tunnel, you can usually sow up to mid-September for successful crops.
For usable leaves by late September, sow leafy greens in empty garden beds or wherever there are empty spots. Keep the seedbeds well-watered and shade them from hot sun until plants germinate and, continue shading, if necessary, during the hottest hours of the day while seedlings are tiny. Alternatively, you can scatter the seeds under tomatoes, peppers, squash and other warm season plants (including those in greenhouses) that will be finished in October. First, pull back the mulch in places where you can do so without damaging the established plants and broadcast the seeds on the soil surface.   Don’t disturb the soil around the growing plants in the process, but if you can get soil from elsewhere in the garden and sprinkle it on top of the seeds. I usually just fling the seeds under the plants and hope for the best. If the weather is hot, the shade from the older plants helps, but seeds may still not germinate until it cools off.  By the time tomatoes,  etc., are finished, however, the soil should be covered with small plants.  Avoid disturbing the new seedlings by cutting the  finished plants off at the soil line, leaving their roots in the soil. Under-planting works best with corn salad because, if germination is delayed due to warm weather, it doesn’t matter as much as it does for other greens. Corn salad is so hardy that it can grow slowly during the winter when it is too cold for other plants to grow.
One last reminder, with the growing days ticking down, check that carrots, beets and other root crops, new plantings of leafy greens and Chinese cabbage are thinned sufficiently.  Plants that are growing slowly, including Brussels sprouts and cabbage, may benefit from a dose of liquid fertilizer, such as fish fertilizer, to provide a last growth spurt.  This isn’t usually needed for overwintering varieties of broccoli and cauliflower because it isn’t an advantage to have large plants for winter; as long as these are around a foot and half high by late October, they will be a good size to get through winter and produce heads in the spring. Taller plants overwinter too, but they just need more looking after to brace them up against wind and wet snow.
Mscellaneous notes for late August:
Insect covers:
I always get this questions so will head it off now: Yes, there are still plenty of adults of carrot rust fly and cabbage root maggot flying around attacking crops. Therefore, you do need to leave the insect netting or floating row cover on your carrots and radish beds for another couple of months. At the end of October you can remove the covers, clean and store them as the insects will be done flying then.
Stopping tomato flowers:
Tomatoes in the garden won’t be able to mature fruit set after the first week of September so snip off the flowering shoots of vining (indeterminate) tomatoes in another week or two.  Bush or determinate tomatoes probably have already stopped producing new flowers, but if not, pinch those out too. Tomatoes in unheated greenhouses can be left another month to set fruit and, of course, if they are in a heated greenhouse, there is no need to stop new
growth until you want to change over the crop.
Powdery mildew:
The white dusty coating on squash and pumpkin leaves, perhaps also seen on your peas and other vegetables, is a layer of spores of one of the powdery mildew fungi (there are several common species). Keeping plants growing well, with liquid fertilizer and extra irrigation will keep squash producing well as it outgrows the fungus. More info on powdery mildews in my Sept. 3, 2020 and Aug. 28, 2019  messages: http://www.lindagilkeson.ca/gardening_tips.html
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PLEASE do not reply to this message (I won’t see your message and it may be automatically rejected). To subscribe, unsubscribe, or send me a message use:
gilkeson@shaw.ca or go through the Contact page on my web site: www.lindagilkeson.ca 
On my web site you can order books, look at hundreds of photos of pests, diseases and disorders to help you identify problems and also view pdfs files of my talks on how to grow vegetable seedlings, saving seeds, climate resilient gardens and the issue of global loss of insects.
My 2022 teaching and speaking calendar is full and most of 2023 is booked up so I won’t be adding more events to my schedule until possibly fall 2023.

Apr 26th May 2022

Linda’s list for April 26:
Planting tips for a cold spring, potting on, hail damage, bird problems

With spring unfolding so slowly (some of us only recently stopped having snow showers!), there may still be a few frosty mornings ahead for some places. With a bit warmer nighttime temperatures in the forecast, you can safely plant or seed cool season vegetables outdoors such as cabbage family, peas, lettuce and other salad greens, potatoes, onions, carrots, beets, radishes. It is way too cool yet to sow beans
or corn outdoors or to plant out starts of tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers, basil and other warmth-loving plants. It has also been too cold in most places for those tender plants to spend the night in unheated greenhouses or tunnels, though the plants will be happy there during the day.   They can stay out at night once night temperatures start staying mostly above 10oC (50oF). I am holding off on planting out celery and celeriac seedlings as these are readily vernalized by a spell of by a spell of 5-10oC weather (which can cause them go to seed prematurely, rather than produce a crop).   The catch is that the bigger the plants, the more readily they go to seed in response to cool weather. More on vernalization in my Feb. 20, 2022 message: http://www.lindagilkeson.ca/gardening_tips.html
Low temperatures are one problem, but the continuous wet weather is another, because the soil hasn’t had time to dry out enough to handle.  When soil is cultivated while wet it destroys soil structure and results in hard clods as the soil dries out. The worst damage
comes from traditional ‘digging over’ (turning the soil upside down with a shovel or fork) and especially from rototilling (we now know both practices are undesirable–see next paragraph). However, even minimal disturbance can cause some clods to form. This
makes more work to break up clods to prepare seed beds, so try to wait until the soil is drier before handling it. Note: While the surface of seed beds should be reasonably level, there is no need for a fine textured surface. In fact, a rough surface helps to keep seeds from washing away during heavy rainfall. Large seeds can manage to send shoots up through a coarser layer of soil, but tinier seedlings can’t push up clods.   It works well to sow small seeds on the surface of a roughly prepared bed and then sprinkle a thin layer of finer soil over top of the seeds, just enough to cover them. 

Cultivating soil?
Minimizing soil disturbance benefits the complex community of microbes and other creatures that are most numerous in the upper 10 cm (4 inches) of soil and are vital for maintaining healthy, fertile soil. Once a year, when a bed is empty, I spread compost and any other amendments needed, on the surface. Then I use a garden fork to comb or lift and shake the upper 5-10 cm (2-4 inches) of soil enough to lightly mix amendments into the top layer of soil, but without turning the soil over or mixing thoroughly. That’s it for the year–after that I continue to plant and replant crops in quick succession in the same soil as spaces open up and crops mature, without further disturbance other than what occurs as I remove old plants and plant new ones.   If you have heavy clay or compacted soil, then you may need to loosen the soil more deeply by pushing a garden or pitch fork into soil to the full depth of the tines and rocking it a little bit before removing it. The main things to avoid are turning the soil upside down, which buries the soil community where they won’t thrive, and pulverizing the soil, which impairs the soil structure, causes compaction and harms beneficial organisms in the soil.

When to move seedlings into larger pots?
If you have tender seedlings you can’t plant yet, they may have outgrown their containers. One indicator is seeing root tips poking out of the holes in the pot.   If you gently slide the root ball out and see a network of roots surrounding the root ball, it is time to move it to the next size of container (choose a pot that is bigger by at least a finger-width all the way around the root ball). Most seedlings at garden centres have reached the maximum size for their containers by the time they are put out to sell, so if you bought plants, but couldn’t plant them within a week, then they probably need to be moved into larger pots. Buying the youngest looking seedlings available, rather than
the largest ones, gives you more time to hold plants before they suffer from being rootbound.
Beware of buying veggie starts that have:
– grown leggy or floppy due to lack of sun (e.g., from sitting too long in the back of a rack of seedling shelves);
– burned or brown leaf tips (often caused by poor watering practices, although lately I have seen tender plants in grocery store racks that look like they might have been frosted);
– long ‘beards’ of roots trailing out of the pot;
– discoloured yellowish or orangish lower leaves, indicating they are severely stressed and suffering nutrient deficiencies.
There is plenty of time to start over from seed for plants of broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, etc. if you now have seedlings in poor condition for whatever reason.  Cool season vegetables, such as lettuce and salad greens can now be sown directly in the garden and is not too late to start seeds of squash, cucumbers and melons (indoors, though!). It is getting late to start over for tomatoes and peppers, but you should be able to find plenty of plants for sale if you need to replace starts that didn’t work out.

Hail damage:
With the frequent hail storms in the region over the last couple of weeks, veggies that were planted in the garden earlier in the month may now be showing hail injury. This looks like tiny white specks or dots in an all-over pattern on leaves of cabbage, broccoli, lettuce and other plants with wide, soft leaves. Unless plants were torn up by very large hailstones, they won’t be noticeably affected by the small marks where leaf cells were dinged by hail. A ny new growth that didn’t experience hail will be fine.

Beware of birdies:
Robins, juncos, towhees and others that look for seeds, worms, insects on the ground can be quite destructive as they pull up seedlings and eat seeds in the course of their searches. Quails are particularly notorious for pecking leaves and scratching up seed beds.  This year birds have even been yanking out my newly planted onion sets.  Protect plantings by laying wire mesh, chicken wire, bird netting or floating row cover flat over seed beds or on supports over seedlings. Or make self-supporting cages or cloches out of wire screening or wire mesh, tall enough to cover plants until they are about a foot high. Especially protect peas (birds really like those big seeds) until they well
established—last year I had netting over peas well into June before the birds finally left them alone.

Labelling plants:
Several people inquired recently about systems for labelling plants, frustrated by lost tags and mix ups. I also find pot tags are a pain and often get lost (especially when my dog was a puppy and saw plant tags as toys or menu items…).   I label individual pots, seedling flats or cells with masking tape using a waterproof ink pen. It is easy to put a piece of new tape over the old one when re-using pots next season or to pull off the tape label and stick it on a larger pot when I pot on seedlings. Once seedlings are permanently planted in the garden or greenhouse I draw their locations in on a sketch of the garden bed and label them on the drawing in my garden record book. Usually, the
only time I put markers in garden beds is when I want to designate plants to keep for seed—and then I need tall, easy-to-see stakes or ribbons tied to the plants to remind me not to harvest them accidentally.
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PLEASE do not reply to this message. Instead, to subscribe or unsubscribe, send me a message at: gilkeson@shaw.ca or go through the Contact page on my web   site: www.lindagilkeson.ca
On my web site you can order books, look at hundreds of photos of pests, diseases anddisorders to help you identify problems and also view pdfs files of my talks on how to grow vegetable seedlings, saving seeds, climate resilient gardens and the issue of global loss of  insects.
My 2022 teaching and speaking calendar is full so I won’t be adding more events to the year’s schedule. Both of my Year Round Harvest classes are also filled for 2022

Apr 1st April 2022

Linda’s list for April 01: NO Joke: Spring has sprung!

With April here and a really warm day or two this week, spring is unfolding rapidly and some gardening milestones are coming up soon:

Seed starting:

If you are growing your own seedlings, the first week of April is a good time to start seeds of squash, cucumbers, melons, sweet basil indoors for plants destined for the outdoor garden. You might have already started these plants if they are destined to be planted in a greenhouse for the summer. 

Many gardeners have set out first plantings of peas, lettuce, spinach, potatoes, but if you haven’t, not to worry—there is plenty of time to get these going. The warmer the soil is when you plant, the faster plants grow anyway. Looking ahead, I usually plant onion sets and leek and onion seedlings in my garden the second week of April. For good sized onions, you need to plant in time to allow them to grow a good root system before the really long days of June cause them to focus on making bulbs. The later onions are planted in the spring, the smaller the bulbs tend to be; onions planted after late May, might not even ‘bulb up’ at all.

Depending on the weather, I plan to set out my early cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli plants next week. I will be watching the night time temperature in case they need to be protected under cloches or floating row cover some nights (any forecast of 3oC/37oF or lower would get me out to the garden with covers as that could result in ground frost in low spots at my elevation). To prepare the seedlings, I have been setting them  outdoors in the sun for a couple of hours on the warmest days to get the leaf cells used to full sun. Gradual exposure to sunshine stimulates the leave to develop sunscreen chemicals in the cells (just as getting a tan does for us) so seedlings are less likely to be injured by sunburn when they are planted outdoors. This is what sunburn looks like on squash leaves:  http://www.lindagilkeson.ca/disorders.html#175b

There are a couple of pest management milestones coming up:

Tent caterpillars:

By about mid-April the caterpillars start hatching from egg masses on tree branches. The clusters of tiny black caterpillars that emerge are easy to see on the small pads of webbing they spin at this stage. If you can reach them, just pull them off and drop them in soapy water (wear gloves as the caterpillars are covered with irritating hairs). If you can’t reach them, use a pole pruner to snip out the branch with the nest.

Imported Currantworm/AKA Gooseberry Sawfly:

If leaves of your gooseberry or currant bushes were chewed up last summer, it is likely the caterpillar-like larvae of this insect. The adults will start laying eggs soon and this is the best time to nip this problem in the bud, so to speak. From mid-April, continuing for the next 3-4 weeks, I look for eggs laid on the leaves and destroy them before they hatch. This is what to look for: http://www.lindagilkeson.ca/leaf_chewers2.html#36

You may need a magnifying glass or use the zoom function on a phone camera to magnify the leaves enough to see the eggs (or at least put on your reading glasses…).  The eggs are quite distinctive, looking like tiny stitches of dental floss along the leaf veins on the underside of small, new leaves in the lower part of the bush.  From above, the leaf veins look a bit burned so that’s another clue for which leaves to turn over and search for eggs.  Each sawfly female lays a lot of eggs, but concentrated on just a few leaves, therefore once you pull off and destroy those leaves, that’s the end of it. If you do a really thorough job of intercepting the eggs this spring, not only will your plants not suffer damage this season, but you may not have sawflies overwintering to lay eggs next year.  If you miss some of the eggs and the larvae chew on leaves, they are very hard to see, being exactly the same green as the leaves they are eating. Though they do look like caterpillars, trying to use the bacterial spray (BTK) for caterpillars has no effect on them.

Greenhouses:

A spring heat shock is a great way to clear out some difficult pests that might be overwintering in the greenhouses structure (such as spider mites) or in upper layers of soil or other damp crevices (e.g., pillbugs).  If all plants in your greenhouse are in pots, it is easy to move them out, close up the doors and vents and let the greenhouse heat up inside for a couple of sunny days. Temperatures easily reach 45oC [113oF] inside!   Make very sure any plants you put back in the greenhouse after the heat shock are clear of pests. For greenhouses like mine, with plants growing in a soil bed, heating will need to be longer (4-7 days) to dry out the surface layer of soil. I plan my heat treatment for the changeover period from winter to summer plantings, which usually works out to be about April 15 in my greenhouse. I do a final big harvest of chard, lettuce and other salad greens still in the greenhouse (most have bolted by then) and then clear the bed, removing all vegetation and surface mulch. Until the heat treatment is over I keep the tomatoes, peppers, basil (my usual summer greenhouse crops) in pots on a sunny windowsill or put them outdoors during the day and bring them indoors at night.   After the heat shock, I amend the soil with compost and then plant up the summer crops.

Another resource for gardeners to add to the list from my previous message:

Vancouver Island University’s Milner Gardens & Woodlands in partnership with the Vancouver Island Master Gardeners Association (VIMGA) is offering a free service to the community through The Gardening Advice Line.  Email your questions along with photos to:   GardeningAdvice.MilnerGardens@shaw.ca  and a Master Gardener will reply. And do check out the VIMGA public website with gardening info at: https://www.vimga.org/#false

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PLEASE do not reply to this message. Instead, to subscribe or unsubscribe, send me a message at: gilkeson@shaw.ca or go through the Contact page on my web site: www.lindagilkeson.ca

On my web site you can order books, look at hundreds of photos of pests, diseases and disorders to help you identify problems and also view pdfs files of my talks on how to grow vegetable seedlings, saving seeds, climate resilient gardens and the issue of global loss of insects.  

My 2022 teaching and speaking calendar is full so I won’t be adding more events to the year’s schedule. Both of my Year Round Harvest classes are also filled for 2022.

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Lindaslist mailing list
Lindaslist@lists.resist.ca
http://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/lindaslist

Mar 20th March 2022

Linda’s list for March 20: Increase your harvest; gardening resources

With climbing prices for produce and the pressure of inflation on household budgets, harvesting the maximum amount from our gardens is more important than ever.  For most of us, garden space is limited by the size of our yards or community garden plots. Even where people have access to a larger area, garden size may still be limited by the expense of investing in deer fencing and irrigation systems. I have seen many gardens, however (even very small ones), that have lots of potential for increasing the total harvest without using more land.  In fact, gardeners that can increase the amount they harvest per square metre might find that they can grow as much as they need on less land than before.  This could free up space to plant flowers for beneficial insects, restore native vegetation and plant shrubs and trees to help mitigate global warming by capturing and holding carbon in their deep roots. 

While we are waiting for the weather to warm up and the soil to dry out enough to work, here are some suggestions to aid in garden planning (these are not new to long-time subscribers, but there are so many new subscribers I thought it would be worth reviewing
these):

Use more area for plants and less for paths:
For gardens with planting beds surrounded by wide pathways, consider converting some of the path area to crop space. For beds without rigid sides, this could be as easy as just widening the growing space on each side of the bed so there are narrower paths.  Where beds have been built with sides, it might be possible to fill in cross paths between the beds, leaving access on two sides of beds, but not on all 4 sides. The more space there is for pathways, the more space there is where weeds have to be managed.  By the end of the summer, as vegetation spills into the narrow paths between my beds, it doesn’t look like I have any pathways at all, which is a bit extreme, but does make use every bit of my limited space.

Store more produce:
Learn how to cure and store crops such as onions, squash and potatoes that can be kept without processing and how to preserve more of your surplus summer harvest in other way.  Freezing is very easy as is using a food dehydrator (great for all kinds of fruit and for zucchini slices for soup). Pickling and canning methods take investments in equipment and more complicated recipes—their utility depends on what you and your family like to eat.
Below are other suggestions for increasing the density of your plantings. First, however, I should note that many garden crops do not need to be rotated because they have a very low risk of disease caused by soil-borne pathogens. This includes lettuce and endives, Amaranth family (chard, spinach, beets), legumes (beans, peas), corn, cucurbits (squash, cucumbers, pumpkins). They can be interplanted without worrying about how they fit into a crop rotation scheme. [But do be sure to use at least a 4-year rotation for vegetables that have a high risk of root diseases: onion family (garlic, onions, leeks) and potatoes; try for 2-4 year rotation of cabbage family crops—the longer, the better, but it is difficult because we grow so many crops from this family].

Tighten up succession planting schedules:
Plan to sow next crops immediately (same day?) after a bed is harvested. Crops such as garlic and storage onions are harvested at the same time, leaving an open bed that can be immediately planted. Early peas, salad greens and other early plantings are generally done, or eaten up, by early July, which is a good time to sow many other crops for winter harvest. If you don’t already have a copy of my winter harvest planting schedule, here is a pdf you can print out: http://www.lindagilkeson.ca/pdf/Linda%20Gilkeson%20Planting %20Schedule.pdf Use the chart to figure out what to plant in any beds that become open during the summer months.

Keep gaps and spaces filled as they arise:
Use crops that don’t need to be rotated to fill in unexpected openings or gaps that occur as crops are harvested. For example, when a cauliflower head is harvested there is an open space.  Although the rest of the cauliflowers might not be ready, go ahead and plant
something in the gap.  Even late in the season it can work to grow quick veggies (eg. radishes) and those that can be picked at any size, such as lettuce and other salad greens or ‘baby’ roots (beets and turnips).

Interplant compatible crops:
Compatibility depends on timing of the crops, the size of plants and their root systems.  Lettuce is one of the best for interplanting between other vegetables because it has a small root system and tolerates a bit of shade; it also can be picked any time if plantings
are looking too crowded.  I use lettuce early in the season to fill spaces between plants that eventually grow quite large, such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage; by the time the larger plants need the space, the lettuce has been harvested. Spinach, other salad greens, radishes also work well.   With care other crops can be interplanted for the season, such as winter Brussels sprouts or purple sprouting broccoli in beds of cucumbers.  In late August, mature plants that will be done in the fall can be underplanted with hardy salad greens (corn salad, frost-hardy lettuce, arugula). Move back the mulch and scatter seeds on the soil under tomatoes, peppers, corn, pole beans, squash, etc.  By the time the old plants are ready to cut down, the soil will be covered with the new crop.

Forget cover cropping:
The role of green manures or cover crops in agriculture is essential for building soil fertility and organic matter and suppressing weeds—but gardens are not little farms!  In a veggie garden, cover crops take land out of production that could be producing food. You can
replace the role cover crops, while continuing to harvest food, by using lots of leaves and other organic matter as mulch year round. At harvest time, leave the roots of healthy crops in the soil where they will decompose and feed the soil.  Another problem with fall rye and winter wheat cover crops is that click beetles lay their eggs on grasses in early spring before people have turned the crop into the soil. Those eggs hatch into larvae, called wireworms, that live in the soil and attack roots—so the cover crops perpetuate a serious pest problem [for photos of adults, larvae and potato traps for wireworms:  http://www.lindagilkeson.ca/root_feeders.html#83]
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I sent out this list of resources for gardeners last year and thought it would be worth providing again because there is so much good information and help available through them:

Victoria: The Growing Together initiative of the CRD Food and Agriculture Initiative Roundtable has grown into a comprehensive information hub for organizations, services and information on anything to do with food gardening, from mentoring and contacts for
community projects, to seed sharing, how-to-videos, information on where to find supplies, youth projects and lots more. See: https://www.growingfood-together.com
Victoria Master Gardeners are again offering free Virtual Gardening Mentoring for reliable and environmentally responsible gardening information on home gardening, landscape maintenance, integrated pest management and other gardening topics at no charge.   They
offer their services answering gardening questions through info@msvmga.org     See their website at www.victoriamastergardeners.org
Master Gardeners Association of BC:   In addition to the Victoria MGs mentioned above, other regions of BC have well-informed, experienced volunteers available to provide gardening information, whether it is for a food garden or landscape.  Check the provincial
web site for chapters near you: http://mgabc.org/    
Vancouver gardeners, contact: http://mgabc.org/content/101-garden-questions-ask-ushere
Vancouver Island (north of Duncan) gardeners,  contact: GardeningAdvice.MilnerGardens@shaw.ca
San Juan Master Gardeners: These well-trained volunteers are also ready and willing to help local gardeners identify problems and answer questions about food and landscape gardening: https://extension.wsu.edu/sanjuan/master-gardeners