SUMMER

HOPE GARDENS 2012

I walk without inching through the burning cathedral of the summer. Violette Leduc

GARDEN MAINTENANCE HOW-TOs

SUMMER WONDER
Summer is the quintessential time to enjoy fruits and vegetables. Just think about the fresh-picked tomatoes that the friendly neighbor leaves on your doorstep, the roadside stand selling red, juicy watermelon, the nostalgia of buttery corn on the cob...these are our best veggie memories! And you can capture this summer magic at home in your own vegetable garden.

Maintenance is the name of the game. You have to spend time tending your garden. Thats how you get results. Thats how you ward off pests and disease. Thats how you know when its time to harvest. So lets demystify some summer garden maintenance issues right here, right now. You might be wondering just where to start. Heres the order in which I perform my garden maintenance tasks and the order in which I will be addressing them for you: Examination. Harvest. Prune. Support vines. Weed. Aerate soil. Add seeds & plants. Water well. Foliar Feeding. Mulch. Treat disease and pests.
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Summer Wonder I planted my poblanos and minired bell peppers in neighboring pots and they cross-pollinated into this red hybrid heart.

As the early morning sunlight illuminates 2. HARVEST your path, you walk out to your garden, pull You got to eat this stuff! Many plants on your gloves, and begin: stop producing if their fruit is not 1. EXAMINATION Examine your plants closely from top to bottom. Take a good look at the soil level of the plant and examine your veggies from the bottom up by peering under the plant. Look at the stalk and the undersides of the leaves...these are the favorite hiding places for lots of fun stuff. Take a feel of the soil on If your garden is getting enough water, you should be able to feel moisture an inch or so under the surface. top and an inch or two underneath. picked. Discard rotted fruit and harvest gently. I would rather you use a sharp pair of shears than your hand. If you are hand-picking, use two hands and twist rather than pull. 3. PRUNE Keeping plants trimmed helps air circulate between plants. It also keeps plants focused on healthy growth.Lets focus on the how-tos of pruning two of the most popular summer vegetables: Basil & Tomatoes.

LEAN ON ME

4. SUPPORT VINES Use stakes of cedar, redwood, bamboo or metal.There are lots of styles...whats

Its never too late to start your garden.

important is keeping your plants and their fruits supported. Vines can break under the weight of their fruit and fruit can rot or be eaten by bugs if allowed to lie on the ground. I like to use stretchy tape to tie the plants to the supports. It will expand to accommodate the plants growth. The best time to install your supports is when you rst plant your vining plant. As the plant grows, you can help the vines crawl and climb by weaving their tendrils around the support or tying them on. I have some creative support ideas on Pinterest.

TOMATO PRUNING Prune what they call suckers off your indeterminate tomatoes. Suckers are the stems that grow between the main stem and an off-shoot.Pruning these promotes stronger branches and more tomatoes. Cut the suckers out when they are small if you can. I also keep BASIL PRUNING You will need to cut the seed pods and owers, seen above, off your basil to prolong the plants life. Be advised, this works great with basil, but does not work so well with other plants, like cilantro, parsley or lettuce. Once they ower, thats pretty much the end. You can squeeze a month or more out of your basil by pruning it, but the plant will make smaller and smaller leaves and eventually die, so make a plan to harvest in the future. Presto pesto! branches trimmed off the ground. Any part of the plant infested, diseased or damaged should also be removed while pruning.

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5.WEED

protect roots and allow water and nutrients to travel through the soil. The tool above is actually good for that too. Be careful around the roots of your plants.

BE A GARDEN WARRIOR!

Weeding is the most disliked part of gardening, probably because it is sooooo tedious.If the weeds are located away from your veggie garden, you can try white undiluted vinegar spray on them. Otherwise, if the weeds are intermingled with your veggies or you want to plant in the weed-infested area immediately, you are picking them out by hand. Put on some good music and commit to the work. For small, shallow weeds )like above( your digits are best. For established weeds with deep roots, a good tool weeder.Try to dig deep and pull out the weed, roots and all. 6. AERATE SOIL If the soil has become compacted, break up the top few inches to

7. ADD SEEDS & PLANTS Some of your plants will need replaced this summer. Herbs will ower, marigolds will dry out, lettuces will bolt and some veggies just might not ourish. Dont be afraid to rip out a plant and start again. I like to add seeds every time I add plants. This is called succession gardening. Plant some lettuce seeds when the seedling is grown and spent, another younger plant will be coming along to take its place. Like All About Eve in the garden! and root vegetables too. This works for beans, herbs, greens

denitely helps. I like the Cobrahead next to your lettuce seedling so

NEXT PAGE: PLANTING COMPATIBLE FLOWERS IN YOUR SUMMER VEGETABLE GARDEN

WHEN IN DOUBT, PLANT A BEAN SEED

THEY GROW EASILY & FIX NITROGEN IN THE SOIL

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COMPANION PLANTING

Planting owers in the garden is very important. If you didnt do it when you installed your garden, I will convince you why you should do it now. A bee needs to visit a ower 7-8 times to pollinate it so you need to do all you can to draw that pollinator to your vegetables time and time again. Flowers also have the ability to attract other benecial insects and deect those bugs who are less than benecial. They create extra beauty in the garden as well which is always welcome.

ENCOURAGE YOUR KIDS TO UNDERSTAND THE IMPORTANCE OF BEES IN THE ECOSYSTEM.

My favorite summer owers to plant in the veggie garden are cosmos, sweet alyssum, marigolds )chrysanthemums( and poppies. They are very pretty together and inexpensive. Alyssum, and some poppies, reseed themselves. Marigolds, however, can be short-lived. Dead head the plants )cut off spent ower heads( to keep them going and replace the entire plant when it fades. I also adore borage. It is a cinch to grow from seed and re-seeds like crazy. It grows big, so give it lots

Bees are the bees knees.

of room...think the very end of your garden, and it might need staked. Borage is uber- compatible to vegetable plants, repels the tomato hornworm, is a bee magnet,

and blooms with beautiful, blue, edible owers; the essence of which brings courage. Whats not to love?

Here is a list of plants that perform a miracle in the organic garden: they attract the kind of beneficial insects that actually eat bad insects.

Bergamot, Buttery weed, Caraway, Cilantro, Cosmos, Dill, Fennel, Gloriosa daisy, Lavender, Lemon Balm, Lobelia, Marigold, Parsley, Penstemon, Poppies, Queen Annes Lace, Spearmint, Statice, Stonecrop )Sedum(, Sweet Alyssum, Yarrow, Zinnia

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SUMMER GARDEN MAINTENANCE (CONT.)

8. WATER WELL If I had a million dollars for every time I heard:How much do I water? Id be rich! The answer to this question varies from plant to plant and season to season. I will address it now for these dog days of summer. Lets start with WHEN TO WATER. You should water in the morning when the day is still cool. My sprinklers are set to go off at 5am. Watering in the hot sun can actually burn your plants, and so much of the water evaporates, its a waste of our precious resource. Watering in the evenings is alright, but you run the risk of water hanging around TOO long. Mildew and fungus love a dark, moist environment. So try for the a.m. if you can. Time plays another part in the summer watering equation. How LONG do you water? And how OFTEN? Some vegetables need deep watering, but less often; while others need almost daily watering. In summer, all young seedlings need daily water. Lettuces, herbs & greens as well.They will take a shallow watering as they have a shallow root system. Squash and melon like their water too. Think of the juiciness of a watermelon or a cucumber and you understand their need for a fair amount of water. Tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and potatoes need the deepest watering )tomatoes especially( but can go a couple days between watering.

WATER>HOT SO CAL TEMPS

Another word about watering tomatoes. This year I was advised by a garden nursery worker, and have heard others advised similarly, that you only need to water tomatoes when the leaves curl.I would like to say that although this might be true in some climates, I dont believe it to be true in SoCal. Tomatoes that are under-watered can become decient in nutrients. For example, a lack of calcium is common in under-watered plants and in tomatoes causes a condition call bottom rot. The name paints the picture. Tomatoes can split when they get inconsistent water. The skin grows tight around the plant when it is dry, and then it gets pumped full of water, and pop! You get an unattractive split where disease and bugs can enter. Proper watering also depends a great deal on what your vegetables are planted in. Containers will need more constant water as there is less soil to hold the water. You are wasting your time watering deeply if all the water is running out the bottom of the container. )Mulching can help reduce water use...more on that later.( Veggies planted in 12 high raised beds can be more deeply watered. You can install a drip system or lay a soaker hose across it, and once or twice a week let it run for 15-20 minutes, or my lazy but adaptable way, leave your garden hose on very low for 10 minutes or so while you tend to the other side of the garden and then switch sides. I do this once a week. Veggies planted in ground have the best ability to be deeply watered....and need it the most. Once or twice a week, leave a soaker hose on for 45 minutes. Beans and berries seems to make due on the least water. They dont require too much, and will adapt to whatever you give the other plants around it. If you dont have soaker hoses or fancy shmancy irrigation systems, you are hand-watering. I suggest practicing surrender and inner peace as you watch the water fall on your summer veggies.I count to 40 in my mind for every plant. Sometimes its a couple Hail Marys or a couple dozen Sat Nams. Health and Wellness practitioner and acupuncture specialist, Martina Eberhard, has written a watering meditation for us you can nd at the end of this article.

Photosynthesis cannot take place without water. Just ask a 5th grader.

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9. FERTILIZATION & FOLIAR FEEDING

Lets address 2 kinds of fertilization. First, when it comes to growing squash, you should understand the basics of pollination. Sometimes these plants fail to You might need to get in their with the baster. Not inseminate. You know this is your issue when the produce because there is not enough transfer of pollen. really....we dont use bulb basters but we do articially beginning fruit rots on the vine. Heres a great tutorial

fertilizer doesnt burn the leaves. You can also pour the liquid fertilizer right on the base of the plant if you dont have time for spraying. Another fertilizing hint Ive had luck with is using epsom salt spray on pepper plants. I dissolve a few tablespoons of epsom salts in a spray bottle and shoot the pepper plant once it has owers on it. The magnesium helps the plant hold on to the pepper better as its growing and not drop the ower. If you get curled leaves you can try this treatment too. 10. MULCH In my opinion, you should have mulch on every bare part of earth on your property. It keeps weeds down, it keeps water from evaporating off the top of the soil and it looks nice. It gives everything that nished appearance. I use bark mulch for most of my landscaping, but in the vegetable garden I use compost or potting soil )or a mixture of the 2(. Your veggies can all benet from a nice 2 layer of mulch during these hot months.Some veggies, like potatoes and onions, need an even thicker layer of mulch to protect the growing veg underground from the direct sun. Most plants would appreciate not having the mulch/compost right above against their leaves or stem. Give the base of the plant some room when laying mulch.

on how to self-fertilize or hand-pollinate your squash. )It makes a lot more sense with visuals.( Watch it, do it, and then add some more owers to your garden. http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=3x1crwrsxj8&feature=plcp that feeds your plants.

Lets talk about another kind of fertilization...the kind Its important to feed/fertilize your plants as they grow. I use Sea Magic, a powder made from growthpromoting seaweed, mixed with in a spray bottle, every 2 weeks. Plants like to be fed from their leaves as well impress your friends!(. You can also spray the leaves with a compost tea or some bone meal mixed with water. Some liquid fertilizers, like sh emulsion, need a good amount of diluting so I apply them to the leaves and then a few minutes later, I water the plant so the as their roots. Its called foliar feeding )go off now and

WHERE MAN PLANS, NATURE IMPROVISES.

Free mulch is available all over Los Angeles. http://www.lacitysan.org/srpcd/ mulch_giveaway.htm Bring a shovel, your gloves and either bags or containers. You will need much, much more mulch than you could ever imagine to cover an area successfully so plan accordingly. Here is a link to my Compost 101 blog. http://localblu.com/2012/03/ compost-101-with-erin-rileyeverything-you-need-to-know/

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MILDEW & BLIGHT

Keep going! This is your final maintenance job in the garden.

11. TREAT DISEASE & PESTS Lets talk about something that is about as hard to avoid in summer as a sunburn...mildew. Very few gardens escape the the leaves of squash and cucumber, cantaloupe and beans. It can really strike anywhere )my chard often

Its a fungus that travels through the air and the soil; you can also bring it home on a seedling from the nursery. It starts as dark spots on leaves or more often, on the stem.Leaves will then yellow. Greasy-looking or papery spots on will kill a plant or make it a poor producer. Tomatoes suffer from this most and can pass it to other plants. Some wisdom says that you remove all plants with blight and start over. That wisdom is spot on )haha( as fungus can live in the soil and be passed on to next years tomato. This is why crop rotation is done with tomatoes and potatoes. So it is best to remove the infected plant altogether as not to further infect the soil and other plants. However, I kinda like to ght the blight. After all, Im committed to this tomato. I cut off the affected leaves and use a fungicide like Safer slow down or prevent further spread of fungi, but not cure it. You have to give the plant a good spray and for good measure, spray your other tomato plants as well. Check nearby plants for blight and cut off any affected leaves or branches. I will spray the plants that once and then again a couple weeks later. If after that the plant continues to fail, I ditch it and get a new one.

experience. It starts as small dots on your tomatoes is also blight. Blight

powdery mildew on zucchini

suffers( but is super common on

large leaves in summer. Affected leaves should be removed and the plant sprayed with a mixture of 80% water and 20% milk. Check the plant often to see if it worsens. Powdery mildew moves fast and can kill a plant. That being said, some plants just go on producing whether they have powdery mildew or not. So sometimes, a little is alright. To avoid this fungus, water in the morning, never at night and try not to get the above vegetables leaves basin leaves full of water and turn out the lights. And remove affected leaves as soon as possible. I am currently trying a new organic

blight on tomato stem

wet. At the least, dont ll their giant Garden Fungicide. Fungicides can

blight on tomato leaf

Inspect your nursery plants carefully for signs of mildew and blight before you buy them. Check the back of the leaves for bugs and eggs too.

fungicide said to be completely green and which claims to cure powdery mildew. I will let you know how it fairs. Now, here comes a word as nice as mildew: Blight. And blight is as bad as it sounds.

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LITTLE BUGGERS...
this ones a good one!

the two below are bad ones.

tomato hookworm

baby praying mantis

cabbage worm

Summer bugs...and we aint talking reies.

Were talking crop-destroying menaces. They should relish in their demise. reproduce quickly and can strip a plant in a day. You Now put down the poison and listen to me for a second. Your best bet for keeping your garden insect free is want to nd it. Make it your mission to face it down! as a hint to where they might be hiding. Now in my gardening maintenance travels, from time to time, I do use a variety of bug sprays, from soap spray to Neem oil.Most of the time, however, I hand pick the insects off and install owers that either repel bad insects or bad insects. Overall, I try to keep all my plants as

giving it lots of attention. To nd a bug, you really got to owers that attract benecial insects that will eat the Once you nd one, youll nd more. Look for their poop healthy as possible so they can ght their own battles.

snails and slugs

grasshoppers

squash bugs

stink bugs

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Snails and slugs leave large holes in leaves. These fascinating pests are actually mollusks. I get them with Sluggo. You can do beer traps if you want to waste perfectly good beer. Grasshoppers can grow big around the garden. They are hearty eaters. Spraying my garden with the hose makes them jump out where they can be stepped on, although I usually lose my nerve. You dont want to be too over-

nger and/or removal of the

infected areas of the plant. Ants can be a pest to both plants and the gardener. I control them with Diatomaceous Earth. You have to provoke the ants before you put the D.E. on however.The D.E. needs sprinkled in their path. Remember, when it comes to challenges like pests and disease, its summer...and you need to chill

EVIL VS. GOOD

aphid infestation

zealous in your ght against pests. Before you go spraying, watch for and lady bugs. Bug spray will kill these benecials too. Aphids are a nuisance all year round. You can easily keep their numbers in check with organic you will be overrun! Aphids )like

out. Some mildew is to be expected. Some bugs will eat your plants. The leaves will have holes. The squirrel before you do. )solution: pull the veggies inside before they are perfectly ripe.( Dont jump to despair and/or the bug spray. Have faith, be again. And know Hope Gardens is always here for you. This is homegrown.
friendly lacewing

stealth praying mantises, lacewings, will get to the strawberry or tomato

measures. Ignore them however and patient, and try try many of our pest problems( can be controlled with a squirt of the hose, some soap spray, a swipe of the

Most of all, enjoy your garden!

Watering Meditation
With eyes closed, begin to take slow, relaxing breaths. Listen to hear the gentle ow of the water cascading out of the hose. Think about how calming this sound is. Focus on the sound of the water. Imagine breathing in the rich, sweet, heavy fragrances of the garden. A hundred shades of green. Remember the blessings of watering's rhythm. The morning is cool, listen to the distant chirping, the plants need water, watering takes time. Allow the water do what it needs to do. Move from plant to plant. Slow down. Breathe. Repeat.
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Above is a friend of the garden, the Assassin Bug eating our enemy, the Cucumber Beetle. Cucumber Beetles can be spotted, like the one above, or more often, striped. Note how similar the Assassin Bug is in shape to the Squash Bug. Be careful before you kill. The Assassin Bug is our friend.