Longtime Sonoma resident and retired UCSF obstetrician and gynecologist Wylie Hartman received an unusual award last week from Sonoma County Master Gardeners at a potluck at the home of SCMG area coordinator Jean Hopeman.
Presenting the award, Doreen Proctor said “Wylie has been the backbone of our East County group since 1989. He got the Eighth Street office for us, the phone, the answering machine and a new gardening reference book every month. He was almost a one-man show, answering questions from local home gardeners at the desk or solving problems at our [table] at the Sonoma farmers markets….”
Sonoma Master Gardeners are volunteers who have completed 100 hours of training in horticulture and pest control through the University of California Cooperative Extension and pass that learning onto local home gardeners, for which we are all grateful.
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So we are, living just another day in paradise, with a few days of sunshine and a few days of rain. What’s a wannabe gardener to do, besides take that infamous nap?
If we go through another ten-day period without precipitation, you might break down and water your roses and other plants whose leaves are fleshing out and buds are growing. We are still in the okay range on rainfall totals, so still use water with caution.
Those of you who have peach trees and spray them to prevent peach leaf curl, do it now. Hopefully this will be your second dousing. In any case, Sonoma Mission Gardens recommends that you spray with Lilly Miller Microcop and Sta-Stuk “M” before the first blossom flowers out, or it’s too late. The combination of these two products apparently forms the ultimate stickum to weather rain, sleet or snow. Coat the branches, trunk and ground around the base of the tree to control fungus that insects might carry upward.
Personally, I don’t spray. I know I should for the health of the peach tree, its productivity, and supposedly peach flavor. Like other peach growers around Sonoma who didn’t spray last year, I did not get any peach leaf curl and could hardly keep up with the peach bounty.
Some people still haven’t pruned their roses. Come on. Get up your nerve and get out those shears and get to it. You can do it. Remember to cut the stem just above a bud or leaf set facing outward from the center of the plant so that the “ball” can get ultimate light year round.
Nurseries recommend you spray your roses as well, and now. Again, I refrain, but it is your choice. As I have said before, I prefer to abide by the late master nurseryman Frank Wedekind’s statement that “water is the best spray” and hose off my roses if they show signs of creepy crawling munching bugs.
Want to plant something?
You can always start seeds indoors now, preferably in the light of a window. Use seedling trays or even ice cube trays, although the latter are not as deep for root formation, so you will have to replant the starts sooner and before their delicate root systems have much chance to develop.
Now is also a good time to start peas and sweet peas, tomato, squash and lettuce seeds, particularly indoors or in a greenhouse if you have anything that resembles one.
We also have perfect conditions for planting developed ranunculas, primroses and anemones to bring some cheerful color into your life and the lives of your neighbors who might enjoy the fruits of your labor from the street.
Wedekind’s and Sonoma Mission Gardens still have loads of bare root roses, but hurry, because they have started to leaf out and once they bud the nurseries can no longer sell them at bare root prices.
SMG also still has loads of bare root berries of several varieties, as well as bare root artichokes, onions, and asparagus.
While you are in the planting mood and mode, if you need a little shade and want to plant a moderate-sized tree, rush to either nursery to purchase bare root fruit trees that will give both shelter and food and save money over the regular in-the-can price. It might take two trips to figure out how big of a hole you have to dig, or else wait until the soil is damp and dig it the minute you get home with your tree.
Slugs, snails and earwigs are beginning to venture out from under the dark, damp safety of your bigger plants or high grass for the best vegetation they can find, so you have choices: 1) let them feast away; 2) stomp on them; 3) “feed” them Greenlight and Sluggo Plus to kill them sort of organically; or 4) do them in with more conventional poisons that might also bag the cat.
Planning ahead:
The San Francisco Flower & Garden Show blooms again at the Cow Palace March 12-16 with a visual orgy of color, beauty and scent, accompanied by tons of workshops and how-to demonstrations, and a special “Sprout Stage” for kids programs. For more information visit www.gardenshow.com or inquire at Sonoma Mission Gardens.
Arlie Middlebrook, co-author with Glenn Keator of “Designing California Native Gardens: The Plant Community Approach to Artful, Ecological Gardens” will speak at the Sonoma Community Center on Wednesday, March 19.
A garden designer and owner of Middlebrook Gardens in San Jose, Middlebrook will talk about “plant selection to your specific type of garden, design considerations and water needs.” Her appearance is sponsored by the North Bay Chapter of the Association of Professional Landscape Designers (APLD). 6:45 p.m. $5-$10. 276 E. Napa St., Sonoma. For reservations and more information contact Gwenda Joyce/Art & Landscape at 707.938.8877 or email artandland@hughes.net.
Did you know?
Luther Burbank used his $150 profit from the 1875 sale of the Burbank Potato rights to a seed grower to finance his trip to California. The Burbank Potato is thought to be blight-resistant, and its descendents are what we know as Idaho baking potatoes.
“My garden will never make me famous,
I’m a horticultural ignoramus.”
– Ogden Nash (1902-1971)
