Let's begin to garden!

Wow! Did we just finish the holiday season? Seems like it was one great big event. December 21 was the Winter Solstice (the shortest day of the year). From here on out daylight gets a little longer each and every day. I personally consider December 21 the first day of spring in Fallbrook. Just my cockeyed optimism showing through. If we look at the garden in this light, though, we can take more gardening risks and have some fun and welcome surprises. Even our failures will be minimal compared to any positive results. Later this month, for example, with the help of season extenders, we can plant zucchini (summer squash) and cucumber. If it works we can be harvesting these by the end of February or middle of March.

If you have kids, plant lots of sugar snap peas (bush varieties or pole), carrots and strawberries. Kids love to eat these right off the plants and it will help to encourage them to eat more fresh veggies.

It is a perfect time to plant broccoli, cauliflower, Chinese (Napa) cabbage, collards, kale and chard. These larger varieties should be planted two feet apart in all directions. This leaves a lot of space in between the plants. Well, why not fill in these spaces with smaller varieties of plants? Called multi-cropping, this makes the space go further and become more valuable. Lettuces, endive, spinach and Asian greens fit perfectly in between.

Asian greens like Tatsoi, a delightful, dark green spoon-shaped leaf with a wonderful flavor; Mizuna, with its light green, frilly leaf and very gentle mellow flavor; Michelli, a broad-leaf non-heading Chinese cabbage; Chinese broccoli, which has a great flavor and, like Bok Choi (small light green, to larger dark green) has a wonderful succulent stem; and Diakon radish can be cooked, eaten fresh or pickled. If you love Asian cooking, look for other varieties of veggies in cookbooks and find the plants or seeds and practice.

By planting all these smaller crops in-between the cabbage family you can even harvest them early at three to four inches tall and get a couple of crops of the smaller varieties. These can be used fresh in salads and in stir fries. Letting them get larger will produce what we get in the grocery store. In between the “in-between plants” the onion family can be planted. Green onions with white bottoms, red bottoms, even Maui onion starts will grow from plant starts, seeds, sets, garlic from sets and shallots from sets. Garlic and shallots will do fine from the grocery store produce department. Split apart the cloves and plant.

I have just mentioned a large variety of plants, but it doesn’t mean that they all have to be planted at once. In fact, succession plantings are better. Two or four of any one variety will serve a family of two to four. Limit even the variety that is planted at one time.

Start off with maybe just broccoli and cabbage. This article will come out each week, so we can take our time. If we care to, we can successively plant to ensure a future daily harvest. In between the broccoli and cabbage try two varieties of lettuce (maybe four plants each, red leaf and romaine), two varieties Asian greens (Tatsoi, Michelli) and some onions from sets or plants. If you are more ambitious plant less off in more quantity; it will work fine.

I personally like to plant plants, rather than seeds, for all of these vegetables because it is easier. I can time things better and have a better success rate. Nurseries, farmers markets and garden centers all have whatever you desire now. Buy a bag of onion sets (tiny onions that act as seed plants). Plant 10 to 20 in-between the lower plants each time you plant. These onion sets keep for a long time in a cool, dry location.

This is a good week to prepare and gather organic fertilizers, plants and mulching materials. A good organic fertilizer blend contains nitrogen (for growth) in the forms of feather meal, organic cottonseed meal or fish meal. I shy away from blood meal, personally. Next, phosphorus – it comes to us in soft rock phosphate or bone meal (usually sterilized). Potash is in many organic forms and in greensand, alfalfa meal, kelp meal and rock dust for a good mineral source. There are blends available ready to go, but if you cannot find one, blend your own. It can be done in a wheelbarrow fairly easily. Add organic compost, worm castings and rock dusts. Blend these with the above to enliven and enrich the soil. These are sold at local farmers markets. Incorporate all these into the garden bed prior to planting and work in well with a cultivator or rake.

A quick weather note: We are seeing warm days, cool nights and a nicely spaced rain pattern. They are getting hammered from Mendocino County north in powerful storms. This could dip and inundate us. We want to get some mulch down to maintain moisture levels in the soil and protect against potential heavy rains.

Each week we will begin highlighting each aspect of the garden process in depth, to keep them and our landscapes thriving in a natural fashion.