A Wonder-fall Harvest of Colors

Asian Long Beans, Sweet Bell Peppers, Tomatoes

Red Hot Cherry Peppers, Black Beauty Eggplant, Hot Banana Peppers, Strawberries

Potatoes

 The Autumn colors don't stop with rusts, oranges, reds and yellows.  The vegetable garden will surprise you with purple beans, purple eggplant, chartreuse peppers and an assortment of different colored squash and melons.  This fall harvest wasn't short on the reds.

A Fruitful Proposition

First Summer harvest: plums, nectarines, heirloom tomatoes, pole beans, snow peas and mixed leaf lettuce.

Consider including fruit trees and  a variety of vegetables in your garden design and you can have year-round consumption of in-season, organic and fresh produce that can be picked right outside your door.  Having an over-abundance of fruits and vegetables during the year is also an opportune means for connecting with and sharing with your family, friends & neighbors.

Successful Cuttings of Mimulus (Monkeyflower)

On April 20, we posted an article on 'Experimenting with Outdoor Cuttings' http://taprootgardens.blogspot.com/2010/04/experimenting-with-outdoor-cuttings.html

Here is the result of our experiment:

Spring Plant Sale 2010 @ Foothill College

It was a pleasant afternoon on the campus of Foothill College on Saturday, April 24, 2010.

Under the canopy of the open-air nursery were trees, shrubs, ornamentals, succulents, natives, perennials & grasses.  Booths were set up with organizations such as Native Revival Nursery and California Native Plant Society, displaying their products and information.

All the edibles were lined up neatly on tables and in open-top boxes including a variety of Lettuce, Pepper, Chard, and Basil plants. Heirloom Tomatoes with names like Black From Tula, Brazilian Beauty, Green Zebra, and Zapotec Pleated were among the selection.  All the edibles were bargain priced between $2-$4 dollars and, of course, we went home with more than we could carry.

All sales fund Foothill College's Environmental Horticulture Program.

First Crop of Organic Strawberries - May 2010

Our first gathering of strawberries this year from an all organic garden. You can clearly tell the difference between the two varieties.
'Quinalt' everbearing strawberries & 'Albion' everbearing strawberries. The Albion were the more petite of the two; both were super sweet.

Experimenting with Outdoor Cuttings

A large part of Taproot Garden Design & Fine Gardening is the fine gardening.  Specialty pruning during the months of February and March affords us the opportunity to take cuttings of plants that survived a full year's cycle of the elements.  During these months, softwood cuttings of most perennials are easy to propagate in large quantities, as plant material is removed to accelerate new spring growth.

We managed to save these cuttings for propagation in early March. Using a powder form rooting hormone, each soft wood cutting was dipped in water, then rooting hormone and placed into a flat with a light soil mix. With no greenhouse or outdoor structure available, the flat was merely tucked under an outdoor chair and subjected to the rains and cold weather.  With a lack of protection from the elements, half the flat was lost due to rot and frost.  In April, as soon as the rains stopped and the weather began warming, the flat with the remaining cuttings was placed on a concrete sidewalk and left to bake in the sun; the concrete sidewalk took the place of a 'heating pad' and within two weeks, the roots were an inch long.

The plants are now acclimating to their new life and will likely make it back to the same garden as the mother plant from whence they came.

March 2010 cuttings of Mimulus 'Valentine'

Foil Proof! A Study on Gopher Activity

Pocket gophers have been both a problem and a blessing in our clients Los Altos Hills garden.

Two years ago, we planted eight snow peas over the winter for a spring harvest, all with cages underneath to protect the roots.  Just as the plants were ready to be harvested, six of the plants were severed (above-ground) at the base and pulled underground.  Two of the eight plants survived.  We were dumbfounded.  How could this have happened with gopher cages under the plants?

This year, we managed to plant eight snow peas again, all with cages underground, as we had done the year before.  This time, as the snow peas were lengthening their stems, we wrapped foil around the bases of the plants where the gophers damaged the plants previously.  All, but one plant, survived.  The one plant that did not survive did not have foil wrapped around its base and was severed and pulled underground.

Our experiment with snow peas ended with a good harvest this year, whereas the previous year they were food for the resident gopher.

Sorry Mr. Gopher but your plans have been foiled; though I'd like to thank you for aerating the soil for us!

Photograph taken April 2010:  Snow Peas in a gopher cage with foil wrapped around the bases of its stems.  Plant is surrounded by hard-to-control Lemon Balm seedlings.