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Tomatomania

This is the place to buy your seedlings. And look East coast followers...now in Connecticut!

Simon's Seeds

Its no secret that seeds are propagated in many instances by animals. Seeds that have a sticky exterior (burrs) hitch hike on an animal’s fur and fall off later . This, by the way proved to be the inspiration for the invention of Velcro. Other animals who hunt and hide seeds as a food source sometimes forget their stores and germination takes place. And of course there are the seeds that are eaten and sown around in the animal’s droppings, known by the experts as endozoochory, If you have ever been in the way of a falling bird dropping, you may have discovered as you cleaned the mess from your hair the presence of seeds.

All this leads to the events on a Friday afternoon that have resulted in what appears to be somewhat of a mitzvah. Meet Simon. Simon is an eight-year-old Beagle that my daughters purchased as a puppy and as he reached adult hood they promptly move to the opposite coast. No matter. Simon’s list of annoying “dog things”, that include the usual howling, wanting to walk when it’s cold, raining, or the middle of the night , is topped by Simon’s voracious appetite. I don’t really think he’s hungry, I think he has an obsession for ingesting things. Thankfully food tops the list. A pumpkin pie, a sack of flour, countless loaves of bread that were left just a inch too close to the edge of the kitchen counter, and once easily his own weight in an organic bread dough that was attempting to rise. Disgustingly he has the occasional bout of coprophagia and once he ingested (and eliminated, in perfect condition) a ladies thong underwear. So it was no surprise to me when I discovered that Simon had eaten a pound of wildflower seeds. Because it matters for my story it broke down to eight ounces of California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica), four ounces of Mountain Garland (Clarkia unguiculata), and four ounces of the delicious Farewell to Spring (Clarkia amoena.) As these were special ordered and cost $56.00 Simon was banished to the great outdoors of the garden in Toluca Lake. Bad dog! Later that afternoon, all was forgiven and Simon was allowed back in the house, after several hours of banishment and drinking an inordinate amount of water. As I settled in to attack past issues of The New Yorker, Simon promptly entered the den, stopped, looked at me with his soulful eyes and vomited up a neat pile of the wildflower mix. Bad Dog! Back to the garden.

Now I should mention that this banishing to the garden cannot possibly register as punishment. There’s, squirrels, plenty of water, and it is Southern California. Nevertheless like sending a child to their room, it felt good.

I wanted to hurry back in to clean up the mess in the den so I nearly missed six very neat piles of seeds that Simon had deposited on the pebbles and mulch of the garden. As I hosed the deposits into the earth I thought about animal seed dispersion and realized that Simon had shown me one I hadn’t considered. Via puke.

Now recall that Simon really isn’t hungry, in fact he wants for nothing. He ate the seeds because there were , well, eatable. Animals who regularly ingest seeds and disperse them gain nutritional value from the outer husk of the seed as it travels the fantastic voyage of their digestive tracts. Not Simon, no time for that. Just in the stomach, a quick mix with his stomach juices and out. My findings? Well I must say Simon’s seeds germinated quickly. It usually takes these particular wildflower seeds at least 45 days to start upward. Simon’s germinated in less than a month. Do Simon’s stomach juices (is that bile?) provide some kind of agent that breaks down the outer husk of the tiny seeds, thus making for quicker germination? At this point Simon’s seeds are much more immature than the seeds I dispersed (by hand!) and certainly smaller than one ones that are regular inhabitants of the garden. I will keep a watch on these vigorous shoots and report back if Simon’s seeds out perform the traditional.

The chores

Amanda Everett, the Rosarium Horticulturist at the Decanso garden gave a rose pruning Demo last weekend.

The basic techniques of pruning include; removing diseased and weak canes, shorten the remaining good canes by making 45 degree cuts just above outward facing lateral bus, strip off all the leaves and remove all debris & mulch beneath the bush, reapply mulch leaving the crown open.

It was a good solid refresher and happily I was the youngest person in the crowd. I never realized that pruning prevents plant disease from coming back in the spring. That is why this removal of all debris and mulch is so important to this post holiday chore.

China Doll September 29, 2009

"China Doll" Radermachera sinica is known as a delicate houseplant. I have had this one in the Toluca lake garden for several years. Jan planted it about three years ago as a smallbush. I was amazed how well it is taking to pruning. Take a look.

Unlikely Applications

Two days before Christmas in 1944, American soldier John DiBattista a member of George Patton’s Third Army, 4^th armored division was manning a 50-caliber machine gun working to make a break through the frozen countryside of Normandy . Never knowing when to engage, the heavy cover was never on the gun. This made the weapon readily available for attack, but unbeknownst to DiBattista, the hard winter nights would render the gun useless. As German soldiers fired on DiBattista the gun was frozen so solidly that the bolt didn’t go back far enough to pick up another round. Against all odds DiBattista urinated on his weapon and fired on the enemy successfully.

He urinated on his machine gun.

When I read this account, I felt better about urinating outside the lavatory. When you spend lots of time in the garden and you have to go…why not. And after all, it probably saved Sergeant DiBattista’s life. I think our social indoctrinations make this taboo for many of us. There is also a point of view that it’s better to urinate outside and save the water involved in the flush. But how about the garden? Can a little pee here and there make for better blooms? I can say that the idea of making a perfect tomato sauce from my Carmel Valley Garden tomatoes, which have been fertilized with my personal brand of liquid fertilzer, bothers me. But then when the circus passes through town I am the first one at the elephant tent, filling a couple of burlap bags. So should I get over it and pee away?

Here are some intetesting urine facts from Emma Cooper,

“Every day, gardeners across the world flush away a valuable and sustainable source of fertilizer for their plants -- urine. Urine is a good source of nitrogen and other minerals and, providing it is used correctly, is completely safe. Using urine as a fertilizer saves money, fossil fuels (used extensively in the production of chemical fertilizers) and water (no need to flush!). It also cuts down on river pollution -- urine is a major source of nitrogen that contributes to river eutrophication if expensive denitrification is not used at the water treatment plant. And it's not a backwards step, it's space age technology -- NASA has used urine in hydroponics systems!

1. Keep it separate. The golden rule with urine use is to keep it separate from other bodily wastes. Urine is clean and needs to be kept that way. Pee in a bottle, or invest in a urine-separating toilet.

2. Use it fresh. We all know that stale urine smells. That's ammonia, and it's made from nitrogen. The smellier your collected urine, the less nutritious it will be for your plants, as well as being unpleasant to apply.

3. Always dilute. Urine is too strong to be used neat on plants. Dilute at least 5:1, and it can be diluted up to 10:1 for use on tender plants and seedlings.urine fertilizer

4. Water at the roots. It's good practice when watering not too splash the leaves, but to water at the roots. This saves on evaporation, and dry leaves are much more resistant to disease.

5. Spread it around. Urine can be salty, and using too much of it in one place can harm plants. Use it throughout your garden so no one area suffers from an overdose, and don't use it every time you water a plant.

6. Feed hungry plants. The plants that will benefit most from urine fertilizer are the ones with the highest nitrogen requirements. Try it on leafy vegetables like cabbages and cauliflowers, corn, or anything that needs a quick pick-me-up.

7. Other uses. Neat urine is too strong to be used directly on plants, but it can be used as a weedkiller; a few applications, especially if used on hot days, should finish off your weeds. It can also be used neat as a winter spray for fruit trees, to discourage fungal diseases.

8. Activate! A final use for urine in the garden is as a compost activator. The nitrogen in urine will speed up the composting process and kick start a slumbering heap.

Emma’s notes are beneficial. A couple of personal notes…

I tried the pee as weed killer on some unwanted growth on my front patio in Toluca Lake. It didn’t work and I think it’s why my neighbor Fernando’s wife blushes when we see each other on the street. I also cringed at the part that says that urine is beneficial as a winter spray for the fruit trees. I don’t know why but I get creeped out at the idea of urine overspray on a blustery fall day in the Valley. Emma’s notes did clear up something that I don’t know why I didn’t think of earlier. I had always just thought that all urine applications in the garden should be applied with my own applicator. This obviously is not the case and not practical (and in many cases not physically possible) so of course the dedicated hudson sprayer is the best solution and easily provides for proper dilution as Emma recommends.

My take on the whole situation? I am happy Sergeant DiBattista saved himself by peeing on his gun, I appreciate Emma’s comprehensive research, but for me, I will continue to pee in the garden but for the moment limit my deposits to the compost pile.

Tomato Stories

There must be a million tomato stories this time of year.  Recipes, gardening hints, and of course...just stories:

An old Italian man lived alone in New Jersey .  He wanted to plant his annual  tomato garden, but it was very difficult work, as the ground was hard.

His only son, Vincent, who had helped him in the past, was in prison. The old man wrote a letter to his son and described his predicament:

Dear Vincent, 

I am feeling pretty sad, because it looks like I won't be able to plant my tomato garden this year. I'm just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. I know if you were here my troubles would be over.  I know you would be happy to dig the plot for me, like in the old days.

Love, Papa

A few days later he received a letter from his son.

Dear Pop,

Don't dig up that garden. That's where the bodies are buried.

Love,

Vinnie

At 4 a.m. the next morning, FBI agents and local police arrived and dug up the entire area without finding any bodies. They apologized to the old man and left.

That same day the old man received another letter from his son.

Dear Pop,

Go ahead and plant the tomatoes now. That's the best I could do under the circumstances.

Love you,

Vinnie

An 18 day trip to the East coast found us spending four days with Alexis in the little college town of Northamption, Massachusetts.  Northampton is an old town and the most impressive plantings are really the seemingly ancient trees that lucky for me were in their full regalia.  Unlike the year round West coast gardens that I have come to be used to, here there is a definite "closing time" for the gardener.  I guess it's this gardener's hibernation that makes East coast gardenistas really enthusiastic when spring hits.  Not only do you see people outside in their shorts ( even if it is a little chilly for shorts) working their gardens but theses gardeners have had a long winter to consider their future plantings and in many cases start the seedlings in their windows as the melt begins.  When Alexis had asked me to help her plant her Northampton garden, I had imagined a pastorial plot, that would have long rows of different vegtables.  My greatest fear was where to get the hekp to do all the digguing it would require.  It was a welcome surprise when I realized that Alexis garden would be a small patch in the front of her house that had great sun expsoure.  The garden area, that was now quite overgrown,  had at one time been a well watched and maintained area.  Buried under years of dirt and that seasonal Western Massachusetts ice were brick borders and even a early version of weed control fabric.  There were also some interesting plants that were either perennials or weeds and recalling Ralph Waldo Emerson's definition of a weed; "A plant whose Virtures have not yet been discovered," we plotted the tomatoes randomly around the long term inhabitants of the garden.   Alexis had gone the route of starting her tomatos from seed, some thing that I have never done.  Now, several weeks after the planting Alexis comments how her neighbors plants are looking robust even in the not hot enough climate, and her seedlings are dependant on applications of fish emulsion and TLC.  This consternation will quell when at the end of the season all things are equal, and Alexis will have the sense of accomplishment of having nurtured this amazing fruit from seed and not a Home Depot Garden Center six-pack.