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CARLSBAD — The Harold E. Smerdu Community Garden annual Seed Swap Party was the ultimate hub for current and future gardening enthusiasts. 

Its Sept. 29 theme, “Bringing Home the Garden,” drew in children and adults alike.

The community event was held in tandem with National Public Lands Day.

Smerdu Community Garden, a friendly locale, educates individuals on year-round gardening while showcasing interactive experiences for elementary school tours.

Bringing Home the Garden was brimful of seed and plant swaps, garden tours, guest speakers and demonstrations, and tidbits of advice among gardeners.

Gretchen M. Ashton, treasurer of the Carlsbad Community Gardens Collaborative, said the day was about sharing the garden with the community.

“Children and adults alike can enjoy swapping seeds and plants, learning about composting and vermiculture (worms), interacting with knowledgeable gardeners, touring Carlsbad’s historic community garden, signing up for a poster contest, and taking home goodie bags,” Ashton said.

And everybody did just that.

Ashton shared that the day was also an important one where children would be taught about eating well, how to grow healthy food, and how to care for the environment.

She described each event entity as a positive message presented with unique interactive demonstrations.

The community gardeners, also on hand, provided a wealth of information for visitors.

Patrice Smerdu, garden committee spokeswoman, said she hoped the seed swap party at some point would become a biannual event in the fall and spring.

“Carlsbad is blessed with year-round gardening weather and we sometimes fail to take advantage of it,” Smerdu said.

The community garden continues to make tremendous strides as being a family-friendly destination.

Smerdu wants people to know that it’s essential for families to know where their food comes from.

“Healthy, local food is vital to our community,” she said. “If children learn about growing their food when young, they will hopefully carry that forward as adults. We know there is an obesity epidemic and gardening is a great way to combat that both with exercise and healthy eating.”

And besides, Smerdu said, gardening is fun.

This year, Ashton was thrilled to have Diane Hollister as their guest speaker. Hollister, knowledgeable in the garden, spoke to a crowd about “Three Choices for the Fall Garden,” which highlighted types of fall vegetables while touching upon different ways to mulch the garden.

The day was ideal for novice gardeners, as well.

“The Smerdu Community Garden inspires residents to give gardening a try,” Ashton said. “This day is an opportunity to interact one-on-one with seasoned successful gardeners and ask specific questions.”

Ashton pointed out that gardening is for the whole family, the ultimate source of good nutrition, and the gateway to many healthful and interpersonal experiences.

Smerdu and Ashton also extended a warmhearted thanks to the Carlsbad branch of Point Loma Credit Union for being their generous event sponsors. And with the help of Jenny Craig’s recent donation of $9,200, the event shined even brighter.

“This event is a wonderful opportunity to come see what we’re all about,” Smerdu said. “We also welcome others in the larger community to come see how great a community garden can be.”

 

Related posts:

1. Donation helps to grow community garden
2. Seed swap party gathers community around garden
3. Community garden receives donation from Jenny Craig
4. Community garden advocates fight back
5. Fee increase doesn’t sit well with gardeners

View full sizeTHE OREGONIAN
Now’s the time to start planning your bulb planting so you’ll have a little color popping up in your garden in late winter and spring.

Here’s a quick guide:

Start with crocuses, snowdrops and the various other tiny bulbs that dot the garden in late winter/early spring. Plant these bulbs shallowly, 3 inches deep or less. Get them in place by the end of September to be sure of blooms the first year. And never plant just a few. They are inexpensive, so be generous with them.

Daffodils also should be planted as soon as possible because they want to start making roots right away.

Hyacinths are next to plant. They can be set out all through October, the earlier the better.

Tulips are planted last of all. They should go into the ground by Thanksgiving.

Another rule of thumb is to plant bulbs in clusters of five or more rather than in single rows. You’ll get more color impact.

Also, pay attention to bloom times. If you love tall tulips with ruffled petals, select the late bloomers. Early bloomers will be whipped by rain and wind and likely lose their heads. If you want early bloom, stick to low-growing bulbs, such as species tulips and miniature daffodils, that can take the battering.

Here’s the step-by-step for planting bulbs:

* Choose bulbs that are solid and free of mold.

* Select a spot that has rich, well-drained soil and will have good sun in the spring.

 * Use a bulb planter to dig a hole. (A trowel or shovel works, too.) Bulbs should be planted two to three times as deep as the bulb is tall. Place the bulb in the hole, pointed side up, and fill the hole.

* In the spring, if you feel ambitious, sprinkle a granular fertilizer around bulbs as their tips emerge.

— Homes Gardens of the Northwest staff 

ABILENE, Texas –

Kathy Feagan from Big Country Master Gardener visited KTXS This Morning Friday to share some tips on how to get a garden ready for fall.

“Most people don’t think about this, but fall is the best time to plant,” Feagan said. Planting in the falls gives the roots an extended amount of time to develop.

Fall is also the time to “replenish mulch and clean up your garden,” Feagan said. If any of your plants did not survive the Texas summer heat, now is the time to pull them out.

Feagan said the months of October and November are the best time to plant winter color annuals, such as pansies, snapdragons, and cabbage. She also said not to worry if the pretty parts of the plants go away soon; most plants go dormant in the winter.

“As far as plants go,” Feagan said, “it is a good time to fertilize.” Feagan suggests using organic compost or mulch.

The Master Gardeners are having a Fall Plant Sale sale from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Oct. 13 at the Modern Living Mall at the Taylor County Expo Center.

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Walnut Creek’s Ruth Bancroft is a national authority on drought-resistant gardening. Twice a month, she and her staff share their knowledge with readers.

The name “barrel cactus” often is used for plants in the genus Ferocactus. Not surprisingly some of them are quite stout and reminiscent of barrels, but others have a smaller, globose form. A couple of these smaller-headed kinds form large clumps over time.

One of the latter is Ferocactus robustus. In its native habitat, older plants may reach 15 feet across, with hundreds of heads (each about 3 to 6 inches in diameter, with eight ridges or ribs running from the top to the base). At intervals along each rib, reddish-brown spines emerge from small patches of felt; the spines turn pale with age.

Many kinds of cactus have a concentrated burst of flowering at one time of year, but Ferocactus robustus is less predictable. The flowering period is generally summer through fall, but it varies from year to year. At the Ruth Bancroft Garden, we have had plants flower as early as June and as late as December. Flowers measure from about 1.25 to 1.5 inches in diameter. Light yellow in color, they have a red stripe down the center of the outermost petals. The oval yellow fruit has black seeds inside.

The deserts of the southwestern U.S. — including California’s Mojave and Arizona’s Sonoran deserts — have some barrel cactuses, but the majority, including Ferocactus

robustus, are found in Mexico — near Tehuacán, southeast of Mexico City. For a cactus from such southerly climes, this species is remarkably tolerant of the Bay Area’s winter temperatures, enduring occasional dips below freezing. Like other barrel cactuses, it requires a sunny spot in soil with excellent drainage.

Avis Licht is a landscape gardener, educator, and author of the wonderful book, The Spring Garden Made Easy. Her passion is to create beautiful gardens that incorporate edibles that can be harvested year round. In a recent interview with her I asked her to talk about container gardening as an alternative for gardeners with decks, small gardens, or special climate conditions.

Avis: For garden lovers who don’t have the luxury of their own gardens, containers are a simple and easy solution. However, there are a few tips for helping you grow your plants more successfully.

People don’t realize how fast pots dry out and how hard it is to get them moist again. Once soil has dried out, if you water the pot with a hose, it just runs on through.

Keeping your soil moist is a trick that requires some practice. Using drip irrigation in your pots, for 3 or 4 minutes 2 or 3 times a day often works. If you don’t have your pots on an irrigation system try these self-watering planters. They really work!

1. Make sure there’s enough room in the container for root growth of your plants. Here are some suggestions for what plants to grow in different size pots:

• 6″ depth is the minimum – chives, lettuce, radishes, other salad greens, basil, coriander, Asian greens, mint, thyme
• 12″  for larger veggies – pole beans, carrots, chard, cucumber, eggplant, fennel, leeks, peppers, spinach, parsley, rosemary, beets, broccoli, okra, potatoes, sweet corn, summer squash, dill, lemongrass, bush beans, garlic, kohlrabi, onions, peas
• 18″ – 24″ for miniature trees like lemons or limes

2. Use the right soil mix. For self-watering planters I suggest you use the organic mix from Gardener’s Supply formulated just for that. You’ll need to add nutrition in the form of compost, aged manure, blood meal and other organic fertilizers. The plants rely on you 100% for their nutrition. Be sure to feed them. Read up on what your plants need and add it to the potting soil. Using foliar feeding or a liquid fertilizer like seaweed solution works well. Don’t just put soil from the garden into your pots. It will be too heavy and dry out easily.

Self-Watering Containers

3. Place the planters where they will get the best light and be protected from wind or blasting hot sun. Gardener’s Supply even has self-watering planters that have castors on them so you can move them around to catch the changing light and heat conditions.

Learn more about  Avis Licht:

Avis Licht has been teaching and installing beautiful edible landscapes in California since 1978. She is the co-founder of Commonweal Garden in Bolinas, California, an organic farm and permaculture teaching garden, and holds a B.S. in Conservation of Natural Resources from U.C. Berkeley. She was co-author of the Feasibility Study for the Organic Farm and Garden of the College of Marin, which is now a major teaching center. She lives in Marin County and has designed hundreds of beautiful edible landscapes. After 35 years of gardening and designing gardens, she now shares her experiences in her own delightful and informative blog.

Follow Avis’s Blog: Edible Landscaping Made Easy

Avis’s acclaimed new book, The Spring Garden Made Easy, covers all aspects of starting a vegetable garden  a wonderful read filled with valuable gems for any garden lover!

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Preparing for Your Fall Garden
Indoor Outdoor Edible Gardens
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View full sizeWikimedia CommonsAbbey House Gardens doesn’t look like it welcomes naked people, but it does.BARE AND BRITISH:  I don’t know how the British got the reputation for being uptight. I read the most outrageous things about them, and this article beats ’em all.

Abbey House Gardens in Wiltshire opens six days a year for those with no clothes. On the last such day this year, “a retired court stenographer, who gamely took off his pants, sipped his cup of tea and explained that being here allowed him to indulge in two pastimes beloved of more English people than one might imagine: being in a garden, and not wearing anything at the time. He cannot do this at home on account of his uptight neighbors, he explained, and so he weeds and trims while covering potentially alarming body parts with a tie-dyed sarong he bought at a garage sale.  

“I am as near to naked as I can be while I cut the grass,” Mr. Monroe said. At Abbey House, though, he can admire the flowers while dispensing with the sarong.

Well, then. What more is there to say? Oh, I know. The garden is known for its 2,000 varieties of roses. Ouch.

POTTED PLANTS: Houseplants don’t do it for me. For years, I carried paper towels around with me as I watered inside. Inevitably, I’d turn to another plant, forget to wipe up and the wood floors would warp. Of course, I never bought good plant caddies to keep the water from leaking out, so I guess it’s my own fault. The dirt gets to me, too. When I had hand-me-down and garage-sale furniture, it wasn’t so bad. It’s a different matter now I bought a couple of good pieces.

Not everyone agrees with me about gardening indoors. And for some people, it’s their only option. On the Sustainablog (great name), Ann Smarty writes up some ideas for houseplant success. She also recommends three related iPhone apps, including one for hydroponic gardening.

— Kym Pokorny

by Stephen Gent, Owner
McDade’s Nursery

Stephen has 14+ years of experience in horticulture as Publisher and Marketing Director for Nursery Management and Production, Greenhouse Management and Production and Garden Center magazine.

An avid gardener with a lifelong passion for plants, he enjoys sharing his knowledge and experience with customers.

The number one question we hear at the nursery this time of year is, when is the best time of year to plant? Without question, fall is the best time to plant – especially fruit trees, shade trees, shrubs and perennials. Here’s why.

The survival rate of plants is dramatically improved when planting takes place in October or November as the root system is established during the winter months. Even though above ground the plants appears to be dormant (and they are) underground roots are active, growing deeper into the soil to provide a strong anchor for the whole plant.

When spring arrives the plant is acclimatized to its new environment and is ready to put out strong leaves, new top growth and lots of flowers. Planting in the spring doesn’t always give the plant time to develop the roots necessary to support it fully during the heat of the Texas summers.

Now is also a good time to replace summer color plants with colors that are typically of the fall season – browns, reds, oranges and yellows. Cooler season annuals and perennials are just now becoming available. Check your local nursery for chrysanthemums, pansies, violas, ornamental kale, cabbage and peppers, dusty miller, dianthus, snapdragons, marigolds, alyssum, crotons, petunias to name just a few.

A quick note on chrysanthemums, they are perennials blooming in the autumn and then dying back in the winter. Cut them to a couple of inches above the ground and watch them come back strong in the spring to bloom again.

Remember there is still time to plant fall vegetables. Beets, broccoli, cabbage, Brussel sprouts, cauliflower, peas, Swiss chard, lettuce, radish, spinach, turnips, onions, parsley, mustard and carrots are all crops that do well this time of year. Vegetables can be planted from seed or transplanted.

Also, make sure to adjust your watering schedule for the cooler temperature of fall. The recommendation is to water 2 – 3 times a week in the morning. Be sure to water long enough so the root system grows deep rather than staying close to the soil surface.

Check your irrigation system for leaks, clogs or breakages to make sure water is getting to all areas in your lawns and beds.

Check your garden regularly for insects and fungi. Plants that have suffered heat stress during the summer are more prone to disease. If you find a problem, take care of it as soon as possible using a recommended insecticide or fungicide. Both organic and non-organic products are available to stop and protect against insects and fungi. This year in particular around Cedar Creek Lake, oak trees are prone to wooly aphids that give a snow like appearance to the leaves.

Happy Gardening

Q: This spring, I bought a Begonia boliviensis. I don’t want to lose it so how do I overwinter it?

A: Years ago, a friend gave me some tubers from Begonia boliviensis. When the first slender, bright orange fluted flowers appeared in the spring, the hummingbirds and I both went gaga over it. Over the years my original boliviensis has flourished as I kept transplanting it into bigger pots and it is now a three-by-three florific mound.

In the past, Begonia boliviensis was almost impossible to find, but now it’s available in most nurseries labeled as Begonia “Bonfire.”

New varieties are showing up as well. At Bay Hay and Feed in Bainbridge, I discovered a beauty called “Million Kisses Elegance,” featuring pink and white flowers. Not long afterward, at the Lake Forest Garden fair, I scored a stunning unnamed variety featuring red foliage and dark red flowers!

None of the varieties of Begonia boliviensis is hardy outdoors in winter, but they’re easy to winter over if you grow them in a pot. Simply cut the stems off the plant when the foliage dies back in fall, and store it dormant in an unheated garage. In spring, you’ll notice the formation of little buds telling you it’s time to put it back outside. Keep it in a sunny location, water and fertilize regularly, and you and your hummingbird friends will enjoy a summer of gorgeous blossoms.

Q: How and when should I prune my fall fruiting raspberries?

A: Fall fruiting raspberries (or everbearing raspberries) produce fruit on both first- year and second-year canes. New shoots produce fruit on the top half of the cane in fall. Then, during the following spring, the bottom half produces a crop.

The easiest way to prune everbearing raspberries is to simply cut all of the canes right to the ground as soon as the fall harvest is over. You’ll sacrifice the spring crop by pruning this way, but the canes grow back much stronger, and you’ll get a plentiful fall harvest without having to trellis or stake the plants.

There is, however, one tough job you have to do to keep your raspberry producing until frost. That’s to keep harvesting and eating them as fast as you can. If you allow berries to become over ripe and form seed, your plant won’t keep producing and it’ll be the end of raspberry pie a la mode until next year.

Q: Japanese maples are nice in the fall, but I am looking for something unusual that will stay small. Any suggestions?

A: One of the challenges of gardening in the city is finding a tree that has great fall color, yet doesn’t end up too big for your space.

Disanthus cercidifolius has all the structural attributes of a tree including brilliant fall color, yet rarely exceeds 12 feet tall by 8 feet wide. This small tree grows in a vase-shape and features attractive shiny bluish-green heart shaped leaves. In early fall, you’ll notice that one or two of them have turned dark red. Then in a few days, you’ll notice a few others have changed to a different color. This is just a tease of what is about to come.

In mid-fall, the entire canopy suddenly turns magnificent combinations of dark claret red, rich deep purple, glowing yellow, and burnt orange. It’s so lovely, even squirrels can’t look at it without crying.

Disanthus prefers morning sun or dappled shade, but it will thrive in an open, sunny location as long as it receives adequate moisture. Give it ample room to show off its attractive form. Besides having an attractive tree, you’ll be entertained by your emotional squirrels.

Ciscoe Morris: ciscoe@ciscoe.com; “Gardening with Ciscoe” airs at 10 a.m. Saturdays on KING-TV