Five things to do in the garden this week:
Fruit Trees. If you are considering planting apple trees, but are unsure if your winter is cold enough to promote flowering and fruit growth, select one Anna and one Ein Shemer tree. They require less winter cold than any other varieties to produce abundant crops. Both varieties were developed in Israel and, although self-fertile so either one will produce a crop on its own, you will get more apples and of a larger size when the two trees are planted side by side and pollinate one another.
Vegetables. You can have lettuce ready to pick throughout the year since one kind or another is appropriate for planting in every month, although you will want to locate lettuce in a somewhat shady exposure during the hottest months. Lettuce seeds are easy to germinate. Sprinkle them on the soil surface and cover with a tiny bit of compost. Leaf lettuce — whose popular varieties include Oak Leaf, Black-Seeded Simpson, and Salad Bowl — is easiest to grow and some types are ready to harvest in 50 days. Romaine lettuce takes 75 days from seed to harvest and crisphead types such as Iceberg will be ready to pick in 50-90 days, depending on the variety. (Yes, there are many Iceberg varieties and they mature at different times of the year.) The advantage of the crisphead types is their resistance to bolting or going to seed in warm weather. Incidentally, Los Angeles was the first place in this country where Iceberg was grown commercially, after arriving here from France in 1902. its original name was Los Angeles Market lettuce and it was grown throughout the year in this city, from where it was shipped to every corner of the United States. Keep in mind that leaf lettuces can be harvested multiple times in a season by cutting off the outer leaves or cutting back the whole plant by removing up to two-thirds of its growth. With crispheads, on the other hand, the entire plant is harvested all at once.
Herbs. Garden sorrel (Rumex acetosa) is a long-lived perennial that flourishes in the dry garden. It requires scant attention and produces leaves that, added to any salad, eliminate the need for vinegar, lemon juice or any other comparably tart flavoring agent. Its seeds germinate without any fuss. The taste of French sorrel (Rumen scutatus) is slightly more refined. The related bloody dock (Rumex sanguineus) sports foliage with red-veined leaves. Keep in mind that all of these sorrels are edible but since they contain oxalic acid should not be consumed in large quantities.
Ornamentals. Plant Iceland poppies now from nursery-grown stock to add special magic to your winter and early spring flower garden. Iceland poppy (Papaver nudicaule) flowers are wide-rimmed like Margarita glasses and appear in pink, orange, salmon, and yellow. In addition, their fat, nodding flower buds impart a whimsical look. To keep Iceland poppies blooming, apply a water-soluble 20-20-20 fertilizer every other week and make sure their soil stays moist. Water should only be applied from below since the fragile stems will easy bend from the force of overhead irrigation. Removing faded flowers on a daily basis will significantly extend the plants blooming period..
If you are planting a tree, remove its stake immediately after it is in the ground. That stake makes it easier to move the tree around in the nursery and during transport. It also serves to resist bending or breaking the trunk when planting. If you need a stake to support a tree after it is planted, the tree is not in balance and should not have been planted in the first place. Some production nurseries cut off all side growth along the trunk to quickly force a large canopy to develop on top. But this may come at the expense of a weak trunk and paltry root system that cannot support the canopy. If you need to stake a tree when it is planted, it may never be able to stand straight and tall on its own.
Do you have a garden insect experience you would like to share with readers of this column? If so, please send it along to joshua@perfectplants.com. Your questions and comments, as well as garden problems and successes, are always welcome.
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