Here are some things to do in the garden this week.
Vegetables. Chayote (Sechium edule), a member of the squash family, is one of the easiest vegetables to grow. You simply place a whole choyote — pale green and resembling a wrinkled, oversized pear — in the ground and you will soon see sprouts coming up obligingly from the seeds within. It can trail along the ground or grow up rapidly as a vine. In hot weather, soak it twice a week. The white pulp’s taste is a melange of apple and cucumber and it may be eaten raw or cooked. It is pest-resistant and all plant parts — seeds, tendrils, leaves, and roots — are edible. One way to find a grocery store near you that carries chayote (chai-OH-tay) is to go to instacart.com, enter your address, and type “chayote squash” in the search box.
Fruit. Consider growing cocktail grapefruit, also referred to as mandelo since it is a cross between a MANDarin and a pomELO. Cocktail grapefruit are juicier and sweeter (less acidic) than regular grapefruit. They are often smaller, sometimes just half the size of regular grapefruit but can be larger, too. The skin, which may be golden orange, yellow, or yellow-green, is also thin, making the juicing process easier than with conventional grapefruit and its much thicker rind. Due to its seediness, cocktail grapefruit is best used for juice. Its mild flavor explains its “cocktail” appellation since it is the preferred grapefruit variety among bartenders for drinks that call for grapefruit juice. Cocktail grapefruit grows wherever conventional grapefruit grows, although fruit quality is best, as with grapefruit generally, in desert or semi-desert conditions. Most of the greater Los Angeles area should be hot enough for cocktail grapefruit to grow and, like most citrus, they get sweeter the longer they are left on the tree. You can find cocktail grapefruit trees at fourwindsgrowers.com.
Herbs. Some herbalists consider yarrow (Achillea spp.) to be the most medicinal plant in the world, with curative properties that extend to every organ of the body. Those who know how to prepare and utilize its infusions, its decoctions, and its teas, swear by yarrow for treatment of headaches, flu, stomach disorders and a host of other ailments. Young leaves are edible and may be tossed into a salad. All yarrows are attractive to carnivorous, beneficial insects that do an excellent job of keeping insect pests under control. There are many different ornamental yarrows – from dwarf cultivars under one foot in height to giants several feet all – and they may be found with white, yellow, pink, red, or salmon-colored flowers growing in flat, platelike clusters known as umbels. Foliage is soft and feathery, while mowing or radical pruning may be performed three or four times a year to keep plants low to the ground. Water yarrow once or twice a week during the growing season and once every several weeks during the winter. Even if you don’t turn your front yard into a yarrow meadow, you might consider planting yarrow in that parkway strip between sidewalk and street.
Perennials. This is the moment when silver spurge (Euphorbia rigida) displays its special brand of botanical beauty. Taut, silvery blue leaves — two-inch spears studded along curvaceous, sprawling, serpentine stems — contrast perfectly with chartreuse bracts. Silver spurge is an ideal plant for a slope to which access is limited since it requires no irrigation other than winter rain and reliably self-sows. Thus, for the price of a few plants, you will have a large crop of silver spurge sprouting up within a few years’ time. I planted one in my front yard a few years ago and it has increased its numbers since then, including a plant that sprung up in a side yard from a windblown seed that flew over a six-foot fence to get there.
Following our recent rains, weeds will sprout with abundance. They are most easily removed when the ground is somewhat wet and a hoe is the tool of choice for this task. The classic garden hoe has a Ten Commandments-shaped blade attached to a wooden handle while a scuffle or hula hoe has a trapezoidal blade that moves back and forth to remove weeds just below the soil surface. These hoes are best used in either soft, loose, or moist soil. Where soil is extremely hard, pushing a shovel blade under weeds may be the easiest way to remove them and you still may wish to soak the area the night before. Keep in mind, however, that perennial weeds with deep roots will return unless their roots are thoroughly removed or new growth of such weeds – sometimes over several years – is immediately chopped off at the soil level as soon as it appears.