Winter is ideal for planning to improve what's underfoot
Composting is an excellent way to participate in the circular economy for healthy soils, which was the theme of this year's Healthy Soils Week. This is finished compost at the Placer master gardeners' Loomis Demonstration Garden. Kathy Morrison
Soil health is one of my favorite topics as a nerdy gardener, and winter is the perfect time to discuss it. Not much going on outside and, like today, it's often too wet to even garden that little bit.
I missed California's Healthy Soils Week, which this year was Dec. 2-6, but I was reminded of it earlier this week. Wanting to get in a little work before the rains hit, I trekked over to my comunity garden plot.
Context: My plot is pretty much shut down for winter. Most of the raised beds are heaped with flowers and vegetables that I cut down in a rush before November's rains. These spent plants are "composting in place" for now, on top of straw and under piles of tomato cages and stakes.
But I pushed aside the straw covering one bed where tomatoes had grown, and dug into the soil. I was awed by how dark and loamy it was, and mentally patted myself on the head for the improvements I've made the past few years. But good soil needs to stay good soil, so the uncovered area received a layer of composted chicken manure. The rains should take care of the rest.
The CDFA's theme this year for Healthy Soils Week was "A Circular Economy for Healthy Soils." Here's the explanation from the CDFA website:
"Ever bought chicken manure from the nursery for your garden beds or picked up a load of compost from your local green waste facility? If so, you are participating in a circular economy and contributing to a more sustainable California.
"Promoting a circular economy in California can include opportunities to replace some commercially produced fertilizers with nutrients recycled from agriculture and municipalities. This cycle not only conserves resources but can often decrease costs or offer new revenue streams to those participating in the circular economy."
They mention the reasons for and results of healthy soil:
-- Improved plant health and yields
-- Increased water infiltration and retention
-- Sequestered carbon and reduced greenhouse gases
-- Reduced sediment erosion and dust
-- Improved water and air quality
-- Improved biological diversity and wildlife habitat
Soil, of course, isn’t just dirt. It’s alive with organic matter and multitudes of organisms, in addition to being about 45 percent minerals, 25 percent water and 25 percent air. Healthy soil gives plants their best life, which is why every gardener should be well-acquainted with their microclimate’s soil.
For home gardeners, the University of Caifornia Agriculture and Natural Resources website has loads of great information, including a quick quiz to test how much you know about soils.
Clicking on the For Homes & Gardens tab on that page brings up more specific and very useful information for the home gardeners, covering topics such as common home soil problems, practices to improve home soil; soil pH and how to test it, soil texture, and amendments.
Finally, the UC Master Gardener Program's California Garden Web page has some excellent summaries of soil pH, salinity and what/whether to fertilize.
Take some time on this or another rainy day to read up on helping the ground beneath us, and your garden will be happier come spring.
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Garden Checklist for week of Jan. 12
Once the winds die down, it’s good winter gardening weather with plenty to do:
* Prune, prune, prune. Now is the time to cut back most deciduous trees and shrubs. The exceptions are spring-flowering shrubs such as lilacs.
* Now is the time to prune fruit trees. (The exceptions are apricot and cherry trees, which are susceptible to a fungus that causes dieback. Save them until summer.) Clean up leaves and debris around the trees to prevent the spread of disease.
* Prune roses, even if they’re still trying to bloom. Strip off any remaining leaves, so the bush will be able to put out new growth in early spring.
* Clean up leaves and debris around your newly pruned roses and shrubs. Put down fresh mulch or bark to keep roots cozy.
* After the wind stops, apply horticultural oil to fruit trees to control scale, mites and aphids. Oils need 24 hours of dry weather after application to be effective.
* This is also the time to spray a copper-based fungicide to peach and nectarine trees to fight leaf curl. (The safest effective fungicides available for backyard trees are copper soap -- aka copper octanoate -- or copper ammonium, a fixed copper fungicide. Apply either of these copper products with 1% horticultural oil to increase effectiveness.)
* When forced bulbs sprout, move them to a cool, bright window. Give them a quarter turn each day so the stems will grow straight.
* Browse through seed catalogs and start making plans for spring and summer.
* Divide daylilies, Shasta daisies and other perennials.
* Cut back and divide chrysanthemums.
* Plant bare-root roses, trees and shrubs.
* Transplant pansies, violas, calendulas, English daisies, snapdragons and fairy primroses.
* In the vegetable garden, plant fava beans, head lettuce, mustard, onion sets, radicchio and radishes.
* Plant bare-root asparagus and root divisions of rhubarb.
* In the bulb department, plant callas, anemones, ranunculus and gladioli for bloom from late spring into summer.
* Plant blooming azaleas, camellias and rhododendrons. If you’re shopping for these beautiful landscape plants, you can now find them in full flower at local nurseries.
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