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FIMBY: Your plants can tell you more than any calendar can

Spend at least a few minutes daily observing -- and responding

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Kathy Morrison PUBLISHED MAY 13, 2025

Red Norland potatoes, planted about 10 weeks ago, are indicating by their yellowing leaf color that harvest time is approaching. Kathy Morrison

Some advice I received as a new parent (many years ago) has been remarkably useful with my garden as well:

"No one knows your own (child/garden) as well as you do."

In other words, a person may be new to parenting, but no one has observed and responded to that particular baby quite as much and quite as closely as the parent has.

By the same token, a new gardener still has the best information on their own garden, even if it's "I was given a secondhand planter, filled it with XYZ potting soil and Genovese basil seeds, and set it on the south-facing patio. I water it every other day."

There's knowledge already in that statement. But for gardening success, the knowledge must grow -- and that means paying attention to what's going on. Even 5 minutes of observation every morning -- to check whether those basil seeds are germinating, need more water, getting too much sun -- builds a body of experience.

Experimenting builds the knowledge too. Having grown Genovese basil, the gardener might try Purple Ruffles basil or Cardinal basil or African blue basil. Eventually, the gardener becomes an expert on their micro-micro-climate and crop. Such as "Basil does great in containers on the patio, but should be planted by early May. "

The next step is applying skepticism to planting charts and calendars (which are based on averages, after all) and responding to the plants themselves. This will be based on the earlier knowledge, plus experience with local weather and other conditions. "Hmm, the Genovese is flowering sooner than usual. I wonder if it's heat-stressed and needs a different location?"

A friend who is an expert at growing garlic recently noted that one of his two varieties is already near harvest time: The leaves are turning yellow and are starting to collapse. He's not going to ignore that just because the calendar says it's too early. (June typically is harvest time for garlic planted in October.) For whatever reason, that garlic wants to be ready now.

The Red Norland potatoes I planted the first week of March are another case in point. They are in two large cloth grow bags of identical color, with identical soil and the same watering schedule -- and the bags are just a few feet apart in the backyard. Neither one has flowered. Yet plants in one of the bags are turning yellow, indicating potato harvest time is soon. The other has no yellow leaves. At all. But there's no reason to wait until the second bag is ready to harvest everything.

Tomatoes amaze me every year at how they respond to the weather and the slight changes in planting location. I typically start my plants from seed. One year Lemon Boy is the star, producing twice as many fruit as any of the others, and the next year it's just OK. I don't always know why, but I enjoy observing the season play out. And I make notes for next year.

As a side note, I recommend that gardeners -- of edible plants, especially -- keep a notebook or journal of some kind, to record events in the garden. Knowing next year that the Red Norlands were early in 2025 might convince me to plant them earlier or later, or plant another variety altogether. All part of being a gardener and citizen scientist!

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FIMBY Food in My Back Yard spring May Sacramento gardening edible gardening potatoes garlic vegetables herbs fruit

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Flowers in My Back Yard Series

Aug. 25: Crape myrtles, Sacramento's unofficial tree of summer

Aug. 18: Pollinators adore scabiosa, aka pincushion flower

Aug. 11: Hardy hibiscus adds big tropical impact

Aug. 4: Dianthus a deceptively hardy flower

July 28: Naked Ladies put on summer show

July 21: Thank Luther Burbank for these long-lasting beauties (Shasta daisies)

July 14: How to keep hydrangeas happy

July 7: Grow these bright cosmos for bees and butterflies

June 30: Agapanthus adds blue fireworks to the garden

June 23: Easy-care gazanias fill those hot corners

June 16: Daylilies are perfect for water-wise gardens (and a lot more)

June 9: Grow coneflowers for pollinators -- and yourself

June 2: Sunflowers capture Sacramento's summer attitude

May 29: Are your roses going 'blind'?

May 26: Zinnias are the summer flowers every garden needs

May 19: Plant dahlias now for late-summer flower power

May 12: Know your coreopsis from your bidens

May 5: Mums the word on Mother's Day weekend

April 28: Majestic Matilija poppy is worth a look

April 21: Celebrate roses, America's favorite flower

April 14: Small flowers with outsized impact

April 7: Calendulas do double duty

April 3: Make Easter lilies last for years to come

March 31: In praise of a pollinator magnet (small-leaf salvias)

March 24: Azaleas brighten shady spots

March 17: The perfect flower for beginners? Try zonal geraniums

March 10: Keep camellias happy for years to come

March 3: Fruit tree blossoms are a fleeting joy

Feb. 27: Are your roses looking rusty?

Feb. 24: Treasure spring daffodils now and for years to come

Feb. 17: How and why to grow wildflowers

Feb. 10: Let's talk Valentine's Day roses

Feb. 3: Why grow flowers?

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Garden checklist for week of Aug. 16

During this break in the heat, feed your garden. Make sure to water before and after applying fertilizer.

* In the garden, direct seed beets, carrots, leaf lettuce and turnips.

* Plant potatoes.

* Harvest tomatoes, beans, squash, pepper and eggplants to prompt plants to keep producing. Give your plants a deep watering twice a week, more if planted in containers. Also, give them a boost with phosphate-rich fertilizer to help fruiting.

* Watch out for caterpillars and hornworms in the vegetable garden. They can strip a plant bare in one day. Pick them off plants by hand in early morning or late afternoon.

* Feed citrus trees their last round of fertilizer for the year. This will give a boost to the fruit that’s still small.

* Mulch can be your garden’s best friend – it conserves moisture while blocking out weeds. But don't let mulch mound around stalks, stems or trunks. That can promote rot.

* Camellia leaves looking a little yellow? Give them some chelated iron. That goes for azaleas and gardenias, too.

* Pick up after your fruit trees. Clean up debris and dropped fruit; this cuts down on insects and prevents the spread of brown rot. Then feed fruit trees with slow-release fertilizer for better production for next year.

* To prolong bloom into fall, feed begonias, fuchsias and container plants. Always water before fertilizing.

* Fertilize fall-blooming perennials, too. Chrysanthemums can be fed until the buds start to open.

* Prepare for a fall full of flowers by paying a little extra attention to your garden. Cut off spent blooms from roses, annuals and perennials, then give them a boost of fertilizer. Make sure to water plants before feeding. Roses will rebloom about six to eight weeks after deadheading.

* Indoors, start seedlings for fall vegetable planting, including bunching onion, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, radicchio and lettuce.

* Sow seeds of perennials in pots for fall planting including yarrow, coneflower and salvia.

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