California Plants

When we began testing growing super sugar snap peas, we thought we may have the same results we had with some various beans. Most beans we have tried in San Francisco, CA, have not done well. One is doing well, and we will write about that one when it matures.

Super Sugar Snap Peas, on the other hand, are a delight. These peas grow fast, and are strong. We planted them with a well drained potting compost mix in a big container. We took a couple of tomato cages and put them in as we planted seeds so there would be something to cling to. As they sprouted, they grew about a foot and finally reached out and started to cling to the cage. It gets pretty windy here at times, and luckily these peas are very tough. From other peas we tried that didn’t do well, the keys to growing good peas is:

1. Putting them in their final location when planting so there is no chance of breaking stems.
2. Planting them from seed so they acclimate to your weather.
3. Covering the soil with a fine wire mesh until seeds sprout so that birds and animals don’t dig out the seeds and eat them.

We have found that growing any vegetable from seed, if you have the patience, can save effort in the long run. Not only does this save money, but the seeds acclimate to weather best. High yield gardening is a great way to grow lots of good vegetables in a small space.

Super Sugar Snap Peas just under two months old from seed in a garden container

After extensive research how to keep gophers and moles out of our garden, we have a favorite technique to keep them out of our vegetables. Normally, these techniques can be used to get rid of gophers and moles:

- One can use a mole trap or gopher trap
- A solar device with a high pitched noise can be used
- A gopher trap or mole trap can be used
- A gopher probe can be used
- Control for gophers can be used without poisons
- Gopher bait or mole bait can be used
- A wire mesh / chicken wire can be used

In your garden, you may find one of the above techniques suits you better than another. For our plants in the regular garden, we choose from the items above. For our vegetables, we choose to ensure a whole area is gopher and mole proof. To do this, we build a box that they cannot get in and plant the vegetables with high density gardening. The box below cost less than $50 to build and fill with excellent soil.

To build this we went to the local hardware store and got wood, screws, nails, and wire mesh. The idea here is to have a rectangular box that has mesh attached securely to the bottom. The box in the photos below is 4 x 8 feet. This is done with two 2 x 4’s that are not cut, and one cut in half. Three long screws are used to hold each corner together. Short nails or staples (we used nails) can be used to attach the wire mesh to the bottom of the wood rectangle structure. As the mesh we used was 2 feet wide, we wired two rolls of mesh together and unrolled them while attaching together.

To attach the mesh to the wood, we used a small nail, hammered it in 2/3 of the way to hold a section of the mesh to the wood, and then hammer and bend the nail to secure that piece of mesh from moving. Then five inches over would be the next nail. This particular mesh is coated with vinyl so will hopefully not rust for a long time. Because the metal mesh coated with vinyl has very small squares, a mole or gopher cannot chew or crawl through the mesh. At worst, a gopher or mole may chew roots of vegetables that are below the wire mesh.

Vegetable box built not to let gophers or moles in

In the below photo you can see the two sets of wire mesh are stitched together. We used small pieces of wire every two inches, twist tied, to attach the two rolls of wire mesh to each other.

A closeup of the corner of the box built not to let in gophers or moles

In the below photo it can be seen that we have three screws holding the 2×4’s together. Before we put in the screws, we drilled holes most of the way so that the wood would not split when we put in the screws. The soil we used to fill this up was 3/4 compost and 1/4 manure. If seeds are being planted in the soil, then the top half of the soil should not have manure mixed. This is what we did, mixing the bottom half with the manure and the top half being just bagged compost. Since this compost is from a store like Home Depot or Lowes, it is composted of quite a bit of ground wood which will take time to break down. The wood will take some nitrogen from the vegetables as they grow, so we will use an organic fertilizer and top dress with a bit of composted manure when plants are all sprouted and doing well. Here is better compost. This resource tells all about composting.

The box has been placed cage side down and filled with soil

Once this box is growing vegetables, we will post updates.

Or, one can just give up on getting rid of gophers and celebrate them. Here is one item that can be used to dance with them and celebrate them. I suppose this could be given as a joke to a friend with a gopher problem.

Of course our number one use for vegetables can often be food, raw or cooked. In our testing with vegetables, many have beautiful flowers. If they can bloom, they can also go to seed. Watching some vegetables bloom does usually mean the vegetable will stop producing sooner. But the seeds one can gather can be very used to ones climate. It also feels good gathering seed, saving money, and having fun with it. In the photo below, this dwarf kale plant has been flowering for about a week so far. Many flowers are still yet to open. it will try to attract insects to pollinate it from other Kale plants. Once seeds have been set in coming weeks, seed pods will develop, and eventually those seeds can be collected. Here is an excellent curled kale to grow from seed.

Dwarf Kale Flowering

Angel’s Trumpet is quite the rewarding plant to grow. This vigorous plant (also can be trained to grow as a shrub or tree)  loves full sun, has fragrant flowers, and grows six to eight feet in height when mature. This plant can grow well in a pot or the ground. It does not like to dry out between waterings, and cannot get colder than 20 degrees Fahrenheit. Here is a beautiful white potted variety that can be transplanted into the ground, a pink one just like the one in our garden photo below you can grow from seed, an orange one that can be grown from seed, and a beautiful potted peach variety.

Pink Angels Trumpet Plant in Our Garden

Growing Violas, also known as Johnny Jump Ups, is a real pleasure. This annual blooms from spring to early summer, about 5-8 inches in height. Although it can be bought in a pot, we would recommend starting it from seed, as we did in this photo. This hardy plant is great as a ground cover, and can grow in sun or partial shade. The flowers of this one in the photo are edible. Here is a yellow and purple variety, a blue variety, a unique yellow and black variety, and an orange and purple variety.

Violas also known as Johnny Jump Ups

Sunflowers are quite an amazing annual. They can grow in sunny, somewhat foggy, and partial shade areas. They can be anywhere between 2-14 feet in height, with one to ten flowers on a plant. They grow fast, and many tolerate substandard soils. They are also fairly drought tolerant. Many are so tough, wind does not bother them. They can be used for a privacy screen between your house and that of a neighbor. To do this, we recommend not just one row, but 2-3.

We recommend planting sunflowers in pots or a clearly defined area first. That way, when they sprout, they can be replanted to exactly their final location.

After a sunflower is done blooming, we recommend cutting the head and drying it to keep the seeds. Another way to keep the seeds for later growing is to put a thin cloth around the head and twist tie it. Or, of course if you like you can let birds eat the seeds when it is done flowering.

Below is a photo taken today in our San Francisco California garden. These sunflowers are 3-7 feet in height. They would have grown taller, but we experimented here with letting them all grow in small pots until they were 1-2 feet tall, and then planted them out. This meant they were used to being confined so now will not grow as tall. That is a good way if you like to control the size of your sunflower plants. Click here to see our favorite sunflowers.

One of Many Sunflowers Blooming Right Now in our SF, CA Garden

Sunflowers in our San Francisco California garden

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Growing great lettuce isn’t the easiest of tasks without some experience. I’ve done quite a bit of testing with different varieties and spacing. I have found that mixes of various lettuces together work best as a young mixed greens salad. The seeds can be planted close together and the lettuce trimmed when a few inches tall, like wheat grass.

If one is planning on growing full size heads of lettuce, mixes don’t work as well. The reason for this is that often only some of the lettuce varieties are meant to grow into heads. To grow full size heads of lettuce, I prefer vertical type heads such as romaine. Parris Island and Renee’s Garden Red and Green are my two favorites.

Most lettuce seeds germinate when planted, so the best thing I suggest is to plant about 50 in one pot or the ground. I do this by putting a handful of soil in a cup with the seeds. I mix the soil and seeds together, wet the mix well, and then sprinkle and mix this in the top 1 centimeter of soil where I will plant. Lettuce likes rich, well aerated soil. Plants will germinate within about a week, and should not dry out for long. When the plants are a couple of inches tall, water them well and then thin out. I keep the largest plants, spacing them about 6 inches apart to grow.

Another way to grow lettuce is start with a mixed greens cutting garden which I mentioned in the first paragraph. This one is my favorite. When you’re done cutting down the mixed greens every few weeks for a salad, water the plants well. Take them out of the soil, and save your favorite varieties, planting them six inches apart. Then, water well. This book has many interesting growing tips.

Choosing the right soil for use in your ground or in potting is not easy. We have done extensive testing in our garden in San Francisco, California, to see what does and does not work. Most importantly, we haven’t ended up having favorite brands of potting mixes as much as a full understanding what will and won’t make a particular mix work.

When using a soil for plants and vegetables in the ground, you’ll see many choices out there. There is peat moss, compost, manure, redwood soil conditioner, seed starting mix, chicken manure, topsoil, potting mix, and the list goes on. Here are results of our tests:

• Planting directly in peat moss. First the peat moss needs to be soaked. Seeds can be started in 100% peat moss, but the mix does not offer many nutrients. It also acts like a sponge. To get plants and seeds to grow directly in peat moss, eventually I needed to fertilize. My suggestion here is to mix in peat moss for plants that need quite a bit of moisture or acidity.
• Planting directly in cow or steer manure. This can be done, but some plants will not make it, especially if it is too fresh. If it is aged some, it can grow plants but is better being aged as long as possible to cool down. The problem planting directly in this mix, even if aged, is that it can hold too much moisture and not drain well. My suggestion here is to use 1/4 of your mix as steer manure.
• Planting in “compost” mixes. Of course compost is great. The problem is that many bags of soil say they contain compost, but really they have shredded wood recently and added in a bit of manure and other matter. If you can see the mix before you buy, the more broken down it is, the better. There should not be large pieces of wood bark. These mixes can grow plants, but it is crucial to pick those mixes that really are compost. My suggestion here is to seek out compost and use it.
• Chicken manure. This is strong stuff. The only way to plant directly in this is to age it a long time. Still, though, it will hold too much water. My suggestion is to use this as a top dressing a few times a year to add nutrients to soil.
• Redwood soil conditioner. This is shredded redwood. It is good to break up tight soil. My suggestion on this is to use it in a very compact spot, such as the top or bottom of a plant just put in.
• General potting mixes. These can be good or bad. Look at the ingredient list, and ensure it has things like perlite, sand, manure, compost, etc.
• Topsoil. Often these are not great, but sometimes can be ok. Feel how dense and heavy the bag is. My suggestion is only get this if it has good nutrients in it and is not too heavy.
• Putting 1/2 of a pot full of steer manure and then a potting mix in the top half of the pot. This doesn’t work great, as once the roots get to the manure, it holds too much water and nutrients unless it has broken down further. My suggestion here would be mix manure in the bottom of the pot with compost or potting mix and then the top half of the pot with potting mix.
• Seed starting mix. These are sterile mixes with perlite, peat moss, and sometimes sand and another ingredient or two. They are good until the seedlings need nutrients. My suggestion is to use this only when starting seeds indoors.

I have tested and found the perfect mixes for pots and in ground for our use. Sometimes I need to mix together a couple mixes to make what I need.

For in ground use, I like a mix with compost, some shredded tree bark or tree material, a bit of sand, and manure. This mix gives good nutrients and drainage.

For potting use, I like to use a potting mix with compost, perlite, shredded fir bark, and some manure.

When I start plants from seed, I have found a regular potting mix to be good until I need to get more nutrients to the seedlings. At that point I transplant them into the mix in the paragraph just above this one. When planting, here is our favorite gardening trowel.