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W W W. S A N TA B A R B A R A S E N T I N E L .CO M
In the Garden with
Mr. Greenjeans
by Randy Arnowitz “Mr. Greenjeans” as he is known around Santa
Barbara, is a gardener, horticulturist and writer. He particularly enjoys working with roses, orchids and sharing the day with his golden retriever Peaches, who faithfully accompanies him in the field. Contact him at greenjeansmr@gmail.com
Incredible Edibles Red-leaf lettuce is an easy-to-grow cool season backyard crop. If you got a late start planting your winter garden, catch up by growing Swiss chard from transplants.
For diversity, grow rainbow carrots in your incredible edible garden.
oak wine barrels and wooden nursery tree boxes can all be used to accommodate veggie crops in small areas. If you do have a little space in your yard and can plant directly into the ground, enclosing the bed with large rocks, bender board or landscape ties can make it easier to direct water and nutrients down to the root zones of your plants. Composting, mulching and turning the bed under between crops is easier too, when contained by a border.
If fruit’s your thing, grow deciduous fruit trees, like plums, apricots, peaches and nectarines, on dwarf or semi-dwarf root stocks. With skillful and thoughtful pruning, they can be kept within bounds and will still reward you with a backyard fruit salad. If limited to a few trees, nurseries often stock specimens that have many varieties of fruit grafted onto a single tree. If you pick citrus for a small space garden, choose wisely. A very manageable dwarf ‘Improved Meyer’ lemon is probably a much better choice than, say, a standardsized ‘Eureka’ or ‘Lisbon’ lemon, which could potentially overtake and shade out the rest of your garden. Next time we’ll talk more specifically about the advantages and disadvantages of different types of containers and the best planting medium to use in them in your urban, edible garden.
What To Plant
I
always thought it would be fun to start a magazine called Santa Barbara Living. It would be for us, the other folks – the spatially challenged who have discovered the joys and creative possibilities of sharing a two-bedroom with four or five others or residing in a one-bedroom apartment that’s really a one-car garage. I personally got used to, and eventually embraced, the intimate comfort of garage (slash) apartment (slash) cottage living. However, what I couldn’t get past was having a 1986 Buick LeSabre for a roommate. Where else but in Santa Barbara is living in a Rubbermaid tool shed or in one of those futuristic-looking storage PODS considered modular living? Call me old fashioned, but I think peas should live in pods, not people.
Speaking of peas… If you’re a backyard farmer or a wannabe backyard farmer and have limited outdoor space, growing fruits and vegetables can be a challenge, but not impossible. If your “back forty” acres are instead the back four feet between the trashcans and the swing set, you may still have options. Larger containers of all kinds, including wooden snap-together raised beds, are available online, as well as at home centers and nurseries. These fit together like Lincoln Logs, I mean Legos, and since they can be fashioned into various heights, lengths and widths, you can easily turn a dead zone along the house or sidewalk into a prolific vegetable patch. Fifteen-gallon black plastic nursery cans,
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Although we are smack dab in the middle of our cool season, there is still time to get in a late crop of peas and other winter vegetables this month. If you already have an established winter vegetable garden, you can replace as you harvest, or if you’re late and didn’t get to it in the fall, it’s still okay to plant at this time. To get a jump on things, use transplants, or starts of broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, lettuce, parsley, peas and Swiss chard. Beets, carrots, lettuce, mesclun mix, peas, radishes and turnips are best started from seed at this time. Live on the edge and try growing rainbow carrots that come in purple, yellow, red, white and orange – each with its own unique flavor and qualities.
Randy’s Quick Pick
C
heck out the Fruit Tree Care and Pruning demonstration with Bruce Van Dyke at La Sumida Nursery on January 19th at 10:00 am. The nursery is located at 165 South Patterson Avenue in Santa Barbara.