Beyond the Garden Basics

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In today’s podcast, America’s Favorite Retired College Horticulture Professor, Debbie Flower, shows us around her yard and garden. But it’s more than talking about the plants. Debbie also shares her planting and irrigation tips for a thriving garden of natives, perennials, trees and shrubs…most of which have been trained to do well on less water! There’s a human-corrected transcript at the bottom of this newsletter of the podcast if you prefer to use your eyes over your ears.
Plants For Dry Shade
One of the more vexing situations for gardeners: those sun-loving perennials and small shrubs that you put in years ago...when the surrounding trees and shrubs were much smaller...may be rather stressed these days, thanks to all the shade that they now have to tolerate. Add to that the modern requirements for a more water-efficient garden. The new question is: which plants don’t require much water...but can thrive in the shade, especially here in USDA Zone 9 of California?



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When you live in a hot area of USDA Zone 9, where it gets over 100 degrees in the summer, and you want a fresh salad… you can forget about growing lettuce and spinach, at least most of them, because at some point they’re going to bolt. Usually it might be July or August, but eventually most of the cool season greens in USDA Zone 9, by late summer, they just bolt and get bitter. So that brings me to wandering around the yard looking for what else can we use for salad greens here? And that’s a perfect question for vegetable expert and Sacramento County Master Gardener Gail Pothour. Podcast recorded at the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center on an Open Garden Saturday. The topic: edible summertime greens and heat tolerant lettuce varieties.


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In today’s podcast, nurseryman and Japanese maple expert Chris Aycock of El Dorado Nursery provides the basics for Japanese maple care, especially in the summer months.
Chris focuses on growing Japanese maples in different climates, explaining that the main factor is matching varieties to local conditions and caring for them appropriately.
For hot valley areas, he says mulch is very important to keep roots cool, and morning sun with afternoon shade is ideal. He also notes that some varieties can handle full sun, but they should be planted away from hot walls because reflected heat can be harmful.
For coastal areas, he says Japanese maples can grow well as long as they are not hit directly by sea spray. In windy, hot, dry inland areas, he says wind can be more damaging than sun, so some protection from afternoon wind is recommended.
At higher elevations such as Lake Tahoe (6200 ft), he says Japanese maples can be grown but may need protection from heavy snow load. He notes that some varieties do not perform well in intense cold, while others, including laceleaf types and Bloodgood, have been seen there.



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No time to listen to today’s podcast (above) with Ed Laivo? Here’s a summary. And below that, the actual transcript, with pictures, links, and music!
* Don’t expect a seed-grown peach to match the parent. Genetics are unpredictable. There’s a 70–90% chance the fruit will be disappointing or the tree won’t produce at all.
* Check whether your seedling tree even has a rootstock by looking at the base for a graft bump. A true seedling grows on its own roots, which means no disease resistance or soil adaptation guarantees.
* Plant in well-drained soil. This is the single most important factor for improving a seedling’s odds, since you can’t predict its soil tolerance.
* Give it full sun. It won’t guarantee quality fruit, but it removes one variable.
* Be realistic about your timeline. Seed-grown fruit trees can take 5–7+ years to produce, and may never produce at all.
* If space is limited, skip it. A seedling takes up valuable yard space that a proven variety could fill with reliable fruit.
* Consider tossing it and buying a named variety instead. You’ll get fruit faster, with known flavor and disease resistance.
* If you want to keep the tree, graft a branch of it on a proven variety of peach or nectarine rather than waiting years for the seedling’s unknown fruit. Find a friend with a good local peach tree and bud or graft that variety onto your seedling’s rootstock.
* Use grafting to test the tree before committing space to it. Test blocks, even at home, let you evaluate without betting your whole yard.
* If you do plant the seedling out, cut it back to knee height to encourage a low, manageable canopy (as Ed Laivo recommends).
* Factor in precocity when choosing any fruit tree. Trees that don’t fruit within the first 2–3 years are generally not worth the wait for most home gardeners.
* If you’re young, patient, and have land, go for it. Experimenting with seedlings is a worthwhile pursuit if you can afford the time and space.
* Research the Dave Wilson Nursery catalog for proven interspecific hybrids (pluots, pluerry, aprium, etc.) that have already been tested for precocity, disease resistance, and rootstock compatibility.
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In today’s podcast (above), we talk with renowned pepperhead Dave DeWitt, author of several hot pepper books. We talk hot pepper basics, and Dave adds advice on how to overwinter your hot pepper plants for a second year of growth (and heat!). We have a complete, human-corrected transcript of the podcast towards the bottom of today’s newsletter. Short of time? Here are the main points from today’s podcast:
* Start from seed for variety, or order early from pepper catalogs. Super-hot varieties like Bhut Jolokia or Scorpion peppers may be difficult to find as transplants, so grow them from seed.
* Don’t judge peppers by heat alone. Habaneros hit 80,000–200,000 Scoville units but have a fruity, apricot-like flavor, good for both heat and taste. Diluting them (e.g., one habanero in 4 cups of salsa) keeps flavor without overwhelming heat.
* Skip water or beer for pepper burn. Capsaicin isn’t water-soluble, so the relief is temporary and heat returns. Use dairy instead: yogurt, sour cream, heavy cream, whole milk or ice cream (the casein protein strips capsaicin off your mouth).
* Never let pepper roots sit in water-logged soil. Add perlite or pumice (not vermiculite) to potting soil/containers to keep roots well-drained and prevent root rot or Phytophthora fungal disease.
* Give peppers 10–12 hours of full sun daily. They’re unaffected by day length until fall, and stop flowering once they hit their max fruit load.
* Use moderate nitrogen fertilizer. Too much N (especially from urea) produces lots of foliage but few pods. Organic fertilizers (naturally low in salt, under 10% nitrogen) are a safer bet.
* Get your soil tested annually (via a University extension service, e.g., Colorado State, UMass/Amherst, Texas A&M, or Utah St) to catch salt buildup, a common yield-killer from repeated watering/fertilizing in raised beds. If salts build up, flood-irrigate the bed heavily at season’s end to flush them out.
* To overwinter a pepper plant, grow it in a container, bring it indoors (a south-facing window is enough) over winter, and move it back outside in spring. You’re just keeping it alive in the winter, not expecting fruit until summer returns.
* Choose smaller-podded varieties (like pequins) for overwintering success. Pequins retain more vigor in year two, while larger-podded types (like New Mexico chilies) lose vigor and yield less after their first year.
What To Do With All Those Peppers



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