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Sugarloaf Open Space, looking west
the car this morning
smoke layer
10:30 am in our living room
orange glow
dining room, 10:30 am
looking north
Just a couple words: We are ok - the nearest fire to us is 44 miles away. But a lot of people are not ok, clearly. Our hearts are heavy for our home state and for the entire west coast.
Crimson clover, a winter cover crop in warm climates
Did you know that you can email me directly if you go to the ‘contact me’ page on this website? I would absolutely LOVE to answer any question you have, and if I can’t answer it, I’ll be honest about that, too. It’s all too obvious that I am running out of things to write about. When I was taking Horticulture classes, I was always learning something new about gardening, or trying experiments out in the lab, and I had lots of information to share. Then I swerved briefly into more general science classes, which still had some good, relatable info. But now I’m fully into my upper division courses, which are all for my Environmental Studies degree and include boring things like data collection and carrying capacities and population control and clean energy. Well, they aren’t boring to me, but they certainly aren’t the focus of this blog, and aren’t as fun to read about as bugs and vegetables and flowers. So I really appreciate questions! They give me a chance to write about fun things and to question my knowledge and opinions of them and of course, that way we can all learn together, which is my favorite thing of all.
This morning I got a wonderful email from a reader named Jill, who lives not far from me: “ I sadly lost most of my garden due to the heatwave and an irrigation issue. I’m looking at cover crops and know nothing about the subject. Do you have any tips or links to places you buy the seeds from. Maybe some simple do’s and dont’s? “ Thank you Jill! Thank you for reading the blog and thank you for this question and thank you for your faith that I can answer it!
Buckwheat, a summer cover crop in warm climates
Cover crops can seem intimidating and confusing, so let’s start from the beginning. What is a cover crop? The simple answer is that a cover crop can be anything you want it to be. The Oxford Dictionary definition is “any crop grown for the protection and enrichment of the soil.” Farmers tend to use specific plants to satisfy specific requirements, which can be very important, especially if you want to grow without inputs i.e. chemical fertilizers. Some plants provide nitrogen, some phosphorus; others attract beneficial insects, and still others provide biomass for feeding animals. Some are grown during the summer, and some are grown during the winter. Some are grown after a specific cash crop, to replenish certain nutrients.
If you’re a farmer, and you’re making a living growing and selling your crops, you’re going to want to know a lot more details about cover crops and how they can be used to save you money. But if you’re a regular home gardener, your needs are different. You want something to improve the soil, attract beneficial insects, look pretty, and feed your compost pile when it’s done growing. Maybe you want to avoid buying soil amendments this year (they’re going to be hard to find, considering how many people are gardening for the first time). Maybe you don’t like the structure of your soil, and you want to improve its water-holding capacities. Maybe you like birds, and you want to feed insects that will in turn become food for the birds. These are all fine reasons to grow a cover crop.
The thing that is most important is that you have a living root in the ground at all times. Now, if you live in upstate NY, you know that eventually that root will likely die, and that’s the way it’s supposed to be, and maybe even you time a crop so that it winter-kills and you don’t have to cut it down yourself. If you live in California, however, you can grow different cover crops at different times of the year, year-round. Having a living root in the ground is what improves your soil. The plant harvests sunlight, makes sugars, and pumps those sugars down into the roots and into the soil. This attracts microbiota, tiny creatures that feed on the sugars that the plant provides. In turn, they poop, providing micro-manure to the soil, and they burrow, improving air flow to the roots, and they die, recycling nutrients, and they move a ton of soil, making it rich and crumbly and perfect. If there’s no root in the soil feeding the microbes, then they move on or die off (or become very, very sluggish, waiting for the next influx of food). It’s not the plant that is feeding the soil, it’s the animals that are feeding the soil - the bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and nematodes - the primary and secondary consumers. When you spread manure or compost on the soil, it doesn’t feed the plant - it feeds the soil life, which in turn form these associations with the plant roots and provide the nutrients the plant needs to thrive.
image credit: center for food safety
So if you look at it this way, any plant can be a cover crop. No matter what kind of plant it is, it is going to continuously pump sugars into the soil and feed soil life, therefore improving your growing medium.
However, some plants need a lot of nutrients. If you’re planning a summer garden full of squash or melons, for instance, you might want a high nutrient load in the soil before you plant them. Why not grow a crop that will also add specific nutrients to the soil? Here is a handy chart, provided by the Organic Growers School, to help you determine which crop you need at which time.
image credit: the Organic Growers School
Don’t worry too much about the seeding rate. I just spread it on thickly, and that does the trick.
I’ve grown many different specific cover crops, and I tend to stick to two - crimson clover in the winter, and buckwheat in the summer. Some years I don’t use them at all. Some years I plant them intercropped with other plants that I am using for food. Some years I grow them alone in specific beds. They’re both great, but both require cutting and removing before they set seed (at least here in CA), or else they will seed everywhere (which is not the worst thing in the word). I’ve also done several mixes, especially in summer, that combine many species to provide many different nutrients. This is actually proving to be best for the soil, generally. If a living root in the ground is good for the soil life, then a wide diversity of roots in the ground would naturally be even better. I’ve also grown winter wheat and oats, which provided me with the best variety of beneficial insects I’ve ever seen in my garden. Long grass is apparently second only to a pond for attracting wildlife, and we saw that firsthand.
Many seed houses sell cover crops, but the best place I’ve found is Walnut Creek Seeds in Walnut Creek, Ohio (I know, it’s a coincidence that my town is also named Walnut Creek). They’re super-friendly, the farmer (Dave Brandt) has pivoted his business from growing corn and soy to growing cover crops, and he is also involved in a lot of research with the NRCS to show how cover crops can save money for traditional farmers, improving crops, soil, water levels, and erosion. Their prices are incredibly reasonable. They also sell specific gardening mixes for the home grower. I’ve used both the summer and the winter mix, and can vouch for them. Mr. Brandt is also one of the first conventional farmers to help develop special seeding equipment to enable farmers to plant their cash crop directly into the residue from a cover crop. He has a lot of videos on his website, and I think they are fascinating. (I have also ordered phacelia from them, by the pound, for early spring seeding in my pollinator gardens. The bees go crazy for it.)
If you’re interested in how soil can be a huge catalyst to improving our planet (and some history on how it’s disappearance has contributed to societal failure), an excellent book is Growing a Revolution: Bringing our Soil Back to Life, by David R. Montgomery. If you’re looking for a nice film to help you understand these concepts, look for Symphony of the Soil, which came out years ago and is still one of the best films about soil I’ve ever seen. For a crash course on soil health and how cover crops can be used to improve your land, you can’t do better than Living Web Farms’ series with Roy Archuleta and Dave Brandt - these videos will blow your mind.
If I were Jill, and my garden had been decimated by heat and smoke (mine is pretty sad too, sister!), and if I wasn’t planning on winter food crops, and I wanted to improve the soil, I would plant buckwheat right now. It’ll grow and flower quickly in our late summer/early autumn heat; it’s quite a pretty plant, with lovely tiny white flowers. Around late October or early November, I would cut it down and lay it on top of the soil where it grew. This will provide cover for the soil over the winter. (Studies have shown that it’s better for the soil if you just lay the residue on the top, rather than turning it under.) Or, you can add that residue to your compost pile. I would then plant either a winter mix of grain, clover, peas, and radish (or the mix Dave sells) right into those same beds, and let it grow a bit before the real winter hits us. When it begins to warm up again in January/February, that cover will take off and grow like mad, and you can let it go until you are ready to cut it down and plant your spring crops. This will do wonders for your soil, and you will also be feeding pollinators: Both now, with the buckwheat, when it’s hot and crispy outside and there’s not a lot to eat, and early in spring, when the bugs are emerging from their winter dens and need nutrition, pronto.
Do any of you use cover crops regularly? What’s your experience with them? Do you have any tips for Jill (and the rest of us)? If so, please leave a comment down below. Good luck, Jill! Let me know if you have any more questions.
All bets are off this summer; nothing in my garden (or my life) is behaving the way it should.
But the zinnias? They never disappoint. Late August is here, and so are the zinnias, God bless them.
Along with cosmos and tithonia, zinnias are a stalwart presence in the late summer garden. They will bloom until the first frost, making a haven of nectar and pollen for the pollinators.
the morning sun dawns red in the smoke
As all of you know, my home state is on fire. This is not a new occurrence. This is happening with regularity now, every single year. Many factors go in to why this happens; forest management is but one of those reasons. These particular fires were caused by freak lightening, something we almost never get here, and certainly not in August. This lightening happened during an extreme high pressure dome which had us experiencing very high temperatures for over a week (and are still lingering inland). The causes of the lightening and the heat dome are rooted in the same cause of the extreme weather that is happening everywhere. Climate change is here, friends; we are no longer simply anticipating it.
I stopped on the road yesterday as I was driving to the store, to take this picture. Smoke is just a very real part of our lives now, every August through November. We need one kind of mask to help keep us safe from Covid-19, but another kind of mask altogether to protect us from the particulate matter in smoke. We’re told to stay outdoors to protect ourselves from the virus, but to stay indoors to protect ourselves from the bad air quality. Choose your poison, folks.
image credit: Matthias Gafni, San Francisco Chronicle
Of course, there are some who cannot choose. California farmworkers are still laboring beneath the smoke-filled skies, to make sure the world has as many strawberries and almonds, and as much lettuce, as they would like. Climate change, like institutional racism, affects certain populations first and hardest. The definition of privilege is surely this: Me complaining about being stuck in my air-conditioned house, while distance learning at my expensive university, on my home computer.
These hard weather days have seriously affected our garden and livestock. Our oldest OG chicken, Molly, died very suddenly in the heat. I went out to spray the chickens with water one afternoon, pretty much the only thing I can do to cool them off (which they hate, but need), and Molly was lying, quite dead, under the quince tree. It looked like she went fast, which is a blessing. (Gertrude, the chicken with the bum eye, is much better and reintegrated with the flock, at least. I think she might be blind in that eye, but she is eating and drinking and managing very well.)
We found the world’s smallest swarm on the chicken coop door one night. Who knows if it came from our colony? Regardless, even the bees, who love heat and keep the hive around 93 degrees at all times, couldn’t handle the extreme heat and smoke and made a listless break for it. Tom scraped the swarm off into a box (receiving an inevitable sting on the wrist just above his glove), and placed the box under the oak tree. The next day, they flew off.
The plants, particularly the tomatoes and peppers which are under full sun all day, are quite crispy and no longer producing. Tomatoes, especially, cannot set fruit if the temperature is much above 85 degrees F. And their leaves are all very yellow and desiccated. I’ve noticed that some of the local trees have started changing color, several months before they should, protecting themselves by cutting off nutrients to the leaves.
All the seedlings I started in the greenhouse have been eaten down to the soil, I imagine by squirrels. This has never happened before. I cannot shut the door of the greenhouse because it would be a thousand degrees in there, but my light agribon cover isn’t doing anything to keep out serious threats.
red sunset shadows through smoke on the back fence
So, some flexibility is called for, not only in the humans, but in the garden. I have ordered more seeds and have decided to take the summer garden out early. I plan to do the season changeover on Labor Day weekend rather than the first weekend in October. I’ll take out all the summer produce (luckily our canning shelf and freezer are full, as I had more time this summer to preserve; one good side effect of being stuck at home) and get those fall and winter seeds in the ground, covered with low tunnels to protect them from those pesky squirrels and birds (who are also just trying to survive the horrible weather and smoke). I feel good about this decision.
Another good reason to do this changeover on Labor Day weekend is because the Friday before, we will be taking Adam to college. Or at least, that’s what we expect will happen (flexibility has been required in this department and more may be needed as plans change. UC Santa Cruz was just evacuated due to nearby fire). Staying busy in the days that follow that will be just what I need.
Meanwhile, we pray for the firefighters, one of whom lives on our block and has a toddler and another baby on the way. We pray for our leaders as they navigate a confluence of big, scary events. We pray for those that have had to leave their homes and go to live in shelters, many with just the clothes on their backs. We pack go-bags and make sure the emergency binder is updated with all the newest information and prepare to leave at a moment’s notice if necessary. Another lightening event is possible Sunday night into Monday as another tropical storm moves up the Baja peninsula, which also could cause high winds. We haven’t even had our usual autumn big-wind events yet. Fire season is just beginning.
image credit: Monty Don
For a couple of years now, I’ve been watching Gardener’s World - a fabulous show out of England that first I found on YouTube, and now we watch on Brit Box. It airs Friday night in the UK, and it has become a Saturday morning ritual for me and Tom to grab our coffee and watch it before we begin our weekend. The shots of the flowers and birds, the stray video of one of Monty’s adorable dogs in the garden, virtual tours of famous gardens and smallholders alike, plus a raft of ‘jobs for the weekend’ - we just love it and it sets the mood for the weekend ahead.
A common practice in the UK seems to be the setting out, in the autumn, of the ‘bulb table’ - an old table or plank, filled with interesting old pots that hold numerous spring-flowering bulbs. The table is set by the home’s back doors or windows, so that in the cold and grey spring, one can watch as the bulbs begin to emerge and flower, and therefore be cheered and assured that warmer weather is on the way. I think it is a charming tradition and very much wanted to join in. I don’t have a lot of extra old pots sitting around (I need to shop the sales when they occur and plan ahead for next year!), but I have a few. I ordered a bunch of spring bulbs and then last weekend, I got them planted and set out on an old bench that my dad made. It is, in fact, a bench he made for my brother and I to sit in when we were very small. A few years ago he painted it with boat paint so that I could keep it outside, and the paint has protected it well. I use it for perching and watching the bees fly in and out of the hive, or for watching the chickens. Now it holds my pots of bulbs.
We’ll be able to see this from our dining room windows and the blooms will be cheering in late winter/early spring. I have lots of different bulbs in the ground, of course, but this is a special display meant to be seen from the house. When the bulbs have finished flowering, they are then planted in the garden to fill out the beds in the following years, and new bulbs are purchased for fall planting in the pots.
There are other projects that need to be done now, if the following seasons are to be a success. It is time to plant seeds for winter harvest (or for fall, if you live in colder climes). Last weekend I seeded up trays of broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kohlrabi, leeks, and beets. They are in the greenhouse, no door on the front, shielded by a thin layer of agribon (mainly to keep away the cabbage white butterflies). They will be planted out into the garden beds October 1 or thereabouts. At that time, I’ll also seed directly all the other veg that we like to grow in the winter time.
This means, of course, that now is the time to order the seeds you will need. If fall is anything like spring, with people continuing to explore home food production, you’re going to want to get right on that before the seed houses sell out.
It’s also a really good time to figure out your garden plan for next season. I have some very remedial blank layouts that I have saved on my computer, which I just print out and use to plan the seasons ahead. I try to allow for some crop rotation (if possible) and think ahead, even, to the season after the coming one. It takes some tweaking and sometimes several iterations before I feel like I’ve got it all just right.
Our daughter Rin, a senior in high school this year, has already started classes online. I begin next week, with three labs in person (though the class is split up into groups of nine) and all of the lectures online. We are still not sure if our son Adam will be able to actually go to his chosen college, and are hoping for news about that soon - it’s getting down to the wire. Meanwhile he is still working full time at the bakery, which continues to sell out of product early every day (comfort food?). Tom is still working at home and it’s a very busy time for him with his college. The logistic challenges of all of this are just enormous, and he really never stops working, trying to make it all fit and ensuring that the students get what they need in this confusing time. All four of us have our own routines for our off times, which keeps us sane and fit. Tom walks in the dark every night around 8:30, and I go hiking early in the morning when it’s cool. I generally spend the rest of the day in food preservation mode. Rin has been very involved with a daily protest in our city (with social distancing) and Adam has been trying to see friends (with social distancing) before they all go their separate ways for college. The four of us meet at the dining room table every night for a feast made with food grown in our garden. Neighborhood kids (the little ones) come by on their daily walks to visit the chickens. One of our chickens has some sort of an eye problem - I don’t know if she got scratched by a stick, or if some dirt got caught in there, or what - she’s been in isolation for five days as it heals, because the other chickens can be very mean to a sick or injured chicken and make things much worse. I’m hoping her eye does heal, because if she loses vision in that eye, everything will be very difficult for her and we’ll have to make some hard decisions.
So, life continues on no matter the challenges, or perhaps in spite of them. I’d love to know what’s happening in your gardens, what you’re eating and preserving, and how you are managing lives spent mostly at home.