A Beautiful Friday in the Garden

APHID UPDATE: The aphids have now moved on to cabbage and chard and Pat is fighting what seems to be a losing battle! She said that with the advent of the warmer weather and sunshine that the aphid population seems to be exploding. Her advice: just be diligent and continue spraying with the Safer Soap as much as possible, as well as following the other tips from our previous post.   And pay attention to all of your tasty leafy veggies - not just kale- because they are definitely not immune either!

Yep... the aphids have gotten to the cabbage.  Now that's nasty!

This poor little kale plant was stunted from all of the aphid damage!

Other than the bad news on the aphid front, everything else in the garden is doing well and it is a beautiful sunny day! The artichokes are sprouting, the calendula adds a vibrant touch of orange all over the garden, and the newly planted radishes and nasturtiums are starting to sprout!  Enjoy some recent photos below and have a great weekend!

The calendula is spectacular right now!

Now I want a Greek salad!

 

Maybe the chard is starting to have an aphid problem too, but it is all over the garden and still looks delicious to me!

The purple hues of the kale and cabbage complement each other nicely, don't you think?

Pat is working diligently away at spraying the kale with the Safer Soap to rid it of aphids.

Go, Mr. Ladybug, go!  Eat those aphids so I can eat this delicious artichoke.

Ok so these aren't in the garden, but are so spectacular I had to share them anyway.  The tulip trees on campus are breathtaking right now!

Aphids Attack Kale, Leave Chard Alone?

 We've got some aphid issues in the garden.  Do you?  The weird thing is that they are going after kale, but not chard or other greens, any idea why?

It is kind of hard to see, but here Pat is showing me how deep the aphids can get into our crops...kale in particular seems popular with the pests this year!

Here is a photo of the damage that aphids can wreak on your edibles.  This was kale!

 After talking with Pat Stoffel, UC Davis Good Life Garden gardener extraordinaire, she pointed out this odd occurrence and spoke about how she manages aphids by using Safer Soap.  The problem with this method is that it takes a long time to go through each plant under attack and it only eliminates aphids currently feasting on our greens.  Other than that, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot else one can do to fight these buggers long term.

Below is some information you may find helpful in controlling aphids in your garden.  This text is edited from "The Yolo Gardener" Spring 2010 Newsletter--a quarterly publication by the UC Yolo County Master Gardeners.  Thank you to Master Gardener Barbara Ohlendorf for this very informative article!

Here are my cliff notes to aphid control based on her article:

• It is hard! (Brilliant observation, right!)
• Aphids are annoying and they have lots of little friends that help them out.

Control methods:

• Hose down the affected plants that are hosting colonies every few days
• This won't get rid of them all, but you want to keep some aphids around so that their natural enemies, like ladybugs, stick around.
• Where you have aphids you probably also have ants that protect the aphids from their natural enemies.  Why? Because ants like to feed on aphid honeydew. (Honeydew is a euphemism for the aphid spit that these bugs excrete in order to chow down on your plants.)
• You will need to get into the ant 'elimination' business as well. 
• Consider using an organic insecticide like Safer Soap (See above.) to manage the population without damaging your plants or destroying your garden's eco-balance.

To read the unabridged version of this article go to their website and download the Spring 2011 newsletter here.  You can also sign up to receive this newsletter by entering your email address at the top of this page.

UC Integrated Pest Management Information

• Aphids
• Ants

NEED MORE?  Attend this FREE Public Education Class

The Whys and Hows of Integrated Pest Management
Time:  March 12, 2011 at 9:30 AM
Place:  Central Park Gardens, 3rd and B Street, Davis, CA

UPDATE: IT'S NOT TOO LATE to plan for the Fall / Winter Season

For all you local gardeners who may be feeling like you've missed the boat by not sowing your seeds yet for the Fall / Winter season; it's not too late!  (Or, at least we hope so!)

Pat, our gardener (in the hat), takes a moment to speak with a journalist.  Note how she has cut back many of our garden perennials like chives and the ornamental society garlic to grow again during the Fall and Winter season.

Last week our gardener Pat worked hard on the "out with the old" chore of garden clean-up by pulling out any herbs unharvested by our enthusiastic community of gleaners!  (Thank you again to those who participated in our last herb harvest of the year!)  She also began prepping the soil by working in compost from our own Student Farm, along with a soil supplement we told you about last season called Earthworks Renovate/Plus.  For more information about this product check out our previous blog entry on the topic here.

This patch is where we grew our corn.  The spearmint patch in the foreground looks very happy doesn't it?  It smells great too, but don't forget to keep it pulled up and pruned back from areas where you don't want it--mint likes to take over!

It is looking rather barren out there now.  It's times like these when there's hope in the air...as in, I hope something grows from all those seeds of lettuce, chard, kale, beets, etc. we'll be planting this week!

What's going on with your garden so far this season?

New 'Starts' for the Garden--PART ONE

It's still officially winter, but at the UC Davis Good Life Garden we are officially getting the garden ready for our spring season! Since the garden debuted about a year and a half ago it's been so nice to see how our some of our perennial herbs and vegetables are maturing and growing accustomed to their new homes.

As most gardeners know, growing edibles, or really any plants, is always a learning experience. Some edibles we grow from 'starts'--young plants grown from seed in a green house and then transplanted to the garden, and others we grow from seed planted right in the garden.

The seeds are first planted in the flats and grown inside the nursery greenhouse. (See above.) Once the young plants are established they are moved outside to 'firm' up before transportation to your nursery or yard. (See photo left.)

Here is a list of the starts that were grown from Seeds of Change seeds by Kelly's Color Nursery, Inc., a local nursery wholesaler found right here in Davis.

• Tango Celery
• Silverado Chard
• Bright Lights Chard
• Rhubarb Chard
• Dinosaur Kale
• Tadorna Leeks

We also picked up a variety of flowers not only to encourage visitation from a variety of beneficial animals and insects to the garden, but to add visual appeal. Those flowers are:

• Bon Bon Orange Calendula
• Soprano White Osteospermum
• Sunny Sheila Improved Osteospermum
• Autumn Colors Rudbeckia
• Cherry Brandi Rudbeckia
• Sonnet Crimson Snap Dragons

Here Kelly, Owner, Kelly's Color Nursery; Christina DeMartini Reyes, Landscape Architect / Designer for UC Davis Good Life Garden; and, Ed Nordstrom, Supervisor for UC Davis Good Life Garden review the new order.