The Alameda County Master Gardeners began this project in the spring of 2007. After two years of development, the garden is up and running in the summer of 2009 to provide outreach and service to the local community.
Monarch Habitat talk in trials garden
- To test varieties of vegetables to see which do best in our marine-influenced local climate.
- To test and demonstrate various types of irrigation, mulching, plant support, planting containers and other techniques that might enhance growing success.
- To test and demonstrate the use of summer-dry ornamental plants to beautify the garden and save water, with a focus on the plants in our brochure Outstanding Plants for Alameda County.
- To demonstrate inviting butterflies, bees, and birds into your garden.
- To provide a venue for garden workshops, classes and demonstrations for Master Gardeners and the general public.
- To provide a venue for ongoing public outreach for answering gardening questions.
- Because we are in a public garden that does not allow chemicals for fertilizing or pest control, we only will practice and demonstrate organic, sustainable methods in the Trials Garden.
- We are an educational garden always open to the public during Garden Center hours even when Master Gardeners are not present.
Master Gardeners are at the Lake Merritt Trial Gardens to answer your gardening questions
Shrubby Monkey Flower - Outstanding Plant for Alameda County
Lake Merritt Trials Garden Results-Summer, 2009
Cherry Tomatoes
We trialed five varieties of cherry tomatoes this year: Sungold; Chadwick’s Cherry; Green Grape; Yellow Pear and Sweet Million. Only Sungold and Sweet Million could be recommended with Sungold the clear winner. Sungold was very productive all season with an excellent flavor. Sweet Million had good flavor and a large size with good production although not on a par with Sungold. Chadwick’s Cherry suffered from wilt and the others had little flavor. They might do better in a hotter environment.
Summer Squash
We did not trial different varieties of summer squash this summer. We did, however, grow a clear winner. It is an Italian heirloom variety with lime-green trumpet-shaped fruits that have artichoke-like flavor, good texture and amazing production. It grows on a vigorous vine that requires support on a trellis or fence. Renee’s Garden Seeds lists it as “Trombetta di Albenga,” Seeds from Italy lists it as “Tromba d'Albenga” and Territorial Seeds has it as “Tromboncino.”
Lake Merritt Trials Garden Results - Summer, 2008
Because our garden is open to the public, it is difficult to get an accurate measure of production due to theft. This is especially true with the tomatoes and peppers. Our conclusions, therefore, are general ones.
Green Beans
Romano and Blue Lake green beans were compared both as pole and bush varieties. Both had excellent flavor and few pests. There were major differences in the pole varieties. We harvested about 11 pounds of Romano pole beans, almost 4 times as much fruit as the Blue Lake pole beans. Both beans were growing on the same cage, so the Romano was clearly a more productive pole bean for us.
The bush bean trial differences were not as dramatic. We harvested almost 8 pounds of bush Romano and almost 7 pounds of bush Blue Lake. Both produced over a shorter period of time compared to the pole beans.
Tomatoes
In mid-April we set out two plants each of six tomato varieties: Early Girl, Stupice, Carmello, Marianne’s Peace, Green Cherokee and Jetsetter.
The earliest tomato was Stupice, which had good production of golf-ball sized fruit by July 9. It continued to produce until September 17 when the tomatoes were more the size of cherry tomatoes. Stupice is an excellent early tomato but needs to be supplemented with another later-fruiting variety.
Carmello, Marianne Peace, Green Cherokee and Jetsetter all developed verticilllium wilt. The two heirloom tomatoes, Green Cherokee and Marianne’s Peace, were hit the earliest and hardest. Jetsetter and Carmello were hit later, which limited production.
The star of the trials was the hybrid Early Girl. We harvested about 100 small, very flavorful fruits, which was more than twice as many as any other variety. It began fruiting very early, around July 9, and had no significant disease problems.
Peppers
We grew six pepper varieties: Anaheim, a mildly hot small pepper, Gypsy, a sweet pepper, Hungarian Wax, a mildly hot pepper, Jalapeno, a small hot pepper, Costa Rican, a sweet pepper and Serrano, a very hot small pepper. The Anaheim pepper was over-wintered from 2007 and was clearly the largest and most productive. The jalapeno was next most productive, followed by the Hungarian wax. The others had only limited production. Because of the theft issue, it was hard to make clear recommendations.