As a Master Gardeners and Advisors, we receive a lot of samples of plant problems. Some problems are easy to identify but others can be perplexing and often confounded by inadequate information.  I recently received a sample of Bradford pear leaves (Pyrus calleryana) with very interesting symptoms.  At first, I thought that the plant may have been picking up something that was toxic to it because it appeared that the leaf was showing dieback progressively from the middle of the leave out to the margins.  At least I thought that was what I was seeing.  However, upon further inspection and discussion with the owner, I realized that the dieback was actually a fairly quick but progressive drying from the margins inward toward the middle.  The brown part at the mid-vein was from sunburn and was last to dry out whereas the margins dried very quickly without actually sun burning.  It turned out that the woman and her husband were very ill for a month or so in the middle of summer and were unable to get out and water (they didn’t have automatic sprinklers).  The point of the story?  Snap judgments can be dangerous.  To learn more about pests and problems with Bradford Pear…….

Is it really fall?  It is going to be 101F today but yet, the nights are cooling off and that makes all the difference in the fall garden.  I went to a nursery to purchase some transplants and they said..."we don't have them in yet because it is still too hot".  I wanted to say nonsense!  It is almost too late for planting broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and the other cole crops for much of California.  The reality is, if you wait until it really cools off, your plants will just sit there for the rest of the winter doing nothing and you will have very small heads to harvest in early spring.  So get going and get your planting done.  Vegies you can plant now in the interior valleys include: beets, carrots, chard, endive, fennel, garlic, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, lettuces, mustard, green onions, peas, white potatoes, radish, rutabaga, spinach, and turnips.  If you are on the south coast, you can plant much of the same things but you can plant continuously over a longer period of time...through early spring.  In the north coast, it is almost too late for most things with the exception of broccoli from transplants, peas and spinach.  You can try many of the same crops but because your season is so much shorter, they may or may not do well. To maximize your plantings consider covering them with a floating row cover to retain heat.  In the desert valleys, plant all of the cool season crops between now and November/December.  Click Here to learn more on how much to plant, when and how to use these wonderful crops.

'Redbore' Kale-photo by P. Geisel

cabbage leaves-Photo by Marcy Hachman

If you want to learn more about growing olives and curing them safely at home, join our Home Olive Curing Workshop on Saturday, September 26th, 9-12 at the historic Mills Orchard near Hamilton City, CA (located about 1-1/2 hours north of Sacramento).  UC Olive Expert Bill Krueger and myself, will discuss olive culture, varieties and share our knowledge about olive curing with hands-on demonstrations.  Cost is $35.00 and includes olive tasting, refreshments and recipes and this publication.  To register, click here:  

http://ceglenn.ucdavis.edu/OrchardCrops_MainPage/Home_Olive_Curing_Workshop.htm

or send a check made payable to UC Regents for $35.00 and mail to UCCE, P.O. Box 697, Orland, CA  95963.  Seating is very limited so register early (first come, first serve).  For more information call (530)865-1107.  Directions will follow with your payment. 

Composting Is Good for Your Garden and the Environment (ANR Publication 8367), has now been published online and is available at no charge at the ANR CS Web site at http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/pdf/8367.pdf

To view the catalog listing for this title, go to this URL: http://anrcatalog.ucdavis.edu/InOrder/Shop/ItemDetails.asp?ItemNo=8367. Let us know if you have any trouble viewing, downloading, or printing the publication.

Some key tips about composting this time of year include:

• Keep compost piles evenly moist but not wet.
• Use a mixture of materials such that they are about 50:50 green waste (lawn clippings, kitchen waste, shredded yard waste) to dry brown organic matter (dry leaves, shredded newspapers, brown plant debris etc.)
• Turn the pile often for faster breakdown into garden ready compost. Daily to weekly is best.
• Once your compost pile grows to about 3x3x3 ft square, don't add any more to it.  Start a new pile instead.  Allow your first pile to break down completely.
• Once your materials are composted completely, incorporate it into your garden beds, top dress  your lawn, add to container plants or use as a mulch around your trees.

This is my first post on this blog and it is about gardening in its most PRACTICAL and useful sense.  So often I see articles about gardening that are really beautiful and lyrical but geez...how real are they?  The thing they don't tell you is that that container that was so lush and full of flowers in the picture only lasted for about 3 months or that just before the photo every piece of leaf litter was meticulously picked up and the lawn photo was airbrushed.  My goal with this weekly blog is to create a space where real world gardening (and by that I mean in California not the UK) meets PRACTICAL advice.  Please feel free to add your PRACTICAL gardening advice to this blog in the comments section.

The first PRACTICAL topic is Olives.  Olive harvest will be starting soon here in California.  There are many roadside trees just waiting for you to pick the fruit and make them into tasty olives to enjoy the rest of the year.  Okay you say...how PRACTICAL is that?  Me, cure olives?  It really is a very easy and very PRACTICAL thing to do and it doesn't take much time.  It also beats paying a bunch of money for those wonderful olives at the upscale grocery store olive bars. 

There are many ways to cure olives to get different flavors and for different uses.  My favorite are the green lye cured olives but I also enjoy salt cured olives.  There are also fermented olives, and Greek Style cured olives and several other types.  Now here is the PRACTICAL advice....go download a free copy of ANRs publication on curing olives by going to:  http://ucanr.org/freepubs/docs/8267.pdf   This is one of the best, most PRACTICAL publications on the topic.  I used it last year while making olives and it was truly helpful and my olives were yummy. 

If you want to learn more about growing olives and curing them safely at home, join our Home Olive Curing Workshop on Saturday, September 26th, 9-12 at the historic Mills Orchard near Hamilton City, CA (located about 1-1/2 hours north of Sacramento).  UC Olive Expert Bill Krueger and myself, will discuss olive culture, varieties and share our knowledge about olive curing with hands-on demonstrations.  Cost is $35.00 and includes olive tasting, refreshments and recipes and this publication.  To register, send a check made payable to UC Regents for $35.00 and mail to UCCE, P.O. Box 697, Orland, CA  95963.  Seating is very limited so register early (first come, first serve).  For more information call (530)865-1107.  Directions will follow with your payment.