Question from Dee:

Answer from Pat:
Most herbs are easy to grow but variegated thyme is a little less long-lived than common thyme (Thymus vulgarus.) If you live in a very hot place your herbs would appreciate light shade rather than full sun. Thyme likes deep, light, well-drained soil, it doesn’t grow well in heavy clay. If you have clay soil, amend it well with organics before planting. Thyme prefers deep watering so that it dries out between irrigations, but I find that creeping types of thyme need more water and moister soil than most people think.
Growing creeping thymes between stepping stones is one of the best ways, keeping roots cool, moist but not overwatered. Almost any type of thyme grows best next to a rock that it can nestle its roots under. In sun that bakes as long as your query suggests, a nice big, cool rock nestled into the ground next to the plant would do wonders. Clip the plant back as it grows. This will make it put out fresh growth and stay bushy. Yes, you can grow thyme in pots filled with a good quality of potting soil, but choose one large enough for roots. About one foot across should do the trick.

True French tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus) needs somewhat richer soil than thyme but prefers it to be well-drained. It can even take some fertilizer to keep it growing. Yes, this plant also can be grown with a little shade and does well in pots. I have had luck growing it in the garden and also pots. If you have the real French tarragon, it tastes good in cooking and clip it back to keep it branching and growing. Mexican tarragon (Tagetes lucida) lacks the real taste of tarragon. It doesn’t taste as good. All tarragon dies to the ground in winter. In mild zones it usually rots and doesn’t come back the following year. With as much heat as evidently your plants have had, it might have suffered from root rot. I think both your plants might have been victims of heat. Rock gardens are ideal for growing herbs.

Since you are new to gardening, please don’t become discouraged, but try to keep you spirits up. All of us have failures sometimes and some plants die no matter what. So keep on trying, experimenting, and learning by experience. New gardeners often fail to do proper soil improvement prior to planting and sometimes they either over or under water plants, and over or under fertilize them. Eventually you will get the hang of the whole subject and have success.

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1. French Marigolds Work Against Nematodes

Answer from Pat:
Yes, I sure do have a suggestion. You need to undertake a program of corrective pruning in winter or very early spring after your tree has dropped its leaves and before new buds open, followed by annual fall pruning to keep the tree growing and bearing. You also need to undertake a regular schedule of cleaning up the tree to remove all mummified fruit, debris, twigs, and dead fallen bark, and thoroughly clean up the ground under the tree in winter, followed by spraying with fungicide more than once in winter to control the pests and diseases that can and will beset neglected peach trees. Also cover the ground with fresh mulch under the tree after spraying and pruning. This will do much to control diseases, and fertilize your trees according the the time and directions provided by your local University Extension. Placing a layer of aged manure under the tree after cleaning the ground in fall, and covering the root zone but not touching the trunk, could do much to aid the health and recovery of your tree and would provide both fertilizer and mulch. (Deciduous fruit trees do not have a heavy requirement for fertilizer but they do need some.)

It sounds to me as if your tree is suffering from a disease such as brown rot, which results in mummified and rotting fruit, or it may have other fungus diseases such as bacterial leaf spot, which can also turn fruit brown and shriveled. Also, your failure to prune is why the tree can no longer bear much fruit. Oozing of sap can be caused by diseases such as gumosis, but also from peach-tree borers and other pests. Unfortunately, neglected peach trees always go into severe decline and seldom if ever come to a good end.

Peach trees need more severe winter pruning than any other deciduous fruit trees because the fruit is only born on one-year old shoots. Dormant spray is done to control pests as well as diseases. If you do not prune and if your tree isn’t bearing or only bearing on the tips, this is because you haven’t pruned it enough to stimulate growth of adequate new wood that will bear the following year.

Go to your local book store or look online and purchase a good book on pruning deciduous fruit trees. Make sure it contains diagrams. You will also need to know when to prune in your area. Here in California where I live we have a mild-winter climate so we prune our deciduous fruit trees in January. In summer the only pruning we do is to remove suckers arising from branches or from the ground. In Ohio the right time of year to prune a young peach tree is March. But your tree is a mature tree, and timing for that might be different, so refer to the University Extension In your area and phone the Master Gardeners for advice. I would expect March to be the time to prune, but I am not sure about the correct time to prune in Illinois, so ask the experts at your University of Illinois University Extension. Also send for a copy of Ohio State University Extension Bulletin 528. “Training and Pruning Fruit Trees.” (Mentioned below.) You can also find out if there is a similar publication in Illinois.

For your own safety I recommend you purchase a sturdy three-legged ladder. A three-legged orchard ladder is one of the best purchases a gardener can ever make. I have owned one of these for many years. With good care it can last a lifetime.

Brown rot is a fungus disease that attacks fruits and twigs of stone fruits. Peach leaf curl attacks the leaves of peach trees twisting them out of shape and can kill trees. Another disease is bacterial leaf spot which causes black or brown spots on green leaves and brown sunken areas on fruit. In order to prevent these diseases from ruining your harvest and killing your tree, in addition to pruning you will need to undertake undertake a regular program of annual dormant spray in late fall and winter, which you will need to repeat more than once. (Ask your University Extension when spraying should be done and wear protective clothing.) Spray with a product such as dormant disease lime sulfur spray mixed with horticultural oil against pests. Some organic gardeners claim that beneficial fungi control all negative fungi in their gardens, but obviously this is not the case in your garden. Thus you need to spray with dormant spray. If you are an organic gardener, choose an organic product, such as Bonide Organic Lime Sulfur Spray. Even organic gardeners need to use dormant spray on roses or if they intend to have any luck growing deciduous fruit trees, especially peaches that are more subject to disease problems than any other fruit tree.

For more information: Please refer to the information on peach leaf curl on pages 59 and 62 of my organic book and see the information on pruning of peaches and other deciduous fruit trees discussed on page 51. Page 382 once again covers the subject of peach leaf curl at the right time of year when we need to control it here. This timing of course will not be right for you, but will help others reading this blog.

For how to correct your tree’s shape and size, see UC University Extension Publication 8058: Pruning Overgrown Deciduous Fruit Trees. (This pamphlet is on the internet and includes excellent instructions for correcting an overgrown deciduous fruit tree.) Also see: Ohio State University Extension Bulletin 528. “Training and Pruning Fruit Trees.”
Ohio University Extension Fact Sheet 4321-1086 will also give you much information on growing peaches and nectarines in the home landscape.
University of Illinois Extension has some helpful information also: http://urbanext.illinois.edu/fruit/tree.cfm?section=tree
Also see this valuable information from the University of Illinois (Your state!) http://urbanext.illinois.edu/fruit/peaches.cfm?section=tree

It is not too late to save your peach trees but I hope you realize now you can’t simply plant them and forget them.

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1. Corrective Pruning Fruit Trees
2. Dormant Spray For Low-Chill Apple Trees
3. Preventing Sap From Oozing from Peach and Nectarine Fruit

Question from Christina:

Answer from Pat:
Cilantro is an annual plant. It is not a perennial. An annual grows only for one season and then sets seeds and dies. Cilantro often goes purple when it is ready to set seed and die. If it is being grown in a small container with crowded roots, the plant will be stressed, it will think it’s going to die, so it will go purple and bolt (that is go to seed) prematurely in order to leave some progeny and continue its race.

Cilantro grows best in the ground or in a raised bed, not in a small container. When growing cilantro in a container make sure it is a large one, such as an 18-inch tub. Place the tub in full sun and water it regularly and enough to keep the ground evenly moist. (Whenever you water a plant in a container, you should water enough so that water pours out the bottom of the pot. This keeps the salts washed out. Salts also would ruin your crop.) Additionally when growing in a container, be sure to fertilize cilantro regularly. Potting mix contains no fertilizer. You must provide food for the plant so it will grow rapidly.

Since cilantro is an annual it won’t live forever. As soon as it is about 5 inches tall, begin harvesting with scissors and leave some growing so you can harvest more. Every time you harvest fertilize the plant to keep it growing. For example you could use fish emulsion mixed according to package directions.

In my Southern California garden I have only grown cilantro as a cool-season crop, planting it in fall or simply waiting until it volunteers and then allowing it to grow, and harvesting often. When it gets old and ready to bolt it often goes a bit purple. The purple leaves are not poisonous but they are strong tasting. The young leaves are the best part to eat. The older leaves are a different shape and generally too strong in flavor to eat unless cooked in soup.

In home gardens cilantro germinates easily in fall, grows well in cool temperatures and flourishes when grown throughout cool weather. When subjected to temperature swings such as hot days or dry soil, this can turn leaves purple also. Purple leaves often occur before the plants bolt or go to seed.

Grow cilantro in moist, fertile, well-drained soil and harvest it when young. If you cut off the top foliage often, the plants will continue to send up more growth, but eventually the plants, being annuals, will be worn out and will either die or bolt. Keep cilantro growing rapidly with regular applications of balanced organic fertilizer and adequate water and it should not have purple leaves.

To have regular harvests, plant successive crops throughout the season. If seeds won’t sprout due to warm soil temperatures, try freezing them overnight in a plastic bag prior to planting.

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Question from Kathy:

Anyway, you were wonderful to reply to me and my problem and I will later on let you know how I make out.
Regards, Kathy

Answer from Pat:
Bearded iris are not drought-resistant plants. They need regular irrigation and full sun. Sometimes when iris stop blooming it is because they have insufficient water or fertilizer, but nine times out of ten it is because they were once in full sun and now are in full shade or have not been divided for many years. See the June chapter of my book for instructions on how to divide and replant bearded iris.

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Question from Jan:

Would you mind refreshing my memory about the composter your daughter researched? I’m going to need to get one very soon!

Answer from Pat:
Almost any drum composter will work if the person making the compost follows the directions that come with the composter. The problems people have with drum composters usually come from adding too much fresh stuff into compost that is already well on its way to being done. The only solution is to have two of them so that as one cooks the other one can be filling up, and this can be expensive and also may take up too much room. Another problem may be that some of the composters sold in America may be a bit flimsy. Read the reviews and you will see that flimsy construction is a criticism of one drum composter that is otherwise very cleverly designed.

My daughter Wendy, who is scientifically minded, made a complete study of drum composters prior to purchase and discovered that there is a type made in Sweden called the Jora Composter. It comes in two sizes and all of them have two compartments. Both my daughters use this with great success and I have ordered a small one also. According to Wendy every household in Sweden has one.

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Question from Charlie:

Answer from Pat:
The small, winter-blooming, pink flower with yellow eye, and three-lobed, grayish-green foliage is Oxalis purpurea ‘Cherry’, a selection of a South African corm. This dwarf, ground-hugging variety you have is somewhat rare. However, the surprising fact is that I have it in my garden also where it is often admired and where I cherish it myself. There are many other named cultivars of this species of oxalis but you have one of the rarer types. I’m surprised you don’t like it, but I imagine the difference is how it is being used and whether it gets inadvertently moved around. I have it growing on the edge of a raised bed that is walled with un-mortared stone. For the most part it stays close to the rocks and graces one side of a path. In this area, it’s neat and tidy looking. The foliage springs up with the first rain and is soon dotted with flowers that bloom in a cheerful shade of deep pink all winter long. As soon as hot weather returns it dies to the ground and is not seen again until fall. The color of the flowers looks particularly good inside each individual plant’s rosette of soft gray-green foliage. So far as I can tell this oxalis has no pests nor diseases. Caterpillars, slugs and snails all shun it.

You mention the fact that for you it is invasive. If one digs up the ground in the area where it is growing one might spread the corms. That has happened in my garden and a few of these plants are now growing in a wildflower bed in my garden, but they are as welcome there as they were in the other location. I don’t think this plant makes seeds, and in my garden it stayed in one place for many years and actually took many years before I had enough of them to share with my friends who wanted some. Maybe you are being too good to it?

If you really want to kill this oxalis I suppose Roundup would do the job, but I am not sure, since the corm might continue to live—corms tend to be persistent—, and anyway, as an organic gardener I don’t believe in Roundup. If you used Roundup you will find that seeds will not germinate well for several years in that area. Here are three ways for getting rid of it: One: You might be able to ask your local garden club to come and dig these plants up and pot them for one of their garden sales since it’s much admired by many gardeners and difficult to find. Two: I would think that the best way to get rid of this plant would be too dig them up during growth and bloom and sieve the soil, throwing away the corms. Start digging them up in fall and continue until spring, getting rid of the plants each time a new one sprouts. Three: Shade kills this plant. Cover the ground with a thick layer of mulch and you will not have it any more. I think the reason my little patch of this oxalis never spread is because I habitually mulch the ground. The only place it could survive was in the earth-filled crevasses of a dry wall.

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Generic Fertilizers & Soil Amendments Chart.

Be sure to reference “Southern California Organic Gardening: Month by Month” for in depth use instructions.

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Question from Trinidad:

Answer from Pat:
Terr-O-Vite is no longer available. It has not been made for at least fifteen years. I mentioned this product in my first book published twenty years ago. Ten years later when I revised my book a second time, Terr-O-Vite was no longer made. It was a good product, it made plants grow like mad, but it did cause run-off into the ground water. Now we know we shouldn’t use products that get into the groundwater. But years ago we weren’t as aware of that problem as we are now. These days we are much more aware of environmental hazards and how we should avoid them. Terr-O-Vite contained a penetrant and that’s one reason why it worked well because Western soils are dry and alkaline and often shed water, but that is also one reason why it went through the upper layers of soil quickly and contaminated the water in aquifers deep down in the earth.

But times have changed. Now as a liquid fertilizer I often recommend fish emulsion, which is organic and does not cause massive problems of run-off. This is another possibility for using on your brunfelsias (Brunfelsia ‘Royal Purple’.) As I have stated in all my books, one can stimulate heavy June bloom on brunfelsia ‘Royal Purple’ by fertilizing twice in winter, in December and again in January, by fertilizing with a nitrogen fertilizer mixed double strength. Used this way it will not burn roots, largely because nitrogen is not as active in cold temperatures. So fish emulsion is another possibility to use for this technique. Mix it double strength for feeding Brunfelsia ‘Royal Purple’ in winter as described in my book. Fish emulsion does not burn.

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From Dave:

Reply by Pat: Sounds good, though chicken manure is a little strong for planting medium. Usual instructions are for planting out of containers straight into un-amended native soil. However, when planting in clay it’s always a good idea to work some gypsum in the bottom of the hole to increase drainage under the root ball. Any fertilizer can be added later on top of the soil. You will probably be okay but keep in touch. I hope the roots won’t be burned by direct contact with chicken manure.

Beaumont trees are good for home growing but all nuts should be picked off the tree once a year, whether or not they fall off naturally, at the time and in the way as described in my book. Emptying the tree of nuts this way prevents them from getting smaller and smaller each year. Other varieties fall off naturally.

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Answer from Pat:
It is too late to spray fruit at this time of year with anything. The damage is already done. Spraying now in August would be entirely ineffectual and even harmful to yourself, your tree, and the environment. You can, however, build up the health of the tree by improving the soil with amendments including John and Bob’s Soil Optimizer, kelp, humic acid, and home-made compost. I advocate dormant spray for peach trees and this can only be done in winter after the leaves have fallen and the tree is dormant.

Begin your spraying routine in fall after leaves have fallen and you have correctly pruned the tree and cleaned it up. November, December, and January are the times to use dormant sprays as discussed, explained, and described in detail in my organic book on pages 57 to 59, 382, 384, 385, and 403. (Also see pages 45 and 46.) I’m sorry that the information is just too long to cover again here. Additionally, please notice the checklists at the end of every chapter. These lists cover all the plants we grow and the tasks to be done each month. Don’t be overwhelmed. No one has all these plants so the lists are far more comprehensive than any one gardener needs but they jog your memory when you need it, like last winter when you should have been doing this job. So this year, begin in fall this year to protect your tree for next year.

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1. Fruit Trees in Southern California
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3. Peach Tree Problems and Solutions: Pruning, Fertilizer, and Dormant Spray