Question from Candace and Cyrus:

Answer from Pat:
One of the most pressing current needs of gardeners is a drought- and-wear-resistant ground cover to take the place of a lawn, especially for people who have dogs or children who love to run and play and can wear out many kinds of ground covers. My suggestions are these: First a bermudagrass lawn such as ‘Santa Ana’ or ‘Tifgreen’ is grass but it is very drought-resistant and will stay green along the coast even in winter and will take no more water than gazanias. In a drought it will pull in its horns and go brown but it will not die. It is far better to water it longer once a week than more shallowly and for less long three times a week as some cities now mistakenly legislate.

Secondly I suggest planting creeping white yarrow or woolly yarrow (Achillea tomentosa) as a lawn. Plant seeds in fall and keep the ground damp until they are germinated. It will take a little time to become established but it will eventually make a ferny green mat that is very pleasant to walk on and very durable. The flowers are a bonus and can be taken off after blooms fade with a weed-wacker.

Thirdly I suggest Lippia (Phyla nodiflora). It is a drought-resistant, low groundcover that takes foot traffic, but it does bear pink flowers in June that bring bees. You can mow them off in June with a lawn mower in order that your dog’s paws won’t get bitten. (Bees in the garden don’t bite except when you accidentally step on one or grasp one by mistake. Bees do protect and guard their hives, however, but having a lawn that attracts bees won’t cause bees to make a hive in your garden.)

Related posts:

1. Creeping Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) for Lawn
2. Drought-Resistant Gardening
3. Variegated Carmel creeper (Ceanothus griseus horizontalis ‘Diamond Heights’ as lawn substitute

A: Yes, elsewhere in my book Sul-Po-Mag is frequently suggested as the correct substance to use as a source of potassium. Sul-Po-Mag is another name for sulfate of potash. It’s the same thing. Please refer to the chart of generic fertilizers on this website. Download it, print it up, and keep a copy in the back of the book. Unfortunately in the printing process this chart was inadvertently omitted. The publisher and I are very sorry, but the problem will be corrected and the chart will be included in the next printing. Please download and print this chart and keep it in the back of the book. When the book says “Refer to the chart of generic fertilizers on page 28″ this is the chart that should be there. Instead there is a chart of Organic Soil Amendments, which are not fertilizers.

Related posts:

1. Your book – my blog
2. Generic Fertilizers & Soil Amendments
3. Do Not Dig Chipper Materials into the Ground

Question from Lewis:

Answer from Pat:
The best time to plant tomatoes for summer use is in March, but this year our temperatures have been cool along the coast and cool temperatures can lead to bud drop so use a tomato-blossom set and grow cold-resistant varieties when planting early.

When planting tomatoes for tomatoes for fall harvest, choose early or cold-resistant tomatoes and count the days to harvest backwards from the time you want to be picking fruit to when to plant. For example if you choose a plant that bears in 58 days, you will want to plant in early August if you want to begin harvesting in late September. My guess is that most often you will want to plant in late July or early August for fall picking.

Some of early and cold-resistant varieties include Early Girl Improved VFNT, Champion 11 VFNT, Grushovka #4717, Jetsetter VFFNTA Hybrid #4519, and Oregon Spring V #2712, and Siberian #2908. Tomato Growers Exchange lists a whole page of cold-resistant varieties, and other catalogues have a few too, but beware of those which may also need long days, since our days in fall are growing shorter. Use blossom-set spray to keep the blossoms from dropping off when nights are cold or days too hot.

Related posts:

1. Winter Tomatoes
2. Stop blossoms from dropping off tomatoes
3. Controlling Early Blight on Tomatoes

Native plants like best to be planted in plain, native, un-amended soil. Amended soil where garden plants have grown is not the best environment for native plants because native plants are sensitive to fungi and other pathogens that have been brought in with exotic plants. Best scenario is to plant natives straight into bared bulldozed ground with all prior plant material removed.

• Make sure plants were well watered prior to planting. (If they are dry water them in the can again.)
• Clean any existing mulch off the ground, making a large bare space surrounding the hole that has no mulch. (Mulch must not touch roots or get mixed into native soil.)
• Dig the hole to the same depth as the depth of the plant from soil level to bottom of root ball.
• Place the soil you remove from the hole onto clean ground. Or you can put it onto a tarp.
• Fill the hole with water and let it drain out.
• Fill the hole a second time with water and let it drain out once again. (In very dry soil it’s wise to do this 3 times before planting.)
• Carefully remove plant from can supporting root ball with your hands so roots do not break. (Native plants have notoriously fragile roots. Plants are often killed by careless handling at planting time.)
• Sometimes roots are wound around in can. If so, gently loosen them but take care while you are doing this that roots don’t break off from the crown of the plant because of the weight of the root ball.
• Place the plant into the hole with the top of the plant on the same level as surrounding ground. Check the soil level. Fill in with native soil removed from the planting hole and press down with hands, never with feet.
• Use the extra soil taken from the hole to form a watering basin on the edge of the rootball. A week later move water basin out further.
• Replace mulch on top of the ground.
• Water the plant thoroughly.
• Water again the next day.
• Water 3 times a week the first week.
• Water once a week thereafter.
• In summer spritz tops of foliage in early morning or evening to mimic the effect of a brief monsoon rain that washes off dust but doesn’t really get soil wet. These plants can absorb moisture through their leaves. For many natives, watering the ground surrounding their roots in warm weather is likely cause root rot rot and kill the plants.

Related posts:

1. Native Plants of the Southern California Coast
2. Native Plants Of Southern California’s Coastal Zones
3. Native Plants Suitable For Planting Near A Coastal Lagoon

A. Walking on heavy soil when it is wet can compact the soil, but other than that caveat what’s wrong with taking advantage of rainfall to fertilize with organic fertilizer all the things that need it now, like roses (if you did not fertilize them in January according to the directions in my book), broccoli (after taking off the central head to keep the side sprouts growing), citrus trees (late January is the time to feed even with sythetics), cool-season lawns (fertilize with organic fertilizer now; it takes time to work) , and avocado’s (February is the month to begin fertilizing these.) What’s the difference if it’s raining?

Many times in my book I have said to fertilize just before a rain or “if rain is inadequate, water in thoroughly”. So does it not make sense that if you wake up in the morning and find it already raining and you had been planning to fertilize anyway knowing it was going to rain that afternoon that you would go out in a rain suit and fertilize even though it was raining so you would not need to irrigate afterwards? If you are an organic gardener, or even if you are not, you should have already fertilized your citrus trees in late January. If you did not do this, do it now, but what a shame you did not do it before or during the rain.

I have often fertilized in the rain while wearing a rain suit, so I wonder why you got the idea that it’s not a good idea to fertilize when it’s raining? That sounds like the advice of someone other than me. It also sounds like advice I heard from a weather man on one of the news channels. Several weather men give garden advice and goodness knows where they get some of their information. They often say things that are not true or incomplete and thus misleading. When I heard a weather man saying “Don’t fertilize now because there is too much rain.” I wished I could pop up onto the screen and say “Hey wait a minute! That is not entirely correct!” The only really negative aspect of fertilizing with ORGANIC fertilizer in the rain is that the fertilizer gets wet and so do you and some of the fertilizer inevitably gets on your clothes and might ruin your rain suit. (I keep an old one for this purpose.)

Now if one is talking about SYNTHETIC nitrogen fertilizers—that is, manmade fertilizers— that may be a different matter ( though this does not apply, as explained above, to citrus, avocado, and those veggies that need fertilizing now.) Synthetic fertilizers such as sulfate of ammonia and urea, are completely soluble, thus fertilizing when we have very heavy rains will wash them into the ground and perhaps even right through the root zone and down into ground water too rapidly. This is why March is usually considered to be the classic month for fertilizing the basic landscape when using synthetic commercial fertilizers. But I am not espousing any of these synthetic, man-made fertilizers.

I recommend organic fertilizers, and these should be applied early since they take time to work. (Consult my book for some of the products and homemade concoctions you could be using (and see the chart of generic organic fertilizers on this website.) Organic fertilizers must be in contact with the soil in order to become activated and then they become an integral part of the soil and continue working in the ground. All this process takes time. For example, gardeners who add a mulch of horse manure in fall ahead of the rain are allowing time for the manure to age on top of the ground as well as allowing the winter rains to wash the nutrients into the ground. This process will greatly improve garden soil with great benefit to garden plants. Heavy rains are a benefit to the manuring process since they will wash away any salts. (Do not mulch succulents or California native plants with manure.) Additionally, partially rotted organic matter actually works with the soil as it rots further in the ground. The wondrous fact is that as it decomposes and becomes humus it creates nitrogen in the process and releases it to plant roots, but it needs moisture for this to happen. So these heavy rains we are having will only help the process. Get out there and take advantage of the rains instead of waiting until later and then needing to waste our precious irrigation water to do the job that could have been done by rain.

Related posts:

1. Fertilizing Trees
2. Fertilizing Deciduous Fruit Trees
3. Chicken or Horse Manure

Generic Fertilizers & Soil Amendments Chart.

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

Related posts:

1. Terr-O-Vite vs Organic Fertilizers
2. Sulfate of Potash
3. Your book – my blog

A. Chicken manure is superior to horse manure but needs longer aging and less is applied. Well-aged chicken manure makes an excellent vegetable fertilizer, especially since it contains more phosphorus and potassium as well as nitrogen, than does horse manure.

Related posts:

1. Horse Manure Compost
2. Organic Solutions: Manure, Compost, Rhizobia, CO2 Sequestering
3. Fertilizing and Rain

Question from Sean:

Thank you and I bought your book and will try suggestions on page 138.

Answer from Pat:
Many gardeners are having trouble with blight on tomatoes this year due to heavy rains. I recommend cutting off the damaged leaves and spraying with Serenade, which is a registered and fully organic product. Follow all package directions. Also, unless you are growing plants in containers, water deeply and infrequently rather than shallowly and often. In future years, as ways to control early blight, I recommend the use of crop rotation, garden cleanliness, care when purchasing plants, growing disease-resistant varieties and not pruning the plants. Also, as a preventative, next year begin early spraying with Serenade. Serenade works better as a preventative than as a cure. (Early blight is also discussed in the Q&A elsewhere on this blog.)

Related posts:

1. Early Blight on Tomatoes
2. When to plant tomatoes for fall/early winter harvest
3. Concentric rings on Tomatoes

Question from Ginny:

Answer from Pat:
The time when lettuce is ready to pick depends on the variety you are growing, the number of days to maturity, and also your desires. if you are growing lettuce as one ingredient of mesclun you will want to broadcast it, or grow in a wide row and then begin to cut it with scissors when it is only 3 to 5 inches tall. Follow up with fertilizer and water and the plants will regrow. For best results with bib lettuce you will want to read package directions and grow to the the number of days recommended on the package and pick the whole head. Then pull up the root and grow something else in that spot. If you are growing Romaine lettuce and if you want to make Caesar salad you will want to wait until it is one foot tall at least and filled out enough so the ribs on the inside leaves are crisp. You can however, begin harvesting the outside leaves when the Cos or Romaine is 8 or 10 inches tall. The rest of the plant will continue to grow and bear leaves. And if you are growing loose leaf lettuce you have a choice also. Once it is up about 5 inches you can begin harvesting outside leaves and leave the centers growing. In this way you can lengthen your lettuce harvest over a long fall, winter, and spring season. Cutting the outside leaves is a very satisfactory way to harvest lettuce since you get so much more in the long run. Be sure to control slugs and snails. Fertilizer and water is important also since you need to keep lettuce rapidly growing in order to grow a good tasty crop that is not bitter or tough. Practice makes perfect with lettuce and it’s much easier to grow it well in a raised bed where you can fuss with it a bit. Mesclun is good in a tub also. There are some lovely seed mixes in catalogues.

My book called “Pat Welsh’s Southern California Organic Gardening, Month by Month” is the best one to follow for advice on lettuce and all vegetables and how to plant, fertilize, harvest, and care for them month by month. This book reminds you how to do the things necessary as you go along to have a very satisfying experience with gardening.

Related posts:

1. Lettuce Bolting
2. Leaf Lettuce
3. When to plant tomatoes for fall/early winter harvest

Question from Dave:

Answer from Pat:
Terr-O-Vite is not longer made and as far as I know was no longer in used ten years ago. Sounds as if you are still using the first edition of my book that was published in 1991. It is now almost 20 years out of date. I revised it totally and the second edition was published in 2010 and included much more stuff in it and all the perennials grown then but not yet introduced in the late 80′s when I wrote that first book that is now so long out of date. Now you need the third edition.

My new book is all-organic so I would not suggest Terr-O-Vite today even if it were still available because it would contribute to runoff and pollution of groundwater. I suggest you use organic fertilizers, instead, such as those recommended throughout my new book, “Pat Welsh’s Southern California Organic Gardening: Month by Month.” (Available anywhere books are sold.) If the soil in your garden has a problem absorbing liquids, also apply and organic penetrant such as Yucca schidigera. (Terr-O-Vite included a penetrant and that was one reason it worked.) For a list of generic fertilizers, please see the chart on this website under “Fertilizers.” Also, please read the other material under that heading.

Related posts:

1. Terr-O-Vite
2. Organic fertilizers for indoor plants
3. Canary Island Date Palm – Organic fertilizers for