WHAT TO PLANT NOW
LET THE SOIL SOOTHE YOUR SOUL
THESE ARE hunker-down times — scary virus updates exploding by the minute, bitter politics, gun violence — but there’s one proven way I help save my sanity: Find a sunny spot and garden. I’m not the only one. “It’s something proactive all of us can do, whether on our windowsill, patio or yard,” agreed urban farmer Lauri Kranz, creator of Edible Gardens L.A. and coauthor of “A Garden Can Be Anywhere.” “When you feel like everything is out of control, what nurtures better than planting a seed, with the promise of bounty and health that comes with it?” The evidence is more than anecdotal. Multiple studies indicate that getting our hands in the soil and helping plants grow improves longevity and health, as well as our mental well-being. Researchers in the Netherlands gave a test group a 30-minute stressful activity and then randomly assigned them to garden outside or read a book indoors. The study found that both activities reduced the cortisol levels that trigger stress, but the people who gardened saw much lower cortisol levels and their positive mood restored, as opposed to the readers, whose moods got worse.
Gardening also provides a vital sense of purpose, researchers have found. In Okinawa, Japan, a community with the world’s highest ratio of centenarians, people tend gardens well into old age, Dr. Bradley Willcox , co-author of “The Okinawa Program,” told the BBC. “In Okinawa, they say that anybody who grows old healthfully needs an ‘ikigai,’ or reason for living,” he said. “Gardening gives you that something to get up for every day.”
Even high school students at John C. Fremont High School in South L.A. routinely report feeling happier and less stressed after spending a few hours working in the community garden adjacent to the school, in the gardening apprenticeship program run by the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust, said program manager Megan Laird. “Everyone can learn something in the garden,” she said.
So if you need a reminder of all that’s right with the world, grab a trowel because March is a great month for edible gardening in Southern California. And all you need are some pots or a few square feet of sunny backyard to get started.
Take advantage of these last lingering weeks of coolness to plant some quickgrowing salad makings, the gardening gurus say, and in April, be ready to plant warm-season seedlings for summer harvest.
After our dryer-than-normal winter, these late-season rains have been a godsend for our gardens, which do better with a reservoir of rain water in the ground, but you don’t want to dig in the garden while it’s soaked with water. Take this time to assemble your supplies, consider what you want to plant, and do a little shopping.
Best of all, everything can be grown in pots or a few raised beds, as long as they’re located in a place that gets six to eight hours of sun. Start planting coolseason crops such as radishes, lettuces and broccoli as soon as the ground isn’t muddy.
“Don’t plant any of those cool-season plants” — such as lettuces and broccoli — “later than mid-May, because the heat will ruin them,” said Lucy Heyming, a master gardener in Riverside and creator of Riverside TV’s “Gardening With Lucy” videos. Once the temperatures get hot (consistently over 85 degrees), that’s the signal for cool-season crops to start bolting (go to seed) and turn bitter. Just check the harvest dates on the back of the seed packet.
The last average frost date for most of Southern California is mid-March, so you’re safe to plant most summer veggies now; just don’t expect heat-loving plants like peppers, eggplants and cucumbers to grow heartily until nighttime temperatures stay above 60.
A cold snap is unlikely but, at least through March, inland gardeners should stay alert for temperatures dipping below 40 degrees at night; that’s when you’ll need to cover your tender warm-season seedlings to protect them from a killing freeze. Empty gallon milk jugs or halfgallon cartons with bottoms cut out work well for makeshift shelters; just remember to remove them in the morning.
Finally, lace your garden with flowers and flowering herbs. They attract the bees crucial for pollinating your crops, and they make your garden experience even more delightful.
WHAT TO KNOW BEFORE YOU PLANT
1. Whether growing in pots, raised beds or the ground, take time to feed your soil with some good organic amendments such as compost and steer manure or organic potting soil, which includes most of the ingredients your plants will need for their first season. If you’re planting in containers, use fresh potting soil. Recycle the old stuff in your compost pile.
2. If you’re adding compost and aged manure to a garden plot, water it well and wait a week or two before planting, because the organisms create a lot of heat as they break down and can burn your tender seedlings. You’ll know the soil is safe for planting when the temperature feels comfortable to your bare hand, said master gardener Yvonne Savio, creator of the comprehensive blog GardeninginLA.net.
3. If you choose to lasagna mulch — i.e., lay down flattened corrugated cardboard boxes over a lawn or compacted earth, water thoroughly and then cover the cardboard at least 8 inches deep with layers of wood chips, compost and other organic amendments — make holes in the mulch down to the cardboard for your plants and fill those holes with organic potting soil before you plant, says Leigh Adams, interpretive horticulturist at the L.A. Arboretum. The potting soil will provide your seedlings with their initial food as the roots grow into the other amendments, helping them break down and become good soil.
4. Before you plant, pinch off any flowers, buds or fruit on your seedlings. It’s painful now, but it allows the plant to concentrate on creating stronger roots instead of producing fruit, which will give you better harvests in the future.
5. Water before and after. Southern California had precious little rain this winter, which means we need to give our plants an extra reservoir of water to help their roots grow deep into the ground, where they will be healthier and better protected from the summer heat. Do this by digging your holes a little bigger than normal, then filling them with water a couple times before planting. Water well again once the plants are in the ground.
6. If you have the space, try Savio’s technique of burying 5-gallon nursery buckets among your plants (the kind with holes already in the bottom). Make sure the rims of the buckets are about 4 inches above ground, so you have room for mulch, and then fill those buckets with water once or twice a week to force moisture — and roots — deeper into the ground. Another technique is one recommended by Dave “The Tomato Guy” Freed, who explains on his website, Grow Tomatoes Easily, how he buries perforated, 4-inch-diameter pipes about 18 to 20 inches in the ground so he can water more deeply around his tomatoes.
7. Don’t walk away. The beauty of starting your summer garden in March is the lure of an early harvest, but you can’t just plant and walk away. Gardens need tending, Kranz said (how else will you get the wellness benefit?).
8. Prepare to plant again within the month, to replace seedlings ruined by weather or pests, or just to stagger your harvests. Eggplants, peppers and even tomatoes are traditionally planted in April in SoCal, but we’ve had a warm enough spring that Kranz is willing to gamble and plant those seedlings now.
Here are the top eight edibles — and flowers! — that professional gardeners recommend planting in mid-March:
LAST-CHANCE WINTER CROPS
> If you plant them now, lettuce and greens such as arugula, mustard, spinach and radishes will grow quickly enough to give you plenty of salads before they’re withered by the heat. The nice thing about greens is that you typically don’t harvest the whole plant; within four to six weeks you can start trimming the outer leaves. Greens grow easily from seed but you’ll get quicker results from seedlings; Kranz and Savio recommend planting both seeds and seedlings to stagger your harvests. Radish tops are spicy and edible too; Eric Tomassini of Avenue 33 Farm in Lincoln Heights recommends ‘Rover,’ ‘Crunchy King’ and ‘Pearl’ varieties for their heat tolerance. Final tip: If your arugula goes to seed and sprouts flowers, don’t dismay. Arugula flowers are popular with pollinators and absolutely delicious in salads or alone as a snack.
TOMATOES
> Nothing says summer like a tomato plant groaning with ripening fruit, and our warmish winter has pushed plants to market earlier than normal. Tomatomania, a traveling tomato sale that boasts more than 150 varieties, had its earliest start ever this year on Feb. 29, offering more than 150 varieties of tomatoes and 50 varieties of peppers.
Kranz recommends choosing at least two or three varieties to stagger your harvest. Small but flavorful cherry tomatoes like ‘Sungold’ ripen early, providing a quick tomato fix by midsummer.
Larger varieties, especially heirlooms, probably won’t be ready to pick until August. Buy your favorites, Kranz said, but be daring and try at least one new variety.
THE OTHER NIGHTSHADES
> Like tomatoes, eggplants and peppers are part of the heat-loving nightshade family, and traditional SoCal wisdom is to wait until April to put those seedlings in the ground. But these hot-weather crops usually don’t start producing until August, so planting in mid-March could mean an earlier harvest. Just realize that if it gets too cold, the seedlings can get stunted and never produce as well as those planted later in the spring, when the air is warmer, said Savio, who includes growing tips for every month of the year on her website GardeninginLA.net.
CARROTS AND SWEET POTATOES
> Carrots come in a variety of colors and sizes and are best planted as seeds in loose, loamy soil. Tomassini recommends the Romance variety for its excellent heat tolerance. Kranz is a fan of ‘Scarlet Nantes,’ ‘Cosmic Purple,’ ‘Yellowstone’ and ‘New Kuroda.’ Sweet potato shoots should be started inside now, for planting when the soil warms to about 60 degrees. Savio has some easy instructions on GardeninginLA.net. Consider growing some sweet potatoes just for the leaves, which are tasty in a stir-fry or soup.
GREEN BEANS
> Here’s another one to plant from seed, but unless you have trellises and a fair amount of space, choose bush varieties for your garden. Kranz plants ‘Haricots Verts,’ ‘Dragon Tongue,’ ‘Gold Rush’ and ‘Blue Lake’ bush varieties, all from seed.
If you have the space, delight the children in your life by creating a traditional “Three Sisters” garden: Plant the corn seeds first; when the corn is about 6 inches tall, plant your bean and pumpkin seeds. (Squash and pumpkin seeds sprout better when planted in April anyway, unless it’s very warm in March, says Heyming.) This is the quintessential example of companion planting: The sprawling pumpkin vines keep the ground cool, the beans add nitrogen to the soil and the corn stalks help keep the beans upright.
BEETS
> Beets are versatile, tasty and edible from their roots to their leaves. Roasted beets are delicious nuggets in salads or mixed with grains, but some people just trim the leaves like greens and saute them quickly with a little oil and garlic. Tomassini likes ‘Zeppo,’ a red variety, and ‘Badger Flame,’ a golden variety.
FLOWERING HERBS
> Fresh herbs are a bounty for any cook, and their aroma makes the garden even more inviting, but their flowers have the added bonus of attracting bees and other pollinators. Basil is a particular summer favorite, and most cooks can never get enough, so plant several varieties for your kitchen. Just save room for the fragrant African basil (“the heart of my gardens,” said Kranz), because its tall purple and white flowers are a magnet for bees. Kranz plants basil and other herbs from seed, but most gardeners find it easier to use seedlings.
FLOWERS
> Nasturtiums, cosmos and dahlias are a summer garden staple for Kranz and Tomassini, for cut flowers and, in the case of nasturtiums, to add a delicious peppery zip to salads. Kranz plants them by seed or, in the case of dahlias, bulbs. Kranz is particularly enamored by the dahlias because they come in so many sizes and spectacular colors.
Other flowers to plant now from seed or as seedlings include zinnias, bachelor buttons, sunflowers, marigolds, gomphrena, a.k.a. globe amaranth — cheerful little pompom flowers on slender stems that come in a variety of colors — and the weirdly beautiful celosia, a.k.a. woolflowers, which grow in a multitude of electric colors.