In their annual issue, Time Magazine names Michael Pollan in its Top 100 people who most affect our world. Read about Michael Pollan from Alice Water’s point of view.
Here’s a word or two from the honoree himself:
See the Botany of Desire on PBS. This guy is making a lot of sense to me.
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I am not getting a huge harvest from my blueberries, but I love being able to pick five or six in the morning when I’m out perusing the garden. What a treat! It makes me much more aware of the fruit I’m buying at the Farmer’s Market, and what it takes to produce that little basket of blueberries I purchase weekly.
Last fall I planted O’Neal and Sharpblue Early Season Blueberries. The O’Neal bush is the first to ripen, which is contrary to what I thought was going to happen based on the two plants’ tags. Both have Low Chill Requirements so they are perfect for our Southern California coastal environment. I need to plant more of these in my yard. They have been EASY, EASY, EASY!!!
When it comes to fertilizer, blueberries need a little more TLC than most things I grow. Everything in my garden is getting a dose of fish emulsion fertilizer, but a few things, including the berries, need more acid in their diet, so I’ve been using cottonseed meal (available in the fertilizer section of your better garden nurseries). You can also use this on azaleas, camellias and gardenias, all acid lovers. You can buy specially formulated fertilizer that specifically targets these plants, too. As I’ve mentioned in past postings, I’m trying to consolidate as much as possible, so if I can get a broader use from a fertilizer, it’s a better solution for me.
Normally, I try to keep the articles I reprint within our SoCal region, but this article from Southern Living had a lot of useful info about blueberries that is appropriate for us west coast gardeners. Southern Living article – blueberries
Perfection!
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More than 100 designers transform the gallery spaces with floral interpretations of the Museum’s renowned artwork. This event is an incredible venue of floral design.
The San Diego Museum of Art, Balboa Park
Fri-Sat 10am-5pm; Sun 12pm-5pm.
For more information contact: (619) 232-7931
http://www.TheSanDiegoMuseumofArt.org
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Yesterday was a short stint in the garden, but I packed a lot of jobs into a short period of time out there. I am cleaning up out there, so I had to be a little ruthless about what I saved and what got pitched (gasp!). Really, it’s okay to pitch things occasionally such as all those little sedum leaves that broke off when I dropped a plant many months back. I’ve been saving them, checking occasionally to see if roots or tiny buds are forming. Some look promising so I planted them in six-packs for planting projects later on.
Succulents I started in six-pack planters many months ago have grown to a nice size so I consolidated some of them into pots with other established succulents of the same variety, filling them in for a better look.
Time to plant more seeds so I laid out plastic six-packs filled with seed starting potting mix. I’m still seeding spinach, lettuce, arugula, and snow peas. Last week I started up more sunflowers, cilantro and basil. While the seeds are getting started, I’ve been cleaning up the garden, trimming out old sweet peas vines, cutting lots of little bouquets of sweet peas and nasturtiums, and weeding, weeding, weeding!
I checked on the ‘kids’,and they are thriving, and making castings by the bucketful for me now. Good teamwork, gang. I’m so proud of you. Really! 
On the harvesting front, I have been snacking on strawberries, blueberries and a couple of apples. I say snacking because fruit is ripening in onesies and twosies; not a large bounty, but so delicious!
Here’s an article from a couple of weeks ago from the SD Union Tribune, Sowing Success to finish things off.
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That was how my garden math ended up the other day when I was moving things around. I have an urn by the front porch and decided it was time for a change so I started to move it off (which I shouldn’t have been doing by myself!) and all of a sudden, the top part popped off! Oops! (I say that A LOT!) Cheap pot, weak clay, integrity lacking.
Oops!
Thankfully, the moment didn’t end in disaster and I was able to place the top part, still containing all the succulents, safely to the side.
The top is now a pot.
Mi Esposo came out to survey my latest garden mishap (he is constantly entertained!) and helped me move the pedestal part onto lower ground.
The bottom became its own pot.
Replanted, it has a whole new look.
I like this new look!
The last part of the project was moving the new pot from Costco into place. Again, Mi Esposo, put his brute strength into action and placed the pot in its new location. I wasn’t sure what I was going to plant in the new pot except the Euphorbia sticks I purchased a couple of months ago, but after I scavenged the yard for a good combination of succulents, it all came together. I think it looks like a little pond with reeds and lily pads. What do you think? Gotta love those succulents!
A little oasis by the front porch
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Currant tomatoes must be the new designer tomato. Or Chihuahua of the Tomato Family. I’ve never heard of them before and really, I’m not sure why you would grow such an itty-bitty tomato other than for garnishing, or simply the novelty of growing a conversation piece. Anybody, help me out here. I don’t get it. But since we’re on the subject of tomatoes this week, here’s an article about these tiny tomatoes from National Home Gardening Club by Elizabeth Noll.
Tomatoes can be the biggest thing in your garden. Towering vines can cover a fence and come back for more. Huge fruits can take over your kitchen table. But tomatoes don’t have to be gargantuan. Meet the currant tomato (Lycopersicon pimpinellifolium), a pea-sized cousin of the cherry tomato. You won’t be slicing these 1/4-inch jewels for sandwiches, but you will be eating them as fast as you can pick them. The small, sweet fruits ripen in clusters on sprawling, indeterminate vines. Though the vines are gangly and are best contained in a cage or trellis, they’re smaller in stature and more delicate than their familiar cousins.
Common name: Currant tomato
Botanical name: Lycopersicon pimpinellifolium
Plant type: Grown as annual in most climates
Zones: Annual
Height: 2 to 3 feet
Family: Solanaceae
Growing conditions
• Sun: Full sun
• Soil: Average, well-drained
• Moisture: Medium
Care
• Mulch: Mulch to preserve moisture and stymie weeds.
• Pruning: None needed.
• Fertilizer: Add 1 inch of compost once or twice in a season.
Propagation
• By seed
Pests and diseases
• Caterpillars and cutworms may cause some damage.
• Vulnerable to rust, blight, and leaf spot.
Garden notes
• Grow currant tomatoes as you would traditional tomatoes. Cages or trellises help support these plants and make it easier to harvest fruits.
• Currant tomatoes are great little snacks by themselves, and they’re also good in salads.
• Like many other members of the nightshade family, currant tomatoes have poisonous leaves and stems. The only part of the plant that’s edible is the fruit.
• Currant tomatoes will reseed themselves, if you allow the last of the fruit to remain on the ground through the winter and refrain from tilling. Don’t mulch until after the seeds sprout in spring.
• Currant tomatoes will cross-pollinate easily with other tomato plants, so unless you want to experiment, keep them far apart from other varieties.
Cultivars
• ‘Gold Rush’: Heavy bearer of delicious red-orange fruits.
• ‘Sugar Cherry’: Large, extra-sweet fruits.
• ‘Sweet Pea’: Very tiny fruits with rich, sweet flavor.
All in the family
• Currant tomatoes are relatives of the traditional garden tomato (Lycopersicon lycopersicum), but they’re a different species. They’re similar to wild tomatoes that grow in Central America, where it’s believed that the tomato was domesticated during pre-Columbian times.
• The word “tomato” comes from the Nahuatl word “tomatl.” Nahuatl was the language of the Aztecs.
• Other members of the Solanaceae family include edible plants—pepper, potato, and eggplant—and popular garden flowers like brugmansia, datura, and petunia. The family also contains Nicotiana, the genus that contains cultivated tobacco plants as well as annual species grown for their fragrant flowers.
Where to buy seeds
• Seeds of Change, El Guique, NM, 888-762-7333, www.seedsofchange.com (for gold currant tomato seeds)
• Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, Mineral, VA, 540-894-9480, www.southernexposure.com
• Territorial Seed Co., Cottage Grove, OR, 800-626-0866, www.territorialseed.com
• Tomato Growers Supply Co., Fort Myers, FL, 888-478-7333, www.tomatogrowers.com
• Victory Seed Co., Molalla, OR, 503-829-3126, www.victoryseeds.com
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I’m getting a lot of questions about tomatoes, and although I’m no expert, I do like to pass along all my handy resources. Here goes:
A good starting point for info is a previous post from April 6th.
Here’s an article from Master Gardener Karan Greenwald about growing heirloom tomatoes. She is known as the Tomato Queen in her garden club because she starts hundreds of tomato plants from seed for their annual plant sale. I’ve heard her speak and I learned a lot.
Vince Lazaneo, Urban Horticulture Advisor, UC Cooperative Extension,wrote a great article called Troubles in the Tomato Patch. I realize now that I have had problems with Russet Mites the past couple of years so I’ll” have to be on my toes this season. Vince also has a very thorough article about tomatoes that covers a lot of k”information.
And, lastly, the Wall Street Journal ran an article today called You Say Tomato. They Say Phony about hybridized heirloom tomatoes. I don’t know much about heirlooms but it seems like a contradiction. As I understand it, the whole point of heirloom tomatoes is that the seeds are passed along in their purer form. Tomato controversy – I love it!
Here’s a cocktail party fact for you: California produces more than 10 million tons of tomatoes annually for processing uses, approximately 1/3 of the world total. Okay, enough with the tomatoes.
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