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Early December Garden

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My garden is still full of crops that were planted in late summer, and we have been enjoying them bit by bit. The most abundant plant group in my fall/winter garden this year is the chicory group; these crops include escarole, frisée (an endive), and radicchio.

Other crops still coming in, bit by bit, are the carrots, radishes, lettuce, parsley, and winter onions (harvested as slender, green onions). I am still waiting for a beet to be large enough to bring in. The beet patch contains a few that are getting close.

The “bit by bit” style of harvest is partly because the crops are all heirlooms, which means they weren’t bred for uniform speed of growth. They all were chosen for flavor, not uniformity, which means my garden has a kind of wild look. We are really, though, enjoying the good food.

Tips of broad green leaves, growing upright and packed together in a bed of escarole and radicchio.
Looking across the tops of the escaroles and radicchios.

In the garden

Crops in the garden right now are growing well in our recent cool weather. When we had those few much-colder days, back in mid-November, down into the low twenties fahrenheit, I covered most of my garden to keep the plants a little warmer.

The wire supports that I set into the garden to support the spun row covers through those cold days are still in place. When the next hard freeze comes, I am ready.

Until then, my only work in the garden — besides harvesting good food — is pulling out a bit of chickweed and henbit, two common winter weeds that I snack on as I pull them and also bring inside to share with my pet rabbits.

These are some of the crops in my garden today:

  • Frisée
  • Castelfranco radicchio
  • Today’s salad radishes
  • Grumolo radicchio
  • Palla rossa radicchio
  • Escarole – Verde a cuore pieno
  • Winter onions
  • Lettuce – Marvel of four seasons

Leaves from the trees are filtering down through the plants, and the plan is for those leaves to remain in the garden. All those old leaves will add a little insulation for the plants and soil in the next hard freeze.

Why so many chicories?

Chicories are my current major crop-group for a couple of reasons.

One is that, when I have been in Italy, eating at restaurants, one commonly served side dish has been cooked greens. At first, I thought these were all spinach, but a lot of the time they were actually chicory/escarole (I found out by asking).

In addition, the little local grocery store in Montepulciano, where we stayed, sells several kinds of radicchios and escaroles all summer long. Growing so many kinds of chicories keeps memories of some great meals in my mind, and it also brings an Italian flavor to more of our meals at home.

Another reason for growing chicories is that they are not very bothered by pests and diseases. At least, so far they have been trouble-free.

Growing chicories in fall versus in spring

I have grown some kinds of chicories before now, but those were planted as spring crops, not as fall/winter crops. The different results of growing in these different seasons has been interesting.

One main difference that I have seen is that the heading-types, like the red radicchio Palla rossa, are slower to form those tight, central heads when grown as a fall crop.

However, the fall-grown plants are larger than I’ve seen in my spring-grown crops.

Other goings-on

I obviously have not been keeping up a weekly writing schedule on my website these past couple of months.

One reason is that we have had many visitors this fall — two sisters-in-law, then a brother, then another sister-in-law, then my youngest son and his partner. Being able to spend time with so many family members has been glorious! In a little more than a week, our oldest son will visit from Colorado, which will also be glorious. Then, our only guests for awhile will be pets of friends who are traveling for the winter holiday.

Front cover of a book, with the title "Garden planner and notebook" on a background of green leaves.

The other main reason for the lack of writing on this website is that I was writing something else — a new book!

More about the Garden Planner and Notebook next week.

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Getting the Garden Ready for a Hard Freeze

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The first hard freeze in my area is expected to arrive tomorrow evening (Tuesday, Nov. 12). Over the next 24 hours, most gardeners in the path of the cold front will need to harvest the last of the summer vegetables and be ready to cover any crops that might not be ready for temperatures in the low 20s.

The last summer vegetables

View straight down into flat boxes containing red and green tomatoes in a single layer, an inch or two apart from each other.
Last tomatoes for the year.

I have harvested the last of the summer veggies in my garden — all the peppers, even the tiny ones, and the remaining tomatoes.

The tiniest peppers were chopped and sautéed along with some full-sized peppers and are in the crockpot as part of tonight’s chili.

The tomatoes will be used in salads as they ripen, since fresh tomatoes in winter can be hard to come by. Even harvested green and left to ripen slowly in the company of their pinker brethren, these home garden tomatoes will beat the flavor of most supermarket tomatoes.

Large basket containing round orange fruits of the Asian persimmon tree Ichi Ki Kei Jiro.
Small pile of Asian persimmons.

I harvested anise hyssop for my pet rabbits, Moonpie and Charlie Copper, who love that particular herb. It has regrown considerably since the last time I cut off all the dead flowers, so the bunnies have a large-enough supply of leaves to last a few days. Anise hyssop, like basil, will not survive a freeze.

The Ichi Ki kei Jiro persimmons are also ready to come in, mostly, and I brought in a basket-full this afternoon. The tree is providing enough fruits this year that I’ve already shared with one neighbor (Hi, Anthony!) and will be able to share with a few more.

If you have these or other summer vegetables still in the garden, and the cold front is headed your way, consider harvesting them all before the temperatures drop below freezing. Summer vegetables that freeze on the plants will not be good to eat after they thaw.

Crops to protect from a hard freeze

Many of the cool season crops will survive the upcoming freeze in good condition and continue to grow when the weather warms up again. However, to be safe, I will cover the tenderest of the fall crops. These include lettuces, the remaining salad radishes, and the Swiss chard.

I will also cover the escaroles and radicchios, because they are mostly new varieties for me. Their cold-hardiness is unknown.

View from above of closely spaced leafy greens in the garden.
Escaroles will be covered to protect them from extreme cold.

The good news is that I have located covers to place over the more tender crops. These include some actual, horticultural, spun row-cover and an old flannel sheet. Avoid using plastic if you can. If plastic is all you have on hand, make sure it is held above the plants and does not touch them anywhere.

The covers I use can keep the temperature of the garden underneath them a couple or three degrees higher than the outside air. This small increase can be enough to safeguard the crops.

Even the covered greens may look wilted and weird as a result of the cold weather. The key here is not to panic. Wait until warm weather returns before you make rash decisions like pulling up all the plants. Many of the cool-season greens “bounce back” to a more healthy appearance after freezing, then resume growing as the weather warms.

Crops that I won’t protect

Side view of fern-like leaves of carrots as they grow in the garden; in the background, beet leaves, with their red stems, show where the beets are growing.
Carrot patch, with beets in back.

The root vegetables will survive the cold with little trouble, especially since the soil here in north Georgia is still fairly warm.

Another crop to leave in place is the saffron. In my yard, this crop is growing in four different patches in the yard and garden, with each patch sending up its flowers at different times.

I’ve already harvested some of the saffron, but one day when I went out to harvest more, honeybees were visiting the flowers and I decided not to disturb the bees.

Purple flowers, each with six petals, three yellow pistols and red stamens, growing near rocks in a green lawn.
For the spice saffron, harvest the red parts to bring inside and dry before using.
One purple saffron flower in the lawn with two honeybees -- one inside and one on the outside of a petal.
Honeybees visiting a saffron flower, a source of nectar in late October and early November.

Something else to bring inside

Shallow terra cotta planter with densely planted small salad greens -- arugula.

I have already brought the arugula inside. This is one of the salad greens I’ve been growing in a shallow container on the back deck over the last few months. Other greens have included a “basic salad mix” for microgreens and a dense planting of cilantro.

An article about growing these other greens is on the Soil3 blog. I wrote it last summer, for gardeners working in very small gardens and as a way to grow a few more kinds of greens in summer, but the method works as an indoor garden in winter, too. I have a second container of arugula at an earlier stage of growth, that we can harvest from when this first container stops producing greens.

The containers of greens will stay by a south-facing window, and the window will provide enough light for two or three harvests of greens before the plants are worn out.

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Easy to Grow Jujubes

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Are you looking for a fruit tree that doesn’t need to be expertly pruned, then sprayed several times each year for pest and disease control, to produce good fruit? Jujubes are a delicious fruit that is easy to grow as far north as where I live, a bit north of Atlanta, and it fits that description.

Three orange fruits of jujube, each a bit more than one inch in diameter, on an open palm.
What jujube fruit looks like.

I haven’t grown jujubes in my own yard (yet), but my friend Eddie Rhoades, at Bittersweet Gardens, has several varieties growing in his yard. This past spring, he gave me a small jujube plant, which is still growing in a container. Pretty soon, though, my yard will have jujubes, too.

A few weeks ago, I went to visit Eddie’s yard and we talked about jujubes:

Me and Eddie and jujubes

Jujube plant description

The jujube tree

The final, mature height of jujube trees varies a lot, depending on the variety. According to my copy of the book Fruits of Warm Climates, jujube plants can be “a bushy shrub 4 to 6 ft high, or a tree 10 to 30 or even 40 ft tall”

Jujube leaves and fruit in late September.

The plant has a taproot, which makes it hard to transplant once it is settled into place, but this deep root system protects the plant from minor droughts. The taproot can draw water from deep soil layers.

Jujube leaves are glossy and dark green. They will fall off in winter, leaving the zig-zaggy branches to provide visual interest.

Many jujube varieties have sharp, straight thorns, but not all do (just all the ones in Eddie’s yard…).

Jujube flowers

The flowers are tiny, which means jujubes won’t provide the kind of floral “flash” that some other fruiting plants do, but the contrast of the dark, orangey-red fruits against the glossy leaves in August and September make up for that lack.

Long, sharp thorns growing from stem of jujube plant.
Thorns on a jujube plant.

Some jujube varieties do not need a second plant for cross-pollination to set fruit. However, others, such as ‘Li’, do; in addition, some varieties are partly self-fertile but will set more fruit if another variety is growing nearby.

Be sure to check, for any variety you might be purchasing, whether you need two different varieties (like most apple trees) to get an abundant fruit-set.

The Fruits of Warm Climates book says that pollinators for the jujube include honeybees, a wasp, and houseflies. I guess the good news is that, if we lose all our honeybees, as some beekeepers fear, our invincible houseflies will keep the jujubes coming!

Jujube fruits

In general, jujubes all have that granny-smith apple flavor, but some can have the astringency that crabapples can have. Planting a named variety known for good flavor will avoid that possibility, since some wild-type jujubes lean more toward the crabapple flavor (according to my book).

Round, red jujube fruits on tree, with dark green leaves.
Jujube fruits on tree.

Best flavor is in fruits that are slightly underripe, that still have a bit of green. At this point, the fruits are crunchy, but unlike apples they are not juicy. University of Florida Extension notes that “the fruits are quite sweet and can be eaten fresh, candied, canned, or dried like dates”.

As the fruits mature and get soft, the texture gets mealy and the flavor changes away from that sweet/tart apple flavor. Harvesting at the right time is key to enjoying the fruit.

Some varieties, as Eddie points out, will have larger fruits that are easier to pick. His list of varieties to look for includes Li, Shanxi Li, Lang, and Georgia-866.

According to University of Florida Extension, a new tree can produce fruit as early as its second year.

Jujube planting and care

The good news is that jujube trees need little care, but, like most plants we hope to get food from, jujubes will benefit from some attention.

Spacing at planting, for when you are planting more than one tree, depends on the mature size of the variety you have chosen.

Cold tolerance

Eddie is growing many varieties of jujube successfully north of Atlanta. Jujubes are also growing well at the UGA horticulture farm outside of Athens, GA (I saw them when I went to a horticulture “open house” on October 4).

Even though jujube are usually thought of as a warm-climate fruit, University of Arkansas Extension says that jujube is hardy across the whole state of Arkansas.

Soil

Older, white-haired man in blue and white plaid shirt facing a tree to the left, and holding three small orange-colored fruits in his open palm.
Eddie with one of his small-fruited jujube trees.

Eddie’s productive plants are growing in red clay soil. According to my copy of Fruits of Warm Climates, sandy loam is the preferred soil type for jujubes, but the plants must be fairly adaptable to do so well here.

Texas A&M Extension says jujubes do best in soil that drains well, and that the plants can adapt to a wide range of soil pH. However, if the soil pH is higher than about 7.8, some nutrient deficiencies can occur.

Also, for fertilizer, only a bit of nitrogen fertilizer is recommended. As an organic gardener, sources of nitrogen I would use include compost (as a top-dressing or side-dressing) or the higher-nitrogen version of fish fertilizer.

The Fruits of Warm Climates book also says that jujubes can tolerate some salinity, which is good news for coastal gardeners.

Pruning — just a little

The recommendation is to prune new plants to maintain a single trunk and to prune off low branches — those within about 30 inches of the ground. If any branches are blocking a path or otherwise in the way, you may trim them off, too.

Any pruning to reduce the size of the tree should be done after harvesting the fruit, and up to 25% of the newest growth can be removed at one time, according to The Book.

When new jujube plants come up around the tree

A purchased plant is likely to be grafted, with a wild-type providing the rootstock and the variety with larger, extra-tasty fruits grafted on top. This means that any plants sent up nearby, from the rootstock, will have different fruits that will probably be smaller and with different flavor.

Mowing down any tiny trees coming up around the main tree will keep your yard from becoming a thicket of wild-type jujube trees.

Having-to-mow-down wild-type trees from a rootstock is not limited to jujubes, This is normal for many kinds of fruit, including more well-known fruits like apples and the Asian persimmon in my own yard, which is another easy-care fruit.

Pests

The Fruits of Warm Climates book lists some caterpillars as potential pests of jujubes, but those caterpillars are all in India. Here in the U.S., Texas A&M Extension says that jujubes are untroubled by pests.

The final word

Jujubes can be a valuable addition to a yard that is designed to provide good food with less work. Anyone looking to grow food with less spraying, especially, to reduce accidental losses of beneficial insects, might consider growing one of these trees.

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The Garden in Early October

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October is a usually a great month in my garden. By now, most (but not all) of my summer crops have been replaced by fall-and-winter crops, and I am looking forward to some new vegetables.

Summer crops still in the October garden

Dark purple peppers clustered on a leafy, green pepper plant, still productive in early October.
Purple ‘Oda’ peppers

Your garden may have a lot more summer vegetables still in production, but in my own small garden there are still plenty of peppers. I did pull up a couple of pepper plants, to make room for autumn greens, but the remaining plants are still producing MANY peppers.

The tomato plant that I put into the garden as a seed in the last week of June is covered in green tomatoes, and those should begin ripening soon. That variety is called ‘Winterkeeper’, and I chose it for the long shelf-life of the tomatoes more than for spectacular flavor.

Two green tomatoes on a tomato plant; the variety is 'Winterkeeper', known for the long shelf-life of its tomatoes in fall.

Also in the garden, still productive, is Swiss chard, which is looking better after I removed the caterpillars that had been eating the leaves. We are also still bringing in parsley, to add to salads and soups, and the green onions that have re-grown from top-set bulbs; these are also called winter onions, tree onions, and walking onions.

I didn’t plant the purslane and Jewels of Opar, but they reseed all over the garden, and those plants are providing leaves for us to eat, too.

In addition, my winter-time tea plans are coming along nicely, as the roselle keeps making the main ingredient, the red calyxes that cover the seed pods, for hibiscus-based teas.

Roselle seed pods (left) and the removed and dried red parts, the calyxes, that are used to make tea.

I can’t say that any of these late-season summer crops, other than the peppers, are providing wildly abundant amounts of food, but I do enjoy it all.

Fall and winter crops coming along

My notes tell me that I was supposed to plant most of my carrots, escaroles, and radicchios around the 16th and 23rd of August, but that they didn’t actually get planted until August 26th. Considering that they are only five weeks old, I think the plants look great.

  • Escarole plant surrounded by radishes
  • Radishes growing among the escaroles

I planted more of those on September 2nd and 3rd, along with beets, kale, and watermelon radishes. I started planting salad radishes – many kinds – in gaps between the emerging leafy-greens very soon afterward.

Young carrot plants growing in a rectangular patch. Only the lacy green tops are visible.
Carrot patch in late September

Lettuces, a couple of turnips (trying a new variety), and two tiny cabbage plants went into the garden on those early September days, too, and seeds for black Spanish and more watermelon radishes on September 6th.

The very last greens to go into the garden — just last week — have been spinach and cilantro, because those are so sensitive to heat.

I also planted another small patch of beets that will probably not reach mature size until early spring, since the seeds went into the garden so late.

If you want to plant fall crops now

In my area, north of Atlanta, the first frost date is usually around November 1st. This means that planting time for fall and winter crops is almost over for nearby gardens. However, there are some exceptions.

Onion family crops

These might not be considered fall crops, since most of them won’t be ready for harvest until next June. However, October is the time to plant garlic, shallots, and multiplying onions.

Fast-growing salad radishes

There is enough time for many kinds of salad radishes, most of which can reach harvest-size in about a month. If we get actual cool weather soon, the radishes may need an extra week or two to reach that harvest-size, but you should be able to harvest them this fall.

Very cold-hardy crops

Spinach is the most cold-hardy crop I grow. Some varieties can reach mature size in 45-to-50 days. This is a good crop to plant, if you are late getting the fall garden started.

Collard greens are another option for late-planted fall gardens. Also, some lettuce varieties, such as ‘Marvel of four seasons’, are fairly cold hardy and can reach mature size in the same time-frame as spinach. If all goes well, seeds of these planted now might reach eating-size by December.

Small plants, instead of seeds

Most local garden centers still have plants/transplants of fall vegetables on their shelves. Some of these plants may do well, and others may not.

I visited two local garden centers yesterday, and at one of them all the collard greens had bolted — the central stem was growing tall, and leaves were forming very high on the stem. These elongating plants will not produce well in a garden, even if we get a miracle of cool weather tomorrow.

At the same garden center, most of the cabbage, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts plants looked healthy, and so did the cauliflower. Some of those might be worth trying, but they may need protection if we get an extreme cold snap early in winter.

Thinking about our crazy-hot September, an early extreme cold snap seems unlikely, but we may be at a point in time when improbable weather is the most likely of all.

Zinnias in my garden. Hummingbirds are still visiting these.
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What’s Eating My Swiss Chard?

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Of all the greens I like to grow in summer, Swiss chard is usually the one that is most trouble-free. It doesn’t get bitter or tough in the summer heat. It produces leaves for months on end, without sending up a flower stalk that triggers an end to leaf-production. The crop also, usually, attracts very few pests. However, this summer, something started eating my Swiss chard.

Damage in the Swiss chard patch

Holes in Swiss chard leaf, characteristic of caterpillar feeding damage

When I first noticed the damage to the Swiss chard, I figured it was caterpillars because of the kind of damage I saw on the leaves. There were big holes in the leafy parts, but the thick middle stem, or midrib, was undamaged for every leaf.

However, when I examined my patch of Swiss chard, I did not find any caterpillars, even though I found plenty of frass (caterpillar poo). I looked under the leaves, down the stems, and around the bases of the plants in my search.

University of Minnesota Extension offers several possibilities for which pests might be eating my Swiss chard, but I did not find any of the named pests. The list includes cabbage loopers, slugs (which also make holes in leaves as they eat), diamond back moths, flea beetles (which make smaller holes), and cabbage worms.

Dark wad of caterpillar frass (poo) on edge of damaged Swiss chard leaf.
Dark wad of frass on damaged leaf.

Some caterpillars are harder to find than others, so I sprayed all the chard plants with Bt for caterpillars (Thuricide, organic-approved) and figured that would stop the problem.

It didn’t. When I rechecked the patch a couple of days later, some leaves had been stripped completely down to the midribs. Caterpillars were still feasting on my plants. Since I didn’t find any caterpillars in the daytime, I changed the plan.

That night, before heading to bed, I went out to my chard patch with a flashlight and a tub that contained soapy water, prepared for a hunt.

I found caterpillars.

Caterpillars at night

Drowned caterpillars

That night, I found seven caterpillars on the Swiss chard, and I dropped them all into the soapy water. The caterpillars were on the Swiss chard variety ‘Perpetual spinach’, which is my favorite. The variety ‘Verde de taglio’, which has less tender leaves, also had some damage, but I did not find caterpillars on that variety.

The two groups of caterpillars most often identified as night-feeders are armyworms and cutworms.

Cutworm caterpillars

I think of cutworms as those little lumberjacks that cut down garden seedlings in the night. It didn’t occur to me that cutworms might eat bigger leaves until I saw an article about the winter cutworm, Noctua pronuba, at AskExtension.

The winter cutworm is found all across the U.S. The AskExtension article notes that the winter cutworm can be controlled with Bt for caterpillars, which is what I use on caterpillar pests, but only when the caterpillars are small. The caterpillars I found were large enough that, if they had been winter cutworms, they would have been unaffected by the Bt/Thuricide.

However, my caterpillars do not look like winter cutworms.

Armyworm caterpillars

One of the caterpillars that is eating my Swiss chard

A couple of nights after the big hunt, I went back out with the flashlight to hunt again, because leaves of my Swiss chard were still being eaten.

I found a couple more caterpillars, this time on both varieties of Swiss chard. To get a better look, I brought one of the little pests inside before drowning it in soapy water. I am pretty sure the caterpillar is an armyworm, possibly a yellow striped armyworm.

When the armyworms are as big as this — longer than an inch — handpicking and drowning the caterpillars may be the best organic option for stopping the damage in a small garden. As with the cutworms, larger caterpillars are not killed by the organic-approved Bt.

Worse, it sounds like (from reading multiple articles), a particular form of Bt is needed to get rid of the armyworms. My Thuricide won’t work on these pests. The special variation is in a product called XenTari BT. This is still an organic-approved Bt, but the strain of bacteria used to produce it is slightly different.

When I checked the product page for XenTari on amazon.com, it says the product is currently unavailable. I am guessing that is because armyworms are causing problems in more gardens than just mine, here in September.

Luckily, the batteries in my flashlight are still good. If the damage continues, I will just keep on hunting through the Swiss chard at night, until I’ve removed all of the pests.

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Small Farm Tools Demonstration at KSU Field Station

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Kennesaw State University has scheduled a Small Farm Tools Demonstration day at its field station, which is also the site of its farm. This is the basic event information:

DATE: Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2019 @ 1 PM (3.5 hours)

LOCATION: KSU Field Station, 1875 Hickory Grove Road, Acworth

Tools to be discussed and demonstrated include long-handled hand tools, flame weeders, walk-behind tractors, seeders, transplanters, and wheel hoes. Attendees will get a chance to try some of these tools out, to learn first-hand how they work, to help determine which tools may be appropriate for their own farms.

ADDITIONAL: The event is free. A full description of the event is on KSU’s Community events calendar. The visitor parking lot at the field station is on the right, just before the gate, but it is small. If you are attending with a friend, carpooling is recommended. Also, bring water. It will probably be a hot day.

Representatives from Johnny’s Selected Seeds and Georgia Organics are also participating in the Demonstration Day, bringing additional perspectives and conversation about sustainable small farming practices.

The KSU farm produces salad greens in a hydroponics greenhouse, other crops in two high-tunnels, and transplants in its propagation greenhouse.

Inside one of the high tunnels at the KSU field station

When I visited the farm last week (I know — I am sooo lucky!), I had a tour of part of the farm. I learned that the farm is focusing not just on producing food for the KSU cafeteria, but also on beginning research aimed at helping urban farmers.

  • Hydroponic salad greens
  • Hydroponic basil crops

The farm has been at this location for only one year. It had been up in Ballground, GA, previously, but this new location is much closer to the main campus, which makes it easier for students to participate in on-site activities. Already, the Ecology classes have been sending students to the field station on buses for their grasshopper mark-and-recapture lab.

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Squirrels in the Fruit Trees

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Sometimes, I think squirrels are cute. Other times, they seem less cute, such as when they are in the attic, or chewing the siding on the house, or eating the fruit ripening on the carefully tended fruit trees in the yard.

One might think that such small animals would be easy to control, but that would be an error; they are wily and hard to discourage.

The squirrels I am referring to are not fox squirrels or flying squirrels (although those are also cute little trouble-makers that are hard to discourage). The squirrels eating fruit in trees in my area are usually the grey squirrels.

What we can’t control

If squirrels are having a “boom year” — high population because of abundant food following a mild winter — they will be much harder to deal with. A gardener might think about using humane traps to catch squirrels and move them to a distant area, but this is a bit like trying to bail a sinking ship with a teaspoon. More squirrels will just flow in from the surrounding neighborhood to take the place of the ones that are removed.

(NOTE: currently in Georgia, squirrels are considered nuisance animals, but the legality of trapping is not clear. You might need a nuisance animal permit.)

Aspects of the yard to consider

Getting rid of ALL the squirrels is not really possible, but there are ways to make the yard less attractive to squirrels, to reduce the numbers of animals eating fruit in your trees.

  • Reduce or remove any “cover” on the ground that might hide squirrels from predators like hawks and coyotes. Leafy cover in a yard might include vines, tall grasses, and low shrubs, for example. Small animals cross wide open spaces less often than they cross spaces that have lots of leafy cover to hide under.
  • Make sure trees are far enough apart that branches don’t interlace, forming squirrel highways from one tree to the next. Branches of my Asian persimmon tree are at least twelve feet from the nearest next branch. That tree loses very little fruit to small animals, partly (I think) because it is not easy to get to the tree without crossing open spaces on the ground. North Carolina State University Extension suggests 6-8 feet as adequate distance to discourage squirrel jumping.
  • Any gardener who is facing a squirrel problem who also puts out birdseed should reconsider the bird feeders. Squirrels and other small animals (chipmunks, rats, mice) thrive on all the seed that falls from feeders. This extra food can support a LOT of small animals, allowing them to have even more babies that will eat even more of your fruit.
  • Extension’s Ask an Expert suggests putting an alternate food source (like an ear of corn wired to a fence) at a distance from your fruit trees, to draw squirrels away.

Discouraging animal pests usually requires working from more than one angle all at once. After working to change aspects of the yard to make the whole place less squirrel-friendly, the next step is to work on the trees themselves.

Make the fruit trees unpleasant or hard to climb

If squirrels can’t get up into the trees, they will not be able to eat the fruit. If they manage to get up there in spite of your interventions, it may be possible to make the experience so unpleasant that the fruit won’t be worth the effort.

Ways to interfere with climbing

University of Missouri Extension suggests that wrapping a tree with metal flashing and/or adding a metal baffle below the lowest branches can keep squirrels out of the branches:

… wrap trees with metal sheeting or protect them with squirrel baffles, as you would the pole for a bird feeder. . . Wrap all trees within branch-to-branch jumping distance. Be sure to allow for tree growth when wrapping. 

Tree squirrels: managing habitat and Controlling damage, by Robert Pierce

Extension’s Ask an Expert site suggests making the metal collar around the tree trunk two feet wide and six feet off the ground.

For baffles, I have not seen any for sale that would really work for most trees. Consider making one either from metal sheeting or from a couple of large aluminum roasting pans.

Use repellents to make the experience unpleasant

Repellents are products that taste bad, or smell bad, or are sticky enough that they are uncomfortable, or that otherwise offend the target animal.

Repellents work best when they are applied early — before the squirrels even know about your fruit trees. However, even if applied late, repellents can help slow the losses when their use is combined with other strategies.

Repellents for the ground versus for trees, fences, and structures

When I’ve had small animal problems, they have mostly been with chipmunks. I have used a hot-pepper based granular application that goes around the outside of the garden, that keeps them out. The one I use is organic-approved. To be honest, it has always worked to keep chipmunks from crossing into my garden, but it is not labeled for use on fruit trees or directly adjacent to other food crops.

I haven’t found any commercial repellents to use on the ground around fruit trees, but the granules I use for chipmunks (which also work for squirrels) might be useful in another part of the yard to keep the squirrels from running through. Just a thought.

Also, there is always experimenting with hot red pepper and black pepper that is liberally spread on the ground around the base of each tree. This would need to be re-applied after a rain, but The Old Farmer’s Almanac suggests that it may be worth a try.

Buy a commercially prepared repellent

The products I’ve seen that are labeled for use on food crops, including fruit, are not organic-approved. They mostly have names that are some version of “hot pepper wax”. I don’t know whether the lack of organic certification is due to the paraffin base that is in many of these, or the chemical that makes the paraffin flowable, or the hot-pepper extract, or any or all of the above.

If you are frustrated enough by squirrels to go without the organic approval, you might try one of the Hot Pepper Wax products, like the one from Bonide.

In general, all the brands of hot wax pepper products seem to be similar, and all have mixed reviews. They work in some situations and not in others.

DIY a batch at home

If you have a lot of powdered hot pepper already in your spice cupboard, making some of your own repellent is an option to try.

 You’ll need powdered red pepper (the hotter the better), water and some liquid soap. In a large jug, stir 2 tablespoons of the pepper into a gallon of warm water, then add six drops of liquid soap. Stir well, put the lid on and let it sit overnight. Early the next morning, pour some of the solution into a spray bottle, shake well and spray your plants, fences, or whatever the squirrels are after. At dusk, you can apply a second coat. Continue this for a few days or until the squirrels get the idea. After that, you may only need to spray once a week. The mixture will keep for two to three weeks in the refrigerator.

5 ways to keep pests out of fruit trees, by Joan Morris, Mercury News

Hot pepper is a key active ingredient for most of the commercial repellents, which makes this option a reasonable one to try. I can imagine, though, that the powdered pepper might clog a sprayer, which is something to be aware of when choosing your sprayer. Use one that will permit powdered stuff to go through.

The wrap up

As in most wildlife control situations, the key to best success for managing hungry squirrels is to use two or more new strategies at the same time. Mix it up by installing tree wrapping or a baffle, removing leafy cover near the ground, pruning nearby branches from other trees, AND using repellents.

For all my fellow gardeners whose fruit trees are plagued by squirrels, I hope that this information is helpful. Also — thanks to Sally for suggesting the topic!

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Planting Crops for Fall and Winter Harvest

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Over the past few weeks, I have been planting crops that can stand up to cold weather to harvest in fall and winter. So far, I’ve planted carrots (four kinds), beets, winter radishes, escarole, heading chicories, radicchio, kale, and cabbage.

Beet seedlings in the garden

Still to be planted: more escarole and other chicories, lettuces, more winter radishes and beets, a few turnips, cilantro, and many kinds of salad radishes. Arugula will go into containers to grow, so it won’t need space in my in-ground garden.

We start the fall crops in summer?

I know, it seems weird to plant our “cool season” crops in hot weather. However, planting in August and early September gives the crops their best chance to reach harvest-stage before December.

Fall Garden Planning book explains how to choose crops, create a schedule, and prepare the garden for fall planting.
This book explains what, how, and when to plant for the fall garden.

If your fall planting gets a late start (like now, or next week), that is not a disaster. It just means that some of your crops might not be ready for harvest until late winter or early spring. Also, some crops, like the more tender lettuces, might not survive into January.

Gardeners can adjust a bit for a late start by choosing varieties that mature more quickly than others. Most of my carrot varieties this year mature in about 70-75 days (“days to harvest” listed on the seed packets). I planted them all a couple of weeks ago.

Some varieties mature in less time. ‘Little finger’ carrots, for example, mature in about 55 days. If planted now, they could be harvested in about two months.

Rows of carrot seedlings in partly shaded garden
Carrot seedlings — each variety in its own row, to help me know which is which.

Protecting the seedlings

I am looking forward to cooking with the new escaroles and other chicories in this year’s garden. However, many hazards await our cool-season crops in late summer. One is the risk of drying out in the hot sun. My seedlings get water, from a watering can, almost every morning while they are small.

When they are larger, and I am confident that their roots reach deep enough that they are protected from the worst heat and from the quick-drying surface of the garden, the seedings will get less frequent watering.

Snails, slugs, and roly-polies

Even though the weather is dry, and the forecast is for more dry, snails and roly-polies are still present in my garden. Both of those pests are known seedling-eaters. To protect the emerging seedlings, I sprinkled a little iron phosphate bait (Sluggo – organic-approved – this one includes spinosad) on the seeded areas.

Accidental removal

Seedlings emerging in the garden within white paper circles
Escarole and other chicory family crops

The chicory family crops (escarole, heading chicories, radicchio) are planted within rings formed by the tops of paper cups.

I cut off the lower half of each cup, then pressed the top part into into the soil, about an inch down. The seeds are planted inside the cylinders, to remind me where they are. This keeps me from “weeding” them out of the garden by accident.

Moths, butterflies, and their hungry caterpillar babies

My cabbage family plants — the kale (not yet emerged) and two tiny cabbages — are under netting. I put the netting over the area immediately after planting, to protect these crops from cabbage moths and cabbage butterflies.

The bird netting over my support-structure has large enough holes (5/8 inch) that some insects, like ladybugs, can get through. The holes are small enough, though, that the cabbage moths and butterflies cannot get to my plants, which keeps them from laying eggs on them. No eggs, no caterpillars.

Fall planting continues

Assorted summer crops are still producing good food, which means they continue to take space in the garden. Planting for fall crops, for me at least, is a hodge-podge affair as a result.

Swiss chard planted in a curved line around the June-planted ‘Winterkeeper’ tomato.

The first patch of chicory family plants is in the space that held Southern peas earlier this summer. The carrots and some beets are in the spot that held zucchini. Winter radishes are in the spot vacated by an heirloom tomato. Kale and cabbages are in the space previously held by pole beans.

The space taken by the Swiss chard and the late-planted ‘winterkeeper’ tomato will not be available for planting until after the first freeze, unless horrible things happen to them (always possible) before then.

By the time a hard freeze arrives, though, some of my cool-season crops will already be coming into the kitchen.

How are your fall garden plantings coming along?

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Two Days for Pollinators

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Today and tomorrow, August 23 and 24, are the days set for UGA’s Great Georgia Pollinator Census (GGPC). UGA’s goal is to create a “snapshot” of the pollinators in Georgia on these two days in August.

Since UGA research staff can’t cover the whole state in two days, they have called for “all hands on deck” — inviting the entire population of the state to help. I went to one of my favorite neighborhood gardens to participate this morning.

Sign for a community garden with painted images of children working in a garden, tomato plant, a pumpkin, carrots growing, a tree, and a butterfly

My day at the garden

A woman in blue shirt, shorts and a hat, with a clipboard, observing a patch of flowers.
One of this morning’s pollinator counters

A total of nine of us showed up to count pollinators, but the garden will be open again tomorrow, for people who couldn’t participate on a weekday.

We had a great time watching the insects, identifying butterflies, and being in a garden full of flowers.

The garden includes a patch of milkweeds, more than one kind, for the monarchs, and we found monarch butterfly eggs on the backs of some of the leaves. It is always heartening to see evidence that the monarch migration continues.

Some pictures from my morning:

  • Pollinator Census sheet for the GGPC
  • Carpenter bee on marigold
  • A fellow pollinator-counter
  • Sulfur butterfly on red Pentas flowers
  • Chrysalis for a swallowtail butterfly, on fennel
  • Fritillary caterpillar on passionflower vine

What we learned

One plant can be visited by five or six or more kinds of butterflies in just the fifteen minute window of counting time. The good news is that we didn’t have to identify the exact kinds, just know that they were butterflies. Many were skippers, and those can be hard to tell apart.

Also, some plants are visited by so many teeny tiny bees that counting can be difficult.

Two tiny bees in the yellow center of a red-petaled zinnia flower
Two tiny bees in the yellow center of a red-petaled zinnia flower

The husband of one of our pollinator counters did a “dry run” on a plant in their yard yesterday, the day before the census, to see how it would go. He saw a hummingbird moth (his wife identified it), and he had never seen one before. He was entranced.

Still another day to participate!

If you weren’t able to pitch in today, there is still tomorrow. Visit the GGPC website to read about how-to-count and to download a copy of the counting sheet.

Then, on Saturday the 24th of August, find a plant that has flowers on it and insects visiting the flowers. Set a timer for 15 minutes, then count the insects that visit the flowers.

You don’t have to have great insect-ID skills for this. The categories of pollinators are for just eight kinds, and the GGPC website includes a guide to download that shows pictures.

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Basil Trial for Basil Downy Mildew

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A plant disease called Basil Downy Mildew has been yellowing basil leaves, stunting basil plants, and interfering with gardeners’ pesto dreams for many years. According to Cornell University, this basil disease was first identified in the USA in Florida in 2007. Since then, the disease has spread pretty much across the entire country, and beyond.

What is basil downy mildew?

Basil downy mildew is a plant disease that causes yellowing and browning of basil leaves. Because the first signs, the changes in color of the leaves, are also signs of other problems, like a lack of soil fertility, identifying downy mildew requires a closer look at the plant.

  • Basil plant with yellowing, mottled leaves
    Sweet basil plant affected by basil downy mildew, August8
  • Basil plant with healthy, bright green leaves
    Sweet basil plant not yet affected by downy mildew, July 22

In the two plants above, the first shows leaves that are less brightly green. The tops of the leaves show some yellowing, and there are brown patches on the leaves, too. The undersides of its leaves are pale.

The other plant is actually the exact same plant, just a few weeks earlier in the summer. Back on July 22, the leaves were brightly green, un-mottled, and the backs of the leaves were also green.

To see if downy mildew is causing the change in the leaves, from brightly green to a mix of paler green with yellow and brown, turn a yellowed leaf over to look underneath.

If downy mildew is causing the problem, there will be purple-gray dots that are the spores of the disease that you can see if you look close. You might need a magnifying lens to see them well. From further away, the underside of an affected leaf looks almost silvered.

Backside of a basil leaf showing the purplish gray spores of basil downy mildew.

The good news for home gardeners is that not all basils are affected by the downy mildew. Finding resistant basils that have the flavor we desire is the next step in renewing our pesto dreams.

My home garden basil varieties trial

This year I planted eight kinds of basil. My goal was to identify hardy, good-flavored varieties for my yard. All but two varieties (‘Amazel’ and ‘Red Rubin’) were grown from seed that I bought from Strictly Medicinal Seeds.

The ‘Red Rubin’ seeds were from Nichol’s Garden Seeds. The ‘Amazel’ basil was a plant sent to me (for free) from Proven Winners.

The information below is what I’ve learned so far for each of the eight basil varieties currently growing in my yard (two are about to come out, because of the downy mildew).

Sweet Genovese basil (Ocimum basilicum)

Genovese basil has the “classic” basil flavor. It is the variety I have relied on for many years to fill my freezer with pesto, to be used in winter.

However, this is one of two varieties in my garden that currently are turning yellow and brown from downy mildew. The downy mildew pictures above are of this variety.

The good news is that I already harvested leaves from my two Genovese plants, early in July, to make pesto. That pesto is in the freezer now, waiting for its moment to shine in appropriate meals.

Sweet lettuce leaf basil (Ocimum basilicum)

Yellowed mottled leaves of basil plant in August
Lettuce leaf basil showing signs of downy mildew disease

Lettuce leaf basil is the other variety that is fading fast in my garden as a result of basil downy mildew. To be honest, this variety looks worse than the Genovese basil.

In the past, this has been a great basil to have in the garden, because the large leaves fit so nicely onto a sandwich.

If I had known what was coming to the plant this summer, I would have brought more of it into the kitchen before now.

Kivumbasi lime basil (Ocimum canum)

This is a new basil variety for me. I was curious about the flavor and wanted to know more. The great news is that the plant, so far, shows no signs of being affected by basil downy mildew.

Basil plant with flower spikes
Flower spikes of small-leaved Kivumbasi lime basil plant

The plant in my garden has small leaves, and the entire plant is not as large and robust-looking as some varieties. The flavor is the funny part. It really does taste like a mix of lime and basil.

I have not been super-successful in finding ways to use this basil in the kitchen. The description at Strictly Medicinal Seeds, where I purchased the seeds, suggests using the leaves in tea. Before I pull the plant from the garden, to make way for fall vegetables, I will harvest the remaining leaves to dry for herb tea.

The other way I’ve used the leaves is to make lime-basil popsicles. The result was a little odd, but you never really know until you try, right?

Mrihani basil (Ocimum basilicum)

Scallop edged green leaves of mrihani basil
Scallop-edged green leaves of Mrihani basil

This is another new basil for me, and it also shows no signs of basil downy mildew. The flavor is very good; it leans a bit toward anise. I am saving leaves for tea.

The leaves are large and scallop-edged. The scalloped edges are pretty in the garden, and the large size makes for an easy harvest. The plant is also large, for a basil.

The flower spikes start out green but mature to purple. Bees love them.

Thai basil (Ocimum basilicum)

Bumblebee on purple flower spike of a Thai basil plant
Purple flower spike of a Thai basil plant, with bumblebee

So far, I see no signs of basil downy mildew on this variety. The plants make tidy, globe-shaped mounds. The flower spikes are purple, which makes an ornamental contrast to the leaves. The basil flavor is spicy and good, but not exactly pesto-like.

If you order pho from a Thai restaurant, this is likely to be the basil that comes in the pile of green things that accompany your soup.

Greek basil (Ocimum minimum)

Small-leaved Greek basil, crowded by a cucumber vine.

This small-leaved variety also shows no signs of basil downy mildew. The plant is small all over, with a neat, tree-like shape if given proper spacing at planting time. My garden tended toward crowdedness this year, so my Greek basil did not develop the classic shape.

I have grown this basil before. The small leaf-size slows down harvest a little, but the strong, spicy flavor means a little bit goes a long way. The flavor leans toward cloves.

Red Rubin basil (Ocimum basilicum)

Purple leaves and purple flower spike of red rubin basil
Purple leaves and purple flower spike of red rubin basil

This is the basil variety I grew last year, when I first decided to look into a wider range of basil varieties that might resist the basil downy mildew disease. Of all the non-Genovese varieties in the garden this year, this one has the most Genovese-like flavor.

Like last year, the plant does not show any signs of having basil downy mildew.

The leaves do shade toward purple. Both years that I’ve grown this variety, the plants have not grown to a large size. The leaves, though, are large enough that harvesting is easy.

‘Amazel’ sweet basil from Proven Winners (Ocimum basilicum)

Bright green leaves on basil plant
Downy mildew resistant ‘Amazel’ basil from Proven Winners

This plant was sent to me by Proven Winners, and it fit nicely into my plan to try more basil varieties this year. The plant shows no sign of basil downy mildew. The leaves are large-ish, brightly green, and the flavor is similar to that of ‘Red Rubin’ — not quite as sweet as the classic Sweet Genovese, but close.

Cornell University reports that the seeds of ‘Amazel’ are sterile, which means that, even if we manage to collect seeds from the plants, they won’t grow next year. However, many gardeners purchase herb plants, instead of seeds, for the garden each year. If they buy an ‘Amazel’, they will get a plant with good flavor that won’t suffer from basil downy mildew.

How to manage basil downy mildew in the organic home garden

Currently, no good treatment options exist for basil downy mildew in home gardens, even in gardens that are not managed organically. Commercial non-organic farms do have some chemical options, but even those are not perfectly effective.

Organic home gardeners should consider other strategies.

Change our expectations

Some of us may choose to branch out, flavor-wise, and bring some differently flavored pestos to the table. Certainly, there are many flavor options to try! Maybe a batch of lime-basil pesto would be less odd than my lime-basil popsicles. Maybe, too, I will eventually love lime-basil popsicles.

Plant resistant varieties

‘Amazel’ is not the only new Genovese-type basil variety that shows resistance to the downy mildew disease. A Basil Downy Mildew article from Wisconsin Cooperative Extension suggests ‘Eleanora’ as a resistant variety to try. Cornell University (linked earlier in this article) lists several additional varieties for home gardeners to try:

  • Devotion
  • Obsession
  • Passion
  • Thunderstruck
  • Prospera
  • Emma
  • Everleaf

Many of the above varieties can be purchased from Johnny’s Selected Seeds.

Change the timing of planting and harvest

Looking back at the first two pictures in the article, you can see that the plant on July 22 looked great. Evidence of disease did not show up until later. If I had planted more Sweet Genovese basil earlier in spring, I could have harvested loads of delicious basil leaves before August, with its heat and humidity that encourage downy mildew diseases.

Then, as the disease became noticeable, I could have removed them from the garden, replanting that space with another crop, knowing that I had plenty of pesto stored for use in later months.

Purchase steam-treated seeds

Some basil seeds are steam-treated to kill the basil downy mildew pathogen. The information might not be easy to find in a seed catalog or even online, but untreated seeds can spread the disease to your garden if they came from infected plants.

The disease can also come into your garden on the wind, which we can’t do anything about, but making sure our tools are clean, that plants we purchase to set into our gardens are healthy, and buying disease-free seeds are ways we can slow the spread of this disease.

Herb tea in my future

Glove-shaped Thai basil plant with green leaves and purple flower spikes
Globe-shaped Thai basil plant with green leaves and purple flower spikes, beloved by pollinators

Right now, my garden still contains several basil plants. They won’t all be there much longer, though. Soon, I will be harvesting leaves to dry (in my most excellent Excaliber dehydrator) for herb tea. Then, I will remove most of the plants to make room for planting vegetables that I want to grow for fall and winter harvests.

The Thai basil plants will stay in the garden until frost, to support the many pollinators that visit them every day.

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