Cold Weather Hits So Cal

Temperatures dropped to the high 40s low 50s this week, down from 70s last week, causing chaos in my garden. I had to work quickly and cover my seedlings with frost blankets to keep them from going into shock. I lost half a bed of greens, the ones in the shade. If you can't afford the frost blankets, shredded newspaper, straw or good old fashioned burlap works to cover, insulate and keep the soil protected. My young broccoli plants took a beating from the wind and rain and fell over. I was able to stake most of them. With the ones that didn't make it, I harvested the leaves and Chef made a delicious broccoli risotto. The remainder went into the compost bin. The advantage of the raised beds and the biointensive gardening method is the healthy soil and good drainage, so my crops will withstand the weather.

Grubs

Eeeeuw! As I was turning over the soil in one of my raised beds to prepare it for planting cool season crops, I came across a fat white caterpillar type grub, with a red butt! My soil was full of the wriggling pests. After a little research, I discovered they were the larvae of the Japanese beetle – not a friend to my kitchen garden. I found them in three of my 14 raised beds. The same three that I had amended in early fall with compost purchased from a new source. They must have been in the compost. To rid my soil of these grubs, I mixed one part Ivory dish soap to 10 parts boiling hot water and poured it over the soil of the beds. The culprits squirmed up to the surface and I scooped them up and threw them away. Those that didn’t make it to the top, died in the soil. As I turned over my soil, I discarded the remaining grubs. I am so glad to be rid of them.

Biointensive Method of Gardening

My first job was to create a kitchen garden in a 30-by-50-feet plot of asphalt, adjacent to a popular Orange County Restaurant. We built 14 raised beds and used the biointensive gardening method to fill them with cut-and-come-again lettuces, lemon cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, radishes, melons, beets, herbs and more. Fresh, homegrown vegetables that are served in the restaurant. In each of the redwood beds, I dug down extra deep, loosening the soil to a depth of 24 inches. This aerates the soil, giving the roots plenty of space to grow straight down, improving water retention and allowing a healthy growth of microorganisms. Close spacing of plants increases the yield and creates a vibrant mini-ecosystem under the canopy of leaves. Companion planting attracts helpful insects and repels harmful ones, and planting items in rotation helps maintain soil health. We used a tape irrigation system, which is buried under the soil and delivers water directly to the root of each plant. I've been so pleased with the results.