In it you will find information on growing vegetables, flowers and turf, with sections to help in designing your flower and vegetable garden plans, a vegetable garden planner, growing tomato plants (with over 700 varieties listed), vegetable garden layout, vegetable gardening tips, vegetable garden planting fact sheets for each veggie, all meant for the home vegetable garden.

Be aware the the information may have dates or procedures that are not appropriate to California gardening, but the information will give you a solid base to fine-tune from.

Click here to access the database.

Read the next article Garden Problem Solver.

Cornell Vegetable Database is a post from: Community Gardens Blog

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Privacy Policy is a post from: Community Gardens Blog

A lot of us are finding we have extra produce coming from out tiny plots. This will become a problem when we start to all have tomatoes later this year.

After you have fed your family, friends, and your neighbors flee when they see you coming – what do you do with all that food?

Whether you grow too much, or your CSA share is too big for your family, here are some other options for your organic produce. The food pantries listed below feed the poor and the aged and are worthy of your consideration.

Please note: Inclusion in this list does not constitute an endorsement by the Camarillo Community Gardens of any one organization over another. This list was provided by one of our gardeners, and is reproduced for your information only. If you know of other food pantries in the area and wish to have them added to this list, please leave the details in a comment and we will add them.

Bountiful harvests to you all!

Local Food Pantries

(in order of submission)

St. Mary Magdalen

2532 E. Ventura Blvd. (behind the church)
805-987-1155
Mondays – deliver before 3 p.m.

St. Columbus Episcopal Church

1251 Las Posas Rd., Camarillo
805-482-8831
Tuesdays – deliver between 9:00 and 10:00 a.m.

Camarillo 7th Day Adventist Church

3975 Las Posas Rd., Camarillo
805-482-4632
Tuesday, deliver between 9:30 and 11:30

Sharing Your Bounty is a post from: Community Gardens Blog

As you probably are aware, the Antonio Garden is a brand new garden, created from a vacant lot, and bordered by a condo complex on the west, by a retirement village to the south (both complete with chemical/pesticide maintenance) and an avocado orchard on the other. Our goal is to use Integrated Pest Management to keep our organic garden free from toxins and naturally controls pests. This is difficult with this brand new garden since there are no resident predator populations in the area.

A month ago, we had an invasion of aphids which attacked our broccoli and cauliflower plus a couple of other cabbage-family plants. Without predators in the garden, they were able to take hold and become established.

Aphids Infestation on Saturday

Some of the gardeners were ready to pull out pesticides and/or insecticidal soaps to eliminate the pests. However, I implored the gardeners to try the most benign solution first – water jetting the offending insects from the plants.

Aphids become atrophied and immobile when they have settled in and, once washed off, cannot climb back up your plant.

The reason we used a simple water solution instead of sprays is this: water will physically remove most of the pests and, just as importantly, it does not harm the predatory insects that may be hunting the pests.

Had we let the gardeners use insecticidal soaps, they would have killed some, but not all, of the pests. Aphids have a waxy coating, and many water-based sprays or mists will simply roll off their backs. Spraying would not have destroyed the pests, but would more than likely destroyed all the predatory insects, which lack the waxy-protection, in the process.

Yesterday, I was able to show the children and their parents, the aphids that were left in the garden. What was evident at that time was predation by tiny wasps and aphids dying from both predation and fungal diseases.

I took some photos, but all I had was a video cam that doesn’t do extreme close-ups. I pulled the still (above) from one of the videos. There were large areas, thick with aphids, primarily within the curled leaf margins. We also saw dead aphids and aphid ‘mummies’, indicating that predation was happening. The big tip: we saw wasps actively working the aphids.

What is most interesting is that no one had released wasps in the garden, and they probably do not come from the over-maintained condo complexes surrounding the garden.

But the wasp still found us, and they have come to the rescue…

I went back this morning, about 16 hours later, to re-take the photos with a macro lens, and what I found this morning was very different from what I saw just a half day before.

Aphids Battlefield - They are losing

The aphids had been reduced by 75% to 80% – literally over night. In place of the mass of aphids was a battlefield, littered with skeletal remains of aphids sucked dry (possibly by roving ladybug larva) and ‘mummies’, aphids that have been parasitized from within.

You all saw the movie, “Alien”, right? Same thing…

This picture to the left shows the same leaf that is shown in the first photo.  Instead of fields of aphids, there are a few survivors, and the tiny wasps are at work, laying eggs in them for the next generation.

Wasp Larvae exiting Aphids' carcass

This picture is amazing – it shows a wasp, which has pupated in the body of an aphid, emerging from the  Look for head and antennae exiting the body of the aphid. It is really had to see; click the photo for a closer view.

A wasp laying eggs in live aphids

In this photo, an adult wasp (almost transparent) is caught in the act of laying an egg for the next generation of predators that will protect our garden.

A Close Up View

The last photo, a close-cropped view, is enhanced to make the wasps more visible. Many aphids show the dark spot on their rear ends indicating they have been parasitized.

Our aphid problem is not at an end – we will continue to get these and other pest into the garden. However, if we refrain from whipping out toxins, we can help nature take its chosen course and have a productive, toxin and pest free garden.

The take-away here is that IPM is nature’s own way of managing pests and that it works. Like so many other things, Nature’s way of managing pests works best and it is in our own interests to learn how to work within this system.

One Final Update:

I went back again yesterday with my granddaughters to show them the wasps in action. The original leaf I photographed had 11 aphids left, and most of those showed signs of great distress – like they were being attacked from within…

To learn more about IPM methods visit our Gardening-Coaches web site, our Camarillo Community Garden blog or the University of California’s I.P.M. page.

Read the next article: Garden Design Ideas

Antonio Garden Aphids Update is a post from: Community Gardens Blog

Sub-pages:

Aphids!

Garden Design Ideas

Garden Planning Basics

Weeds!

Building Healthy Garden Soil

Read the first article in this series: Aphids!

Garden Problem Solver is a post from: Community Gardens Blog

Heirlooms are great strains for specific climates. Most climates are not like Camarillo’s. Few place share our Mediterranean climate. we are lucky to have enough variety to choose from that we still get good results, sometimes better than their native locales due to our longer, milder growing season.

We have trouble getting seeds from the other Mediterranean zones due to the high cost and long delays of certifying the seeds as disease free for import. Thus, seeds from Chile and New Zealand are almost unavailable, with a single importer of Italian seeds. Theses ‘Seeds From Italy‘ are (for the most part – Italy is a big county) suited to our soil and climate. Not only do the grow well here, but they are selected for taste and texture, not suitability for machine picking…

With the correct varieties, heirlooms give incredible flavors unavailable to mere mortals. The tough part is finding those ambrosial varieties.

Best seeds for gardening

The best seeds for gardening come from climates like ours. As noted above, not all climates are anything like ours. Avoid crops that advise that heat is needed to develop best flavor – we simply won’t get it. Likewise, crops that require a deep cold soak will not due well since we don’t get a normal winter. Some crops, like garlic, onions and strawberries, required cold temperatures prior to planting for best results. You can harvest your own and refrigerate these to simulate winter.

California seeds sources include Renee’s Garden which maintains test growing grounds in several different California climate zones. I have had, for the most part, remarkable success with her selected varieties; see the notes on heat and cold above. I have documented many of the selections on the recommended vegetable page.

Plan you Vegetable Garden Planting

Choosing the right number of plants to grow is a problem, but more of a math problem than anything else. The idea is to get the most plants into an area without crowding them together. Crowding prevents predators from getting at the insects eating your plants, and prevents air movement, increasing chances of disease or more insects.

It is often a trade-off between too little space and too big a desire for fresh veggies. Err on the side of conservative as plants with adequate space produce more than those that are crowded, and do so with fewer problems.

Planting catalogs and seed packets all have spacing directions – follow them. You can use these dimensions when planning your garden to make the best use of the space available. Proper planning also allows your vegetable garden planting to put new crops in when old crops are ending. This does take planning ahead.

One simple solution is in a new on-line service called GroVeg. I use this program, and am now beta testing a new version with some great new additions. The program has been completely rewritten since I did this review of it previously and has some killer new features we asked for.

One of these features allows you to plan your garden in beds rather than rows, and it makes it easy to schedule plant’s time in the ground. This allows you to plan for succession plantings. This would still be a challenge, but the software knows how long each plant takes from seed to planting and from planting to harvest. It produces a calendar that shows you when each crop is in each period. It even sends you e-mails reminding you of upcoming tasks.

Read the next article: How to Start Vegetables from Seeds

Selecting Heirloom Vegetable Seeds is a post from: Community Gardens Blog

Tomato Harvest

Tomatoes are the most grown vegetable in the home garden, and with little wonder. Tomatoes produce a prodigious crop of vitamin-rich fruit, and can bear very quickly of over a long period. Mixing varieties produces a very long season of tomatoes.  Last year, I had 14 plants that produced up to 45 pounds of tomatoes per day. A few plants go a long way!

Many people have tasted the inspired taste of heirloom tomatoes and are dying to get hold of some for them selves. Heirlooms are great, but there is a caveat – heirlooms are selected for their superb production qualities in the location where they were selected. Not that many have been developed through selective breeding in Camarillo…

I have had great luck with several varieties of heirlooms; refer to recommended vegetable varieties for my notes and Master Gardener recommendations. One that got rave reviews last year was the Black Krim, a large, dense fruit with good acid balance and a purple /black top that turns burgundy on the bottom. It bears heavily for a short period and produces good fruit through December or whenever the night time temps fall below 55 degrees.

Tomatoes are subject to numerous diseases. Growing them repeatedly in the same area allows soil-borne pests to develop over time, so you should ‘rotate’ the areas devoted to tomatoes.

When selecting tomato varieties, look for the letters ‘V’, ‘F’, ‘N’ and ‘T’. These denote resistance to Verticillium, Fusarium, Nematodes and Tobacco Mosaic virus. Verticillium and Fusarium are two serious diseases that can wipe out your whole crop.

If you buy plants from a big-box supplier PLEASE examine them plants for any sign of disease before bring it to the garden! Once introduced, they are hard to eliminate. A nation-wide grower wiped out the whole Northeast’s tomato crop last year by introducing blight from a single contaminated growing ground. The control you have over your own plants is another reason to start seeds for your heirloom tomatoes.

Tomatoes are classified as ‘determinate’ or ‘indeterminate’. Determinate varieties grow qnd produce their crop quickly, and the total number of fruit is determined by their genetics. The clusters of fruit seen in specialty vegetable aisle are most likely determinate in nature.

Indeterminate plants, on the other hand, produce fruit until fruit production stops with 55 degree nights or they are killed off by cold weather.

Tomatoes are one of very few plants that will tolerate having their stems buried, and seem to thrive from some extra stem/soil contact. Tomatoes need good support. One of the best studies I have found on tomato staking options is here on the UCCE ‘California Gardening’ website. I would like to see us try the recommended ‘Square Wooden Cage’ method they suggest. It looks like something we could mass produce quite easily.

A truly in-depth study of tomato culture is found in this University paper on growing tomatoes. In this paper, we are in climate zone ‘A’.

Read the next article: Sharing Your Bounty

Tomato Gardening is a post from: Community Gardens Blog

Lettuce Patch - Looks good enough to eat

‘Greens’ are leaves generally used in salads, but can be any young plant grow primarily for its leaves. Our mild climate allows us to have garden fresh greens, considered cool-weather vegetables, almost any day of the year. It is extremely sensitive to high temperatures and may be damaged or killed by our east winds or unusually hot summer weather.

Growing in the shade of taller plants will help extend the growing period, and I plant lettuces under the shade of my banana plants. Another great idea I saw was to grow vining or sprawling plants over wire-covered frames, set at an angle to shade the ground below. This effectively doubles your growing area and provides the best conditions for two different types of veggies.

Some varieties are more heat tolerant than others. Renee’s, my favorite California seed supplier, offers several different mixes for different growing seasons; here is a link to Renee’s greens page and to Renee’s lettuce page. The favorites from my garden have been: “Monet’s Garden Mesclun”, “Cut and Come Again”, “Summer Bouquet” and “Ruby & Emerald Duet”.

These are generally picked in cut-n-come-again fashion and provide a constant supply of fresh greens. Only pick a few outer leaves from each plant at a time and the new leaves replace the harvested one. The lettuce patch in the picture above is harvested this way. Watch the last movie at the bottom of this page called “Salad Leaves for All Seasons with Charles Dowding” for a great demonstration of the technique.

Bolted Lettuce

Besides heat as a killer, our hot and cold temperature fluctuations cause many cool weather crops to ‘bolt’, or go to seed. This turns the leaves bitter and suitable for composting.

Luckily, greens germinate quickly and are ready to set out in the garden after 3 or 4 weeks, and a succession of seedings will keep you in greens. A single seed packet of greens will provide you with enough seed for year. See the page on starting seeds for instructions on seed seeding technique.

Refer to ‘Recommended Vegetable Varieties‘ for notes on locally tested salad greens.

Read the next article: Selecting heirloom vegetable seeds

How to Grow Greens is a post from: Community Gardens Blog

Garlic grows well in most parts of California, and a garlic row a few feet long gives a good supply. A single bulb of garlic will start 12 – 36 new plants.

Plant it in fertile soil in the late fall, winter of early spring. Fall plants work best in our mild winter climate. Grow garlic the same way as you grow onions.

Garlic is a member of the Allium family (onions, leeks, chives), and like other bulbs, it needs a good long cold soak (since we don’t have winter) to go dormant and be ready to form bulbs when we plant it. Order your garlic as early as possible and store it in the vegetable crisper for 3 to 4 weeks before planting to assume good bulb formation.

Garlic come in two varieties, hard- and soft-neck types. Softneck types are generally better suited for warmer climates and have a spicier flavor than hardnecks. I have been primarily growing softneck types like Chilean Silver, Inchelium Red and Transylvanian. The Transylvanian produces extra large cloves. My source for garlic bulbs is Seeds of Change (http://www.seedsofchange.com).

Garlic can be planted in the spring or fall. Garlic is ready to harvest when 3/4 of the foliage has turned brown and collapsed. Use a garden fork to lift the bulbs from below to avoid bruising or cracking them or damaging the neck; this sort of damage results in poor storage.

Let the dug bulbs dry in the sun outdoors until the skins turn papery. You can braid the partially dried bulbs by the tops or remove the tops before storage.

Read the next article: How to Grow Greens.

How to Grow Garlic is a post from: Community Gardens Blog

Seed starting is pretty basic. Mother Nature actually does most of the work, all you have to do is not get in her way.

Getting in Nature’s way is pretty easy,  though. We try to get a jump on the growing season by starting plants indoors. This leads to low-light, low-temp and high humidity conditions. These are the perfect conditions for virus, fungus and mold organisms.

Bottom heat helps seeds start quickly, and many types of seed require warmth too germinate instead of rotting in the ground. This is especially true of beans which need warm, fast germination.

Good light, either natural or artificial is needed to keep the seedlings happy, short and stocky. If not enough light is present the seedlings will elongate to reach the light, become weak and spindly, and eventually fall over.

Sterile media and containers are required to prevent disease organisms from killing the seedlings. Clean used containers in a 5% – 10% bleach solution using a bristle brush to remove all material from the containers. Some suitable containers are foam egg cartons, 6-packs from previous purchases, yogurt pots, dixie cups, newspaper pots, and purpose-made seed trays.

Seed starting material must be sterile. Soil-less mixes are best. Peat moss, perlite, vermiculite and various mineral compounds for nutrients are the basis of many good commercial mixes.

Plant the seeds just as deep as directed on the seed packet. Cover the seeds with light material (the fine-cut seed starting mix is perfect) or the seedlings may not have the strength to emerge from the ground.

Water the newly-planted seed trays in a water bath. Let the water soak up from the bottom. This dislodges any air pockets, settles the media, and assures that the the seed is in firm contact with the moist media. This is the preferred watering method even  after the seedlings have emerged. Watering from above may damage the stems, it creates wet leaves which promotes disease, and it spreads any disease spores to other plants.

This video shows you how to start seeds successfully, the very first time you try. It’s really easy to do, and the video shows you how to have the plants you want when you want them.

Does the system work? You bet!

One Day's Harvest - Heirloom Tomatoes grown from seed

Here is just part of a single day’s harvest from seedlings shown in the final shot… Each plant cost about 3 1/2 cents to grow, and produced 2 to 4 pounds of tomatoes a day. That is good return on investment…

Varieties shown include Black Krim, Sweet Persimmon, Yellow Perfection, Ace, and Costolutto.

You can results like this from your own garden, just follow the steps in the video.

Be sure to subscribe to the RSS feed to be notified of upcoming video lessons. We’ll cover an entire season of organic growing techniques.

Read the next article: Tomato Gardening

Start Vegetable Seeds is a post from: Community Gardens Blog