A Herburger Publication • Fall 2020
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Welcome to our Fall Home and Garden special By Cameron Macdonald HPI Publications
Autumn officially begins on Sept. 22, and it could not come sooner. It’s been a rough summer for gardeners in the past few weeks – they had to cope with triple-digit heat waves and skies thickened with the smoke of wildfires blazing across Northern California and beyond. The hits kept coming in our year of 2020. Now that the seasons are changing and friendlier weather is arriving, it’s time to take another good look at your garden. HPI Publications staff members and guest writers piece together this fall guide for home gardeners. Lance Armstrong of the Elk Grove Citizen
took a break from covering the election year to write about his three years of gardening at home and learning about the craft as he went along. Monica Stark of Valley Community Newspapers wrote a piece on introducing gardening to children. Rod Whitlow, a Wilton-based arborist and a longtime contributor to our home and garden specials, contributed a guide to planting fruit trees. He also suggests that you should consider planting Asian Pears for its abundance of fruit. There are also maintenance guides for lawns, deer-proofing your yard, and how to harvest and prepare tomato seeds for planting next spring. Take a seat and grab a pear or three, and enjoy.
Tips from a third-year gardener The Citizen’s Lance Armstrong speaks about his gardening experiences By Lance Armstrong HPI Publications
Like so many things in life, experience matters, and gardening is one such thing. Fortunately, gardening is also something that one can jump right into with very little guidance and achieve satisfactory results. Three years ago, I decided to venture into the world of gardening as a way to gain fresh, ripened-on-thevine fruits and vegetables, and to save a lot of money. Before growing my own garden, I would spend a lot more money on fruits and vegetables, oftentimes buying inferior produce at significantly inflated prices.
But while out shopping one day during the spring of 2018, I saw several racks of small vegetable plants for sale. Being in an adventurous mood, I thought: “I’ve wanted to plant a vegetable garden for many years. I’m going to buy some of those plants and finally plant a garden.” Having heard for years that tomatoes love lots of sunlight and do well in the heat of this area, I decided to begin my adventures in gardening by growing a tomato garden. I picked out several varieties of tomatoes, from large, beefsteak to the Sungold cherry tomatoes. Because of its sweetness and great flavor, the latter tomato became
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Photos by Lance Armstrong
This variety of freshly picked produce was grown in the garden of Citizen writer Lance Armstrong.
a must-plant staple of my annual summer garden. For those who prefer a sweet cherry tomato, it is tough to argue against the advertising claim that the orangegold-colored Sungolds are the “sweetest tomato ever.” Also important to my summer garden each year is making sure I
have quality soil. Garden plants thrive in rich, quality soil that they can easily sink their roots into. Although I believe in being adventurous and trying new things, I have always used the same mixture of chicken manure and mineral-rich topsoil. So, see GARDENER page 4
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Gardener: continued from page 3
in this category, with the great results I have achieved from my gardens, I have taken the “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it” approach. My method has been to add fresh soil each year to ensure a greater number of nutrients that would hopefully yield the best results. Also important to a quality garden is giving your plants enough water. I found that it is a lot more difficult to negatively affect a garden by overwatering it than underwatering it. With that in mind, I water my garden almost every day, although I have read and heard a lot of advice that every other day watering is sufficient. As for my second year of summer gardening, it was even better than my first year, which was quite successful. I found that once that first garden had been enjoyed, I had gained knowledge and experience that would project me toward creating even better gardens in the future. After graduating from the beginning
garden space for other types of plants. A family, for instance, may not want to eat tomatoes with every meal, just to avoid spoilage. Also important is to plant a garden with a sufficient amount of one’s favorite vegetables and fruits. In my case, since I like cucumbers and bell peppers a lot, my one cucumber plant and one bell pepper plant do not produce enough cucumbers and bell peppers to meet my demand. Therefore, I still purchase cucumbers and bell peppers at grocery stores and farmers’ markets. Cherry tomatoes grow well in the hot summers of Sacramento County. Planning ahead for next year, with the knowledge I have gained from my garstage of tomato growing, I decided that added green bell peppers, Anaheim and dening experience, I will be planting a I would plant more tomatoes, along with poblano chili peppers, pickling cucum- garden that better suits my needs. I also plan to introduce other types bers and sugar baby watermelons. adding a squash plant to my garden. of plants to next year’s summer garden. With my three years of experience I quickly learned that just because I could grow larger squashes, it did as a gardener, I have gained much Corn and lettuce, perhaps? But however my garden will look not mean that they were as good to knowledge that will help in my apnext year, the main thing is to always eat at that size. I found that the tex- proach to planting future gardens. have fun with it, and enjoy it as an adOne of the most important things I ture of the squashes were better in learned was determining the approxi- venture, and to not view it as a chore. their early ripened stage. Now in my third season as a summer mate amount of produce that will grow After all, gardening is a fun way to regardener, I have a garden that is three on a single plant. This is important in connect with nature, unwind after a order not to grow too much of a certain stressful day, and create a means to be times the size of my original garden. Desiring a greater variety of produce, I type of vegetable or fruit, and to reserve able to grow what you eat.
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Plant high and grow to the sky By Rod Whitlow
Special to HPI Publications
I’ve literally done thousands of consultations pertaining to horticulture. As an ISA-certified arborist with many years in the nursery industry and even more designing landscapes, I’ve seen just about every problem that can be encountered when it comes to maintaining a healthy garden. The potential for having a garden that thrives is simple when you have the basics implemented when you start. After thousands of visits to people’s homes I will share my findings. Countless times the problems are the same for plant disease and failure. First, let’s examine a tree and how it functions. The stem, which will become the trunk, is the support device of the tree, but just under the bark is the water and nutrient pipeline. That pipeline is tissue that brings water from the extensive root system to nourish thousands of leaves or needles, depending on tree species and age. It is paramount to protect and preserve this tissue. Once this tissue zone is damaged from either rot or mechanical damage, the tree above that point will die. Water saturation around the stem from standing water for days at a time is and can be deadly for many species of trees and plants. Cherry trees, dogwoods and azaleas are especially problematic. Now look at my photo of a nearby almond orchard in Wilton, as the rancher is doing a great job creating a healthy growth environment. Notice how the trees are planted on either a mound or ridge, as all orchards usually are. Ever wonder why? This planting technique is one of the most important steps in clay soil for tree longevity in clay soils. By planting high, during high rainfall periods, the stem of the plant will never become overly saturated at the soil grade. Water may stand in the road areas during and after rainy periods, but the crown of the tree will have air infiltration. So with that, remember to plant slightly higher than the grade – it doesn’t need to be a giant mound – just slightly higher to drain water away from the crown. I have seen hundreds of dead and sickly trees, because they were planted in low swales – this creates the rot as well by making a
soggy bath for fungi to breed and attack the thin skin or tissue of the tree. Just think of it as being like your tooth that’s anchored into your gum line. What would happen if you put a sugar packet around your tooth every day for a couple of weeks. The sugar would create a rot situation similar to our tree/water scenario. Improper watering is the single biggest problem in new plant establishment. When you buy a tree from the nursery during this time of the year, it’s a risky time for a number of reasons. First off, the nursery is watering every day. Yet, many salespeople instruct you to water your planted tree at home once or twice a week – that’s utter nonsense when temperatures are 80 and above. Until the plant roots out into your native soil, the roots are still in the nursery pot soil. So with that, you’ll want to continue to keep that zone evenly moist, and provide moisture in the transitional zone of your native soil to allow exit growth roots to venture out. I am always asked “How often do I need to water and for how long?” Sorry to say, there is no definitive answer, as every irrigation system is different, depending on many factors such as spray or drip system, how many gallon per hour emitter are being used and how many are on the line, and so on. The only way to really know what’s down there is to run the system for an amount of time and then physically examine the soil. Is the root ball fully moistened and is the soil beyond moist, as well? This is what you’ll need to do. It’s happened to us all. You buy a plant in August, plant it, and four days later it’s brown and crispy. Fess up, it was you, not the nursery that did something wrong – it didn’t get enough water. Next in the photo you will notice the watering of the almonds by the soil darkening. The drip system provides adequate water for the small trees, but do remember that roots continue to grow in an outward fashion. The weight mass of a root system can nearly match the above ground portion of a tree, so as time goes by, both the upper and below ground structures spread. Because the roots aren’t seen, we don’t think about them. It’s now known that 60 percent of the root mass, in most species, spreads beyond the tree canopy.
Photo by Rod Whitlow
This new almond orchard In Wilton exhibits tree care that’s shown by the high planting mounds, trunk protectors for sunburn, and ample irrigation for establishment. This simple high planting method can double growth rates and provide a healthy soil environment.
Roots won’t grow into dry soil. You can see how important it is to provide water further and further away from the trunk of the tree as it grows. With the recent homebound situation one good outcome is the back-to-roots
feeling that abounds now. Trees are important – now more than ever. Rod Whitlow is an ISA Cert. Arborist and Plant Science Editor for the Sunset Western Garden Book. www.RodWhitlowDesign.com.
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How to keep your grass alive in a heat wave By Charlotte Owen
Try to water the grass after the hottest part of the day, like a little before sunset or in the morning before the heat starts to rise. Since it’s hot out there, maybe take a few minutes to stand in the sprinkler yourself to cool down.
Special to HPI Publications
It’s hot as heck, especially in the south and southwest regions of the U.S. right now. If you’re experiencing the heat wave first hand, you know it’s no joke. Keeping safe should be your top priority. This also includes maintaining your home and the area surrounding it – your lawn. Extreme heat can quickly kill the grass you’ve been working hard to maintain all year. Dry and dead grass can also catch fire with ease, which can spread quickly to your home. But with some preventative and corrective lawn care, you can keep your lawn, and therefore your home, healthy and safe. Now is the time to be proactive. If your grass is green, that doesn’t mean it’s feeling healthy. It may be days away from turning brown, so get out there when it’s cool enough to be outside, and give it some love before it gets damaged. Here are a few alliterative tips to help you easily remember the do’s and don’ts of keeping your grass alive through the heat wave:
Mow in the morning or evening
While mowing the lawn is typically a good habit for keeping a lawn healthy, you should use much more caution during this heatwave – not only to keep yourself safe, but also your lawn.
Water when you wake
This may seem like a no-brainer, but watering grass during extreme heat is the single most important thing you can do to keep it alive. We recommend watering daily with heat like this, but please be sure to abide by local regulations for water usage.
Is it bad to cut grass in a heat wave?
It also matters what time of day you water your lawn. You may intuitively think that doing so in the hottest part of the day would make sense because that’s when the grass gets thirstiest. Unfortunately, though, doing this isn’t as helpful as you might think because the water dries up instantly, leaving little for the grass to enjoy.
Yes, it can be. The heat leaves your grass “stressed” and cutting it too often or too short can make this worse. If you do mow, try doing so a day or so after it rains when your grass is likely to be happier. see GRASS page 8
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Falling ash, N95 masks, and trees By Rod Whitlow
Special to HPI Publications
With ash visibly falling from the amber sky while I breathed heavily from my N95 mask, my thoughts centered on how strange life has been this year. Grandchildren all over the world, and their grandchildren will also hear stories about the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. The air has been contaminated, and now the wildfires in California make it worse. Forced to stay home, we have limitations that have turned us into Netflix series bingers, interior designers, and gardeners. I suppose that people see the garden differently now, and they desire a place where they can spend time, watch plants grow, and feel the joy of successful gardening and perhaps providing food to eat. If you’re new to gardening or an expert, the following are some observations about trees I have made over my 50 years of loving plants. Ever wondered about those Asian pears at the supermarket? Individually wrapped in
a mesh jacket, and selling for a dollar each. What’s up with that? Well, the Styrofoam wrap is normally used because the fruits bruise easily, and I thought about that until I started growing the plant. They don’t bruise easily. I think it’s a marketing gimmick to justify the high price. I grew an orchard at my home in Elk Grove 30 years ago, and they were the easiest, most productive fruit tree I’ve ever planted. And again, I planted a grouping of three trees less than two years ago, which this season produced a huge crop of juicy, wonderful fruit. In fact, one tree produced so many Asian pears, I removed about 50 percent of the fruit when small to avoid later limb breakage due to their eventual weight. The triedand-true combination is the Shinseiki and the Nijisseiki (also commonly known as Twentieth or New Century, respectively) as you will need to plant two varieties as they need cross-pollination. This tree grows with minimal care – no spraying toxic sprays like the regular apples, no fungicides like the peaches – just
plant and water often and watch them take off. If you’ve never had this fruit, you should try one. They’re crunchy, sweet, delicious, and unlike any other fruit. The parentage is interesting with a 3,000-yearold history and it remains a mystery to this day.
There are many new varieties, but I would play it safe with the aforementioned. I personally have two Nijisseiki trees and one Shinseiki tree. The trees are also beautiful. They don’t need yearly pruning – just some occasional thinning of crossing branches and
Grass:
Forget Fertilization
continued from page 6
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What length should I keep my grass in extreme heat? If you can, try adjusting the height of your mower blade to keep the grass about an inch higher. Longer grass will keep the roots cooler by providing more shade. Another way to think about this is to avoid cutting more than a third of the grass off the top. This is a good rule to follow throughout most of the year, but especially when it’s hot.
Avoid Aeration (at least right now)
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Home & Garden • Fall 2020 • A Herburger Publication
If you’re watering your lawn but your grass isn’t responding, you may need to aerate your soil. The hot ground may cause the water to evaporate before the grass can actually drink any. But unfortunately, aerating the lawn in the midst of the heat wave can worsen that problem by oxygenating the ground. It can also expose the grass roots to the extreme heat, killing it from the bottom up. Once the heat wave ends though, we highly recommend that you schedule or complete an aeration once it is cooler. This can help reverse the damage being done as we speak.
see MASKS page 12
Although possibly counterintuitive, fertilizing can actually hurt the grass during the high heat. Most fertilizer products are heat sensitive and shouldn’t be used in temperatures above 85 degrees. That aside, think about grass like you might think of a person. The grass, much like the human body, requires more nutrients when it’s growing. In the extreme heat, the grass is already struggling to get enough nutrients to survive. Fertilizer makes the grass even hungrier when it’s already starving.
Stay safe! Practice safe lawn maintenance by staying out of high noon heat while doing lawn or gardening work. You already know the best time of day for mowing is early in the morning anyway, so it’s better for you and your lawn to stay indoors during these hours. Preventing fires from starting in your yard is also one of the most important precautions you can take during a heat wave. If smoking outside, always avoid throwing cigarettes in the grass after use. Fire pits and bonfires should be avoided even at night time whenever possible, but if used should be put out entirely before bed. Keeping your grass as healthy as possible will help reduce the risk of fires, but it is still a real concern. Charlotte Owen writes for Lawn Love. For more information, visit www.LawnLove.com.
Home & Garden • Fall 2020 • A Herburger Publication
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For the love of gardening •SALES•
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Home & Garden • Fall 2020 • A Herburger Publication
The Gardeners of the Grove (GOG), an Elk Grove gardening group, has been sharing their love for gardening for more than a decade. Established in 2007, the club focuses on garden-related activities and community service projects. Its membership consists of local gardeners, who enjoy spending time in their own gardens and learning and sharing information about gardening. This organization, which is affiliated with the National Garden Clubs, the Pacific Legion Garden Clubs, that California Garden Clubs and the Sacramento River Valley District, follows its mission to “have a devotion to member education and community service.” That community service includes contributing to a Cosumnes River College scholarship program and taking care of roses at the rose garden next to the Elk Grove Historical Society’s museum in Elk Grove Regional Park. The latter project includes annual pruning and deadheading service. Another service of the club is donating to the Master Gardener program at the University of California, Davis. The club previously assisted with the campus garden at Franklin Elementary School for about 10 years. Although the group regularly met in person on the first Monday of each month at 6:30 p.m., except in July, August and December, the COVID-19 pandemic has altered that schedule. Gay Rigmaiden, GOG treasurer, informed the Citizen on Sept. 7 that when the group resumes meeting this month, their meetings will be indefinitely held through the Zoom application. Meetings include guest speakers such as master gardeners or people with notable gardens. During pre-COVID-19 times, the club offered tours to private, commercial and botanical gardens.
Rigmaiden noted that the club is fortunate to have several master gardeners who are members of the club. “We always have experts if we have questions or want to enter discussions or want to know about something (related to gardening),” she said. “So, we’re really lucky to have them.” Overall, most of the club’s members live in Elk Grove, and the membership total is currently about 35. Rigmaiden spoke about the club’s beginning. “There’s the Elk Grove Garden Club,” she said. “They meet in the daytime. We meet in the evening. I wasn’t part of the startup committee, but my understanding is that’s why they organized, so that people that are still working could belong.” A lot of people become members of the club after they move to Elk Grove from other areas, and desire to know what grows well in this city. Rigmaiden, who moved to Elk Grove from Salinas in 2004, said that she also learned what grows best in this part of the state. “When I came to this area, the weather is totally different from what I had there (in Salinas), so I was going to find out what I could grow here that I couldn’t grow there,” she said. Rigmaiden spoke about the passion among the members. “We’re just passionate about helping one another with our gardens and enjoying the hobby, (and) we all like to be outside with nature,” she said. The Gardeners of the Grove do not hold their own plant sales. However, they contribute to the Sacramento River Valley District’s fall and spring plant sales, near McKinley Park in Sacramento. The club also holds raffles among its members, in which plants are raffled. Those interested in finding out more information about Gardeners of the Grove or becoming a member can visit the website www.GardenersoftheGrove.com. Annual membership dues are $20 per person or $35 per couple. Membership applications can be downloaded from the club’s website.
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Masks:
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waterspouts. They have white flowers in early spring, dark green leaves, and have a narrow upright growth habit, which makes them sweet in tight spots. Like all fruit trees, these are best on slight mounds, where the crown can stay high and dry. Look up my recent article about tree planting on the Elk Grove Citizen / Herburger website. Just type in “Plant High and Grow to the Sky,” as there is valuable planting instructions to be found there. Moving on with “Tree Talk,” if you have Coastal Redwoods in your garden and there has been a lot of brown leaves falling over the last two months, fear not – this is a normal recycling of leaves. The leaves on evergreen plants don’t drop as do the deciduous trees each fall, so every two to three years, the leaves will drop – these are on the inside of the tree. As new growth appears at the tips, and the inner area becomes hidden and shaded. It’s a normal shedding, so don’t be alarmed. On large established shade trees during the two hottest summer months, it’s a good idea to twice a month give your trees a good
Don’t be afraid to grow the Asian pear - it’s the easiest fruit tree you’ll ever plant, and one of the tastiest!
deep soaking. Don’t place the soaker hose next to the trunk, but ring a few times at just inside the branch drip line and just outside the branch drip line. Your trees will respond with vigor and help to prevent stress type
problems related to drought, like Wood Borer infestations and weakened health. I have never really promoted the application of fertilizer, as school taught me that in our soils, there is not much need for it. However,
I have seen the positive benefits in my garden when a plant is lacking in vigor. It can be amazing actually. So if you have never fertilized your trees, you might want to do so after this heat wave is over and we drop into the low 80’s and 70’s – “early fall” in other words. Or, you can wait until the latter part of February and let the spring rains wash it down to the root zone, just before new growth starts. In closing, avoid planting citrus this late in season. It’s better to plant those in late spring, to have a full growing season to establish a healthy root system before the cold sets in. Think Meyer Lemon, if you’d like a beautiful landscape specimen. The Eureka and Lisbon are more upright and gawky-looking – the Meyer is more bush-like and is pleasing to blend into the garden scape. I’m gardening these days with a KN95 mask – those regular masks don’t filter the smoke and dust. These are virus-rated as well. I’ve found an excellent quality one online – 20 individually packaged, high quality with superb fit, delivered for $32.53. I purchased the gray ones as they don’t show dirt like the white. www.BmhShop.com Rod is a ISA-Certified Arborist, Lifetime Certified Nurseryman, Plant Freak and Plant Science Editor to the Sunset Western Garden Book. www.rodwhitlowdesign.com
12/15/2020
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Home & Garden • Fall 2020 • A Herburger Publication
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Joy in the garden Tips for introducing gardening to children By Monica Stark Citizen Contributor
Courtesy photos
Home gardening can bring out the best in children.
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Home & Garden • Fall 2020 • A Herburger Publication
“Plant Whatever Brings You Joy.” I read that book and I like the title, but the very idea is problematic since planting anything is wrought with the opposite of joy: horrible sinus pain. Give me my Benadryl, a glass of wine, draw a bath and I’ll see you in the morning. When toilet paper became a rare commodity due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I freaked out and became a TP hoarder. I even joked on Facebook about how I use a roll a day to keep the boogers at bay. I had folks volunteering to make me hankies. Sometimes my allergies actually make me sad because I want to be that mom, the one with the beautiful victory garden tended to with help from her 8-year-old daughter. You, know, that Waldorf School Mom who also likes crafts and could sew her own hankies and COVID-19 face masks, which could also be helpful with the allergies when gardening, I suppose. When I think of my dear friend Sara Bailey I have an image of her wearing her gardening shoes, hat and gloves while her two children play in the dirt and watch the grass grow. She is that mom who plants joy at school. She’s also my friend whose children sewed me some hankies and gave me a packet of harvested sunflower seeds. Sunflowers do bring me joy. She must have known. After all, Sara has two children and runs the garden program at our children’s school. Over the phone she explained the Mexican Sunflowers are easy to grow; even children have success with them. Excellent. Also a community seed-sharer, Sara saved seeds from last year’s harvest, including Mexican Sunflower, to basil, squash, pole and bush beans, making for neighborly exchanges during the quarantine. “Some were from seeds I saved and some were from friends and
family that we exchanged with,” she said. “I planted so many seeds, so I had so many to share. It was one thing we could do – share. That was like ‘elevendy’ years ago. It feels like 400 years ago we were planting seeds.” Her expertise working with children in the garden has grown over the years. Sara said that the Soil Born Farms in Rancho Cordova has helped instruct grown-ups, like herself, on how to explain plants to them. Sara learned that teaching kids how their hands are tools and how they can use them in the garden have borne fruitful results. She noted that planting different size seeds requires specific handling; you can plant that one seed with your finger. “Otherwise you end up with 4 million seeds all over the place, which happens anyway, and that’s totally fine. That’s all part of it,” Sara said. If you actually want to get some gardening done, she recommends having a clear plan and supplies at the ready. That said, sometimes it’s best not to have a plan and be more open-ended, and ask them to use their senses to see what’s there. “ That doesn’t have to be so structured. It’s a balance of figuring out what needs to get done and what makes sense to do with kids and just having it really planned out,” Sara said. Bringing her to a total let-go of control, she said gardening with children will never be the way you planned it in your head no matter how much planning you do. So much of it is going with the flow. For instance, when they ask questions, Sara doesn’t always answer them. Rather, she lets their curiosity stay in that zone and asks them what they think. While children at the school always ask to grow carrots, Sara advises against it. “It’s not that I don’t do carrots with kids – they’re just hard,” she said. “ They don’t see CHILDREN page 18
Growing hops is a labor of love for sod farmers By Gail Bullen HPI Publications
Although growing sod in Sloughhouse provides the bread and butter for the Dave and Dia Utterback family, growing hops supplies the dessert. Their tale of how they became hop growers by happenstance eight years ago delighted members of the River Valley Garden Club when they visited their farm on Aug. 23. Their hops have been used to flavor Ruhstaller craft beers since 2012. “ There is no money in hops,” Dave Utterback told the visitors. “But it is fun to do.” The gardeners also learned a bit of history about the large hops farms that once dominated Sloughhouse on both sides of Jackson Highway, thanks to Julia Signorotti, daughter of the best-known farmer. Hops were the main agricultural product in Sloughhouse for many decades, but production had completely stopped by the mid-1980s, due to competition in Washington and Oregon. The Utterbacks bought the John I. Haas hop ranch off Meiss Road in 1985 to grow sod. Dave Utterback said his family previously had grown sod on a more limited space. They were looking for more ground that couldn’t be pushed out by development. “We decided this was a good place to go. Nothing can get us down here because it is a flood plain,” Dave Utterback said. The new farm came with a lot of equipment left over from the hops operation. Curious about it, Dave Utterback asked George Signorotti, who was still growing hops, to let him work without pay for two harvests just to learn how it was done. After George died, the Utterbacks bought a portion of the ranch from his wife, Virginia Signorotti, to grow more sod, although they had to wait two years for the corn lease to finish. There were still about 15 hop plants in the back when he was getting ready to laser-level the ground when her son, Steve, said his mother would dearly love to see some hop plants growing near her house. Utterback dug them up, moved them in front of her house and erected two poles. Steve also showed him how to string the hop vines on a trellis.
“Basically, it was for a decoration,” Dave Utterback said. “For two years, they looked really great.” A couple years later, Sacramento craft brewer J.E. Paino was trying to get his new Ruhstaller beer onto the shelves at the Corti Brothers grocery store in Sacramento. Store owner Darrell Corti turned him down since his beer wasn’t different. When Paino asked what he could do, Corti told him he could use local hops and referred him to longtime Corti Brothers customer Virginia Signorotti. She, in turn, told him that Utterback actually owned the hops since he had since purchased the ranch. That’s when Paino began calling Dave Utterback, asking him to taste his beer and to consider growing hops for him. He refused, saying there wasn’t enough money in it. Then the brewer brought his terms up, and Utterback said “OK”. Paino then asked him what he would do with the hops growing at Signorotti’s home. “I told him, ‘You could have them. If you are going to make beer, we will pick them,’” he said. “That was our first harvest in 2012.” Dave Utterback picked a spot to grow the hops near his home, although he replaced the traditional trellis system with poles with cross bars. “My first line was OK,” he recalled, saying he knew enough to get by. Besides working with Signorotti to harvest his hops, Dave Utterback had grown up next to a farm that raised hops. Also getting into hops growing at the same time was Paino - he had a couple of acres in Yolo County. They decided to handpick their first crops and then let them dry in the sun. “We soon figured out that wasn’t going to cut it,” Dave Utterback said. Unfortunately, he had turned the drying kiln that came with his ranch into his shop. But he built a kiln using a shipping container with a wooden structure over the top. Once all the hops were dried, he decided he needed a baler and ended up building his own that ran off the hydraulics of a tractor. All they were lacking was a harvester, which they found in Poland the following year. The owner cut it in half, pushed it into a 60foot container, and shipped it, with transit
The golden pollen found inside a hop is what flavors beers.
time taking three-and-a-half months. Once it arrived three to four weeks before harvest, they had to weld it back together. “It was like a jig saw puzzle,” he said. “It actually worked pretty well.” Nevertheless, Dave Utterback still had a lot to learn about actually growing the hops. As he was beginning his second year in 2014, one of his workers learned that Lefren Orejel, who had managed the Signorotti Ranch in its heyday, was back in town. He agreed to help. The Utterbacks and their two kids were so proud of their hops when Orejel came to see them that April. They were stunned when he took out his knife and started hacking all the plants. “Basically, he took all of them down to the dirt and told us to grow them over again,” Dave Utterback said. Orejel taught Utterback the right way to cut the rhizomes (the roots), how to plant and how to prune. “He was very particular,” he recalled. Dia Utterback told the garden club they invited as many people as they could find to handpick their first harvest. The Utterbacks cut down the vines, and their friends sitting in chairs plucked off the hops and stuffed them in bags. They continued to have hoppicking parties in subsequent years, treating their guests to barbecued hot dog dinners and Ruhstaller beer at evening parties, and doughnuts at morning parties. The handpicked hops would go into so-called wet brewing. The remainder of the crop would be harvested by the Utterbacks and their workers, and harvested the customary way.
Because of the pandemic, the garden club couldn’t try any of the different varieties of Ruhstaller beers displayed on a table. But Dia Utterback provided some interesting details. Not only did she write haikus for labels on two of the varieties, but also her picture was featured on a canned variety of the beer. “The picture was taken a year ago this week at the hop vines when I was bald, and now I have hair,” she told the group. Many of the beers were made using the Utterback hops, and Utterback Cascade was named after their hops. Daughter Michelle Utterback encouraged all the garden club members to rub a hops cluster in their hands until they could see the yellow, pollen and to take a good sniff. Called lupulin, the pollen is used to flavor the beer and, in the old days, it helped keep beer from spoiling. She also brought the gardeners over to the vines to explain what a healthy plant ready for harvest should look like. Asked by a garden club member how much he was growing, Dave Utterback said that, with a second field in the back, he had about 4 to 5 acres of hops. That was about how much Signorotti was growing at the end when he was providing hops to only one brewer. In Oregon and Washington, the commercial growers raise hops on long rows, pick them with machines and load them on trailers. Such pieces of equipment run $100,000 to $150,000. “ That is where it puts you in that box. You either have to go big or stay small,” Dave Utterback said. “My perspective was to grow the best we could grow and still have the best product.”
Home & Garden • Fall 2020 • A Herburger Publication
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Don’t toss the tomato
Photos by Cameron Macdonald
The first step is to slice the tomato crosswise and gently dig out seeds with a small spoon.
Photos by Cameron Macdonald
This Brad’s Atomic Grapes bush was grown from a seed that I harvested last year from my tomato crop.
A guide to saving tomato seeds for next year in full sunlight. I wanted to preserve as many “Atoms” or seeds as possible for next spring and I typically spend long summers pro- I learned a few tricks to make it haptecting my garden’s tomato bushes pen. This method was a success for me, from mold, slugs, hornworms, grass- I was able to germinate last year’s seeds hoppers, and a heartless mole that used and grow mature plants this summer. my tomato patch as a shortcut through a neighbor’s yard. But it was all worth it – I was able to prepare more tomato Step 1 – Harvesting Take a ripe tomato that’s beginsalads and tomato sauces than my relaning to soften and place it on a cutting tives and neighbors could tolerate. One of my favorite varieties is Brad’s board. Slice the tomato crosswise and Atomic Grapes. Napa’s Wild Boar take a small spoon to carefully dig out Farms cross-bred this small tomato the seeds. Place the seeds into a small that’s as sweet as Fuji apples, and dis- glass jar – I used an old bulk spice jar. plays a wild blend of blues, violets, Gently rinse the seeds with water and blacks, reds, and golds when they grow carefully pour out the excess water. By Cameron Macdonald Citizen News Editor
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Home & Garden • Fall 2020 • A Herburger Publication
Dry out the seeds on a coffee filter indoors or in a shaded outdoor area.
Let a little water remain in the jar, or Sept 3 - Drying and add a little water if there is no water left. Cover the jar with plastic wrap storing After four to five days of fermenand puncture a few holes to allow air tation, it’s time to dry out the seeds. into the jar. Uncover the jar and carefully remove the mold with a spoon. Now scoop Step 2 – Fermenting up the seeds and place them on a flattened coffee filter. I cut out a (the gross part) Once the jar is full of seeds and large piece of a No. 4 Coffee Filter gelatinous tomato guts, place the jar for my seeds. Lay down the paper on a countertop and let it stand for on a countertop or an outdoor table at least four days to ferment. Don’t and let the seeds dry for a day. You panic if a layer of mold forms on the can dry them outdoors during warm seeds. This process helps separate the weather, but keep them away from seeds from the gooey guts, and sepa- the sunlight to avoid seed damage. When the seeds are dry, use a rates the healthy seeds from the duds. Many of the healthy ones will gradu- butter knife or your fingernails to ally sink to the bottom. If you’re wor- carefully scrape the seeds off the ried about the stench, place the jar in paper. Place the seeds in a baggie a shady area of your porch that never and write the seed variety’s name gets sunlight. The key is to keep the and harvest year. Store in a dry, seeds away from the sun in order to cool area to preserve the seeds for planting next spring. start the fermentation.
Hearty chili for autumn days People choose to adhere to a vegetarian or vegan diet for various reasons. Some people avoid animal products because of ethics, while others want to control their weight with lowcalorie foods. Still others may have food allergies or intolerances that make a vegetablebased diet their best option. Cooking vegetarian or vegan can introduce a person to a wide variety of new foods and flavors. That’s why even people who eat meat like to periodically experiment with vegetarian or vegan foods. When the weather starts to cool, soups and stews become staples of many people’s diets. With this recipe for “Four Bean Chili” from “Vegan Cooking for Beginners” (Publications International, Ltd.) by the PIL editors, home cooks can experiment with a meatless chili that doesn’t skimp on flavor even if it isn’t brimming with beef, pork or lamb.
Makes 8 to 10 servings
2 medium carrots, chopped 1 red bell pepper, chopped 3 cloves garlic, minced 2 tablespoons tomato paste 2 tablespoons packed dark brown sugar 3 tablespoons chili powder 2 tablespoons ground cumin 1 tablespoon dried oregano 1 teaspoon salt 1 can (28 ounces) diced tomatoes 1 can (15 ounces) tomato sauce 1 can (15 ounces) small white beans, rinsed and drained 1 can (15 ounces) light kidney beans, rinsed and drained 1 can (15 ounces) dark kidney beans, rinsed and drained 1 can (15 ounces) pinto beans, rinsed and drained 1 cup vegetable broth 1 can (4 ounces) diced mild green chiles 1 ounce unsweetened baking chocolate, chopped 1 tablespoon cider vinegar.
2 tablespoons olive oil 1 onion, finely chopped
Heat oil in large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onions, carrots and bell pepper;
Four Bean Chili
cook and stir 10 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Add garlic, tomato paste, brown sugar, chili powder, cumin, oregano and salt; cook and stir 1 minute. Stir in tomatoes, tomato sauce, beans, broth, chiles, and chocolate; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium; simmer 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in vinegar. Chili is even better served with cornbread. Make batter while the vegetables are cooking in step one and bake it while the chili is simmering.
Cornbread Makes 12 servings 3 tablespoons boiling water 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed 11/4 cups all-purpose flour 3/4 cup yellow cornmeal 1⁄3 cup sugar 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 11/4 cups plain unsweetened almond or soymilk 1/4 cup vegetable oil
Preheat oven to 400 F. Spray 8-inch square baking dish or pan with nonstick cooking spray. Combine boiling water and flaxseed in small bowl; let stand until cool. Combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt in large bowl; mix well. Whisk almond milk and oil in medium bowl until well blended. Add to flour mixture with flaxseed mixture; stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. Pour batter into prepared baking dish. Bake 25 minutes or until top is browned and toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.
Home & Garden • Fall 2020 • A Herburger Publication
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Children:
continued from page 14
Right Touch Painting Get your Home ready for the Fall!
Residential t Commercial Interior t Exterior
germinate really easily and they take forever to grow.” On the flipside, radishes, although they aren’t typically a crowd-pleasing vegetable, Sara likes to plant them with children because of how quickly they germinate. “In a short amount of time, you will have radishes, which is not a thing kids necessarily love,” she said. “If you cut them up and offer them to a bunch of kids, and a couple of them like them, then more kids will try them. They are just fun to do because they happen really fast.” Additionally, she says sweet peas are fun and any type of squash is great, because they grow really fast. Sometimes things in school gardens you have to think about because things like summer squash and tomatoes do most of their growing in the summer when kids aren’t there. On the other hand, pumpkins are great if someone on campus can do the watering over the summer. So, in theory when the kids return to school, they have pumpkins. One of Sara’s favorite things to plant with children is borage, an annual herb
that reseeds itself easily. “ They have awesome purplish blue flowers on them and you can pop the flower off; it’s edible and tastes almost like a cucumber,” she said. “Some people make tea with them. They don’t take up a lot of space and they’re super fun. That’s one people don’t know a lot about and they’re cool.” Sara said that when she’s at school she notices big differences in some children’s behavior when they get a chance to go outside. “When you’re at a school in your classroom, these walls are around you,” she said. “Outside, you get to see a different part of kids. There are kids if you are sitting next to them and not looking at them and you’re just digging in the dirt together, they will talk to you. You could spend a lot of time in the classroom with them and not ever hear from them directly. The garden is a really safe place for kids to be who they are. There is something for every kid. There’s something that they’re good at. There are some kids that are really great at ripping out weeds, some who like heavy lifting, and there are things that are more finesse like weeding in between the teeny tiny flowers.” Sara said there’s a place for everybody in the garden. Perhaps there’s hope.
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Home & Garden • Fall 2020 • A Herburger Publication
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Protect your landscape from hungry critters By Melinda Myers
Special to HPI Publications
While you’re busy filling your landscape with beautiful flowers and scrumptious vegetables, the deer, rabbits and other wildlife are watching and waiting to move in to dine. Don’t lose your beautiful investment to hungry animals. Be proactive in keeping wildlife at bay, so you can grow a beautiful landscape this season. Protect plants as soon as they are set in the ground. It’s easier to prevent damage rather than break a habit. Once critters find delicious plants, they will be back for more and they’re likely to bring along a few additional family members. A fence is an excellent defense against animals. A 4-foot-high fence anchored tightly to the ground will keep out rabbits. Fivefoot-high fences around small garden areas will usually keep out deer that tend to avoid smaller spaces. Woodchucks are more difficult. They will dig under or climb over the fence. You must place the fence at least 12 inches below the soil surface with four to five feet above ground. Make sure gates are secured so animals can’t squeeze
through or under these. The last thing you want is an animal happily living and dining inside your fenced in garden. For gardeners who do not want to spend the money on fencing or view their flowers and other ornamental plantings through a fence, there are other options. Scarecrows, rattling pans and other scare tactics have been widely used for decades. Unfortunately, urban animals are used to noise and human scent and not discouraged by these tactics. You must move and alternate the various scare tactics to increase your chance of success. Repellents may be your best and most practical option. Always check the label for details on use, application rates and timing. Research has proven that odor-based repellents are more effective than other types of repellents. Wildlife will avoid plants rather than taking a bite before they discover they don’t like the taste. Look for organic repellents labeled for use on food plants when treating edibles. Plantskydd (www.PlantSkyDD.com) is the only OMRI certified organic repellent and is effective against rabbits, deer, voles, elk, moose,
chipmunks and squirrels. It is rain-resistant and each application lasts three to four months during the growing season. Maximize results by treating new growth according to label directions. Most liquid repellents need time to dry while granule repellents may need to be watered to activate the smell. Always check the label for the product you are applying. Protect new tree whips by dipping them in a long-lasting liquid repellent. Mature trees will benefit as well. Treat them prior to bud break or two to three weeks after leaves have developed. Continue to monitor plantings throughout your landscape all season long. Watch for animal tracks, droppings and other signs wildlife have moved into your area. Protect new plant-
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ings and those favored by wildlife before they start dining on your plants. Always be as persistent as the hungry animals. If you’re ever feeling discouraged, remember that gardeners have been battling animals in the garden long before us and there are lots of options to help protect your flowers and harvest. Melinda Myers has written more than 20 gardening books, including “Small Space Gardening”. She hosts The Great Courses “How to Grow Anything” DVD series and the Melinda’s Garden Moment TV & radio segments. Myers is a columnist and contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine and was commissioned by Tree World Plant Care Products for her expertise to write this article. Her website is www.MelindaMyers.com.
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It’s Autumn Cooking Time! The Casa Garden Restaurant will publish its new and updated cookbook, featuring Casa and other Children’s Home Auxiliaries recipes.
$22 Tax Included; mail order price slightly higher.
Orders and more information online will be available beginning Thursday, October 1
www.casagarden.org Pick Up Dates: Thursday, October 15 and Sunday, November 1, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. All orders will be delivered via “touchless” system Customers may pick up their cookbooks at the Casa Garden Restaurant, 2760 Sutterville Road. No on-site orders will be taken; all cookbooks must be ordered in advance.
Please Note: The Casa Garden Restaurant & Meeting Center is closed; no one is available to take telephone inquiries. The Casa Garden Restaurant Operates Solely to Support the Sacramento Children’s Home
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Home & Garden • Fall 2020 • A Herburger Publication