04 August Lecture Notes from David

Here is the promised post from the 04 August lecture.

I have left out invasive species whenever I could identify them. This is not an exhaustive list; I relied heavily on Trees and hrubs for Dry California Landscapes by Bob Perry, although I left out most California Native Plants because that's Orchid's bailiwick and I don't want to step on her toes...

Most of these plants are deciduous – they loose their leaves as a response to lack of water... deciduousness is a hard sell in LA...

01 - Acacia baileyana Bailey Acacia, Feathery, finely cut, blue-gray leaves, yellow fragrant flowers, to 30 feet. Attractive shrub or small tree – excellent for accent, slopes and background plantings. Very very showy yelllow flower balls – Jan to March. Prone to litter and built up dead branches as it ages, but consistent, prudent pruning will mitigate a lot of that. Still, has a reputation for being cranky and I swear I have seen fireblight take morethan one of these out – it has naturalized along the coast by Monterrey and that's not a good thing – plant deep in the city and not near the WUI.

02 – Acacia cultriformis Rounded shrub to a small tree, about 10-15' tall and equal wingspan. Showy yellow flowers Jan – March. Can be formally hedged and like almost all acacia's, is adapted to drought conditions.

03 - Agonis flexuosa Peppermint tree – Sunset says this is one of the best small trees for California gardens! 25 to 35 feet tall, spreading to 15 to 30 feet wide. Leaves smell like peppermint when crushed. Responds well to pruning, is highly adaptable; can be used as a yard specimen, background plant, espalier and a street tree. Small white flowers, May and June. An Australian tree related to Melaleuca and Leptospermum, both of which are really drought tolerant.

04 – Arbutus unedo Strawberry Tree – 10-25' tall with equal spread – evergreen tree or shrub. Reg-brown bark on trucks that twist and gnarl with age – flowers Oct to Jan, red to yellow fruit late Fall to winter... relatively slow growing which means 'low maintenance'

05 - Bauhinia purpurea (syn. B. variegata) Purple Orchid Tree – semi-evergreen to deciduous shrub or tree, attractive tree 20-35’ tall spectacular street tree in places where spring is dependably warm – of all the Bauhinia's this one is the least thirsty. B. x bakeana has larger flowers and color from cranberry, through purple and rose to orchid pink.

06 – Bougainvillea

07 - Broussonetia papyrifera – Paper Mulberry, deciduous tree that can is somewhat drought tolerant – Sunset describes it as moderately fast to 50’, then says “often considerably smaller and shrublike in gardens while the LA City Street guide, calls it 20 to 40’ needs moderate pruning – can be subject of sucker growth in cultivated and/or wet gardens – inner bark was used to make paper – once established takes little water.

Most alders and birches are water suckers and should not be considered for dry landscapes. Even Alnus rhombifolia, the native  species is riparian and is not suitable for drought resistant gardening.

08 – Cercidium microphyllum – (syn. Parkinsonia microphyllum) Littleleaf Palo Verde, or Yellow Palo Verde – 20 feet tall, extremely drought tolerant, pale yellow flowers – a completely underutilized tree in our landscapes – lovely! Also C. flloridum, Blue Palo Verde.

09 Cercis occidentalis – Western Redbud, small tree or shrub, 10-18’ notched blue-green 3” leaves seedpods, which are magenta in summer… foliage turns light yellow or red in fall, bare branches with reddish brown seedpods look cool in winter – under used because of deciduousness

10 - Chilopsis linearis – Dessert Willow or Desert Catalpa - 15-30’ tall, 10-20’ wide, like most humans, develops shaggy and twisting bark with age, fragrant trumpet shaped blooms similar to small cattleya orchids and attracts hummingbirds

11 - Dodonaea viscosa – the other Dondonaea are more tropical, but this one is from SW US and takes any kind of soil, ocean wind and dry desert heat. Lovely.

12 Dodonaea viscosa in a pot....

13 - Echium candicans (E. fastuosum) Pride of Madeira. Large plants to 6' and to 10' wide. Great spikes of clusters of blue to purple flowers. Can be invasive and should not be planted near wild areas – self sows 'joyously' and will naturalize!!!

14 - Eucalpytus macrocarpa– some 700 species, and most of them are large tree, with brittle wood. Sprawling and awkward, but showy – useful as an espalier on a sunny fence or wall.

15 Feijoa sellowiana (syn. Acca sellowiana) Pineapple Guava Large multi-stemmed plant, 18-25' with equal spread if not pruned, can take lots of training and pruning – espalier, screen or hedge or small tree. Blooms in late spring, flowers are edible in fruit salads or made into jams, is drought tolerant but best fruiting comes with some water. Soft fruit reminiscent of pineapple – other wise bland.

17 - Fremontodendron californicum – to 20' tall, 12' wide Spectacular in bloom and steal the show; Hillside planting is recommend because any water out of their water season can be fatal. Short-lived under even ideal conditions, but oh what a bloom!

18 - Garryana elliptica – Coast silk tassel – slow growing drought tolerant native to the Coast Ranges 10-20' high and as wide, can be trained as a small tree usually seen as a climbing shrub – stunning in bloom – James Roof cultivar is the one to get

19 – Geijera parviflora, Australian Willow 25-30’ tall and 20’ wide, but casts light shade, trouble free patio or street tree, needs very little pruning. Deep noninvasive roots..

20 - Gossypium arboreum – Tree Cotton a lovely small tree, about 12 feet tall, 5 wide. Needs annual pruning to maximize its look – reportedly not long lived. Yellow flowers fade to mauve then black before dehissing and forming a cotton boll. Will produce cotton almost year round. Great conversation piece , hummingbirds will use the cotton for nests.

20A - Grevillea robusta – Silk Oak tree – Australian – popular tree – look up to about the 4^th floor to see the golden flowers. Picturesque against the skyline. Many folks allergic to their golden orange flowers – lots of litter. Although I find it lovely to look at as I drive along, I believe

Slide 21 – Hymenosporum flavum, Sweet Shade – a pittosporum family member, graceful upright narrow tree early summer flowers have an orange-honey fragrance that is a knock out. Frequent pinching of tip growth is necessary for a stronger more dense plant. Poor in strong winds. Moderate water.

21 Hyptis emoryi - Desert Lavender an evergreen shrub – little to no water Erect to 10' and up to 8' wide. Woolly gray roundish leaves Tiny blue-violet flowers can bloom any time through out the year, but usually in Spring. Pleasant lavender fragrance.

22 – Laurus nobilis, Sweet bay 12 – 40’ tall and as wide – not fussy about soil except needs good drainage – will adapt to container culture - moderate water

Slide 23 – Leptospermum laevigatum Australian Tea Tree – usually a shrub, but can be pruned into a smallish tree – 10-30’ tall and as wide, oval or teardrop shaped dull green to gray-green leaves, if allowed to go grow to full sized (vs. constant hedging) they develop picturesque shaggy, gray-brown trunks with a definite muscular look, can be used as a screen or even clipped hedge.

Slide 25 – Luma apiculata Chilean Myrtle tree – to 20’ tall and wide – dense foliage, older trees develop beautiful smooth cinnamon colored bark, ½” wide flowers, white to pinkish in late summer to early fall

26 - Lyonothamnus floribundus – Catalina Ironwood – Seldom seen in cultivation, Red brown bark peals off in strips, reddish young twigs. Leaves are divided into lobed leaflets making a pleasing appearance. Needs excellent drainage. Handsome in groves and best near the coast

27 - Lysiloma microphylla thonberi (L. thornberi) Fern of the Desert – native to Arizona's foothills – to 15' tall and wide finely cut leaves like acacia -0 masses of 1” creamy white clusters of flowers like little puffballs followed by brown flat seedpods – takes pruning for a more formal look

28 - Mahonia aquifolium – Organ Grape Can take any exposure – best with late shade in hottest climes – easy to grow and good looking all year – foliage can be prickly so avoid setting them near pathways – fruits attract birds.

*Melaleuca sp – more than 140 and most are pretty drought tolerant -

28B - Olneya tesota – Desert Ironwood - Sonoran Desert native 15 to 30' high with equal spread... slow grower, single or multi-trunked sweet pea flowers in late spring (Fabaceae)

29 – Prosopis pubescens Screw Bean, Mesquite - Heat Tolerance: Excellent Sun Exposure: Full sun to light shade Origin: Southern New Mexico and Texas, west to northern Baja California, throughout much of southeastern California, southern Nevada, eastern Arizona, and extreme southwestern Utah, mostly in river bottoms Growth Habits: Thorny deciduous tree or shrub, up to 25 feet tall (7.5 m), 25 feet spread (7.5 m) Watering Needs: Little water can be used as a thorny hedge plant or pruned into a small specimen tree… Rod shaped yellow flowers in late spring.

Rod shaped yellow flowers in late spring.

34 – P. lusitanica – Portugal Laurel From Spain and Portugal… densely branched shrub 10-20’ high and wide… Very glossy, oval dark green leaves – creamy white small flowers in 5-10” spikes in spring and early summer. Attractive background/screen slow growing! Tolerant of heat, drought, strong sunlight, wind. Little or no water… ‘Variegata’ has leaves with narrow irregular white margins and fruit that ripens from brightish red to black.

35 & 36 – Psorothamnus spinosus (Dalea spinosa) Smoke Tree – Native to desert washes, small leafless tree with brilliant lavender flowers from April to June, 10-20’ tall to 10-15’ wide; sparsely foliaged in small hairy white leaves that drop in early spring; slivery gray spiny branches; leafless plant supposedly resembles a cloud of smoke… Fragrant sweet pea shaped flowers in spring… Cut branches in and out of bloom are impressive in floral arrangements. Easily started from seed in warm weather if not found in the trade. Needs good drainage and little other care.

45 – Robinia neomexicana, New Mexican Locust – from a genus of mostly larger trees, is a thorny plant to 6’ tall and as wide… drooping 6” pink flower clusters – gorgeous compound leaves

*Rosmarinius officinalis – Rosemary and lavender (Lavendula spp.) lives longer on less water – otherwise shortlived in gardens

Salvias – the California natives have lower water requirements than the exotics look for S. apiana, leucophylla and others

49– Simmondsia chinensis Jojoba, goatnut tree – Native to the Southern CA, AZ and Mexican deserts, Fruit’s high oil content makes it a prized crop for skin and cosmetic use. Useful as informal or clipped hedge, or a foundation plant in a desert garden. Hard to find in the trade at times.Simmondsia chinensis – jojoba – deserts of California to 6' high – dioeceous, females bear a large edible nutlike fruit tastes a little bit like a filbert – high oil content make this fruit a cash crop for cosmetics etc.

51 - Tecomaria capensis (also Tecoma capensis) Cape Honeysuckle to 30' by about 8' wide – honeysuckle flowers attract hummingbirds – needs little water but is reluctant to stop growing and will engulf a small home in a season

52 – Vitex agnus-castus, Chasteberry – Chaste Tree – deciduous small tree or shrub – variable habit from specimen to specimen – Native to the Mediterranean to Asia. Can grow to a 25’ tall and wide tree – most are much more shrubby, can be trained into a multi-stemmed tree. Aromatic leaves are palmately compound and some cultivars, such as the one pictured here are quite showy. Thrives in heat, makes a good plant in the back of a shrub border. You can cut the plants like a perennial to 1’ foot high in spring, blooms on new growth

58 – Zizyphus jujuba Chinese Date Tree - Small or medium sized tree, can grow up to 40’ more usually about 15-20’ tall. Trees are deciduous and are deciduous in cold months. Jujube's are fairly adaptable, but should be grown in full sun. They can stand extremely hot desert temperatures, as well as cold temperatures to -25F. They are very tolerant of drought, but moderate to heavy watering should be provided during growth season to ensure the best fruit. Flowers bloom in summer, followed by fall ripening fruit. The hard "nut" inside the fruit contains two seeds. Pinnately compound leaves are quite showy for a small tree.

Fruit and nut trees are often less water suckers than many common ornamentals. Among them:

Almonds, Apples, Apricots, Filberts (Hazelnuts), Pears, Persimmons, a number of oak species, including natives,

River Field Trip This Saturday

View Larger Map

We will be meeting at the intersection of Laurelgrove Avenue and Valleyheart Drive, at 10 AM. In the book, Down by The Los Angeles River by Joe Linton, it is supposedly found on Thomas Guide page 562 in the F5 grid – if you are still using a Thomas Guide. For more modern folks, the Google map will be more helpful.  (You can search on Google or MapQuest by intersection, you don't need a street number.)

Dress according to the weather, which by all I hear, will be stinking hot and bring enough water.  

The river channel here is concrete, this is a great place to walk and see native plants. It is popular with pedestrians, joggers, and dogwalkers.

For those of you interested in the Los Angeles River, this guide by Joe Linton is a fantastic resource for field trips all along the length of LA River and tributaries. It's really a tour guide to our own river with suggestions for hikes, walks and bike rides. Interesting art and watering holes nearby are frequently mentioned. I have found a lot of wonderful 'things to do' in this book and my copy is well worn.

We will probably be finished by noon.

There is a secondary tour later in the day for those who can't make the instructor sponsored tour at 10. I'm sure Roger, with the signs and his familiarity of the river's ecology, will do a marvelous job. 

david

Bibliography for Sustainability

Deep Economy, The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future, McKibben, Bill, ©2007 Times Books Want a dose of hope? Here. McKibben has delved into a variety of alternative choices to find examples of human civilizations that actually approach creating a viable economy and lifestyle that considerably reduce man’s impact on the world

Easy Green Living, Loux, Renée ©2008, Rodale Inc. Breeziness belying a difficult resource book that will help you shop through the sustainable hype. A compendium of little helpful hints (the Heloise of our time?) and deciphering clues of labels and claims. She covers everything from the bathroom to light bulbs and beyond, helping delineate what the labels mean with all those fifteen syllable words on them.

In Defense of Food, An Eaters’ Manifesto, Pollan, Michael, ©2008, Penguin Press; This is the ‘sequel’ to The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. Both of these books, with Pollan’s inimitable style present the way our current food production damages our ecosystem and our health! ‘Dilemma’ bares the scars on our earth and ‘Defense’ reveals how our personal health has been compromised by the promise of ‘cheap food.’ It aint cheap and it aint food.

Kitchen Literacy, Vileisis, Ann, ©2008 Island Press, Along the lines of the Pollan books, Vileisis brings us back to the knowledge every cook had in days before we let the ‘experts’ and the government tell us what to eat and why. Turns out it was better for us and for the earth.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle Kingsolver, Barbara et al © 2007 Harper Collins, When less is really more. Kingsolver and her family agree to eat only foods produced within 100 miles of their West Virginia home (everyone was allowed one exception and her husband chose coffee marking him as a sensible man) for one year. The story of how they did it and the results they achieved makes delightful reading and food for thought.

The Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook, De Rothschild, David, ©2007, Rodale Inc. A lot of statistics that just overwhelm a person, but a viable list of Things To Do Today and beyond. Probably one of the more easily digested books of this contemporary genre.

The Lost Language of Plants, Buhner, Stephen Harrod, ©2002 Chelsea Green Publishing Getting well should not get the earth sick. This is the ecological ‘why’ of alternative medicine, but be warned, you will never look as a fashionable layer of mascara the same way again either!

david

Garden/Garden Field Trip

garden/garden on a Google map

A show of hands tonight in class made it obvious that moving the field trip to the afternoon impacted fewer folks than holding it in the morning; hence the field trip time is officially 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM - covering the three hours of instruction you have paid for.  We will begin with Orchid telling us about the plants at garden/garden, 1724 & 1718 Pearl St. Santa Monica, CA 90405.  Before the visit, a perusal of the website about garden/garden might prove instructive.

We will be there for approximately an hour and a half and then move down to The Learning Garden at the intersection of Walgrove Avenue and Venice Blvd.  The entrance to the Garden is the first gate on your left off Walgrove, south of Venice Blvd.  It is but a few minutes drive from garden/garden.  

At The Learning Garden Orchid and I will have a question and answer session. I will introduce everyone to drip irrigation - we will see one drip installation and talk about the pro's and con's of drip irrigation and actually work with parts of a system to get a feel for it; we will also discuss other watering strategies.  Those who want to may take a tour of The Learning Garden and learn more about what we do there.  

I hope to see everyone there who can make it - those who can't should get in contact with me at your earliest convenience to set up times to do at least some of the field trip at The Learning Garden.

david

Field Trip This Saturday - Scheduling Conflicts?

Greener Gardeners:  

It has been pointed out to me that two other Extension Horticulture classes with some of our students have field trips this Saturday as well.  Because field trips are considered part of your instruction hours and you are expected to be there, this puts you in a bind - which instructor do you snub or what information do you dare miss?  

Orchid and I would like to do our best to ameliorate the situation and so tomorrow evening, I will present an option to the class that we do an afternoon field trip - from 1 to 3:00 PM.  If we can't agree on that, we'll revert to the original plan - BUT those of you having conflicts with our future field trips need to let us know as soon as possible so we can immediately look for solutions.  

I don't know that we CAN, but we will try.  One fine sunshiney day, Extension will require all instructors to submit their syllabus in advance so this can be done before the quarter starts, but until that glorious day, we muddle through as best we can.  

See you tomorrow night!

david

Greener Gardens: Sustainable Garden Practices Biology X498.10

COURSE SYLLABUS

Instructors: David King and Orchid Black

Email: greenteach@gmail.com orchid@pitchersage.com

Phone: redacted

COURSE TITLE AND NUMBER: Greener Gardens: Sustainable Garden Practices BIOLOGY X498.10

There are no prerequisites for this course. We will meet from April 05 through June 12 for 12 meetings. There are three field trips as indicated in our schedule (below). Class will meet in Botany, Room 325 at 6:30 PM Thursday evenings, but will likely move to Boelter Hall, Room 2760 on the third meeting, for improved blackboard space.

Course Purpose:

Sustainability is today's buzzword and many people seek to create a lifestyle with a more favorable impact on the environment. From home gardens to school and commercial sites, our gardens present the perfect place to start. Designed for horticulture students, gardening professionals, educators, and home gardeners, this course focuses on turning your green thumb into a "greener" garden. Topics include composting, irrigation, water harvesting, water wise plants, eating and growing local produce, recycling, and moving towards a sustainable lifestyle when choosing materials and tools. Includes weekend field trips to the Los Angeles River to see our relationship with water in the L.A. Basin, as well as a native garden with sustainable features, focusing not only on California native plants but also on water-conserving planting design. Students also visit the John T. Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies at Cal Poly Pomona, which advances the principles of environmentally sustainable living through education, research, demonstration, and community outreach. This course will enable students to understand and appreciate the changes we will need to make in our gardens to achieve ‘sustainability.’ A multitude of differing strategies will be presented allowing students to choose the extent of their involvement with more sustainable gardens and, ultimately, a more sustainable life style.

Course Objectives:

1. Understand the concept of sustainability and its relevance to the modern garden.
2. The reasons to consider sustainability.
3. Be able to use the concept of sustainability in the creation of a garden and its maintenance.
4. Understand and be able to present to others the concepts and ideas of sustainability and the myriad of alternatives to an overtly consumptive garden style.

Application:

This course is designed to be practical. Upon completion, students will be able to employ many different strategies to reduce consumption of water and oil-produced products and create beautiful and productive gardens that comprise a much smaller carbon footprint than most contemporary gardens.

Text for this course:

This course will not have a text. There will be an extensive bibliography from which the material presented has been gleaned; some books will be practical, some books theoretical, while others will present an overview of our current situation and the problems that affect our daily lives and the gardens we grow.

Course Schedule:

Mtg. Date Topic

1 23 June Introduction to Sustainability

2 30 June Design for Conservation of Resources

3 07 July Soils

4 09 July Garden Garden Field Trip

5 14 July Water I: Water Conservation

6 21 July Water II: Water Harvesting

7 23 July LA River Field Trip

8 28 July Sustainability of Front Yard Food

9 04 August Sustainable Planting Palette

10 11 August Habitat and Hardscape

11 13 August Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies
Subject to final confirmation.

12 19 August Sustainable Gardening: The Next Frontier

Your grade will be predicated on class participation and your choice of two papers of no less than 5 pages or two projects (or a combination of one of each) on aspects of sustainability; topics and project possibilities will be discussed in class. We encourage students to use their own area of interests when choosing their topic or project.

Office Hours:

We will have no set office hours, however, we will be available by phone and by email. We are willing to meet with students by appointment.

After class is usually not a very good time because that’s when all students vie for answers and we are all tired after a long day. You can get a more thoughtful answer by contacting us another time.

Updates and Handouts

For this course we will utilize a blog page (lagardennotes.blogspot.com) to post handouts and extra material to the class. There is an RSS feed through which each posting is automatically forwarded to your email so you can have access to handouts whenever they are posted. This approach is most handy when dealing with field trips because links to maps can be posted and any last minute updates are easily available. If this technology is new to you, another classmate or David will guide you through it. It is not difficult.

The Garden in April

The summer garden's plants are in their little starter pots right now (vaguely reminiscent of training wheels on a bicycle) really begging to be transplanted into the earth. Tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers, the stalwarts of our summer garden are almost ready to hit the big time. In some years, it's too cool until after your taxes are done, but in many others, heed their pleas and put them out sooner.

It seems like the crops most of us think of as 'value crops' are the summer garden crops. Back in March, if I sowed a couple of short rows of purple snap beans. I Some folks swear they are 'purple green beans, ' but that seems a little contradictory to me. They aren't green, they're purple – until you cook them. Purple beans turn green when they are done to a toothsome crunch and so the beans tell you when to stop steaming them!

They are good, but in my book, they aren't the real deal of the bean world. In April, gardeners put out their main crop of snap beans. Most folks plant green beans, including, Blue Lake, Kentucky Wonder, Romano and others, either as a pole bean or a bush bean, depending on need, so check the package to make sure you know what you are buying.

I like to plant yellow beans, also called 'wax' beans. I hated yellow beans as a kid, mainly because they were different and I never saw them for sale in the grocery store; I didn't want anything on our table that wasn't on someone else's table. As an adult, I've come to love the yellow beans pickled. The yellow ones are like 'sunshine in a jar' that I can put on sandwiches and in salads all year long. Yum! I look for Pencil Pod or Carson, both of which are delicious and good croppers. For something a little different, plant Dragon Langerie, a Dutch variety that has purple strips down the large flat yellow bean. They can be quite large and still tasty.

In the first half of the month, start planting beans directly in the garden, I don't bother with transplanting from beans in starter packs. You can put out any bean from this point on, but I usually wait yet another month for the beans I want to dry, like the famous Italian Cannelini, or the American Cranberry Bean or Black Turtle, to insure they will ripen when the garden is basking in the dry heat of late summer/early fall. There are a lot of drying beans, but a gardener of a small plot can be forgiven if they pass on the dried beans – it can take a bit of space to get a decent crop. For the best drying bean selections look into Native Seed/SEARCH in Arizona or Seed Savers Exchange in Iowa.

Beans can be 'climbing,' 'bush' or 'runner' beans. Runner beans are somewhere in the middle and bear over a longer period of time, which is good if you want to have beans over several weeks or more. Runner beans look like some sort of compromise, being a bush bean that throws out 'runners' that look like they would climb if they could just get a little caffeine or something. If you plan on freezing or pickling your beans, bush beans will bear their crop pretty much all at once. Climbers will produce the most beans of all, as long as it stays warm enough climbing beans should keep producing until the weather turns cool – I have found, though, that maximum production can be halted by failing to keep them picked and at some point, I just give up on beans, so the bush beans are my choice.

About the same time you are putting your green and yellow beans into the garden, set out a couple cucumbers. I like Armenian and Japanese cucumbers which have the same mild flavor and awesome crunch, even though they couldn't look any more different! The Armenian cucumbers are a light green almost bordering on yellow, with smooth skin covering a straight fat cucumber while the Japanese are a very dark green, with massive prickles on a furrowed and absolutely convoluted twisty narrow cucumber. Both are delicious. The Japanese cucumber will bear over a longer period but there is much more eating on each Armenian cuke, so it probably ends up with both being about the same. Give both of them plenty of room! If your garden is small, allow these gangling fellows to climb up rather than out.

The beans and cucumbers aren't alone in being planted out about now. Tomatoes. However you say it, cucumbers and tomatoes are the number one plants gardeners think of when they think “Summer Garden.” There are more varieties of tomatoes than there are potholes in the greater Los Angeles area. Just check out the offerings of Seed Savers Exchange! Page after page of tomatoes. They come early, mid-season or late. Tomatoes are cherry, saladette, plum and beefsteak as well as black, cream, green, red, striped, yellow and many shades in between. Tomatoes come as plain ol' tomatoes or heirloom, and (had enough choices?) determinate and indeterminate. It's a complete overwhelm of choice. Determinate tomatoes are similar in growth to bush beans, giving you short plants that bear all at once (more or less), while indeterminate are like pole beans that bear over a long stretch and get quite large to boot.

Here are a few common ones to consider:

Cherry Tomatoes

Sweet 100 – a great productive and sweet little red tomato that is as dependable as a beach day in July.

Orange Sunshine – lots and lots of very sweet little tomatoes!

Golden Nugget – a ton of cream colored little guys that are sweet with low acid – always a bonus in my book.

Yellow Pear – a lot of folks like these, but I think they are mushy. Very productive though.

Saladette

Jaune Flammee – a lovely bi-colored tomato (give it something to climb on!) that is red outside and gold inside – good tasting and beautiful!

Green Zebra – yup, it's ripe when it's green. I think they are little too acidic, but plenty of my friends like 'em.

Moonglow - Solid orange meat, few seeds and wonderful flavor. A favorite of any one who grows it.

Black from Tula – not really 'black,' but a very deep red. Delicious, though not a heavy producer – the skin is so thin I think it's best to take your plate and fork to the garden and eat it right at the plant!

Stupice – a small early plant that is worth growing because they also taste good and come in quick!

Plum (or paste tomatoes)

Black Plum – almost a mahogany tomato – tasty and meaty, an indeterminate tomato that produces quite nicely

Cream Sausage - A unique colored variety with creamy white to light yellow sausage-shaped fruit, very productive bushy plants do not require staking; a really different tomato sauce!

San Marzano – the most productive of the paste tomatoes and the biggest plant in this class of tomato – a very good, standard production tomato for paste tomatoes.

Beefsteak

Brandywine – the taste that everyone is looking for in a big tomato, winner of many different taste tests. We can't really grow them very well in West Los Angeles because they need 85 F through the night as well as the day. Pasadena and other points inland can grow them, though.

German Johnson – a large pink tomato that is really juicy and yummy.

Mortgage Lifter – there's a great story about the name of this tomato I'll tell you at a cocktail party one of these days. For now, I'll say it tastes great and is not less filling, a lovely juicy tomato that rates.

Persimmon – this is the largest tomato I've ever grown in West Los Angeles. One sliced tomato could fill two dinner plates with meaty orange/yellow slices. However, the six foot plus plants only gave me one tomato each! Way too much space even though they were the sweetest and tastiest tomato I've had the pleasure of growing.

You'll notice I didn't include any of the Best Boy or Early Girl or other common hybrids. It is true they are productive and will give you a good crop of bright red fruits, but I think they are too acidic and have tough skin, so I don't grow them at all. There are so many delicious tomatoes in this world, to stick to those few seems silly to me. I grow my standards (San Marzano, Jaune Flammee, Black Plum and Garden Peach) but I always experiment with some new tomatoes every year! Plant lots of basil and marigolds at the same time you plant your tomatoes they make good companion plants.

When transplanting tomatoes from it's container to the ground, set them deeper in the soil than they were in the container. This is a great exception to the rule (almost all other plants should be set in the ground at the same level they were in the container) because a tomato stem will sprout roots all along the stem that is in contact with the soil. If the soil is really cold however, you'll have to resort to a more advanced technique. Tomatoes, being a tropical plant, do not like cold soil and the deeper you go, the colder it gets (and stays colder longer), so don't dig deep to plant tomatoes. Instead, if you have long plants, dig a shallow trench and lay the plant in on its side, gently bending the top to an upright position. The plant isn't deep in cool soil and yet it gets to make a lot more roots from the buried stem. (If you planted the tomato straight on down, the soil would not be warmed for a lot longer and the sulking tomato plant would refuse to grow until the warmth was felt that much deeper in the soil.)

And I haven't even mentioned later in the month! After the taxes are in, set out growing plants of peppers, eggplants, okra, melons, zucchini, summer squashes and tomatillos. Sow seeds of corn directly where they will grow. Pumpkins are a winter squash and all those hard skinned squashes should go out in May or so. They are really heat lovers.

Peppers and eggplants are easily grown once it has warmed up. They usually get about 3½' tall and need about two feet between plants. As with most vegetables, you need to give them all th sun you can. You can also try growing some lettuce in the shade of larger plants. Lettuce dislikes heat, but I like tomatoes and lettuce at the same time and it's easier trying to get lettuce in summer than tomatoes in winter.

I love peppers but I hate eggplant. Both however, are beautiful additions to every garden. Peppers come in a wild variety of colors – all start green and eventually change to whatever color they want to be – every green pepper you've ever eaten would have turned to some other color if we'd only practice more patience. I like Anaheim, Early Jalapeno and Corno di Torno (Italian for 'Horn of the Bull') for warmer peppers and Cubanelle, Sweet Banana and Marconi for a sweet pepper. Eggplants can be Asian or Italian – I like the Italian Listada de Gandia or Rosa Bianca, primarily because they are very good looking in the garden. I have no intention of eating them. There are deep purple ones (almost black) and white ones as well as Turkish Orange and green eggplants.

Okra can be planted late in April/early May. Clemson's Spineless, Burgundy, Annie Oakley, and Star of David all are prolific producers. Put on a pot of gumbo in late summer! I'll eat 'em if I don't see 'em.

Not enough has been said about basil, but Genovese basil is the best in my book. Not just good production, but wonderful aroma and the taste is incomparable. Pick leaves all summer to keep it producing – once there are two pair of leaves on a stem, that stem will commence to flower. Once a flower has set seed, the plant begins the process of dying. If you keep it well picked, the plant gets bushier and bushier and you get a lot more basil from each plant. Throw the pickings in soup, salads or directly in your mouth!

Sweet corn is another delight of the summer garden. It is a little tricky to grow in our small gardens though. Corn, like all the cereal grains, is wind pollinated. The tassels atop the plant are the 'boy' flowers and the silks on the ear are the 'girl' flowers. The tassels produce loads of pollen that must reach the silks to fertilize them and create the corn seeds. This is hard to do if you don't have a lot of corn plants with pollen to be blown onto the silks. It is best to plant corn as a block of plants rather than one long row. There needs to be a critical mass of male flowers to produce pollen that falls on the silks. You can go out and shake the flowering corn stalks to cause the pollen to fall down and assist in corn sex if you're the adventurous type. If you've ever eaten an ear of corn and found a spot where there was a space instead of a kernel, that shows that one silk was not pollinated because every kernel has its very own silk. To get a fully populated ear of corn, every individual silk must be fertilized.

Boy are we busy this month! Don't worry. If you fail to get everything done, you can keep at it for the first two weeks of May. There is no need to rush in Southern California. Our climate forgives us for being too early or too late most of the time, so you can go wrong, but you have to work at it pretty hard. 

david