Check it out….

Spring isn’t here yet, but I like to pretend it is. This warmer weather is good enough for some of our plants and they’ve starting blooming.

Some blueberry blossoms

Peach blossom

Daffodil

Lavender (bees love this guy!)

And more proof that edible plants can be ornamental as well. Here are two peach trees planted in the parking strip down the street from us. Pretty cool eh?

You can still plant bare-root trees. A lot of places have marked down their stock because they are starting leaf out. Get yourself a good deal and plant a tree that gives back to you

I went to one of my favorite places in San Jose today, Emma Prusch Park. This place is only here because Emma Prusch left it to the city of San Jose. Emma and her husband ran a farm on this property. She gave it to the city on the condition that it would remain agricultural/rural and not be developed.

If you have kids this is a great place to take them. There is a petting zoo, animal barn, playground and big grassy fields (complete with roaming chickens & peacocks!). Of course adults like it too. I remember once in the summer seeing a guy who was off work lying dead center in the middle of the large field, he was catching sun in his shirt and tie. People like the fields for Frisbee/soccer too.

What I really like the park for is it’s diversity of edible plants. There is a fig orchard, a pomme/stonefruit orchard, a high density orchard, a citrus orchard, and a rare fruit orchard! You are not allowed to harvest fruit from the trees (loading a bag for example) but you are allowed to take fruit off the tree to eat.

Here are the figs, dormant (sleepy sleepy)

Here are three trees in one hole! (high density orchard)

Here are some guava trees holding up well in the cold (rare fruit orchard)

That’s not all, the park has two community gardens. It’s great for the local residents who don’t have land of their own to grow on. The residents are mostly of Mexican heritage, and you can see here the Nopales (prickly pear cactus) in the gardens. The pads taste like tart green beans, and you can harvest fruit from them too. The plots are pretty empty now but I see lots of corn in them in the summer, which is Mexico’s most important crop.

Then there is Veggielution. This non-profit now has 6 acres in production. They produce fruits and vegetables for the local residents, and provide fresh produce to low income residents. They also do workshops, have a farmers market stand, all kinds of stuff.

Anyway, every year the CRFG have a scion exchange. You sort through all these plastic bags with little sticks in them (see picture below). A scion is piece of a branch from a tree. You can then attach this scion (usually pencil-ish size) onto a compatible tree. For example, I have a Santa Rosa plum in my back yard. I took scion woods from various Japanese type plums (which are compatible) to try and attach/graft onto my tree. There are so many varieties of fruits, and you’ll never get to see them in markets for various reasons. You’ll just have to grow your own And go visit Emma Prusch Park!

What’s a gardener to do in December? Well, not much really. Bulbs and transplants should have been put in towards the end of November at the latest. It’s tough for things to grow now as the days get shorter until the winter solstice, our shortest day of the year.

One thing you can do is plan. Bare root season is coming. Mid-Jan to Mid-Feb is the best time to plant something bare root here in San Jose. What is bare root you ask? It’s a tree/vine/bush that is dormant (sleepy sleepy) and has no leaves on it. It also has no dirt. The roots are usually wrapped in some moist paper and covered with a bag.

When you plant a bare root tree, it will look like this:

Planting bare root has some advantages. The best part is they usually establish better than transplanting a plant from a container. This is because the bare roots have to learn to work the native soil. Something that’s transplanted may just want to circle roots in the planting medium it came in. It’s probably a lot more loose/aerated than our native clay soils. Since it won’t spread its roots as much it naturally won’t grow as well. Bare root, since they are dormant, also don’t suffer the transplant shock that potted growing plants do. And thir-lastly, they cost less! Yes the best option is the most cost effective option! This rarely happens at say, the dentist, or a Neil Diamond concert.

You can wait till the bare root season and pick up common varieties at the local nurseries and big box stores. If you plan ahead though, you can order more unique varieties of fruiting plants and have them shipped to you during the planting season.

Some fun places to shop for bare root trees:

http://www.groworganic.com/seasonal-items/fruit-trees.html

http://www.rollingrivernursery.com/

http://www.raintreenursery.com/

http://www.treesofantiquity.com/

Get plan(t)ning!

Sometimes you visit people and you want to bring them something. A Lady Gaga poster may be something you’d like in your house, but giving it as a gift is very risky. What if your host prefers the old school beats of The Commodores? Giving food is a great idea because it’s not something that sticks around to clutter the house. And what is better than the food you grow in your own yard! I just made a box of stuff to bring to our friends today in Humboldt. It has fun things like eggplant, peppers, figs, herbs, sorrel calyxes, and passion fruit. Hope they like it.