Fall is just around the corner in San Diego gardens. This is a great time for garden cleanup and to get ready for fall planting season.
Vegetable Garden Transition
It’s time to pull out spring and summer vegetables that are done producing or badly diseased and get your beds ready for cool-season plants. You can start seeds for your fall and winter crops in the second half of September. Here are some of the many different vegetables you can grow in San Diego gardens with our mild winter weather.
I always plant too many tomatoes. If you do the same and don’t want to make tomato sauce, Nan Sterman has a “tomato raisin” recipe for making dried tomatoes you might want to try. You can also freeze extra tomatoes for later use in stews and soups.
Fire Preparedness in Your San Diego Garden
Protect your home against fires by cutting and removing dead leaves and limbs from trees and shrubs, especially if they grow near your home. It’s best to remove branches growing six feet or less from the ground, any that overhang the roof or eaves, and woody vegetation that is growing up against structures. Also, clear leaves from gutters.
Store any wood you’re saving from your cuttings far away from your home or any structures. Water trees deeply. The extra moisture adds to their fire-resistance. Avoid trees that can ignite quickly like acacia, cedar, eucalyptus, juniper and pepper trees.
The San Diego Union-Tribune published a disaster preparedness section in Sunday’s newspaper with good information on wildfire and earthquake preparedness. If you’d like a PDF copy of the article written by Cristina Byvik with guidelines on creating defensible space, using fire-wise plants and other helpful fire protection information, just let me know.
Plants Need Iron Too
Plants need iron to create chlorophyll. Our alkaline soils can make it harder for them to get the iron they need. Citrus, gardenias, azaleas, blueberries and other susceptible plants will have yellowing leaves with green veins. If your plants are showing iron deficiency, try applying iron chelate directly to the leaves or as a soil drench. Sometimes adding sulfur to your soil can help because it drops the pH allowing the plant to more easily absorb iron.
Chlorosis due a zinc deficiency looks similar, but rather than starting on the upper leaves, it starts on the lower leaves. Micro-nutrient foliar sprays that contain zinc should solve this problem.
San Diego Gardening Tips Source
A lot of information for San Diego Gardening Tips comes from the Master Gardener Association of San Diego County. They are a great resource for all of your gardening needs including planting, pests, vegetables, and water use. They even have a free hotline where you can get your home gardening and pest control problems answered.