Placer County master gardeners offer free workshop on straw-bale gardening
This collection of sweet potato plants grew in straw bales at the Far Oaks Horticulture Center a few years back. Once the bales are spent at the end of the growing season, they make great compost material, too. Kathy Morrison
Here’s one creative solution to all those gardening drawbacks – straw-bale gardening!
Learn how at a free in-person workshop, offered by the UC Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners of Placer County.
Set for 10:30 a.m. Saturday, March 9, at Loomis Library, “Turn Your Straw into Gold” will cover the basics of straw-bale gardening, which uses a bale of straw soaked in liquid organic fertilizer (such as compost tea) as an instant raised bed.
“Growing your veggies and flowers in easily 'conditioned' straw bales means no soil, no digging, no bending, only a trowel needed,” say the master gardeners.
Once the garden season is over, the straw can be recycled, too, they add. “Your used straw bales make great compost!”
As someone who has tried straw-bale gardening, I found it was a very productive method for difficult spots where nothing else seemed to grow. The bale was elevated enough where there was less bending to tend the plants, and weeds never had a chance to take hold. It was perfect for potatoes and sweet potatoes; when harvest time came, these root vegetables were easy to find.
Straw-bale gardening also works well for eggplants, squash, strawberries, beans, carrots and many other favorites.
No advance registration for this one-hour workshop is needed. Loomis Library is located at 6050 Library Drive, Loomis.
For details and directions: https://pcmg.ucanr.edu/.
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Garden Checklist for week of Nov. 3
November still offers good weather for fall planting:
* If you haven't already, it's time to clean up the remains of summer. Pull faded annuals and vegetables. Prune dead or broken branches from trees.
* Now is the best time to plant most trees and shrubs. This gives them plenty of time for root development before spring growth. They also benefit from fall and winter rains.
* Set out cool-weather annuals such as pansies and snapdragons.
* Lettuce, cabbage and broccoli also can be planted now.
* Plant garlic and onions.
* Keep planting bulbs to spread out your spring bloom. Some possible suggestions: daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, tulips, anemones and scillas.
* This is also a good time to seed wildflowers and plant such spring bloomers as sweet pea, sweet alyssum and bachelor buttons.
* Rake and compost leaves, but dispose of any diseased plant material. For example, if peach and nectarine trees showed signs of leaf curl this year, clean up under trees and dispose of those leaves instead of composting.
* Save dry stalks and seedpods from poppies and coneflowers for fall bouquets and holiday decorating.
* For holiday blooms indoors, plant paperwhite narcissus bulbs now. Fill a shallow bowl or dish with 2 inches of rocks or pebbles. Place bulbs in the dish with the root end nestled in the rocks. Add water until it just touches the bottom of the bulbs. Place the dish in a sunny window. Add water as needed.
* Give your azaleas, gardenias and camellias a boost with chelated iron.
* For larger blooms, pinch off some camellia buds.
* Prune non-flowering trees and shrubs while dormant.
* To help prevent leaf curl, apply a copper fungicide spray to peach and nectarine trees after they lose their leaves this month. Leaf curl, which shows up in the spring, is caused by a fungus that winters as spores on the limbs and around the tree in fallen leaves. Sprays are most effective now.
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