Gardening Q&A

March/April 2022 California Bountiful magazine

As a California Bountiful reader, you have the opportunity to get your seasonal gardening questions answered by gardening expert Pat Rubin. Here are a few questions from our readers.

I have slugs in the garden and my neighbor has snails. What do we do?

The most benign ways to control snails and slugs is to go out at night and pick them up. You can also put a small circle of ash or diatomaceous earth around the plant. Snails—and slugs—don't like to touch either. The ash is very dry for them and the diatomaceous earth has sharp edges.

You can leave out small cans (like tuna cans) filled with beer and they will crawl into the cans. Of course, there are commercial products available, but read the labels first to make sure they are safe if you have pets or small children.

I planted basil and tomato seedlings, and suddenly they bent over and were dead. Why?

It sounds like "damping off." It's caused by a fungus that thrives in cool, wet conditions and usually affects young seedlings. There is no cure; the seedlings cannot be saved. I find seedlings like tomato and basil are more susceptible to this when planted too early. Unfortunately, you're going to have to start over.

January/February 2022 California Bountiful magazine

As a California Bountiful reader, you have the opportunity to get your seasonal gardening questions answered by gardening expert Pat Rubin. Here are a few questions from our readers.

 

I cleaned out the dead vegetable plants from the garden but left the leaves and other debris. Won't it be good for the soil for next year? Someone told me I should clean it up.

You should clean the dead leaves and plants out of the garden. If you want to use those items for compost for next year, make a compost pile. Leaving them on the soil all winter provides a habitat for a lot of undesirable insects.

 

When do I trim my fruit trees? I have an apple tree and an almond tree.

January and February is the time to do the winter pruning. Apple and almond trees are trimmed in slightly different ways. But first, on both trees, prune away any dead branches. Next, look for branches that are crossing over each other or rubbing against each other. Apples produce fruit on spurs that last many years, so you'll want to be able to identify the spurs so you don't cut them off. Almonds can produce a lot of what's called "water shoots" along the main branches, so you'll want to trim them away.

My best advice is either to look online or go to the local bookstore and buy a book on pruning and growing fruit and nut trees. Take that book or your laptop out into the orchard with you and look at the tree and follow the instructions. You'll eventually learn how to recognize any fruit or nut tree just from the bark and you'll learn the different needs of each type of tree.

 

Is it too late to plant garlic?

October and November are the months to plant garlic but you're not far behind. The bulbs will certainly catch up with ones planted earlier, so not to worry. I prefer what's called soft-neck garlic since it is less prone to blooming during the season. Garlic bulbs that produce flower stalks don't put their energy into bulb production.

I had a horseradish plant and it was doing very well but I wanted to move it, which I did. Then I rototilled the garden bed and now I've got horseradish everywhere. How did this happen?

I know someone else who did the same thing. Any bits of root left in the soil, no matter how small, will grow. You basically propagated hundreds of horseradish plants. You can keep digging them out, which is likely your best solution. Quit watering them, too. You can spray them, but it takes a lot to kill a horseradish and it means giving up the growing space until they can be eradicated.