“Tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus. Our bodies are our gardens to the which our wills are gardeners” - Othello Act 1 Scene 3
Bust of Shakespeare in the Huntington Library Shakespeare Garden. Photo credit: Huntington.org website
In April of 2018, I was re-positioned at the Huntington from being Herb Gardener, Specialty Gardener to Head Gardener of the Herb & Shakespeare Gardens. This was an opportunity I welcomed very much. Like many people in the gardening profession, I got my start through learning how to grow food (see my post about the Ranch). And while I still find food growing a highly satisfying endeavor, I knew that, after having worked in the Herb Garden for 8 years, I was ready for something a little different. This opportunity presented something even better - by managing both Herb & Shakespeare gardens, I am able to continue forging ahead with the growing of seasonal crops and the developing of educational programs and collaborative partnerships that has taken years to cultivate in the Herb Garden, all the while learning new lessons and adding new skills under my belt in the Shakespeare Garden.
November 2018. Long-time volunteers Wayne cleaning out the Iris patch and Cynthia staking up rununculus and deadheading snapdragons.
While they look and feel very different from one another, the Herb and Shakespeare Gardens are alike in many ways, and, as I have come to understand it through several discussions with the botanical director and others who have worked at this institution for quite some time, they have a unique relationship with each other. Both gardens were built in the mid 70′s (the Shakespeare garden, however, was redesigned in the 80′s) and both gardens are the only gardens built with the intention to reflect the Huntington’s other collection areas in the art museums and rare book library holdings.
May 2018. Looking SE to the Huntington European Art Gallery. Scarlet, Red and Pink Zinnias with spikes of pink foxgloves.
Working both gardens provide a fuller, richer experience to my personal gardening practice. Both gardens intertwine beautifully with the human experience. Both gardens share a narrative framework for how humans have interacted with plants over several millennia.
April 2019. Looking North to the Scott Loggia. Chinese snowball tree, Verbascum ‘Southern Charm’, Bells of Ireland, Pink Mammoth Mums
The Herb garden shares stories about practical use, utility, purpose and functionality while the Shakespeare garden is linked to art, inspiration, poetry and contemplation.
April 2019. Looking East. Statice, Foxglove, Iris, Dianthus, Melianthus.
Even the layout of the Shakespeare garden provide new challenges. Both Herb & Ranch Gardens taught me about row and production cropping while the Shakespeare garden has taught me about the enhancement of soft edges, color, meadering flow, and playful texture.
April 2020. Looking west to the Virginia Steele Scott American Art Gallery. Foxgloves, asters, ‘Love Song’ & ‘Pillow Fight’ Roses and Poplar Trees.
Of course, to keep a garden looking this good all year round is an impossible feat (notice how I’ve only seem to take my good camera out during early Spring). After all, what is an English cottage garden doing in a Southern California climate? How do I reflect the Huntington’s other collection areas through garden design and interpretation? Only time, patience, and experimentation can help reveal the best answers to these complex, multilayered questions day by day, season by season..
Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves that will endure as long as life lasts. - Rachel Carson
The Huntington Herb Garden in mid March, 2020.
While COVID-19 has brought human activity to a place of temporary stillness, the natural world continues its unceasing cycle of dormancy and wakefulness and I, along with many others, are being comforted by our gardens - even the simple act of pulling weeds has provided a sense of calm and ease to the mind. In addition to quietly maintaining my gardens at work and at home, I have taken this opportunity to dive into plant histories in a way that allows for deeper contemplation and a widening of perspective. There’s something about putting oneself in the shoes of a gardener, farmer, land cultivator - even a king, queen or cook - who lived hundreds, or thousands, of years ago that gives a profound emphasis to our dependency on the natural world. In this post, I will share some of my favorite stories and pictures of useful plants currently blooming in the Herb Garden.
The seeds of Nigella sativa (also called Black Seed or Black Caraway) have been found in Tutankhaman’s tomb who ruled ancient Egypt c. 1334-1325. Nigella seeds are used as a spice to flavor curries and breads and are used in other Indian and Middle Eastern cuisines.
Use of Breadseed, or Opium, poppies (Papaver somniferum) predates written history. Ancient Sumerian artifacts (circa 4000 BC) are decorated with images of the poppy. Other than its well known historical use as an intoxicant, poppies have been used to produce dried latex, the seeds are edible and baked into breads, and the dried seed heads are a gorgeous addition to flower arrangements and wreaths.
The Spanish Lavender, or Lavandula stoechas, was grown by the ancient Greeks and used in jam by Queen Elizabeth in the 1600s.
Scents, colors, textures...one of my favorite things about working in the garden is its multi-sensory experience and there’s nothing like watching kids, parents, college students, and everyone in between break open a chocolate mint leaf between their fingers and smell it perhaps for their first time...
That’s the moment that I, along with the wonderful Kate and Joy in the education department, achieved when we organized a garden party in the Herb Garden. Bowls of fresh cut herbs, along with brightly petaled roses were awaiting the day’s festivities. Parents and children made a mad dash to pick out stems, leaves, and petals of their choosing to take back to their seats and make ‘smell collages’ with sticky back paper. A fun, creative and tactile exercise to open up the senses. Here are a few examples:
With Bob Marley music playing in the background and families engaging in their smell collages, it really was a beautiful and fragrantly festive morning!
The Herb Garden is full of right angles which creates a challenge to capture it’s charm with a single still shot. I’ll do my best to capture some of my favorite moments, angles, and elements while highlighting a few plants.
Spring 2020
The beautiful butter yellow Julia Child Rose in the foreground of the Herb Garden coming out of Winter slumber.
One of my favorite under story plant combinations is the mixture of artichokes, hummingbird sage, and foxgloves under the Crepe Myrtle tree in NW corner of the Herb Garden. It’s a ‘back of house’ view that visitors rarely see (usually they’d be standing on the other side of the foxgloves).
Fall 2019
The early morning mist gives the Herb Garden a storybook feel...Lavender ‘Ghostly Princess’ in the pots and Julia Child Rose on the left.
Spring 2018
The Hops (surrounded by orange Calendula) are swallowing up the custom designed trellis while the White Sage (Salvia apiana), right, and dianthus combination are looking splendid.
Spring 2017
This cloudy spring morning brought out the vibrant colors of the garden while the grape arbors created a nice focal point. The picture above shows the SE grape arbor (Vitis californica ‘Roger’s Red’) with Queen Anne’s Lace and Purple Hollyhock in the foreground (right), Florence Fennel in the midground (left) and a 17th century German wellhead as the centerpiece to the Herb Garden in the background (center).
SE Corner Entrance: Blooming chamomile, sage and lavender pots (left).
SW Corner Entrance with artichoke flowers in the foreground.
Looking at the SW corner entrance: Paprika Yarrow and Vetiver grass on the right side of the grape arbor.
2015 was a big year of updating the interpretive materials in the garden. Experimentation, presentation and inspiration were our main underlying goals, and I believe we were successful in achieving them! The new displays are made from plant materials in the garden and consist of 4 main categories of use: Medicinal, Cosmetic, Culinary, and Dye, Fiber and other crafts. Changing them out every season further connects our new displays to the annual plant cycle.
The Vegetable Row Garden - A Monthly Overview from July 2016 to August 2017
Centrally located, The Vegetable Row Garden is a 75′-25′ space at the Ranch dedicated to annual vegetable propagation and amid the wilder, “looser” Orchard, Native, Mediterranean and Pollinator areas surrounding it.
July 16, 2016
I got my lucky break in the gardening world by volunteering at the Ranch in 2009. I was offered an internship in April of 2010. Back then, the Vegetable Row Garden section focused on best practices in small scale organic vegetable production. The gardener who was hired a few years after my 6 month internship decided to use the Vegetable Row area in a different way - their style (pictured above) was loose and wild: whatever it was that decided to grow there, stayed, and perennials were growing (and spreading) amidst small informal clusters of flowers and veg. In July of 2016, the Ranch gardener left. Their departure opened up the opportunity for a team of interested botanical staff members (including myself) and interns to become involved. Some of us were assigned to care for specific areas while others helped with general maintenance projects. I was tasked to bring the vegetable row garden back to its small scale vegetable production roots. My intention is to create a garden that is simultaneously educational, experimental and beautiful. I hope for this space to be inspirational to an experienced gardener and accessible to a beginner. I hope it will expose children and adults to the simple beauty of homegrown vegetables. Finally, I hope to continue to learn more about organic vegetable gardening, grow my vegetable repertoire, and share what I have learned with others.
August 23, 2016
Garden Intern, Emma (left), and volunteer, Jeff (right), and I are working to clear the area so we can get a fresh start. Pictured above, Emma is removing irrigation lines while Jeff is removing rebar. We also removed the two rows of brambles (background), the prune tree (in the foreground), along with edible and non-edible annuals and spreading perennials.
October 13, 2016
A new main utility path running North to South is established and new hose bibs and drip line irrigation is installed.
November 7, 2016
A fence is built to protect the veg from rabbits. Trellises are placed to support the snow peas.
December 22, 2016
From left to right: fava beans and snow peas; broccoli and cauliflower; cabbage, kale, and chard; and carrots, celery and beets. The fava beans and snow peas were seeded in early November while the rest were planted on November 30th.
January 3, 2017
The veg continues to grow while we focus on fruit tree pruning. Pictured above are the three apricot trees on the west end of the row garden.
February 2 & 16 2017
February 2: The brassica (left) and legume row (right), along with the others, are continuing to grow in nicely. Having said that, there are always little mishaps and lessons to be learned. For more on this, click to read my post on “Seasonal Learning Lessons”.
February 16: Daniel is helping me set into place the two rows of straw bales we will use for spring and summer plantings. See my post on straw bale gardening here.
March 16 & 17, 2017
March 16: Now that the fence is built, the irrigation is installed, and the Winter season is under our belts, we have more time (and knowledge) for our Spring crops. Pictured above is our pile of amended soil that was taken from the future Chinese Garden site and shipped to an area behind the Ranch for our use in the Vegetable Row Garden. Although they used a large custom built sifter to remove small boulder-sized rocks from the soil, there were still large pebbles which we had to hand sift out before adding the mix to our beds.
March 17: The first two rows are ready for Spring and Summer plantings. The row on the left has been expanded to fit a fourth drip line.
April 19 & 20, 2017
April 19: Our final harvest for the season. Pictured is just a fraction of our winter yield. We shared the harvest with fellow Ranch workers, Master Gardeners, botanical office staff, the kitchen, and the public.
April 20: Trellises for the tomatoes, zucchinis, and cucumbers are in place. The wildflower patch begins to flourish.
May 5 & 24, 2017
May 5th: When installing the rabbit fence, we decided to pull it away from the edge and create a 6 foot pollinator section. Here it is in full bloom and consisting of an array of California native wildflowers and a mix of climbing sweet peas.
May 24th: The squash is now spilling over the bales in the foreground while the tomatoes and eggplants are filling out their bales in the background. I am still watering about twice a week, particularly because the weather has spiked in temperature.
June 12, 2017
The garden continues to grow in. Now I am really able to see and feel the dramatic transformation the space has gone through in just one year.
July 7, 12 & 24 2017
The summer is heating up and the garden is responding nicely. New signs for the different sections of the Ranch have been installed (right).
The most prolific harvest so far has been the zucchinis followed by the summer crookneck squash and pattypan squash. Corns, melons and gourds are starting to grow in while the tomatoes and eggplants still need a few more weeks (they were planted last).
July 12th: The squash and melon harvest have been very successful. The corn is tall and green - their tassels are beginning to change color, giving us a minor indication of their color variances.
July 24th: Sadly, we lost most of our corn and some melons from a rat invasion over the weekend. Despite this minor setback, I would consider this first summer to be a huge success. I’ve learned so much about: our soil (and what steps we need to take to further improve it); the many different varieties of melons, squash, tomatoes and other veggies to focus on in our micro climate; and ways to improve our irrigation system that will help it to run more efficiently and effectively, especially during the summer time. I’ve been happy and pleased with how wide the distribution of our vegetables have gone. We shared our harvest with volunteers, Saturday master gardener docents, visitors, staff (botanical, communications, the president’s office, facilities, et al.), the kitchen, a local homeless shelter, our family members and our neighbors.
August 14, 2017
Summary:
The following is a tally of our summer harvest and a summary of successes and improvements that need to be made.
Melons: 29 pieces, 6 cultivars
Summer and Winter squash (not including zucchinis): 145 pieces, 6 cultivars (4 summer, 2 winter)
Zucchini squash: 124 pieces, 3 cultivars
Cucumbers: 21 pieces, 4 cultivars
Tomatoes: 100 pieces, 6 cultivars
- Most of our corn crop and a good amount of melons were eaten by rats and possibly squirrels.
- The soil needs continued remediation as it did not seem to retain moisture too well.
- Hand watering and oscillator sprinkling may do better over drip when it comes to melons and squashes
- Low yields of tomatoes due to 1). Selecting mostly heirloom varieties 2). Not planting enough in a row. Same for the eggplants.
- Squashes were by far the most successful harvest. Next time, we’d like to utilize the fence for climbing and trellising squash.
- The straw bales are extremely successful with soil building (See my Straw Bale Gardening post).
COMING SOON...
October 18: Last season’s bales have broken down and the weather is cooling off (sort of). The straw bale gardening technique was so successful in improving the soil, that I ordered 30 bales for the fall season (shown above, in the background). We planted red cabbage starts (foreground) and the pumpkin plants are soaking up the heat while they can get it. In addition, we built 3 potato towers (by the fence).
For the sake of organization, I am dividing my posts regarding the Vegetable Row Garden into roughly one year blocks. Therefore, a post for Fall 2017 - Summer 2018 will be published in the coming months ahead.
Our annual Fiber Arts Day is a well attended public event where local fiber art guilds are invited to set up their looms, spinning wheels and dye pots in and around the Herb garden to show visitors the traditional methods of textile art. The picture above shows the dyers’ demonstrating how to extract color from plant materials such as indigo, onion, walnut and madder.
Anna, master spinner and weaver, demonstrating her spinning wheel and welcoming guests at SE entrance of the Herb garden.
One of the many table top looms that visitors were invited to try with the guidance of a fiber artist.
More spinners enjoying the shade and talking with visitors in the Rose garden.
Easy, beautiful and fun circular weaving looms.
Visitors were fascinated by the docent display we created just for this event.
Many items in our display table were dyed, weaved, spun, or grown by an herb garden docent or myself.
By the day’s end, the dyers ended up with these beautiful colors.
This fava bean is infested with aphids and too much work and water use to clean off for eating, but the closer I look, the more fascinated I am with the symbiotic activity taking place: aphids are feasting on the phloem sap of the fava bean plant while lady bird beetles feast on the aphids. Ants are harvesting the honeydew from aphids at the base of the plant while ladybird beetles are laying their eggs on the undersides of the leaves on top. It goes to show that the best food gardens benefit everyone!
Spring blooms have arrived! It’s always good to have documentation for education and inspiration. I’ll be adding pictures of blooms I come across in my gardens and other natural settings throughout the season.
Herb Garden
Poppy 'Afghan Pink & White' (Papaver hybridum) and Waverly Sage (Salvia ‘Waverly’) in the background.
February 28-March 8th: Stages of a Poppy 'Afghan Pink & White' (Papaver hybridum) blossom.
March 14: Flax (Linum usitatissimum), one of my favorite useful plants. Herb Garden.
March 15: Origami Rose and White Columbine (Aquilegia x hybrida ‘Rose and White’), top left; Nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus), top right; Jasmine White Tobacco (Nicotiana alata), bottom left; Spanish Lavender (Lavandula stoechas), bottom right.
Ranch Garden
March 16: Carouby De Maussane Snow Pea (left), Broccoli flowers (top right), Daikon Radish flowers (bottom right).
March 31: Cleveland Sage (Salvia clevelandii) and some kind of Prunus on the hillside orchard.
April 7: Owl’s Clover (Castilleja exserta).
Altadena Community Garden
February 25th: Five Spot (Nemophilia maculata), California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica), Tidytips (Layia platyglossa), Baby Blue Eyes (Nemophilia menziesii).
March 18th: Chinese Houses (Collinsia heterophylla) left; Lacy Phacelia or Blue Tansy (Phacelia tanacetifolia) top right; Desert Bluebell (Phacelia campanularia).
In this post, I will document the process of straw bale gardening from start to finish. More info from WSU extension can be accessed here.
1). Day 1-3: Water thoroughly.
February 17-19
Make sure the straw bales are placed where you want them since they will be quite heavy to move after watering. Hand watering or drip will work. We were fortunate enough to set the bales in place the day before one of the largest storms of the season (a predicted heavy rainfall of 4 inches).
All the how-to’s I have read suggest to stand the bale cut side, or the narrower side with no strings, up. I decided instead to lay the bales flat which allows for more surface area to plant. I need to be careful, however, not to accidentally cut off the strings while planting.
2). Day 4-8: Water, Feed and Take the Temperature
February 20-24
The storm that passed through over the weekend really helped to thoroughly soak the bales, so much so, that its temperature raised to an average range of 110-114 degrees F even before applying nitrogen fertilizer. Nitrogen fertilizer is added to the bales 1) to enrich the bales with plant nutrients and 2) to further help the decomposition process along. While some how-to’s suggest to use a potent nitrogen based fertilizer such as ammonia sulfate or urrea, I decided to use a 7-1-2 organic, non-GMO Soybean Meal. I sprinkle 1/2 cup evenly over the top surface of each bale and thoroughly water it in. After a couple of days, the bales did rise in temperature, but there was a variance; some bales were hovering around 115-120 degrees F, some around 120-130 degrees F.
3). Week 2 & 3: Continue to Water, Feed and Take the Temperature
February 27 - March 13
Week 2: The temperature of the bales are ranging from 90 to 115 degrees Fahrenheit. Though still reaching above ambient air temps, my hope was that they’d maintain their heat above 120-130 degrees F for a full week or so. I am assuming this can be done at a quicker pace and a more sustained level through the application of some kind of high octane chemical fertilizer. The process will be slower since I’m going the organic route, which is fine by me, and ultimately more a preferable practice.
Week 3: The bale temperatures have gone down to match the ambient air temperatures. I’ve cut back on both watering and feeding to roughly every other day. The bales are retaining their moisture well.
As shown from the images above, the bales have shrunken in size. They will continue to slowly break down throughout the season. Patches of wheat seed has sprouted and should be weeded out.
4). Week 4: Add Amended Soil.
March 16
Success!! I spotted mushrooms growing out of some of the bales after the weekend. Mushrooms are an indicator that the bales are now ready to plant in.
Create holes in the bales with a trowel and fill them in with planting mix. I mix 1/3 potting soil with 1/3 compost and 1/3 native soil. The holes are spaced out according to the size of the plant. In the row of bales shown in the picture above, I plan to seed in squash, so I spaced the holes roughly 18-24″ apart.
5). Time to Seed or Plant.
Now that the bales have been properly (and successfully) conditioned, I can take my time to choose the seeds or plants that I’d like to put in them. On March 27th, my intern and I seeded in roughly 4 different kinds of squash in this row of 9 straw bales. The picture below was taken on April 7th. Seed germination has been very successful so far.
6). Thin and Feed.
April 20
The squash has been thinned to one plant per hole and are continuing to grow out their true leaves at a quick and even pace.
I noticed that some squash leaves were turning a bit yellow, which could be caused by the nutrient leaching when the bales are watered, or that particular squash cultivars just need a bit of a boost from time to time. I sprinkled some organic fertilizer around each plant and that should help them along their way.
May 5 & 25, 2017
May 5th: The straw bales are continuing to hold in moisture. Now that the plants are established, I will cut watering down to about twice a week. We planted tomatoes and eggplant in the straw bale rows on the left. Corn and beans will grow on both sides of the squash row on the right to show the ‘3 sisters’ way of planting.
May 25th: It’s nice to see the rows taking shape in just 20 days! The bottom left picture shows how much the bales have shrunken in size - some have collapsed more than others. As you can see, there are now crevices in between the bales. From time to time, I reach inside one of them to check its activity and always pull out moist, decomposing straw with some with some healthy worms attached. This is a good sign!
June 12th, 2017
The straw bales are barely visible underneath the vigorously growing squash and tomato plants. The bottom picture shows our first summer harvest:
Top row: Summer Crookneck
Middle Row, left: Guatemalan Blue Banana (should be harvested when larger)
Middle Row, right: Patisson Panache
Bottom Row: Green, Striped and Golden Zucchini
Click here to read more about our harvest yields and vegetable varieties in the Vegetable Row Garden
July 24 & 26 2017
July 24th: We had a very successful harvest of squash in the straw bales and a decent harvest of melons and other fruits and veggies in non straw baled areas (see my post on the Vegetable Row Garden). The final count for our squash harvest in the row of 9 straw bales were 145 pieces. In that row, we planted 6 cultivars with 4 winter and 2 summer varieties.
July 26th: The straw bale row where we planted squash has broken down quickly and beautifully in only 6 months. Moisture is being retained and nutrients are being added to the soil at a quick pace.
August 23rd, 2017
Just under the straw bale mulch is soil that is dark, moist, and fluffy. There are earthworms present in every handful - it is an indication of a healthy soil ecosystem.
October 12, 2017
Oct. 12th: The straw bales continue to break down nicely. The Netafim lines buried under the straw help keep the soil moist. Having said that, I see definite improvements with how the soil is retaining moisture and how much more evenly the water is being distributed. In other words, drip line systems work far better when the soil is good.
Another fellow Ranch person, Daniel, helped me set up 2 rows of straw bales in the Vegetable Row Garden. This is my first attempt and I’m very excited, particularly to learn another way to garden and the soil building capabilities the straw bales have to offer. Let’s see how this goes!
Improved Meyer Lemons (top), Chinnotto Oranges (bottom left), and Minneloa Tangelos (bottom right) are the Ranch and Herb Garden’s first shipment to the cafeteria.
Chef Susan Feniger and Chef Powers taste testing our citrus delivery.
Chef Marc Powers and Chef Linda Patora testing out some mint in the Herb garden.
Some citrus displayed in the cafeteria.
Today is the first day we harvested and delivered our citrus crops to the executive chef, Marc Powers. It was enjoyable to also meet Chef Susan and Chef Linda. We’ve worked out a system in which we can provide some of our harvest to them from both the Ranch and Herb Gardens. I also had a chance to tour Chef Marc and Chef Linda around the Herb garden and briefly discussed with them the possibility of collaboration in the near future. It will be interesting to see what happens next!
Last Saturday morning, my husband, Jared, and I helped to cut back the vigorous Vitis californica ‘Roger’s Red’ grapevine on the community garden fence (more info on the grape, click here). The outside perimeter of the garden was planted with drought tolerant and native plantings a few years back. The grapevine became unruly (as shown in the top picture) and inhibited the view into the garden. Our job was to do a hard cut back to the main trunk, where we chose a few branches that will be trained to neatly run along the top and bottom of the fence. It felt good to be part of a local community project. I look forward to any upcoming Grapevine Committee events.
A mixture of flax, borage, poppy, calendula, pelleted carrots, zinnias, fennel, native California wildflower mixed seeds along with many other goodies.
The spontaneous section behind the Herb Garden is just getting started
The Ranch’s spontaneous section was established a couple of years ago.
Last week, I cleaned out and organized a couple year’s worth of seed packets from both the Herb and Ranch gardens’ stock. Both gardens have their own dedicated ‘spontaneous’ section which allows the plants to reseed themselves freely, creating a natural seed bank of flowers, vegetables, and herb seeds. It’s also a great way to attract pollinators and harvest for lunches. I made sure to do this before the next onslaught of rains started in order to take full advantage of the weather conditions.
I’d say it has been a decent first season of listening to, observing, learning from this piece of land. Each season doesn’t come without its lessons and mistakes. It’s good practice for me to take the time to document both the successes and failures in order to continually improve my skill. Above are four examples of some mishaps that occurred this season. Keep reading for more thoughts on the matter..
1. Leaf damage on beets
It was a bit of a challenge to figure out what’s been eating the beet leaves. Whatever it was, it’s food choice was very particular. It would skip the kale, carrots and celery and go after the beets and chard patches. After mulling it over for some time, I (with the help of the botanical director), figured out that it must be the goldfinches! Not a widely reported topic (I can’t imagine why) but here’s a 2012 article from the Minnesota StarTribune: Goldfinches are nature’s ‘turncoats’ which explains the late summer breeding seed based diet of goldfinches, presumably relying on greens and sap in winter months.
Solution: Netting on spinach-related veggies.
2. Small broccoli heads
Broccoli is considered a heavy feeder, according to SFGATE, they also have particular soil, moisture and temperature parameters (will grow larger between 65 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit without bolting) which is why mt former supervisor always preferred broccoli raab to the large-headed type.
Solution: Put them on a regular fertilization schedule, improve the soil.
3. Aphid control
I can try a variety of organic or homemade soaps. I think feeding and amending the soil will also help to prevent bug attacks by keeping the plant healthy from the very beginning.
4. Water damage
We’ve had very heavy rains lately. Covering the heads would help to prevent this.
Some volunteer veggies in the Vegetable Row Garden at the Ranch (that have been around since summertime) are ready to harvest for a morning meeting frittata. Most are still on their way to maturity.
The Riparian Slope is located on the SW end of the Herb Garden proper. Formerly a “no-man’s land” of sorts, The Riparian area is a small strip of land somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000 square feet, with a slight downward sloping bend that runs along the pathway leading to the NE Japanese garden entrance. About three or four years back, I took advantage of the downward slope of both the Riparian area and the Herb Garden proper by figuring out a way to capture any excess run-off from overhead irrigation (which we do little of now, due to the installation of drip irrigation that was done about two years ago) and rainfall (thank goodness we are experiencing a lot of it this season) first, by duct taping a rain gutter sideways to the ground every time I watered and creating several water-capturing swales I planted with water-loving herbs: Sorrel (Rumex), Comfrey ‘Bocking 14′ (Symphytum), Iris and others. The water capturing went so well, my supervisors decided to formalize the process by creating a cemented trench with a grate covering. In addition, I added native milkweed (Asclepias fascicularis) into the mix. There is an element of wildness to the area I deeply appreciate, and, as pictured above, the birds have enjoyed it too!
