Gardening Q&A
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I've been growing lettuce and other greens with great success, and now suddenly all I get are flowers. Why?
Your greens are bolting. That means they are producing flowers instead of foliage because the weather is too hot for them and nature is telling the plant to produce seed as quickly as possible. Once the weather cools, you should be able to grow greens successfully again.
I want to build raised beds. How high should they be?
My raised beds are 12 inches high and placed directly on the ground. Some people make their raised beds even higher so they don't have to bend over so far, but the deeper ones need more soil to fill them.
About Pat Rubin, California Bountiful's gardening expert
Pat RubinFor Pat Rubin, gardening is more than just dirt and plants. "It's about history, romance, adventure and people," she says. "And it should be fun."
California Bountiful's gardening columnist has lived and chronicled this fun, hands-in-the-dirt approach for years—and for additional publications including Fine Gardening, Pacific Horticulture, Christian Science Monitor, Family Circle and The Sacramento Bee. Pat has also volunteered as a Master Gardener, speaks to garden clubs and appears regularly on gardening radio shows.
Need gardening advice? Ask the expert!
Send your questions to gardening@californiabountiful.com
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The gophers are getting into my garden and destroying plants. They ate the roots on all my pole beans, and I think they are nibbling at the potatoes. Help!
I've had the same problem. One year I planted pole beans around tall tomato cages, and each day a gopher ate one plant until they were all gone. Moles tunnel through the soil looking for grubs. Unfortunately, their tunneling disrupts and uproots plants. The solution is raised beds with hardware cloth on the bottom to keep these little critters from getting in. Hardware cloth is available at hardware and big-box stores. It isn't expensive. Once you've built your raised bed, staple the hardware cloth on the bottom. The holes are too small for gophers or moles to get through.
I was told some seeds need stratification before I can plant them. What does this mean?
In nature, a plant drops its seeds, and the seeds sprout the following year. They go through fall and winter before coming up in the spring. Some seeds have really hard seed coats; it takes several summers and winters to wear them down enough for moisture to get in and allow the seed to germinate. That is what stratification means, but you can speed up the process by gently nicking or sanding a spot on the seed so it germinates on your schedule rather than Mother Nature's. I remember learning to pour boiling water on western redbud seeds to break through the seed coat to get them to germinate.
About Pat Rubin, California Bountiful's gardening expert
Pat RubinFor Pat Rubin, gardening is more than just dirt and plants. "It's about history, romance, adventure and people," she says. "And it should be fun."
California Bountiful's gardening columnist has lived and chronicled this fun, hands-in-the-dirt approach for years—and for additional publications including Fine Gardening, Pacific Horticulture, Christian Science Monitor, Family Circle and The Sacramento Bee. Pat has also volunteered as a Master Gardener, speaks to garden clubs and appears regularly on gardening radio shows.
Need gardening advice? Ask the expert!
Send your questions to gardening@californiabountiful.com
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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 other readers.
The stems on my tomato and bean seedlings are long and spindly. The plants are beginning to flop over. I have them near a sunny windowsill, so what is wrong?
Sunny windowsill aside, the plants are still not getting enough light. On nice days, take the seedlings outside and let them have some natural sunlight. Be careful not to leave them outside too long because they are not used to cooler temperatures and direct sunlight. Just leave them out for a half hour at first. Next, run your hand lightly across the seedlings several times each day. This will help the spindly stems develop some strength and stand up straight. It isn't so much a problem with tomatoes because you can plant the seedlings all the way up to the top set of leaves. The stems will then root and give the plant extra strength. You can't do the same with other seedlings. Beans can't go into the ground until April in most parts of California. Because they sprout so quickly, you might want to wait a few weeks longer next year before you start the seeds
My clematis never blooms anymore. It was blooming when I bought it. I prune some of the old growth back each spring, but what's going on?
You may be pruning it at the wrong time of year. Spring blooming clematis must be pruned after they bloom in the spring, not in late winter before they bloom. Otherwise you're cutting off the blooming wood before it gets a chance to bloom. Let it go this spring and see what happens. Other types of clematis bloom in summer and fall, and these types can be pruned in late winter. One more thing, and it is a pet peeve of mine: Be sure to pronounce it CLEM-a-tis, not Cle-MAT-is.
About Pat Rubin, California Bountiful's gardening expert
Pat RubinFor Pat Rubin, gardening is more than just dirt and plants. "It's about history, romance, adventure and people," she says. "And it should be fun."
California Bountiful's gardening columnist has lived and chronicled this fun, hands-in-the-dirt approach for years—and for additional publications including Fine Gardening, Pacific Horticulture, Christian Science Monitor, Family Circle and The Sacramento Bee. Pat has also volunteered as a Master Gardener, speaks to garden clubs and appears regularly on gardening radio shows.
Need gardening advice? Ask the expert!
Send your questions to gardening@californiabountiful.com
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