Palo Alto Demonstration Garden

FIfth Year, 2007

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Overview

Now in its fifth year, Palo Alto Demonstration Garden (PADG) continues to serve north Santa Clara county community as a valuable gardening resource. Our vision of sustainable gardening, demonstrated in the two portions of the garden - edible and water-wise - continues to thrive. With the ever-changing plant choices in the edible side and the maturing water-wise garden, there are always new and exciting discoveries for visitors.

In 2007 PADG continued the high level of quality of classes and public events and greatly increased our educational outreach to the community. The first Saturday of each month is devoted to a one-hour workshop on a timely topic, with discussion and open garden afterwards. Even repeat visitors learn new gardening best practices in each workshop. With workshops in starting seeds to Family day to Fall in the garden there is something for everyone. Through the year the attendance gradually increased indicating a large interest in the workshop concept and helped support the decision to continue this program.

The major events hosted by PADG were the plant sale in April and the Family day in July. Both were attended by over 200 people the majority being repeat visitors but many being first timers. As well as events hosted by master Gardeners we were asked to participate in the Going Native Garden tour again. This was as in previous years, a huge success for both organizations bringing many new visitors to our garden.

Water-Wise Garden

Overview

The water-wise garden showcases plants and cultural techniques for summer-dry gardening with most plants coming from the 5 world-wide Mediterranean regions: coastal California, SW Australia, South Africa, coastal Chile, and the Mediterranean region. Because these plants are well suited to our climate and soils, they will thrive with minimal care. Plants and bulbs bloom throughout the year, giving us a garden that is always colorful and changing. Our goal is to encourage home gardeners to try some of these beautiful, easy care plants that need little water or fertilizer to thrive.

Planting and Care:
Pruning, dividing and deadheading are done as needed, but new planting is best in the fall to give the young plant roots more time to get established. Little or no amendments or fertilizers are used when planting, one gallon or smaller pots, and we still give our new plants weekly water for the first summer. We are always looking for new plants that we hope will be water thrifty and attractive. Last year, we planted many new California natives and gray foliaged edging plants and divided our bearded iris, lambs’ ear and Bulbine frutescens. Several short-lived perennials are losing vigor: Thyme sp., Festuca glauca and Penstemon sp. We are experimenting with other Festucas to find a placement that will have more longevity.

Frost, Drought and Pestilence:
Last winter we had many frosty nights, resulting in more frost damage than in previous winters. We reluctantly decided not to replace plants which had excessive cold damage even though they were garden worthy plants in many other ways. Our native Abutilon palmeri and Galvesia speciosum were lost, as was the most damaged aloe. Some plants were severely damaged, but quickly regrew: Arctotis, Alyogyne huegelii and Grevillea. In contrast, other plants thrived with the cold winter and bloomed more vigorously than ever because of the additional winter chill: roses, iris, and rosemary.

Rainfall was much less than usual, but most of our beds have drip irrigation for supplemental watering. In contrast, our native California bed has no irrigation and only a few plants receive hand watering. By early summer, many of these plants were looking stressed and because many natives are sensitive to summer water, we will need to wait until cool weather to irrigate.

Additional damage was done to many plants in the garden by an unusually large hatch of Tussock Moth caterpillar. The young oak trees that edge the garden were a home from which the caterpillars hatch and drop down on the plants below. Many native plants were particularly damaged: Ceanothus, buckwheat, manzanita, and Rhamnus. Surprisingly, by mid summer, plants had recovered and regrown their foliage.

Outreach:
As the garden has matured, we have sought more ways to bring home gardeners to see it. While all the PADG events bring visitors to the Water-wise garden, the "Going Native Garden Tour" is the most successful in attracting gardeners interested in low water plants. We had over 200 tour visitors this spring. Our June workshop was on water-wise plants and about 25 interested gardeners attended. We had extra publicity this year, thanks to an article written for Western Horticulture magazine, as well an article in Sunset magazine recommended the garden as an example of Mediterranean plantings. Our water-wise garden is open to the public from dawn to dust, but we are not always there! so the new garden signage is helpful for our visitors.

Edible Garden

African Bed

The African bed was the last of the four international beds to be developed. Our intention was to raise both traditional African food plants, including some native to Africa, and varieties of common vegetables that were developed in Africa and were found in markets there. Both types of plants were identified through Internet research. While commercial sources could not be found for most of these plants, seeds for almost all of them were obtained through the Seed Savers Exchange Yearbook. When requesting seeds from SSE members, we described PADG and the concept of the international beds. Many SSE members responded by sending extra seeds of other African varieties for us to try.

We learned to start plants early and get them in the ground early . . . a long growing season is a must for many of these varieties. Summer 2007 will be the last time this bed will be dedicated to the amazingly vigorous and highly ornamental African vegetables. Thus this report includes a summary of some of the things we have raised in this bed in the past three years:

Legumes

• Pigeon peas are a perennial legume that produced sturdy, branching plants 7 feet tall with trunks 2” in diameter in one season, with lovely yellow and mahogany flowers. However, our growing season was two short and our winters to cold to bring this plant to production.
• Cowpeas (black-eyed peas) are a vigorous, vining legume in the vigna genus (like yard-long beans), eaten as shell beans or dry beans. We raised Botswana black-eyed peas, which were very productive.
• Ethiopian yellow lentils have a low-growing, bushy habit and lovely small sky-blue flowers, followed by large lentils 2-4 to a pod. They grow quickly and are delicious green, shelled and briefly cooked, or can be dried on the bush and used as dry lentils.
• Groundnuts are an African native, most likely the ancestor of our peanuts. Peanuts grow easily here, and were a favorite with visitors. For seed, we have used raw peanuts from Asian or Latin groceries.

Grains

• Teff is a very fine grain, the staple food of Ethiopia, used to make the spongy bread called injera. We have grown a variety of eragrostis teff called Ruby Silk Love Grass for three years for its ornamental value.
• Ethiopian barley grew quickly and well at PADG.
• Sorghum: we raised three different varieties of sorghum, one sweet and two grain, all of which produced beautiful heads of grain on sturdy corn-like stalks that reached 8-10 feet tall. They were the stars of the bed when we grew them, but we’ve eliminated them as they shaded out too many of our veggies!

Solanaceae

• African peppers tend to be very prolific and very hot. We have raised red and yellow Ivorian piment, and the aptly named Fataali. For the past two years we have grown Fish peppers, a beautiful African American heirloom pepper on which both the leaves and the peppers are variegated. Green and white striped peppers turn orange streaked with brown, and then solid red on the way to becoming (this year) very hot. We also raised Zimbabwe bird pepper this year—no one has dared to try those as yet.
• Tomatoes: for three years we have raised a tomato originally obtained from the Spring Garden Market as an African variety “Heidi.” We have saved seeds since 2005. The plants are huge, quickly filling a large tomato cage, and very prolific. Our version of Heidi has been for all three years a large, bright red, round, meaty tomato with very small seed cavities and very jelly-like (never mushy) flesh. It is very tasty if grown under low water conditions. However, it is apparently not the true Heidi, which is described as a plum tomato.
• Eggplant: attempts to grow an African orange eggplant “Sweet Egg” that was described as being the only orange eggplant that was not bitter when ripe were unsuccessful. A special variety raised for its greens (gbogmane) grew reasonably well, but the leaves were extremely bitter raw . . . perhaps cooked to death they would have sweetened, but none of us tried.

Hibiscus family
We’ve raised three members of the hibiscus family over the three years this bed has been planted, all of which are most likely native to Africa and all of which are highly ornamental.

• Cotton grows and produces well and was enjoyed by young visitors to the garden, particularly when the bolls split open to show the snowy white cotton inside.
• Okra, particularly the red varieties, is arguably the most ornamental vegetable one can grow. Everyone at PADG became enthusiastic consumers of okra when taught how to prepare it without creating the dreaded slime factor! We all agree it is worth growing as an ornamental, even if you don’t cook it! Red Velvet is a particularly ornamental and tasty variety that will reach more than 8 feet tall if happy. Jing Orange (really more red) is shorter and bushier (5 feet tall).
• Roselle, the hibiscus listed as an ingredient in herbal teas, is grown for its brilliant red calyces, which swell into a fleshy covering over the seedpods after the small pink hibiscus-like flowers have faded. The calyces are dried and used in drinks (jamaica in Latin America, bissap in Africa), jellies, etc. in African and Latin America, as well as herbal teas throughout the world.

Greens

• Celosia, jute (melokhia), and amaranth are common greens in Africa and have been grown at various times in this bed, along with the leaf eggplant mentioned earlier. Celosia is red and green variegated, tastes like a cross between beet greens and spinach, and doesn’t lose its color when cooked. If allowed to flower, it produces lovely magenta blossoms.

Other crops

• Watermelon is native to Africa; we grew Blacktail Mountain, a variety developed for the short summers of Idaho, and had a good yield for each of the past two years. Highly ornamental vines produced about 6 melons per vine, each about 10 pounds. Crisp, juicy, and very refreshing, though hotter weather would have produced a sweeter melon, no doubt.
• Sweet potatoes are not native to Africa, but became common in African American cooking in the southern United States. True yams are a tropical plant native to Africa and unrelated to the sweet potatoes that we buy here (none of what is sold here is actually a yam, in spite of labeling). We grew sweet potatoes in solidarity with McClellan in 2006 and harvested 24 pounds of tubers from two plants whose greenery covered about 15 square feet! After a late start, we did not do as well in 2007, harvesting only a few pounds from four plants.
• Kiwano, or African horned cucumber, was grown in both 05 and 06. While it grew vigorously and produced more than 100 spiky fruits each year, heat in Palo Alto was not sufficient to ripen the fruits. We feel it is a great oddity, but not worth growing in our climate, especially after we discovered that it is on a watch list as a possible invasive plant in California.

Public Education
The African Bed has been a hit with visitors to the garden, who are fascinated by the unusual edibles and surprised by the common ones . . . most do not realize that we can grow peanuts, watermelon, and sweet potatoes here, and have never seen lentils, sorghum, or cowpeas on the plant. Using highly ornamental varieties not only makes the garden attractive, but it draws the attention of visitors to plants that they would otherwise overlook. Showcasing plants that have unusual growing habits (peanuts pegging into the ground, roselle calyces swelling into a fruit-like product, okra pods forming behind beautiful hibiscus flowers) gives the public some of the sense of wonder we all have at the amazing life of plants.

Asian Bed

Cool season 2006-2007
The late 2006 plantings were not too far along in January. Peas (Tiachung II and Kurume Hi-Crop) were slow to take off but the Bok choy was again a hit. We had wonderful heads of Ching-Chiang, Hybrid Mei-Qing-Choi and Hybrid Green Baby, all of which were very tasty. The Red Stem Choy was a beautiful addition, producing beautiful yellow blooms on reddish stems that attracted many beneficial insects. All the various radishes, diakons and turnips did not live up to expectations either having poor growth, cracking or very hot flavor. The carrots, Kyoto Red, were very successful in all areas: growth, flavor and beauty. All the radishes, turnips, carrots and peas were seeded directly in late 2006.

We carried over several plants from the 2006 season. The Japanese rice, Koshihikari, was left in the barrel after harvesting last year and resprouted. We left it alone to test if we could get a second crop, which ended up not as abundant. The cardamom was not covered during the cold weather and there was significant loss. The cool summer allowed it to recover nicely to its original state.

The irrigation system was turned on in late spring, before which we had watered by hand when needed. We fortunately did not have the irrigation timer troubles this year but instead a very noisy system, singing each time it went on. The system was set to water 45 minutes three times a week all summer.

Warm season 2007
We started seeds at home in January and February to be transplant-ready in April. We repeated plant successes from last year with Red Noodle Yard long Beans, Himangi (Indian White cucumber), Armenian cucumber, Thai Basil, Kyoto Egg and Chu-Chu eggplant and Fushimi and Shishito peppers. Several new tomatoes (Kewalo, Zhefen Short and Thai Pink) and peppers (Capital, Han Yang Put Gochu and Si Jang Quari) were trialed with varying success. The Kewalo tomato was a winner; both Zhefen Short and Thai Pink were beautiful but not tasty as fresh tomatoes. The peppers did not thrive in the cool Palo Alto summer, producing only a handful of fruit that was dried then crushed. We tried two cucumbers, Soarer and Suhyo, with reasonable success, again affected by the cool summer. A new Asian green, serrated leaf Garland Chrysanthemum was grown with great success. The taste was not to everyone’s liking but the huge plants flowered profusely and attracted many beneficial insects. The White Ball eggplant was not one to repeat, producing poor plants and unremarkable fruit. Variegated Japanese corn was a huge success with beautiful garnet colored cobs.

One of the best new plants was Water Chestnut. Water chestnuts bought from the market was planted in a box with a layer of soil at the bottom, then the water chestnuts covered with a layer of pebbles to keep them from floating up and about 10 inches of water covered them. They grew well producing hollow unbranched blades. They were sampled in October, found very small but crisp and tasty. Obviously they were planted too crowded. We did not know that so many were going to germinate. As of this writing we have not harvested them completely as the bulbs are still very small. We had marginal success with Edamame. Despite the plants being strong with good pods, the short production season of two weeks was not enough to warrant growing again without successive plantings.

Several plants reseeded themselves such as Amaranth and Chinese celery (cilantro). We were able to transplant the seedlings to spread them around the bed. The Garlic Chives and lemon grass thrived after winter pruning. We purchased a new Hibiscus to put in a pot as well as Zinnias and Celosia for color around the bed.

Mediterranean Bed

For four years the Mediterranean Bed has been an example of year round gardening. Vegetables are planted in amounts that could be used by a small family and as they are harvested, other, seasonal crops are added. Throughout the year we usually have cool season crops like radishes, lettuces, onions, leeks, chard, cabbage, kale, broccoli, and artichokes. For the summer warm season crops of tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, beans and squash are grown. Beds are prepared by digging in composted horse manure (Wheeler Farms) and for heavy feeders (peppers and cole crops); alfalfa meal or packaged vegetable fertilizer is used. The composted manure is also used as mulch around the plants.

This year began with winter/early spring vegetables planted the previous fall (September and October 2006.) Several weeks of below freezing temperatures did surprisingly little damage; fleece row cover was put over the plants during the coldest week. All the chicories, kales, and cabbages were unharmed by the prolonged cold, but fennel tops were blackened and cells burst in the outer walls. Later growth was produced from the center of the bulbs and outer layers could easily be cut away.

Some outstanding spring vegetables: The Violetto artichoke was very productive. This artichoke is especially tender and tasty. At the end of the season the plant was dug, divided and replanted in a new area of the bed. Many of us raved about the Sucrine lettuce. This crackly crisp, small sweet lettuce with attractive spoon-shaped leaves is similar to Little Gem.

By late April the last of the winter crops were removed so that we could amend the soil and plant summer vegetables. On May first, beans and squash were directly seeds into prepared beds. Peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, and chard were planted out from starts. A crop of Merveille de Quatre Saisons lettuce made an attractive transition crop for the squash plants. The squash seeds were planted between lettuce plants and then removed as the squash grew. One new popular French tuber was grown: crosnes. It is also known as Japanese artichoke, is a member of the mint family (Stachys sieboldii) and produces tasty mildly artichoke-flavored small corkscrew-shaped tubers.

Five kinds of pole beans were grown on the trellis: Meraviglia di Venezia G.B. (Wonder of Venice) a yellow climbing Roma type was not a vigorous grower or producer. It had good flavor but became “beany” easily. Anelino Giallo (Little Yellow Rings) a yellow climbing Roma type with “prawn” shaped beans was a poor to moderate producer and the beans were small but they were the most delicious beans ever encountered by team tasters! Trionfo Violetto (Purple Triumph) a purple climbing French type grew well and produced but was a little tough and not particularly tasty. Italian Pole Bean, Rare was a vigorous grower, prolific producer, and had good flavor. These varieties were from Franchi Sementi seeds. An additional French pole bean from Kitchen Garden Seeds was grown, Emerite. It did not grow well, thus production was limited but flavor was good and beans were tender.

Listada d'gandia eggplant were especially good, having very firm flesh. Two Italian zucchini were grown to compare them: Stiata d”Italia and Romanesco. Both were dense and flavorful but Romanesco, with its ridged form, was preferred by the team.

Tomatoes: San Marzano 2 was very productive and delicious; it is a true paste tomato with almost no seeds or juice and very good for sauce. Pantano was a very healthy, large and productive plant with large, slightly flat tomatoes. They were meaty with increasing flavor as the season progressed and water was withheld. Pallo de Fuoco started as very small plants and never thrived as well the tomatoes were medium sized and not flavorful.

The Mediterranean Bed has many flowers, some perennial and some annual, plus a quince tree. The flowers attract beneficial and pollinating insects and add beauty to the garden. Herbs change with the season but one new addition this year is a caper bush, grown in a pot.

The Garden of the Americas

The Garden of the Americas was developed from what was previously the Latin Bed thereby opening up the range of plants that can be grown in the bed. At least six inches of Wheeler compost was added to the beds that were redug and reconfigured. Drip irrigation was kept in place with some new lines added to fit the new beds. Flagstone pieces were used to make walkways and large river rock used to make a border around the outside of the bed. Most of the plants that were grown this year were from North America although many of them are also grown in South America. Next year the goal is to grow more root vegetables as examples of South American crops.

Comments and lessons learned on what was planted in 2007
Vegetables
Two kinds of corn were planted, both decorative types but edible while it was still white and before it began turning blue in one example. It was very sweet. We proved that we could grow corn in that plot but more space is needed and a way to protect the harvest from the local animals is a must. Growing corn turned out to be a disappointment so we may not grow corn again.

The other vegetables included tomatoes, peppers, squash, zucchini, beets, lettuces, and peas; some of these were grown as cool season crops. The seeds were purchased at Seed Savers.
Individual large cages supported all the tomatoes, even the small ones. The tomatoes were very prolific but it was decided that only one had very good flavor. The plants and fruit grew very large, but it was determined that there was too much water. We planted Copia, Santa Clara Canner, Sungella, Mexico, and our only flavorful one was Speckled Roman, a paste tomato. The other vegetables were not very prolific mainly because there was too much shade from the tomatoes. A lesson was learned there.

The Raven zucchini did produce a smaller plant with same size fruit growing at a slower rate. The peppers all needed to have more sun. The Lipstick pepper was very sweet though we got only a few of them. Others included Pizza a mild sweet, Rio De Oro- very hot yellow and Garden Sunshine sweet yellow or orange. The lettuces were excellent with large foliage. We mainly had the cut and come again varieties. The Americas garden was very fortunate in that it had no insect or snail infestations of any consequence this year. The main problem was probably raccoons eating our corn. No Sluggo was used in the garden.

Flowers
The flowers were planted for color and beauty. The natives as zinnias were chosen to attract pollinators and other beneficials. Others included were rudbeckias, sunflowers, coxcomb, stocks, and cosmos that were all started at home and later transplanted into the different areas of the garden.
Our most prolific flower was a beautiful pink border of dwarf petunias even though they were somewhat bigger than we imagined dwarf would be. They were grown from seed.
The sunflowers were also very successful with a beautiful tawny copper color with many flowers on each stalk that stood 12 feet tall. It gave height to the garden, as the only other structure was an old 8’ ladder that had a Grandpa Ott morning glory growing on it.

Ornamentals
We planted some ornamentals and they were all interesting looking plants but most of them were in too much shade and they all needed full sun.
Red-ruffled Eggplant - Solanum integrefolium –small purple flowers
Orange Safflower – Carthamus tincatorious- small orange flowers
Nipple Fruit – Solanaceae mamosum – used in floral arranging, most unusual
Nosegay Pepper – Capsicum annum –edible but HOT!

The Americas garden was very fortunate in that it had no insect or snail infestations of any consequence this year. The main problem was probably raccoons eating our corn. No Sluggo was used in the garden.

Fruit Tree Plantings

At PADG there are two areas designated for high-density fruit trees (3-in-one-hole groups) and espaliered trees. These show visitors a large variety of fruits in a small area. The areas received the same treatments and pruning as last year and produced very well. We replaced the Ashmead's Kernal - espaliered apple tree - with an Empire apple and hope for better growth and fruit quality.

Center Circle

This bed is in the middle of the four international edible beds. With an 8' redwood tuteur, it is designed to be a focal point for the garden. Here we are demonstrating ways to grow showy annuals sustainably.

Last winter, a tapestry of colorful edible greens was planted with viola accents. Chicories, kale, endives and leeks offered different colors, textures and tastes to tempt home gardeners to plant beautiful winter greens. In spring, they were replaced with heat loving flowers. On the tuteur, painted lady beans bloomed first, followed by Flying Saucer morning glories and self-sown Mina lobata. Also planted were: sweet alyssum, Nicotiana, Salvia Blue Victoria, Cleome hasslerana, sunflower Valentine, bells of Ireland, and tall Zinnias. By the end of the summer, the Zinnias and the morning glories were still stars! This fall, we will be planting a cover crop that will add organic material and nitrogen back into the soil.

We demonstrate a variety of sustainable practices to our visitors. Although annuals are moderate water users, we show good water practices. We use drip irrigation 2x a week. A layer of organic mulch helps prevent evaporation while slowly replenishing the soil as it slowly decomposes. By minimizing the size of our annual bed we are encouraging visitors to shrink flowerbeds. Flowers that attract beneficial insects are an important part of integrated pest management. Bees and predatory insects, which are attracted to the center circle flowers, will also be useful in the surrounding beds.

Cover crops are an important part of a sustainable garden. This fall the center bed will have a variety of cover crops sown in it. We are showing our visitors that by placing a small, showy annual bed where it can be easily seen, it can add a big splash to a garden.

Blueberry Bed

The bushes grew very well and the crop was exceptional. The birds were kept at bay by netting that was supported by bamboo and wires. The bushes were pruned for the first time in December.

Events at the Garden

In 2007 the open public workshop schedule continued to thrive and attract numerous new visitors as well as repeat visitors. We could share our collective knowledge at each event through the workshop period or afterwards with direct discussions to educate the public about best gardening practices. The schedule for 2007 follows:

After each workshop we had an open garden for two hours that allowed the visitors to wander around or initiate discussions with the MGs. The new more comprehensive signage allowed many to take self-guided tours with plant lists in hand. The Garden Fun for the Family was comprised of stations where visitors could learn about symmetry in plants, making lavender wands, painting and drawing, Japanese flowering arranging, treasure hunt and composting. Each of the tables was full of both children and parents enjoying the various activities. We will continue to conduct workshops with ever changing topics reflecting the needs and wishes of the community.