Here are five things to do in the garden this week:
Flowers. There are certain woody plants whose seasonal bloom is so spectacular that it would be malpractice on my part not to make you aware of them. One of these, a November bloomer, is giant red turk’s cap (Malvaviscus penduliflorus). Because its flowers never open completely, they roughly resemble Turkish turbans. Turk’s cap will grow 10 feet tall and wide and will never need water once it matures, since its dense growth completely covers the earth, minimizing water loss from the soil. Plant it on a slope for erosion control and for a spectacular vermillion display as Thanksgiving arrives.
Fruit. Nahuatl, the ancient Aztec tongue, is still spoken by 1.5 million people in Mexico today. In this language, “sapote” (suh-POH-tee or suh-POH-tay) refers to any fruit with pulp that is sweet and soft, with a consistency of custard pudding. At least three trees whose fruit have earned the sapote moniker — although not sharing any botanical kinship — can be grown in Southern California as long as, when young, they are protected from freezing temperatures. All are available at a nursery in Granada Hills (papayatreenursery.com), but call to make an appointment before you go. Black sapote (Diospyros nigra), also known as chocolate pudding fruit, is a persimmon relative whose pulp has the texture and flavor of the dessert for which it is named. White sapote (Casimiroa edulis) is in the citrus family but lacks acidity, possessing a taste that is a mixture of peach, banana, caramel and vanilla. Sapodilla (Manilkara zapota), named by the Spanish and meaning “little sapote,” is a fruit 2-4 inches in size, in contrast to the aforementioned sapotes that can grow as large as baseballs. Sapodilla’s flavor resembles that of brown sugar combined with pear and cinnamon. The first chewing gum was made from the latex sap or chicle (you may remember Chiclets gum) of the sapodilla tree. In the 1960s, chicle was gradually replaced with a synthetic rubbery substance, although you can still find chicle-based gum if you search for it.
Vegetables. Onions may be planted from seed, seedling starts, or sets. Sets are miniature onion bulbs, are easy to grow and may be planted throughout the year in our area, although fall planting is ideal. You place them an inch deep in the soil and six inches apart. Their foliage or scallions will be harvestable in as little as 30 days, while the sets will grow into bulbs of harvestable size in as little as 70 days. When it comes to seeds, it may take six months to produce fully-sized onion bulbs. In our part of the world, make sure you plant short-day (needing 10-12 daylight hours) or intermediate-day (needing 12-14 daylight hours) varieties. Onions are suitable as companion plants to carrots, beets, broccoli, lettuce, tomatoes, and strawberries.
Herbs. Cat thyme (Teucrium marum) is not a true thyme but possesses a similar, if more pungent, fragrance when its leaves are crushed. It is attractive to cats in the manner of catnip (Nepeta Canaria) and catmint ( Nepeta x faassenii). Catnip is the least ornamental of the three but most alluring to cats. Catmint is the most ornamental as it is inundated with lavender-blue flowers in spring and summer. While catnip rises to three feet tall and catmint reaches two feet, cat thyme is more compact, around a foot tall, and studded with five-inch-long pink flower spikes when in bloom. Most cats will be madly attracted to one or more of the above, but some cats will ignore them all. Affected cats will roll around in foliage laced with chemicals whose structure resembles that of cat pheromones. Pheromones are sex hormones found in many animal species, from insects to mammals (but not humans), that produce stimulating scents. In orchard management, pheromone traps are commonly used for insect control.
If you are in search of a long-lasting material for use both as a walkway or for mulch, consider pea gravel. Unlike organic mulches, pea gravel will last for years. As a mulch, a two-inch layer around plants should be sufficient. When used for a walkway, a depth of more than three inches will make it difficult to walk without sinking. Another use for pea gravel is in a drought-tolerant landscape where it curves through the yard in the manner of a dry riverbed with California natives or other Mediterranean climate species lining its banks on both sides. Finally, in a Japanese garden, it famously surrounds planted areas in wide swaths, representing the water that surrounds the islands that comprise Japan.