Beyond the Garden Basics

In today’s podcast, Farmer Fred describes a disappointing harvest of Bodega Red potatoes grown in a 20-gallon fabric pot: three plants produced five potatoes, mostly small. Sacramento County Master Gardener and vegetable expert Gail Pothour suggests the main culprit: operator error. If you grow potatoes, don’t be like Fred!

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The high points of our chat with Lance Walheim in today’s podcast:

* Pick the right variety first. Sweet types like navel oranges struggle indoors, so go with acidic fruit that ripens with less heat.

* Meyer lemons, kumquats, Bearss limes and calamondins are the best bets. They’re compact, bloom often and fit in containers.

* Regular lemons and grapefruit can survive indoors, but don’t expect much edible fruit from them.

* Moving trees in and out is workable, but you need a transition period. Going outside in spring, start in shade after the last frost and increase light over several weeks. Coming inside, reverse the process and reduce light gradually.

* The shock is real. Outdoor humidity can top 50 or 60 percent, while a heated house can drop to around 10 percent.

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Redwood Barn Nursery owner Don Shor of Davis, California and myself finally got around to putting the 2026 Tomato season to bed…except for the ones that are hanging on for dear life. In today’s podcast, we sing the high notes and low notes of our tomato growing efforts this year, with lots of gardening advice thrown in for good measure.

How was your tomato season? Any favorites? Any failures? Any surprises? Let us know in the comments, and be sure to mention where you were doing your gardening this summer.

One of the first to comment was Keith, located in the eastern portion of the San Francisco Bay area. He actually commented before the tomato season was ending:

“When you two get together to talk about the 2026 tomato season, I'd like to put in a good word for my San Marzano tomato harvest in Contra Costa County. I had a good crop, mostly because the weather wasn't too hot. Tomorrow is sauce-making day! I have a set-up that lets me cook outside.”

There’s a complete, human-edited transcript of the podcast near the bottom of this newsletter.

Here are the main points of our podcast conversation:

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In today’s podcast, I tell a long, drawn out story about what happened the night before my wedding in 1980. Yes, it is a garden story, about the Cecile Bruner rose. But, we quickly turn to a chat with Ben Hanna of https://heirloomroses.com, who describes how he and his wife came to own the company after leaving corporate life over a decade ago. He says their shared love of gardening and roses, plus the chance to work closer to family, made the business a good fit. He also notes that all five of his children have worked at the nursery in different roles.

In the newsletter, it's a list of the best roses for fall blooming color!

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In today’s podcast, we talk with Mark Seibert of Sturdi-Built greenhouses in Oregon. The interview covers key considerations for first-time greenhouse buyers, including choosing the right site, with emphasis on sunlight, southern exposure when possible, and local hazards such as trees or lawn equipment. It also discusses heat control and utilities, recommending ventilation, shade cloth, fans, water access, and electrical service with safety protections.

Seibert also explains that lean-to greenhouses can work if the roof pitch and site conditions fit, and says a well-built greenhouse can last 20 to 30 years.

Growing Hobby Greenhouse Tomatoes in the Winter

If you really want to demonstrate to your friends what a great investment your greenhouse is, nothing beats serving them home grown tomatoes...on New Year’s Day. Here’s What You’ll Need to Grow Greenhouse Tomatoes for the Winter and Spring:

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The discussion in today’s podcast focuses on pumpkins. Warren Roberts, Superintendent Emeritus of the UC Davis Arboretum, explains that the pumpkin is botanically a fruit, though it is usually eaten as a vegetable. He says the plant belongs to the genus Cucurbita, which is native to the Americas, especially Mexico and the Andes.

He describes pumpkin types and notes that many large pumpkins are hybrids, often involving Cucurbita maxima. He contrasts these with the smaller typical pumpkin species, Cucurbita pepo. The conversation also covers the origin of jack-o’-lanterns, whose purpose, Roberts says, came from hollowed-out turnips or rutabagas used to carry coals before matches were available (a handy skill to remember when AI takes over).

Short of Garden Room? Grow Mini-Pumpkins!

Admittedly, I got a late start on planting pumpkins this year: in early summer (the 4th of July weekend), and I had only one raised garden bed, 4 feet by 8 feet, still available.

So, I planted three pumpkin seeds that would eventually produce medium sized pumpkins, the “Jack O’ Lantern” variety, a fruit that gets about 15 pounds.

I won’t make that mistake again.

Fast-forward three months, and I have a jungle of green vines from those three seeds that have escaped the confines of the raised bed and are now proceeding to swallow the trunks of my adjacent fruit trees. And it looks like the end-result for Halloween decorations will be only four or five medium sized pumpkins. Not much production, considering the sprawl of the vines. And three of them are still green, making me wonder if they will be nice orange orbs ready for carving at the end of the month.

Fortunately for gardeners, many seed catalogs and nursery seed racks feature pumpkin varieties that mature in about 90 days and don’t do much sprawling: the miniature pumpkins.

There are several advantages to growing pumpkins that weigh less than a pound: quicker maturity, a smaller footprint, and versatility in shapes, color, and uses.

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You know trouble awaits if there is a really orange sunrise on an otherwise clear morning. That usually indicates there’s lots of smoke in the air. In today's newsletter, we talk about the effects of wildfire smoke on you and your garden.

In today’s podcast (above), University of California Wildfire specialist Kevin Marini discusses the wildland-urban interface areas and why they matter for wildfire risk. He explains that many homes in California and other states are built close to wild vegetation, and that it is embers rather than large flames that are often the main cause of home loss.

We then focus on defensible space and the newer “Zone Zero” concept, a 0- to 5-foot area around homes and other structures. We describe how this zone should be kept free of flammable material, including most plants, mulch, cardboard, newspaper, outdoor furniture, gutters filled with debris, and poorly vented areas where embers can enter.

We also cover the 5- to 30-foot zone, where spacing, pruning, and plant maintenance are important. We discuss avoiding fire ladders created by layered vegetation, reducing continuous lines of plants, and using hardscape, rock, or gravel to break up plantings. We note that irrigation and keeping plants hydrated can improve fire resistance.

And, we discuss the best mulches to use in creating a defensible space.

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In today’s podcast, we talk with two nurserypeople who know their cool season veggies: Don Shor, owner of Redwood Barn Nursery in Davis, CA; and professional horticultural consultant and Master Gardener Quentyn Young. They offer tips for both the usual and the unusual food crops to grow during the cooler weather. Among their advice:

• Start now. In the mild-winter parts of the country (zones 8 and 9, much of the West Coast, the Southwest and the South), September through November is prime planting time for cool season crops. The summer garden doesn’t have to be finished before you get broccoli and cabbage in the ground.

• Shop your local independent nursery. They stock varieties that are proven for your area, and they know when those plants should go in.

• Beginners should use transplants. Starting from seed takes much longer, and a first-timer gets quicker results from healthy young plants.

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In today’s podcast, Sacramento County Master Gardener and vegetable expert Gail Pothour explains how to transition garden beds and raised beds from warm-season crops to cool-season plantings. We talk about clearing out tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers, and melons at the end of summer: should you pull out the plant or cut it off at the soil line? It depends. Gail will explain, emphasizing the importance of checking the roots of summer garden plants if they were victims of pests or disease. Gail mentions the advantages of adding compost and lightly working it into the soil rather than doing heavy tilling.

She also discusses winter cover crops such as mustard mix, crimson clover, and soil-builder blends of cover crops, along with how and when to cut them down so they improve the soil.

Here are the main points from the podcast:

* Before you rip out summer crops and jump straight into fall planting, take a beat and deal with your soil first. It makes a real difference.

* When you pull spent tomatoes and squash, check a cross section of the main stem for browning. That’s a sign of fusarium wilt, and it means the disease could spread to your other beds.

* Pull the roots all the way out instead of cutting plants at soil level. Yes, leaving roots to decompose feeds beneficial bacteria, but you need to see the roots to check for root knot nematodes. Gail’s team found nematodes in a bed that never had that problem before.

* Skip granular fertilizers for fall planting. It’s slow release, and cool season crops need something that acts fast. A liquid feed, such as fish emulsion or kelp, works better. And honestly, you might not even need it. Let the plant tell you if it’s hungry through the yellowing leaves.

* Work a couple inches of compost into the bed gently. No tilling needed. Just slide a garden fork in (a broadfork is ideal), rock it a bit, and let the compost filter down naturally so you’re not disturbing the soil structure too much. That helps preserve the existing beneficial soil microbiology.

* Cover crops are a smart move if you’re not planting edibles in every bed this winter. Try a mustard mix (it actually helps suppress nematode populations), crimson clover for nitrogen fixing, or a soil builder blend of oats, vetch, peas and bell beans.

* Timing matters withcover crops. Cut them down while they’re flowering. That’s when the nitrogen benefit to your soil is highest. Let them go to seed and most of that nitrogen gets diverted into the beans or pods instead.

* Fine cover crops like mustard and crimson clover can be left right on the soil as mulch. Woodier ones like bell beans and the soil builder mix need to be chopped up first, or they’ll take forever to break down.

* With a wet winter predicted, mulch is doing double duty. It protects against erosion and it cushions the soil from compaction when heavy rain pounds down on bare dirt.

* Only use disease-free plant material for mulch or compost. If you’re dealing with powdery mildew, fusarium, ornematodes, that spent plant material needs to go in the trash, not back into your growing space.

* Check thick foliage plants like tomatoes for pest eggs before composting them. Leaf-footed bug eggs and similar pests will happily overwinter in your compost pile and come right back to suck on your plants next season.

* Great low-maintenance winter crops for milder zones include lettuce, peas, fava beans, beets, carrots, bok choy, cabbage, kohlrabi, and brussels sprouts.

* Tokyo Bekana Chinese cabbage is worth growing even though it’s technically a brassica. It’s soft and lime green with a thin leaf, so it eats more like lettuce than cabbage.

* Soak pea seeds overnight in tepid water before planting to help speed germination.

* Beet and chard seeds benefit from a shorter (2-4 hours) soaking in water too. That soaking helps break down those seeds’ natural germination inhibitor, speeding the germination process.

* Carrot seeds are notoriously slow and tricky, sometimes taking three weeks to germinate. Cover them lightly with compost, lay a thin row cover or burlap on top, and keep the bed consistently moist. If carrot seeds dry out mid-germination, they die. More info here about growing carrots.

* Soaking carrot seeds for a few hours before planting can speed things up considerably. Some gardeners even rub the seeds on a sieve to rough up the coating a bit, which can help too.

* Don’t skip watering just because it’s cooler out. The soil needs to be moist before you plant, and consistently moist (not soggy) afterward, especially for slow germinators like carrots.

* Winter gardens are lower maintenance than summer ones, but they’re not zero maintenance. Keep an eye out for snails, slugs, earwigs, whiteflies, aphids, cabbage loopers, harlequin bugs, and bagrada bugs. A little monitoring goes a long way.

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In today’s podcast, Master Gardener and vegetable expert Gail Pothour talks about cool season greens to grow in your backyard garden during the fall and winter. There’s a human-corrected transcript at the bottom of this newsletter. Among the main points in our conversation:

* Cool season vegetable gardening works especially well in USDA zones 7, 8, 9, and 10; but in colder areas you can grow food nearly year round if you plan for it.

* Late summer into early fall is the time to pull tired summer crops, work in some compost and fertilizer, and get cool season seeds or transplants in the ground while the soil is still warm.

* Most cool season crops mature fast, often in 40 to 60 days, so you can have a real harvest within about two months.

* A cold frame, basically a raised bed with a hinged translucent lid, protects plants from frost and heavy rain, and doubles as an insect barrier when you stretch screen across the open top during the day. A must for colder climates.

* Floating row covers are one of the most useful tools this time of year. It keeps cabbage loopers and imported cabbage worms from laying eggs on brassicas like kale, broccoli, cauliflower and radishes, and it can even help slow down snails and slugs.

* Row covers also help slow-to-germinate seeds like carrots and beets by keeping the soil consistently moist while they sprout.

* Beginners are usually better off buying transplants than starting from seed, since crops like lettuce and carrots can be tricky to germinate from seed.

* When buying transplants, choose smaller, sturdy, healthy looking plants rather than tall or root-bound ones, since cool season crops don’t love having their roots disturbed.

* If you can’t plant right away, move six pack transplants into their own four inch pots with fresh potting soil first. It gives them a chance to build stronger roots before they go in the ground.

* For lettuce, stick with loose leaf types like romaine and butter lettuce rather than Iceberg, which struggles to head up properly in home gardens in the warmer areas of USDA Zone 9. Favorites mentioned include Salanova red butter, Pomegranate Crunch, Lola Rossa and the heirloom Forellenschluss (also known as “speckled trout” or “flashy trout back”).

* Swiss chard, especially “Bright Lights” with its multicolored stems, is easy to grow, good looking enough for a flower bed, and often overwinters into the next summer.

* For kale, go with edible types like Lacinato (dinosaur kale), Tuscan baby leaf, Red Bor, and Red Russian rather than the tough, purely ornamental kales.

* Asian greens like Pak Choi and Bok Choy, including a fast growing All America Selection called Asian Delight, are quick to harvest and tend to have fewer pest problems because they’re in the ground for such a short time.

* Once brassicas bolt in late winter, the flowers are a magnet for bees and other beneficial insects, and the young flower shoots on kale can be cut and cooked just like broccolini.

* For spinach, look for less crinkled varieties like Tyee, which are easier to clean, and treat it as a fast, short lived crop worth succession planting rather than one you let linger in the garden.

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In today’s podcast, we talk with Sacramento County Master Gardener Michael Stinson about the when, how and why of pruning blackberry vines. Don’t want to listen? Here’s a summary. A complete transcript is at the bottom of this newsletter.

Pruning Blackberries: Key Points

From a conversation with Sacramento County Master Gardener Michael Stinson

• Blackberry plants are perennials that can live 15 to 20 years, but each individual cane only last around two seasons, with a notable exception.

• First year canes are called primocanes. Second year canes, the ones that flower and fruit, are floricanes. Fall pruning is all about removing the floricanes.

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We tackle two prickly topics: the spiky, caltrop-like seed balls of puncturevine weed and the “sputniks” of liquidambar (sweet gum) trees. Yes, those sharply pointed spheres that fly in the autumn breeze do resemble Eisenhower-era, low-earth orbiting Russian weapons of no destruction.

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Collecting, Storing and Using Home-Saved Tomato Seeds

If you want to save seeds of a particular tomato variety, remember that many varieties are hybrids; they may not necessarily come back with the same traits as the tomato you enjoyed last season. According to Penn State Extension, the result of these crosses usually only lasts one generation, so the seeds harvested from hybrids may produce disappointing results.

Or, may not be a disappointment. Tomato flowers are primarily wind-pollinated. So, those plants grown in isolation or covered with insect netting during their flowering period may provide satisfactory results. Experiment! One tip: note the tastiest varieties in your garden right now, in September. Save those seeds. Then, next year, put the plant that germinates far away from your other tomato varieties.

Open pollinated or heirloom tomato seeds are fine for saving, as long as they are grown 10-30 feet away from any other varieties. For best results: save the seeds from tomatoes that are overly ripe; rinse off as much of the flesh and protective gelatinous coating from the seeds as is possible. Then, soak the seeds in a jar of water for a couple of days to remove the rest of the coating. The seeds will sink to the bottom, the gel will float. Discard the gel, remove the seeds and let dry on a paper towel. Then, store in an airtight container in a cool, dry location.

Tomato seed saving techniques can vary. Here’s a sampling of methods from across the country.

From Penn State:

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“Of all flowers, methinks rose is best”. Shakespeare said that. He lived in Stratford-upon-Avon, about halfway between London and Birmingham, England. However, the roses he saw 600 years ago never endured 100 degree heat…until recently.

Although roses were found originally in Central Asia, they spread quickly throughout the Northern Hemisphere between the 12th and 18th centuries.

Those old roses wouldn’t stand a chance in the heatwaves of the 21st century, succumbing to scorched flowers, leaves, and buds…as well as dying off due to a lack of regular watering in drought-effected areas.

Of course, hybridization of roses in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries has created varieties that can withstand a number of modern ailments, including air pollution.

So, what are the modern roses that can take the heat, when temperatures hit 100 degrees for several days in a row? What are the traits of a heat-tolerant rose?

Master Rosarian Debbie Arrington of the Sacramento Rose Society (and the Sacramento Digs Gardening blog) enumerated several in the podcast at the top of this page. Sacramento (City Motto: “At Least It’s a Dry Heat”) is no stranger to prolonged, triple digit heat waves, which can occur anytime from May through September. So, the area is a good testing ground for roses that maintain their color, health and vigor throughout spring, summer - and sometimes fall - heatwaves. One trait many of these have in common: these rose bushes produce light-colored blooms of white, pink or yellow. Most red roses, Arrington explains, absorb more of the heat, and will be among the first to scorch. Sorry about that, Bobby Darin.

Among the roses on Debbie Arrington’s list of heat-tolerant roses:

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Blossom end rot is generally considered the most common tomato problem for backyard gardeners in the US. It causes a dark, sunken, leathery spot on the bottom of the fruit, and it’s usually caused by inconsistent watering (not actually a soil calcium deficiency in most cases) that disrupts calcium uptake in the plant.

For those of you at home keeping score, close runners-up are early blight and septoria leaf spot, both fungal diseases that cause yellowing and spotted leaves, especially in humid climates.

The big difference between blossom end rot and all those runner-up problems? Blossom end rot is an abiotic disorder, not something you can blame on a disease or an insect (“Abiotic disorder” is plant nerd talk for “it’s the gardener’s fault”).

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Today’s podcast and newsletter of Beyond the Garden Basics is something a bit different, but very important: what to do around your home, both inside and outside, if a wildfire is in the area, and you have a few hours before an evacuation becomes mandatory.

That was the topic in a Youtube video presented by Todd Lando, a battalion chief and wildfire mitigation specialist for the Central Marin Fire District. Marin County is in northern california, just north of San Francisco, a bucolic area with hills, mountains and forests abutting the Pacific Ocean. As you might imagine, especially with its proximity to San Francisco, it is one of the more heavily populated areas that can be described as the urban-wildland interface, where suburbia meets a very fire prone area. More information can be found at the website fire safe marin dot org.

Among the practical tips that Lando discusses in the video include what should be done to prepare if a wildfire is getting to be an imminent situation. Of course, if you hear the order to evacuate immediately, you do want to leave immediately.

Here’s a summary of his advice.

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Before we attempt to rid our zinnias of powdery mildew disease, let’s first hear from Debbie Flower, who has plenty of zinnia growing tips for us in today’s podcast. Here’s the quick summary of our chat, which included how to cut outdoor flowers for indoor use. A complete transcript can be found at the bottom of today’s newletter.

* Plant zinnias in full sun. They’re heat and drought tolerant, and bloom most prolifically when days are under 12 hours (expect peak blooms in fall). Planting zinnias where they get full sun, with proper spacing (18”-24” apart) is also great cultural controls for thwarting a powdery mildew breakout.

* Succession-plant every two weeks through early summer for a continuous supply of cut flowers. This is also a good powdery mildew control strategy. Trash (don’t compost) heavily infected zinnia plants. Plant new seeds where you want them to grow!

* Wait until soil is at least 70°F to sow seeds. Germination requires warm soil.

* Cover seeds lightly with vermiculite. It marks where seeds are planted and retains moisture during germination.

* Don’t plant two seeds per spot if using fresh seed. One is enough; double-sowing is only needed to compensate for old/marginal seed.

* Avoid overhead irrigation. It spots flowers and splashes soil onto foliage, promoting disease. Use drip or soaker hoses instead. Another powdery mildew prevention strategy.

* Space plants so they never touch neighboring plants. Good airflow prevents powdery mildew and Alternaria leaf blight.

* Transplant zinnias early. Don’t let nursery starts become root-bound; roots disturbed at that stage cause double-flowered varieties to revert to singles. And don’t buy zinnia plants with powdery white substances on the leaves!

* Pinch young plants (at 4 nodes, remove 1–2) for a bushy, branched plant with more but shorter stems. Skip pinching if you want tall stems for large bouquets.

* Cut flowers in the morning. Plants move carbohydrates (food) into flowers overnight, so blooms are fullest and will last longest when cut early.

* Cut stems at a node, leaving at least one axil bud on the remaining stem. That bud becomes the next flower stalk. More axil buds left = more future stems; fewer = longer current stem.

* Strip leaves that will sit below the waterline and remove side branches from the cut stem before putting in a vase.

* Use floral preservative in vase water, or try hot water. Zinnias last 5–7 days as cut flowers. They will last longer if you do refresher cuts from the bottom of the stem every other day, and add fresh water.

* Use California buckwheat (Eriogonum fasciculatum) as filler in zinnia arrangements. Outdoors, California buckwheat attracts pollinators and has attractive clustered flower heads.

* Support tall varieties in windy or rainy locations with a small tomato/pepper cage. The small cages sold at big-box stores that are useless for tomatoes are well-sized for large zinnias.

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In today’s podcast, Master Gardener Gail Pothour and myself discuss some of the most popular cool season vegetables to grow in the cooler months here in USDA Zone 9 and elsewhere: carrots, lettuce, peas, and beets.

Now’s the time to start the cool season vegetable garden!

Do you want your family to eat healthy year-round? The healthiest, freshest foods are the fruits and vegetables you grow yourself. And in many areas of the West and South, the 365-day vegetable garden is easy to achieve. And now, summer, is the time to be planting the seeds and transplants for the vegetables your family will enjoy throughout the fall, winter and following spring.

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In today’s podcast (above), Don Shor from Redwood Barn Nursery in Davis, CA and I discuss common tomato problems and how changing weather is affecting them, especially in hotter summers. We focus first on blossom end rot, which usually appears on the first fruit and is linked to cool temperatures during fruit development and soil that stays too wet.

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In today’s podcast, America’s Favorite Retired College Horticulture Professor, Debbie Flower, shows us around her yard and garden. But it’s more than talking about the plants. Debbie also shares her planting and irrigation tips for a thriving garden of natives, perennials, trees and shrubs…most of which have been trained to do well on less water! There’s a human-corrected transcript at the bottom of this newsletter of the podcast if you prefer to use your eyes over your ears.

Plants For Dry Shade

One of the more vexing situations for gardeners: those sun-loving perennials and small shrubs that you put in years ago...when the surrounding trees and shrubs were much smaller...may be rather stressed these days, thanks to all the shade that they now have to tolerate. Add to that the modern requirements for a more water-efficient garden. The new question is: which plants don’t require much water...but can thrive in the shade, especially here in USDA Zone 9 of California?

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