Gardening advice with spring on the horizon

S1: Welcome in San Diego. It's Jade Hindman on today's show. Flowers are blooming. We'll catch up with Nan Sturman to talk about spring gardening. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. Well , it may feel like summer out there , but we're actually just getting ready for spring and midday. Listeners may know that means it is time to check in with Nan Sturman as we get ready for our spring planting. Nan is host of A Growing Passion here on KPBS and our go to gardening expert as well. Nan , welcome back to Midday Edition.

S2: Thank you for having me , Jade. It's always fun to be here.

S1: Always fun to have you here in studio and to talk about plants. I'll think things planting. Um , at the top. I mentioned the summer like weather that we're having.

S2: We almost didn't have winter. It's been incredibly warm , and then the last couple of days have been very warm , and even the evenings have been warm. The plant , it seems like everything is blooming earlier. They're going in sequence. It's just starting earlier , which is is okay , except the flowers for like fruit trees and and vegetables and such. They flower in sequence with the emergence of their pollinators. And so there's the question of whether the pollinators are going to be around to pollinate your nectarines and your plums and whatever. And we don't really know the answer yet.

S1: Um , well , we've had some , some strong storms also , I might add.

S2: So especially you know , usually we get cold damage over the winter. And I always say to people , don't cut it off right away because if we get another cold , cold storm or cold streak , the damaged portions of the plant will protect the portions that weren't damaged. But if you cut off the damage , then the next part of the plant gets hurt and so on and so forth. So I always say , wait , don't cut off the damage part until we get well into March , maybe even April , because we know by then we won't get any more cold weather. The hail does have an impact on some plants , especially like on succulents you end up with like pitting on the leaves. It's not attractive , but you really don't want to cut it off because the plants need those leaves. It doesn't stop them from growing. You just have to wait it out until there are new leaves to replace them. Hmm.

S1: Hmm. Now you say now is the time to plant citrus trees. What should people consider when choosing what to plant and what will work best here in our region ? Citrus.

S2: You know , unless you live in the mountains , you can plant almost any citrus. It's really amazing. We are really in wonderful citrus territory , so pick find your favorite citrus and then you have to make sure you're planting in a spot that gets absolute full sun , which means no less than eight hours of full direct sun all year round. You also want to make sure that you are going to irrigate it correctly , so you want to set everything up. Citrus. Take some water. They're not xeric plants. They're not water wise plants. You can water them deeply and not that often , especially if you're near the coast. But they do need to have water , and then you have to make sure you have enough room for the ultimate size of the tree you want to grow. So , for example , grapefruit can be a huge tree 15ft by 15ft minimum. You don't want to put that into a space that's five feet wide. Hmm. Okay.

S1: Okay. Yeah. Does that because that could kill them.

S2: Completely. Exactly. But all different kinds of citrus grow to different sizes. And so you just have to do your homework ahead of time. And if you only have X amount of space , maybe you want a dwarf mandarin , mandarins or what ? Tangerines are technically called mandarins. Or maybe you want to cumquat , which will grow maybe eight feet wide. You just have to know how much space you have.

S1:

S2: That's the most important part. Don't ever bother planting something you don't like to eat.

S1: Yeah , otherwise something else will come along and eat it.

S2: Yeah , that could be. That's just a waste. Yeah.

S1: Yeah. Remind us what time of year is best or what time of year is best for what type of planting. I mean , especially for those looking to have fruit year round.

S2: Oh , I love doing that. So you can you can choose different kinds of fruit trees so that you have something that's ripe in each season. Winter is our citrus. Mhm. Um , we kind of have a little bit of a gap in the early spring. But then once we get into summer , you've got stone fruits like peaches , plums , nectarines , etc. later and you've got some apples that there are different varieties of apples that ripen in different times of years. Some ripen in summer. When you get to the end of summer , you've got your figs and your pineapple guava and some of your tropical guava. There are tropical guava that also ripen all through the year. Pomegranates are fall. Then we get into the citrus and and that's just an example. I mean , there's many other , you know , persimmons ripen in fall. You got those beautiful big orange orbs right around the holidays , right just before the holidays. So you can really choose. So you're in my garden. I'm always picking something. Yeah.

S1: Yeah. Okay. So you mentioned apples.

S2: I don't generally grow apples ripen in the summer. I grow apples that ripen after the stone fruit. Because in my family , if there's peaches , plums or nectarines , nobody's interested in an apple , right ? My favorite apple is called Sundowner , and it ripens in October and November. It's a delicious apple , crisp , sweet tart. You can just bite it off the tree , or you can cook with it , and it just ripens in that gap. And that's that's the one I always tell people to buy. Look for Sundowner. Sundowner.

S1: Sundowner. I must do that. I'm a connoisseur , even though I'm a little a little allergic. But I'm still a count. Yeah , I know , I know , it doesn't doesn't make sense , but still , it's my favorite fruit.

S2: Okay , my first advice is wait. Because people always want to buy seedlings. It's too cold to put seedlings on the ground. To plant seedlings , there have to be two conditions. One is the ground has to be warm enough. And that's a little hard to measure. But we know that when nights are over 50 degrees , you know , consistently we're 50 degrees , then the soil is going to be warm enough and the air is going to be warm enough for seedlings to grow. But what I and that happens kind of around April mid April. So don't you don't want to plant seedlings before mid-April. Okay. But I think what's more important is what my favorite thing is. I start my seeds now and I teach people how to start seeds. Now I have a seed starting course called Strong Starts , which is part of my stream and garden school. So what we do is we start the seeds now because it takes about six weeks , maybe eight weeks for the seeds to become seedlings big enough to put into the garden. And then people freak out and if they miss that window , they feel like they completely missed it. No , no , no , we can start seeds now. We can start seeds any time between now and May or June and still have a full crop before we get to the cool weather.

S1: So you mentioned that. So there's seeds and then there's seedlings right.

S2: So seedlings or transplants , basically , when you go to the nursery and you buy a little plant that was a seed about 6 or 8 weeks earlier.

S1: So that started to sprout. Right. And then it's ready to put into the ground. Exactly.

S2: Exactly. And people are afraid to start with seeds because they don't understand the process. It's a really fascinating and it's not a hard process. This is what I've been teaching for years. Yeah.

S1: Yeah. Yeah.

S2: Yeah. One of the many things I've been teaching for years.

S1: Well , and you mentioned your the Nan Sturman gardening school. So if people are interested in getting in that and getting their hands in some dirt. Yeah.

S2: Mhm. And it's really fun.

S1: And you're in there with them. Handle the. Dirt.

S2: Dirt. There's two ways to participate. There's an online course. So I send out seeds and and a kit and a whole thing. It's almost almost everything you need. And then there's a series of videos that people work through at their own pace. And then every couple of weeks we do a live zoom coaching session and we talk about how things are going , and I basically hold their hands all the way through to harvest. And then we have a private community where people can talk. So it's an ongoing process starts now and it goes through July , but there's no obligation. I mean , if somebody just wants to do it on their own , they're absolutely fine. But then I also teach three optional hands on workshops where we meet for half a day , and we do all that planting and I walk them through the process. And it's a really , really fun. I'm doing two of those in San Diego this year. One is the Water Conservation Garden , and one is in Carlsbad , in a floral studio and in the back of the floral studio. Those are this month and the dates in and all that are on the website. And the third one I'm doing is actually in Los Angeles at Flora Grove Nursery. Wow.

S1: Wow. There's lots of options.

S2: Yeah , and it's really fun when we get together and do it together. But not everybody has the time , the patience or the availability. And so the online anybody who comes to workshop has access to all the online stuff too.

S1: That's great. Okay. So , um , you know , a common question that we get , um , is like , what do I do if I have limited space ? You know , maybe a small balcony or in an apartment.

S2: You just have to grow less of it. So you have to be really careful about what you choose to grow. One of the common mistakes people make in growing in a small space is buying small pots. Small pots aren't big enough to grow anything. And when we're talking about fruits and vegetables to the size they need to be to harvest. But if you get a good sized pot , you can grow. Look for varieties that are specifically marked as container plants because those are basically there dwarfs. So there are tomatoes that are specifically tomato container plant size cucumbers , peppers , eggplants , all of those. Look for the varieties that are marked as container size and then whatever size pot you think you're going to grow them in. Choose two sizes larger. So for example , to grow a tomato plant , even a container size you really want. If you think about a nursery pot that's a 15 gallon size , that's the that's a minimum size for one plant. Wow.

S1: Wow. Well , this explains why my pineapple is not.

S2: Oh , that's a whole different ball of wax.

S1:

S2:

S1: I've learned so much from you , Nan.

S2: I have for for that you took the pineapple top off and you tried it.

S1: I did , and I put it. I took the top off. The pineapple was delicious. So but I took the the top off and put it in a jar with water for , for about a week or so. And then it sprouted little roots. And then I put it in dirt. And so it's big now. and in that pot , but I guess I need to replant that.

S2: Well , it depends.

S1: Okay.

S2: Okay. So it should be about at the point where we'll make a pineapple. It needs a lot of sun and a lot of heat. And if it doesn't have a lot of sun and a lot of heat , it probably won't do its thing. Did you know this ? There used to be pineapples grown. There's a pineapple plantation at the end of Point Loma. Oh , wow. Yes , a hundred years ago.

S1: Okay , so. So this this region will grow. Yeah.

S2: Yeah. It's not it's not ideal. It's hard. I mean , if you get a pineapple , you can rejoice. But there was a pineapple plantation down at the end of Point Loma back in the Rosicrucian or whatever. That whenever it was. Yeah. Yeah.

S1: Yeah. That's so interesting. Well , if I get a pineapple , it's going all over Instagram. Absolutely.

S2: Absolutely. And let me know. I'll celebrate with you.

S1: Thank you. Well , we we reached out also on Instagram to see what questions our audience had. And here's one.

S2: They love getting their hands in the dirt , but they don't have a lot of patience. So my advice is don't bother starting seeds because they'll lose interest right away. Instead , take your toddler to the nursery. Go to the part where they have the little four inch pots and tell them you can buy 1 or 2 or whatever number it is. Let them choose. Bring them home. Plant them together. They love getting dirty. Plant them together and then get them a little watering can. Now , that doesn't mean you're they're going to take care of it because they don't have that patience. You'll do it , but let them think that they're doing it. And , you know , remind them every day. We got to water. Every couple of days we got a water , whatever. Give them the sense of success. I did that with my little kids who are now adults and they are major gardeners. But you got to get them in there and and also introduce them to the bugs in a good way. Right. Not to be afraid of the bugs. The bugs are really important. sit in the garden. We used to do this. We would sit in the garden and watch the ladybugs crawl up and down the leaves and the butterflies and all that. They loved that. They loved that. And the antidote to screens.

S1: This is so true. That's good. That's good advice right there. Um. And quickly , I know we've got only about a minute left. Another question we got from Instagram. This is one. This one is pretty specific though. The landscape parkway outside has very compacted dirt. Well , flowers grow if I lay the seeds down there.

S2: Well , it's really kind of too late for our spring wildflowers. But besides that , you've got to deal with the soil. And the best thing to do is get some coarse wood mulch , not bark , but would lay out about three inch thick layer over the whole parkway and let it sit there for 4 or 5 months. It'll completely change the soil. And then you can plant and you don't have to plant your seeds. You can plant anything. Wow. As long as it fits.

S1: Oh , that's the big key here. All right , well it's always great to to talk gardening with you , especially around the spring. I've been speaking with Nan Sturman , host of KPBS. A growing passion , Nan. Thanks as always.

S2: Thank you so much.

S1: That's our show for today.

S3: I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.