Where vegetables are concerned, April is the month for planting anything and everything.
The only caveat concerns fruiting nightshades, which means tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants; those you will want to delay planting until the end of the month, if not beyond. Potatoes (another nightshade), on the other hand, may still be planted and must definitely be placed in the ground prior to the onset of hot weather. With the exception of potato tubers, garlic cloves, and onion sets (small bulbs available in netted pouches), planting vegetables is best done via transplants — young plants with three or four leaves at least — that you either grew personally from seed or procured from a nursery or home improvement center.
Planting seeds directly in the ground is best reserved for root crops such as carrots, radishes, and beets, although you may also enjoy success from planting seeds of corn, beans, lettuce, mustard, basil, melons, and cucumbers right in the garden. If you want to grow vegetables from seed, the best way to go about it is to procure a tray divided into rows of cells along with a heating mat and humidity dome. The heating mat will accelerate root development and the humidity dome will minimize watering. If you are germinating seeds indoors and lack light, placement of a gooseneck lamp or two with LED bulbs will be necessary. Once your vegetable seedlings have grown a few inches tall, they can be extracted from their cells with their root balls intact and comfortably transplanted into the garden.
Speaking of edible plants, I learned much while perusing “The Layered Edible Garden” (Quarto Publishing, 2024), by Christina Chung. One of the trees featured in this volume is pineapple guava (Feijoa sellowiana), a species I mentioned in a recent column since its flower petals are wonderfully sweet even if its fruits are seldom seen in Southern California.
In response to the column, I received two emails proving that you can grow pineapple guavas successfully in our part of the world, at least in Orange County.
“Fourteen years ago this April, I purchased a 15-gallon pineapple guava tree,” Steven Siglin wrote. “I transplanted my tree directly into the ground at our home in Costa Mesa not far from the Back Bay. It has grown quite large, and we regularly choose to prune it to keep it in check. It annually produces very large crops of fruit which we share with friends and family. It is a beautiful tree outside our kitchen window. Birds love it and provide us with much enjoyment watching them. It takes no special care with regular watering, annual pruning, and a chicken manure application in late winter or early spring. The tree faces almost exactly due north. Its height is 10 and 1/2 feet and its spread is 15 feet.”
And Rolland Graham shared his pineapple guava story, as follows: “After sampling some feijoa fruits shared by a co-worker, I purchased a plant about 50 years ago. I planted it against the west and south-facing side of my two-story home in Mission Viejo. It doesn’t get much direct water during the summer, but its extensive root system does get into an irrigated area. The plant is very vigorous and I have to top it to keep it away from the second-story eaves. The tree is self-fertile and produces hundreds of fruits annually, with fruit drop usually in October-November. As you describe, I wait until the fruit drops to harvest it. A few get chewed upon (presumably by rats), but overall, there is little loss to critters. Nor have I experienced any pest damage to the plant.”
More and more, it seems, plants that provide color throughout the year are being demanded for the garden. I recently saw such a garden that featured orange bells (Tecoma x alata) as a background shrub; it grows eight feet tall and is festooned with orange trumpet flowers virtually year-round. For an even taller background shrub or screen select yellow bells (Tecoma Stans), growing to 25 feet tall with jet-black stems and an uninterrupted golden floral display. In front of the orange bells were some red hybrid crown of thorns (Euphorbia milii) from Thailand, a variety that grows six feet tall.
Be on the lookout for these Thai hybrids, more than 1,000 of which have been created over the last few decades with red, pink, yellow, or white bracts – the leaf-like structures that provide color to these plants. Smooth variegated agaves (Agave desmettiana var. Variegata) were planted in front of the crown of thorns. This agave variety has curvaceous green leaves with yellow margins, growing three to five feet tall. Completing the garden were pink rock purslane (Calandrinia spectabilis), a ground cover with foot-tall soft blue foliage and magenta flowers on three-foot stems that bloom from now through the fall and Tradescantia nanouk, the latest ground hugging craze since it shows off foliage with pink, cream, and green stripes and spreads rapidly.
California native of the week: Taking a walk in my neighborhood, I recently noticed that purple tansy or lady phacelia (Phacelia tanacetifolia), an annual, had naturalized in a portion of a neighbor’s front yard. A few large plants were flowering prolifically and many small plants were growing nearby, clearly having sprouted from seeds dropped by plants that had previously grown there.
Although the California poppy may have achieved universal acclaim for its silky orange blooms, lacy foliage, and indefatigable self-sowing capacity, the acreage of lady phacelia planted outside of California far exceeds the space taken up by California poppy or any other of our native plants. The reason for this is lady phacelia’s reputation as a green manure crop. Vast acreages of lady phacelia are planted throughout Europe as a cover crop used to restore fertility in agricultural land.
Although not a legume, lady phacelia has strong roots that aerate the soil and its rapid annual growth to three feet builds soil fertility when it is plowed back into the ground. Meanwhile, it is an astounding pollinator plant for placement next to crops that require bees for pollination. It makes the list of the top 20 flowers for attracting honey-making bees and is a magnet for beneficial insects too. Strategically placed near vegetable plots or fruit trees, these beneficials will keep the edible crops free of insect pests. A final bonus of growing lady phacelia is the sweet fragrance of its fiddleneck lavender-blue flowers and, due to their stiff stems, longevity in a vase.
Do you have a plant that is colorful throughout the year and of which you are particularly proud? If so, tell me about it in an email to joshua@perfectplants.com. Your questions and comments as well as gardening tips and gardening questions are always welcome.
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