Time To Prepare For Spring

The unofficial start to spring for Morningsun Herb Farm was on Saturday, Jan 31st - the first time I was asked where the tomato and pepper plants were located for sale. Quickly after that came questions about the availability of basil, so that can only mean everyone thinks winter is over and it’s time to plant summer vegetables! Of course we hopefully have plenty more winter ahead of us, so let’s not plant too quickly just to watch our future food languish in cold, wet soil.

It’t not too early to prepare our soil though, since we have had an extended period of dry conditions. Turning soil amendments such as compost into the soil now will save you some time when it’s time to plant, and it is helpful to let the soil settle in for a bit so it isn’t so fluffy. Wait on adding any slow release fertilizers until you actually plant, and keep out any newly germinating weeds.

February is still a busy month for planting in much of California, with California natives, hardy perennials, bare root fruit trees, roses and strawberries appreciating this extra time in the soil. This is also when you will find your best selection of fruit trees and the best price. And although planting trees and strawberries with no soil around the root systems may seem questionable, when planted early in the year, when they are dormant actually results in great success with much less transplant shock.

February Is For Planting Bareroot!

Morningsun has a great supply of bare root fruit trees in stock right now. And yes, February is a perfect month to get them planted. The one plus to the current dry conditions is that digging in the soil will not adversely affect the soil, so you won’t be compacting it and removing all of the air spaces as you plant.

Late winter is also the time to plant bare root strawberries. They look delicate when you see them in the little bag, but planting when temperatures are cool will give much better success, and again you can find a much greater selection of varieties now. This year we have two varieties early on - Eversweet, which is an excellent choice for an ever bearing strawberry; and Sequoia, a June bearing variety that is excellent for warm inland areas of California.

Strawberries are much hardier than you think, so even if the soil remains cold, even if there was a dusting of snow, strawberries will survive. Planting bare root strawberries is much more cost efficient, and is actually very easy.

• Select healthy looking stock, not mushy or with roots that are black or off smelling. Cut the roots so they are no longer than 4 to 6 inches.

• Rehydrate the plants briefly in tap warm water, or add a very small amount of fish emulsion (just 1-2 tbsp per gallon of water) or liquid sea kelp (1/4 cup/gallong of water - our favorite to reduce transplant shock). The entire plant can be submerged for about 1/2 hour. Don’t leave for longer than 2 hours.

• You can either plant directly in ground or in containers. For inground planting mix in compost to increase porosity. Apply a granular slow release organic fertilizer to the area of planting.

• Dig a hole deep enough for the roots to either grow straight down, or gently fan out the root system.

• Be sure the ‘crown’, where the growing point of the plant is, remains just above the soil surface - too low and covered with soil will cause the crown to rot; too high and the root system will dry out.

• Cover the roots gently with soil and tamp down. Water in with very dilute fish emulsion or other fertilizer.

• If planting in rows, plants about 1 ft apart, in full sun.

• If you can’t plant the bare root strawberries as soon as you purchase them, keep the plants very lightly misted, in a plastic bag with the top opened, in the refrigerator. Plant within a week, making sure to check and mist if the plants are beginning to dry out.

Strawberries are now for sale at the nursery. 50 cents each or 12 for $5. You can plant just one variety, or plant both so you get a big burst of harvest in early to mid summer from the June bearing Sequoia variety, and then a longer harvest later into the season with the ever bearing Eversweet variety.

Classes Return!

February is still a quiet month, but it’s a short month so it’s not too early to plan for some fun classes in March.

I will be team teaching with herbalist Brita Wynn for a full weekend series on March 14th-15th called ‘The Complete Herb Garden’. You can sign up for one section of the series (click here) or save money and come and spend the entire weekend with us (check it out here). We will be doing an in depth dive into everything about your herb garden - it will be great fun! Brita will also be teaching a hands on soap making class on Friday, March 13th. If you have been wanting to learn the process for making old fashioned soap, it’s a great opportunity to learn from a true ‘soaper’.

Also, we will have a terrific class on ‘Cultivating Cannabis’ on March 28th (click here) with Penny Barthel, Cannabis educator and author, and Emily Gogel, cannabis educator and owner of ‘Grow It From Home’.

This is a great introduction for growing from seed to harvest. Penny’s book ‘The Cannabis Gardener’, and Emily’s specially bred feminized seed will be for sale.

Projects At The Nursery

It seems like it has been quiet, but we have been very busy the last few weeks. We are ALMOST done with a complete refresh of our gift shop. All of the herbs and soap and such are still out in our classroom getting ready for their return to the shop, and hopefully by the 14th of February our little shop will be ready.

It’t the first time we have painted for 25 years, and even the floor got a makeover, so this is very exciting!

Also, we are fighting against the gophers in our test lavender field, so we have replanted and are testing various methods of gopher control, and we have 18 varieties of lavender in our field now.

The field will bloom much less this year, but hopefully we will stay ahead of the gophers and once again have a beautiful lavender field. And yes, winter is a fine time to plant lavender!

Winter Hours, and Don’t Forget the Perks!

We will remain on winter hours for a couple more weeks, open Thursday - Sunday, 10 am - 4 pm. When you are checking out at the register, don’t forget there are a few ways to save a bit of cash.

• Are you 55 or older? While we are on ‘winter hours’ Thursday is our ‘Seniors Day’, so let us know at the register on Thursdays and you will get 10% off your purchase. Once we are back on spring hours, Wednesday will become our ‘Senior Day’.

• Be sure to sign up for our loyalty program at the register. Its an in-house program, requiring just a phone number. Every time you make a purchase enter your phone number into the screen and it will add up every dollar you spend as a ‘point’. Reach 300 points and you get 5% off, which you can use whenever you like.

• Garden club members and Master Gardeners always get 10% off your purchase.

• Teachers purchasing for school gardens get 25% off plants and seeds.

• And if you are active member or retired Military, you get 10% off your purchase.