It was our first visit to our son’s new townhouse. Kurt and his girlfriend Shelly had purchased a strawberry pot, filled its little openings with blue lobelia, scarlet salvia and white alyssum, and put it on the front stoop. The plants were drooping woefully in the blazing sunlight. As soon as Kurt and Shelly opened the door, I blurted, “These plants need water now!” I tried, more diplomatically, to explain that their roots needed more soil and space to grow, and it would be very hard to keep them moist enough to survive in that pot. In my heart, I was lamenting that they were making the same mistakes I made when I began gardening. Why didn’t they consult me, the Master Gardener in the family? Does each generation need to repeat the last’s gardening goofs?
Have your tomatoes or other vegetables started wilting in the middle of the day, even though the soil is moist? Are their leaves yellowing or undersized? Have the plants stopped growing and producing? The problem may be underground. When you remove a puny plant, gently rinse off the soil and examine its roots. If they are thickened, with pearly white nodules growing on them, your soil is probably infested with root-knot nematodes. That’s bad news because it’s virtually impossible to get rid of this lurking menace. You can find ways to grow a good crop, but it will take some strategy and effort.
Last July, we had 11 triple-digit days, some topping 105 degrees. Such hot weather makes me want to stay inside, close the shades and sip a cool drink. However, gardeners know that plants need attention now more than ever. July is the peak time for water to evaporate from the soil and transpire from the plants, so we must be vigilant about watering. We also need to protect plants from heat and sun, monitor for pests, remove spent flowers, keep rampant growth in check and harvest regularly.
There are few entries in my baby book. My mother was a hardworking farm wife with two children, much too busy to be documenting my every tooth and step. One of the few things she wrote was “Anita loves flowers—22 months.” Decades later, I still do. I first encountered the term “flower floozy” at Annie’s Annuals & Perennials, a wonderful nursery in Richmond, and recognized kindred spirits among the staff and customers.
In the early 1970s, a group of women approached the Sacramento Children’s Home board with a fundraising idea: Why not build a restaurant and garden on a vacant lot next to the home on Sutterville Road and staff it with volunteers? The board didn’t expect the venture to last but agreed to give it a try. They funded construction of a building that could be converted to other purposes when the endeavor came to what they felt would be its inevitable end. Casa de los Ninos opened in May 1974, and it still thrives today as Casa Garden. Over the years, its parent nonprofit, Los Ninos Service League, has contributed more than $2.9 million to the home, working to address the needs of children and to strengthen families.
