Apr 27, 2017
For some reason I’ve never jumped on the bandwagon of really diving into growing tomatoes. The tomato is one of the most popular garden vegetables that anyone can grow. I say “vegetable” loosely because it’s actually classified as a fruit, but that’s a different conversation.
Over the course of the last few years I’ve heard a lot grumbling over the difficulty people seem to have growing tomatoes. Let me start with the fundamentals of growing in its basic form. As a grower, here’s how it works. You’re going to grow tomatoes, so we’re going to call you a grower.
• Year One of your growing experience – You bought the plants, you bought the soil amendments, you toiled, you cared for it, you harvested, you ate it. You were successful. Congratulations.
• Year Two of your growing experience – You thought last year was a snap. “No problem. I got this.” You repeated the same thing from Year One, but you failed miserably.
• Year Three of your growing experience – Year Three starts off with a lot of internal consternation as to whether you even want to grow vegetables again. With the memories of Year Two still fresh in your brain, those memories overshadowed by the grief brought on by the failure of your crop as it rejected all the love you gave it, you ponder whether you have the strength to go down that road again.
Here’s where the tires meet the pavement and you get to earn the distinction of whether you’re a garden rebel. Year One you succeeded. Year Two you got cocky, thought it was easy. Year Three you just can’t quite muster the energy to go through the pain of Year Two. So, the secret in growing is to know that it takes three years to get good and Year Three is when you earn it all. Failure in Year Two forced you to decide that “Yes, I am a garden rebel and I will not lose to the tomato.” When faced with this, it’s real simple. Go back to the basics of Year One, the fundamentals. With one big difference that they didn’t tell you when they sold you the tomatoes.
Remember the rule of spelling, “i” before “e” except after “c”? Here’s where I’m completely confused about this rule. I, last Sunday was on Farmer Fred talking about my three favorite Japanese Maples for full sun. As I was going down my list of my full sun Japanese Maples, Farmer Fred did the unthinkable. “Scott, spell Seiryu.” Now, realizing that I’m live on the radio, I realized that Farmer Fred had just, in front of 35,000 listeners, asked me a trick question. “How could you Farmer Fred? How could you have done this to me?” Truthfully, he didn’t know. He was just asking me because he didn’t know how to spell Seiryu. Quickly, my mind flashed in panic as I recited “i” before “e” except after “c”, hoping to jar the spelling out of my lips fast enough so that 35,000 listeners would not know that I choked. “Seiryu”. “I” before “e” except after “c”. Ugh. There’s no “c”. Does this mean the rule goes right out the door and that I can’t have faith in it anymore? Did my teacher not tell me there could be exceptions to the rule so watch out when you’re on the radio with Farmer Fred?
So, I did what I’ve been taught to do in that situation. I punted. “Fred, I don’t know how to spell it.” He laughed a little bit and cut to commercial. This was a true story that just happened on Sunday and all that went through my mind in about 1.5 seconds. It’s amazing how fast you can think and all the thoughts you can have in 1.5 seconds when there are 35,000 waiting for an answer you just don’t have because of a rule that you’ve grown up with only to find out later in life that there are exceptions.
Back to the mystery of the tomato. If in Year One you were taught the rules and their exceptions, there would be no Year Two or Three. There would simply be success. So, let me bullet point the tricks to growing a great tomato.
• Start with dark green, stout seedlings, equally high and wide. You can grow your own seedlings. There are many tricks. I’ll save that for next January’s email.
• Plant a mix of heirlooms and hybrids for a little insurance. Heirlooms are beautiful and a critical part of our genetic heritage but they lack disease resistance so mix it up. Even with a hybrid that is labeled “resistant”, resistance is a relative phrase. It just means less susceptible, not immune. There’s no substitute for good cultural practices.
• Identify a full sun spot outdoors where your tomatoes can grow.
• Pick a second spot and preferably a third spot. Here’s the trick they don’t often tell you. Tomato diseases can overwinter in the soil and affect the next year’s planting and possibly the year’s planting after that. You have to plant tomatoes in a different spot the next year and the year after. In between those years you can’t even plant a tomato cousin such as potatoes, eggplant or peppers as they too can be affected by the same diseases as tomatoes.
• Back to growing tomatoes. Tomatoes like a pH of 6.0 to 6.5. If you have acidic soils, add lime. Let’s get technical. Applying lime at a rate of 5-10 lbs every 100 square feet will work just fine.
• Adding a 2-3″ layer of high quality compost is most recommended. Kellogg’s worm castings mixed in with Kellogg’s G&B Harvest Supreme helps loosen hard soil, improves soil aeration and conserves water.
• An organic fertilizer that’s balanced with a slightly higher middle number, but not too high in nitrogen can be worked in as well.
• Supporting your plants and keeping them off the ground promotes the best health. I prefer to cage my tomatoes. They’ll have more branches and stems and more tomatoes as a result of it.
• I like to take my seedlings I grew indoors and let them take a walk in the park on a daily basis to enjoy the taste of what’s to come only to protect them at night again. I call this Walking Your Tomato.
• Do not plant your tomato plants early. I saw tomato plants in the box stores in February. Are you crazy? Hurrying doesn’t help and it can hurt.
• I plant my tomatoes deep, at least to the level of the first leaves. They will root out better as they need to support a lot of weight.
• Liquid feeding and watering well is a good start.
• Spacing plants 2′ apart creates great air circulation.
• A lot of disease spores actually splash from the ground up when watering. People don’t usually know this. A layer of clean straw or organic mulch can keep spores from splashing.
Are you still with me? We have more to go. So hang in there.
• Snip off the flower buds of your tomato plant until after it reaches a foot or so.
• Team up with the heavens for consistent moisture. Soaker hoses are best. They can keep foliage dry by day.
• Did you know that diseases can be spread in the garden by you? Working in the garden can spread moisture and spores from plant to plant from your clothes.
• Destroy hornworms! They will leave droppings that are noticeable if you look. The green caterpillars can be hard to see. They usually start eating at the top of the plant. DESTROY THEM.
• Now listen in. Here is one of the biggest issues with tomatoes. Despite all this love we have given our tomatoes, we check them daily only to find out they have failed to fruit. Assuming we did not give them too much nitrogen, it’s most likely weather related. Nighttime temperatures that remain above 70 degrees or below 50ish interfere with pollination. Irregular watering and overfeeding with nitrogen can also cause this problem.
• We’re not done with the mystery of the tomato yet. Cracked fruit, green shoulders on the fruit, black spots on one end or another can appear later in the growing season. The chances of this happening can be greatly reduced if you heed my tips.
• And one more thing before I get off tomatoes. Don’t grow your tomatoes upside down. It’s a stupid idea. It’s a gimmick. Sure you can get a tomato to grow upside down. I don’t think you should waste your money. The world is already upside down. Why add to it?
There you have it. My tomato musings.
May 13th, High Hand Nursery presents Bloomtastic at Maple Rock Gardens.
Tickets are selling fast! The garden is coming alive. Don’t miss this opportunity that doesn’t come along very often. Tickets for Bloomtastic are $10.00 and can be purchased online at www.highhand.com or at the nursery. Parking is free and our new entrance from Highway 193 to the garden is wide open and easily accessible after a year of construction.
I’m sure over the years you have many stories that have created the landscape of your memories. I have heard of people fretting tomato season because of things that are out of their control. April is tax season and taxes, as you know, are completely involuntary and out of our control. So, do yourself a favor. Go plant some tomatoes. Go plant anything. Get your hands in the dirt. Grab a glass of wine and breath it all in. Plant something that feeds your soul and feeds your family.
I look forward to seeing you at High Hand Nursery and I look forward to you joining us May 13th at Maple Rock.
Scott
P.S. April 15 might have been tax day, but Farmer Fred declares April 28th as tomato planting day.
Apr 18, 2017 |
While Spring has sprung, it appears to be slowly springing. Oh my gosh! It’s official. I am officially tired of rain. To solve my doomy, gloomy springless Spring, I took a walk through the nursery. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I’m going to hit you with a lot of pictures in an attempt to spring you out of your Springless Spring, hoping to Spring it. Okay, I’m exhausted. I’m sure you are, too.
This Sunday I will be on the radio with Farmer Fred. If you tune in to the KFBK Garden Show this Sunday, I will be on starting at 9:00 a.m. and then at 10:00 a.m., I will be springing over to Get Growing with Farmer Fred, Talk 650-KSTE. That’s a lot of talking on a talk show. We’ll be talking about all kinds of talking points, talking topics and just plain talking. I was told by Farmer Fred that I can be as snarky as I want, so I’m going to amp up on as much caffeine as I can so we can talk our talking points about a Springless Spring that’s trying to be sprung.
I took a walk through the nursery and took a few pictures illustrating that while Spring has not sprung, or at least it seems as if it is sprungless, at High Hand Nursery I can assure you Spring is springing.
While Spring is always associated with blooming flowers, I’m a foliage guy. I look at flowers as a byproduct. Now, understand I like flowers. It’s what I do for a living, but when we design landscapes for our clients, I tend to focus on foliage first and flowers second.
This is hakonechloa, otherwise known as Japanese Forest Grass. I love it for dark, shady areas. It goes dormant in the winter and is very faithful coming back in the Spring. We grow this plant right here at High Hand Nursery.
Here is hakonechloa (say that 3 times) growing in my garden at Maple Rock. I love it.
So, let’s let the pictures roll.
A view of High Hand Nursery 
If you have any doubt that Spring has NOT sprung, I would argue with that.
A bird’s eye view from our water swans in the greenhouse. Evidence that Spring has sprung. Still not convinced Spring has been sprung? Fresh off our world famous Willie Wonka Flower Basket machine.
Let us shock you with our “Shocking Purple” basket. Zap!
Got your jeans on? Let’s go dancing with “Dancing Jeans”. Yes, that’s the name.
I like peppermint candy. You know the candy that’s always in the bowl as you leave the restaurant? Now you can have it in a flower basket. We call it “Peppermint Candy”, go figure.
I’m a Peter Pan fan, so I call this basket ‘Pirate’s Beauty’. The petunia in the picture is called ‘Johnny Flame’. It’s kind of like street names. None of the names really make sense sometimes.
And if you want to rock in your dancing jeans, then come in and check out “Rockin Red”.
A few tips to growing our flower baskets. They love to eat and they love hair cuts. Feed them with a slow release All-Purpose fertilizer 14-14-14 or close, and cut them back when they get leggy. Our baskets are grown here at High Hand in 14″ pots, allowing room for plants to mature throughout the season without being impacted by roots. Come and select yours off the Willie Wonka flower basket machine. They are moving out fast.
If you were thinking Spring has not sprung, I think you’re no longer having those thoughts. Spring has sprung at High Hand Nursery. Here are a few more of my places to visit in the nursery besides our fabulous greenhouse. 
The hosta, heuchera and hakonechloa house, all great colorful perennials for shade. As I told you I love foliage color, I also love dependability. Tune in this Sunday with Farmer Fred as we’re going to talk about these dependable perennials.
I love Japanese Maples. Don’t have much more to say about them other than “I really love Japanese Maples”. We have the coolest selection of every size, shape and color you can imagine. Yes, Farmer Fred and I will be talking about Japanese Maples, this Sunday on the KFBK Garden Show, 93.1 FM/1530AM KFBK-Sacramento. And then we’ll be running over to Get Growing With Farmer Fred, Talk650-KSTE Sacramento. Ok, Fred did I get that right? That’s a lot of back slashing, numbers and letters.
My favorite Japanese Maple, Acer palmatum ‘Ryusen’. I use it as a groundcover.
Acer shirasawanum ‘Full Moon’. Very cool, slow growing maple for full shade and for brightening up the shady darkness
I like foliage color and the dependability of geraniums.
Who says you can’t grow peonies in Sacramento?
My favorite azalea, “Red Ruffles”. I’ve been using this azalea for years in landscaping. It is a dependable bloomer and a consistent grower. Did I mention it’s a rebloomer? It does not say it on the tag, but trust me, it reblooms in the garden.
High Hand vegetables are here. I came out here yesterday and picked a salad right off our vegetable tables. Fun! Come in and pick out a pot and plant a salad. It’s a cut and come again plant. It will provide many salads from one bowl.
High Hand’s famous basil trees. 
Let me explain. This is a Greek basil, called Savour. When it is grafted onto a hardy variety of wild basil, it creates a hardy perennial basil if brought into a sunny window in wintertime. It’s excellent taste can be snipped right into the pan for the freshest of freshness.
Can we switch subjects for a minute? Are we done with case building that Spring has sprung? I think I’ve made my case. Spring is here so spring on into High Hand Nursery.
May 13th, High Hand Nursery presents Bloomtastic at Maple Rock Gardens.
Tickets for Maple Rock Gardens are $10.00 and can be purchased online at www.highhand.com or at the nursery. Parking is free and our new entrance from Highway 193 to the garden is wide open and easily accessible after a year of construction.
If you’re still not convinced of a springing, sprung Spring that has sprung, then join me this Sunday as Farmer Fred and I get snarky on the radio. Isn’t this ridiculous that we’re all bundled up at the end of April?
Whew! I’m exhausted from all the tongue twisting words. If pictures don’t say a thousand words that Spring has sprung, then I can’t help you. Who doesn’t like pictures?
See you at High Hand Nursery. See you on the radio this Sunday with Farmer Fred.
Scott
Apr 12, 2017
OMG! That’s an acronym for MORE rain. I’m getting grumpy. My soil is soggy. My fields are too wet to go into for farming. My peach trees have leaf curl despite being sprayed and cared for by a professional. I slipped on a slug. And on top of all this, I can’t plant my summer flower bulbs. I’m a grumpy gardener.
If you were one of the many millions across the United States who went to the big box stores to buy your tomato plants thinking you were going to make pizza sauce before me, have you not figured out that Nature is Nature? She controls all. We complained for years we had no water. We wondered if it would ever come back. Global warming had California in its grip forever. (At least that’s what the politicians thought.)
Like the sun peaking out from behind a cloud, a story popped up in the newspaper declaring the drought over. Shhhh! Don’t tell anybody. It was one story on one day and we will probably not see it again. But I’m laughing a little bit because I was crying about the drought and now I’m crying about the rain. Even our Governor has had to succumb to the fact that we have water. Grant yourself a large sigh of relief and know that hopefully for now our grumpy gardener years are behind us.
So, back to the tomatoes. Plant as early as you want to no avail. When Mother Nature warms the soil, blows her temperate breath and offers sunshine of a longer day, then and only then will you be making pizza sauce. For now, our tomatoes are tucked into our greenhouse, cozy as a bug. Right where they should be.
Let’s not forget about the lessons learned from the last five years of drought. As we have learned that we are not in control of Mother Nature, and therefore we don’t know when the next water shortage will besiege us, conservation (in all things) is always a better choice. Let me bullet point what I have learned from the drought:
• Maple Rock Gardens survived on a third of the water. We took this opportunity to understand the water threshold of the garden.
• Technology works if you trust it. If applied properly, as you know with your cell phones, technology can benefit your garden, i.e., smart clocks, etc.
• In most cases, plants flourished with less water. Here’s a fact. During the drought we had less returns due to people killing their plants than when there was no drought. Everybody assumes that if a plant’s not looking good, it must need water. So we kill it with love.
• The drought in some cases forced roots to go deeper, which has made plants more tolerant of dry conditions.
• In some cases, the drought gave trees no choice but to send out more surface roots in search of water, bringing to point that planting the right tree in the right spot is key to long term success in any condition.
• I became water independent and, in general, a much smarter gardener.
• I used less fertilizer. I mowed less grass. I trimmed less and my garden still looks great.
• The drought has taught me to respect Mother Nature, to seek innovation and it has deepened my passion for plants that are versatile and rewarding.
While areas within California are still recovering much slower than we are here in Placer County, we can take comfort in knowing that the water situation is at least heading in the right direction. Breath and apply the lessons learned and your garden will continue to thrive. Take a walk through your garden and acknowledge the journey the two of you have been through and be proud.
Come Celebrate Spring!
We are fast and furiously preparing Maple Rock Gardens for a beautiful day on May 13th. Mother Nature is not necessarily cooperating, but we are trying not to be grumpy gardeners as we prepare the gardens.
Tickets for Maple Rock Gardens are $10.00 and can be purchased online at www.highhand.com or at the nursery. Parking is free and our new entrance from Highway 193 to the garden is wide open and easily accessible after a year of construction.
Walking the garden the other day, I came across something I don’t see very often in this area. I knew it was there, but it is way out of its comfort zone. This coastal plant native to South Africa is called a honey bush. I know you’re focused on the flower, but I think the leaves are actually much cooler. To me a flower is a byproduct of the plant (I don’t like flowers in my grumpy gardener voice). Just kidding, but I always tend to focus in on foliage first and flower second. In recent drought years I’ve noticed the pattern of this plant change. Some years it came up. Last year it did not. This year it did. I just pointed it out because it made me smile as I was reminded of how amazing plants can be in the ways they adapt.
Still feeling like a grumpy gardener? Here’s a rhododendron in our nursery. Thought it would make you smile.
Bright and Sunny
Still feeling like a grumpy gardener? Belly up to the bar!
In four easy steps we can solve your grumpy gardener hangover. Give it a try. This is a remedy that really works. High Hand Nursery’s succulent bar. The sign says it all.
On a side note, Petunia, our nursery cat moved away.
I was extremely relieved, however, to find out she had just moved down the shed to the Tin Thimble. I asked Petunia, “Petunia, why did you move to Tin Thimble?” She stared at me and without saying a word pointed to a pile of yarn.
I was so relieved. Petunia had just moved there for the 10th Anniversary celebration at Tin Thimble. On your next visit to High Hand Nursery and Cafe stop in and say hello and see for yourself the reason why they’ve reach their ten year anniversary. It’s quite amazing, frankly. hey would love to hear from you.
The rain is back and Spring is here. It may not seem like it, but it is.
Popping up like bunnies do, these ceramic bunnies keep multiplying. (I’m told that I’m not allowed to say “breeding like bunnies” in an email and I’m not going to ask how the ceramic bunnies keep multiplying.) Join us this Easter at High Hand Nursery. Walk the shops in the shed. Enjoy the succulent bar in the nursery and don’t forget about the Art Gallery and the High Hand Olive Oil store.
Happy Easter. See you at High Hand Nursery.
Scott
Apr 6, 2017
I was sitting in the nursery last night for a moment thinking about how far High Hand has come when I spotted an old friend across the way. Very seldom thought of. I saw a plant I planted two years ago and forgot about. To my left I saw some Japanese Maples leaning over a wall that were given to me by a friend who has passed. I thought to myself that maybe I should take you on a journey through the nursery and point out some things people walk by and don’t think about. Their origin, their journey or how the plant or tree got there.
I started the nursery 14 years ago now that I scroll back in my head. I’m a plant collector. I never thought I would grow up to be a plant collector, but this occupation chose me and we have gotten along ever since because it aligns with my passions and that is cool plants and their stories.
My daughter, Tara, recently graduated from college with a degree in Literature. Having spent time at Oxford University in England and now heading back to Scotland to begin her Masters, I asked her a question. “Tara, I’m not questioning your decision, but how are you going to take a degree in Literature and make money?” She, without hesitation, quickly snapped back, “Dad, life starts with story. Without it you have no beginning. You can’t program a computer without first writing a story. A doctor can discover the cure for cancer, but is probably too smart to write about it in a way that the masses can understand so he needs me to put it into story.”
I thought, “Shame on me”. Of course. I have taken my passion and made my living in the landscape and nursery industry, digging ditches for all intents and purposes. After all, I do have a PhD, did you know that? Yes, I do. “Professional hole digger”. And with a PhD and the help of many great people who I am privileged to be working with here, a nursery in Loomis grew from a blighted property to something I hope haunts you after you have visited it. So, there’s no doubt that Tara will take her passion and apply a story to create new beginnings and new directions. So, here are a few stories from the nursery.
As I sat on the bench the first thing my eyes landed on was this Acer p
almatum called ‘Lion’s Head’. Let me dispel a notion about Japanese maples. The notion that they can’t acclimate to
full sun is simply not true. They can.
This was the first tree planted 14 years ago when I opened High Hand Nursery. We had several of them and they didn’t sell. Personally, I didn’t get it, but what do I know.
Maybe it simply doesn’t fit what everybody thinks their ideal Japanese maple should look like.
This tree was dug from a property in Oregon that belonged to a lady who was building a garage. Several trees were dug up to make way for the new building. As we unloaded the tree you could see it’s fate was sealed for not being sold. The trunk had literally split in half, so I took my cordless drill and I screwed it back together. I thought, “What do I have to lose? Let’s just plant it here.”
Fourteen years later, planted in full sun, this tree has grown all of about twelve inches. I’m always amazed, if given a little TLC how hard it is to kill a Japanese maple.
As I pulled my eyes back, I noticed something else. A plant I had given very little attention to or care. Once again I had shoved them into the ground because no one bought them.
The plant I’m talking about is a Euphorbia ‘Tiny Tim’. From where I was sitting it looked like a simple boxwood. A year ago the wind had blown them off of a table. Nobody had bought them for over three or four months, so I shoved them into the ground. I chuckled to myself because it was very spontaneous and kind of a willy-nilly act of “Who cares? Let’s just shove them in here.” I’m not talking about the heuchera called ‘Marmalade’ in the foreground. It’s the fresh green plant in the back. Being a member of the succulent family, they are very tough. The round green leaves are not leaves at all but bracts. It’s the flower of the euphorbia. I have not touched it, trimmed it, or given it any thought since the time I planted it over a year ago until just last night and it kind of made me chuckle. I think, “Why do people not buy this plant? Do they not know what they’re missing out on?”
My eyes drifted to the left and I was fondly reminded of an old friend who passed away. 
Acer palmatum ‘Ryusen’ These Japanese maples are groundcover maples and have beautiful fall color. You can’t tell, but they cascade over a 4″ stone wall. They were given to me twelve or so years ago by my friend in Oregon and here they are today at their final resting place. I think of him often when I look at these trees.
Another old friend of mine is a Japanese maple with a name of Red Dragon. 
Its home was in a very large blue pot for over fourteen years. It was purchased and dug from a field in Oregon by a gentleman who had had it for over fifteen years. Its roots had grown through the pot and firmly anchored it to the ground. We remodeled the koi pond last year so the blue pot had to go, but my memory of traveling up north and tagging the tree meant we had to give it a go to see if we could root prune it and plant it. It’s doing well. It’s branching out a bit internally, probably due a little to the shock of root pruning. Next year, I’m sure my friend of fourteen years will thrive. 
This is a pine called ‘Taylor’s Sunburst’. I don’t know why it’s not the most popular pine in the world. This slow growing oddity is pretty much ugly for most of the year. Could that be the reason it’s not the most popular pine? Fourteen years ago I planted this pine at the corner of the shade house. It was about 4′ at the time. Another tree I had put my personal name on while I was on the hunt up north. It is now reaching almost 13′ and is gorgeous. Its spring flush of growth comes out neon yellow as it develops a small red button at the end as an extra bonus. This show of beauty lasts for about a month and then it returns to its normal pale green. It’s not ugly. It’s kind of like a frog that turns into a prince for a period of time.
All these trees and plants have meaning to me. They all have story and I thank Tara, my daughter, for reminding me that life starts with story.
Did you miss the Succulent Extravaganza this week? Do not worry. Belly up to the bar.
Obviously I’m being a little bit tongue in cheek, but let me explain something. Since we opened up our cafe almost ten year
