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Southern California Winter Garden · In the Garden with UC Master Gardeners

0:00
SPEAKER_01: I'm Mark Ortell, and welcome to In the Garden with the University of California Master Gardeners.
0:07
SPEAKER_01: I'm here today with Leah Beattie, Gary Matsuoka's daughter from Laguna Hills Nursery in Santa Ana, and we're going to discuss the Southern California Winter Garden, or basically cool season gardening in Southern California.
0:24
SPEAKER_01: Let's start with talking to Leah a little bit about her background.
0:29
SPEAKER_01: You mentioned when we first met that you essentially were raised in a nursery.
0:35
SPEAKER_01: Can you tell me about that?
0:37
SPEAKER_00: It was an adventure, really.
0:40
SPEAKER_00: I grew up and I had all the time in the world to be curious and explore, and it was awesome.
0:46
SPEAKER_00: I didn't really pay attention to many of the plants, mostly just catching insects and butterflies with my grandma, and she would raise me, feed me the herbs.
0:56
SPEAKER_00: So that's how I learned about most of the little things like that, tasting them and playing around.
1:04
SPEAKER_01: So your grandparents watched you, but they kind of babysat you at the nursery while they were running it?
1:12
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
1:12
SPEAKER_00: Well that was the time where they started kind of retiring, but they would still be there.
1:17
SPEAKER_00: And then my my mom and dad started to take over and run the place, and that's when they had me, so it there was they got lucky because they had the babysitter in daycare.
1:29
SPEAKER_01: And and it was a nursery.
1:31
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
1:31
SPEAKER_01: In the truest sense of the word.
1:33
SPEAKER_00: Yep, for plants and little Leah.
1:36
SPEAKER_01: Well, so about how old were you then when you started doing that?
1:40
SPEAKER_00: Um the day I was born, they brought me to the nursery first.
1:44
SPEAKER_00: And I can remember maybe when I was like five or six, running around chasing butterflies with the butterfly net, and I would raise them from caterpillars to chrysalis to butterflies.
1:56
SPEAKER_00: So I learned that pretty early in life.
1:59
SPEAKER_01: Well then you started working at the nursery.
2:01
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
2:02
SPEAKER_01: How old were you when you started working at the nursery?
2:04
SPEAKER_00: Um well, if stapling handouts count and sweeping the floor, then like ten.
2:10
SPEAKER_01: Well, that sounds like a true apprenticeship, right?
2:13
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
2:13
SPEAKER_01: All the dirty work that someone has to do.
2:16
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
2:17
SPEAKER_01: And then from there, what did you do?
2:19
SPEAKER_01: You've expanded, your role is obviously expanded.
2:22
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
2:23
SPEAKER_00: Then in middle school I started um staying after hours to redo the displays and arrange the plants and make the nursery look different for each season.
2:34
SPEAKER_00: And then in high school I started working real hours like cashiering and a lot of my friends I would bring in to help give them their first jobs.
2:43
SPEAKER_01: And you of course were would have to answer questions about what's growing in the nursery and and know have some knowledge of what's there.
2:52
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
2:53
SPEAKER_00: At first it was really hard.
2:54
SPEAKER_00: I would just ask my dad and then just listen to his answers.
2:58
SPEAKER_00: Or my mom or a lot of the um employees that worked there, they're very knowledgeable.
3:03
SPEAKER_00: So I'd always just listen and learn and kind of shadow them.
3:07
SPEAKER_00: Um but it was really when I started growing up and going to saddleback college is when I started to really get into knowing how to care for in certain plants.
3:20
SPEAKER_01: Now, when you you say you went to saddleback college, but you didn't start in horticulture at saddleback college.
3:27
SPEAKER_01: You tried to take a different route, is that correct?
3:32
SPEAKER_00: Right.
3:32
SPEAKER_00: I was more into art.
3:34
SPEAKER_00: I was taking a lot of art classes and general ed to get my AA, but um some of my general eds they just got full and I couldn't take some some years, so I just filled in with horticulture classes.
3:49
SPEAKER_01: And you excelled at those?
3:51
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
3:52
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
3:53
SPEAKER_00: And they became easier and I fell in love with it.
3:57
SPEAKER_01: That's fabulous.
3:58
SPEAKER_01: Well, you you shared a lot of knowledge with me, and your nursery has a lot of unique plants and varieties of plants.
4:06
SPEAKER_01: So what I thought we would start with is the Southern California Winter Garden.
4:12
SPEAKER_01: As we know, most of the garden books out on the market deal with uh a winter where there's snow on the ground and people are huddled in their houses on a couch with a blanket looking at seed catalogs.
4:25
SPEAKER_01: But here in Southern California, it's just another s season and planting season.
4:31
SPEAKER_01: And today let's start with talking about edibles.
4:35
SPEAKER_01: And one of the first things that you introduced me to was snap peas, but not just any snap pea.
4:42
SPEAKER_01: Can you tell me about the variety of snap pea that you like?
4:46
SPEAKER_00: I love the sugar magnolia snap pea, that's a purple snap pea, and it starts out with a pink flower rather than a white flower.
4:55
SPEAKER_00: So it adds some color to your garden and it tastes excellent too.
5:00
SPEAKER_01: And it grows with the tendrils on a fence or post or trellis or something like that?
5:06
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
5:07
SPEAKER_01: And do you plant when do you plant something like that?
5:10
SPEAKER_01: Is it too late to plant that, or is now in October a good time to plant?
5:14
SPEAKER_00: I have some starts at the store already, and I just kind of experiment.
5:19
SPEAKER_00: Like if I have some seeds left over, I just plop them in different times into my various experimental garden sections.
5:27
SPEAKER_01: All around the nursery, I noticed that.
5:29
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
5:30
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I groom up my dormant apple tree.
5:33
SPEAKER_00: It hasn't gone dormant yet, so I have to find a new spot.
5:36
SPEAKER_01: But well, that's a unique approach.
5:39
SPEAKER_01: You use your dormant apple tree as a trellis for your peas.
5:43
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
5:44
SPEAKER_00: I use all the space I can find.
5:46
SPEAKER_01: One of the other things that we ran across while we were there were strawberries.
5:51
SPEAKER_01: And we talked a little bit about strawberries.
5:54
SPEAKER_01: You're one of the nurseries that carries, still carries bare root strawberry plants.
6:01
SPEAKER_01: Why why is it that you do the bare root as opposed to the pre-planted six-pack kind of pots we see most of the places?
6:09
SPEAKER_00: Well, our customers love it because they're less expensive.
6:14
SPEAKER_00: Um they look dead when they first get them.
6:17
SPEAKER_00: We store them in the refrigerator and there's no green leaves.
6:22
SPEAKER_00: It's pretty much just roots and a little crown at the top.
6:26
SPEAKER_00: Um, but once you plant them, like days, they start to green leaf out and green up, and you get strawberries right away.
6:35
SPEAKER_01: You mentioned that you carry a a certain variety called sweet Anne.
6:40
SPEAKER_01: Tell me what what variety is that or what makes the sweet Anne your favorite?
6:46
SPEAKER_00: It's a new one.
6:47
SPEAKER_00: Um we got from Lassen Creek Nurseries.
6:52
SPEAKER_00: Um they have hundreds or maybe dozens of varieties of strawberries, and we make sure we get the ones that are going to do well in this climate.
7:04
SPEAKER_00: Um we get a lot of the day neutral and ever bearing strawberries.
7:10
SPEAKER_00: So that's the ever-bearing.
7:12
SPEAKER_00: Um if you come to the store, right in the entrance is where we s we have some experimental stacked tower gardens, um, just three pots stacked on top of each other.
7:25
SPEAKER_00: And I last year I planted the sweet anne because it was our first year carrying it.
7:29
SPEAKER_00: And yeah, so far it's it's doing what it's supposed to.
7:34
SPEAKER_00: It's feeding us a lot of strawberries throughout the year.
7:37
SPEAKER_00: They're very delicious.
7:39
SPEAKER_00: Um, supposedly the second year is when they do better and you get a lot more results because they've been stored in the refrigerator.
7:50
SPEAKER_00: They went through a winter, and so they save up all their energy and then grow right away.
7:56
SPEAKER_01: Well, now, do you have to pull them out and refrigerate them to plant them for the second year, or nope.
8:02
SPEAKER_01: You just leave them in and they continue to grow?
8:04
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
8:05
SPEAKER_01: Is that what you mean by ever bearing?
8:07
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
8:08
SPEAKER_01: So explain to me what that means exactly.
8:11
SPEAKER_00: So they have their heaviest crop pretty much right after you plant them, and the sweet anne kind of goes summer.
8:21
SPEAKER_00: Um, supposedly until frost, but we don't really get a frost here.
8:26
SPEAKER_00: So right now we still are getting flowers and little little berries, and then um the spring, they just keep going, pretty much.
8:39
SPEAKER_01: And and then you say day neutral.
8:41
SPEAKER_01: Tell me what that meant.
8:42
SPEAKER_01: I didn't I wasn't I'm not familiar with that term.
8:44
SPEAKER_00: That means that doesn't matter how long or short the days are, they'll still produce well throughout that time of year.
8:53
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
8:53
SPEAKER_01: And now you mentioned that this was you used to carry Albion.
8:57
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
8:58
SPEAKER_01: And was the sweet Anne, is that derived from the Albion, or do you know how they developed that strawberry?
9:05
SPEAKER_00: Um they were developed, I'm pretty sure, by the same um companies, but uh uh the sweet Anne is a more um improved variety.
9:18
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
9:19
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
9:19
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
9:20
SPEAKER_01: Now you mentioned that you have a display garden as you come in, and there you take advantage of vertical gardening by putting three pots, one on top of the other, larger and then a smaller one.
9:34
SPEAKER_01: And I imagine that's so you can plant more strawberry plants in a r uh less area.
9:41
SPEAKER_00: Yes, that and it helps keep the bugs away.
9:45
SPEAKER_00: They can't get to the berries and they hang over the side.
9:48
SPEAKER_00: And so it keeps them safe.
9:50
SPEAKER_00: And um every like about every three years I take out the old soil, I replace it with new fresh soil.
10:00
SPEAKER_00: Um that's really good to do in the garden, in the ground or in containers for strawberries to give them a fresh start, and that'll help them produce better each year.
10:09
SPEAKER_01: Okay, now will these uh sweet ants will they send out runners or they do, but not as heavily as the Albion.
10:18
SPEAKER_00: That's why it is more improved because the Albion does send out a lot of runners.
10:22
SPEAKER_00: A lot of runners.
10:23
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
10:24
SPEAKER_00: And it's good to cut them off if you want more energy for the fruits.
10:28
SPEAKER_00: Um, if you just want them to spread and make a ground cover, that's a good reason to have the runners and the albion.
10:35
SPEAKER_00: But if you want your strawberries to stay in one spot and produce heavily, then the sweet Anne is an excellent option.
10:42
SPEAKER_01: As we were looking at the strawberries in the in the nursery, you pulled out some strawberries that you called alpine strawberries.
10:54
SPEAKER_01: Tell me a little bit about these special little alpine strawberries you had.
10:59
SPEAKER_00: They're really fun.
11:00
SPEAKER_00: Um, they're very compact plants, so they don't get too out of control.
11:05
SPEAKER_00: If you do miss some of the berries, they will go to seed and pop up in other places.
11:11
SPEAKER_00: That's how I have so many lying around.
11:14
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes they just pop up by their so by themselves, and I either move them to a certain spot or just keep them there and enjoy the fruits.
11:23
SPEAKER_01: Now, is there a certain kind of soil that's more conducive to these alpine strawberries?
11:29
SPEAKER_00: They're not really picky.
11:30
SPEAKER_00: They'll come up on the ground, like underneath the tables.
11:34
SPEAKER_00: Um, but I always use my dad's soil because you can reuse it year after year, so I just grow whatever pops up in there, and if it gets to be in there for too long, then I just replace it with a different vegetable or herb.
11:50
SPEAKER_01: Okay, and now with these alpine strawberries, then the flavor is intense.
11:57
SPEAKER_00: Yes, it's kind of like a concentrated strawberry.
12:00
SPEAKER_00: It's smaller, but it packs a lot of flavor.
12:04
SPEAKER_01: What about uh I think you said there were two kinds when we were there.
12:09
SPEAKER_01: You mentioned a white one and was a white alpine?
12:13
SPEAKER_00: Yes, white alpine and the Alexander red alpine.
12:19
SPEAKER_01: The white alpine, the berry is white.
12:22
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of a a yellowish white color.
12:25
unknown: Yeah.
12:26
SPEAKER_01: And that that's ripe at that point, and you can eat it.
12:29
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
12:29
SPEAKER_01: And I tasted one and it was delicious, very intense berry flavor.
12:34
SPEAKER_01: Very small, but nevertheless intense.
12:38
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
12:41
SPEAKER_01: Then nearby we we started talking a little bit about onions and onion sets, um, because we were kind of into this bare root discussion.
12:53
SPEAKER_01: Although the alpine strawberries don't grow from bare root, they grow from seed, is that right?
12:58
SPEAKER_01: Correct.
12:59
SPEAKER_01: Or from a plant, and and then the berries, you just plant the berries when they ripen or fall and and go from there.
13:06
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
13:06
SPEAKER_01: Okay, but with onion sets, you recommend planting those from starts?
13:13
SPEAKER_00: Yes, little seedling starts.
13:15
SPEAKER_00: Um they come in bunches of 60.
13:18
SPEAKER_00: Um we sell them in um 30, like half a bunch or a whole bunch.
13:23
SPEAKER_00: Um we usually get them around December or January.
13:26
SPEAKER_01: What varieties do you carry?
13:28
SPEAKER_00: We carry candy, red candy apple, red creole, yellow granites, Texas early white, and Texas Super Sweet.
13:41
SPEAKER_01: Now are these are onions difficult to grow?
13:44
SPEAKER_00: No.
13:45
SPEAKER_00: They're pretty hardy.
13:46
SPEAKER_00: Um, you just have to remember that they're there and don't squish them because they're really tiny when you start them out.
13:52
SPEAKER_00: I plop them in the garden and sometimes I lose them and find them later.
13:57
SPEAKER_01: You mean just kind of in the landscape around the Yeah.
14:00
SPEAKER_00: I stick them in pots like with other potted fruit trees as a filler.
14:05
SPEAKER_00: Um this year my time grew over them.
14:08
SPEAKER_00: You kind of shaded them, so that might have helped them um stay cooler during our heat waves, which they like.
14:15
SPEAKER_00: They love the cool weather.
14:17
SPEAKER_00: Um and you can plant them in rows.
14:20
SPEAKER_00: We recommend four to six inches apart.
14:24
SPEAKER_00: And um you want to make sure you don't bury them too deep or else the bulb won't form properly.
14:30
SPEAKER_00: But if that happens, then you can always harvest the top, the green part.
14:34
SPEAKER_00: You can eat that as well.
14:35
SPEAKER_00: It tastes not as spicy as the regular bulb, but it still has a good onion flavor.
14:41
SPEAKER_01: So these are little slivers uh basically of onion.
14:45
SPEAKER_01: They're probably what three, four inches long.
14:47
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
14:48
SPEAKER_01: And much thinner than a pencil.
14:50
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
14:51
SPEAKER_01: And how deep would you plant something like that?
14:55
SPEAKER_00: About a quarter to a half an inch deep, just so you barely cover the roots at the bottom.
15:02
SPEAKER_00: It's very thin, um, looks almost like a blade of grass.
15:06
SPEAKER_00: There's not too many leaves on it.
15:08
SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, just you can tell where the little bulb is starting to form.
15:12
SPEAKER_00: You don't want to bury it too much.
15:14
SPEAKER_00: So sometimes I recommend just starting in the soil and put a little bit of mulch or rocks up against it to hold it up, and then when it starts to form, you can move it away so that the bulb is exposed more.
15:27
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
15:28
SPEAKER_01: Now you suggested planting them in pots.
15:32
SPEAKER_01: I've never heard of growing onions in pots before.
15:35
SPEAKER_01: How does that work out?
15:36
SPEAKER_00: They do really well.
15:38
SPEAKER_00: Um, I have a lot of citrus trees at my house in like 20-inch pots, and I always stick something in there, like a ground cover, like thyme or some kind of herb.
15:50
SPEAKER_00: And last year I stuck the onions in all around it, um, and they did really well.
15:57
SPEAKER_00: They're very happy in pots.
15:59
SPEAKER_01: Tell me about garlic.
16:01
SPEAKER_01: We talked about garlic that I I liked was the early Italian purple.
16:07
SPEAKER_00: Yes, that's a beautiful one.
16:09
SPEAKER_01: And now tell me a little bit about that.
16:12
SPEAKER_01: The I saw the uh a picture of a bulb, and it is.
16:15
SPEAKER_01: It's an intense kind of purplish husk.
16:19
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
16:19
SPEAKER_01: Husk.
16:20
SPEAKER_01: Is that what it's called?
16:21
SPEAKER_00: I g yeah, I think so.
16:23
SPEAKER_00: The clo outer clove or the sheath.
16:26
unknown: Okay.
16:27
SPEAKER_01: And then the the cloves, it it develops the cloves and and that's what you harvest.
16:33
SPEAKER_01: Now, how do tell me how do you plant garlic?
16:37
SPEAKER_00: Um, for the hardneck varieties, which are more um larger cloves but fewer, and they don't produce in big layers, those you want to select the biggest, sturdiest ones.
16:50
SPEAKER_00: You want to make sure they're not squishy.
16:52
SPEAKER_00: If they're kind of old, they tend to lose their hardness and you can tell.
16:59
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
17:00
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
17:00
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so make sure they're nice and firm.
17:02
SPEAKER_00: Um, you can wait until you start to see a little green leaf come out the top or some roots at the bottom, but I've done both.
17:10
SPEAKER_00: I've just stuck it in the ground um with the tip exposed a little bit.
17:15
SPEAKER_00: But you can bury them.
17:16
SPEAKER_00: You just can't forget about them.
17:19
SPEAKER_01: Need to water them?
17:20
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
17:21
SPEAKER_01: And now, like with onions, do you do the same thing?
17:24
SPEAKER_01: Just put them around in the landscape?
17:27
SPEAKER_01: In the pots?
17:28
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
17:29
SPEAKER_00: Um, somewhere where you know they'll get a little bit of water, like if you have a sprinkler, or if you hand water, just make sure that you remember where they are.
17:39
SPEAKER_00: Put a little sign.
17:40
SPEAKER_01: Don't neglect them.
17:42
SPEAKER_00: Right.
17:42
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
17:43
SPEAKER_01: Now you mentioned some other kinds of garlic as well.
17:47
SPEAKER_01: Tell me uh a little bit.
17:48
SPEAKER_01: Different colors, I think you.
17:50
SPEAKER_00: Right.
17:51
SPEAKER_00: We have um the Spanish Roja, which I believe I saw as a soft neck garlic, which you can braid, and that's easier to dry them and store them.
18:02
SPEAKER_01: Um also I'm gonna interrupt you there.
18:05
SPEAKER_01: I heard that soft neck garlic doesn't do well in Southern California.
18:10
SPEAKER_01: What's what's the difference, if you know, between hardneck and soft neck?
18:14
SPEAKER_00: Um the soft neck is supposedly um better for warm climates, but it says it's not frost hardy.
18:26
SPEAKER_00: Um maybe because it's more tender.
18:29
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
18:29
SPEAKER_00: But we don't get a frost here very often.
18:33
SPEAKER_01: So we could go ahead and grow soft neck varieties here?
18:36
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
18:37
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
18:38
SPEAKER_00: Do well.
18:39
SPEAKER_00: Um, some people have microclimates, like if you plant them near wall, that will keep them warmer.
18:45
SPEAKER_00: But the hard necks and most garlics like a cooler temperature, so I think our winter is pretty ideal for them.
18:52
SPEAKER_00: And the soft necks, they have a less intense flavor, like the elephant garlic is a variety.
18:58
SPEAKER_01: Tell me about the elephant garlic.
19:00
SPEAKER_01: I've seen these giant garlic bulbs in the the grocery store, and it it's elephant garlic.
19:07
SPEAKER_01: W tell me a little bit more about elephant garlic.
19:10
SPEAKER_00: It's huge, maybe t um baseball size.
19:16
SPEAKER_00: All the cloves together.
19:17
SPEAKER_00: Each clove is an a is like a maybe a quarter of the size of a baseball.
19:23
SPEAKER_00: And they're very mild flavor, so not as intense as the smaller ones.
19:30
SPEAKER_01: Now is the plant larger too?
19:32
SPEAKER_01: Is it a bigger plant?
19:33
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
19:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and they um create a flower stalk.
19:38
SPEAKER_00: Um, and once they turn brown is when you harvest them.
19:42
SPEAKER_01: Okay, now the flowers, the color to the flowers?
19:46
SPEAKER_00: No, they're usually either pink or white.
19:49
SPEAKER_00: I think it's a white flower stalk, like most alliums.
19:53
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
19:54
SPEAKER_00: But on the hard neck garlic, supposedly you want to trim that off to give more energy to the roots, and the soft necks you can't cut them off.
20:02
SPEAKER_00: Um I'm not sure why.
20:05
SPEAKER_01: That's all right.
20:06
SPEAKER_01: We'll have to that's something we'll all have to look up.
20:08
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
20:08
SPEAKER_01: Why you don't cut the flowers off on soft neck garlic or the flower stalk.
20:13
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
20:14
SPEAKER_01: So I thought that was interesting.
20:17
SPEAKER_01: These are basically from the allium family, and uh we know we plant some of these little allium bulbs for their nice spear-leafed flour uh growth habits and flowers, and so it makes sense that we could do garlic, I guess, pretty much like chives that would also create those little flower heads.
20:38
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
20:39
SPEAKER_00: They're cute.
20:41
SPEAKER_01: So it's it's not only uh an edible, but it's also something you can use in your landscape in the winter.
20:48
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
20:49
SPEAKER_01: Cool.
20:50
SPEAKER_01: Now you mentioned that you like spearmint and or growing herbs, and one of the ones we talked about was mint, and you made some comment, especially with the garlic bread.
21:05
SPEAKER_01: What did you mean by that?
21:07
SPEAKER_00: Oh, garlic breath.
21:09
SPEAKER_00: Garlic breath.
21:10
SPEAKER_01: Oh I could see that.
21:12
SPEAKER_01: So after you grow your garlic and garlic bulbs and and use them, then you need to go to the down the road to the the spearmint or the the peppermint.
21:22
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
21:23
SPEAKER_01: Tell me a little bit about the spearmint and peppermint.
21:25
SPEAKER_01: Uh before you do though, I gotta tell you I'm concerned because I started growing spearmint in a planter and it overtook the entire planter, and I couldn't get rid of it for months and years.
21:43
SPEAKER_00: Yes, it's very invasive.
21:45
SPEAKER_00: So, what I do in my yard is I grow them in hanging baskets off of my patio cover so that when they send out the runners, they don't touch the ground because wherever they touch, they will root into and just take.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Over.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: I made that mistake in our last house.
22:03
SPEAKER_00: I set a flat of mint down onto the ground.
22:07
SPEAKER_00: They're in containers.
22:08
SPEAKER_00: Um I set it on the lawn and they rooted in, and whenever we mowed the lawn, we had a apple mint smell.
22:19
SPEAKER_01: Now there's so there's is there's more than one kind of mint.
22:22
SPEAKER_01: You mentioned just spearmint and peppermint, or I mentioned just spearmint and peppermint, but you have other kinds of mint as well?
22:28
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
22:28
SPEAKER_00: The apple mint was the one that I said in the lawn.
22:31
SPEAKER_00: That's a type of spearmint that has kind of a fruity flavor.
22:35
SPEAKER_00: Um the spearmint tend to be a sweeter, more sugary flavor, and then the peppermints are more pungent and peppery.
22:44
SPEAKER_00: And the I feel like the spearmint are maybe more better for dessert and drinks because they have that sweetness.
22:52
SPEAKER_00: We carry like the there's so many different types, like strawberry mint, Thai mint, orange mint, basil mint is a new delicious variety.
23:03
SPEAKER_01: I've never heard of basil mint before.
23:05
SPEAKER_00: It tastes like basil and mint.
23:08
SPEAKER_01: Interesting.
23:09
SPEAKER_01: And of course you use these to make mint teas, uh desserts.
23:14
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
23:15
SPEAKER_01: You're and everybody knows, of course, mint juleps.
23:18
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
23:20
SPEAKER_01: That's great.
23:21
SPEAKER_01: Now we also talked a little bit about another herb.
23:25
SPEAKER_01: I guess I would call fennel an herb.
23:28
SPEAKER_01: Uh we have that growing wild all over Southern California, don't we?
23:33
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
23:33
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: Once it starts to get hot, which is usually pretty soon, they bowl and go to flower, which is always fine because the seeds taste really good too.
23:43
SPEAKER_00: So you can use all parts of the plant really.
23:45
SPEAKER_00: Um the bulb is always the best.
23:47
SPEAKER_00: That takes the cool season to develop, and you don't just get one.
23:52
SPEAKER_00: Once it starts to grow, it branches out and creates bulbs all over the place.
23:56
SPEAKER_00: Just from one plant.
23:58
SPEAKER_01: And what do you I I've never cooked with fennel before, the bulb.
24:02
SPEAKER_00: I usually I love soup, so pretty much all the herbs and veggies I have and grow go into soup.
24:11
SPEAKER_00: Um, but I've also steamed it, and that's really good.
24:14
SPEAKER_00: It's a very mild, licorice flavor.
24:17
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you could eat it raw, but I just I like to make soup and steam it.
24:22
SPEAKER_00: That's the best.
24:23
SPEAKER_01: It grows well here.
24:25
SPEAKER_01: It has the the very lace-like leaf or fern leaf kind of uh growth habit.
24:33
SPEAKER_01: They do tend to get rather large though, don't they?
24:36
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
24:37
SPEAKER_00: I have one right now that just went to flower in our flower garden bed, and it's probably about six foot right now.
24:44
SPEAKER_01: Oh my.
24:45
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
24:46
SPEAKER_00: I put a giant tomato cage over it, so that's helping it stay up, but sometimes they fall over.
24:52
SPEAKER_00: They're kind of leggy.
24:54
SPEAKER_00: If the flower seeds get too heavy, they might tip over a little bit.
24:58
SPEAKER_01: Now I've seen them planted with cosmos in a landscape, so you could use it kind of to intersperse with some taller plants, maybe in the back of a planter or something like that.
25:09
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
25:09
SPEAKER_00: The lacy leaves add a really pretty texture to the garden and smell, and they also attract the NS swallowtail butterfly.
25:18
SPEAKER_00: So the caterpillars you might find on there, make sure you don't eat them accidentally.
25:23
SPEAKER_01: Don't eat the caterpillars.
25:25
SPEAKER_00: Yes, but they're really fun to watch.
25:27
SPEAKER_01: So this it's one of those plants that we would say is butterfly friendly.
25:31
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
25:32
SPEAKER_01: And you're I I noticed from visiting you at the nursery that you pointed out different butterflies that were attracted to different plants.
25:40
SPEAKER_01: And so this is one of those things that serves multiple functions.
25:44
SPEAKER_01: It's an edible, it's also a landscaping plant, but it will attract the butterflies.
25:50
SPEAKER_00: Yes, and a lot of beneficial insects too.
25:53
SPEAKER_00: I've noticed a lot of ladybugs and pray mantis in them as well.
25:57
SPEAKER_01: Oh, you've just talked me into planting one.
25:59
SPEAKER_01: You have to make a place for it.
26:01
SPEAKER_01: Now, when I plant it, do I plant it from seed or uh do a start or both or either.
26:08
SPEAKER_00: Right now it's almost the perfect time.
26:10
SPEAKER_00: Usually November is the best time to start the seed.
26:14
SPEAKER_00: Just make sure when you plant it, you don't want to move it because they're very hard to move.
26:19
SPEAKER_00: They have a very sturdy root system.
26:22
SPEAKER_01: So is is it gonna be like my mint that once I plant it I'm stuck with fennel until we maybe.
26:30
SPEAKER_00: It's not invasive, like going to run everywhere unless you let it go to seed and let the seeds go everywhere.
26:37
SPEAKER_00: But um yeah, once they start to grow and get established, it's very hard to move.
26:42
SPEAKER_01: I've seen that in fields.
26:44
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
26:45
SPEAKER_01: Abandoned or not abandoned fields, but wilderness fields and along the beach and places.
26:50
SPEAKER_01: Very good.
26:52
SPEAKER_01: Today we're here with Leah Beattie from Laguna Hills Nursery in Santa Ana, and we're discussing the Southern California Winter Garden or cool season gardening in Southern California.
27:06
SPEAKER_01: Welcome back, Leah.
27:08
SPEAKER_01: We're here moving on to the second portion of our show, but I didn't want to leave off with herbs because you'd mentioned another one, which was the lemongrass.
27:20
SPEAKER_01: And I just planted some lemongrass for the first time, and it's got a beautiful purplish color down at the bottom, and then I saw another variety of lemongrass.
27:33
SPEAKER_01: What am I looking at when I see those different colors of lemongrass?
27:38
SPEAKER_00: Um, the one with the purplish stalks would probably be the western lemongrass.
27:42
SPEAKER_00: They tend to be a little bit thinner than regular the other variety is a little bit more thick and pure green.
27:52
SPEAKER_00: Um, but they both have that sweet lemon flavor, no sour, like a real lemon, but you can definitely smell the lemon, which is crazy.
28:02
SPEAKER_01: And do you use more of the the bottom of the plant for cooking and things of that?
28:10
SPEAKER_00: Yes, that has the more flavor, the thicker the stock, like s the red one I've had it get up to maybe half an inch thick, and then the green one, the pure green one, can probably get a like an inch.
28:22
SPEAKER_00: They're really really large.
28:25
SPEAKER_01: Well, I have m a family that just cannot get enough of my cucumber peanut Thai salad with uh cilantro in it, and one of the ingredients that they suggested I put in the the sauce or the the seasoning was some lemongrass, uh the bottom inch or two of the plant, and blend it up and then mixed with uh rice white rine white rice wine vinegar and uh other ingredients, and so it has a very intense aroma and flavor.
29:00
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
29:01
SPEAKER_01: And it's it's looks like a grass, obviously it's lemon grass.
29:06
SPEAKER_01: Um is it invasive?
29:08
SPEAKER_00: It can be if you let it go to seed as well.
29:11
SPEAKER_00: In my experience, they are just clumping, they don't have runners, but once it does go to seed, they produce a lot of seeds and they can blow around just like regular grass.
29:22
SPEAKER_00: So we always cut it back when that happens and let it give more energy to growing the stalks rather than the seeds.
29:31
SPEAKER_01: Excellent, excellent.
29:32
SPEAKER_01: Now I found out in meeting with you that you have a passion for purple.
29:38
SPEAKER_01: First it started with the the purple snap peas, but then you told me about purple asparagus.
29:48
SPEAKER_00: Yes, the purple passion asparagus I found from our bulb supplier.
29:52
SPEAKER_00: Um they usually we get our like tulips and gladiolus and ranunculas, regular flower bulbs from them, but they have a really good selection of potatoes and garlic.
30:05
SPEAKER_00: That's where we get them all from.
30:07
SPEAKER_00: And then they had the purple passion asparagus, so I decided to order it and experiment, and I love it.
30:14
SPEAKER_01: What is it tell me about the growth habit.
30:17
SPEAKER_01: What does it look like?
30:18
SPEAKER_00: It starts out like a light purple, the foliage turns slightly green.
30:23
SPEAKER_00: Then when the stalks come out, they are like a deep deep to lavender purple color.
30:31
SPEAKER_01: Now, when you cook it, does it stay purple or does it go back to green?
30:37
SPEAKER_00: That one I believe it does stay purple and it is a little bit sweeter than the green.
30:44
SPEAKER_00: I feel like purple has a little more antioxidants as well, rather than green veggies, but I could be wrong.
30:51
SPEAKER_01: No, I I I think uh in my readings, so that's it seems to be the case that a lot of the vegetables that have more of the purple or red, deep red colors have a lot more antioxidants in them.
31:02
SPEAKER_01: You uh called it purple passionate, but something we didn't talk about when I met with you earlier was the bulbs.
31:10
SPEAKER_01: Is this the time of year we'd want to plant some of those gladiolias and tulip bulbs here in California?
31:18
SPEAKER_00: Um, this is when I start to get them in, um, and you would plant them um more December, January to pop up in the spring.
31:26
SPEAKER_00: Some of them do need to re be refrigerated, um, like hyacinths and tulips need to be refrigerated before you put them in the ground, since our winters aren't cold enough.
31:38
SPEAKER_00: So you do have to kind of control that.
31:40
SPEAKER_00: But the purple passion asparagus I researched it said zones three through nine.
31:47
SPEAKER_00: And so so far I've had luck.
31:50
SPEAKER_00: I've only been growing for about two years, so the stalks aren't super thick right now.
31:55
SPEAKER_00: The first year you have to leave them, and then they go dormant in the heat of the summer, and then you want to wait to start harvesting.
32:05
SPEAKER_00: And it says the third year is the most prolific.
32:09
SPEAKER_01: The third year of the asparagus.
32:10
SPEAKER_01: Now, how big a does the plant get?
32:12
SPEAKER_00: It gets about three to four feet tall.
32:15
SPEAKER_01: And how big does it spread?
32:17
SPEAKER_00: About two feet.
32:19
SPEAKER_01: So again, if it's something you planted in the landscape, you'd want to put that towards the back.
32:24
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
32:25
SPEAKER_00: And they multiply too, so you can divide them and separate them.
32:30
SPEAKER_00: The bulbs will keep growing out every year.
32:33
SPEAKER_00: So you want to make sure you give them plenty of space.
32:36
SPEAKER_01: And you would plant this from a bulb?
32:38
SPEAKER_00: Uh yes.
32:39
SPEAKER_00: The well it's kind of like roots with a little crown, just like rhizomes.
32:46
SPEAKER_00: Like the roots are very thick, kind of like noodles, I guess.
32:50
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
32:51
SPEAKER_00: And they look similar to the bare root strawberries, just thicker roots and then little crown.
32:56
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you can see the little star stalks start to pop out of it, and then you know which way to plant it too.
33:04
SPEAKER_01: We we talked about coal the coal crops, because when we hear about the California winter garden, we always hear, oh, this is the ideal time to plant coal crops.
33:17
SPEAKER_01: I told you how disappointed I was with year after year when we get the week of 90 degree temperatures in December, and then for some reason during the Rose Bowl in January, we get the Santa Anna's coming in, and we get temperatures up into the upper eighties and nineties, and this beautiful broccoli that I've been nurturing for weeks or months suddenly has yellow flowers on it one day that were not there the day before.
33:50
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's always hard to control the weather and very disappointing when that happens.
33:55
SPEAKER_00: So that's one downside of being Southern California.
34:00
SPEAKER_00: Unexpected heat waves can ruin the crop.
34:04
SPEAKER_01: So do we not plant broccoli or cauliflower or Brussels sprouts or cabbage or no, I try every year and I do different ones to experience uh experiment.
34:17
SPEAKER_00: Um and also succession planting.
34:20
SPEAKER_00: You like plant the seed or the starts every two weeks um so that you get different period like to of harvest.
34:30
SPEAKER_00: And you could also protect them by putting a shade cloth over them.
34:35
SPEAKER_00: If you know that the heat is coming, that might help.
34:38
SPEAKER_00: But what I've been doing is I've been researching just try different things, and last year I found one called Purple Peacock.
34:46
SPEAKER_00: It's a uh cross between Brussels or no, it's a cross between broccoli and kale.
34:52
SPEAKER_00: And it's a purple, almost looks like purple kale, but it gets a flower um broccoli head kind of like broccolini.
35:01
unknown: Okay.
35:02
SPEAKER_00: So smaller smaller stalks, but they're still really tender and delicious.
35:06
SPEAKER_00: And they're purple.
35:07
SPEAKER_01: Purple, because uh you we know you're passionate about purple.
35:11
SPEAKER_00: Yes, and kale tends to be a little more heat tolerant than broccoli.
35:15
SPEAKER_00: So I feel like the hybrids might you might have a better chance at surviving the heat waves with those.
35:21
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's a great idea.
35:23
SPEAKER_01: Now, you also mentioned purple cauliflower.
35:27
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
35:28
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the variety that does best in this climate would be the graffiti.
35:34
SPEAKER_01: Graffiti?
35:35
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
35:35
SPEAKER_01: Like what you put on a wall.
35:37
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they call it graffiti, I guess, because the color is so vibrant.
35:41
SPEAKER_00: But it does depend on the winters.
35:44
SPEAKER_00: Like s the two years ago, the winters just didn't exist.
35:49
SPEAKER_00: Um last year would have been really probably the best because cooler temperatures?
35:54
SPEAKER_00: Yes, it was really mild, especially in the spring too.
35:58
SPEAKER_00: So a lot of people had better luck.
36:01
SPEAKER_00: I had a lot of customers tell me that they actually were able to grow the cauliflower and the broccoli this year, and they got giant heads.
36:09
SPEAKER_00: So that's a relief.
36:11
SPEAKER_01: So that's the one benefit of getting a lot of rain and having a cool winter is that our coal crops don't bolt and actually mature and we can eat them before they go bad.
36:21
SPEAKER_01: Right.
36:22
SPEAKER_01: Well now, cabbage.
36:24
SPEAKER_01: You also mentioned a colored cabbage.
36:27
SPEAKER_00: I like to grow the red red it's called red acre cabbage.
36:32
SPEAKER_00: It's a purplish color, and I've had that one I experimented with, and it became kind of an ornamental.
36:40
SPEAKER_00: It just stayed in a pot for about two years, and it just it never bolted.
36:46
SPEAKER_00: It stayed there and like I would trim it and it would multiply.
36:49
SPEAKER_01: Did it develop a head or it did?
36:51
SPEAKER_00: It developed many little heads.
36:54
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
36:54
SPEAKER_00: It kind of became into like a bush of cabbage.
36:57
SPEAKER_00: It looked ornamental, but it was edible.
37:00
SPEAKER_00: Um there are the ornamental kales and cabbages that are a little more tough, like tougher leaves to eat, but you can eat them.
37:09
SPEAKER_01: That seems to be the landscape of choice if you live in Chicago or New York.
37:13
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
37:14
SPEAKER_01: Some hearty kale or uh cabbage or cauliflower that that is totally unedible, weather-like plants and leaves, but you know, they gotta do what they gotta do when they have a terrible winter.
37:28
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
37:29
SPEAKER_01: Well now we've got purple cabbage, we've got purple cali cauliflower, we've got purple broccoli, purple brussels sprouts.
37:38
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
37:38
SPEAKER_00: The purple brussels sprouts, those also stay purple when you cook them.
37:43
SPEAKER_00: They're a little bit smaller in my experience than the green brussels sprouts, but they're very delicious.
37:51
SPEAKER_01: I understand they're supposed to have a sweeter flavor than regular brut the green Brussels sprouts that we grow.
37:58
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
37:58
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, not as pungent bitter, I guess.
38:02
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
38:03
SPEAKER_01: That that makes sense.
38:04
SPEAKER_01: Well, that may be the new uh vegetable of choice that I'm gonna try is the purple Brussels sprouts.
38:11
SPEAKER_00: It's worth it.
38:12
SPEAKER_01: I I really like the purple passion that you bring to the garden.
38:17
SPEAKER_01: The uh then we talked about some root vegetables, because we all know that root vegetables do well.
38:24
SPEAKER_01: And the first one you said was that you mentioned was radishes, and I rolled my eyes and thought, oh god, here we are with the red radishes that taste so bitter that nobody wants to eat them.
38:36
SPEAKER_01: And you said, no, not that's not the case at all.
38:40
SPEAKER_01: Plant the watermelon radish.
38:42
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
38:43
SPEAKER_01: Okay, you gotta tell me about the watermelon radish.
38:46
SPEAKER_00: The watermelon radish is super fun, especially for like little kids in school gardens because they grow so huge.
38:53
SPEAKER_00: If you leave them in the ground longer, they get a little more spicy.
38:57
SPEAKER_00: If you harvest them earlier, they're not as like I've had some where I couldn't taste the spice or the the heat at all.
39:05
SPEAKER_00: And I had some that really you can it pecked a punch.
39:10
SPEAKER_00: But it's good, it's always a good flavor to add.
39:12
SPEAKER_01: And this is a a little bit this is a larger plant than our regular Scarlet Globe radish or one of the typical radishes that we buy, the 10 cent package seeds.
39:23
SPEAKER_00: Right.
39:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, this variety uh when I grew it, it was about baseball size.
39:29
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
39:29
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so it's pretty big.
39:31
SPEAKER_01: I I had to go onto the internet and research it a little, but it said it's an heirloom Chinese Daikon radish.
39:40
SPEAKER_01: So I I I thought, well, it must be used in Chinese cooking or Asian cooking.
39:46
SPEAKER_01: Um is what do you know about that?
39:48
SPEAKER_01: Because I also know from talking to you that you use all of these vegetables that you grow.
39:54
SPEAKER_00: Yes, and I have grown the daikon radishes.
39:58
SPEAKER_00: Usually like the ones I were I'm used to are really long and they're good for breaking up hard soils too, since they get like a foot or even longer, and they're a more mild flavor.
40:12
SPEAKER_01: White?
40:13
SPEAKER_00: Are they usually white?
40:14
SPEAKER_00: Yes, they're white.
40:16
SPEAKER_01: So our clay soil here in Southern California in some areas that doesn't have the beautiful sandy loam close to the beach, that would probably be a something we could plant this time of year to help out, help the soil.
40:28
SPEAKER_00: Loosen it up and get it ready for the spring crops?
40:31
SPEAKER_01: You know, that I someone had mentioned that also with the peas that you uh turn under your pea plants after and leave the roots and all in because they're so beneficial for the nitrogen in the soil.
40:46
SPEAKER_01: Is that your experience as well?
40:48
SPEAKER_00: Yes, peas and like fava beans, a lot of legumes, finogreek, those are really good cover crops.
40:55
SPEAKER_00: And cool season if you don't want to grow too many vegetables, you just want to fix the soil um by adding the nitrogen, just chop them back up when they're done and return the nutrients back to the soil for the next round.
41:10
SPEAKER_01: Well, from there, of course, what is a root crop without beets?
41:17
SPEAKER_00: I have to grow beets every year, especially because now my last name is BD.
41:22
SPEAKER_01: Understood.
41:23
SPEAKER_01: It's the now do you is there a purple variety of beets?
41:27
SPEAKER_00: Yes, there's uh Oh, you've got to be kidding me.
41:29
SPEAKER_00: There's one I grew last year called Purple Malaga.
41:35
SPEAKER_01: Oh my.
41:36
SPEAKER_00: And they were beautiful.
41:37
SPEAKER_00: They're kind of like a blackish purple, very deep.
41:41
SPEAKER_00: And I usually grow like the bull's blood is it always it has a really deep red foliage, which is the antioxidants again.
41:50
SPEAKER_01: But then you said that was your favorite was the the bull's blood.
41:54
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
41:55
SPEAKER_01: Is it is that a red or more of a purplish red beet color, I guess you'd say?
42:00
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
42:00
SPEAKER_00: Deep red burgundy beet color.
42:03
SPEAKER_00: Um that's like one of the first ones I started with, and some of them I harvested early when they're small.
42:10
SPEAKER_00: Some of them I left in for about eight or nine months, and they got really huge, probably like softball size or larger, and they still tasted really good because those I was just harvesting the foliage off.
42:25
SPEAKER_00: Um during like the summer and spring when it's hot.
42:28
SPEAKER_00: It's better to grow the beets for their foliage because they put more energy towards the leaves.
42:34
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then the cooler season the leaves aren't as tall or prolific, they put more energy for the root.
42:43
SPEAKER_01: Makes sense to me.
42:45
SPEAKER_01: Carrots.
42:46
SPEAKER_01: We talked about carrots, and of course, you had a favorite carrot.
42:51
SPEAKER_01: Let me guess, it's purple.
42:53
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
42:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was um last year I grew the Black Nebula, which is a dark, deep purple.
43:01
SPEAKER_00: Um, my very first carrots that I grew when I was maybe ten or twelve were purple dragon, because I thought that was a cool name and they were purple.
43:11
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that is.
43:12
SPEAKER_01: That is that's the coolest name.
43:13
SPEAKER_01: I mean, what kid wouldn't want to have purple dragon carrots growing?
43:17
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
43:18
SPEAKER_01: Similarly, the purple dragon, is it purple throughout, or is that have an orange inside?
43:24
SPEAKER_01: Do you recall?
43:25
SPEAKER_00: I don't recall.
43:26
SPEAKER_00: But I've had had the purple with the orange, and those are like the most beautiful vegetables.
43:33
SPEAKER_00: They're so pretty it's hard to eat.
43:36
SPEAKER_01: They're much nicer to look at.
43:38
SPEAKER_01: And you also mentioned that even just a a rainbow mix of carrots with different colors is always nice to plant this time of year.
43:46
SPEAKER_00: Yes, and you can make beautiful dishes as as well as flavorful.
43:52
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes they do have different flavors, like the white carrots and the orange carrots, I can usually taste the difference.
43:58
SPEAKER_00: Um have more flavor.
44:00
SPEAKER_00: And I think it has to do also with how large you let them get and the type of fertilizers you use.
44:08
SPEAKER_00: It adds in different flavors.
44:11
SPEAKER_01: Now I found that there really is such a thing as a baby carrot.
44:15
SPEAKER_01: It's not just a big carrot that's been cut into little pieces and marketed as a baby carrots, but you can actually pick the carrots when they're very small and they have a really rich, intense flavor.
44:27
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
44:28
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
44:28
SPEAKER_00: Same with like when you do sprouts as well, um, like radish sprouts.
44:35
SPEAKER_00: You can taste the leaves, like the leaves have that intense flavor.
44:40
SPEAKER_00: I guess when they're younger, it's more concentrated.
44:44
SPEAKER_01: That's working here at UCI, we see that all the time.
44:48
SPEAKER_01: That the the students here have an intense energy compared to some of the older master gardeners that come in.
44:55
SPEAKER_00: Oh no.
44:56
SPEAKER_00: Oh no.
44:58
SPEAKER_01: Um we talked about growing celery, and you looked at me kind of funny and said, no, celeriac.
45:08
SPEAKER_01: Tell me about celeriac.
45:10
SPEAKER_00: Solariac is just really fun because it's kind of like a monster growing in your ground.
45:15
SPEAKER_00: Like you don't know what it is.
45:17
SPEAKER_00: When I grew it, it was I couldn't really tell when it was ready, but supposedly you can harvest them when they're younger, like two inches is the ideal size to harvest them, but I waited until mine was about six inches and it was huge, big round brown thing, and I just put it in soup.
45:39
SPEAKER_01: But And uh I've heard it called celery root, turnip rooted celery, knob celery.
45:46
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of different names for it, and it develops a kind of a starchy, I wouldn't call it a a root or bulb, but a starchy tuber thing.
45:59
SPEAKER_01: Tuberous tuberous growth that and then beneath that is the roots.
46:06
SPEAKER_01: You cut that up, cook it in soups, of course.
46:10
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
46:10
SPEAKER_00: Or steamed, uh fried or pickled as well.
46:14
SPEAKER_00: And you can eat the f the stalks, they look just like celery stalks.
46:18
SPEAKER_00: They're a little darker green and a more bitter flavor, but they have they still have that celery flavor.
46:26
SPEAKER_01: And this is one of those situations where people just don't know about it, so it isn't grown that widely until someone goes to a high-end restaurant and finds it and asks, what is this delicious vegetable, and only to find out that we could be growing it right in our own yard.
46:45
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
46:46
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the seeds that I start, they're called giant prague celer celeriac.
46:53
SPEAKER_00: And um that's the ver the only variety I think I've grown so far, but I'm sure there's other delicious ones.
47:00
SPEAKER_01: More importantly, we talked about some other plants in the landscape, and as we were walking around, I couldn't help but notice the trellises were loaded down with vines.
47:15
SPEAKER_01: And you told me these were passion fruit vines.
47:18
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I am uh addicted to passion fruit.
47:22
SPEAKER_01: You're not so you're not only passionate for purple, but you're passionate for passion fruit.
47:29
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
47:30
SPEAKER_01: Purple passion fruit.
47:31
SPEAKER_00: Yes, all different colors and sizes and shapes.
47:35
SPEAKER_00: I like I started collecting them after we grew them my parents grew them in our backyard, and I think that's when I became addicted, and then I realized that there's hundreds of other varieties, and so my dad would like test different ones, bring them into the store, and we grow them, and now we have about six different varieties growing up our trellises and our roof.
48:05
SPEAKER_01: Now, and these are cold hardy.
48:07
SPEAKER_00: They are.
48:08
SPEAKER_00: Most of them are, like especially the purple, the red rover, the Frederick, the hybrids that are across between um yellow and purple.
48:18
SPEAKER_00: The yellows tend to be a little more from the tropics and cold sensitive.
48:23
SPEAKER_00: There's one called Maypop Passiflora, but Maypop Passion Flower.
48:29
SPEAKER_00: And that one is the leaves are medicinal and used in teas and stuff like that.
48:36
SPEAKER_00: And that one does go dormant in the winter, it just totally turns brown, and we think it's dead.
48:42
SPEAKER_00: Um, so we just chop it down, but it comes back every year.
48:45
SPEAKER_00: It also comes back from root, so it could be invasive, popping up in places that you don't want it to.
48:53
SPEAKER_00: But it's really beautiful, and that one attracts the most of the um fritillary butterflies.
49:00
SPEAKER_00: Um, they go after a lot of different passion fruit, but that one I've noticed they we get hundreds on the one vine.
49:08
SPEAKER_01: So instead of planting a vine or a rose that will die down in the winter, you can plant these passion fruits onto you on your trellis, train them onto your trellis, and they'll stay green throughout our winter here in Southern California and and provide fruit?
49:26
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
49:27
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, especially when the winters are more mild, the fruits can keep going.
49:33
SPEAKER_00: The other year we had fruits all the way up until, I believe, November, December.
49:40
SPEAKER_00: If it does get a f like a really cold period, then they just kind of hold on until it warms up again and then they produce.
49:49
SPEAKER_00: They f usually fall off when they're ripe, and then when you eat them when they're still firm, they're a little tart, sweet tart, but if you let them sit and shrivel up for a week or two, then they're really sweet.
50:04
SPEAKER_01: And you taught me how to eat passion fruit.
50:07
SPEAKER_01: I'd never eaten one.
50:09
SPEAKER_01: You cut it, basically cut the top off, and suck out all the the innards that were just so fragrant fragrant and sweet.
50:18
SPEAKER_01: I've had passion fruit juice, and of course we know we use that in drink mixes and things, but they actually suck out the uh f fruit within.
50:28
SPEAKER_01: It's delicious.
50:29
SPEAKER_00: Yes, it's super fresh, a very strong much more stronger than when you have it in like a smoothie or something.
50:37
SPEAKER_01: That's cool.
50:38
SPEAKER_01: Now you mentioned another landscape plant, and that was the Porta Portolaca Grandiflora?
50:47
SPEAKER_01: Porta Locca?
50:48
SPEAKER_00: Portulaca.
50:49
SPEAKER_00: Portulaca.
50:50
SPEAKER_00: Tell me.
50:51
SPEAKER_01: And you said that that was edible, and we see those around.
50:55
SPEAKER_01: That's a succulent.
50:56
SPEAKER_00: Yes, yeah.
50:57
SPEAKER_00: The and we do have varieties that we sell as seeds to as a culinary herb.
51:03
SPEAKER_00: Um they're very succulent, watery, um, but they have a lot of nutrients in them.
51:10
SPEAKER_00: But you could there's also a lot of ornamental varieties that we grow that have really beautiful flowers and they just keep flowering throughout the warm season.
51:20
SPEAKER_00: If we do get a frost, then they'll die back.
51:23
SPEAKER_00: Um mine have gone they did go dormant last year, but they came back right when it warmed up.
51:29
SPEAKER_00: So the roots, if you keep them in the ground, they'll just wake back up in the spring.
51:34
SPEAKER_00: And we have all different colors.
51:36
SPEAKER_00: Now there's a variegated foliage one with pink flowers.
51:40
SPEAKER_00: We get orange, yellow, white, red.
51:44
SPEAKER_01: And this would make a good landscape border.
51:46
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
51:47
SPEAKER_01: Because it it does have a low growth habit, so that would be something you could put in the front of your beds and planters.
51:54
SPEAKER_00: Yep, it really adds a burst of color and color all the time, especially in full sun, they just flower really profusely.
52:02
SPEAKER_01: And of course it's edible, which in my mind that's always a a double bonus when you have something that looks like an ornamental and yet you find that it's edible.
52:13
SPEAKER_00: Yes, yeah.
52:14
SPEAKER_00: Edible flowers, those are super fun to add into the garden.
52:17
SPEAKER_00: Add color, and then you can add it to your salads to brighten it up.
52:23
SPEAKER_01: Do you ever get a reaction that someone thinks you're trying to poison them by putting the flour into their salad?
52:29
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
52:30
SPEAKER_00: Yep, my husband all the time.
52:32
SPEAKER_00: What is this flower?
52:34
SPEAKER_01: What's this in my salad?
52:37
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
52:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the fuchsia.
52:40
SPEAKER_01: Fuchsia.
52:41
SPEAKER_00: I ate in front of all my friends, and they were like, oh, why did you do that?
52:48
SPEAKER_00: It's like it's edible.
52:49
SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's fabulous.
52:50
SPEAKER_01: That's fabulous.
52:52
SPEAKER_01: Now, uh Tamar tamarillo?
52:55
SPEAKER_01: Tamarillo?
52:56
SPEAKER_00: Tamarillo, the tree tomato.
52:58
SPEAKER_01: Tree tomato.
52:59
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
53:00
SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm a tomato guy, so is this like a tomatillo?
53:05
SPEAKER_00: It's they're all related.
53:08
SPEAKER_00: It's a little bit sweeter, har it's uh thicker flesh or thicker skin, um, and supposedly better when cooked.
53:18
SPEAKER_00: I've so far I've only had the jam, which is weird.
53:22
SPEAKER_00: You think of like tomato jam would be really not good.
53:26
SPEAKER_01: You're not convincing me that tomato salsa, but the tamarillo jam was surprisingly good.
53:32
SPEAKER_00: It kind of had a berry flavor, very sweet and still like meaty fruit.
53:40
SPEAKER_01: And this is can be used as an ornamental, or is it more of a land more of a garden plant?
53:46
SPEAKER_00: It's a giant vegetable.
53:47
SPEAKER_00: The foliage is pretty uh pretty attractive.
53:51
SPEAKER_00: I have a giant tree tomato in my yard, and it's about six foot tall.
53:56
SPEAKER_00: The leaves are huge, just and the flowers are really beautiful.
54:01
SPEAKER_00: So it's interesting to look at, but it's green and does it look kind of like a sunflower leaf?
54:07
SPEAKER_00: Kind of, yes.
54:09
SPEAKER_00: They get that big, but not as jagged, more smooth.
54:13
SPEAKER_01: Interesting.
54:13
SPEAKER_01: Now, and then you we were walking around and there was another plant there you called the gooseberry.
54:22
SPEAKER_01: Barbados gooseberry.
54:24
SPEAKER_01: What is that's unique.
54:26
SPEAKER_01: I that's something new.
54:27
SPEAKER_01: Tell me a little bit about that.
54:28
SPEAKER_00: It's not a true gooseberry, it's like a tropical one, so it doesn't need a chill to fruit.
54:35
SPEAKER_00: It's um a vining, really spiny cactus-like shrub, but it still has succulent leaves that are supposedly medicinal and edible too.
54:48
SPEAKER_00: But the fruits are what are the main reason to grow it because they're super sweet kind of citrus flavor.
54:56
SPEAKER_00: And they're really cute.
54:58
SPEAKER_00: They look like little oranges with spines on them.
55:00
SPEAKER_00: The spines fall off, so you can eat them.
55:04
SPEAKER_01: Is that cold hardy?
55:06
SPEAKER_01: Will it survive our winters?
55:07
SPEAKER_00: It survived last winter for us at the store.
55:10
SPEAKER_01: And that was a cold winter.
55:12
SPEAKER_00: Yes, so that was colder than usual.
55:14
SPEAKER_00: So it's a pretty hardy plant.
55:17
SPEAKER_00: Um, and the flowers are gorgeous as well.
55:19
SPEAKER_00: They're kind of like a cactus flower, but they have a sweet vanilla scent.
55:25
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
55:26
SPEAKER_01: Well, we've covered a lot of edibles in the landscape, landscape plants and vegetables here, and that we can grow in our Southern California winter garden, or in a a climate that's uh not as difficult to survive as the Chicago or New York or Boston.
55:46
SPEAKER_01: And we've been here today with Leah Beattie and of Laguna Hills Nursery in Santa Ana.
55:53
SPEAKER_01: We thank you for your time, Leah, and being here today and and talking with me.
55:57
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much, Mark.
55:59
SPEAKER_00: It was my pleasure.
56:00
SPEAKER_01: And I can't wait to try some of these purple plants that you're so passionate about.
56:05
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I hope you get addicted.
56:07
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure I will.
56:08
SPEAKER_01: Thank you very much.
56:09
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.