Waiting for green tomatoes to ripen. Photos by Ecoyards.

Puget Sound gardeners are a patient lot, especially when it comes to tomatoes. We plan our tomato harvest in the spring, look forward to late May when we can set the plants in soil, and then we feed, water and coddle them through the summer months, hoping for that bumper crop of juicy, red tomatoes.

In many years, we wait and wait and wait for those green tomatoes to ripen on the vine. It’s a phenomenon that seems particular to our region. By late August, depending on how many warm, sunny days we’ve had, our tomato plants may be bursting with red fruit or bursting with some red tomatoes but mostly green ones. Fried green tomatoes may be OK for some, but what to do if you’d rather enjoy your tomatoes plump, red and juicy as Nature intended?

Tomato experts say two things determine whether tomatoes ripen and change color: temperature and the presence of a naturally occurring hormone called “ethylene.” It might surprise you that tomatoes won’t produce the pigment that allows them to turn red, when temperatures are above 85 degrees. According to horticulturists at Purdue University, extended periods of extreme heat can actually cause tomatoes to stop ripening, instead turning yellowish orange or yellowish green.
Here are some ways to get a better redder crop of tomatoes:

– Don’t panic yet. There’s still hope through the month of September and October for those tomatoes to ripen. According to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, the fall frost date in Seattle starts around Nov. 17. Actually, cooler temperatures in September may actually help ripen tomatoes.

– Triage. If you have blossoms or young green fruit around this time, chances are they’re not likely to make it in the next several weeks. Remove those flowers and young fruit, and give the other tomatoes on the vine a fighting chance.

– Prune your plants, but don’t give it a complete crewcut. If you see new young shoots, clip them back. Don’t prune too many fully-formed leaves because they provide the fruit with nutrients. Clipping some of the younger shoots helps redirect the plant’s energy into helping the other tomatoes ripen.

– Cut the plants root system. The experts at Washington State University Extension say: “A stressed plant will hurry to produce offspring before it dies. One way to stress a plant is to cut its root system. Push a shovel into the soil halfway around the plant, about 8 to 12 inches from the base.”

– Cover the tomato plants with plastic, or a floating row cover.

– Pick tomatoes before the frost hits and ripen them indoors. Don’t rip off the stems; leave at least a short bit of stem. Ripping the stems from the fruit may open them to decay. Discard blemished fruit. Pick only the ones with glossy green coloring and have reached near maturity, at least 3/4 their full size. You can wrap them in newspaper and put them in a box out of direct sunlight, which could take 2-4 weeks to ripen. Check them frequently to make sure they haven’t spoiled. Put them in a paper bag with an apple or banana, since this fruits give off ethylene gas that encourages the tomato to ripen.

– Some suggest pulling the entire plant and hanging it upside in a cool dark location, such as a garage or basement. Harvest the tomatoes as they ripen.

– Mark this down for next year: pick and plant the biggest, healthiest plant you can find (starts rather than seeds), and don’t set them out until at least mid-May when the soil is nice and warm (or so you hope).

– Pick tomatoes with shorter growing seasons, such as cherry tomatoes, ‘Early Girl’, Sungold and Early Cascade. Find other good tomato varieties for this region.

– Plant tomato plants as deep as you can. Plant them at least 8 inches deep, even if it means stripping the bottom leaves to do so. This encourages root growth. Advice from the WSU’s Extension: dig a trench, rather than a hole; lay the tomato plant on its side and bury part of the stem. Those new roots will form along that stem, and will be in warmer topsoil.

– Black plastic (or red or whatever color you like) helps warm the soil even further.

References:

“Outwitting the picky tomato plant,” Washington State University

“Ripening that huge crop of green tomatoes,” Colorado State University

Eco-conscious homeowners have been switching to energy-efficient dishwashers, light bulbs, and washers and dryers to save water and money. It’s now time to consider sprinkler irrigation upgrades. New sprinkler technology has made it easy to save water, and many cities including Seattle offer rebates or other incentives for those who upgrade to energy-saving water devices.

We explain some of the sprinkler upgrades you can undertake:

Rotary nozzle from Rain Bird.

Consider replacing old sprinkler heads, especially those 10 years or older. New sprinkler heads are much more efficient at delivering water where it’s needed. These heads have built-in pressure regulators to minimize water loss through misting or fogging from excess pressure.  Heads can also be fitted with check valves to eliminate low-head drainage. The city of Seattle and other utilities participating in the Saving Water Conservation offers a $10 rebate per sprinkler head with pressure regulation and/or check valves on heads with drainage problems.

Convert to high-efficiency rotating nozzles. These multi-stream nozzles save up to 20 percent less water than traditional spray nozzles. They distribute water more slowly and uniformly. The water is less likely to mist and reduces runoff into sidewalks and streets. The city of Seattle and other utilities participating in the Saving Water Conservation offers a $3 rebate per nozzle.

Drip system conversions. Convert certain areas of your landscapes, such as a plant beds and vegetable gardens to a drip irrigation system. These system slowly drip water directly into the soil, preventing evaporation and diseases that could result from allowing too much moisture to get on foliage and fruit. The city of Seattle and other utilities participating in the Saving Water Conservation offers a $0.30 rebate per square foot of landscape bed irrigation with drip.

Rain Bird Smart Irrigation Controller.

Install a smart irrigation controller. These weather-based smart controllers allow you to set how often and how much you water certain areas of your lawn or landscape. Smart irrigation technology senses weather changes and adjusts the irrigation accordingly. If it rains, it stops watering. If it’s hotter or the soil is drier than usual, the controller will increase watering. The controllers do all the work, and they are a much more efficient and sophisticated way to reduce outdoor water use. Studies show that weather-based irrigation technology help reduce outdoor water use anywhere from 15 to 30 percent, depending on the type of controller and where it was used.

Tune up and maintain your existing sprinkler system every year. Cap sprinkler heads that you no longer need (i.e. in an area where a patio was installed). Regularly check your system to make sure none of the sprinkler heads are broken or leaking. Fix areas where you have sprinkler overspray; where water is getting to areas that don’t need to be watered like your sidewalk!

Contact us to setup a consultation if you are interested in upgrading your sprinkler system.

Regular tune-ups and cleaning can extend the life of your sprinkler heads. Photo by Ecoyards.

Does your sprinkler system need a tune-up? Does it leak, spray water where it shouldn’t, spit out air, or has simply stopped working? Just like a water heater, furnace or other appliance in your home, sprinkler systems need regular tune-ups to keep them working properly. If you inspect your system regularly, you can catch problems early. Contact Ecoyards for help with your irrigation repairs.

Clogged sprinklers. Dirt and debris can clog sprinklers and may affect your sprinkler’s performance.

Leaky sprinklers. Sprinklers can leak when a head or valve is cracked, damaged or not working properly. Seals also wear out over time and need to be replaced. Leaks can lead to loss of pressure of your overall sprinkler system, and this can result in overly dry or over-saturated spots in your lawn or landscape. Plants and grass, over time, can also grow and cover a sprinkler head, blocking it from functioning properly.

Sprinklers that overspray. This is a common problem we see: sprinklers that spray water properly but not in the right area. You may be spraying a sidewalk, driveway or path rather than grass or plants. If your sprinkler isn’t spraying water where it needs to, it’s time to check it. You may need to reposition it, adjust the arc and radius of your sprinkler, or make some other sprinkler repair. Sometimes though, the initial sprinkler design may be what’s causing the problem, and you may deuced to replace your system.

Pipe leaks. One sign of possible pipe leaks underground is when you have water ponding in certain areas, or if you’re experiencing low pressure in the system. It may take a little detective work to figure where the leak is, but start by looking for areas that are much greener than others. Large leaks below ground will require some digging. You’ll need to dig up the area and repair or replace the pipe.

Reference: Basic repairs and Maintenance for Home Landscape Systems.

Blackberries ripening.

It’s August in Seattle, and that means one of the most hated noxious weeds in Northwest becomes one of the most endeared. Summer means a lot of things in Seattle, but picking luscious blackberries (and other fruits) ranks among one of our favorites. For about 11 months out of the year, when you’re not eating them in pies, Himalayan blackberries pose a royal headache. They spread rapidly and densely, are difficult to control and cause loads of damage to other vegetation, trees and the environment. Yet for several weeks during from late summer to autumn, they bear such complex sweet-tart fruits that it’s hard not to love them, especially served with vanilla ice cream.

Picking berries. All photos by Ecoyards.

For a few weeks now, I’ve been keeping an eye on blackberry stands as I’ve driven or walked by alley ways, vacant lots and streets, checking to see if the fruit’s color to ripen from red to black. There’s a massive stand of blackberries in the field of an abandoned nearby school that produced hundreds of fruit last year; so on a recent afternoon, my friend Lisa, her daughter, and I hit that school field with several buckets in tow. We each had pie or muffins on the mind when we began picking in the blazing sun, enduring prickly thorns and bramble-induced scratches as we tried to reach for the juiciest, plumpest, darkest berries. Plenty of fruit hadn’t yet ripened from red to black. But, it was a productive day nonetheless. At the end of an hour, our fingers were stained with deep purple and we each had picked about 8 cups, enough for both blackberry pie and muffins!

It’s hard to call a plant with such tantalizing berries a noxious weed, but Himalayan blackberry ranks high as a damaging, invasive weed. In Washington state, they’re considered a Class C Noxious Weed. Homeowners aren’t required to control this widespread weed, but it is recommended that they be controlled in natural lands and protected wilderness. Himalayan blackberry spreads fast in open areas, like vacant lots, forest lands and stream channels. One plant inventory of Seattle’s public forests found that Himalayan and evergreen blackberry were the most invasive species in those forests.

Blackberry pie.

Himalayan blackberry outcompetes native vegetation; grows thick and dense, with canes reaching about 20-40 feet long; and prevents the establishment of trees like the Pacific Madrone or Douglas Firs. Himalayan blackberry, known as Rubus armeniacus, is not native to the Northwest. It’s actually a native of Western Europe (not the Himalayans), according to this factsheet produced by The Nature Conservancy. Experts say it was likely introduced to North America in 1885 as a cultivated crop and naturalized along the West Coast by 1945.

It’s possible to pull the weeds by hand if you have small patches of them. Generally you can take up the entire root ball. Larger, more expansive stands require cutting the canes and then pulling them up by their roots. You can also mow blackberries to keep them under control (cut them when the plant begin to flower, if you’re going to do it only once). You’ll have to keep up the cutting each year, however, otherwise they could grow from the crown even denser and nastier than the year before.

Contact Ecoyards if you need help controlling blackberry plants in your yard.

Dry, brown lawn in August. Photo by Ecoyards.

It’s almost a given around Seattle that lawns turn brown during the dry summer months. It’s too expensive to keep watering grass during the summer, so many of us in the Northwest choose to let the lawn go dormant knowing it’ll bounce back in the fall. There’s good incentive to lay off watering lawns during the summer months. Seattle, for example, charges three tiers of water rates from May 16 to September 15 when water is in greatest demand and shortest supply; customers are charged progressively more as their water use increases.

Brown lawns aren’t necessarily dead lawns. Turfgrass goes dormant as a survival mechanism. Lawns can tolerate about 4-6 weeks without water without experiencing too much stress or damage, if the temperatures are fairly even. If the mercury skyrockets, you’ll likely to see some damage in about 3 weeks or less. Turfgrass goes dormant to protect themselves from drying out. In this protective mode, it sends what available moisture it has to its crown, roots and rhizomes. The grass stops growing and turns brown.

Here are some tips for how to care for your lawn during dry conditions:

• Keep off the grass if possible. Walking on the grass can stress it out.
• Dormant lawns don’t need fertilizers. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but the grass won’t be able to take all that food in.
• Improve the soil during the spring and fall by aerating, topdressing and overseeding as appropriate. Healthier soil means your grass has more moisture available to it root system during the hottest months.
• Keep grass high, leave clippings on the grass to add more moisture to your lawn.
• Weed as much as you can during the spring, before the dry months arrive. Weeds hog up precious moisture and nutrients that grass needs.
• If the drought persists beyond a few weeks, it’s a good idea to give your lawn a deep weekly drink (about 1 inches). That may not be enough to turn it emerald again, but it will help it stay alive. Water in the morning so you won’t lose water to evaporation.  A smart irrigation system can provide just the right amount of irrigation to the lawn with little-to-no wasted water. 

Wildfires raging throughout the West have gotten us thinking a lot about fire-resistant landscapes and how homeowners can help protect their homes from wildfires. Lightning often start fires but so, too, do people. Wildfires can start from campfires that aren’t properly put out, home sites that aren’t well maintained, and vehicles or equipment that create sparks.

Native kinnikinnick is one of dozens of plants considered “fire-resistant.”

There’s a lot of good information out there about how to protect your home from wildfires. Among the top recommendations is to create a “defensible space” around your home, or a safety zone of about 30-feet around your home and all structures. This is especially important for rural homeowners who live in areas where forests meet the edges of communities. The 30-foot safety zone should be clean, free of dead plant material and lean. Fire officials say to rake up dry leaves around the house and under decks and porches; prune trees away from homes; keep roof and gutters clear of flammable debris; and use fire-resistant plants where possible. Check out this brochure from King County for a good illustration of the different zones you should keep around your house.

The Washington’s Department of Natural Resources also offers these techniques for creating a defensible space around your home:

Use plants with high moisture content (deciduous) nearest the home.

Trim tree branches away from the home.

Prune trees at least six feet above the ground to reduce the changes that a fire on the ground will spread into tree tops. This is important if you have a lot of trees on your property.

King County has a great native plant database where you can search for different types of native plants that considered fire-resistant. Fire-resistant plants are described as ones where you get little seasonal accumulation of dead vegetation; have loose branching habits and are non-resinous if they’re woody plants. (Resinous trees include cedar, spruce, fir and pine). Many fire-resistant plants are also native to Washington, which make them easier to care for and less susceptible to diseases.

Some examples of fire-resistant trees for the Puget Sound area: cottonwood, maple, birch, cherry, flowering dogwood, vine maple, and crab apple. Fire-resistant shrubs include: Oregon grape, serviceberry, salal, mock orange, rhododendron, azalea, nootka rose. Good perennial choices include yarrow, hosta, iris, geranium, trillium, lamb’s ear, beard tongue and coreopsis. Groundcovers in this category include hens and chicks, stonecrop, verbenia, winter creeper and kinnikinnick.

In this video, local gardener Cisco Morris talks about how to create fire-resistant homes.

Contact Ecoyards to setup a consultation if you are looking for help with landscape plans for your property.

Photo by jpockele via Creative Commons License.

They’re squishy. They’re slimy. They have weird spiky things coming out of their heads. Bugs are unsightly creatures, and creepy to boot. But many of them are fairly benign in the vegetable garden; some such as ladybugs, damsel bugs and lacewings are beneficial. The good bugs eat the bad bugs that chew holes through your plants, so take time to figure out which ones you can keep around. The Southwest Community Land Trust has an excellent Bug Book that describes both good and bad bugs, has photographs of the damage they can do to plants and details how you can encourage the good ones and discourage the bad ones. The book also offers recipes for natural homemade sprays (garlic and chili pepper, for example) that can be used as an alternative to insecticides.

The Bug Book lists quite a few good bugs, including lady beetles (or ladybugs), praying mantids, soldier beetles, lacewings and damsel bugs. To attract these beneficial bugs, add nectar- or pollen-producing plants to your garden: daisies, dill, marigold, fennel, calendula, alfalfa, sunflowers, parsley, lemon balm, anise, zinnia, angelica, yarrow and coriander.

According to the Bug Book, here are a few bad bugs and what to do about them in your garden:

Aphids suck the juices off leaves, and sometimes spread plant diseases. As adults, they’re pear-shaped. Solution: control by spraying aphids off plants with a stream of water from the garden hose. Also plant dill, nasturtiums or calendula to attract aphids to those plants and away from other plants.

Cabbage loopers love to chew holes in lettuce, cabbage, celery, collard greens and tomato plants. They’re most damaging in the larvae stage, as green caterpillars. Solution: hand pick the bugs off the underside of leaves and throw them away; use row covers to prevent adult cabbage loopers from laying eggs on your plants.

Cucumber beetles as adults are very damaging to squash, melons, eggplants, tomatoes and peas. The adults are striped or spotted, and are yellow with black stripes or spots down its back. Solution: Hand pick the bugs off plants, spray with a garlic and pepper spray mixture; remove all weeds and plants from the garden at the end of season.

For more information (and photos) of good and bad bugs, here’s another good  detailed guide. 

Oregon grape, native Pacific Northwest plant. Photo courtesy of heystax via Creative Commons License.

Green Seattle has always been on the forefront of promoting native plants and encouraging the removal of invasive weeds to support a healthier environment. But now, the city is taking it one step further. It is proposing to write such requirements into the city’s building code. Planning officials are in the process of getting public input on potential green code provisions which they say will address climate change.

Apparently nothing is set in stone yet, and the city is taking public input until Aug. 27, 2012. These proposed code revisions could bring major changes in residential and commercial landscapes across the city. The code deals with a number of construction issues, including encouraging building materials to be salvaged and so on. Several provisions in the draft code attempt to create healthier landscapes and encourage water conservation by mandating certain high-efficient irrigation practices and requiring mostly native Western Washington plants be used for new landscapes or those that are replaced. What are your thoughts on these proposed changes?

Specifically, the draft provisions say when you create new vegetated landscapes (or replace an old one), you must submit a plan showing that you’ll remove existing invasive species and “that 75% of all new plantings will be native to Western Washington.” It’s not clear from the draft documents online whether this provision would apply to very large properties or small single-family homes as well. Plants native to this region are better adapted to the local conditions and require less maintenance, water and fertilizers; the city says it wants to create healthier landscapes by removing invasive species and encouraging native plants.

The draft provisions also call for smart irrigation systems that can sense how much rain has fallen, and after about 1/4 inch, have the ability to stop the sprinkler system. It also would require the systems to use certain technology to conserve water, including low precipitation rotary nozzles, sprinkler heads with internal check valves. Landscapes that are greater than 30,000 also have other restrictions, including having a system labeled WaterSense.

Rain barrel. Photo by Ecoyards.

We’ve been enjoying unusually warm, dry and sunny weather in Seattle lately. The lack of rain means it’s a great time to tap your rain barrels to water your plants. Most of you know that rain barrels are used to catch rain water and store it for later use. We get a lot of questions about rain barrels from customers, so we’ve tackled a couple of them here.

Can I use my rain barrel water for vegetables? Unless you get your water tested, there’s really no way to know for certain whether the water that runs off your rooftop and into gutters and then your rain barrel is completely safe for edible plants. The water could contain heavy metals (depending on what’s in those roof shingles), or fecal coliform and other bacteria from bird or other wildlife droppings. The safest bet is to use the water for non-edible plants only. If you must use the water on vegetables (depending on your personal comfort level), here are some tips: water close to the ground through a drip system; keep the water in the soil and away from fruits, veggies or foliage; avoid watering lettuce or other plants that are grow close to the ground; and always thoroughly wash your produce with drinkable water before eating. The city of Seattle’s Rain Barrel Guide recommends not using rainwater for plants if your roof is made of copper, or if it has wooden shingles treated with any chemical such as chromated copper arsenate to make them resistant to algae, moss or lichen.

How do I prevent overflows during storms? Install an overflow hose adapter, which allows water to flow through a small hose and drain to a nearby lawn or landscape bed. Make sure you direct it away from a basement or your foundation.

How much water can I actually collect from my roof? A general rule of thumb says that you can catch about 600 gallons of water for every 1 inch of rainfall on a 1,000 square foot roof. If you want to do your own math, the city of Seattle has a good formula in its rain barrel guide to help you out.

Annual bluegrass

If you take a close look at your lawn, you’re likely to find one of the most common weeds around: annual bluegrass, or poa annua. Annual bluegrass can cause headaches for golf fairway managers and homeowners who desire a smooth, manicured lawn. There are many types of annual bluegrass, both annual and perennial. This weed starts germinating around late summer, and is extremely difficult to control because it sends out lots and lots of seeds. It forms fibrous roots, dense clumps and can grow pretty tall, over a foot in height.

It’s difficult to control to remove, because it grows in turf, and can often outcompete other warm-season grass seeds. Poa tends to thrive when you mow your lawn too short, when you water lightly and too often and when you overfertilize. So the best way to control annual bluegrass is to keep a healthy turf. Washington State University Extension recommends maintaining a healthy turf area to prevent weed establishment, cultivation (tilling or hoeing to eliminate plants), hand pulling weeds, and careful digging as select non-chemical management options as your first choice.