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Five things to do in the garden this week:  

1. Planting herbs at this time of year is recommended. One of the best is lemon verbena. Although in an ornamental garden, it assumes a humble place. Lemon verbena is winter deciduous and remains leafless until June. Just when you are convinced it’s dead, leaves reappear and do provide a certain luster so that you wonder how you could have doubted its resilience. Sprays of white flowers are also in evidence. If you like lemon tea, there is nothing better than a simple brew of hot water poured over three freshly picked lemon verbena leaves at the bottom of your cup; allow water to absorb the leaves’ flavor for several minutes before drinking. Or you can steep one and a half dried lemon verbena leaves in the same cup: Generally speaking, you need twice as many fresh as dried leaves of any herb from which you make tea. Chives are a perennial herb so it is easy to keep them around. You harvest chives by cutting leaves at soil level and, soon enough, new leaves will sprout to take their place. Chives’ purplish pompon flowers are also edible. Chives are related to scallions (green onions) but have a milder taste.  Like lemon verbena, chives can usually be found at your neighborhood nursery’s herb section in four inch pots.

2. Now is the perfect time to plant California natives. Many of them have fragrant leaves. At the top of the list of scented natives would be Catalina perfume (Ribes viburnifolium), shade tolerant and especially redolent after a rain. Hummingbird sage (Salvia spathacea) foliage has a minty fragrance and it is also an excellent selection for somewhat shady exposures. It has long upright wands of wine-colored flowers and blooms on and off throughout the growing season. In truth, the leaves of all California native sages are fragrant to one degree or another. Black sage (Salvia mellifera) and Cleveland sage (Salvia clevelandii) are particularly notable in this regard, with the latter distinguished by sweet smelling flowers as well. As far as floral fragrance among natives, California liac or Ceanothus species are recommended. Cleanse your hands by rubbing Ceanothus flowers between your palms and, in so doing, intensify their mellifluous scent.

3. If you have a slope that needs stabilization, many California natives can be planted now, ahead of the rains (may they come soon), to prevent erosion once their roots take hold. Here we are talking about slopes with a grade up to 33%; steeper slopes may require stabilization practices such as terracing or covering the ground with jute netting, which is biodegradable. Even on slopes with a moderate grade where erosion is still a concern, laying down jute netting, held in place by anchor pins or staples, is wisely done prior to planting. 

When it comes to erosion control, all species of manzanita (Arctostaphylos), California lilac (Ceanothus), and buckwheat (Eriogonum) are appropriate selections. Matilija poppy or fried egg plant (Romneya coulteri) is an especially robust species for guaranteed erosion control. It has enormous white, crepe-textured flower petals with yellow centers, reaching up to eight inches across. Foliage is gray-green, waxy, and shapely, too, resembling leaves of certain oak trees, being deeply lobed but pointed at the tips. 

Matilija poppy is indigenous to Southern California and grows rapidly here, once established, thanks to its rhizomes. Matilija poppies are somewhat tricky to plant and to propagate but this is the time to do it. Cut off the bottom of the container in which it grows before placement in the planting hole. Once in place, cut away the sides of the container and backfill the hole. To propagate a Matilija poppy, carefully dig up a rhizome that has sprouted a shoot. Detach the rhizome and lay it down just below the soil surface or place it horizontally in a container filled with a sterile soil mix such as equal parts of perlite, vermiculite, and peat moss or coconut coir. Although getting it established is somewhat of a challenge, it’s worth being patient since once it takes hold, you will never need to water it.  You just want to make sure that Matilija poppy has a slope all to itself because it will expand aggressively and swallow up other plants in its vicinity. 

4. Globe onions are among the easiest vegetables to grow from seed, and their seed is best planted now. You want to plant short-day varieties suited to Southern California: yellow onions such as Granex and Grano, red onions such as Red Grano, and white onions such as Crystal wax. Make a shallow furrow, a quarter inch deep and three inches wide in your planter bed. Sprinkle the seeds over the furrow and cover with a quarter inch of potting soil. Water as often as needed, as much as once a day, to keep soil moist. Any weeds that appear should be plucked out immediately because onions’ shallow roots cannot compete with weed roots. Thin seedlings, which can be transplanted, at the end of December. The seedlings remaining in the row should be four to five inches apart. Lightly apply a balanced fertilizer (equal percentages of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium) until early to mid-March when bulbs begin to form. By May they should be ready to pull out of the ground. Allow them to thoroughly dry before consumption. When green growth begins to fall over, stop irrigating if you wish for bulbs to fully ripen or cure. When this top growth has died, it’s a sign that the remaining onions have completed the curing process. Properly stored in a ventilated, shady area, these well-cured onions may keep for several months.

5. Indoor plants that have been receiving light through north or east-facing windows since they needed protection from summer’s long, hot days should be placed near south or west-facing windows as days shorten and sunlight loses its intensity. You will soon be seeing the classic indoor holiday plants: Thanksgiving and Christmas cactus (Thanksgiving cactus has hooked ‘Batman ears’ on each stem segment whereas Christmas cactus stem segments are smooth) and poinsettia. Both holiday cactus types should be given bright, if indirect, sunlight while poinsettias grow best in the sunniest exposure your home has to offer. The burgundy rubber tree (Ficus elastica var. Burgundy) adds a lot of color to your interiorscape with its oxblood foliage. For a contrasting color combination, use chartreuse reindeer moss for mulch under your burgundy rubber tree. It is readily available through online vendors. Reindeer moss is grazed by reindeer and caribou in that graze in alpine forests in Arctic lands. It is a crunchy edible that humans can also consume and its taste that will remind you of mushrooms. Reindeer moss is actually a lichen, an organism that consists of algae living among fungal strands in a mutually beneficial relationship. In our part of the world, lichens are commonly seen growing on the trunks of certain trees, especially oaks.

Please send questions, comments, and photos to joshua@perfectplants.com .

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