Gardening During the Winter in Guerneville, California

In Guerneville, gardening during a rainy winter is a pain in the, well, you know! Right now we are having a very wet and soggy December here at the Russian River in Sonoma County.

At my house, even though I have planted a few varieties if kale and Champion collards, they are sitting in soil that is waterlogged and supersaturated. It is very muddy out there. So my garden right now is in a kind of almost underwater stasis. I am sure that nothing is growing very much at all. 

This is a time of year to clean up and organize the garden. On sunny days during the winter, I try to move forward on outside projects: building retaining walls, creating a walkway, making repairs on my house and, of course, constantly making compost. My compost never heats up by the way. I just let time work for me to keep everything moving forward. I do however toss in a tablespoon or two of bone meal and blood meal onto each layer of the compost as I build the pile. I never turn it and the new stuff goes into a heavy duty trash can that I drilled air holes into the sides and covered with 1/4” hardware cloth to keep local critters ( rats, mice, possums, cats and dogs) out of the can. These animals cannot take the lids off of my cans. After the compost reduces in the first can, I fork it over into a second can that I have configured in the same way as the first one.

This is the Brute Trash Can I use...

And, here is a link to the site that told me I can compost a lot of things: http://www.plantea.com/compost-materials.htm

One of the best books I have ever seen about making compost is this one: “The Complete Compost Gardening Guide: Banner batches, grow heaps, comforter compost, and other amazing techniques for saving time and money, and ... most flavorful, nutritious vegetables ever” at Amazon.com.

Fruit Trees

I have always wanted to have an orchard, but at my house in Guerneville and living on a hillside, that is not possible. My house is also surrounded by 8 redwood trees. So my fruit trees would have to compete with roving redwood tree roots and too much shade in most parts of the garden. In addition I am reducing the size of my garden and I do not want fruit tree roots competing with the roots of my my vegetable garden. So how do I fulfill this dream? Maybe planting miniature trees in oak wine barrels?

Here is a great article I found on the internet entitled: “How to Choose Miniature and Dwarf Fruit Trees.”   I have to say that this article gave me a lot hope and gave some good information as to how I might get started and to control the growth of even a standard size fruit tree. And the author of this article at Square Foot Abundance, highly recommends that we get a copy of American Horticultural Society Pruning and Training. I recommend this pruning book also. It is incredibly informative and I have my own hardback  personal copy in my gardening library. This article at SF Gate.com was very informative too: The Best Dwarf Fruit Trees.

Another great book to check out: McGee & Stuckey's Bountiful Container: Create Container Gardens of Vegetables, Herbs, Fruits, and Edible Flowers.