Contra Costa

Evenings are growing dark and maybe it's too cold and wet to work in the garden. What better time for tool care? It's also a great time of year to drop some hints to friends and family for those expensive new pruning shears you've been wanting.

Now that the leaves have fallen, or mostly fallen, from your backyard fruit trees, are you wondering whether you should apply dormant sprays? Dormant sprays or delayed dormant sprays are terms used for the application of pesticides when the tree is dormant or just coming into bud swell.

Christmas cactus will be in bloom soon, available at your local nursery and home and garden store, in many stunning colors to brighten our shorter days. Their bloom time can range from November to January, just when we could use that emotional lift the most.

It's time to get ready for cold winter temperatures and to start preparing protection for citrus trees and other frost-sensitive plants. Depending on where you live in Contra Costa County, your first frost date may be as early as Halloween.

Garlic has been part of agriculture for at least 5000 years and is thought to have been brought to the Americas by Columbus.

For most of the Bay Area we had an unexpected but wonderful seasonal surprise RAIN. This blessing provided a drink of water to plants that we have had to ignore due to water rationing. We were not the only ones waiting for that first seasonal rain.

What is a cover crop? It's a crop grown to feed and protect the soil when the garden is not being used for active food production.

Even though you may still be harvesting loads of vine-ripened tomatoes, peppers and other summer grown vegetables, in September it's time to make room for winter garden vegetables. If you delay, you may miss the chance to harvest full-sized heads of broccoli, cauliflower, and Romanesco.

Problem While most of our garden plants need at least 6 hours of full sun to be productive, too much sun, especially when combined with too much heat, can be too much for plants to bear. Problems arise especially when temperatures are over 85 to 90 degrees F.

Prune Apricot and Cherry Trees in August If you have apricot, cherry, or related hybrid tree varieties such as aprium and pluot in your yard, plan to prune them before the end of August.