Monthly Archives: June 2008

Onions on the bolt

by Johanna Silver, Sunset test garden coordinator Most of the crops are coming along just fine – the tomatoes are bursting out of their cages and the melons are sprawling and tangling in delight. The onions, however, have seen better days. My predecessor, Ryan, planted Spanish Whites last fall. By the time I started in mid-April they looked, well, sad. [...]

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Potato FRUIT?!

by Johanna Silver, Sunset Test Garden Coordinator Have you ever smelled a potato flower? I’m serious. Who would have guessed that those hardy tubers produce a flower with such a delicate and pleasant scent? I had my nose buried in the Yukon Golds the other day, happily sniffing the potato blossoms when – what’s this? Potato fruit? There were clusters [...]

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No ants need apply

By Kimberley Burch, Sunset imaging specialist and Margaret Sloan, Sunset production coordinator The day after we applied the powdered sugar dusting, the ants came back twice over!! They were all over the place! Crazy. On the bright side, we’re hoping they’ll gobble up any mites that fall to the ground. That will certainly keep the mites from crawling back into [...]

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Saving space with a sprawling summer crop

by Johanna Silver, Sunset test garden coordinator Training cucumbers to climb a trellis is a great way to save space in the garden as well as ensure more uniformly shaped fruits. I’m growing the Diva cucumbers (a long, delicious slicing variety) against rusty steel grates that I picked up at Alan Steel & Supply Co. in Redwood City. I had [...]

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