December, 1985

Here's a throwback to December 1985! Does anyone remember receiving our newsletter in the mail at that time?

This era of our newsletter was created by Tom Giantvalley. Up in his office, on the second floor of the Lazy K, he meticulously hand wrote each version of the newsletter on a stencil. He then used a mimeograph to create copies, hand-cranking each individual copy through the machine. (These are the days long before digital copiers!)

Fun fact: Next time you're in the nursery, take a moment to identify the giant redwood behind the Lazy K, it was planted by Tom years ago. 

We at the nursery love looking through these old editions, a true nod to our past and rich with plant knowledge, character and wit! Enjoy! 

Bakesale Betty's Coleslaw

If you've ever been lucky enough to dine at Oakland's Bakesale Betty, you know what we're talking about - scrumptious strawberry shortcake, finger-licking good fried chicken sandwiches and mouth-watering pumpkin bread. If you haven't, we highly recommend stopping by their Temescal location to try! But in the meantime, here is their delicious coleslaw recipe to tide you over until then.

Servings: 6

INGREDIENTS

• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 small red onion (sliced very thin)
• 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
• 1/2 green cabbage (core and outer leaves removed; sliced very thin)
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley
• 2 jalapeño chiles (cut in half lengthwise; sliced crosswise)
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS

For the vinaigrette:  mix the Dijon, red wine vinegar, and salt in a small bowl.  Whisk in the olive oil.

For the coleslaw: In a small bowl, cover sliced onions with red wine vinegar, allowing to macerate for 5 minutes. Drain off vinegar, discard and add onions to a medium mixing bowl along with cabbage, parsley, jalapeños, cilantro, salt and enough vinaigrette to moisten. Combine all ingredients and adjust seasoning.

This recipe was shared by Kaiser Permanente's Food for Health, Recipes for Life.

Keeping Your Holiday Greenery Fresh

The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas may feel like it passes in the blink of an eye, but it’s a long time to keep fresh holiday greenery inside the house! Cut trees, wreaths and garland can dry out and drop needles, but there are several ways you can help keep them fresh! 

Fresh greenery - find them in Garden's Gate! 

Before bringing your tree in the house, spray it thoroughly with Cloud Cover or Wilt Stop and allow it to dry. This product is an anti-transpirant which keeps living plants and cut trees from losing excess water through the leaves. We also recommend using it on your wreaths and garland to keep them fresh.

Note that using Cloud Cover may suppress the fragrance of evergreens. Our trick? Stop into the Lazy K and shop their collection of Aromatique's Smell of the Tree room fragrances, potpourri and candles. Infuse your home with the scent of freshly cut evergreens, the quintessential scent of the season! 

Shop the Lazy K for the scent of the season!

Our top recommended products.

Fresh cuts only work when done just before placing the tree into water.

It's the layer just under the bark that takes up water, so there's no need to cut all the way across the trunk. Just make a diagonal cut on the bottom 1/2" of the trunk, paring down the outer bark to expose fresh water-conducting tissue just before putting the tree in water. 

Fill the water bowl immediately after standing your tree, and top off the bowl frequently, especially the first few days, as the tree can take up a lot of water.

Use KEEPS-IT GREEN Christmas Tree Preservative in the water bowl to prevent the growth of bacteria that can block uptake of water. Add 1 ounce per 1 gallon of water. 

If possible, place your tree away from any heater vents, or close heater vents near the tree. 

These few simple steps will help keep your tree fresh till the New Year! Happy Holidays! 

Fall Garden Care

Every month we post our This Month In Your Garden (find it under the Resources tab!) to ensure you have a checklist of just want to plant and what plants need a little extra love. As we near winter, it is important to keep an eye out for anything that needs last minute attention before the weather grows colder, the days darker and we take shelter in our cozy abodes. Here are a few of our must-have garden tips we practice in our own yards, and a few things you shouldn't miss on your next visit...

LAWNS

Feed lawns with Master Nursery's Fall & Winter Feed 20-6-7. Apply monthly to keep your lawns at their best. Why apply this over regular lawn food? The nitrogen in the Fall & Winter Feed is formulated to work even faster in the colder months of the year. 

FLOWERS AND FRUIT TREES

Feed spring-flowering plants and fruit trees monthly with Master Bloom 0-10-10 or E.B. Stone Organics Ultra Bloom 0-10-10. These fertilizers are formulated with without nitrogen to boost flowering and fruiting.

We especially recommend feeding your azaleas, camellias and rhododendrons for spectacular blooms. A 0-10-10 will also improve your yield, quality and sweetness of your citrus and other fruit trees! 

PEACH AND NECTARINE TREES

We love their luscious fruit, but peach and nectarine trees are all susceptible to leaf curl, a fungal disease that causes curly, distorted leaves and reduced fruit production. Now is the time to start spraying your trees for prevention of leaf curl. Spray with Copper Fungicide at the rate of 2 ounces per gallon of water. Make your first application at 80% leaf drop, (which is generally around Thanksgiving.)

Make additional applications at bud swell (late winter), popcorn (buds just showing color), full bloom and petal fall. Remember to reapply if it rains within 24 hours of application! 

FROST TENDER PLANTS

As we approach our first frost (could be any day now!), stock up on our recommended tools to protect your frost tender plants! Apply Bonide's Wilt Stop to prevent drying out, winter kill, wind burn, transplant shock and more. 

We also recommend covering your plants with our Frost Protection Blankets. Available in a range of sizes and by the foot, we use frost blankets in the nursery ourselves to protect our plants through winter (especially our succulents and citrus) and highly suggest it for your garden. Find Wilt Stop and Frost Protection Blankets near our outside shop. 

Looking for something frost hardy for quick greenery and a burst of color? Check out our Bedding Department's stock of Ornamental Kale and Cabbage. With varied foliage and available in a range of colors, these ornamentals are one of our favorite winter plants! Questions? Stop into the nursery and let us help you get your garden winter ready! 

ONION SETS

It's not all about preventative care this month; just in at the nursery are our onion sets! Sold in bunches of 25, we also have 6-packs available. With red, white and yellow onions available, we're sure you'll find a variety to your liking. Plant now in full sun with fertile, well-drained soil (we recommend mulching!) Hurry in, they’ll go fast!

BAREROOT ROSES AND FRUIT TREES

The deadline to receive 20% off your prepaid order of roses and fruit trees is approaching - December 1st to be exact! All stock will be arriving bareroot in January.

Our Rose List features our must-haves and several new beauties and be sure to check out our Bareroot Fruit List for your favorite farmer's market varieties. December will be here before we know it, give us a call or stop in to place your order this week! 

For more of our tips for your fall garden, be sure to subscribe to our weekly newsletter!

From Our Florist: Seasonal Arrangements

A floral arrangement is the perfect way to bring in the best of the season. Whether you are designing the perfect dining room table centerpiece, dressing up the mantle or adding a bit of color and freshness to your guest room, the possibilities are endless. (And we're not even talking flower variety, color palette, style or shape!)

Although with endless possibilities, it's hard to know exactly what you want until you see it. If you have a clear vision, speak with one our floral designers today and have them help create a custom arrangement to ring in the holiday season! 

If not, keep scrolling and audibly ooh and ahh over the handiwork of our florist team...

 Balance colors across a kitchen arrangement with varying textures in odd numbers to keeping it unique and compelling. Think outside the box when adding edibles and keep in mind seasonality! 

And hey! While we're in the season of giving, why not indulge in a little self-love and treat yourself to a beautiful bouquet?! 

Looking familiar? You may have seen a few of our arrangements featured in Gentry HOME Magazine's A Bloom for Every Room on pages 46, 48 and 50.

Our 3-1 container arrangement is sleek, modern and short enough to have a conversation over. 

For a bedroom, a compact arrangement is versatile and appealing to the eye at any angle. Romantic cream roses and blues provide a calming palate for a bedside table. Pair with in-style blue and white pottery for a more classic look. 

Please note that these arrangements span the seasons and not every flower seen above is in season and thus, currently available. A few of our fall favorites include spider mums, oriental lilies, protea, sunflowers, calla lilies, snap dragons, gerbera daisies and roses. 

Stop in and let us help you create a spectacular arrangement today! 

The Story Of Our Farm Animals

During our Harvest Festival, we always get excited about bringing in our farm animals. Sometimes it's pigs or alpacas and even one year there was an elephant! 

If you were lucky enough to stop by during October, then you got to meet our furry friends. This year, we got a visit from two Oberhasli goats named Cypress and Ivy, and Clara the sheep (baaack for another visit!). We also had a gang of chickens and ducks too!

Two years ago we met the owners of our animals, Tineke and Torsten Jacobsen. They offered to "rent" us their darling critters for our annual Harvest Festival. When it came time to settle up, Tineke shared that the money would be the seed money for their Rotary project in Uganda. Active members of the Concord/Clayton Sunrise Rotary, the Jacobsen's were spearheading the construction of a medical center for Antenatal, Maternity, Family Planning & HIV Counseling and Testing. Today, that project is complete and for the very first time, the people in the area have access to excellent medical care and counseling.

This year, when we agreed to renew our arrangement we found out that Tineke and Torsten were involved in a huge undertaking in San Felipe, Baja California, Mexico. Along with the San Felipe Rotary Club, in support of The San Felipe Cancer Society, they are hoping to promote early detection and improved hospice care.

The community of San Felipe is located 125 miles from any medical center. Supplies, medical care and access to pain medications is precarious at best. Many of the homes in this rural area don't have conveniently located restrooms, and if so, not as cleanly as they should be.

Initially, the Concord Clayton Sunrise Rotary donated a mammogram machine but because of the location, many patients don't have the luxury of early detection and therefore, competent humane care is all that's left for them at the end of life stage. 

Their goal this year is to raise the $60,000.00 necessary to expand the current location and add a hospice facility. There, pain management could and would be used with the supervision of a doctor and an anesthesiologist, and a patient would be able to face a less painful and more dignified end of life situation. 

We are more than happy to partner with Tortsen and Tineke and support them in their endeavors with the Concord Clayton Sunrise Rotary to make a better life for all those they reach out to. We are honored to be a small part of such a great gift to the people of San Felipe! 

Fall Planting: Lettuce & Chard

LETTUCE

One aspect of lettuce that sets it apart from any other vegetable is that you can only have it one form, and that's fresh. There are hundreds of different varieties of lettuce and today, an increasing availability so that our salad bowls can contain a wealth of color and texture. Lettuce is rich in calcium, potassium, iron and vitamins A, E and C, along with traces of other elements. Keep in mind, the darker the leaves, the more nutritional value!  

Lettuce likes moist, fertile, well-drained soil and a sunny location. Plants grow quickly, make sure you supply ample watering and nutrients! We recommend fertilizing with either Master Nursery's Tomato & Vegetable Food 5-10-10 or E.B. Stone Organics Tomato & Vegetable Food 4-5-3 to ensure your best harvest. 

Another reason we love lettuce? They make a great alternative for annuals in pots! 

Here are the types of lettuce you'll find this season at the nursery: 

BUTTERHEADS

These are the classic lettuces seen in kitchen gardens. They have a pale heart and floppy, loosely packed leaves with great flavor as long as they are fresh. 

CRISPHEADS

Crisp lettuces, such as Iceberg, have an excellent crunchy texture and will keep their vitality long after Butterheads have faded and died.

LOOSEHEADS

These are non-hearting lettuce with lose leaves and include 'Lollo Rosso', 'Oak Leaf' and 'Red Salad Bowl' lettuces. This group of lettuce can really make a salad look colorful!

ROMAINE

Also known as "Cos", it is very upright and columnar, forming a creamy white, crisp heart, surrounded by sturdy outer leaves. Considered the most delicious lettuce, this has a firm texture and a faintly nutty taste. It is the lettuce for an authentic Caesar Salad. 

BIBB

In appearance, Bibbs look like something between a baby Romaine and a tightly furled Butterhead. They have firm hearts and are enjoyed for their distinct flavor. Like other lettuce hearts, they cope well with being cooked.

LAMBS LETTUCE OR CORN SALAD

This popular winter leaf does not actually belong to the lettuce family, but as it makes a lovely addition to salads. Called mâche in France, it has spoon shaped leaves and excellent nutty flavor.

SWISS CHARD 

Chard can take summer heat and not bolt as well as handle the cold just fine. With regular watering, chard will tolerate most garden soil. Leaves are picked as the plant grows, so one planting can be harvested over many months. Typically we count 30 days for baby leaves and 55 days for full size. Chard is highly ornamental, mix it in the flower garden for color and form! 

Did you know that chard is actually a kind of beet that grows edible leaves instead of roots? Cooking with it is easy; sauté, steam or braise with olive oil, garlic, pepper and salt. (Add anchovies for a nice kick!) Great to put in salads, soups, pasta dishes or omelets, we love to substitute it for spinach! Once cooked, it is also nice to layer into lasagna. 

Don't miss the 'Bright Lights' variety! It's vibrant, multi-colored stems and green to bronze leaves are lovely to look at and delicious to eat! 

Our 'Peppermint' variety (as seen above to the right) is a unique chard with thick, white stems striped in pink on back and hot fuchsia on front. With uniform, mildly savoyed dark green leaves, it's a great color for your salad mixes! 

There is still time to plant a number of winter veggies. Check out our guide on Growing Onions, Garlic & Shallot and our tips for spinach and peas here!