Of Artichokes N' Blooms

Excitement Level = HIGH!

We're getting close to Bill & Venus Bird's favorite part of the year. More so me than the lovely wife -- but Spring is getting ready to Sprung in ye olde North Natomas Back 40.

The wife loves this time of year too -- don't get me wrong. But she can hardly wait for the 100-degree nights (sans Delta Breeze of course), Johnny Miller calling the play-by-play on KNBR, cats chasing after insect ghosts in the dark backyard night and a refreshing drink containing high-class gin that comes from a plastic bottle.

Now that children -- is a good time for all. I happen to like it too.

Winter is a bit of a bummer for us backyard enthusiasts. Yeah -- you receive reams of catalogs to go through. Seeds must be ordered. Gardens must be planned. But that's all INDOOR work. Meanwhile -- for those of us who would rather be outside in the garden -- all we can do is look out the window at the downpour.

But the first hint of spring for us? That's when the daffodils burst open. We got quite the show this year. Next up? The Santa Rosa plum tree turned bright white with a thousand blossoms.

And now -- finally? The artichoke plants are beginning to perk up and look like artichoke plants again. In another month or two -- the first artichokes will begin to emerge from the nine or ten artichoke plants in this bed. By mid-May? Artichokes will be on the menu just about every night for supper.

There's nothing quite like a meal of a big, meaty artichoke, some melted butter, garlic salt and fresh herbs from the garden. It is Heaven on Earth.

I was a tad worried though -- earlier this year. The freeze that hit in December really walloped the artichoke plants that had emerged last fall. Usually -- artichoke plants emerge in the fall and grow right through the winter months. They are usually quite gargantuan by March and April. But something strange happened this year.

I'm not sure if it was the December freeze or perhaps a neighbor got a tad too generous with some Roundup -- as our plants started to die back in January. Some of the damage -- as the photo to the left illustrates -- is still with us. There was a time when every plant looked exactly like that one leaf. I'd never seen it before.

But -- thinking this could also be freeze damage -- I followed the advice of other well known gardeners who advised "leave it alone." It's true that artichokes do love cold, foggy conditions. But they draw the line when the mercury drops too far -- as it's been known to do in Sacramento. Give them a coastal climate and they'll shower you with love and artichokes.

Most of the time -- we have that. But there are those "exceptions..."

I'm not only happy to see them bouncing back -- but the return of my natural bug hunters brought a big smile to my face. I'm not exactly sure why ladybugs are so wild about my backyard -- but I have them in abundance. They are the best control that I have against the aphids and other pests that will begin munching on the artichokes and artichoke plants later this spring.

Eventually -- the aphids and the heat will always win out the day. But the ladybugs do their part in keeping the bad characters away. Now -- don't get me wrong here. You can't just cut -- steam and eat on home-grown chokes -- unless you really like getting a mouthful of yard critters. They love hiding ON and INSIDE the artichoke.

The best defense then? A good salt water bath is a must once you've brought them inside to prepare for that evening's meal. A good 30 minute soak in a salty brine will remove most of the bad actors -- and you'll be surprised to find out just how INFESTED these things can get.

Bill Bird -- and an overabundance of bugs -- love artichokes.

If you desire artichokes as big as your hand for dinner -- the time to start preparing for that experience is now. I fertilize my artichoke plants regularly -- with both organic and non-organic materials. The plants get a least a gallon of water mixed with Omega 2000 and Maxicrop every week and I also distribute several cups of Osmocote brand fertilizer in the bed during the month of March.

As the weather warms and the plants begin to produce? Normal watering schedules go by the wayside. The bed is soaked thoroughly with a hose on a low stream of water at least twice a week.

This method usually results in a first crop of artichokes that will be large -- meaty and very tender. Successive crops will result in smaller artichokes. And -- as the weather really begins to warm in mid-June -- artichokes take on the consistency of leather. They're still good mind you -- but tough on the teeth!

Perhaps more experimentation is needed? We will be expanding our artichoke planting efforts into a second bed later this spring. The bed is built -- but isn't irrigated yet nor do I have the required planter mix. Put that on the list of "projects to be completed later this spring."

I never do get to all of them.

Oh -- I promised BLOOMS! And here you go! This is another reason to get excited about the approaching change in seasons that is spring. The two peach trees in the backyard are flowering like nobody's business.

Although there are some growers who reccommend that you don't allow a peach tree to produce ANY fruit for the first three years -- well -- I couldn't wait. This O'Henry Peach tree produced a few peaches during the first year. Last year? An avalanche of peaches. The tree had to be culled regularly to keep branches from bending and breaking under the weight of loaded peaches.

As for Year 3? While I really should pull each and every peach from the tree and allow root systems to develop -- you should know me by now. There's peach pie to be had later this summer!

Monsters in the Backyard

Yes Virginia, artichoke plants do grow well in the Sacramento Valley. Castroville and other coastal valley locations still have a big advantage over us when it comes to "perfect" weather for growing giant sized artichokes, but it doesn't mean we can't have a little fun ourselves. And judging by the size of these plants in the backyard, it looks like Venus and I are in for a pretty good year.

At some point, in a few weeks, tender artichokes will form inside the center of this gargantuan plants and slowly grow upwards. I've learned some tricks through the years when it comes to growing artichokes in Sacramento, and it looks like this year that knowledge is really going to pay off. To put in bluntly, I've never seen artichoke plants quite this big before.

I'm in uncharted territory.

This is our second year for growing artichokes in the new North Natomas Back 40 (backyard), but the rootstock is actually quite a bit older. The roots of these plants came out of the old backyard at the old North Natomas home, located about ten minutes away from the new home. I had them confined in a very small area (all backyards in North Natomas are tiny). The first plants were put into a very small planter area in 2003 or 2004. And they grew well enough I suppose, although I had to force them to grow UP rather than OUT because I simply didn't have the room.

You can't tell by the photos because it's completely covered, but these artichoke plants are sitting in a 4X8 foot planter box constructed with cheap redwood fenceboard from the Home Despot. The box probably cost less than $30 to build (remember, I said CHEAP redwood fenceboard), and the nice planter-mix soil I put into this box probably cost a tad more than the box itself.

One of the first moves I made after building this box was to visit the backyard of the old home, which is now a rental. And I dug out every artichoke plant that I had growing in that small bed. We started with four in the first year -- but they had since expanded to about six or seven different rootstocks. After digging the plants out, I stuck them in some one gallon pots, put them in the back of my car, disassembled the old planter bed and raked decorative rock over the top.

If you were to visit the old home today, you'd never guess where the planter area had been.

Do you know what happened when the wife and I moved the rootstock and above-ground plants over to the new bed at the new home? If you're guessing "they thrived," WRONG. The plants immediately fell flat to the ground and started to shrivel up and die. I thought I had killed them. I was very upset. But then, a week later, I noticed a fresh, green sprout coming up from the center of a plant that had shown its distress by deflating completely. Then, I saw another -- and another. Pretty soon -- every rootstock was growing again.

The first harvest last spring was one for the ages. We got far more artichokes than I expected, and the plants kept on producing into early summer, when it gets hot and artichoke plants shut down from heat stress. You would never believe that these green monsters completely die back in the summer and everything has to be chopped away and removed, but that is exactly what takes place.

If last year's harvest was "one for the ages," I can't begin to imagine what we'll get this year. The plants have never been this big before -- EVER. And, the larger the plant, the larger the choke. The first artichokes of the season will be the largest, and judging from the size of the plants, they'll be the size of a catcher's mitt.

One thing you can't tell by the photos, and this really delights me to no end, is the number of ladybugs on these plants. The ladybugs love them, and I'll need them later this spring when the whiteflies and other bad bugs start attacking this plant. Ladybugs are the best natural control I know of, and if I make the mistake of spraying to control the bad bugs, I'll kill off the good bugs as well. And that is something I do not want to do.

I always thought that this 4X8 bed would offer more than enough room for artichoke plants. WRONG. As you can tell -- they're taking up every bit of space and more. Some plants are even leaning over the edge. That spells trouble, because these plants will fight to the death for room to grow, and I could lose a few if the base is put under so much stress that it snaps in half. That has happened before. And, since the plants are already starting to lean, I can see it happening again.

To prevent this from happening I will attach some eyelet screws to the 4X4 posts holding the fence up, then run string or twine around the bed, holding the plants in place. This has worked in the past.

This is just the first artichoke bed. I do plan on building a second bed this spring, and may consider adding a third. We have the room for it. And, by this time next year, we'll probably have artichokes coming out of our ears.

I can't think of a better fate, can you?