LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County is one of the undiscovered gems in California: its beautiful mountains, the slow pace of life, friendly people and fresh clean air, the cleanest in the nation.
Swaddled in the midst of stock and agriculture, it’s a great place to live and raise your children, but it can be a bit challenging to raise a home garden.
If you’re new to Lake County or to gardening in general, this article will address some of the local difficulties.
For starters, Lake County is a land of microclimates. Everyone says that about where they live, but it’s truer here.
We’ve got the banana belt around the lake where some people can grow citrus. We’ve got high upper valleys where cold pools and settles in, so that some years the length of the growing season is just 4 months.
The east side of the lake is more temperate than the west because of moderating winds across the lake. USDA growing zones show the east side of the lake 8b (normal winter temperatures average 15F) while the west side is 8a (average 10F).
What diverse microclimates mean to the gardener is that it’s difficult to know what will grow where you live. You could figure it out by trial and error: buy it, plant it, watch it die… buy it, plant it, watch it die. But, dang, that’s a lot of money down the tubes.
Another way is to look at what your neighbors are growing, peek over the fence: if it grows down the street, it’s likely to make it in your yard. In addition, you can consult the UC Master Gardener Program of Lake County. We have lists of plants that grow well here, even ones that are deer and gopher resistant.
One of the most difficult challenges in Lake County is what I like to call spastic weather or psychotic temperature extremes.
March and April can sport several weeks of wonderful sunny days with temperatures soaring into the 70s and above and then bam – a sudden blast of arctic air comes barreling down sending nighttime temperatures into the 20s.
Some plants get tricked into budding out too early only to have their leaves frozen back. In Lake County the general rule of thumb is that it rarely frosts after the ides of May (that’s Latin for May15).
In those high valleys isolated from the lake’s influence, trees, such as cherries, can be tricked into budding out by the lovely March weather. But after several years of being frosted back, they start to decline and eventually die. The trick is to grow trees that don’t get tricked, like those plants smart enough to wait until May to bud out.
Your UC Master Gardeners’ Office has an extensive list of both ornamental and fruit tree cultivars that can save you from plantings that don’t do well here, and that translates to saving lots of time, money and heartache.
Most people would agree that Lake County has hotter sun than elsewhere, eh? And, while there are those that would think that statement doesn’t make sense, I would say those folks aren’t gardeners.
Think about it, if the last day for a killing frost is May 15 and by June we’re having heat waves, that doesn’t give plants much time to equilibrate.
If you’ve ever grown vegetables here and wondered why the skins were so tough, it’s the sun, coupled with the thinner atmosphere.
Vegetables are tougher here, because they produce extra lignin in an effort to protect themselves from sunburn. Extra lignin makes the skin tough and gnarly to eat.
This atmosphere can also produce a weird condition in tomatoes call physiological leaf roll, where the leaves curl upward, turn brown and die. Although this condition doesn’t affect the yield, it does get your attention. In both situations, a little shade cloth will go a long way.
Winter flooding and summer drought is standard here in California. You’ve heard the song “It never rains in California, but when it pours, man, it pours!” Ain’t that the truth!
So you need to be mindful of how, both, no water in the summer and too much water in the winter, can affect what you plant. For example, I just learned Deodar cedars don’t like to be flooded.
Would you believe that UC Master Gardeners can help you with all these challenges? Yep. Give us a call, that’s what we live for.
Here is a sampling of some of the types of information we can provide: a planting schedule for vegetables, trees to avoid, trees that do well, native plants for carefree landscapes, veggies that grow in the fall, deer resistant plants, gopher resistant plants, and soil and compost.
Karole Ward is a member of the UC Master Gardener Program of Lake County. For more information, stop in at the UC Cooperative Extension, 833 Lakeport Blvd. in Lakeport, or call 707-263-6838.
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