New Year Gardening with Jeff Fischer

We caught up with one of our favorite friends and green thumbs, Jeffrey Fischer, to find out what he’s growing and to get some great tips for the home gardener. Jeff and his husband, Thomas, have transformed their 1.3-acre property into an abundant farm with 60 fruit trees, 50 blueberry bushes, and six vegetable beds.

Tell us about your beds and what you’re growing now.

We have the raised redwood beds that have wires on the bottom so the gophers don't get in — I think they're about 4 x 6 feet. So nearly 150 square feet of gardening, which can grow a lot more than what you need for two people, that's for sure. Right now, there are onions and garlic that I planted from last fall. They have just sprouted, but they're not growing really fast because the soil is so cold. But that's what you're supposed to do — plant it around November and then you'll harvest it by around June. One of the raised beds is pretty much entirely filled with garlic. You can easily fit about 150 cloves. And one little clove makes a whole lot of garlic. You get that seed garlic in the fall and then you break it apart and put each little clove in about four inches apart. And then by spring, you’ll get 150 beautiful bulbs of garlic. In addition to that, the carrots are growing and I'm getting some romanesco that I planted in the fall that is just starting to come up. There’s also some broccoli and cauliflower. And it kind of works out that we're not getting a lot of rain, because if it had rained a lot, a lot of this stuff would almost rot from being so wet. So it's kind of interesting, you know, things that happen even when the weather isn't what it's supposed to be.

Any secrets to tending to what you're growing now? Especially if the weather's not exactly what you're anticipating, as you mentioned?

You know, it's kind of like a rest time. This is the time, for example, that I order compost from this mulch place called Grab & Grow. I usually get seven cubic yards of compost and I refill all my raised beds, all the ceramic pots on the deck, and all the fruit trees and beds along the fence lines. I’ve been doing this every February since I moved here seven years ago, and it helps.

So, because there isn't always a whole lot growing in the garden, this is a great time to fortify your beds with really good soil. And if I haven't already used it, I’ll also spread around any compost that I’ve made from my chickens and grass clippings in the fall.

When are you planning on planting new things again, if most of what you see now went in in November? Is there anything that you can plant now?

Lettuce grows kind of slow, but you can plant it. More so, you can go to the nursery and get “starts” — little six packs — of baby lettuce that are just leafing out. It would be pretty hard to plant lettuce seed right now and get it to grow, but you can with starts. And if you plant it now, it’ll grow kind of slowly, but within the next month or so it’s going to go nuts.

Usually seed packets — and things like green beans and a lot of spring stuff — need to be sown when the soil gets to around 60 degrees or more. Even though right now the days are in the 60s or maybe even 70, the soil, if you poked your finger in it, is like 50 degrees because it's so cold at night. So you can put seeds in, but they just won't germinate — it's just amazing how they know they have to have certain temperatures and a certain amount of sunlight, which usually happens around late March here. Definitely different than if you were in the Midwest, where you probably wouldn't be putting seeds in your garden until mid to late May or June.

How did you learn all of this?

Trial and error! But also reading seed packets and stuff — they really give you a lot of information. And you learn a lot by just going into nurseries. I went to one today because I wanted to get a grapefruit tree, but I found out the nurseries don't sell them right now because it's freezing and it would pretty much kill a young grapefruit this time of year. But you can go to the area where they sell the veggie starts to see what’s available to plant now, like kale and maybe swiss chard and broccoli. You can plant little two-inch broccoli seedlings now and the frost won't kill them. You plant them now because the roots get strong, and then when the soil gets warm in like a month or two, everything's just going to explode. So you kind of learn by what's going on in the nurseries and what they have available to plant.

Do you have any favorite nurseries that you recommend?

Yeah, Harmony Farm Supply & Nursery in Sebastopol is really great, and Cottage Gardens in Petaluma is fantastic.

Thank you for sharing, this is great! Last question, as you’re also a great cook and baker, any favorite dishes to make with what’s coming out of your garden now?

Roasted carrots — sautée them in a pan in with a little butter or olive oil. And oranges are starting to get ripe this time of year, so you could add a little squeeze of fresh orange juice in with them for a little sweetness. And carrot cake!