Time For a Change
Just a Time Change!
Every November, it’s time for change. I know on Sunday we fall back one hour, and here at Morningsun Herb Farm beginning on Saturday, November 1st, we begin our winter hours.
Our hours beginning on November 1st are Thursday - Sunday, 10 am - 4 pm. We will be open until Sunday, December 21st, when we will take a Christmas break until mid January. For those of you lucky enough to be 55 or older, you can still enjoy ‘Senior Day’, with 10% off your purchases, every Thursday, while we are on reduced hours.
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Plant, Plant, Plant!
It is time to plant berries and grapes and pomegranates and figs in northern California, and we just received a great selection from Dave Wilson nursery.
Growing your own fruit allows you to enjoy the freshest produce possible, picked fully ripe and grown without harmful chemicals. It’s a great way to access more unusual fruit varieties not easily found in the store or even farmers markets and extend the season to harvest fresh fruit. It’s also great fun to grow and harvest your own fruit, and can both a learning experience and a relaxing hobby. Many fruit trees and shrubs are beautiful in the landscape, adding beauty and value. Plant your berries and fruit trees as they go dormant now so you will have plenty of fruit next summer!
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Did you miss out on some of the more unusual California natives during the fall plant sale? We just received a second shipment of 1 gallon Romneya coulteri, Eriogonum rubescens, and several varieties of Ceanothus and Arctostaphylos, as well as Sambucus mexicana.
In 5 gallon size we have budded Ribes malvaceum ‘Dancing Tassels’, Myrica californica, Philadelphus ‘Goose Creek’, Melacothamnus ‘Casitas’ and Arctostaphylos ‘Howard McMinn’. We sell out of the Romneya, also called Matilija poppy or Fried egg plant, very quickly, so don’t dawdle long!
November is still a fantastic time for planting California natives, and on Saturday November 8th there will be a big selection of California native plants for sale at the annual Fall Native Plant Sale at Solano Brewing Company in Vacaville. We will be selling California native plants, as well as drought tolerant companion plants.
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Before you settle down to your Thanksgiving feast late in November and concentrate on shopping, there is some garden clean up and planting to do in your herb garden. If you have basils in your garden, you should be harvesting your basil now and processing it into pesto or freezing or drying it for winter use. Of course, if you planted ‘Wild Magic’ or ‘Magic Mountain’ basil your plants are still growing well, in full bloom and attracting bees!
Plant garlic now, as well as onions. There is still time to plant transplants of cool season vegetables such as lettuce, kale, chard, spinach, mustards, peas, and broccoli for winter and early spring harvests. Old vegetable beds can be cleaned out and either planted with ‘green manure’, which is a living crop, for the winter, or can be mulched with compost or composted manure for the winter. Clean up in the herb garden should include mulching and basic clean up of dead and dying leaves. Don’t get ahead of yourself and prune all of the herbaceous herbs and perennials until late in February, just in case of a hard freeze which can damage the growing tips.
This is also the time to think ahead and plant up some gift containers or centerpieces for the holidays. Culinary containers with Italian parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, oregano, savory and chives should be planted up a few weeks before they are gifted so they have that ‘finished’ look. Planters or moss containers of succulents are also lovely holiday gifts that can even be grown as indoor plants in well lit situations.
Scented geraniums will also grow well under lower light indoor conditions and would make a sweet, fragrant living gift.
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Seed Swapping!
Come join us in a free community seed swap at our neighbors Soul Food Farms at 6046 Pleasants Valley Rd in Vacaville. Here at Morningsun Herb Farm I am planning to share seed from a few of our favorite flowers for drying - cotton and hopi dye red amaranth, as well as a few of our favorite herbs. This is a great opportunity to share some of your favorite seeds from your garden and get a few new seed to try in your garden next year!
Where: Soul Food Farms: 6046 Pleasants Valley Road, Vacaville, CA;
Date and Time: Saturday, November 15th, 10 am - 1 pm
Seed Swap Community Guidelines
Welcome to our seed swap! Sharing seeds is a beautiful way to grow plants, friendships, and a stronger community. To make sure everyone has a great experience, please follow these simple guidelines when preparing and labeling your seeds:
Preparing Your Seeds
Clean & Dry: Make sure your seeds are fully dry and free of pulp, chaff, or plant debris so they don’t mold in storage.
Reasonable Quantities: Share what you can—just a small packet is plenty! Remember, even a few seeds can grow into many more to share next season.
Healthy Sources: Please only bring seeds from healthy plants. Avoid saving seeds from plants that showed signs of pests or disease.
Open-Pollinated & Heirloom Preferred: Hybrid seeds may not grow true to type. If you’re sharing hybrids, just let others know.
Labeling and Packaging Your Seeds
A good label helps your seeds find the right home. Please include as much of the following as you can:
Plant Name: Common name and variety name (e.g., “Tomato – Cherokee Purple”).
Year Harvested: So people know how fresh the seeds are.
Growing Notes (optional but helpful!): Any tips like “needs staking,” “good for containers,” or “bee favorite.”
Please package your seeds in small seed sized envelopes. These are often called banking envelopes. We will have a few of these on site, but do not count on us to have enough for everyone. The expectation is that your seeds will be packaged and labeled.
Community Spirit
Share seeds you’d be excited to receive yourself.
Bring a seed and take a seed.
Take only what you’ll use so there’s plenty for everyone.
Together we’re growing a garden that’s bigger than any one of us. Thank you for being part of this community seed circle!
Any questions? Please email us at: hello@hdcgardens.com
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Project for the Week
The donkeys have been the project all week, as our wonderfully sweet mama donkey Angelica needed an emergency trip to UC Davis Large Animal Hospital.
Angelica spent several days at UC Davis, along with her daughter Za’atar as a companion animal to keep her company. After many blood tests, fecal tests, urine tests and ultrasounds - she is shaved on both sides of her body, poor thing!- it was found that she had developed a severe infection, anemia, and she is underweight. The good news is she is back home with special foods, plenty of medicine, a nighttime blanket to keep her warm and plenty of love. Angelica is about 25 years old - donkeys can live to be 40 years or more with good care. She is a little angry at me because I am the person giving her medicine, but I am sure she will love seeing anyone else who wants to come and give her some extra attention!