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April 25, 2007 Citrus in Novato

What a spectacular bearded iris, Douglas iris and wisteria spring! This is the time of year I am loath to travel, savoring every moment in the garden and on the hiking trails, awakened by liquid mockingbird trills that reprise in purple and pink-laced evening skies.

Citrus tease our noses with their sweet smelling flowers at the nurseries and make us long for summer oranges picked fresh from our own trees. Periods of frost that encourage Novato apple trees to bear fruit can be harmful to many citrus varieties. Browned and blackened foliage and stems bear witness to the unusual cold spells we experienced this past winter. Carefully chosen varieties and thoughtfully placed trees with plenty of space to reach their full size make it possible for us to raise citrus successfully.

Most home gardeners should choose dwarf or semi-dwarf plants. Some citrus like Meyer lemon grow relatively quickly, some are more slow like the Mandarin oranges. Large citrus trees can reach over 20 feet tall and become challenging to prune or harvest.

Here are a few varieties known to do well in Novato, that tolerate some mild frost (they are somewhat cold hardy to about 20 degrees F), produce well with seedless fruit:

Meyer Lemon
Owari Satsuma Mandarin orange: Citrus reticulata `Owari`
Changsha Mandarin orange
Bearss Seedless Lime
Mineola Tangelo
Freemont tangerine is a prolific producer but does have some seeds.

Prepare your planting area ahead. Choose a sunny south or west facing side of the house in a sheltered area. Some gardeners grow their citrus in large clay containers on or near a concrete wall or pool deck. Clay and concrete absorb heat and help keep plants warm in the winter. Containers can easily be moved around as temperatures change during different seasons.

Citrus prefer loose, well draining soil with lots of compost and plenty of mulch. Choose a mulch that is already partially decomposed, that will break down and further enrich the soil. Do not use shredded or ground redwood. Prepare the ground ahead of time by digging in a generous amount of compost. Keep the mulch pulled away from the trunk of the trees to prevent the spread of bacteria or fungus. Nurseries will recommend soil mixes for citrus. I like Grab N Gro Mango Mulch or Sloat’s Loam Builder and Forest Mulch, Fox Farm is a good organic brand out of Arcata.

Compatible herbs and Mediterranean groundcovers such as Oregano rotundifolium ‘Kent Beauty,’ Teucrium majoricum and Teucrium lucidrys ‘Prostratum’ would be good choices to grow underneath citrus. They love sun, heat and while tolerant of some drying out, look better with some summer water.

Fred Crowder, Deputy Agricultural Commissioner for Marin County, recommends that citrus be “pruned to open up” for good air circulation. It is important to keep ants off, this means regularly hosing off foliage with either plain or mildly soapy water to remove aphids, water regularly during summer months (this means water deeply and less often, they will survive for weeks without water, just won’t produce as much fruit) and keep the plants clean including picking up fruit or leaf debris. Another way you can discourage ants is by pruning out bottom branches so that none touch the ground.

Light brown apple moths are invasive, quarantined insects native to Australia whose larvae eat citrus and other fruits, cause fruit drop and leaf damage. How can Novato residents spot the light brown apple moth that has been found in Sausalito and Mill Valley? Fred advises that the first sign will be an unusual increase in observed “leaf rolling.” If you are concerned, bring in a bagged sample of affected leaves to the Marin Master Gardener’s desk and they will identify it for you. The County Ag department is closely monitoring Novato with pheromone baited traps.

Resource:
Marin Master Gardeners 415-499-4204 1682 Novato Blvd. Suite 150B.
Acknowledgements:
Nazee Fard’s organic garden, owner: NeedlecraftUniversity.com, LaceNMore.com;Bob Tanem: Director New Beginnings organic garden, BobTanem.com.
Fred, Nazee and Bob recommend pomegranate for our area. Can be trained as tree or hedge. Lipstick like spring flowers, large red fruits are harvested after first frost. Does have thorns. Will tolerate heat, frost and drought.

Events:
Bringing Back the Natives East Bay Tours and Native Plant Sale April 28 and May 5. See www.BringingBackTheNatives.net for details.
Ongoing: Lecture and demonstration series at the Marin Art and Garden Center in Ross, www.maagc.org
Gardening classes sponsored by MCSTOPPP and College of Marin, www.marincommunityed.org.
Mark your calendar for May 12th: Novato Garden Club May Mart Plant sale. 8 am to 2 pm Wilson and Novato Blvd at the Square Shopping Center.

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Spring Home and Garden 2007

Landscaping for Natural Cooling: Trees work for you

Good landscaping decisions can beautify your home, increase property value, improve privacy and decrease noise. Landscaping decisions made by our city or us can effect energy use and our ability keep our homes, businesses and public areas cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. As our climate continues to warm, power outages will become more frequent, the cost of heating and cooling will rise, and energy use will be rationed.

Three trees, properly placed around a house, can save hundreds of dollars annually in energy costs. Daytime air temperatures can be 3 to 6 degrees cooler in tree-shaded neighborhoods and reduce energy use by up to 30 percent. They cool with shade and by creating a cool microclimate. During photosynthesis water vapor escapes through tree leaves cooling passing air.

Landscaping with unshaded rock, cement or asphalt creates a heat island effect and can increase home temperatures by three to six degrees. Novato’s downtown heat island causes a documented ten-degree increase in temperature. Permeable hardscape materials such as gravel or permeable concrete allow water and air to better circulate and prevent water runoff. Planting shrubs and trees next to hardscape areas helps mitigate the heat island effect.

Consult a landscape professional early in the planning process and before choosing your large trees. Nurseries can be a great source of information depending on the training of their sales staff. You will save money by being assured that you have chosen the correct plants for your location and planted them in a manner that will improve their odds of survival. Know your microclimate: temperature highs and lows, available sunlight (this changes with the seasons), your soil composition and your watering system.

Choose as large a tree as possible; be sure it can grow to full size in its location.

Placement

  • Deciduous trees, whose leaves fall off in the winter, should be planted on the south and west sides of your house. They will keep your house cool in the summer with their shade and let solar energy warm your home in the winter. Liquidambar, sycamore and locust are some of our fastest growing deciduous trees. For western exposures wide trees are best.
  • Covering a large portion of the yard with less dense shade is more effective than planting a small portion with dense shade.
  • Plant trees or shrubs to shade air conditioning units, but do not block airflow. Shaded air conditioners use less electricity.
  • Freestanding trellises that support vines such as grape, kiwi, wisteria or Lady Banks Rose (Rosa banksiae) can shade windows or the whole side of a house. Leave space behind your trellis to allow air circulation and prevent vines from attaching themselves to your home’s exterior and damaging it.
  • Strategically placed evergreens, which retain their leaves/needles yearlong serve as windbreaks to save up to 50 percent in heating energy use. Evergreens are best located to intercept and slow winter winds, usually on the north side of your home. Do not plant them on the south or west side of your home, because they will block warming sunlight during the winter.

Low drought-resistant groundcovers, bushes or shrubs can create a microclimate that is ten degrees cooler than bare ground. Native plants use less water than lawn; yet provide just as much cooling benefit. Perennials typically use less water and require less maintenance than annuals.

A fountain or pond can increase the moisture in the air and if placed upwind of your house, water cooled breezes can enter your home. In addition to actual temperature control through landscape design, enhancing the illusion of moving wind and water can help us feel cooler. Ornamental grasses, water features no matter how small, or delicate wind chimes (placed away from a neighbors house) contribute to the feeling of moving air.

A well-mulched (three to six inches deep) and composted landscape will better retain moisture to cool the surrounding air in the summer and insulate roots from extremes of heat and cold.

Resources:
www.stopwaste.org
Energy conservation www.pge.com
Landscape for Energy Efficiency www.energy.gov/news/1652.htm
Center for Urban Forest Research www.wcufre.ucdavis.edu
California Energy Commission www.consumerenergycenter.org

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Patio Trees and Container Gardening

Patio trees can visually enhance and extend our outdoor living space through the seasons. An ideal patio tree provides some shade, cooling and privacy screening. It remains small enough that it doesn’t overwhelm its location, produce destructive roots or block the view of a larger landscape. The well-behaved patio tree produces few seeds, fruits or berries and little leaf litter or pollen.

A specimen tree with attractive branches, flowers or foliage are desirable for a patio located close to the house in a highly visible location. Many patio trees are deciduous, losing their leaves in the fall. Consider how it will look in winter months, does the bare tree trunk have an interesting shape or color?

Most patio trees are relatively slow growing. Start with the largest size your budget will allow.

Containers
Patio trees can be grown in large containers or planter boxes on decks and on or near the small concrete areas surrounding condominiums and apartment pied-à-terres. Groundcovers can be grown around their base. One ornamental container in a grouping of color-harmonized plain pots establishes a year-round focal point.

Grouping
Patio trees are often grouped with low growing evergreen shrubs, succulents or annuals including vegetables. A variety of textures, leaf shapes and colors create visual interest. Taller pots may feature groundcovers that cascade and trail over their edges. Grouping containers helps to keep your plants cool in the summer, warm in the winter and makes them easier to water together. Pots do not need to be touching, do give your plants breathing space for good air circulation.

Herbs and vegetables
I love to see herbs and vegetables grown in containers. You can try this even on the smallest porch or windowsill. Most vegetables require a minimum of five hours of direct sunlight each day. Lettuce is one exception that prefers bright indirect patio light. Because of the warming effect of concrete and stone, be careful where you grow lettuce, heat causes it to bolt or set seed. Tomatoes, basil and chard are particularly good choices for warm patios. Herbs and chard are quite decorative and mix well with perennials and annuals. Lettuce will often grow well sown under a well-watered patio tree.

Cachepot
A very tall container may have a false bottom inside to support a smaller pot near its top similar to the function cachepot nested ornamental container. The smaller container nested inside may contain seasonal flowering plants that are easily swapped out.

Patio container size
Patio trees should be planted in large pots. Take a look at the root ball of your plant and choose a pot large enough to give it a few inches to grow all the way around. If the pot is too big, the plant will focus on growing roots instead of foliage, if the pot is too small your plant will be pot bound in a short time and difficult to keep watered.

Drainage holes
One or more drainage holes should be a minimum of 1/2 inch wide. Cover with a layer of newspaper or screen to prevent soil from filtering out. Elevate containers a few inches using bricks or “feet” to allow free drainage. Planter boxes should have holes every few inches.

Choice of container materials

  • Best: Light colored containers are cooler than dark. Redwood or cedar planters drain well; stay cool and last for many years. Glazed ceramics hold water better than terracotta and are cooler than concrete.
  • Possible drawbacks: Plastic pots decompose in sunlight, unglazed terracotta pots require extra water, concrete planters become very hot in a sunny area.
  • Unusual: old running shoes, broken wheelbarrow, frayed wicker chairs, discarded toilets, retired metal drycleaner housing, construction pipes stood on end. Let your imagination run wild. 

Mulch
Mulch insulates roots from extremes of cold and heat, helps retain moisture and prevents weed growth. Use decorative mulch such as small redwood bark chips or cocoa bean hulls in this high visibility location. Decorative stone, tumbled glass or terracotta can be dramatic mulch for succulents and cactus though it does retain more heat than organic mulches. Sphagnum moss and Spanish moss is used for decorative effect in small containers.

Soil
Follow planting instructions and dig in some compost with the native soil when planting directly in the ground. Container plants require a clean, loose soil mix or well-rotted compost. Do not use your garden soil for planting in containers. 

Watering
Connect your patio trees and containers to drip lines. In a water-zoned garden where higher water use plants are closer to the house experiment with tropical or semi-tropicals such as hibiscus, palm or banana. Group similar water condition plants together. Container grown plants need more frequent watering than in-ground plants.

Feeding
If you mulch regularly with compost you should not need to feed most your in-ground patio plants. Citrus in particular will benefit from supplemental feeding. Container grown patio plants must be fed at least twice a year, in spring and fall, with organic fertilizers or composts. There are many new organic plant foods available for your specific plant needs. Osmocote is a slow-release plant food in pellet form.

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Patio Trees for Novato/North Bay area

Low water use

Full sun/part shade

  • Crape Myrtle (Lagerstromeia indica), deciduous, attractive gray trunks, fall flowers primarily pink
  • Arctostapholus (manzanita) ‘Dr. Hurd,’ red trunks
  • Arctostaphylus densiflora ‘Howard McMinn,’ red twisted trunks
  • Western redbud (Cercis occidentalis), deciduous, spring flowers
  • Australian tea trees (Leptospermum lavegatum, L. rotundifolium), long-lasting winter and spring flowers
  • Paperbark (Malaleuca decussata, M. incana, M. quinquenervia), attractive trunks, spring flowers
  • Pittosporum (P. crassifolium, P. tenuifolum, P. tobira), spring citrus scented flowers.
  • Train as standard: Ceanothus ‘Ray Hartman,’ spring blue flowers
  • Weeping bottlebush (Callistemon viminalis), summer red flowers
  • Strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo), winter red berries
  • Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia), winter red berries

Some shade:

  • Camellia japonica, winter into spring flowers
  • Camellia sasanqua, winter or fall flowers

Moderate water use

Full sun/semi-shade

  • Chilean myrtle (Luma apiculata), summer/fall white flowers
  • Citrus, various, spring and summer flowers
  • Dwarf fruit trees, spring flowers, summer and fall fruit
  • Purple-leaf plum (Prunus blireiana and P. cerasifera “Krauter Vesuvius’) spring white flowers, decidious
  • Ornamental pear (Pyrus calleryana), decidious
  • Eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis), deciduous, spring pink flowers
  • Kousa dogwood (Cornus kousa), deciduous, spring white or pink flowers
  • Goldenrain tree (Koelreauteria paniculata), dediduous,  summer yellow flowers, red fruit capsules
  • Pacific wax myrtle (Myrica californica), purple nutlets attract birds
  • Smoke tree (Cotinus coggyria) dramatic smoke puffs from fading flowers, purple summer leaves, deciduous, good fall color
  • Washington Hawthorne (Cratagus phaenopyrum), deciduous, good fall color, winter red fruit
  • Dwarf cedars

Some shade:

  • Japanese maple (Acer palmatum), deciduous
  • Purpleblow maple (Acer truncatum), deciduous, good fall color

Regular water use

  • Banana, frost tender
  • Clumping bamboos (avoid running bamboos, they shed and are not well behaved)
  • Japanese tree lilac (Syringa reticualta), deciduous, reddish bark, white spring flowers

Resources:

Sunset Western Garden Book
Plants And Landscapes For Summer-dry Climates Of The San Francisco Bay Region

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March 21, 2007
21 Spring Bulb Care; Top 10 Stupid Garden Mistakes #4: Growth Rate

See you at the San Francisco Flower & Garden Show at the Cow Palace, Wednesday March 21 to Sunday March 25, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., closes Sunday at 6 p.m. Be sure to visit Novato’s own Suburban Habitat’s Matt Buchholz “If Looks Could Kill” poisonous plants of the landscape display. Contact: (800) 569-2832, www.gardenshow.com.

Spring has arrived seemingly overnight with the appearance of spring bulbs and clouds of fragrant plum and cherry blossom; the ground is warming quickly. I’m scrambling to catch up on delayed garden cleanup and pruning chores. It is such a pleasure to be out during the longer sunlight hours thanks to extra daylight savings time that I don’t want to go inside. I meander from corner to corner of the garden grooming perennials that survived the cold, digging carefully so that I don’t disturb forgotten summer bulbs.

Bulb flowers purchased as container plants should be put outdoors when their blooms fade. Keep them watered and fed until their foliage dies back in late spring-early summer, then if you have a garden, plant them in the ground. They need some TLC to build nutrients in their bulb and may not repeat bloom until their second year.

Part of a continuing series of columns:
Number 4 in the list of top 10 Stupid Garden Mistakes Anyone Could Make: Did not allow enough for ultimate size of plants or research rate of growth.

Though they may start out at the same size, giant marigolds should be planted behind dwarf marigolds. Other design decisions are not always this obvious.

When I embarked on adding plants to the landscape of first house, I embraced variety at nurseries and indulged my pent up desire for plants and more plants. I did know a few things; I knew something about our yard’s soil type, drainage and available light and water. My experience with landscaping had been primarily with tropical and semi-tropical container plants and outdoor vegetables and annuals.

I planted a yucca and palm that had been in containers on a porch for over twenty years. They reached twenty feet tall within a few years after being removed from their confining pots. A nursery purchase of a one-gallon container butterfly bush labeled “reaches 15 to 20 feet” became that tall and equally wide within three years. Pittosporum, which I knew as well-behaved container plants, reached rooftop height and needed severe pruning. There are dwarf varieties that would have been better suited near the house.

I’m very partial to spring blooming cistus, (rockrose). There are many varieties including some dwarf groundcovers. Available in gallon containers, most reach their full size of four to five feet wide and tall within their second or third year. They need annual pruning to stay filled in and keep a neat appearance. The larger cistus are most attractive set back in a large bed or behind smaller perennials but not the thing to plant along the edge of a narrow pathway.

This is what garden books, such as the Sunset Western Garden Book and good nursery plant labeling are for, to prevent idiotic mistakes. Look for specific descriptions of maximum height and width as well as growth rate. What does it mean when the description says things like “grows slowly” or ”fast grower?” Sometimes it will be clear but sometimes you need to ask, “Compared to what?” It pays to do further research either in other books or on the Internet. Nursery sales staff and garden designers with hands-on field experience can be of great help.

As a general guideline most landscapers will plant with the final height and width of a shrub or tree in mind. That is why newly planted landscapes often seem Zen-like and bare, with large areas of mulch in between plants. Groundcovers are set out in patterns that allow room to fill in.

A good landscape designer or architect knows how big trees will grow and how long it will take. They include adaptable night lighting for changing shadows as landscaping matures and allow for the change in daytime shading as trees fill in. Some designers will include short-lived plants that can be removed as the landscape ages.

With or without planning, every gardener will make changes to their landscaping as it matures. What was once a hot sunny area may evolve into a shade garden. Shrubs and perennials may have lived out their lifespan and need replacing. It is your little patch of the living world.

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March 7, 2007
Last Journey Home: Tell Me About Your Garden

On our way south down I5 in the Central Valley, almond trees were just beginning to bloom. Growers had placed beehives along the edge of the orchards, herons waded along drainage ditches. We hoped to see snow in the southern Sierras.

Myself, my husband and two children were on the way to help out my mother-in-law, Grandma Beth Santangelo, who was rapidly declining after long illness. Her beloved view of the Sierra, Coso, Argus, and Panamint ranges glowed red long after the sunset as we arrived in the Mojave desert. We did help her for several days but not in the way we expected.

“Tell me about your garden,” she said when I sat next to her. So I talked of sweet daphne, almond, dwarf daffodils and manzanita just beginning to bloom. She enjoyed hearing me read from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s “On the Banks of Plum Creek.” It is set in Minnesota not far from the creeklands where she grew up. We watched cumulous clouds change color with the hours from her bedroom window. Family members took turns holding her hand while she listened to her favorite Sarah Brightman, “Time to Say Goodbye.”

She was an intensely private person but she wanted me to share this with you. With one foot in this world and one foot in the next she was excited by new insights and understanding. She had been an avid gardener, proud of her prolific roses and huge green peppers; a three time finalist in the Pillsbury Bake-Off, and a devout Catholic.

This is a part of a story we wrote and drew together:
“Centered at the bottom of the basketball shaped world is a smaller black ball. The life force rises from the dark place to the surface in straw-like paths, something that won’t die rising from the center, and breaks through as pie-shapes. Am I the black ball at the center? Who creates the heat to form the earth? Is it God? We could live at the surface of the larger ball with God. We are born in the center, the energy force rises up to the surface becoming – we don’t know. We could become a tree or a bird; we could be born black, white or yellow. We live and are returned to the center and begin again.”

Her thoughts brought to mind Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis. My husband’s older brother, Dwight Morgan, a one time Grand Canyon river rat, said it made him think of the Hopis belief that their spirits rise from a dark sacred place in the earth near the Grand Canyon where they return to be reborn.

She was so ready for the next journey, eagerly anticipating release, looking forward to being reunited with loved ones. She told me that being born and giving birth was a lot of work and was not surprised that it should be hard work to die.

Hospice arrived and helped us all to understand what to expect, how to ease her final journey.

It rained on her last day, during an unusually dry desert winter. I watched rain drops splashing from the roof onto the patio. In the puddle the drops rippled and bounced, water rose in straw-shapes and pie-shaped wedges. That night, after several days of labor, her final passing was gentle with family at her side, her rosary in her hand.

Two days later on our return north a dusting of snow was visible on the highest Sierra peaks, swaths of white almond blossoms alternated with bright green fields. Mustard flowers glowed beneath almond trees where beehives were now spread out. Clouds shaped like wave ripples in shallow water followed us until we came to the Bay Area, opal cloud-covered, promising rain.

My daughter looked out in our backyard and announced that our almond was in full bloom. I walked in my garden sheltered by an umbrella and told Beth about the purple crocus that had multiplied greatly since last year, the four-year-old dwarf apricot tree that had its first pink blooms.

Gone from My Sight by Henry van Dyke

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength. I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.

Then someone at my side says: "There, she is gone!"
"Gone where?"

Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port.

Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at the moment when someone at my side says: "There, she is gone!" there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout: "Here she comes!"

And that is dying.

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February 21, 2007
21 Top 10 Stupid Garden Mistakes #5: Invasive Plants and Self-seeding Annuals

Rain and more rain has finally arrived, so welcome to our gardens. Waterfalls that were barely trickling are singing and red newts that were breeding in drying creeks rejoice.

Part of a continuing series of columns:
Number 5 in the list of top 10 Stupid Garden Mistakes Anyone Could Make: Planted “potentially invasive plants” AND “self-seeding annuals.”

Annuals are plants that grow one season and die back after setting seed. Seed packets of California wildflowers will often be described as “self-seeding annuals.” This can be a good thing. Sow or plant Baby-Blue-Eyes (Nemophila menziesii), Tidy Tips (Layia platyglossa), Globe Gilia (Gilia capitata), and Farewell-to-Spring (Clarkia amoena) one winter, they will bloom in the spring and if you allow them to set seed, they will return the following year.

There can be such a thing as too much success in the garden. “Self-seeding” is a double-edged sword. Plant the lovely blue flower Nigella (love-in-a-mist) with its globe-like seed heads, forget-me-nots, calendula, coreopsis or allysum in the garden and you will be controlling seedlings from other areas of your garden for years. Take a close look at the back of annual seed packets and if it says “potentially invasive” give it a wide berth or you will be inviting extra work into your garden. I have all of the above and restrict their spread through the combined use of barriers and heavy mulching. I weed or trim most of them before they set seed.

Fennel and wild radish are ubiquitous roadside examples of non-native self-seeding annuals that have pushed aside native grasses and wildflowers. Their seed is spread on the wind or by bird and takes root wherever ground is disturbed.

It is interesting to note that the perennial and self-seeding annual California gold poppy, Eschscholzia californica, is considered a potentially invasive plant that has supplanted habitat in Tennessee, South Africa, Chile and Argentina where it has been introduced.

Many gardeners have said that if you plant a stick in California it will grow. Most of our nurseries have cut back on the sale of potentially invasive shrubs and trees. We can look around at our hills and roadsides colored yellow with the bloom of acacia, gorse, and brooms to see the rapid spread and damage these introduced plants have caused in just the last century. They crowd out native habitat plants and increase fuel-load and fire hazard during our dry summers.

Look around your neighborhood for broom and you are likely to spot uncontrolled areas of English ivy, golden bamboo or giant pampas grass.

Fuzzy-leafed Helichrysum petiolare (licorice scented), is often recommended as a fast growing, low-water use perennial ground cover. In a well-watered garden it will quickly take over a garden bed, forming broad two or three foot high mounds with woody undergrowth. It spreads underground, from root and cuttings. You can keep helichrysum or any plant with similar growth habits confined by a pot, planter box or concrete barrier. Running (as opposed to clumping) bamboos require especially deep barriers of two feet or more and will spread out of planter boxes.

Know the growth habits of plants you or your landscaper are purchasing. Your best defense against invasives is to follow one simple rule: Do not plant anything that is considered “potentially invasive,” or “considered invasive in some areas.” Remove existing invasives and replace with more garden friendly, slower growing plants. Low-maintenance natives chosen for your garden conditions are a good alternative.

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February 7, 2007
Seeds; Planting: Camellias, Bulbs, Natives; Ericoids

Daylight hours are becoming noticeably longer, seed and plant catalogs have arrived, nurseries have set up their seed racks. Here’s the Marin Master Gardener’s official word on Novato garden zones: USDA Zone 9-10, Sunset Garden Zone 15, last frost date varies between February 1-28 depending on soil temperature.

Seed Catalogs
Renee’s Garden announces a new container lettuce “Garden Babies Butterhead”: six-inch heads, slowbolting, heat tolerant. Territorial Seed Company and Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds are two favorites for veggies. The Bluestone Perennials Catalog can be a great help for planning. See ‘Resources’ below for a few more suggestions.

When using these national catalogs avoid plants that are self-seeding or known invasives in California especially some of the ornamental grasses.

Local garden centers and nurseries (not a general store) pre-select seeds that are successful in our area.

Summer bulbs
Look for summer blooming bulbs and read growing instruction carefully for sun and water needs: tuberous begonia, taro, dahlia, Oriental or Asian lilies, tuberose, Mexican Tigridia, Chinese ground orchid (bletilla), and canna require regular water. Some Hemerocalis (daylilies) and South African native Crocosmia are more tolerant of some drying out.

Prune and thin
Finish pruning and thinning deciduous and fruit trees, roses, grapes and other vines before they sprout or blossom. Bring a few bare almond or plum trimmings inside. The warm air will force their flowers within a few days and their fragrance will herald spring. White almond and pink quince are the earliest bloomers.

Camellia
Cool dry weather after early rains is good for camellia flowers, they last long as though refrigerated, which they are. To prevent the spread of camellia petal blight, as your camellias flower, keep leaf and blossom litter picked up and dispose of all camellia debris. Do not add it to your compost. Camellia prefer semi-shade areas and some summer water. Well-established, mature Camellia japonica or sasanqua can survive dry summers in Novato, though they won’t be happy. Some towering pink japonicas can be found around abandoned homesteads in California such as in Armstrong Redwoods State Park. Though inland, they are influenced by coastal fog.

Azalea and Rhododendron
Azalea and rhododendron are making their appearance in nurseries. In general they prefer regular summer water, quick draining acidic soil; companion with oak, pine or fir trees; and semi-shade. In a water-zoned landscape they should be planted in the area close to the house that is summer-watered. During prolonged drought periods or water-rationing, they would be unlikely to thrive. Even California native Rhododendron occidentalis (Western Azalea) prefer to grow by stream banks.

Summer-dry Semi-shade natives
You will need to water any plant the first summer or two until it’s roots are established. Preferable choices for dry, semi-shade areas that are also attractive to birds include mahonia, holly-leaved with yellow flowers and blue berries. Ribes (flowering currant) can produce pink or yellow flowers, are found in ground cover or shrub varieties, deciduous or evergreen. Two flowering species available as groundcover, shrub and small tree are white flowered arctostaphylus (manzanita) and blue-flowered ceanothus (California lilac). For flowering beauty, nothing beats a ceanothus in full bloom. Note: Some ceanothus and arctostapylos prefer full sun.

Family relations
Arctostaphylus flowers are reminiscent of eastern Mountain Laurel (Kalmia latifolia). In fact arctostaphylus, madrone, arbutus such as Arbutus unido, (Strawberry tree), Mountain Laurel, rhododendron and azalea (along with blueberries, cranberries and huckleberries) are all in the Ericaceae family. They are successful in acidic soil under pines and oaks because the fungus Ericoid mycorrhiza grows on their roots in a sybiotic relationship that enables the plants to take in nutrients from otherwise low-nutrient soils.

Resources:
Marin Master Gardener’s Help Desk 415-499-4204.
California Invasive Plant Council (510) 843-3902, info@cal-ipc.org, www.cal-ipc.org
Bluestone Perennials (800) 852-5243, www.bluestoneperennials.com
Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds 417-924-8917, www.rareseeds.com
(Kitchen garden) Nichols Garden Nursery 800-422-3985, www.nicholsgardennursery.com
Renee’s Garden, 888-880-7228, www.reneesgarden.com
(Fruit and berries) Raintree Nursery 360-496-6400, www.raintreenursery.com
Forest Farm “Ornamental and Useful Plants From Around the World” Extensive, text-only descriptions. 541-846-7269, www.forestfarm.com

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January 17, 2007
January Gardening: Snails

Our fruit trees will not have a long dormant season, I see my peaches already have buds and the almonds look to bloom any day though an early bloom and hard frost could severely curtail fruit production. It is essential to prune well. Good pruning and thinning lets in light and air which prevents fruit disease, promotes longterm health of the trees and produces bigger and sweeter fruit.

Most garden centers offer rose pruning demonstrations. Even if you think you know how to prune roses, the experts have a valuable trick or two up their long sleeves. Prune your roses hard and they will thank you.

Bareroot roses and fruit trees are available at nurseries. Pick yours early for best and freshest selection. A healthy plant has flexible branches and moist (not wet), sweet smelling roots. Pass up any plants with brittle branches or roots that smell like spoiled vegetables. If your ground isn’t saturated, you can still dig holes. Though if you were clever you dug them before the start of the rainy season.

It is also an excellent time to plant trees and shrubs especially natives. While you are at a nursery, look for sales on native perennials. They won’t look great, but this is the ideal time to plant them, while they are dormant and still have time to establish roots before the hottest months of our dry season.

Snails and slugs
Egg-laying snails and slugs are hermaphrodites, both male and female in one, and can reproduce at a phenomemal rate all by their lonesomes or in group slug-fests. These hardworking decomposers are fun to watch, particularly with a child. Snails and slugs appreciate cool, damp weather and prefer to eat decaying plants. They aren’t normally a problem and can be picked off plants as you notice them.

They can become a serious pest, eating their way through newly planted primroses, winter lettuce and seedlings and can even climb low-hanging branches. When planting seedlings make sure there is no leaf debris nearby and clear away low branches. Copper barriers, rough textured diatomaceous earth and fresh bark mulch will discourage these soft-bodied creatures. Do keep diatomaceous earth out of the reach of children and pets.

Handpick
Handpick snails on a cloudy morning or at night by flashlight when they are active and easiest to see. They hide from sunlight. Look under leaves and flower pots. Lay down some flower pots or wood boards as snail traps. Handpicking can quickly decrease the population. Drown slugs in water or squash snails when you find them; add them to the compost pile and do not use salt. Not only is it a gruesome way to kill them, salt is harmful to soil and plants.

Natural predators
Birds, frogs, snakes and small mammals eat slugs and snails; ducks, chickens and geese gobble them up. Let your chickens run free in the garden for a few days and dig in their manure. My friends Kirsten and Nazee, gardeners extraordinaire, swear by this method of slug and snail control. Note: domestic fowl will also eat seedlings, and some small plants and flowers.

Traps
Beer traps are limited in effectiveness and need to be replaced frequently. Better trap: Two tbsp. sugar, one tbsp. yeast mixed with three cups water in a shallow half-buried pan. Snails and slugs climb in, can’t climb out and drown in the water. Note: traps may catch beneficial beetles if set completely below soil level.
Copper barrier
Copper strips or collars laid around the base of trees, potted plants or around planter boxes will keep them out. Slugs and snails are mostly water and the theory is that there is a small electric charge generated by their contact with copper.

Baits
Slug bait containing iron phosphate such as ‘Sluggo’ and ‘Escar-Go’ cause snails and slugs to stop eating. It may take several days for the snails to die. Iron phosphate bait can be scattered on lawns or on the soil around plants and is the only bait that can be used safely around animals and children. As always, follow manufacturer instructions carefully, keep packages out of the reach of children and pets. Iron phosphate used in moderation will decompose and help fertilize your garden. Note: Baits containing metaldehyde are poisonous and should not be used, period.

Resources
www.ipm.ucdavis.edu ‘Pestnotes: Snails and Slugs Management’
Marin Master Gardener’s desk: (415) 499-4204
Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides (NCAP) www.pesticide.org

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January 10, 2007
Birds and Cats in the Garden

Reports from the field are coming in of excellent migratory duck and wading bird watching opportunities at Rush Creek. Look for delicate sprays of white milkmaid flowers, Dentaria californica. They hover about six to ten inches from the ground on slender green stalks. Milkmaids are the first of our wildflowers to bloom during the long California wildflower season.

During the early morning and dusk hours perching birds are actively feeding in the winter garden. A red-capped black and white speckled Nuttall’s woodpecker, Dendrocopos nutalli, circumnavigates the trunk of our Texas umbrella tree.

I’ve looked out the kitchen window countless times and spotted fat robins scratching at the ground. Last week I took a close look at one of the ‘robins’ and noticed a bright orange band above the eyes, along the throat and speckling the wings. Quick, get the binoculars and bird books. Varied Thrush, Ixoreus naevius, “feeds on earthworms and insects in open, bare areas.” Now that it has come to my notice, it seems that half the robins in the yard are actually thrushes. I wonder, how long has this lovely bird been visiting right under my nose? All too often we see what we expect to see.

Another robin sized bird, the Brown Towhee, Pipilo fuscus, exactly matches the color of the soil and is almost invisible until it moves. It has a faint buff color at the throat and “rust-colored undertail coverts.” That’s the area immediately under the tail. Brown towhees are hard to spot as they prefer to forage under cover.

I’ve been asked why I don’t put out bird seed. In the first place I don’t need to. Our garden naturally produces seeds for migrating birds from perennial and annuals allowed to dry on their stalks. In early spring, butterfly larvae will hatch from their eggs laid on seed stalks as they migrated through in the fall. Logs are used as garden bed edging; as they decompose they are home to grubs and termites that birds dig out with their beaks. The loose and healthy soil in open areas gives the birds a safe place to dig for plentiful earthworms.

In the second place, we have a cat, albeit a lazy one. Veterinarians recommend that housecats be kept indoors to keep them healthy and extend their lives. As a cat lover and wild bird lover, I’m in something of a quandary. We “belled” the cat though it isn’t totally effective. We keep the cat inside during the day while songbirds are active. I do not want to entice birds to what could become a “cat feeding station.”

Domestic cats are not native to America. There are now over 60 million feral cats in this country. Pet cats and feral cats are known to kill hundreds of millions of migratory birds each year. Cats hunt helpless fledglings, nestlings and nesting birds. If you have birds nesting in your backyard, you should definitely confine your cat indoors.

Resources:
Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds, Western Region.
A Field Guide to Western Birds, Roger Tory Peterson.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Office of Migratory Bird Management: Migratory Songbird Conservation Publication.
American Bird Conservancy, Cats Indoors Campaign. www.abcbirds.org

Mushroom season has arrived!
www.mssf.org

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Note: The following was scheduled to run on 12/20, the day before the winter solstice, but such is the lot of the columnist; we make plans and the editor disposes, er...edits.

January 3, 2007 Winter Solstice Blues

Gray pom-pom clouds rest on hilltops, white fog flows from underneath the clouds down the hillsides and meets tule fog as it rises from the bay. The Sierra’s peaks are dusted with snow like so much powdered sugar.

Many of Novato’s hearths and churches are decorated for the holidays by ladies of the Garden Club. Spare the air days mean that no fires will burn to spread particulate into the neighborhood. Woodsmoke brings back memories and makes asthmatics choke. We’ll change the lyrics to “Chestnuts roasting on the open gas flame...”

Salamanders sleep torpid beneath wet leaves, glorious sunset colored mushrooms spring from bark, ferns raise their fiddlenecks through frost rimed mornings. Tall white herons and egrets punctuate green fields, patrol wetlands, stalk their dinner; rainbows arc over the valley and late golden leaves of Autumn mark this winter solstice with the last apple fall.
This may the first of your years, the last year of your life or somewhere in the middle. This may be your one life, the beginning of a cycle of rebirth or its culmination. Who can say with any surety?

Our days and nights are written in the garden, in its stucture laid bare for the season, its orange persimmons dangling like so many ornaments, its straggler roses. Some are carefully tended, some neglected and some abused. There will always be a harvest. The story of your life will be told in the words of your friends and your family, those who have gone before, those left behind. Our lives are woven of friendships and nurtured by word and deed.

The earth sleeps for a brief moment, turns on its axis, and renews its cycle giving our lives rhythm and continuity. Here are the decomposers at work in the cold and rain: ant workers patiently cutting and moving, worms digging, snails feasting. Here are hungry birds gathering worms, insects and berries red and blue from toyon, coffeeberry, lemonadeberry.

Here on the table before us are simple gifts, the familiar holiday foods from shared meals without end. The meals that were prepared by many hands; child plump or wrinkled and blue-veined. Here are the grandparent’s recipes brought to life to tempt us from our diets: snowflake shaped anise-flavored pizelle, buttery spritzes, rugelach and kolackys shining with prune and apricot.

The children beg for melt-in-your mouth gingerbread whose fragrance mingles with the first sweet narcissus blooms of winter and the sodden leaves swept from the patio.

Carol if you will and raise another glass to toast to life, to love, to friendship. To loosely translate Charles Beaudelaire: “Toujours enivrez vous...from the palace steps or the green grass of a ditch, ask the wind, wave, star, bird, clock, ask everything that flees, groans, rolls or sings, everything that speaks, ask what time it is; it is the hour to be always drunken: with wine, poetry or virtue as you will.”

I shall not want.

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