Monthly Archives: June 2018

butterflies

How to Create a Butterfly Garden

Butterflies are magical creatures. They captivate us with their beauty and freedom of flight. Often I?m asked when designing a garden to include plants that will attract them and design areas to provide habitat. Recently there was a hatch of orange Militta Crescent butterflies in our area. I?ve seen hundreds of them up here in Bonny Doon alone. What can I do to increase the chances of them sticking around ?

Western swallowtail feeding on Butterfly bush

We have about 90 species of butterflies in the Monterey Bay area. Many of these occur only in our mountains, forests and chaparral environments. They are easy to attract and make a permanent feature of your landscape.

A butterfly garden should include plants that accommodate all stages of the life cycle – egg, larvae, pupa and adult. When both adult nectar and larval host plants are available, they will attract and support a butterfly population. In addition to the right plants, your garden should also have sun, a water source, protection from wind and clusters of plants. When maintaining your garden avoid the use of insecticides, including BT.

As adults, most butterflies feed on the nectar of flowers. Some local butterflies, however, like the Mourning Cloak and Red Admiral, feed primarily on rotting fruit or tree sap for moisture and nutrients and the California Sister also feeds on aphid honeydew.

In the larval stage, most butterfly species are limited to a single plant family and occasionally a single genus. To attract more Western Tiger Swallowtails, for instance, provide larval host plants such as willow, sycamore, alder, Big Leaf maple, sycamore, plum and ash. Common Buckeye lay their eggs on mimulus and verbena while California Sister prefer coast and canyon live oak. Planting a variety of grasses, perennials and shrubs like ceanothus, buckwheat, coffeeberry, bush lupine, manzanita. redwood violet, California aster and wallflower will attract many of the local butterfly species. If your garden is near a wild area that naturally supports the caterpillar stage, you can plant just the nectar plants to attract butterflies to your garden.

Filling your garden with nectar producing flowers is the fun part. Adult butterflies rely on sugar-rich nectar for their daily fuel. Different species have different flower color and shape preferences. Many butterflies produce scents that attract the opposite sex and many of these scents smell like the flowers that they are attracted to and visit. The scent of these butterfly pollinated flowers may have evolved as an adaptation to ensure their survival. Did you know that butterflies taste with their feet?

Butterflies typically favor flat, clustered flowers that provide a landing pad although larger butterflies can feed on penstemon and salvia while hovering. Butterflies have good vision but a weak sense of smell. Unlike bees, butterflies can see red and are attracted to brightly colored flowers. Pink, red, orange, yellow and purple are the most attractive nectar source colors but they also use blue and white.

Consider the blooming time of each plant. Having plants blooming in the sun for many hours in the day will lengthen your viewing time. Nectar rich flowers include yarrow, aster, verbena, scabiosa, buckwheat, toyon, salvia, erysimum, zinnia, lantana and coneflower.

In addition to nectar, butterflies need a source of water and salts. A patch of mud kept wet year round or a shallow depression lined with pebbles and kept moist will work fine. Also provide some flat rocks for them to bask in the sun in an area protected from the wind by shrubs.

Having your own butterfly garden will enable you to witness close-up the wonder of butterflies and the flowers on which they feed.

herbs

All About Herbs

I?m helping my friend Colly, the food columnist for the Press Banner, with her cooking class at the new Boys & Girls Club in Scotts Valley. Colly has planned a summer program filled with delicious recipes and I?m looking forward to learning along with the kids in the class. The first week was all about eggs. I?m sure we?ll be using herbs in a future recipe so I?m getting my own herb garden ready. Whether you grow herbs in pots or in the ground here are some tips.

Herbs growing in pots- parsley, oregano, basil and thyme.

Growing herbs near my kitchen door has raised the bar in my cooking skills. No more having to traipse halfway around the house for a snippet of Italian parsley for the lemon butter to drizzle on rosemary chicken. The oregano and basil are nearby for stuffed baked potatoes. This summer I plan to poach salmon with mushrooms, marjoram, lemon thyme and a touch of mint.

When shopping for herbs it’s a good idea to snip a leaf and crush it between your fingers. Smell the essential oil. You’d be amazed how different herbs can smell and taste depending on the source of the plant.

Thyme can smell like caraway, pine, camphor, lavender or turpentine. Rosemary plants can vary widely in taste depending on the source of the stock. You don’t want to ruin chicken dinner by using the crushed leaves of one that tastes of pine or turpentine.

Trim your herbs often to keep them bushy and productive. Fresh herbs are at their finest in summer as they peak in flavor and essential oils. Most herb stems can be cut and kept in a jar of water, out of direct sunlight, for a few days of use. I’ve even had basil send out roots in water.

The herbs I consider essential in the kitchen garden are basil, cilantro, oregano, rosemary, thyme, parsley and sage. I also grow lemon verbena for tea, potpourri or sachets for my closet and drawers and hope to add summer savory, tarragon and Grecian laurel for bay leaves.

Nearly all herbs are perennial and can be grown from seed. Anise, coriander (also known as cilantro), dill and fennel should be sown directly in the garden as they do not transplant well. Parsley lives for 2 years then flowers and goes to seed. The flowers attract beneficial insects to your garden so leave them to do their work and start new plants to eats. The herbs that are annuals and need to be planted from starts or seed every year include basil, coriander, dill and summer savory.

Although rust infects mints, very few diseases or insects attack herbs. Occasionally, spider mites may be found on low growing herb plants in hot, dry weather. Aphids may attack anise, caraway, dill and fennel. Washing off the foliage early in the day helps in controlling mites and aphids.

Here are some growing tips:
Most herbs like 6-8 hours of full sun. Well drained soil is essential. If drainage is poor, work in plenty of organic matter or grow in raised beds or containers. Water regularly until the plants are growing steadily. Then most will need only occasional watering. Exceptions are basil, chives, mint and parsley which prefer evenly moist soil. Many herbs attract beneficial insects if they are allowed to flower.

Fresh herbs are the most flavorful. The stuff in spice jars that you get in the store is often tasteless when compared to the real thing. Herb plants make beautiful ornamental additions to perennial beds and borders, too. Next week I?ll talk about how to harvest, dry and preserve herbs.

fertilizing, pests, pruning tips, rhododendrons, wisteria

Making the Most of your Garden

Early summer is the right time for many garden activities that you don’t want to leave to chance. Keep these reminders in the back of your mind to tackle when the mood hits you.

Pink wisteria in bloom before summer pruning

Look for any pest problems so you can do something about them before they get out of hand. I?m OK with a few holes here and there but a heavy infestation should be trimmed off or sprayed with an organic insecticide.I inspect the tips of my fuchsias regularly for fuchsia mites and clip off any distorted growth. I hate to spray even organics on fuchsias due to the hummingbird activity. Lately I?ve seen rose slugs making lace out of the leaves so I crush by hand or spray with organic BT. Walk around your garden with a beverage in hand to spot problems on a regular basis.

Many plants, both vegetable and ornamental, are bothered by aphids and other sucking insects as well as foliage and flower eating bugs. From cucumber beetles, flea beetles, stink bugs, weevils, curculios to borers , the list of trouble makers is endless.

To help deter them mix up some pepper spray in your kitchen.

  • 1 tablespoon hot pepper sauce or 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 6 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 1 quart warm tap water

Let stand I hour, strain and spray plants either in the morning or evening.

If you battle dandelions and don’t want to use chemical weed killers around pets and children, get out the white vinegar from the cupboard. On a hot sunny day spray straight white vinegar directly on the weed. This method will kill whatever it touches so direct the spray carefully. If the dandelion is in the lawn, wait a week, pour some water on the dead spot to dilute any lasting effects of the vinegar. Then poke some holes and drop in grass seed. Sprinkle a bit of fertilizer where the seed is planted and keep the area moist. In three weeks you won’t remember where the dead spot was and the dandelion will be long gone.

Another garden to-do this month includes summer pruning of wisteria. To increase flowering next spring and keep these vines under control cut new growth back to within 6″ of the main branch. If you want to extend the height or length of the vine, select some of the new streamer-like stems and tie them to a support in the direction you wish to train the plant.

Twist off spent rhododendron flower trusses

While I have the pruners out I?ll be shearing back early flowering perennials to encourage another round of blooms. The season has just started and you’ll be enjoying lots more flowers in the months to come if you deadhead regularly. Perennials and shrubs that benefit from trimming an inch or two below the spent blooms are erysimum, lavender and Pink breath of heaven which will keep them compact.

Twist off spent rhododendron flower trusses and fertilize them.

Apply the second fertilizer application for the year to your citrus and fruit trees. The last one should be immediately after harvest. Apply the fertilizer to the soil around the drip line of the tree where feeder roots are located and scratch into the surface. Water in well. As with all fertilizers, make sure the trees are moist before you fertilize. Young trees in their first, second or third growing season should receive half the rate of established trees.

fruit trees, Japanese maples, pruning fruit trees, pruning Japanese maples

What to Do in the Garden in June

When the first real taste of summer weather arrived last week it was a wake up call for me. Over the past couple of months I?ve planted several new plants that will be drought tolerant once established but for now their root system requires more frequent watering than my established plantings. I love to be out in my garden and there are many things on my to-do list to enjoy my time outdoors.

Pruning is a good way to spend a couple of hours in your garden. I?m not talking about trimming plants into little balls but the kind of pruning that makes for a healthier and happier plant.

If you grow Japanese maples now is the time to remove dead branches and train your tree to look like one of those specimens you see in the magazines. Thinning cuts build your ideal tree limb structure. If yours is a young tree, though, don?t be tempted to head back long branches too soon. As these mature they give your tree that desirable horizontal branching.

This principle is important to keep in mind when you train any young ornamental tree. Lateral buds grow along the sides of a shoot and give rise to sideways growth that makes a plant bushy.

Ginger Gold apples with gopher control cats

Summer pruning of fruit trees controls size by removing energy-wasting water sprouts. Summer is also a good time to remove leafy upper branches that excessively shade fruit on the lower branches. Winter pruning is meant to stimulate the tree. Summer pruning uses thinning cuts, where the branch is cut off at its point of attachment instead of part way along the branch, and these cuts do not encourage new growth but control the size of your tree making fruit harvest easier.

Summer pruning also can control pests like coddling moths, mites or aphids. Just be sure to dispose of these trimmings and don?t compost them.

If you have apricots and cherries, summer pruning only is now advised as these trees are susceptible to a branch killing disease if pruned during rainy weather. Prune stone fruits like peaches and nectarines after harvest by 50%. They grow quite rapidly. Apricots and plums need to have only 20% of their new growth pruned away.

Red delicious apples in need of thinning

Be sure to thin the fruit on your trees. That?s another good reason to keep them smaller so you can more easily reach the branches. The best time to do this is when the fruit is still small. Thinning fruit discourages early fruit drop and improves the quality of the remaining fruit. It helps to avoid limb damage from a heavy fruit load. Also it stimulates next year?s crop and helps to avoid biennial bearing. Left to their own devices, a fruit tree may bear heavily one year and then light or not at all the next year. Some types of fruit trees like peaches and Golden Delicious apples are likely to bear biennially if the current year?s fruit crop isn?t thinned.

I?ll add some more mulch to areas that are a little thin. And I?ll be checking the ties on my trees to make sure they aren?t too tight and remove the stake if the trunk is strong enough to support the tree on its own.

Most importantly, enjoy your time outdoors. If a task is too big to do at one time, break it down into smaller sessions. As they say, take time to smell the roses.

Bonny Doon, Bonny Doon gardens

Enchanting Gardens in the Mountains

Step into another world in Bonny Doon when you visit seven breathtaking and unique gardens that will be the stars of the Valley Churches United benefit garden tour on Sunday June 10th from 10am to 5pm. Here is just a glimpse of what you can expect.

Gardening shed decorated with garage sale items

I?ve shared many a delicious meal under a shade tree in the garden of Kate Smith and Bill Whiting. What I didn?t know about this beautiful 5 acre garden is that when Kate and Bill bought the property in 1981 they had no idea it had a panoramic view of the bay. You should see the view now. This garden features colorful perennial beds, many varieties of succulents scattered throughout and a gazebo that will soon be covered with a soft yellow Lady Bank?s roses. Kate has planted hundreds of blooming plants in pots to outwit her nemesis, the bunnies. The storage shed is straight out of Alice in Wonderland covered with garden art, planters, baskets filled with flowers and just about anything that a garage sale and a little paint could provide.

wisteria arbor leading to veggie garden and chicken coup

Another garden I?ve visited many a time is that of Nancy and Ed Lambing. Ed is a past president of Santa Cruz Bonsai Kai club and he?ll be on hand to show you his bonsai collection. The koi pond and faux rock soaking tub and pool are inviting. A long pink wisteria covers the pergola leading to the vegetable garden and the chicken coup. Each plant is trimmed perfectly with a groundcover chosen to complement it. You can get lost in this garden.

just one of many blooming rhododendrons

The Walker-Kent residence is another garden that takes your breath away. During the last 40 years Seba and James have created a garden that matches the inside of their story-book house. From the succulent garden to the roses scattered throughout to the veggie garden and perennial beds this garden goes on and on with something interesting and beautiful at every turn. Their calla lilies are some of the most robust I?ve ever seen and there is a staghorn fern hanging from a pine tree that is over 3 feet across. James uses manure to fertilize that comes from a ranch with horses, cows, bison and goats in Soquel. The results are incredible.

Speaking of animals you have to visit the garden of Georgia Randle and enjoy her two donkeys: Melvin who?s a bit overweight and elderly Mitzi who has arthritis. This 5 acre property features a huge picnic area under the trees, a meandering shade garden, a small koi pond and a beautiful rose garden with over 40 specimens. I spent quite a bit of time smelling each one to choose the most fragrant.

path lined with pincushion protea

Another garden that can?t be missed is the Sabankaya residence, known as ?The Castle?. Theresa showed me around the flower beds she uses for her cut flower business. The Pincushion protea are in full bloom and Theresa explained that when planted in a spot they like she doesn?t have to care for them at all. The salvia in this garden are 30 feet across as is the yellow brugmansia that adorns the path to the chicken coup.

Then there?s the Howe residence off Smith Grade with it?s fabulous paths, shade garden, roses, orchard and vineyard. A stunning variegated dogwood graces the from gate here.

Last but not least is the Bixler garden with its metal and ceramic sculptures, double chicken coup decorated with
egg beaters and a mega collection of egg cups. There are so many unusual vignettes in this garden. You have to see it for yourself.

So take a short ride up to Bonny Doon to visit these lovely gardens and benefit Valley Churches United at the same time. Tickets are $20 and are available at most nurseries.