- Author: Mike Gunther
New May flowers bloom
13 New Master Gardeners
New hands hearts and minds
- Author: Trisha Rose
A couple of years ago, I took the Soil Science class at Solano Community College. This was my last class in the series of courses required to complete a Horticulture Certificate. There are about 7 courses in this program with no particular order of completion required. Each course is taught over a semester with projects, tests and written assignments appropriate to the subject. It is strongly suggested that students begin their studies with the Introduction to Horticulture, an overview course that touches on a number of aspects of this very broad subject. A mini-version of this overview course was presented in the lecture series of my Master Gardeners training in 2010.
It took me a few years to get through all the courses due to my general lazy nature and the way the classes are scheduled, but as I approached the last course on my checklist I was glad to have spent my time delving into many of the aspects of horticultural science and art. So as the course, Soil Science, began, my curiosity was awakened, although the first bit on geology was a little dry, the discussions of the elements and how they influenced plant life were very interesting.
Finally, the mystery of what and how elements such as Zinc, Manganese, Copper, etc., influence plant health and growth were unveiled. Each of the 17 elements necessary for plant life was discussed. Carbon, Hydrogen and Oxygen are taken from the air and water surrounding our planet. The 14 soil born elements are grouped as either Primary, Secondary or Micronutrients. The Primary elements, N (Nitrogen), P (Phosphorus) and K (Potassium) are grouped together because they are the 3 most commonly deficient nutrients. This is the familiar NPK group listed on our Fertilizer containers. The Secondary Group nutrients are Calcium, Magnesium and Sulfur, fortunately they are less frequently found to be deficient in the soil so they are grouped as secondary.
The discussions about the Micronutrients caught my attention. These elements are used by plants in very small amounts but they are just as essential for plant health as those elements in the Primary and Secondary Groups. Zinc is an example of one of the Micronutrients. It is used as a supplement for many crops including tree fruits, nuts, beans, onions and tomatoes. Deficiency may appear as a decrease in stem length and rosetting of terminal leaves, reduced fruit bud formation, mottled young leaves shown as interveinal chlorosis and die-back of twigs after the first year.
The study of soil is fascinating, there is so much more to learn and understand. I found the readings, chemical experiments and discussions about the elements very interesting, and continue to go back and read about them and how they influence plant health and vigor.
The Western Fertilizer Handbook, second horticulture edition, 1995 and Soil Science Simplified, fifth edition 2008 available used on-line were the two books we used in our Soil Science class at Solano Community College.
- Author: Toni Greer
What do you think of when you hear the words Tulips, Windmill, Wooden Shoes and Dutch Dancing? Holland! Michigan?? That's right, Holland, Michigan on the shores of Lake Macatawa and Lake Michigan.
This time each year the tulip is celebrated in many fashions. Whether it's the hundreds of thousands of tulips in parks and residences, all of the streets surrounding downtown or the dancers in their wooden clogs, Holland is definitely the place to visit this time of the year. In fact, USA Today voted their Tulip Time Festival #1 in the 2016 Best Flower Festival category. This year the area is blanketed with over 5 million tulip blooms with over 200,000 in the downtown area alone. This festival to honor the tulip is celebrating its 87th anniversary this year. The festival started May 5th and continues through May 15th.
The tulip is a member of the lily family and grows from a bulb. They are beautiful with their showy flowers. As of now there are 75 wild species. They grow in the spring and can be between 4” and 28” high. Most tulips produce only one flower per stem. However, there are varieties which produce multiple flowers per stem. They come is a wide variety of colors, except pure blue. Most tulips that have blue in their name have a faint violet hue.
While they are indigenous to mountainous areas with mild climates, they do need a cool period of dormancy which is known as vernalization. Tulips love long, cool springs and dry summers. You will find that tulips in warm-winter areas are normally planted in the autumn to be enjoyed as an annual in the spring.
Cultivation began in Persia around the 10th century and continues today throughout the world. It's believed that the first tulip grown in the United States was grown near Lynn and Salem, Massachusetts by Richard Sullivan Fay, Esq.
If you are fortunate to enjoy Holland, Michigan's Tulip Time or a tulip growing in your yard, remember the history of this beautiful bulb. Try growing a variety which appeals to you by one of their many colors and sizes.
- Author: Betty Victor
I usually do not talk about books I have read or recommended them, because everyone's tastes are different. I am making an exception now, I just finished “Paradise under Glass” by Ruth Kassinger.
It's the story of a woman who at first, was not very interested gardening until she saves the nearly dead Spathepyllum plant, “a peace lily”, that had been in her house for a while. She visits a nursery and gets help in saving this plant. This led her to plan and add a conservatory to her 1927 Colonial House.
Her interests take her to search many books, and magazines on conservatories. She plans hers and buys her first citrus tree for her yet built conservatory. Hoping that the Calamondin Orange will grow She starts to learn all she can about citrus and how Spain being conquered in the 8th century, Sicily in the 9th, by the warriors that conquered those counties and how they brought along their citrus. The book also tells about what the plants were used for and how.
Then she starts in the 1600's. How the trees survived, the harsh Northern Italy winters, how the European citizens protected them from freezing. From there, she discusses how “glass houses” were built. In the 1840 only the wealthy has “glass houses”, in 1848 Kew Gardens opened, but only botanist could go there not the general public. Also mentioned, 1860- James Lick a California Real Estate Mogel had a English made Glasshouse sent to San Francisco, where you can see it today in Golden Gate Park.
She learns how and why fern's were the plant to grow in Victorian times and how plant collectors hunted for them.
Then harsh pesticides come into the story. In the late 1920's newspapers started reporting the increase in illness and death by arsenic, which was used as a pesticide. In 1935 the AMA said “spray residues” were an important menace to public health. At the end of WW1 DDT was dais to be good at killing agricultural pest. 1970- The EPA was established and the first Earth Day even took place. In 1972, “Huffaker Project” was funded by the National Science Foundation and the EPA. This project involved 18 universities and 300 researchers, this became the prototype of the IPM program today. The web site for more information on the IPM (Integrated Pest Management) program is http://ipm.ucdavis.edu.
I have skipped over a lot of information and given only some of the highlights she writes about. Read it for yourself-it's a good read.
- Author: Patricia Brantley
The skunk has returned.
Some of you may have remembered I took a light-hearted look at the skunk through my “Ode to a Skunk” in 2014 (you can find it here http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=15488 )
But 2 years later we've still been waging our battle. We've learned a lot and hopefully it might help you if the need arise.
First, they are really good diggers and strong too! They've moved LARGE stones, bricks, dug as deep as 6-8 inches to get under heavy obstacles and farther than 12 inches to get through our barricades. They could care less about repellents. Trying to remove all food sources only works if you don't have any fruit or veggies growing in your yard, no snails, grubs, or beetles and even then they may just want to use the yard as a freeway of sorts.
They are also part of the weasel family. They can squeeze through small holes not much bigger than what a large rat might use and they can twist their bodies more than a cat. And quiet! They barely make a noise. They're like the Ninjas of the animal world. Silent but “deadly”. They aren't however known for climbing. They can. But they don't generally and you're not likely to chase them up a tree or over a fence. YOU might want to climb the tree or fence to avoid them but skunks probably won't be dropping in from any precipice anytime soon.
The one that has been frequenting our place this year is fairly docile in that I can step outside and “shoo” it away (from a good distance of course). Spraying him/her with the hose while they were heading into the yard only deterred it as long as we had the hose or until we turned in for the night.
The law in California is that if they are trapped, they are to be either euthanized or let go, wait for it…on the same property. We're not fond of either choice so we've kept up our endeavors to chase them off. Our big worry of course that one of our cats or our little dog or us for that matter will end up sprayed. Knock on wood, that hasn't happened to us but it has happened to a couple of the neighborhood cats, almost always at 3 in the morning and invariably when we have the windows open or underneath our backyard deck. That is a nasty wake up call. Word of advice, opening all the windows and turning on the large whole house fan only serves to bring the smell in more rather than provide relief. Can't tell you how many times it took for us to figure that out!
So how goes the battle and what has worked. Mothballs seem to be a bit of a deterrent but are hard to place in sufficient quantities along an 80 foot fence and not good for other animals so not the best choice. Lights only worked when we stood in the safety of our upstairs bedroom window flashing them on and off at him like he was some kind of wildlife disco star, otherwise, we think it just helped him find more of whatever he was looking for. Chicken wire placed along the fence so that it is actually stapled against the fence and then laid so that it is a couple inches under the soil was either ripped apart or dug under. The only thing we've found that works is cement with chicken wire and bark. Digging a small trench and filling it with cement along the entirety of the fence on the inside with the chicken wire barrier on the outside (once you're sure the skunk is gone) seem to have done the job. Placing chicken wire either in the cement or under it also helps. Lastly, we placed about a 4-5” layer of bark on top of that, just along the fence line, it doesn't have to be that way for the entire yard. It helps with the look of everything as well. I'm thinking, and I don't know if there is a scientific basis for it, but that the bark is splintery in the skunks paws, because he generally stops digging once he gets a couple inches in to it. By the way, the cement has to have time to dry completely as we've found out because he dug through partially dry cement laid in the late evening.
So good luck if a skunk has adopted you or moved in to your neighborhood. I wish you well and keep the nose plugs and bubble bath handy.