- Prepared by: Terry Lewis
Tasks
- Use Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) to control petunia bud worms and tomato horn worms.
- Watch for pests and treat if necessary.
- Be sure lawns are getting enough water.
- Consider moving a plant if it does not thrive where it is planted.
Pruning
- Prune apricot, oleander and olive trees at least six weeks before the onset of fall rains to minimize fungus infection of pruning wounds.
Fertilizing
- Fertilize almond, apple, peach and nectarine trees.
Planting
- Resist the temptation to plant more plants in the garden, as they are not likely to survive the summer heat.
- A few winter vegetables may be planted from seed this month. Consult the California Garden Web for more information.
Enjoy now
- Annuals and perennials: sunflower (Helianthus), strawflower (Helichrysum), impatiens, annual mallow (Lavatera).
- Bulbs, corms, tubers: gayfeather (Liatris), lily (Lilium asiatic hybrid).
- Trees, shrubs, vines: California wild lilac (Ceanothus), crape myrtle (Lagerstroemia).
- Fruits and vegetables: nectarine, okra, peach, pepper.
Things to ponder
- Check irrigation timers for compliance with the current watering schedule. Replace broken, leaking or misaligned sprinklers to eliminate overspray onto sidewalks and driveways.
- Mulch will help protect plants from harsh sun and drying winds.
- Author: Birgitte Elbeck, UCCE Master Gardener
- Author: Jody Greaney, UCCE Master Gardener
Many of us enjoy birds, but we may be inadvertently hanging “No vacancy” signs over our gardens. Research by entomologist Doug Tallamy shows that to raise their young, birds need caterpillars – lots of them. Songbirds as little as chickadees require some six to nine thousand caterpillars to raise a brood of nestlings. In fact, ninety-six percent of terrestrial songbirds rely on caterpillars to feed their babies. The prevalence of these small, soft-bodied, protein-rich larvae affects where the birds choose to nest and how big a territory they need to defend.
Fortunately, we have a good jump on knowing what these vital keystone species are. The information presented below, and the identification of keystone plant genera is based on the research of Doug Tallamy of the University of Delaware, author of Nature's Best Hope.
Here is a list of resources/databases to help you select keystone plants to support caterpillars and birds in our area:
- Calscape - Restore Nature One Garden at a Time. Enter the city where you live to see a list of native plants to choose from. You will find lots of information about each plant: images, descriptions, growth habits, and the number and types of butterflies and moths supported to name a few. (The numbers of moths and butterflies hosted indicated in the plant list below are from this search tool.)
- Audubon - Native Plants, Bring more birds to your home with native plants. Enter your zip code to see plants suited to your area and the birds they will support.
- National Wildlife Federation, Native Plant Finder Select from a list of host plants for butterflies and moths. Plants are ranked by the number of caterpillars hosted.
Using the databases above, we have put together a list of native plants that do well in our area and support butterflies and moths, which provide caterpillars to feed the birds. They all support numerous caterpillar species in our area. Numbers in parentheses indicate the probable number of caterpillar species supported.
Shrubs: Willows (211), Bitter Cherry (156), Ceanothus (85), Currants and gooseberries (85), Huckleberries (65), Wild Roses (66), Lupines (55), Manzanitas (56)
Perennials: Thimbleberry (70), Cow's Clover (67), Goldenrods (53), Beach Strawberry (32), Coast Buckwheat (31)
Annuals: Native Clovers (70), Miniature Lupine (54)
For more detailed information on these and other native plant species options for your growing conditions, visit Calscape - Restore Nature One Garden at a Time
If you would like to visit a local native garden, the North Coast CNPS, California Native Plant Society, has an extensive list of local native gardens from Trinidad to Ferndale.
Protecting The Birds That Visit Your Garden
OK! You've planted your keystone species, the caterpillars are on their way, and our feathered friends will follow. Yay!! But not surprisingly, the birds, like us, need more than just food. Here are a few steps to help you turn your avian restaurant into a home.
Reduce or eliminate pesticide use: Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategies, such as proper plant selection, can help gardeners adopt more sustainable landscape practices.
Provide Fresh Water: Place a birdbath in the landscape and be sure to keep it clean. If you are really ambitious, a small fountain with protective plants around it will attract the birds!
Add a nest box (birdhouse) - Nest boxes can provide valuable homes for many birds For more information about nest box design and placement for specific birds visit https://nestwatch.org/learn/all-about-birdhouses/.
Keep cats indoors: Free-roaming cats kill 2-3 billion birds yearly. If you want your cat to experience the outdoors, please consider building an enclosed cat patio (catio.)
Prevent window strikes: Up to a billion birds are killed every year from collisions with windows. The site below has ideas on how to prevent these accidents.
Layer your yard's habitat:
- If you have space, consider adding large shrubs or small trees such as Bitter cherry (156), Toyon (4), Coffeeberry (23), Cascara Sagrada (27), Red Alder (70), or Vine Maple (55). These trees/shrubs not only support caterpillars but can also provide fruit and nuts, nest cavities, and perches.
- Smaller shrubs, in addition to perennials and annuals, can provide cover and seeds for birds.
- Leave some decayed leaves, twigs, and other plant debris on the ground to provide homes for invertebrates that birds eat, including the pupae of most moth caterpillars.
Leave the seeds: Do not deadhead seedheads; they can be an important food source during fall and winter. Consider planting native plants such as Woolly Sunflower (Eriophyllum lanatum), California Aster (Corethrogyne filaginifolia), and Deergrass (Muhlenbergia rigens). These plants produce a profusion of seeds that attract and support seedeaters, such as finches and sparrows.
Especially for hummingbirds:In addition to soft-bodied insects and larvae, hummingbirds can feed on nectar from most any flowering shrub, tree, vine, perennial, or annual. They are especially attracted to native species with orange, pink, and red tubular flowers, such as Humboldt County Fuchsia (Epilobium septentrionale) and Hummingbird Sage (Salvia spathacea). Manzanitas, gooseberries, and currants are important for caterpillars and can also supply nectar in the colder months.
So, what are you waiting for? Now that spring planting is near, it is time to flip that “No Vacancy” sign to “Birds are Welcome!”
For more information related to protecting birds visit:
University of California, Sustainable Landscaping in California https://anrcatalog.ucanr.edu/pdf/8504.pdf
Audubon, How to Clean a Birdbath — Attracting Birds to Your Yard | Audubon https://www.audubon.org/news/why-you-should-keep-your-birdbath-clean
NestWatch, All About Birdhouses https://nestwatch.org/learn/all-about-birdhouses/
American Bird Conservancy, Cats and Birds https://abcbirds.org/program/cats-indoors/cats-and-birds/
American Bird Conservancy, Solutions for Pet Cats, Catios and Outdoor Enclosures https://abcbirds.org/catio-solutions-cats/
Cornell Lab, All About the Birds, Why Birds Hit Windows – And How You Can Help Prevent It https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/why-birds-hit-windows-and-how-you-can-help-prevent-it/#
- Author: Grace Fruto, UC Davis
- Author: Trina Kleist, UC Davis
Wildflower displays threatened
Northwest of Los Angeles, springtime brings native wildflowers to bloom in the Santa Monica Mountains. These beauties provide food for insects, maintain healthy soil and filter water seeping into the ground – in addition to offering breathtaking displays of color.
They're also good at surviving after wildfire, having adapted to it through millennia. But new research shows wildflowers that usually would burst back after a blaze and a good rain are losing out to the long-standing, double threat of city smog and nonnative weeds.
A recent study led by Justin Valliere, assistant professor in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences, found that native wildflowers and other plants that typically flourish following a fire were, instead, replaced by invasive plants on land that received the kind of nitrogen contained in vehicle emissions.
“Many native plants in fire-prone areas rely on fire, and some are entirely dependent on it. Some are even most abundant after a fire,” said Valliere, a UC Cooperative Extension specialist in invasive weed and restoration ecology. “But we found that these fire-following species may be especially vulnerable to the combination of nitrogen pollution and invasive plants.”
That's part of the reason why native plants in these mountains have been declining.
Seeds – banked in the soil and waiting to sprout
The problem faced by native plants can be compared to a drawn-down bank account: Funds withdrawn are not being replaced.
It starts with fire, an important ecological process, Valliere said. Flames burn through plants on the surface and return their nutrients to the soil. Seeds sleeping in the ground wait for the next rain to sprout, then use those nutrients to grow.
“Plant diversity is often highest in growing seasons immediately after a site burns,” he said.
But invading plants have many advantages over native ones. They often sprout earlier, grow faster and create more seeds, all while tolerating drought.
“They're like cheaters,” Valliere said. “They don't follow the same rules.”
Nitrogen, too, is an important piece of every plant's nutrition. They all get a fertilizing boost from nitrogen that floats up in vehicle emissions and falls to the ground. But the invaders use nitrogen and other nutrients to grow faster, winning the race for water and sunlight. As a result, fewer native plants reach maturity, producing fewer seeds that keep their populations thriving.
When the bank balance reaches zero
The 2013 Springs Fire gave Valliere a unique opportunity to study the combined impacts of wildfire and extra nitrogen. He and colleagues from UC Riverside and the National Park Service created test plots in the Santa Monica Mountains where the fire had burned. Then, they added nitrogen to the soil to mimic the amount and type that LA's smog would deposit. Over the study's three years, native plants that typically would have flourished after wildfire instead declined even faster in the plots with added nitrogen.
Native seeds sprouted, but didn't flower. Over time, the soil's bank of seeds drew down.
“Each seed has one chance to flower and reproduce,” Valliere said. “If a seed grows and gets outcompeted, that seed has lost its chance to replenish the seed bank.”
Without the chance to replenish their bank account, native plants will die out, and the whole ecosystem will be thrown out of balance.
“There is inherent value in biodiversity,” Valliere said. “These invasive weeds could prevent the re-establishment of native shrubs after fire, sometimes forever altering the plant community.”
The loss of native plants can have cascading effects on the larger environment, he added. Problems can include the loss of native bees that feed on the flowers, and mudslides when rain makes hillsides unstable.
This problem is likely to repeat in similar areas where biodiversity is highest after wildfires – including parts of the Mediterranean basin, southern Africa and Australia. The addition of city smog “could have serious consequences for the biodiversity of fire-prone ecosystems worldwide,” Valliere warned.
Read the paper, “Nitrogen deposition suppresses ephemeral post-fire plant diversity,” by Justin Valliere, Irina Irvine and Edith Allen.
This article was first published on the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences website.
/h3>/h3>/h3>Valley Oak (Querus lobata):
The acorns were a staple food, which was leached (rinsed with water) to remove the bitterness, and ground into flour with mortar and pestles. The ground acorns were used in stews/soups, pancakes/tortillas, mush, or layered into pits and cooked with other plants and meats. Oak galls were squeezed to make a blue-black ink for tattoos and tannins were used to make dyes and decorate animal skins.
Deer Grass (Muhlenbergia rigens):
A major grass for creating beautiful, sometimes water-tight baskets to cook food, to carry and store food and other items. Stalks were generally harvested in the spring when easy to pick, then wrapped to keep straight and allowed to cure for a year. They were often soaked prior to weaving into basket. About 1600 stalks would be needed to make one basket.
One of the most beautiful California grasses, this easy-to-grow plant attracts butterflies in the spring with its cream-colored flowers and seed-eating birds in the summer.
Santa Barbara Sedge (Carex barbarae):
The rhizomes (underground stems which generally grow horizontally) provided the strongest threads for basket making. The people would manage the rhizome growth by cleaning the soil of anything that might obstruct the growth (i.e., rocks) to allow the rhizomes to grow long and straight. An evergreen grass, the summer flowers range from cream, red and purple colors, which attract butterflies.
Toyon, aka California Holly (Heteromeles arbutifolia):
The wood from this sturdy shrub had many uses including tools, games/toys, fuel for smoking fish, and religious ceremonies. The red berries produced in the fall which were eaten after roasting over coals or dried in the sun.
An evergreen shrub, the summer white flowers attract bees and butterflies. Birds love the berries.
Blue Elderberry (Sambucus cerulea):
This tough, easy-to-grow shrub or tree is dormant in the winter. The spring and summer blooming cream or yellow flowers attract bees and butterflies, with their berries being an important food source to many birds.
Manzanita (Arctostaphylos manzanita):
Its distinctive red wood which was sometimes used to dry and smoke fish. The fruit was gathered in summer, then dried and ground to make coarse meal which would be mixed with a little water during winter months or made biscuits. They would make tea with the berries and tips of the branches, which apparently was a pleasant drink.
Sticky Monkey Flower (Mimulus aurantiacus):
The seeds were used as a food source. They were gathered, parched, ground, and added to foods or eaten by the handful. Flowers were used as décor after drying, made into wreaths, and used in religious ceremonies. The roots and leaves were used for medicinal purposes.
This drought-tolerant, evergreen shrub blooms in the spring, summer, and fall. The bright yellow tubular flowers attract hummingbirds, bees, and butterflies. Autumn seeds attract small birds.
Whenever I see any of these California native plants, I think of how the indigenous people of California used these plants over thousands of years. By growing them in our gardens, we honor that history, help the survival of these plants which provide food sources for so many birds, bees, and butterflies, reduce water usage, bring variety to our gardens, and joy to our spirits with their beauty.
Learn more at the Library - Take a free class!
This September, our UC Master Gardeners will present on the topic, "CA Native Plants" at 9 Stanislaus County Library locations. Visit our Calendar at https://ucanr.edu/sites/stancountymg/Calendar/ for dates, times, and locations.
Upcoming Workshop
On Saturday, October 7, 2023, we are offering our "The New Front Yard" workshop. Topics include drip irrigation, converting your yard to native plants, and how to garden for year-round bloom! Stay tuned for the registration announcement.
Resources:
- Enough For All: Foods of My Dry Creek Pomo and Bodega Miwuk People by Kathleen Rose Smith
- The Real California Cuisine: A Treatise on California Native-Plant Foods by Judith Larner Lowry
- Tending the Wild: Native American Knowledge and the Management of California's Natural Resources by M. Kat Anderson
- Indian Summer: A True Account of Traditional Life Among the Choinumni Indians of California's San Joaquin Valley
- Great Valley Museum of Natural History at Modesto Junior College's exhibit on Yokuts
- California Native Plant Society: https://www.calscape.org/
Acknowledgment: Lillian Vallee, English professor emeritus, Modesto Junior College, who has shared her passion and knowledge with me over the years of California native plants and their historical uses by the California native people.
Denise Godbout-Avant has been a UC Cooperative Extension Master Gardener in Stanislaus County since 2020.
/h3>/h3>/h3>
- Author: Denise Godbout-Avant
There are three groups of plants that attract birds and each group draws different types of birds: Nectar plants, plants that provide seeds or nuts, and plants that produce berries or fruit. Many plants will provide more than one source of food, i.e., nectar in the spring and berries in autumn.
Here is a list of a few favorite native plants in each group and some of the birds they may attract.
Hummingbirds and Nectar
Hummingbirds prefer tubular shaped flowers that fit the length of their beak, and are bright in color, particularly red. Native salvias (sages), penstemon, columbine, and honeysuckle all serve up nectar for hummingbirds.
- Sages (Salvias): There are about 18 sages native to California, with Hummingbird sage (Salvia spathacea) being one of them. The common name says it all! Fruity scented dark rose-lilac blossoms appear in March – May. It also produces autumn seeds that attract birds such as sparrows and finches.
- Western Redbud (Cercis occidentalis). A small deciduous tree or shrub found in the foothills and mountains of California with distinctive shiny heart-shaped leaves. The showy bright pink or magenta flowers develop in the later winter and spring, growing in clusters all over the shrub, making the plant very colorful and noticeable in the landscape. Goldfinches and sparrows will feed on seeds produced in the fall.
- California Fuchsia (Epilobium canum). There's probably no better California native plant for attracting hummingbirds. A perennial plant, it blooms a bright profusion of scarlet flowers in spring and summer, and is often the only native California flowering plant blooming at the height of summer.
Birds That Eat Seeds
- Bush sunflower (Encelia californica), commonly referred to as "California bush sunflower.” With abundant bright yellow daises, it is beautiful in late winter through summer. Attracts goldfinches, sparrows, orioles, crows, Scrub jays, grosbeaks.
- California aster (Symphyotrichum chilense). A member of the Asteraceae family it is native to western North America. The summer blooming flowers come in blues, purples and yellow colors. It is also a host plant for the Northern Checkerspot, Field Crescent and Pearl Crescent butterflies.
- Deergrass (Muhlenbergia rigens), also known as Meadow Muhly and Deer Muhly, is a summer-growing, perennial bunchgrass whose seeds attracts woodpeckers, finches, grosbeaks, crows and jays.
Berry Plants are Important to Birds
Many shrubs and small trees provide berries that ripen at different times, so providing a seasonal variety, such as cherries for birds during the breeding seasons of spring and summer, and holly in winter, helps sustain birds throughout the year.
- Golden Currant (Ribes aureum). A deciduous plant that blooms in late winter and spring with golden yellow flowers that attract hummingbirds. The ripe berries in autumn are amber yellow to black in color, are edible, and attract a wide range of birds. There are two main varieties: Ribes aureum var. aureum and Ribes var. gracillimum.
- Blue Elderberry (Sambucus Mexicana). Also known as Mexican elderberry, the berries from elderberries are one of the most important sources of food for birds in California. Native from Oregon to Baja all the way to western Texas, it has cream or yellow flowers in the spring and purple berries in the fall.
- Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia). Toyon is a beautiful perennial chapparal shrub native throughout the western part of California and the Sierra foothills. It is also known by the common names Christmas berry and California holly from the bright red berries it produces during the winter months, which are produced in large quantities, maturing in the fall and persisting well into the winter. Note: the berries are toxic to humans in large amounts.
- California False Buckthorn (Frangula californica). This perennial, evergreen shrub is also known as Coffeeberry due to its berries containing seeds that resemble coffee beans. The shrub produces small, greenish white flowers in the summer, followed by dark berries that are sought after by birds.
By providing a variety of native plants that produce nectar, seeds and berries to attract different types of birds, you'll be providing a healthy haven for birds all year round, along with many other species of pollinators such as bees and butterflies!
Denise Godbout-Avant has been a UCCE Stanislaus County Master Gardener since 2020.
Resources
California Native Plant Society https://www.calscape.org/ and garden planner https://gardenplanner.calscape.org/
A list of plants that naturally attract California Birds to your Garden https://www.laspilitas.com/bird.htm
Audubon native plants database https://www.audubon.org/native-plants