We all make gardening mistakes, but there is nothing more vexing than creating self- inflicted problems by choosing a plant for some special effect – beautiful flowers or lush foliage - only to discover that it refuses to stay in its allotted space, and takes off across the garden dominating everything in its path. I mention the following selection from my own experiences – perhaps it will help you to avoid the same mistakes!

Maypop. Passiflora incarnata. Lured by the exotic, tropical-looking flowers and edible fruit I purchased this to cover a rather dull wooden fence. I erected some lattice for it to scramble over and carefully planted the contents of a 2” pot at the base. It cheerfully romped away and flowered as promised, but then I found suckers coming up at regular intervals along the irrigation line bursting through the surface wherever there was an emitter - from under a host of herbaceous treasures and even appearing in the rockery. The latest sucker to emerge is 15 feet away from the parent plant and I will only get fruit if I plant a second one for cross pollination!

 

 

Goji Berry.   Lycium barbarum, Lycium chinense. According to gardening catalogs the fruits of this plant are close to being a miracle food and because it is hardy and thrives in alkaline soil I thought that it might do well in Bishop. Planted in a choice spot it grew into an untidy, slightly spiny shrub about 8' tall with many weak stems which sprawled over surrounding plants. Then suckering roots gave rise to new versions up to 6' away. I was not expecting this! I could forgive it were not for the fact that fruit production has been low, the fruits are small, and while not unpleasant it is hard to know what to do with them. Goldfinches are particularly attracted to the plant and gleefully shred the leaves which does nothing to improve the overall appearance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Violets. Viola hederacea. We moved into our house in early spring and I was overjoyed to be greeted by carpets of violets blooming under the trees and in the borders. Five years later my joy has turned to despair as I try to gain some control. They seed prodigiously and also spread by runners. I hack, dig and hoe but, even after I have removed all of the mature plants, seedlings appear everywhere and take hold in cracks between pavings, in the middle of the lawn, as well as in the borders and vegetable plot. Unfortunately this particular variety has no perfume, so I cannot even use them for candying or making pot pourri. In spring they are affected by the violet gall midge which distorts the leaves and just adds insult to injury! However, they are pretty when they flower.

 

 

Mexican Evening Primrose. Oenothera speciosa. This is has pretty flowers and a long blooming season, but it is also an aggressive spreader. It needs little water and is happy in poor soils. It spreads rapidly by rhizomes and also by seeds, and quickly forms an attractive carpet of spring-flowering pink blooms. Although good for quickly covering banks and places where other plants might not do well, when given water and more fertile soil it is very difficult to control. Even little pieces of root take hold. Make sure if you plant this that you will be able to contain it.

Mint. Mentha spp. There is nothing like the first potatoes of the season cooked with a little mint. Aware of mint's invasiveness I followed the universal planting advice of putting it in a pot which had its bottom cut away, and then plunging it into the ground. That failed to contain it after the first season. Perhaps I should have used a larger pot or not planted the pot so deeply. The roots, not unlike Bermuda grass, rampaged in all directions. I pulled huge mats of them out, but even tiny pieces left behind were soon growing vigorously, and new plants appeared a long way from the original planting. I did finally get the better of it by planting it in a hanging pot over a concrete patio. Surely it would not be able to spread from there. It didn't - it died!

For some other rapidly growing or spreading plants which should be planted with caution visit:  http://ucanr.edu/sites/EDC_Master_Gardeners/files/154805.pdf

As you hopefully are aware, our Master Gardener program has a Facebook page. Now, part of my job as the adviser to the MG program is to go online to make sure that our posts on this blog and Facebook aren't bogus. I'm supposed to review everything for accuracy of the content. 

This morning I logged onto Facebook to do my morning due diligence with reviews, and I found an interesting post was on my personal news feed. (A miracle!) This short post, "The Burdens of Expertise" was somewhat ironic since I was logged on for the purpose of seeing if anything needed my "expert" attention on our Facebook page. 

I thought this was an interesting read for Master Gardeners, Master Food Preservers, docents, and other groups with trained volunteers, especially if they find themselves in positions where they repeatedly get asked the same questions that seem to have obvious answers—to an expert. Those who know me probably recognize that there are a few items on the list I could improve on, but I never really felt it was a burden. That's why I like my job.

If you have any expert insights yourself you'd like to add for others to read, feel free to include them in the comments below. If that's not a burden. ;-)

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"The Burdens of Expertise" by Scott Berkun. February 3, 2015.

What do you do with a narrow grass path, much infested with weeds? I inherited such from the previous home owner and found that it was difficult to mow since it was sunken, and the border of railroad ties necessitated that the grass edges be clipped by hand. I considered replacing the grass with pea gravel, decomposed granite or coarse bark, but a stack of hexagonal concrete pavers discovered in a forgotten corner immediately suggested a solution.

The strip is irrigated by a Netafim subterranean dripper system which is tied in to another area of the garden. It would be a major task to rearrange the pipework, but I could rearrange the plants to considerably reduce the amount of water that both areas needed.

Digging was not feasible because of the embedded underground pipes, but the packaging from a recently delivered mattress provided a ready means to solarize, so I stretched the plastic sheeting over the area and weighted it down with rocks. It was May and I continued to irrigate which encouraged all manner of weeds to germinate but they were quickly destroyed by the heat of our desert sun. I left the plastic in place for the rest of the year just to maximize the effect. The advantage of solarizing rather than digging is that the compacted soil is undisturbed so settling is less of a problem when laying the pavers.                                    

In spring I scraped the surface flat with a border spade (square ended) and measured the length, dividing it by the number of pavers available in order to work out the spacing between stepping stones. Armed with a bucket of sand, a level and a trowel I placed each paver in its spot measuring from all sides to get accurate spacing. I checked each one for levelness and any rocking movement, sprinkling the sand underneath to fill up any low spots until the paver sat firmly. I then brought in some soil from the vegetable plot and filled around the pavers until they were embedded and the surface was level – making it less likely that anyone would trip on an edge.

Creeping thyme (Thymus praecox arcticus) is low growing, heat tolerant, and can withstand foot traffic so I raided my daughter's garden for starts to plant between the pavers and along the sides. They were rather poor specimens with not much root and I planted them about 1ft. apart. All grew but were slow to establish. I did not have enough to finish the project but, much later, I found a cell pack of thyme at the local nursery and planted those six plants. They grew much faster, but by the next season it became apparent that the two plantings were of different varieties! “Pink Chinz” has grayish green leaves and flowers later, while “Elfin” - a much tighter grower with tiny leaves and early, minute flowers - was more of a bright green. I do trim the plants around the paving stones once a year to keep the edges defined, and mow the spent flowers but otherwise they have been trouble free with no obvious diseases or pests. It is now three years since I planted and I am not sure how long it will be before the original plants become woody and some sort of replanting will be called for.

 

"Elfin" detail showing tighter growth and smaller leaves

Although none of the original weeds grew back, various seedlings had to be removed by hand from the rather large areas between the plants until they filled in so I was pleased that I had not decided to replace an entire lawn. Not much grows through once established, but removing yellow Oxalis corniculata from the depths is tedious and reminds me of a school nurse looking for louse nits! Once in flower weeding can only be done when bees are not around - in the early morning or after the sun goes down. Hive bees love this plant and come by the hundreds daily. So far none of us has been stung while walking along the path, but I don't go bare foot and I encourage children to use an alternative route.

I am delighted with the results – one of my gardening successes even if it is two-tone!

The continuing drought in California and the Western United States has made it necessary for all of us, no matter where we live, to find ways to save precious water. Now that our three sons are out of the house, Lori and I decided that the removal of some grass in our yard would be a start. We could remove grass in a sunny backyard area as a test, and as an added bonus use the newly-cleared space for growing less water intensive, sun-loving vegetables and flowers.

The main problem we had to tackle, aside from the labor required to dig out and dispose of the turf, was how to prevent the grass from growing back and weeds from encroaching on the exposed area. We considered a number of options to eliminate grass including initial removal and continuing weeding, herbicides, tilling, weed cloth, cardboard and newspapers.

3/17/15: Cutting grass around hose used to mark test area.

3/18/15: Tilling area prior to applying newspaper. Note dug out perimeter.

Each of those options brings with it its own advantages and disadvantages which had to be weighed. Continuing weeding to (hopefully) keep grass at bay would be a pain in the neck—and back—and we saw little upside in this option. Herbicides would probably get rid of the grass, but would probably require several applications. Most importantly to me, they are not good for the environment and any future planting we wanted to do, including vegetables. Tilling can harm the natural soil texture, spread seeds and chop up grass into small pieces that can grow. Weed cloth would probably work but it's expensive. Cardboard would probably work too but it's difficult to work with. Old newspapers reportedly work well and they are readily available from the local newspaper office for nothing, and using them carries the added benefit of recycling.

We decided to give newspaper a try. After doing some research and speaking with several people we decided to dig out the edge of the turf, till the remaining grass, rake out and hand pull as much grass and roots as possible, cover the area with many layers of newspaper, cover the newspaper with six to eight inches of amended dirt, and cover the amended dirt with mulch after planting.

First we needed to select a location where the lawn would be removed. Because we have so many trees in the backyard that shade a lot of area, we selected a location in the middle of the yard that gets as much sun as possible. We wanted to have a sunny location where vegetables and flowers would grow well.

We began the test in mid-March 2015 hoping to get the new area ready to plant before summer. I started by outlining a spot on the lawn using a hose and then proceeding to remove the grass. First I used a cutter to make a nice edge along the hose. I then dug out the edge of the grass inside the cut to a full shovel depth, about six inches. This has the added benefit of minimizing the infiltration of adjacent grass as it cannot easily cross the open space. Next I tilled the grass in the rest of the area, and raked and pulled as much leftover grass as I could.

Lori and I then began spreading newspaper over the area. I had gone to the Inyo Register a few days before and they were happy to give me a stack of old newspapers for nothing. We covered the area with one layer and then gently wet the newspapers. We repeated this process, covering the area with a total of 14 layers of newspapers, being sure to wet the paper after each layer. It reminded us of papier mâché as it was thick and hardened a bit. After covering the area we spread blood meal on top. This is to aid in the decomposition of the newspaper after it has smothered the weed seeds. Then we covered the whole area with about six to eight inches of amended dirt to get it ready for planting.

In mid-April we took on the task of getting water to the new planting area. We decided to tap into an existing drip irrigation line that's on a timer and about 25 feet away. I used the cutter to make a line in the grass then dug down and peeled back the grass leaving it attached at one edge to facilitate putting it back once I'd made the water connection. I then dug a trench about 12 inches deep. It was a bit tricky cementing the new connection to the existing pipe which was about two feet deep. Once I had made the connection I ran pipe in the ditch and covered it with the dirt I'd removed and the grass I'd peeled back. Finally Lori connected a drip irrigation system to the new pipe and put heads where we were going to plant.

Then we got to plant! We waited until early May hoping to avoid freezing (it's all a matter of risk tolerance). Lori planted squash seeds, peppers, cucumbers, a gerbera daisy, marigolds and one dahlia tuber we had left over after planting 39 in our existing garden. We've had problems in the past with bugs eating our young plants so we put a fence around the area to keep the dogs out and then Lori sprinkled a bit of snail/earwig bait to give them a chance to grow strong and better survive a pest onslaught.

3/18/15: Test area with grass tilled, raked and removed, ready for newspapers	3/18/15: Ready to plant! Just waiting install the drip supply line and warmer weather.
4/14/15: Trench dug and drip supply pipe installed and ready to backfill. Note the grass laid over to the left, making it easier to put it back where it came from.	5/10/15: A few days after planting. No grass or weeds have come up.

It's now June. Everything we planted is doing quite well. On May 26 Lori did some minor cleaning and mulching of the area and found minimal grass and weed infiltration. Since we created the new planting area very little grass has come up, and any that has mostly came from the surrounding grass, not through the newspaper. So, at this point I would call the test a success. I will update this report as the summer and fall growing seasons progress and we have a better handle on how successful the test has been. But, so far so good! If it continues to work this well we may remove more grass in the future using the same method.

I'll keep you posted.

3/18/15: Lori wetting the blood meal spread on the newspapers.

5/29/15: Looking good this morning!