Do you have an undeveloped garden area you'd like to turn into a landscape that grows native plants and supplies habitat and food for pollinators? Perhaps you'd like to do most of the work yourself, but have no idea where to start? There is lots of information available about planting for pollinators, selecting appropriate native and water-wise plants, and creating a garden space that reflects one's personal style, but it is easy to get overwhelmed and miss the bigger picture.
Once the area is defined, designers can suggest plants that fit your growing zone, water needs and other requirements, your goals for using (or viewing) the space over time as the plants grow, and help you incorporate your “wish list” of favorite plants and/or plants with sentimental associations. For most people, this is where the fun really begins. Visiting nurseries and demonstration gardens, walking around neighborhoods, greenbelts and botanical gardens, even just scrolling through online resources, can inspire and inform.
In addition to starting with plants from nurseries or other sources, consider sowing seeds. There are many benefits to sowing seeds yourself. Seeds for annual flowering plants can provide quick color and interest and attract pollinating flower-visitors the first spring. And seeds are generally inexpensive, easy to start, and, in many cases, will self-sow year after year. Once they become established, you should be able to move some of the plants you've initially grown from seed to other parts of the garden.
Be aware that there can be some difficulties encountered when planting seeds, but none of the potential pitfalls are insurmountable. If the rains don't come often enough, your seeds may need supplemental water to get them started. Do not plant seeds too deeply or not deeply enough (follow packet instructions carefully). Sometimes it is hard to tell a seedling you want from a weed you don't: you can learn to identify your seedlings by sowing some in a pot, labeling them and then comparing them to your garden seedlings as they grow (don't forget to keep these potted seedlings moist as well).
Most flowering plants sown or planted in fall will bloom March through July, giving you beauty and color while also attracting pollinators like bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds.
When you are planting an area for more than interest or color but also as habitat, consider plants that produce berries or fruits as well as flowers, and plants that will bloom throughout the growing season and into fall. If you are including trees and shrubs in your plan, consider their location in respect to structures and the eventual shade they will provide as they grow taller and wider, and the upkeep they may require (like pruning or cutting to the ground after bloom time). Here again is where a garden designer can give you guidance from their extensive experience with suitable plants.
Resources:
Climate Appropriate Plants for the Northern California Landscape
CalScape, a website by the California Native Plant Socieity
UC Master Gardeners of Butte County are part of the University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) system. To learn more about us and our upcoming events, and for help with gardening in our area visit our website. If you have a gardening question or problem, email the Hotline at mgbutte@ucanr.edu or leave a phone message on our Hotline at 530-552-5812. To speak to a Master Gardener about a gardening issue, or to drop by the MG office during Hotline hours, see the most current information on our Ask Us section of our website.
Located between playing fields and pickleball courts along a popular bikeway into the main CSU Chico campus, the Biological Sciences Greenhouse is a state-of-the-art botanical and agricultural research facility. Over 1500 species of plants, including a collection of exotic and rare plants from around the world, are housed here in two buildings that are climate and light controlled. At a combined 6000 square feet, the Greenhouse provides classroom and working areas as well as growing space for its carefully curated plant collection.
The first thing you notice when you enter the main conservatory building [O2] is the temperature. There are three distinct rooms, each representing habitats found throughout the natural world. Spiny, thorny cacti and succulents, crowd-pleasing carnivorous plants, and rare specimens like the odd, ancient Welwitschia mirabilis from Africa are found in the first room, along with other species that grow best in dryer, warmer conditions. Every part of the space is in use: plants grow on benches and up walls, hang from the ceiling, and trail along wires strung overhead. Tall, tree-sized specimens tower over other plants which taper down in size to the very smallest non-flowering plants such as mosses and liverworts (bryophytes).
Stepping into the third growing room is like taking a trip to the tropics: warm, humid, rainy and misty. Here are wonderfully-scented orchids, lush tropical fruit trees and vibrantly colored flowers, in addition to plants thriving in small containers filled with water. A recent addition is a species of fern known to have the largest frond in the world, a gift from the CSU San Francisco greenhouse. Future plans for this space include incorporating a small pond with a waterfall.
The star attraction here might well be the fascinating and unique Amorphophallus titanum, a member of the Arum plant family. A very large plant, it will produce a single, huge leaf that can grow to twenty feet tall. Eventually a flower spike emerges, rapidly reaching 10-15 feet within a few weeks. This is the Corpse Flower, famous for its strong smell of rotting flesh, its striking appearance, and the fact that it only blooms every few years[O3] . The odor attracts insects that then pollinate the plant. The bloom typically fades away after 24 hours. CSUC's Corpse Flower is currently forming its flower stalk. Shaine suggests checking news outlets to learn when to drop by to see and smell this phenomenon!
Shaine says that the most important common denominator for all of the plants he curates is the soil or, more precisely, the growing medium.
“Growing plants in greenhouses is a different challenge than growing them in your home garden”, he explains. “Everything needs a high quality, loose, fast-draining mix that is considered “soilless” or compost-free. It's also important to use soil that won't decompose, in order to avoid creating an environment for rot and odors.”
Nutrients are added to the water in amounts which allow frequent feeding. This encourages healthy roots that favor plant growth. Additionally, pruning and keeping plants in smaller containers allows Shaine to grow larger species than the space might otherwise allow.
Another challenge is pest control. Pests can rapidly move through the greenhouses, damaging plants that are expensive and sometimes rare. When pests are found, Shaine starts simply, by hand picking, washing, or wiping them off. If necessary, he'll shift to biological controls: for example, he recently released a predatory mite that devoured not only the damaging mite species he wanted to control, but another pest (thrips) as well. Maximizing the plant's health by re-potting or feeding and changing its environment can also solve some problems. Spider mites can be eliminated, for instance, by moving plants from a dry area to a moister one, because these pests don't survive in moist or wet conditions. The greenhouse is an enclosed space, so treating plants systemically with a pesticide is an option, but it is an option Shaine prefers to avoid whenever possible.
Opening up this green world to share his passion and to educate more people is one of Shaine's goals. He encourages visitors or tours and loves to show you his latest exciting plant “find.” If you are interested in viewing a plant that can eventually live for over 1,000 years, or one that digests insects for nutrients, or another that shoots up one fantastic, smelly flower every few years, consider making a foray to the CSU Chico Biological Sciences Greenhouses. For more information and to arrange a visit, contact Shaine Hill at smhill@csuchico.edu.
UC Master Gardeners of Butte County are part of the University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) system. To learn more about us and our upcoming events, and for help with gardening in our area visit our website. If you have a gardening question or problem, email the Hotline at mgbutte@ucanr.edu or leave a phone message on our Hotline at 530-552-5812. To speak to a Master Gardener about a gardening issue, or to drop by the MG office during Hotline hours, see the most current information on our Ask Us section of our website.
“Gardening becomes increasingly difficult as we age, yet the garden beckons as strongly as ever,” notes Butte County Master Gardener Kay Perkins. Our bodies become less limber and agile, and more prone to injury, which makes tasks such as pulling weeds, pushing wheel-barrows, digging holes, pruning, hauling, and moving heavy objects ever more challenging with advancing years.
Many of the workshop topics are developed from the content of Sydney Eddison's Gardening for a Lifetime: How to Garden Wiser as You Grow Older (Timber Press, 2013). Eddison is the author of six previous books on gardening, and was awarded the National Garden Clubs, Inc.'s Award of Excellence in 2010.
For over 50 years, Eddison (who was born in 1932) was an aficionado of time-consuming gardening choices: "It took a great deal of effort to make my garden as high-maintenance as it is….That was the point of it all” she writes. Then a bothersome hip replacement put a damper on her garden activities, one of which was "digging great big holes and moving plants around all the time.” Refusing to give up the gardening she loved, she began researching low-maintenance garden techniques. Those discussed at the workshop are explained below. A list of suggested tools and plants can be found at the end of this article.
Choose compact or dwarf varieties of popular shrubs (such as buddleia) that need pruning only one or two times a year. Shrubs that produce berries add a splash of bright color to gray winter days, and provide a source of food to overwintering and migrating bird species. Eddison is a fan of conifers because they offer year-round color and variegated foliage texture, and also add structural interest in the form of cones, globes, and mounds. But choose wisely and think carefully before planting shrubs as they are more difficult to move than perennials.
List, list, list: Making lists saves time, reduces aggravation, and increases organization and efficiency. Take the time to develop a Master List and a Daily List. The Master List should contain all garden tasks, large or small, organized by season and species (such as tree, shrub, or perennial), prioritized by importance. Your list may seem daunting and impossibly long at first, but Eddison promises that you will be surprised by how many of these tasks you will be able to accomplish. Nothing beats the satisfaction of crossing a task off the list for that season.
The Daily List is developed from the Master List and should be realistic for the time you can allot to the garden on any given day, and for your abilities. This list should also indicate if the task is essential or aesthetic in nature. These lists can help you keep from getting distracted or pulled in different directions by the garden's demands. If you are lucky enough to have a helper in for the day, a list for your helper will save him or her time.
Speaking of Being Realistic: Gardens are only perfect in catalogs and (perhaps) for a short and finite window of time in our own yards. Learn to accept imperfections, and understand that plants are always in a state of “becoming.” Leave some dead leaves under shrubs to serve as mulch that will enrich your soil. Allow grass clippings to remain on the lawn, to sink in and feed the grass. By the way, whatever it is, if it's kept short and green – viola! - it's a lawn.
Realize which plants have grown beyond your ability to manage. Decide whether to 1) continue to invest time and money into them; 2) give them a brutal pruning to see if that revives them; or 3) remove and replace them. The hardest friends to remove are the old landscape trees which have contributed shade and beauty to the garden over many years. If one must go, don't be too quick to replace it – you may find the increased sun allows new landscape opportunities and that you enjoy the newly-opened space.
Before you move on to the following lists of ergonomic tools and plants to consider for your garden, ponder Eddison's sage advice for the aging gardener: “Our best hope of a simpler way to garden is to follow nature and learn to go with the flow.”
Ergonomic Tools and Tool Suppliers: Loppers and pruners with soft grips; ratchet loppers and pruners; pole saws with extension handles; lightweight durable ultra-flexible kink-free garden hoses such as those made by Zero-G; digging and weeding tools such as those made by Radius Garden tools; hori hori knives; short- and long-handled weeders; shovels with U-handles; kneeling pads and benches; rolling seats; aprons with deep pockets.
Battery-Operated Tools: Blowers, hedge trimmers, lawn mowers, weed whackers, hand spreaders.
Other Tips: Use lightweight containers or rolling carts for hauling; plant in raised beds; use a pool siphon for cleaning ponds and water features; keep a cell phone or whistle with you when gardening; take frequent breaks to stand and stretch; stay hydrated.
For More Information: www.gardeners.com; www.patriot-products-inc.com; www.radiusgarden.com; www.garden.org/learn/articles
List of Easy-Care Plants for Butte County (compiled by Dana Drennan, UC Master Gardener of Butte County)
Shrubs: Callistemon (bottlebrush); Cercis (redbud); Chaenomeles (flowering quince); Cistus (rock rose); Cotinus (smoke tree or smoke bush); Dodonaea (hop bush); Grevillea; Echium; Lavandula (bush lavender); Osmanthus (sweet olive); Prostanthera (mint bush).
Perennials: Achillea (yarrow); Anigozanthos (Kangaroo Paw); Caryopteris (Bluebeard); Epilobium (California fuchsia); Hemerocallis (day lily); Iris (see below); Origanum (oregano); Nepeta (cat mint); Perovskia (Russian sage); Salvias; Solidago (golden rod); Teucrium (Germander); Westringia (Coast rosemary); grasses such as Bouteloua, Carex, Muhlenbergia, and Stipa.
List of Lower-Maintenance Perennials (compiled by Eddison)
Sedum 'Autumn Joy', Agastache “Blue Fortune”, ornamental grasses, Liriope, Boltonia asteroides “snowbank”, Amsonia, Aster 'Raydon's Favorite', lamb's ears, Siberian iris, and daylilies.
For more information about the Gardening for a Lifetime workshop and all the other workshops in the Master Gardeners' 2023 Fall Workshop Series, visit our website. All workshops are free, but registration is required.
UC Master Gardeners of Butte County are part of the University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) system. To learn more about us and our upcoming events, and for help with gardening in our area visit our website. If you have a gardening question or problem, email the Hotline at mgbutte@ucanr.edu or leave a phone message on our Hotline at 530-552-5812. To speak to a Master Gardener about a gardening issue, or to drop by the MG office during Hotline hours, see the most current information on our Ask Us section of our website.
- Author: Brent McGhie, UC Master Gardener of Butte County
No doubt you have seen many species of oaks living in wild areas of Northern California. But native oaks can also be attractive and beneficial additions to the home landscape.
The key to living with oaks is to disturb them as little as possible. This is especially true of the root crown (the base of the trunk) and the root zone. The root zone of an oak tree covers an area one-third again larger than the outermost edge of the tree's foliage. Strive to keep this area as natural as possible.
The fungal disease “oak root rot” (Armillaria mellea) has evolved with California oaks. It is parasitic on oaks and other plant species, but if oaks are growing naturally in our moist winter/dry summer environment, this fungus is kept in check. However, if oaks are provided with summer irrigation in their root zone, Armillaria can become an aggressive, deadly pathogen. Do not water any plants under oaks during the summer: if they need watering, they do not belong there. Instead, native plants that are adapted to our Mediterranean climate can be grown under oaks. If winter rains are unusually low, a supplemental watering can be provided in the early spring. Do this by watering deeply in the outer two-thirds of the root zone.
Other threats to the root zone include soil compaction, paving, trenching, and changes in grade or drainage. If soil is mounded under an oak, the oxygen supply to the roots can be reduced, which can suffocate the tree. Oxygen exchange with the roots may also be reduced if the soil is compacted or covered with paving. Suffocation can also occur when drainage patterns are altered and the soil around an oak becomes saturated for extended periods. Excavating by grading or trenching can cut or damage roots. When enough roots are damaged, trees will die.
Learn more about the many benefits native oaks provide to our local ecosystem: Attend our workshop, “Plant an Acorn; Harvest a Community” on Tuesday, November 7th. For descriptions of this and all the other workshops in the Master Gardeners' Fall Workshop Series, visit our website. All workshops are free, but registration is required.
UC Master Gardeners of Butte County are part of the University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) system. To learn more about us and our upcoming events, and for help with gardening in our area visit our website. If you have a gardening question or problem, email the Hotline at mgbutte@ucanr.edu or leave a phone message on our Hotline at 530-552-5812. To speak to a Master Gardener about a gardening issue, or to drop by the MG office during Hotline hours, see the most current information on our Ask Us section of our website.
There is a bit of ancient Rome and a taste of old Egypt at the Master Gardener Demonstration Garden at the Patrick Ranch. Butte County MGs are practicing espaliering, the early horticultural art of training and pruning a tree or shrub to grow flat against a support. Espaliering is believed to have been practiced by the early Romans, and hieroglyphs of espaliered fig trees have been found in Egyptian tombs from as long ago as 1400 BCE. In the Middle Ages, Europeans refined espaliering into an art, and designs became increasingly decorative and elaborate.
The word “espalier” is French, but it comes from the Italian spalliera, meaning “something to rest the shoulder (spalla) against.” Eventually, it came to mean both the practice of training and shaping plants to a frame, and the plants themselves.
An Espalier Garden Grows in Chico
In late spring 2015, a small group of Butte County Master Gardeners proposed an Espalier Garden for the educational gardens being developed by the Master Gardeners at Patrick Ranch. They created plans to showcase fruit trees and to display different patterns of espaliering. From there, they embarked on the basic steps of espaliering: site selection, espalier structure design, tree variety selection, planting technique, espalier pattern choices, and methods of pruning and training. The trees were planted in Spring 2016.
Espalier Structure Design: Because the Espalier Garden is a teaching tool, the Master Gardeners built sturdy, long lasting espalier supports. The structure consists of pressure-treated 4 x 4 posts with eyehooks supporting wire cable that can periodically be tightened. The cable is strung horizontally at one-foot intervals, although intervals of up to two feet are also common. The home gardener could use a length of hog/cattle wire instead of cable.
Tree / Vine Variety Selection: Certain types of trees adapt better to this practice than others, but almost any woody plant can be trained to grow along a flat plane. Grapevines are particularly adaptable to espaliering. Fig and apple trees are also good choices.
Fruit tree varieties should be self-pollinating, unless several trees of the same variety are planted in proximity. Select bare root trees that are not fully branched or budded out, as once planted, they are cut back to a single cane (if they are already branching, prune to leave branch stubs with two buds to make sure you get re-growth at each node). The Master Gardeners have planted Tiger Fig, Lapins Cherry, Santa Rosa Plum, Pluot, Fuji Apple, Arkansas Black Spur Apple, Plumcot/Aprium, Brown Turkey Fig, Warren Plum, and North Star Cherry in their Espalier Garden.
Espalier Pattern Choices: There are many designs to choose from, ranging from traditional formal patterns developed over hundreds of years, to modern informal designs. Among the most common are V-Shaped; Candelabra; Belgian Fence; Cordon (horizontal or double vertical); and Palmette or Fan. The MGs chose for their Espalier Garden two types of candelabras, a fan, a horizontal cordon, a Belgian Fence, and the elegant Crossover pattern.
Pruning and Training to Espalier: Expect to engage in heavy pruning and training for the first one to three years. After five to seven years, the tree will retain its shape even if the support structure deteriorates or is removed. Any major pruning is generally accomplished either while the plant is dormant, or during the proper season for pruning that species. Bending and tying limbs that remain in the design is done during the summer season as growth progresses, when shoots are most flexible. The Master Gardeners use rubber anchor bands to tie the limbs and shoots to their supports. Whatever you use, ties should be loose enough that water and nutrients can move through the phloem.
The ten fruit trees selected and planted by the Master Gardeners are in their eighth year of espalier training. You can view the developing espaliers at the Master Gardener Demonstration Garden at Patrick Ranch, Saturdays and Sundays from 11 am to 3 pm.
For more information on espalier training, a good reference work is Pruning and Training published by the American Horticultural Society.
Attend our Espalier workshop on November 8. For descriptions of this and all the other workshops in the Master Gardeners' Fall Workshop Series, visit our website. All workshops are free, but registration is required; registration for all November workshops opens on October 1st.
Come to our Plant Sale on Saturday, September 30, 9 am till noon at our Demonstration Garden at Patrick Ranch, 10381 Midway, Durham. For more information including a list of the plants that will be available visit our Plant Sale webpage. Two free workshops (no registration required) will be offered during the plant sale: No-Fail Native Plants at 10 am, and Raised Garden/Vegetable Beds at 10:30.
UC Master Gardeners of Butte County are part of the University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) system. To learn more about us and our upcoming events, and for help with gardening in our area visit our website. If you have a gardening question or problem, email the Hotline at mgbutte@ucanr.edu or leave a phone message on our Hotline at 530-552-5812. To speak to a Master Gardener about a gardening issue, or to drop by the MG office during Hotline hours, see the most current information on our Ask Us section of our website.