A short drive around Chico's various neighborhoods will convince you that people love their front lawns. They must, because the lawn is the most prominent landscape feature for the vast majority of homes. And yet, we seldom see people outside actually using their front lawn spaces. Maintaining a lawn just to view through your front picture window wastes time, energy, water and money. According to a 2011 study sponsored by the California Department of Water Resources (the “California Single Family Water Use Efficiency Study”), the average household in the state uses 360 gallons of water per day, around 50% of which is used outdoors. Replacing the lawn with waterwise landscaping can reduce outdoor water use by 30-70%. In addition, lawns need to be frequently mowed, fertilized and weeded, thus racking up additional costs. So replacing or significantly reducing lawn can result in considerable savings.

Most people enjoy watching birds and pollinators in their yards, but a lawn doesn't have much to offer critters in terms of food, shelter or a place to raise their young. Frankly, a lush green lawn may be soothing on the eyes, but it's boring. A well-designed garden of trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants in a variety of colors, textures and elevations will welcome wildlife, provide visual interest, and distinguish your yard from those of your neighbors.

Start your design with hardscaping. Hardscaping can include walkways, gravel paths, small patios or decks, dry creek beds and retaining walls. These provide visual interest and also reduce the area that needs to be irrigated. Plan a pleasing and obvious way to get to your front door. You can edge the walkway with plantings in the ground or in urns at intervals along the way. Meandering gravel paths provide a functional and low cost way to move about the garden to observe plantings more closely. A small patio allows you to relax and enjoy a cup of tea in the yard. Dry creek beds and small retaining walls are features that separate planting areas and provide elevation changes in the yard. You can also use an edging of stone or brick to separate planting areas.

Evergreen shrubs and trees can provide the backbone and structure of your planting areas as well as provide the soothing color that we enjoy in a lawn. Add trees, shrubs, herbaceous perennials and groundcovers that vary in size, color and seasonal interest. You can mass several of the same plant together or repeat it throughout the yard to create a sense of cohesion. Mix textures and foliage to provide contrast. Balance colorful focal points with plants that are mostly gray or green. Place some elements so that they lead the eye from focal point to focal point; situate other features where they will provide a visual resting spot.

An important consideration is to plan for the size of the plants at maturity, so be careful not to plant them too close together. You don't want plants to crowd each other in a few years, and you want to avoid having to remove plants that outgrow their spaces. Too many large shrubs can impair your view of the yard from inside the house and also make it hard to see your house from the street. At the same time, areas of larger shapes or masses of plants will be attractive even from a distance.

The New Sunset Western Garden Book and Calscape (the California Native Plant Society's online database of native plants) are good sources of horticultural information about waterwise plants. If your yard will be irrigated with an automatic system, it makes sense to group together plants with similar water needs. The UC Cooperative Extension WUCOLS database allows you to estimate the water needs of thousands of garden plants grown in the Chico area. This database is a valuable tool for grouping plants into zones based on their water needs.

You may want to add some special features as focal points. A water feature will attract birds to the garden. It can be as elaborate as a fountain or as simple as a ceramic dish used as a bird bath. Large boulders also provide visual interest. A bench with large pots of colorful flowering plants at either end invites you to sit and enjoy your garden.

Mulching the bare spots will help to conserve moisture by reducing evaporation and controlling weeds. You can use organic mulch (like shredded bark) or inorganic mulch (like gravel or small rocks). Keep organic mulch a few inches away from the trunks of trees and plants. Excessive moisture that is trapped by mulch too close to the trunk can lead to fungal diseases in the plant. Inorganic mulch can itself become a design element, for example by using different sizes or colors of rocks in different areas.

Visit the Master Gardener Demonstration Garden at Patrick Ranch to see a variety of themed gardens that are waterwise, interesting and beautiful without the use of turfgrass. The Demonstration Garden is located in the area in front of and to the east of the Patrick Ranch Museum Visitor's Center at 10381 Midway, Durham. The gardens are free to visit and are open whenever Patrick Ranch is open to the public.

To learn more about UC Butte County Master Gardeners and their upcoming events, and for help with gardening in our area, visit our website. If you have a gardening question or problem, call our Hotline at (530) 538-7201 or email mgbutte@ucanr.edu.

What is a moon garden? It is a garden that incorporates reflective surfaces, light-colored flowers, fragrant plants, and peaceful sounds, all meant to be enjoyed by the light of the moon. It is the perfect garden spot for busy professionals who don't have time during the day to enjoy their gardens.

When designing a moon garden you need to select a site that is easy to access at night or can be viewed through a window. It must, of course, be a location that is touched by moonlight. A moon garden can be as simple as a small cluster of potted plants and flowers on a deck or patio, or as elaborate as a carefully-designed area in the landscape. If possible, find a quiet corner away from road noise and light pollution. You want to be able to enjoy the fragrant smells of night-blooming flowers, the rustling nighttime sounds, and the reflection of the moon on plants and foliage.

All moon gardens have a bench or seating of some kind, providing a place to relax and reflect. If space allows, incorporate reflective elements such as a gazing ball, string lights, light-colored rock pathways or hardscape. Wind chimes, a water feature, or garden art that is propelled by the wind (like a whirligig or windsock) brings sound into the moon garden. Reflective paints on garden pots or pavers can also add nighttime interest.

A moon garden can include trees, shrubs, grasses, perennials and annuals. It is usually created as a summer garden, but by adding deciduous shrubs and trees with interesting architectural form, a moon garden can be enjoyed year round.

White or light-colored flowers in shades of yellow and light blue are ideal. Good choices include daffodils, bleeding heart, creeping phlox, azalea, yarrow, Shasta daisy, magnolia, and sweet alyssum. Jasmine, evening primrose, angel trumpet (brugmansia) and moonflower all provide fragrance as well as flowers. Most of these are hardy plants that can withstand our hot dry summers. Choosing flowers that bloom at night helps night-roaming pollinators like bats and moths.

Plants that have light green or gray foliage will also reflect can add another layer of interest as the moonlight reflects off the leaves. Possibilities include lamb's ears, silver mound Artemisia, hosta, blue fescue and lavender.

You may already have a deciduous tree in your yard that you can build the moon garden around. For year-round interest plant shrubs with interesting form or color, like Harry Lauder's walking stick (which has fantastic gnarled branches and yellow catkins); yellow twig dogwood; or a witch hazel like Arnold Promise (which has beautiful fall foliage and then blooms in late winter with fragrant crinkly yellow blossoms).     

Once you have created your romantic, whimsical garden, don't forget to take some time to enjoy it. Once outside, allow at least ten minutes for your eyes to adjust to the dark. As you gaze on the garden and begin to notice reflections from the moonlight, you will see that the flowers and leaves appear to be floating. Take in the sounds of your water feature or wind chimes. Breathe in the fragrance of the night-blooming flowers. Relax and enjoy.

For more inspiration: The UC Davis Arboretum has a moon garden, the Carolee Shields White Flower Garden and Gazebo. You can learn about it here.

If you have a gardening question or problem, call the Master Gardener Hotline at (530) 538-7201 or email mgbutte@ucanr.edu. The UC Master Gardeners of Butte County are part of the University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) system, serving our community in a variety of ways, including 4H, farm advisors, and nutrition and physical activity programs.  Our mission is to enhance local quality of life by bringing practical, scientifically-based knowledge directly to our community. To learn more about UCCE Butte County Master Gardeners and their upcoming events, and for help with gardening in our area, visit https://ucanr.edu/sites/bcmg/.

Every gardener knows that weeds are just plants in the wrong place. Webster's dictionary defines a weed as “a plant that is not valued where it is growing and is usually of vigorous growth; especially: one that tends to overgrow or choke out more desirable plants.”

In nature, weeds play an important role. They can resist conditions like drought, acidic soil, lack of humus, and mineral deficiencies. Weeds protect our topsoil from eroding away in heavy rains and strong wind. They provide a cover and shade for soil microbes and insects.

Some weeds, those with large root systems or a taproot, penetrate deep into subsoil, breaking up compaction, which helps drainage and new growth. This deep penetration enables weeds to accumulate trace elements from the subsoil, and bring them to the soil's surface. The plants then die back and decompose, becoming what is called green manure.

Many years ago various weeds were used for food and pharmaceutical products. Currently, foraging for wild foods and mushrooms has made a comeback. Weeds in the legume family fix nitrogen in the soil and are often used as a cover crop to help enrich the soil over winter. Weeds have also been used to help indicate the presence of ground water. Curly dock is a weed that's typically found in wet saturated soils.

The primary value of weeds, wrote the eminent U.S. botanist Frederick Clements in 1920, is to “reveal information about the health and pH of our soils.” For example, certain species are confined to acidic soils and others to alkaline.

The use of weeds as soil indicators is not a new idea. Many early North American immigrants to the eastern United States chose land for their farms according to the weeds, plants, and trees that it supported. Conifers were characteristic of sandy, acidic soils that had little agricultural value. Birch, beech, maple, and hemlock indicated fertile soil. They learned that the tall-grass prairies were suitable for cereals, hay, and orchards. The bunch grass regions were better suited to wheat and grass.

If we look at our own gardens we can use our weeds to tell us what we can do to improve our soil. For instance, if our lawn is being taken over by clover we can note that clover thrives with low levels of nitrogen in the soil. We can remedy the problem by applying a nitrogen fertilizer (a 16-16-16 fertilizer is a good balance for turfgrass).

Another useful indicator comes from growing hydrangea, a beautiful and common flowering plant. If your soil is acidic the flowers will be blue. If your soil is more alkaline the flowers will be pink.

Ehrenfried E. Pfeiffer, a European scientist and student of Rudolf Steiner, wrote an entire book on this subject in the 1950's: “Weeds and What They Tell Us” (still in print). According to Pfeiffer, sorrel, plantain, horsetail, and knotweed are found in acidic soils. Dry soils with very little humus might support mustard, thistle, broom, and St. John's wort.

Sandy soils will have goldenrod, aster and toad flax. Alkaline soils support chicory, spotted spurge, sagebrush and woody aster. In heavy clay or compacted soil you might see morning glory, plantain, Bermuda grass, chickweed, and dandelion. Dandelions also indicate low calcium in the soil.

When you learn the type of soil some of these common weeds prefer you may be able to make corrections in the soil based on the information some weeds are giving you. If you really want to know, a soil analysis or at least a pH test by a local agricultural laboratory will provide factual information to accurately guide the use of soil amendments. Sometimes, improving drainage by adding well-balanced compost, organic manure, or employing cultural practices may be all that is required to improve your soil's tilth and nutrition.

Identifying the weeds in your garden can be fun! In some cases knowing what their presence indicates may help you manage your soil. Controlling weeds by hand weeding or with herbicide before they seed will reduce future populations if done consistently from year to year. One year's uncontrolled weeds can produce seven years seeds!  You may even develop a new appreciation for weeds.

For more information about weeds or help identifying them see:
UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management (IPM): Weeds
UC IMP Weed Photo Gallery
UC Weed Research & Information Center
Ehrenfried E. Pfeiffer, Weeds and What They Tell Us.

If you have a gardening question or problem, call the Master Gardener Hotline at (530) 538-7201 or email mgbutte@ucanr.edu.

The UC Master Gardeners of Butte County are part of the University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) system, serving our community in a variety of ways, including 4H, farm advisors, and nutrition and physical activity programs.  Our mission is to enhance local quality of life by bringing practical, scientifically-based knowledge directly to our community. To learn more about UCCE Butte County Master Gardeners and their upcoming events, and for help with gardening in our area, visit https://ucanr.edu/sites/bcmg/.

Johnsongrass (Sorghum halepense) is a common sight throughout our hot dry Butte County summers.

It is also considered to be one of the world's most noxious perennial weeds. Johnsongrass forms dense showy bunches of vegetation three to six feet tall along pathways, in and around orchards and gardens, in open fields, and near waterways. In California, Johnsongrass is found in the Central Valley, Cascade Range foothills, Western California, and the Sierra Nevada foothills to about 2600 feet. Under certain conditions, its leaves produce a toxic acid which is poisonous to livestock.

This non-native weed arrived in Texas in the 1830s and by the late 19^th century was recognized as a problem in the North Valley and throughout California's agricultural fields.

Johnsongrass was even pointed to as a factor in the downfall of the world's largest vineyard at the time, Leland Stanford's 3,575 acres of grapes at Vina in Tehama County. When the vineyard closed in 1916, Prohibitionists argued that its demise was evidence that wine and brandy production could not be profitable in California, and therefore Prohibition would not adversely affect the state economy. But the business manager of the Stanford University Board of Trustees insisted that the vineyard had been profitable until Johnsongrass took over: “it was all through the vineyard. It became apparent that it could not be eliminated as long as the vines were left in place, and that, in order to get rid of the Johnson grass, it would be necessary to take the vines up and make a fight against it" (The Wine and Spirit Bulletin, v.30, 1916, p. 36). While the Stanford vineyard operation suffered other setbacks at the same time, Johnsongrass clearly served as a worthy scapegoat that farmers and gardeners could relate to.  (Stanford's ranch has currently been revitalized by the Cistercian Abbey of Our Lady of New Clairvaux in Vina.)

If you are a gardener contemplating a battle with Johnsongrass, know that it can be a relatively difficult fight if the weed has become well established, but that fight can be won. Digging the weed up is best done with younger, less established plants. You'll want the soil to be wet when you do this; the grass puts out networks of underground rhizomes which become long and brittle. Uprooting the grass in wet soil makes the brittle runners less likely to break away. When pieces of rhizomes break off and remain underground they will resprout. Mowing and tilling can be effective if repeated every two to four weeks. While these efforts might seem futile at first (you may despair when fresh growth appears from those underground runner fragments), over time repeated weeding and tilling will take a toll on the grass's energy reserves and you will gradually win the battle.

For more information on Johnsongrass biology and management see Biology and Management of Johnsongrass. Information on Stanford's vineyard operation is indebted to Stephen Maganini, “Wines, spirits, history, reflection blend at Vina Monastery Sacramento Bee, September 9, 2016.

The Butte County UC Master Gardeners are part of the University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) system, serving our community in a variety of ways, including 4H, farm advisors, and nutrition and physical activity programs.  Our mission is to enhance local quality of life by bringing practical, scientifically-based knowledge directly to our community. For more information on UCCE Butte County Master Gardeners and their upcoming events, and for help with gardening in our area, visit https://ucanr.edu/sites/bcmg/. If you have a gardening question or problem, call our Hotline at (530) 538-7201 or email mgbutte@ucanr.edu.