- Author: Cathy Purlee
Someone asked how he mapped out the gardens and he said the mapping happened in his mind while he was sitting under the fig tree by the pool and staring at the landscape. He planted in groups of 5 of the same species. There was no irrigation, so he installed what he describes as rudimentary and currently has 5 zones. It runs for one hour twice a week. Next year he hopes to have a more sophisticated irrigation system laid out with hydrozones.
He likes to use the mango mulch from Grab & Go in Sonoma. Bottom line, he is still experimenting with his garden. This is a beautiful property with stunning views.
Our next stop was a more established garden, started 40 years ago. There are vegetables in the garden, but this long-time Master Gardener's main passion is cut flowers. She has started over 40 varieties from seed. She demonstrated pinching them, a technique that she and other flower growers use to produce greater yields and a longer harvest window. Pinching is a method where, when the plants are young (about 8-12” high), you go down 2 or 3 sets of leaves from the top and cut the stem at that apical growth. The shoots will grow off to the sides to delay the plants first blossoms. This can be done with almost any branching flower, such as dahlias, zinnias, cosmos, marigolds, as long as they have more than one shoot. Many sunflowers and stock are examples of a plant that you can't do this with. She suggests doing only some of the plants within a grouping so the garden will flower intermittently. Bouquets of flowers are taken to the St. Helena Food Pantry to be given out with food. She likes to buy her seeds from Floret Farms in Washington state, and she encouraged us all to check out their website and videos.
There is a sunflower house that she planted for her grandchildren. Since one of her neighbors had no garden space, the owners allowed her to plant it on their property.
These jeans were given to the Master Gardener by the artist, who creates them by using fiberglass resin to stiffen them. Next to the jeans is a bronze sculpture of a dog with angel wings, a memorial to Poppy, a long-lost dog still guarding the garden.
Napa Master Gardeners are available to answer garden questions by email: mastergardeners@countyofnapa.org. or phone at 707-253-4143. Volunteers will get back to you after they research answers to your questions. Visit our website: napamg.ucanr.edu to find answers to all of your horticultural questions.
- Author: Melody Kendall
A pollinator garden's diverse plants and colorful blooms attract and help to support a variety of birds, butterflies, moths, and beneficial insects year-round. These visitors play a critical role in sustaining our ecosystem by helping our plants reproduce. Pollinator gardens provide the habitat, plants, pollen, and nectar to help us care for our wildlife partners. Transfer of pollen is the plant's goal, and nectar and pollen are the pollinator's reward. Flora and fauna evolve together in interrelationship. A pollinator garden can provide the habitat and food those pollinators need and give much personal satisfaction in the process.
All living things on the earth need food, shelter, and/or oxygen that the plants provide. Plant reproduction is crucial to the continuation of this cycle. Plants are more than willing to participate in this cycle but they can't move and, in many cases, may need a little outside help to reproduce. Enter the pollinators. Plants have developed rewards and lures in the form of attractive scent, color and nectar to draw pollinators. The pollinator visits the flower lured by these encouragements and in doing so brushes against the plant's pollen producer, dusting the pollinator's body with that pollen. When the pollinator moves on to the next plant, the pollen carried on their body is distributed to that next flower and, viola, that plant has been pollinated.
Bees are perhaps the first thing people think of when pollinators are mentioned, and honey bees the first bee most people will think of. But there is more to the story than that. Here is a list of some of the many bees that pollinate our plants:
Honey Bees Apis mellifera
Honey bees are hardworking but non-native pollinators.They are not as effective at pollinating as most native pollinators.They are subject to numerous diseases and pesticides, making colonies fragile. Maintaining colonies is expensive and time consuming.
Native Bees
There are 450 species of bumble bees in the world, 40 species in North America, and 26 of these species can be found in California. Encouraging native bees, the ones already living in the neighborhood and working, is good pollination planning. The native bees are more efficient than the imported bees because these bees evolved alongside the native flora and their peak activity will coincide with the bloom cycles of the native plants. Some have adapted to pollinate specific types of plants or even particular plant species. Most native bees are solitary instead of living in hives, though they may nest in communities where the food is plentiful. They work individually sharing a common resource. Native bees are themselves food for the native wildlife and because they don't have a hive to protect, they rarely sting potential predators (including humans).
California Bumble Bee Bombus californicus
This bee is an important pollinator of agricultural crops. It is social with queens and workers that nest underground and form new colonies each year. It is black and yellow, large and hairy and was once the most common bumble bee in California, but its numbers have declined in recent years. Possible causes of this decline are the use of pesticides, invasive species and importing commercial bees.
These bees, with their thick hairy coats, are the powerhouses of the bee family working in rain, sleet and wind. They can be found clinging onto flowers in gale-force winds and struggling through early snows to bring home the nectar. Native solitary bees are in the following categories: ground nesters, leafcutters, cavity nesters and masons.
California Digger Bee Anthophora californica
These bees look like bumble bees and are known for constructing nests beneath the soil. They are not aggressive and are mostly solitary, though the females do construct their nests in groups, sometimes in the hundreds . They are important because they pollinate some of the plants that are not often visited by honey bees. Make sure to have areas of bare soil available in your garden and watch where you walk to not trample their holes.
California Carpenter Bees Xylocopa californica and Xylocopa varipuncta
These bees are some of the largest native bees in the United States. They are gentle giants and get their name from their excavating nesting habit. They tunnel into wood forming galleries to lay their eggs in. They are long lived and social. Carpenter bees forage on multiple types of plants. When they land on a plant, they use their ‘humming' to move the pollen out of the plant via sound waves. This is called buzz pollination.
Since these bees are so large and are unable to fit into flowers with small openings like salvias, they have developed a neat trick to get at their reward. To reach the nectar/pollen they will cut a slit at the base of the flower and steal their reward. This method is only used on plants with small flower openings and does not pollinate the flower.
Wool Carder Bee Anthidium maculosum
These bees are solitary and carry their pollen in structure at the base of their abdomen (called a scopa) instead of carrying pollen on their hind legs. They get their name from the female's interesting habit of scraping off hair from fuzzy leaves and stems to build their nests.
The wool carder bees nest in pre-existing cavities. In the garden, these can be in cracks in walls or buildings, knot holes, old leftover borer holes in wood as well as openings in branches and twigs.
The males are aggressive in protecting their territory and will ‘dive bomb' other bees away from their chosen plants. They have the nickname "bossy bee" or "bully bee".
There are around 350,000 pollinator species in the world. Though they are the most recognizable, bees are not the only plant pollinator team in town. Other insects help carry this responsibility. Butterflies, flies, moths, beetles help with pollinating plants and birds, bats and other small mammals and lizards fill out the plant pollinator roster as well.
And finally, please avoid pesticide use as much as possible in your garden because it is indiscriminate and will kill these wonderful pollinating insects along with the pests. Consider instead, using some IPM-Integrated Pest Management methods as outlined at UC IPM .
Information links:
UC Davis arboretum native bee info
Napa Master Gardeners are available to answer garden questions by email: mastergardeners@countyofnapa.org. or phone at 707-253-4143. Volunteers will get back to you after they research answers to your questions.
Visit our website: napamg.ucanr.edu to find answers to all of your horticultural questions.
by Mel Kendall
A pollinator garden's diverse plants and colorful blooms attract and help to support a variety of birds, butterflies, moths, and beneficial insects year-round. These visitors play a critical role in sustaining our ecosystem by helping our plants reproduce. Pollinator gardens provide the habitat, plants, pollen, and nectar to help us care for our wildlife partners. Transfer of pollen is the plant's goal, and nectar and pollen are the pollinator's reward. If plants bloom earlier due to climate change, and species respond to seasonal changes in light, the food supply may not be available when the migrating species pass through. A pollinator garden can provide the habitat and food migrating pollinators need and give the gardener personal satisfaction in the process.
Install plants that will attract pollinators.
• Lots of color will attract birds, bees, butterflies and other pollinators: Different pollinators see and are attracted to different colors. Create an overall ‘crazy quilt' color scheme rather than a monotone one.
• Have enough mass of each plant type. Provide “one stop shopping” by grouping the same color/type of plants in large clumps
• Have a variety of plants. Mix it up. Plant multiple varieties of pollinator friendly plants in your garden. Planning for a longer nectar and pollen season when selecting plants can help encourage early arrivals and latecomers.
Create a Habitat
All creatures (including us) have the four same basic needs in order to thrive. To entice and support any wildlife in our gardens, we need to provide food, water, shelter, and a place to rear and nurture young. We need to do it in a way that supports the entire ecosystem, which means avoiding toxic chemicals.
Food
• Plan for the whole life cycle of the pollinator. The pollinator will need food and shelter to grow become adults and provide safe places to breed and raise their young.
• Variety of plant species and bloom times. Some pollinators arrive in early spring, others are just passing through and still others stay for throughout the growing season. Plan for each of these scenarios when selecting plants for your pollinator garden.
• Long duration and sequence of bloom. Some pollinators are specialized. Make sure to have plants that bloom early and have a rotating sequence of blooms to feed specialized pollinators.
• Different shapes of bloom for different pollinators. Some pollinators can reach down into a trumpet shaped bloom to get the pollen and others are perchers that will just alight on a bloom to gather the pollen. Provide for both.
• Plant in 3-4 foot blocks for visibility and access. Some pollinators can only see certain colors and/or are attracted to certain plants so plant similar colored plants in blocks to facilitate the collections of pollen.
• High quality pollen and nectar. Some plants provide pollen but not as nutritious or as plentiful that provided by other plants. Plant as many types as possible that provide the best/most plentiful pollen.
• Plant in color (pollinators see color differently!) Find out which pollinators see what color(s) and choose and locate your plants with that in mind.
Rewards and Payback
Nectar provides the sugars, amino acids and carbohydrates for adult pollinators. As they make their rounds throughout the garden to seek their reward of the nectar, the pollinators are dusted with pollen which they casually disburse thus pollinating or paying back the plants for the ‘reward' that they provided.
Pollen provides protein, fats/lipids, starch, vitamins, and minerals to create the bee loaf that feeds larval bees. Also, numerous species of insects (bees, wasps, ants, beetles, flies, butterflies, moths), mites, spiders, and birds consume pollen as a food source. To more efficiently collect pollen, these palynivores have evolved various adaptations in their body parts and behavior. Pollinators like hummingbirds distribute pollen more casually as it collects on beak and head feathers.
Water Many birds prefer running water, but that is a challenge for delicate pollinators. Butterflies and bees can't swim and need shallow water or wet gravel or mud so they can stand and sip, a process called puddling. They draw nutrients from water and benefit from water that we would consider dirty. From studies by Butler and by Bonoan, “during much of the year they found that bees had a strong preference for sodium-rich water, regardless of plant diet. In the fall, however, when pollen is scarce, they showed a preference for water sources containing calcium, magnesium, and potassium, all of which are found in pollen. This demonstrated that honey bees have the ability to switch water sources to compensate for dietary nutrient deficiencies.” So, in your water basin, leave a few leaves, some gravel, and a stick for perching. And maybe a bit of salt or ash for mineral content. Wet gravel or mud is great.
Shelter Some pollinators will need places to feel safe and sheltered either temporarily or long term. Leave some brush, dead wood, or unpruned shrubbery or grasses for shelter and overwintering. Leave some dead blooms for seed and to provide shelter through the winter for pollinators. Wait to cut back perennials and shrubs until early spring when the air begins to warm and creatures begin to stir. Add structures to encourage certain pollinators. If you are a neat gardener, designate places in your yard to be just a little messy and learn to tolerate just a little chaos in your garden. A little tolerance makes us better neighbors.
A place to raise young All creatures need a safe place for their young. To provide safe places, create undisturbed hiding places, provide nesting materials and pieces of dead wood for holes and habitat. Many native bees and other insects use mud for nesting material and need access to bare ground (slightly damp if possible, otherwise they have to dig for it). Artificial nesting sites must suit individual pollinators and they must be kept clean or they risk mold and disease.
Sustainability What exactly does ‘sustainability' mean? According to Google & Oxford Language: ‘the ability to be maintained at a certain rate or level'; ‘Avoidance of the depletion of natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance.' How can we do this in our gardens? Avoid using toxic chemicals in your garden, use the Integrated Pest Management Method instead. No-till gardening practices keep carbon and nutrients sequestered in the soil and ground nesting pollinators undisturbed. Use patience and tolerance, rather than over-grooming your garden. Capture water run-off and let it sink into the ground to boost groundwater and purify it of pollutants from roofs and hard surfaces. Use compost to keep the life in your soil strong, which will keep your plants and their visitors strong in turn. Consider the whole system as a community or even an organism.
Support entire life cycle Many pollinator species have adapted to use specific plants for food and protection. Provide plants with high quality nectar to attract and support adults, and their larvae. This is where tolerance comes in. Larvae eat a lot, leaving chewed plants and frass behind. If this interests you, plant where you can watch the action. If it is less tidy than you like, plant larval food plants in a back corner of the garden.
Information link: American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture
UC Davis-plight of the pollinators
- Author: Jane Callier
UC Master Gardeners of Napa County continued touring each others gardens on June 9th. The first stop was a delightful garden with multiple purposes.
The front garden featured plants requiring very little water and many California native plants were thriving.
This property was part of a garden tour for the public several years ago. At the time there was a lawn in the front and attendees could vote for their choice of garden plans, displayed on easels with the lawn removed. Now, the focus in the front is a huge matilija poppy, proudly displaying its many fried-egg look alike blooms.
Sturdy planter boxes situated on the sunny south side of the house grows vegetables and strawberries.
The back yard features fruit trees, perennials and a beautiful dry fountain area filled with succulents. In the shade on the north side of the house grows some shade lovers including a variety of fuchsias.
Our next garden has some handsome catmint, Nepeta cataria and carpet rose filling an area next to the street. The show-stopper in the front of the property are the gorgeous flowering dogwood trees that were in full bloom.
Napa Master Gardeners are available to answer garden questions by email: mastergardeners@countyofnapa.org. or phone at 707-253-4143. Volunteers will get back to you after they research answers to your questions.
Visit our website: napamg.ucanr.edu to find answers to all of your horticultural questions.
Photos: Jane Callier
Last month I reported on our ongoing trial with growing tomatoes in containers. To recap briefly, we are growing three different tomato varieties in containers. Our goal is to learn about best practices for growing tomatoes in containers and to see if these three varieties are suitable for this method. The three varieties we chose all claim to be suitable, but we don't always trust the seed catalogs! They are Renee's Better Bush (a round slicing tomato), Inca Jewel (a paste or Roma type), and Prairie Fire (a grape tomato).
Our Field Test committee met recently to check in on our progress. Most of us reported our tomatoes growing quickly and in good health. So far, the weather hasn't been too hot, which has been a boon. We discussed strategies for hot summer weather, which is almost certain to hit us eventually. Most of us planted our tomatoes in large black plastic pots. This material attracts heat and doesn't have any insulation, so it will be hard on tomato roots confined in such a space. Several ideas were offered on ways to shield the pots from the direct sun. Painting them white should help, since white reflects heat, as opposed to black, which absorbs heat. Pots can be wrapped in insulating materials. They can be placed inside a slightly larger box, which will absorb heat and provide shade. You can place potted plants or other obstacles around them. In hot weather some shade can be helpful.
Your watering schedule should provide consistent moisture for the roots. Watering from the bottom is recommended, providing you have a large enough tray to put under the pot. If this is not possible, water from the top deeply enough that the water can drain out of the bottom. Some drooping of leaves in mid-afternoon is not cause for alarm. Water in the early morning or evening. Soil should be kept moist but not wet. One useful tool is a probe for detecting moisture levels. These are inexpensive and give you some peace of mind if you're unsure about when to water.
If your plants are getting tall, it's time to stake them. You can put a tomato cage over the plant with the feet buried inside the pot. If you place the plant against a wall or pole, you can tie the stake to that to add stability. Any structure that will stay firmly in place and can contain the growing stems will work. The corner of a gazebo is a great place for a plant. It's best to get the stakes in place early so you can gently tuck the new growth inside the horizontal constraints and keep them growing upward. Otherwise, they will grow sideways and be vulnerable to breakage. Prairie Fire is the one test plant that is semi-determinate, meaning a vining type that will continue to grow taller, so it is most in need of support. The other two are supposed to grow to about 3 feet, but they may need support as well. Better to be safe and provide support than to have the stems fall over and break off.
Whether and when to fertilize depends on your planting materials. An all-purpose planting mix will provide all the fertilizer you need at first, but as the plant grows and consumes the available nutrients you will have to add some food. A plant in the ground can send its roots down and out to search for more nutrients but a plant in a pot is limited to what you can provide. The potting soil bag probably specified some guidelines for when and how much to fertilize. When you do fertilize, choose an all-purpose balanced fertilizer. Monitor your plants carefully and be alert to changes in color or vigor.
Napa Master Gardeners are available to answer garden questions by email: mastergardeners@countyofnapa.org. or phone at 707-253-4143. Volunteers will get back to you after they research answers to your questions.
Visit our website: napamg.ucanr.edu to find answers to all of your horticultural questions.
Photo: Donna Woodward
