- (Public Value) UCANR: Safeguarding abundant and healthy food for all Californians
The recently installed Pollinator Garden is one of three new areas at the Las Flores Learning Garden, a partnership between UC Master Gardeners of Napa County and the City of Napa. The Pollinator Garden transformed a weed-filled area into a pollinator-friendly home to nurture these necessary insects and other pollinating animals.
Fall is the best time to get your new ornamental plants settled in your landscape. However, due to various delays, the garden at Las Flores was planted in the heat of summer in June of 2022. Not the optimum time to install any new landscape plants, we chose to look at the experience as a perfect teaching opportunity. This flourishing garden is the result of careful monitoring and shows that, though it's not optimum, planting can be done in the summer. It just takes a much more hands-on effort to achieve.
• About 35% of the world's food crops and ¾ of the world's flowering plants need pollinators to reproduce.
• More than 3,500 native bee species increase crop yields pollinating as they gather food from flitting from flower to flower.
• Many scientists believe that one out of every three bites of food we consume is there because of animal pollinators.
• These are all pretty compelling reasons to encourage bees, butterflies and moths, birds and bats, and beetles and other insect pollinators in any landscape!
Here are some ideas:
Plant a continuous food supply. When choosing plants for a pollinator garden look at what plants attract which pollinator and the bloom times of those plants. Include plants that bloom at different times. This way there will always be something for pollinators to eat. Make sure to include early and late bloomers to feed the pollinators late in the year and early in the spring. If you plant each plant in multiple groupings you'll get more “bang for your buck.”
Include a diversity of plants. Mix it up and include plants with different flowers, sizes, shapes and colors as well as alternating bloom times. These differences will support multiple types of pollinators
Leave those pesky dandelions alone in the spring because these are often the first food source for bees emerging in the spring. The leaves make great salads for humans, too.
Avoid pesticide use. Pesticides are often non-specific killers of insects, killing even the good guys.
The Pollinator Garden at Las Flores has over fifty-four varieties of pollinator encouraging plants. Each plant was chosen because they attracted pollinators, either specialized or multiple varieties, and most have low water requirements. With bees buzzing, hummingbirds flitting about and several monarch butterfly sightings the question of why we need these gardens has been answered.
Fall Maintenance
Weeds– An ongoing upkeep chore, an application of 1-2 inches of mulch and hand removal of weeds were suggested control methods. Make sure the mulch is at least 2 inches from the base of each plant to prevent root rot.
Pruning– Different plants have individual requirements for pruning needs. Research the cultural needs of your plants.
Deadheading– Removal of dead flowers rewards the effort with more blooms. Leaving spent blooms on the plants for the birds is also an option for some of these plants.
Soil health– Leaving the roots in the ground of the cut down annuals will contribute to soil health. Allow fallen leaves to remain on the ground when possible except in fire prone areas.
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 credits: Laurie Budash
Information links:
Las Flores Learning Garden Pollinator Plants list https://napamg.ucanr.edu/DemoGarden/g4/
UC ANR Best time to plant https://ucanr.edu/sites/ucmgplacer/files/171559.pdf
Encouraging Native Bees https://cagardenweb.ucanr.edu/General/Encouraging_Native_Bees_-_Other_Pollinators/
Make a Pollinator Garden https://ucanr.edu/sites/PollenNation/How_to_Join/Make_a_Pollinator_Garden/
How to attract and maintain pollinators in your garden https://anrcatalog.ucanr.edu/pdf/8498.pdf
UCMG statewide blog: Creating a Pollinator garden https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=18074
USDA The Importance of Pollinators https://www.usda.gov/peoples-garden/pollinators#:~:text=Pollinators%20by%20Numbers,bees%20help%20increase%20crop%20yields.
- Author: Jane Callier
Humans have been stripping mother earth of her verdant, life supporting cloak for a long time, but the damage has shot up to a critical stage during recent years. To extend the metaphor further, earth has been stripped so bare that ecological systems are out of balance. Global warming is a reality, extreme weather and climate situations are causing drought, wildfire, increased land/sea temperature differences, wet areas are wetter and dry areas are drier. We need to help mother earth regain her cloak and soil is the fabric of her cloak.
Following are excerpted concepts and information from UC Master Gardeners of Napa County presentation, “Soil is the Solution, healing the earth one yard at a time,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqA8DqBtRuo . The presentation describes practices we can learn and implement about soil to help slow and ultimately reverse the damage.
Natural processes have been doing this on their own for thousands of years. Increasing soil organic matter is the first practice from the presentation to make healthy soil. Elegantly simple, to increase life in earth's over-tilled and compacted soil we can add compost. Other ways to help add organic material to the soil are using mulching mowers, letting fallen leaves decompose, and implementing a chop and drop system as you groom your garden.
Soil management is key to maintaining healthy aggregated soil. Even one application of compost helps to decrease the carbon level in earth's atmosphere and it creates nutrient-rich humus that is a natural fertilizer. Compost greatly benefits plant growth and water is maintained in the soil longer helping to conserve it. It also adds microscopic organisms that work to aerate the soil, break down organic materials and fight off plant disease and insects. Another benefit is your compostable trash will be kept out the landfill, helping to reduce methane gas.
Regenerating the soil is a natural, inexpensive way to reduce greenhouses gases and is right under our feet. Next up: Use compost, not chemicals.
Master Gardeners are following recommended social distancing guidelines that keep everyone safe, 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 credits: USDA NRCS (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Cynthia Kerson
My miserable failures are depressing. I don't like to kill anything – well maybe an obnoxious carnivorous wasp, even then with feelings of guilt for removing them from their place in the ecology of my garden. The two seasons I tried growing from seed, fall '19 and spring '20, I was able to grow only 10 plants from the about 100 seeds I tried to nurture. Those 10 plants took an elevated position in the garden as they were my “first born.” But, half of them died within a week of getting them into the ground. Of those that did survive, my favorite was the Cosmonaut Volkov heirloom tomato with its red and green striped skin and green tiger-mottled insides and a flavor to die for. I made salads, ate them raw with Maldon salt, made sauce and roasted them. I couldn't get enough.
And while I revel in that one success, I am saddled with the loss of all the rest. Last winter, I seeded cucumbers, tomatoes, summer squash, beets, and sunflowers for this spring and summer. In addition to the tomatoes, the sunflowers were the only other success!
Here's how I lost all those the ‘lil buggers:
- Seedlings grew out of the seedling mix – cutest little cotyledons. I transplanted them too soon. I learned after that I have to wait for the first real leaves to appear.
- Seedlings were spindly. Okay, so I forgot to turn the lights on a few days.
- Overwatering. Underwatering. Inconsistent watering. . .
- Heating mats heated the soil to almost 90*. Most seed instructions say 55*-75*.
- I planted outdoors too soon. I even tented the seedlings. But alas, they still perished.
- Planted outdoors so soon they had no recourse to whatever pests came their way.
- I used the heat mat and lights for fall seeds when I should have taken advantage of the natural light and heat of August and September.
So here I am at trial 3 of parenting seedlings and literally ending up with about four beet plants in one container, which I planted in the ground last week. They died within three days. I tried a few varieties each of beets, carrots, cauliflower, and broccoli. So, the summer's tomatoes while still my “first born,” are also my only children. Thank goodness for the resources we have here in Napa to buy starters or my veggie beds would be bare. I'm not giving up; any resources or advice is very welcomed here.
Information links
UCMG San Mateo/SF http://smsf-mastergardeners.ucanr.edu/Elkus/Cool-climate_tomato_trials/
UC IPM Tomato http://ipm.ucanr.edu/home-and-landscape/tomato/index.html
Sunflower http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/GARDEN/FLOWERS/sunflower.html
Cotyledons http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/C116/m116hscpestdamage.html
Master Gardeners are following recommended social distancing guidelines that keep everyone safe, 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 credits: Oledd, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
by Cindy Watter
Over the years, the original crop I had almost eliminated after I bought my house had crept back, and I did a haphazard job of digging them up, every spring. Last year I let them go, and this spring was rewarded with a lush growth, starred with tiny bell shaped white flowers. How did it spread so quickly? Could it have been a side effect of a two-year-old pollinator habitat, which attracted birds that carried seeds around, besides bees and butterflies? Who knows? In any case, they compete for space, water, and nutrients with other plants, so they had to go.
As Pam Pierce stated, wild onions are good to eat. The entire stalk is excellent grilled, and you can chop them into a frittata or omelet. The greens are quite crunchy, and were tasty in a wild rice salad. I am told that there are restaurants that will pay for the flowers—they look nice in salads. I am sure I will always have an adequate supply for my own use.
Informational links:
Calflora https://www.calflora.org/cgi-bin/species_query.cgi?where-calrecnum=238
Peirce, Pam, Wildly Successful Plants, Sasquatch Books, 2004
by Rainer Hoenicke
Pathogen Mitigation Measures during the Pandemic
In anticipation of tomato season and my recently acquired knowledge of Fusarium and Verticillium wilt, I used the 2020 Coronavirus lock-down to think seriously about avoiding or at least mitigating my previous decade of tomato failure on my suburban lot. How ironic – while avoiding exposure to a new virus that is believed to have jumped the species barrier from bat to human, I am now also engaged in figuring out how to reduce exposure of my newly sprouted heirloom tomato seedlings and this spring's Master Gardener Tomato Sale specimens to a plant pathogen of a different sort – two soil-borne fungal species that are even more ubiquitous than the COVID-19 virus.
Cultural practices and selection of resistant tomato varieties seem to be the only means of mitigating these fungal diseases. Although my suburban lot is larger than most within the Napa city boundaries, it doesn't lend itself very well to rotational practices, since spots that receive more than six hours of sunlight each day are scarce, with all the big trees not only in my own yard but throughout the neighborhood. We are truly living in an urban forest with only a few clearings here and there.
So, I had to think creatively and take the time to strategically plan how to install the equivalent of a “Victory Garden” without a partial or complete tomato and pepper harvest failure. Here are the questions I asked myself:
1) Where do I get more than six hours of sun exposure in my yard?
2) Of those areas in my front and back yards, which have not contained vegetables in the nightshade family for at least the last five years?
3) What is growing there now, and is it worth re-purposing that area for growing tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, or eggplant?
Using cardboard for sheet mulching, topped generously with mulch acquired in February, while the yard waste composting facility was still open, has made removal of the Bermuda grass and other weeds in the backyard meadow relatively easy. The strips between rows of lavender, Ranunculus, Echinacea, and culinary sages are now looking forward to receiving a diverse mix of summer vegetables, and I am hoping for a tomato harvest beyond just a salad or two.
Informational links:
UC IPM-Fusarium https://vric.ucdavis.edu/pdf/diseases_fusariumwilt.pdf
Morton Arboretum-Verticillium
https://www.mortonarb.org/trees-plants/tree-and-plant-advice/help-diseases/verticillium-wilt
Univ of Wisconsin-both https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0145/8808/4272/files/A2617.pdf
UC ANR-Tomatoes https://ucanr.edu/sites/ucmgnevada/files/183442.pdf https://anrcatalog.ucanr.edu/pdf/8159.pdf
Sheet mulching
UCMG Marin County http://marinmg.ucanr.edu/Manage_A_Garden/Composting/Sheet_Mulching/
UCMG Contra Costa Co http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/files/221117.pdf
During Napa County's shelter in place directive that protects everyone's health and safety, 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 credits: Rainer Hoenicke