She believed it to be a gopher, so we discussed the typical signs of gopher activity. The telltale sign is a surfacemound of dirt in a crescent shape.
Gophers use their large forefeet and claws to dig extensive underground tunnels. They primarily feed on roots, but they will venture a short distance out of their tunnels to feed on vegetation above ground. If you've seen the film Caddyshack, you know that they often pull their food down into their tunnels. They have large cheeks that they fill with food.
Excluding them from raised beds is the best way to discourage these voracious herbivores. Lining the bottom of your beds with hardware cloth (metal sheets with small holes) will prevent them from entering your raised beds. This approach also foils other vertebrate pests such as moles, voles and rats. Trapping also works.
You can find more information on trapping vertebrate pest at http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/. This site has excellent research-based information on all things related to garden pests.
The mounds in my friend's raised beds were not crescent-shaped, so we talked about some of the other usual suspects: moles, voles and rats.
Moles make volcano-like mounds. They are carnivorous, eating grubs and insects that you typically don't want in your lawn. It's the damage from their shallow five- to eight-inch-deep burrows that makes them a pest.
Trapping works best with moles. You will need to set at least two traps together, each facing outward, to catch the pest going either direction in the tunnel. Gopher trapping is usually successful within a day or two, but moles require more patience. They can take up to a week to trap.
My friend's loss of plants in her raised beds meant her problem was not likely a mole. This left us with my nemesis: voles.
Voles are small, mouse-sized critters, typically five to eight inches long, including their tails. They are equally happy above and below ground, but they prefer not to feed in open areas. They store their food below groundwhere they are protected from predators and can rest before they continue with their destruction of your garden. They locate their tunnels in areas of protective grasses. Exposing and removing their burrow holes is one way to manage them.
Voles are herbivores, eating an assortment of roots, seeds and above ground plant matter. They operate day and night. If you spot trees with chewed areas a few inches above the ground, you may have voles. This girdling can kill trees, especially young trees. Maintain a three- to four-foot barrier of soil without mulch or weeds to discourage voles from feeding on your trees. Use small-gauge wire fencing with less than ¼-inch openings to keep them out of areas. Bury the fence six to ten inches and make sure it is at least twelve inches above ground.
Mousetraps can be effective with voles. Look for their burrows or above ground runways in grasses. Set the trap at a 90-degree angle to the runway or burrow with the trap end in the pathway.
As a barefooted youngster, I remember when my dad hit a mouse nest while digging for potatoes in our garden. I have had an irrational fear of these critters since. I can still hear their screams.
Rats and mice are similar except for size. Rats are nocturnal, and they cause us extra concern because they can carry diseases. If you keep your pet's water or feeding dishes outside, look for signs of rodent droppings nearby. Wood stacks are the perfect habitat for mice and rats. Monitor for rodent nests. Rats will also burrow, but their exit hole is not usually marked by a soil mound. They like to run along walls, so look there for smudge spots that indicate their activity.
To control them, keep things clean, orderly and off the ground. Remove nests as you find them. Contain garbage with tight-fitting lids. Remove access to food and standing water. Seal cracks. Rats can fit in holes the size of a quarter, and mice can fit into much smaller holes.
There are many different types of traps for mice and rats. Personally, once I caught a mouse, both the creature and the snap trap were removed. No recycling. New electronic traps are more humane and have lights to indicate a creature has used the trap. The trapped pest can be handled without touching it by simply picking up the trap and disposing of the animal.
You can also combat these vertebrate pests with toxic baits. Thoroughly read and follow label instructions. We use surface water for drinking in most of Napa County so make sure you won't affect local waterways by using toxic materials. Also make sure your pet can't access the bait, or get the pest after it has eaten the bait. Use toxic materials only as a last resort, when other methods no longer do the job.
Workshop: Napa County Master Gardeners will conduct a workshop on “Vertebrate Critters in the Garden” on Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., at University of California Cooperative Extension, 1710 Soscol Avenue, Napa. Are birds, raccoons, squirrels, rats or mice persistent pests in your garden? Moles and gophers making holes all over? This workshop helps home gardeners identify and understand the behavior of vertebrate pests and assess control options.Online registration (credit card only)Mail-in registration (cash or check only)
Master Gardeners are volunteers who help the University of California reach the gardening public with home gardening information. Napa County Master Gardeners ( http://ucanr.org/ucmgnapa/) are available to answer gardening questions in person or by phone, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 9 a.m. to Noon, at the U. C. Cooperative Extension office, 1710 Soscol Avenue, Suite 4, Napa, 707-253-4143, or from outside City of Napa toll-free at 877-279-3065. Or e-mail your garden questions by following the guidelines on our web site. Click on Napa, then on Have Garden Questions? Find us on Facebook under UC Master Gardeners of Napa County.
Given Napa Valley's mediterranean climate, it's no surprise that olive trees have long been grown here. But in recent years, the trees have grown increasingly popular as landscape trees and as a source of olives for curing and pressing.
I planted nine olive trees sixteen years ago with no objective other than to block the view of our neighbors' collection of old cars, trucks, boats and whatever else they could not part with. However, once our trees started bearing fruit, the prospect of our own olive oil was too hard to resist.
At first it was fun recruiting friends to help with harvest and then taking our olives to a local mill to be pressed for oil. But then the friends we recruited, all long-time Napans, all moved away. Apparently picking olives in return for a quart or two of olive oil was not how they wanted to spend a weekend.
Also, we realized that the olives were not really free. We incurred growing costs: spraying for the olive fruit fly; buying compost and fertilizer; paying for water and for milling. After considering all of the costs, we knew it would be cheaper to drive to Corning and buy a few gallons of olive oil from a local producer.
But the most serious negative we encountered was the olive fruit fly. Despite spraying, we couldn't eliminate them. At first we simply had to cull some damaged olives before milling. But in 2013, the fruit fly devastated our entire crop. The situation was not quite as dire in 2014, but the problem persists.
Previously we had harvested in late November when most of the fruit had started turning black. This is also when the fruit fly is most evident and the most damage has been done. The female fly lays its eggs in the summer when the olive is about the size of a pea. The most serious damage occurs as the fruit matures and begins to soften and turn color.
If we harvest in early September, when the fruit is still green, we can avoid much of the damage. Green olives yield slightly less oil, and the oil is more bitter and often higher in antioxidants. Many people like the peppery, bitter quality of early-harvest oil, so harvesting green olives is not a bad thing to do and probably the path we will follow this year. It still doesn't make economic sense, but why does everything we do have to make economic sense?
If you decide that harvesting olives is more work than you want, you can spray your trees during bloom (May-June) to reduce fruit set. A hose with a high-pressure nozzle can effectively blow the blooms off the tree, or you can spray with a product containing ethephon, a growth regulator that eliminates unwanted fruit.
Doing nothing is not an alternative. If you are going to allow your trees to produce fruit, then you must combat the fruit fly. Otherwise, your trees become a breeding ground. Olive fruit flies can travel 100 miles in one year, so they can easily migrate to your neighbors' trees or to a commercial orchard in your area.
Sanitation is extremely important. Olives left on trees can support fruit fly reproduction over the winter. Olives left on the ground may contain larvae that can still complete their development. Collect unwanted olives in plastic bags, seal the bags and place them in your garbage container. Do not put them in your compost bin.
If you are considering planting an olive tree and don't want the work and expense that I've described, then consider a fruitless variety. Local nurseries offer them, and they are no more expensive than a fruiting olive tree.
If I had it to do over again, I would probably still plant fruit-bearing olive trees. Our vineyard doesn't make economic sense either, but we prefer looking at olive trees and grapevines rather than a lawn and landscaping.
Workshops:Napa County Master Gardeners will lead a workshop on “Irrigation Updating and Drought Modifications” on Saturday, June 13, from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.., at the University of California Cooperative Extension office, 1710 Soscol Avenue, Napa. Learn how to modify your current irrigation system to make it more efficient and effective. There will be demonstrations and hands-on practice with irrigation controllers, sprinklers, drip systems, rain-water capture and grey-water systems. Bring garden gloves to protect your fingers and a pair of scissors or garden shears.Online registration (credit card only)Mail-in registration (cash or check only).
Workshop: Napa County Master Gardeners will lead a workshop on “Dealing with Drought and Drought-Tolerant Plants” on Saturday, June 13, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., in the Napa Library Community Room, 580 Coombs Street, Napa. Learn what to do now to help your garden survive on very little water. Also learn about what kinds of plants do best with minimal water.This is a free workshop but pre-registration is required.
Online registration; Mail in registration
Workshop: Napa County Master Gardeners will host a workshop on the drought on Sunday, June 14, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Yountville Community Center, 6516 Washington Street, Yountville.Learn more about the implications of drought in California and get irrigation tips and strategies for low water use in a sustainable yard. We will also cover low water use landscaping plant resources. Register for this workshop by calling the Parks and Recreation Department at 707-944-8712 or visit its website.
Master Gardeners are volunteers who help the University of California reach the gardening public with home gardening information. Napa County Master Gardeners ( http://ucanr.org/ucmgnapa/) are available to answer gardening questions in person or by phone, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 9 a.m. to Noon, at the U. C. Cooperative Extension office, 1710 Soscol Avenue, Suite 4, Napa, 707-253-4143, or from outside City of Napa toll-free at 877-279-3065. Or e-mail your garden questions by following the guidelines on our web site. Click on Napa, then on Have Garden Questions? Find us on Facebook under UC Master Gardeners of Napa County.
May happened to be a busy month for me, with an out-of-town trip to celebrate a college graduation. I managed to plant the tomato seedlings I bought at the Napa County Master Gardener tomato sale, and a few peppers and eggplants found their way into the bed reserved for them. However, I am way behind on planting beans, squash, basil, cucumbers and melons.
Fortunately, planting a garden is not a now-or-never activity. The vegetables that love warm weather are still available in June, and we have a long summer, with plenty of time to grow many vegetables to maturity.
Before you plant, add fertilizer and compost to your vegetable patch. Warm-season vegetables need food to produce a crop, and it is easier to feed with a balanced fertilizer before planting than to try to fertilize around the plant roots later.
Determine how much space the full-grown plant requires before planting the seedling. Tomatoes, pumpkins and some squash take up a lot of room, and they can overwhelm smaller vegetables planted nearby. Consider what support your plants will need, and set that up at planting time so you don't disturb roots or break plant limbs when you get around to it later.
Vegetables to plant as seedlings include tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash and cucumbers. You can sow seeds for beans, corn, cucumbers, melons and pumpkins directly in the ground. Check seed packets or plant tags for “days to maturity” to be sure the plant has time to mature before days start getting short and cool in October. If you plant a tomato or pumpkin variety that matures in 80 days or fewer, chances are good that you will get a harvest. Varieties that need 100 days or more may not ripen by the end of summer.
Many cool-season vegetables thrive in Napa Valley if planted in June, including beets, carrots, chard, fennel, green onions, leeks, lettuce, parsnips and radishes. In the hottest parts of the valley, plant them in areas that get afternoon shade.
Several annual herbs can be planted in June. Sweet basil comes in many different forms and flavors and can be an ornamental addition to the garden. Cilantro grows rapidly from seed to flower, so sow several times throughout the summer. You can also sow dill seeds now.
It is not too late to plant many annual flowers. Because I am trying to use less water, I'm not starting any new garden beds, but I am adding flowers to my vegetable beds wherever there is space. Some annual flowers that you can easily start from seed include marigolds, zinnias, nasturtiums, tithonia, cosmos, sunflowers and statice. These annuals and others are also available as seedlings at nurseries.
Be sure any flowers you plant won't shade sun-loving vegetables. My spring vegetable bed produced lots of salad greens, carrots, beets andpakchoias well as bachelor buttons and volunteer larkspur. These flowers kept the ground covered as I harvested vegetables, and they looked great, too.
Give your fruit trees a good, deep soaking in June, then apply a thick layer of mulch. I use homemade and purchased compost for this purpose. Mulching is important in the vegetable garden, too. I mulch the tops of beds with compost and the sides and pathways with straw. Besides conserving precious moisture, mulch makes the beds look tidy.
Soon I will have planted most of the summer vegetables I intend to grow this year. But now the spring vegetable bed has a lot of bare space. What can I plant there? For an avid vegetable gardener, the garden is never complete.
Workshop: Napa County Master Gardeners will host a workshop on the drought on Saturday, June 6, from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at the University of California Cooperative Extension Office, 1710 Soscol Avenue, Napa. Understand the implications of drought in California and learn irrigation tips and strategies for low water use in a sustainable yard. We will also cover low water use landscaping plant resources.Online registration (credit card only)Mail-in registration (cash or check only).This workshop will be repeated in Yountville on June 14.
Master Gardeners are volunteers who help the University of California reach the gardening public with home gardening information. Napa County Master Gardeners ( http://ucanr.org/ucmgnapa/) are available to answer gardening questions in person or by phone, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 9 a.m. to Noon, at the U. C. Cooperative Extension office, 1710 Soscol Avenue, Suite 4, Napa, 707-253-4143, or from outside City of Napa toll-free at 877-279-3065. Or e-mail your garden questions by following the guidelines on our web site. Click on Napa, then on Have Garden Questions? Find us on Facebook under UC Master Gardeners of Napa County.
Named for botanist Anders Dahl, the dahlia is the official flower of San Francisco and also of Mexico. It is a perennial plant that can stand alone or serve as filler around shrubs, as a colorful border or as a bright spot in pots.
Dahlias bloom from midsummer until winter's first frost. They have strong stems, divided leaves and blooms that range from 10 inches across for the so-called "dinner plate" types to the smallest lollypop-style pompons. Some grow almost five feet tall.
Dahlias can thrive in full sun but need some shade in the hottest areas. The plants require at least 120 days to bloom, and they do well in the cool, moist Pacific Coast climate.They prefer regular watering and rich, loose, well-drained soil that is slightly acidic.
When planting dahlias, be patient. Wait until after the last frost and until soil temperature reaches 60°F. Choose an area protected from wind that gets six to eight hours of direct sun every day, predominantly morning sun.
Make sure all your tubers are firm and healthy looking. Some tubers may have a little green shoot, which is a good sign.
Space dahlia tubers one to three feet apart, with the wider spacing for taller varieties.
Dig a planting hole larger than the tuber. Incorporate compost and a sprinkle of bone meal. Plant the tubers four to six inches deep with the points, or “eyes,” facing up.
Larger plants will require staking. Stake them at planting time so you will not accidentally injure a tuber when sinking the supports later. Tie a flag or something at the top of each stake. Urban legends abound about gardeners bending over and poking an eye on a stake.
Tie plants to the stakes as they grow. Wait until the first green shoot breaches the soil before watering. Avoid covering with mulch or bark as this may deter sprouting and encourage slugs and snails.
The larger dahlia blooms look best in a dedicated area, but smaller varieties work well as add-ins just about anywhere. I like to plant them randomly in my garden for a burst of color.
When the first shoots appear, start watering deeply two to three times a week. Use a low-nitrogen fertilizer to avoid ranginess and a decrease in flower production. Dahlias should bloom in about eight weeks. The larger blooms will need staking but the smaller varieties just need pinching to keep them bushy. If you pinch and deadhead regularly, you will get a wonderful flower display for about three months.
In our areas, gardeners differ on whether to leave dahlias in the ground over the winter or to dig them up and store them. If you choose to store the tubers, clean off all soil and put each tuber in a separate brown paper bag in a cool dry location. Separating them helps prevent any transfer of disease or mildew. If you choose to leave them in the ground, cover them with a deep, dry mulch. The foliage turns black after a frost and should be cut back to the ground.
Dahlias are relatively pest resistant although slugs and snails find them tasty. Aphids and powdery mildew can be a problem. Check the University of California's Integrated Pest Management website for more information on growing dahlias.
Workshop: Napa County Master Gardeners are offering a workshop titled “More on Flowers” on Sunday, May 31, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., at Yountville Community Center, 6516 Washington Street, Yountville. Learn how to use flowers as focal points in the garden and how to care for them to keep them looking great. To register, contact the Parks and Recreation Department at 707-944-8712 or visit itsweb site.
Master Gardeners are volunteers who help the University of California reach the gardening public with home gardening information. Napa County Master Gardeners ( http://ucanr.org/ucmgnapa/) are available to answer gardening questions in person or by phone, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 9 a.m. to Noon, at the U. C. Cooperative Extension office, 1710 Soscol Avenue, Suite 4, Napa, 707-253-4143, or from outside City of Napa toll-free at 877-279-3065. Or e-mail your garden questions by following the guidelines on our web site. Click on Napa, then on Have Garden Questions? Find us on Facebook under UC Master Gardeners of Napa County.
- Author: Susanne von Rosenberg
How much water a plant needs is driven by day length,temperature and wind. Plants lose water as long as they are photosynthesizing—in other words, as long as it is light out. The hotter and windier it is, the more water a plant needs.
Usually plants need the most water in early summer, at the end of June and beginning of July. A few weeks can make a big difference. Six weeks before that peak and six weeks afterward, your garden needs only about two-thirds as much water. By the end of September, plants need only about one-third the water that they did at the peak.
How much water your plants need also depends on how you use it. It can be scary to cut back when you've been successful with your watering regimen.To help you, here are some tips for conserving water in the vegetable garden and orchard:
Start with improving your soil because healthy soil holds more water. Amend with compost or other organic matter. Soil rich in organic material retains five times as much water as depleted soil does. So the healthy soil on my one-acre property holds an extra 100,000 gallons of water. Make sure your soil is thoroughly moist before you plant.
Mulch your garden. A generous layer of mulch will keep soil moisture from evaporating. As a bonus, organic mulches enhance soil fertility and water-holding capacity in future years and reduce the weeds that compete with your plants. Apply mulch to moist soil and make sure that irrigation water penetrates the mulch and reaches the underlying soil. Planting vegetables closer together will also help shade the soil and reduce moisture loss.
Water at the right time and in the right way.Use drip irrigation to apply water where it is needed, and irrigate when wind and temperatures are low to reduce evaporation. Early morning is best; evening is second best. Probe your soil for moisture. If it feels dry two inches down, it's time to water.
Get to know the signs that your vegetables are thirsty. Rather than a “set it and forget it” watering routine, look at your plants. Are the leaves getting dull? Is the plant a bit droopy? Then it's probably time to water. Squashes and pumpkins are an exception; they often look wilted in mid-afternoon. As long as they recover in the evening, they probably still have sufficient soil moisture.
Give new plants a good start. Apply adequate water early on and then taper off.As the plants mature,water less frequently but more deeply to encourage deep roots.
Avoid or minimize your plantings of the “thirsty” vegetables. Corn, soybeans, squashes, pumpkins, most watermelons and some cucumbers require a lot of water. If you can't live without them, look for varieties bred for drought tolerance and consider planting “bush” varieties if available. Plants with less foliage will use less water. Good vegetable choices include tomatoes and pole beans. Both yield over a long season without requiring large amounts of water.
Shade your vegetables during extreme heat with an umbrella, shade cloth or floating row cover. Remove the shading as soon as temperatures return to normal; summer vegetable plants prefer at least eight hours of sunlight per day.
In late summer, plant a cool-season garden. Even with below-normal rainfall, cool-season vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower and greens require less water. In a wet year, you might not have to irrigate at all after the plants are established.
Finally, if water rationing means that you have to choose, let your annual vegetables go and water your fruit and landscape trees instead.
What's your best tip for saving water in your vegetable garden? Leave us a note on our Facebook page. And if you'd like to learn more about the physiological adaptions that plants make to water stress, take a look at this blog post on the Master Gardener website: http://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=13978
Workshop: Napa County Master Gardeners will conduct a workshop on “Habitat Gardens at Home or School” on Saturday, May 16, from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., at Skyline Park, Martha Walker Garden, 2201 Imola Avenue, Napa. Participants will tour the Martha Walker Garden to discover the plants and garden elements that attract bees, birds and pollinators. Master Gardeners will explain the value of habitat corridors whether the garden is in a rural, urban, or school setting. Online registration (credit card only) Mail-in registration (cash or check only)
Master Gardeners are volunteers who help the University of California reach the gardening public with home gardening information. Napa County Master Gardeners ( http://ucanr.org/ucmgnapa/) are available to answer gardening questions in person or by phone, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 9 a.m. to Noon, at the U. C. Cooperative Extension office, 1710 Soscol Avenue, Suite 4, Napa, 707-253-4143, or from outside City of Napa toll-free at 877-279-3065. Or e-mail your garden questions by following the guidelines on our web site. Click on Napa, then on Have Garden Questions? Find us on Facebook under UC Master Gardeners of Napa County.
