Flying Flowers In Your Garden

by Lee Oliphant  Master Gardener

Q. I’d love to create a “habitat” garden that encourages butterflies to visit. Can you make some suggestions for plantings? Kathi, Cambria.

All that flying about in your garden is serious business for a butterfly or insect of the Lepidoptera order. The butterfly is looking for a “host plant” on which to lay its eggs, or flowers that provide nectar to replenish its energy. To maximize opportunity for these beautiful “flying flowers” to get what they need in your garden, cultivate host plants that provide food for the butterfly’s caterpillar stage, and flowers that provide the adult butterfly with a much needed “energy drink”.

 Depending on the species, some butterfly larvae, like those of the Monarch, eat leaves from a specific plant. Monarchs dine on Asclepias Asciepias sp. or milkweed. Less “picky” species choose to dine on several plants. Good “bed and breakfast” plants for butterflies in the larval stage are native plants such as: Arabis (rock cress), Astragalus (milk vetch, loco weed), Ceanothus spp., wild fennel, and sticky monkey flower. Viola support many local butterflies species.

Many California native plants provide nectar that will attract butterflies to your garden. Natives such as red columbine, yerba santa, wallflower, California mock-orange, coyote mint, California buckeye, wild buckwheat, and sunflowers are butterfly favorites. Common non-natives that attract butterflies are lantana, heliotrope, verbena, butterfly bush, valerian, yarrow, and mint.

In addition to nectar, butterflies need water. They tend to gather around puddles to sip. Fill a shallow container with moist sand and a few rocks to provide a perch for thirsty visitors.

FOR WONDERFUL IMAGES AND USEFUL INFORMATION ABOUT BUTTERFLIES, AMONG OTHER INSECTS , YOU MAY WANT TO VISIT THE BUG SQUAD BLOG AT http://ucanr.edu/blogs/bugsquad/.  Making your garden attractive to butterflies will provide you with an ever-changing colorful display and allow you to “spend some time with a butterfly”.

September Gardening:  A Time of Transition

by Steve McDermott  Master Gardener

Q:  My garden is doing fine and I’m not doing much except eating giant zucchinis. Should I be doing anything else?   M.P., Nipomo

The September calendar marks the transition to fall this month which means subtle changes in your garden.  Day length is shorter, plants are getting ready for storing carbohydrates in their roots over winter, and most of the summer crop is ready for final harvesting.  So it’s time to wrap up summer and move on to prepare for your future garden.  

 Because of weather and daylight changes, your plants need a bit less water than they did at their high point of need in July. However, since some days are very hot in September, do continue to monitor their water needs. 

 This is a good time to prepare for a healthy spring garden while your plants move into winter dormancy.  Remove diseased plant material, fallen fruit, and decaying vegetables and carefully dispose them. It’s best to bag this material and remove it from your garden.  Continue to pinch back flowering plants such as begonias, geraniums, and marigolds.  If needed, fertilize perennial plants, trees, and warm season lawn grasses such as St. Augustine (be sure to water deeply).  Aerate your lawn before adding fertilizer or other amendments to improve absorption.  Add mulch around plants.  Clip evergreen hedges for the last time this year. Divide spring blooming perennials. 

 For fall color, add salvia, plumbago, chrysanthemum, and daylily. For winter, plant perennial herbs such as rosemary and thyme.  Place lettuce, parsley, and cilantro in areas that are protected from frost.  Try alyssum and forget-me-nots for ground cover and primroses and ornamental cabbage for accents. 

 Fall is generally an excellent time to plant trees and shrubs. As always, only choose reputable establishments to purchase your plants and always carefully inspect nursery stock for any signs of pests or disease before purchasing. Make sure the plants fit the type of soil and environmental conditions of your garden.  Also, consider the space and water they will require as they mature. 

 Finally, get ready for spring color by planting or purchasing bulbs now. Plant native bulbs such as Mariposa lily or wild hyacinth, crocosmia, and sparaxis.  Buy freesia, daffodil, ranucula, crocus and paperwhite narcissus bulbs and “force” cold conditions so they will bloom in spring. Most of these require 6 to 8 weeks of refrigeration before placing them in your gardens. 

Good Vegetables Rely On Good Soil

By Christina Muller, UC Master Gardener

Should I do anything to my soil before planting winter vegetables?  Grace in SLO

 Gardeners grow vegetables for many reasons but primary among them is the personal belief that homegrown vegetables taste better.  This is more likely to be true when they are grown in good soil.  For vegetables, the best soils are loams or sandy loams.  Both types have a suitable mixture of silt, clay, and sand so that they retain water and yet allow it to percolate.

If your garden isn’t blessed with such soil, you can improve it.  Whether it’s sandy or has too much clay or silt, the solution is to add and mix in organic matter such as compost, manure, leaves, or lawn clippings (herbicide- and pesticide-free).  While these amendments will improve the structure or tilth of the soil, fertilizer will most likely be needed as well.  Vegetables require a menu of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), and various micronutrients for best growth.  Strong, healthy vegetables are less likely to fall prey to pest infestations as well.

If you begin early enough, you might consider planting a cover crop.   A few examples are oats, vetch, cowpeas, buckwheat, and clover.  Cover crops are grown, cut, and then either left in place or turned into the soil.  The right cover crop can add nitrogen, break up clay soil, or grow during summer with little water.  All are effective at adding organic matter to the soil.

You may choose not to amend your soil if, for instance, it is very heavy clay or there is a hardpan that roots won’t penetrate.  In that case, another option for growing vegetables is to use raised beds with purchased bagged or bulk soil. Depending on its quality, amendments and fertilizer may still need to be added.  If you line the beds with hardware cloth before adding the soil, you’ll enjoy the added bonus of foiling the voracious and insatiable pocket gophers!

Advice to Grow by Workshop - Planning A Garden
By Andrea Peck  Master Gardener

If the plot of land you hope to call a garden leaves you scratching your head and retreating back to your house, you may be interested in attending this month’s Advice to Grow By workshop. Hosted by the San Luis Obispo Master Gardeners, this free discussion will address ways to plan a new landscape project. This lively and informative presentation will be held in the Garden of the Seven Sisters which features a wide variety of creative landscape choices. 

A well-tended garden is a beautiful thing to behold, a flowering plant at just the right height, with striking colors and shapes – all flowing together effortlessly. We are lulled into thinking it just grew this way. It is the one aspect of gardening that seldom sprouts during gardening conversations. The best laid gardens are achieved from the best laid plans. 

An organized approach is the gardener’s most essential tool. With that in mind, before you begin your project, no matter how large or small, create a plan, write it down and ponder it a bit. Look around your area and decipher what you have in the way of soil, sun versus shade, space and other considerations such as weather, salty air and wind. Do you get substantial frost or are you working in a spot that is fairly temperate? Don’t forget to balance the area with hardscape, such as pathways and adequate drainage. A plan is essential for the long term, particularly with large growing plants that tend to engulf less assuming plants. You may be overwhelmed when you look to purchase plants from the nursery. With a predetermined design, you will find that you are more precise in your selections. 

Planning suggestions and accumulated wisdom will be shared in greater depth at 10 a.m. this Saturday, August 17th. The Garden of the Seven Sisters is located at 2156 Sierra Way. Dress comfortably, bring sunscreen and water, and please park in the lot adjacent to the demonstration garden. Most of all, enjoy!