Plant Bulbs Now for Spring Bloom

One of the pleasures of gardening is the spring display of blossoms from hyacinths, tulips, daffodils and other bulbous plants. These plants are unique and delightful harbingers of the end of winter, the imminent arrival of the warmer days of spring, the bursting buds of many plants, and many other aspects of life’s cycle.

With careful observation, we can also witness the offspring of birds, insects and—depending on where you live and where you wander— the beasts of the field and the forest.

We can set our digital calendars or timepieces to ensure that we enjoy the magical gift that we receive each spring, but a gardening strategy for marking the occasion is equally reliable, more natural and definitely more satisfying.

This gardening strategy imposes certain obligations on the gardener, mostly involving timely action. In particular, this means planting spring bulbs in the early fall, and that requires planning just about now.

If you are a past mail-order customer of spring bulbs, you should find a catalog or two in your mail soon. You might have already received such timely prompts. Take the time to look through the pages to imagine those blossoms in your garden in the spring, make your choices and order the bulbs right away, while you most likely to secure the selections you prefer.

If you are already a regular cultivator of spring bulbs you will have many ideas to consider. If you would like inspiration, the American Gardening Association has listed “The Top 50 Most Popular Spring Blooming Bulbs.” Find this list at the NGA website, garden.org.

If you particularly like tulips, which are available in a mind-boggling range of colors and forms. Plan to order your selected bulbs early enough to chill them for eight-to-ten weeks in vented paper bags in a refrigerator. Do not store fruit in the refrigerator at the same time, because ripening fruits (especially apples) releases ethylene gas that will damage the bulbs. In November or early December, move them directly from the refrigerator to a sunny planting site.

Alternatively, look for a supplier that offers pre-chilled bulbs and well send them to you at planting time. This is a convenient option but generally is available only with a limited selection of bulbs. You still need to order early.

There are a few wild tulips that are readily available and do not require chilling. They typically their blossoms are not as large and showy as those of the hybrid varieties, but they are nevertheless quite charming additions to the garden. Look for Tulip bakeri (native to Crete), T. clusiana (Middle East), T. saxatillis (Crete), T. sylvestris (Europe, Asia Minor), and T. tarda (Central Asia). One mail-order source of wild tulips is McClure & Zimmerman.

Many other spring-blooming bulbs do not require such chilling. The most popular of these are the daffodils, which include a wonderful range of hybrid colors and forms. Daffodils are fine choices for the Monterey Bar area because they will propagate easily with minimal care, and provide a growing annual display in your garden.

Plant your spring-blooming bulbs in a sunny location, with the top about three times as deep as the diameter of the bulb.

Spring-blooming bulbs are not expensive, so consider the purchase of enough bulbs to provide a dramatic display in the spring. Plant them in informal clusters either among other garden plants or in an open area.

The tried-and-true bulbs are always a good choice, but also consider bringing some of the less familiar plants to your garden. As you gain experience with spring-blooming bulbs, you can plant varieties that bloom in the early, middle or late season for a longer display, or color groupings that delight the eye, or container plantings that can be placed prominently when at their prime and moved later out of the way as they fade.

Start now to plan your display of spring-blooming bulbs!

The Healthy Soils Initiative for Home Gardens

A recent On Gardening column draw attention to California’s Healthy Soils Initiative, which is part of “California’s strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by increasing carbon sequestration in and on natural and working lands. “ The Initiative is part of the state’s Climate Smart Agriculture programs, which include coordinated work on efficient water usage, conservation of farmlands, capture of methane emissions, and alternative practices for manure management.

California funds Climate Smart Agriculture and other Climate Change Strategies through its cap-and-trade program, a market-based regulation designed to reduce greenhouse gases (GHGs) from multiple sources. Cap-and-trade sets a firm limit or cap on GHGs and minimizes the compliance costs of achieving the state’s goals for reducing GFGs. The legislature and Governor Brown are working toward extending this program beyond 2020.

The Climate Change Strategies target large-scale operations in several industrial fields, but all could be implemented on an individual level. The Healthy Soils Initiative has particular relevance for individuals. It doesn’t offer public funding for home gardeners, but it aligns completely with the best practices for sustainable and more successful gardening.

The payoffs include improving plant health and yields, increasing water infiltration and retention, sequestering and reducing greenhouse gases, reducing sediment erosion and dust, improving water and air quality, and improving biological diversity and wildlife habitat.

Here is an overview of recommendations to develop healthy soils:

Protect the natural structure of the soil. This is easy because means avoiding or at least minimizing tilling of the soil. Some gardeners have adopted the practice of turning over the soil regularly, using a mechanical device or a shovel or garden fork. “Breaking up the soil” has been equated with improving it by mixing in amendments and facilitating the spread of plant roots. While these seem like desirable outcomes, tilling actually pulverizes soil aggregates which are groups of soil particles that bind to each other more strongly than to adjacent particles. Spaces between the aggregates provide pores for retention and exchange of air and water. Tilling, therefore, adds excess oxygen to the soil and increases respiration and carbon dioxide emission. It also disrupts fungal communities.

Increase soil fertility. For vegetable gardeners, this involves growing cover crops during periods after harvesting one crop and planting another, digging in the cover crop to add nitrogen and other nutrients to the soil. The same practice is recommended when ornamental gardens are being renovated. Other methods for increasing soil fertility include adding compost and animal manures to restore the plant/soil microbiome. A three- or four-inch layer of such amendments will contribute nutrients without digging it in. This practice includes avoiding uses of synthetic fertilizers, which distort soil microbial communities, in addition to consuming energy for production and distribution, migrating into water resources and the atmosphere, and accelerating the decomposition of organic matter.

Build biological ecosystem diversity. For farmers, this practice includes rotating crops, avoiding mono-cropping, and planting borders to accommodate bees and other beneficial insects. For the home gardener, the parallel actions include losing the lawn (which is mono-cropping), providing foods, water and habitats for birds, bees, butterflies and beneficial insects and small animals. A helpful related resource is the National Wildlife Federation.

Manage grazing for soil regeneration. The parallel practice in this area for home gardeners applies only to those who grow chickens, ducks or rabbits, or perhaps other smaller creatures. The basic idea is to move them around the property for their own health and the production of healthy soil. For growers of commercial livestock, it’s a significant part of soil regeneration.

You can read more about these ideas on the websites of the California Department of Food and Agriculture or Regeneration International.

California’s Healthy Soils Initiative

When confronted with an existential threat, it’s good to know that you and your elected representatives are doing everything possible to mitigate the problem.

The most important threat imaginable is climate change, as we read frequent reports about the ways in which the accumulation of atmospheric carbon will bring (and is already bringing) changes for flora and fauna, including such fauna as you and I. A very recent story concerns the eventual inundation of Santa Cruz’s wastewater treatment plant.

This concern—and several others—arises in the future, but not the “very distant” future, like astronomical events, but far enough away for many of our corporate and political leaders to shrug it off in favor of the next quarterly financial report or the next election.

The good news is that California’s government has adopted practical goals and realistic strategies for combatting climate change—at least as it applies within the state’s boundaries. Happily, other states are drawing inspiration and models from some of California’s actions in the area.

The not-so-good news is that climate change ignores political boundaries: it is a global phenomenon and California’s climate will be influenced ultimately by the collective efforts of the rest of the world.

Returning what the people could do to reduce the threat of climate change, we discover that we could take productive actions individually and that if everyone were to participate, the results could be significant.

We could describe reducing uses of fossil fuels and plastics, and recycling items that can be recycled, but in this column, we will emphasize constructive actions that individual gardeners can take in the garden.

The guidelines for such actions are contained in California’s Healthy Soils Initiative, which has been in the works for a couple years and takes practical effect this summer.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), which is the lead agency for the Healthy Soils Initiative, has advised as follows:

“Health of agricultural soil relates to its ability to build and retain adequate soil organic matter via the activity of plants and soil organisms. Adequate soil organic matter ensures the soil’s continued capacity to function as a vital living ecosystem with multiple benefits that sustains and produces food for plants, animals, and humans.”

Healthy Soils Diagram

Those multiple benefits include improving plant health and yields, increasing water infiltration and retention, sequestering and reducing greenhouse gases, reducing sediment erosion and dust, improving water and air quality, and improving biological diversity and wildlife habitat.

These outcomes are as good for home gardeners as they are for commercial farmers.

The Healthy Soils Initiative targets California’s agricultural industry, as it should because it involves a relatively small number of players each of which is responsible for large numbers of acres. In comparison, California’s gardening community involves a large number of players who are each responsible for a small plot of land. A detailed comparison could show that home gardeners collectively manage a great deal of land, perhaps as much as commercial farmers.

The conclusion is that home gardeners are well advised to apply the principles of the California’s Healthy Soils Initiative, which in other circles are called the principles of soil regeneration.

We will review those principles in future columns. In the meantime, you can read them on the websites of the CDFA or Regeneration International.

Garden Faire Celebrates Sustainable Gardening

The first day of summer, June 21st, approaches rapidly, marking an annual astronomical event (the Summer Solstice), the annual Garden Faire (more about that below), and perhaps a time for gardeners to review their calendar calendars.

For each year since 2005, the Garden Faire has convened in Scotts Valley as a regional celebration of sustainable gardening, water conservation, and healthy living, The program varies a bit each year, but there are certain constants:

First of these is consistent—and greatly appreciated—support of local water providers, specifically the San Lorenzo Valley, Santa Cruz, Scotts Valley, and Soquel Creek water districts. Their interest in the Garden Faire reflects official reports that close to 50% of residential water use happens outdoors, largely for garden irrigation. That usage is ok when it is done wisely, which generally includes:

  • Using landscape plants that are appropriate for the local environment, particularly plants that are native to California or at least to our summer-dry climate, and avoiding tropical climate plants that require a lot of water; and
  • Providing only the amount of water that plants need, by using drop irrigation, turning off irrigation after a rainy spell (or during!), and directing water to the plants rather than to paved surfaces.

Water conservation makes sense during periods of drought and is always good practice. Drought considerations could return at any time, so we should make wise water usage a matter of habit. Our payoff comes in the form of smaller water bills.

Our water districts also prioritize the protection of the watershed. As we consider the water cycle, we appreciate the importance of keeping synthetic chemicals out of our groundwater. For gardeners, good practice means using only organic fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides in the landscape. These products are best for our water supply as well as for the quality of our soils and the wellbeing of all forms wildlife: mammals, birds, insects and, lest we forget, the incredible diversity of organisms that make up the soil food web.

Gardeners and water providers have common interests: practices that are consistent with water conservation and watershed protection are also strongly preferred for garden cultivation.

This year’s theme, “Cultivating Community in Times of Change,” a variation on previous themes, emphasizes timely and interconnected issues: growing plants and society, and the opportunities and challenges of current environmental and political conditions.

The Garden Faire presents messages along these lines in various ways, without preaching. The event includes knowledgeable Main Tent speakers on various aspects of sustainable gardening, in the Main Tent, and Nutrition Tent speakers on healthy foods. The Faire also includes vendors that have been selected for their compatibility with the Faire’s theme, and that offer a variety of garden-related products and services. Community groups also participate in offering information related to sustainable gardening and healthy living.

The occasion also includes musical entertainment and healthy food choices. All these elements combine to provide a pleasant, low-pressure environment to celebrate gardening, learn a bit about sustainability, and enjoy a sunny day among friendly members of the regional community. For more information, visit the Garden Faire’s website.

The Garden Faire is a free-admission event, made possible by local sponsors, modest fees paid by exhibitors, and a hard-working team of volunteers. Still, you will want to be prepared to purchase plants for your garden.

IF YOU GO

What: The 12the Annual Garden Faire

Who: The Garden Fair, Inc., a non-profit corporation.

Where: Skypark, Scotts Valley

When: 9:00 to 5:00, Saturday, June 17, 2017

Cost: Free admission, free parking.

Information: http://thegardenfaire.org

Destroying Petunias

In mid-May of this year, flower nurseries throughout Europe and the United States destroyed uncounted thousands of healthy flowering plants, in compliance with government orders.

This might shock gardeners, but it could the right move.

This story began thirty years ago at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, when genetic engineers inserted a maize gene into petunias, leading to the development of a petunia in a color that petunias do not produce in nature: orange.

These studies did not result in the introduction of unusual new petunias, however, because government regulations in Europe and the United States require extensive analysis of the possible risks of GE organisms on human health and the environment. The orange petunia’s market potential was not great enough to support the additional expense of such studies, so the novel hybrids were not introduced, and the lessons learned were just added to genetic engineering’s growing library.

In 1995, other plant scientists reported that this genetically engineered (GE) orange color and its variations could be passed on to hybrid petunias through conventional sexual propagation.

Although this information was announced without fanfare, plant breeders used the orange petunia cultivar, during a period of several years to produce and introduce a variety of petunias with shades of orange. These new hybrids were treated like any new plants and not reviewed for safety or submitted for regulatory approval either in Europe or the United States.

In 2015, a plant biologist who had studied plant pigments at the University of Helsinki noticed orange petunias at a train station. He remembered the original genetic engineering experiments, tested a sample of the plants, and reported that they contained foreign DNA. In brief, they were GE organisms that had not been approved by government regulators. They were illegal flowers!

The word got out. In April of this year, Finland’s food safety authority, EVIRA, identified eight illegal petunia varieties and called for their removal from the market.

May 25th of this year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) identified nine varieties of GE petunias with orange, red or purple blossoms, and told growers and sellers to withdraw these plants from distribution and to dispose of existing plant by burning, sterilizing in an autoclave, burying them deeply, or composting. Seeds of these plants are to be disposed of by these methods, or by grinding. APHIS has identified eighteen potentially GE petunias that could be added to the disposal list.

APHIS advises: “Consumers who may have purchased GE petunias need take no action, as the petunias are not considered to pose a risk to human health or the environment.” Petunias are annual plants and will not last beyond the current season.

What is the significance of this regulatory action? APHIS has not found that GE petunias are threats to human health or the environment (as plant pests or noxious weeds might be designated) but wants them destroyed because they are unauthorized. They are unauthorized because the developers have not provided sufficient evidence to prove their safety, and petitioned for unregulated status. They have not done so in that past because they may have known that the plants contain foreign DNA, and probably won’t do so in the future because of the time and cost involved in formal testing.

The practical consequences of this regulation could be that GE improvements in ornamental plants, such as blossoms with novel colors, or greater size or abundance will not be available to gardeners specifically because of the cost of regulatory approval. We won’t see orange petunias or clear red irises or blue roses or any other cultivars that have eluded plant breeders.

We may be comforted that the genetic engineers will focus their efforts on organisms with large market potentials, and regulators will continue to do their work. Some scientific achievements, like creating the orange petunia, provide only interesting distractions, while others could generate unseen and unintended dangers to our health and the environment.

With tradeoffs like that, our gardens can do fine without orange petunias.

Mosses & Bryophytes

Learning about flowering plants (angiosperms) can be a lifelong study for a gardener. One report states that they include 416 families, approximately 13,164 known genera and about 295,383 known species. Angiosperms are within the group called vascular land plants, i.e., plants that have specialized tissues for conducting water and minerals throughout the plant, and for conducting the products of photosynthesis.

Other kinds of vascular land plants include clubmosses, horsetails, ferns, and gymnosperms (e.g., conifers). Seaweeds and other plants that grow in water (aquatics) are in a different group.

The scientific term for vascular land plants is Tracheophytes, a name with the same root as our own windpipes (trachea). The suffix “–phytes” means “plants.”

The complement to vascular land plants could be non–vascular land plants, which do not have the specialized tissues of vascular plants, and that have very different ways to grow and propagate. For example, instead of roots they have rhizoids, which are similar to the root hairs of vascular plants.

Non-vascular land plants, called Bryophytes (“moss plants”), have three divisions: mosses, liverworts and hornworts. There are some 18,400 species among the Bryophytes, including about 13,000 mosses, 5,200 liverworts and just 200 hornworts. This group is clearly much smaller in number than the Tracheophytes. The plants also are typically much smaller in size, even in some cases microscopic.

The current issue of Fremontia, the journal of the California Native Plant Society, includes an absorbing article on Bryophytes, and suggests that we should care about them because of their aesthetic charm, contributions to biodiversity, and ecological functions, which include hydrological buffering and nutrient cycling.

Because of such qualities, about two years ago interested persons formed the Bryophyte Chapter of the California Plant Society, to “increase understanding and appreciation of California’s mosses, liverworts, and hornworts—and to protect them where they grow.” For information on this group, visit the website <bryophyte.cnps.org>.

The aesthetic aspect of Bryophytes, moss in particular, might be interesting to gardeners and landscapers.

Moss Garden

Moss Garden, from Moss & Stone Gardens.com

Moss gardening can be a fascinating pursuit for the adventurous gardener with sufficient time and patience. There are moss varieties for many different situations, including both sunny and shady settings as well as a wide range of soil types (except sand). Growing moss for an unusual garden bed or between stepping stones or pavers can take a year or two and consistent irrigation. For information on such projects, search the Internet for “moss gardens” or visit Moss & Stone Gardens.com for the useful paper, “How to Grow Moss.”

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Tree Removal Services for Landscaping with Olive Trees

Ever since I began organizing my garden in the five Mediterranean climate zones, some existing trees and shrubs were not in the correct areas. A particular concern has been a ninety-foot long section designated for plants from the Mediterranean basin area. This section, on the southwest border of the garden, has a long-standing row of Willow Leaf Cotoneasters (C. salicifolius), screening the adjacent property.

This Cotoneaster is a fine shrub that grows vigorously and produces long, looping branches from its base, and reaches about ten feet high. It is drought tolerant and trouble-free and can be controlled annually by cutting up to a third of the larger branches at ground level.

In most respects, these shrubs are desirable elements of the landscape, but they spread over a large area and create a lot of shade. In addition, as natives of western China, they do not relate to the Mediterranean climate zones. Here the Best Tree Removal Company Phoenix AZ experts can help you.

The plan is to replace these shrubs with several olive trees (Olea europaea), which are native to Crete and Syria, originally, and strongly associated with the Mediterranean basin area. They are evergreens, with gray-green leaves and an attractive natural form that is graceful and billowing.

Fruitless Olive

Olea europaea ‘Majestic Beauty’

Olive trees are most often grown for their fruits, which are the source of olive oil, a popular and healthy resource in the kitchen and on the dining table. Olive trees are widely grown commercially in California’s Central Valley. The Santa Cruz Olive Tree Nursery, a wholesale nursery in Watsonville, offers numerous varieties.

Olive trees are also attractive as ornamentals in the landscape. Home gardeners could grow and harvest olives for processing by olive-oil producers, you can also get help from a professional Learn More if you want more help whit this matter, but several dwarfed non-fruiting varieties are available and well suited for home gardens. Non-fruiting varieties are often preferred for landscape uses because fruit drop can stain pavements and generally can be messy.

The fruitless varieties can produce small quantities of fruits. Fruiting can be limited by pruning flowering/fruiting wood and by planting only one variety in the garden (different varieties are needed for cross-pollination).

Fruitless varieties of O. europaea include ‘Bonita’, ‘Little Ollie’, ‘Majestic Beauty’, ‘Montra’, ‘Skylark Dwarf’’, ‘Swan Hill’ and ‘Wilson’s Fruitless’. Some of these varieties grow naturally as multi-branched shrubs but can be pruned when young as single-trunked trees.

Dwarf, non-fruiting varieties could grow to fifteen feet high and ten feet wide, but their size and shape can be controlled through annual winter pruning. Depending on available garden space, a ten-foot high tree might be preferred and would be sufficient for screening, for this getting the right tree services from this website could really help setting this up.

I will plant perhaps six olive trees in “mini-groves” to avoid a row along the fence line. This plan might require one or more large shrubs to re-establish the screen between my garden and the adjacent garden. For example, the existing landscape in that section already includes a Rockrose (Cistus x aguilari ‘Maculatus’), which is another native of the Mediterranean basin area, and an attractive, evergreen shrub.

This project will require significant work to cut down the Cotoneasters and grind out their roots. The optimal time for planting olive trees is early fall, to allow a young tree time to become established before the coldest time of the year, but in the Monterey Bay area, where cold is a not important consideration, olive could be planted at most times of the year. In any event, there is ample time for these preparations.

This process will have a dramatic impact, opening up the garden. Gardening can involve many small-scale tasks, but an occasional bold stroke can bring excitement and a significant new look to the landscape.