Far too often, we want what we cannot have. We often cringe when we hear clients long list of plants they want. They won’t budge on some kind of plant they like because they are trying to recreate a memory.
Your landscape is subject to the laws of nature. If your climate won’t support the plants you want, you have to choose something else. Unless you are the big lottery winner and have endless funds and time to manage a plant growing in the wrong place, you must concede to Mother Nature.
Here is a perfect article that demonstrates that theory. Choose wisely. Get professional help with your choices and you will be richer for it, in time and money.
The very best time of the year is here. Fall is the winding down of the growing season and that is why it is the very best time to plant. Things are getting slower on top but there is lots of activity down below in the root zone. Plants planted in the fall take off sooner and do better in spring, than plants planted any other time of the year.
This is a great time to build and work your compost pile with all the leaves and twigs and branches you clean up this fall. Or add your homemade compost to your garden to build up the soil for next year’s veggie garden.
Keep watering trees and shrubs, but much less often. Still water deep though. Just space the days between watering more. Some plants may look dead, but they are really just dormant and all that root action is taking place down below. I suggest you not cut back perennials until new spring growth to insulate the core of the plant from winter frosts.
Definitely this is time to check and winterize your sprinkler system if you live in a zone of freezing weather. Thoroughly check your system before winterizing to make sure you don’t wrap up a leak that will be a problem for months. Then wrap pipes with insulation or cover sprinkler valves with an insulated box. A large insulated cooler works well for this and gives easy access. We can help you with winterizing
Plan for winter weed control to eliminate spring weeds. A pre-emergent weed application in the winter will prevent most spring weeds and give you your weekends when warm weather arrives again. We can quote you on your preventative weed control. We get really busy in the winter with applications and timing is preferred before a rainfall to water in the pre-emergent with FREE water from the sky. Call to get on our schedule so we might schedule you at the most optimum time.
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Nature and the interaction of people and the earth is essential to life balance. Get too far from nature and you will find that you are unsettled and cranky. We need to stop now and then and go out into nature to reconnect and find our inner calm.
Those of us who are lucky enough to have some space for a garden can bring nature home. We can build our own little natural environment to enjoy whenever we want.
Whether you have a tree and flower garden or a vegetable garden, pests can be a problem and a hindrance to your full enjoyment of your outdoor space. You put a lot of time and money into your garden, and you don’t want to let the pests eat your investment in nature. But you are also concerned about the environment, as all of us should be.
There are so many little creatures in nature. They all have a place here and a job to do. Mass destruction is not really necessary in nearly every case. There will always be some pests in your landscape. Having bugs in our landscape is unavoidable and is even desirable as they all serve some function in nature. Is the pest causing some economic or lifestyle issues? Then let’s try an integrated pest management approach.
What is integrated pest management, (also called IPM)? The basic definition of IPM according to University of California at Davis is: 1“Integrated pest management (IPM) is an ecosystem-based strategy that focuses on long-term prevention of pests or their damage through a combination of techniques such as biological control, habitat manipulation, modification of cultural practices, and use of resistant varieties. Pesticides are used only after monitoring indicates they are needed according to established guidelines, and treatments are made with the goal of removing only the target organism. Pest control materials are selected and applied in a manner that minimizes risks to human health, beneficial and nontarget organisms, and the environment.” Or put more simply, using the least toxic control method that will get the job done and reduce the pest population to the lowest threshold that will produce the least amount of damage.
The use of resistant varieties is my first choice for reducing pest issues. Of course, this assumes that you are in on the planning of your natural space before it is installed. Planning is the first step in creating your outdoor environment that can thrive with little care in the space you have. Do you have a sunny or shady spot? Is it windy? Exposed? What is the climate? How much space or light will the plants you have in mind require? All too often, people pick the plants they desire, not the plants that will do well in the space they have. It’s like saying I love that little fish! I’m gonna put him here right on my pillow where I can be near him all the time. Nope. Won’t work.
There are resistant varieties of plants that do not attract certain insects, or diseases in the conditions you have. Pick those varieties and plants that will work well there and avoid certain pest issues altogether.
You can’t really plan out all pests. So you have your natural space already AND you have pest issues. What do you do now? Well identification of your pest and understanding it’s biology and habitat is critical to control. What is it’s life cycle? Which parts of its cycle is damaging to your plants? What conditions does it thrive in? Know this and you are half way there to controlling the issue with the minimum of fuss.
Look at your cultural practices. Is the plant receiving the proper care? Does it need pruning? Are you watering enough or at the proper frequency? Is there enough sun? Perhaps the surrounding vegetation has become overgrown allowing too much shade or stagnant air patterns. Is the soil in good condition, not compacted or too wet or dry. Is the ph proper for optimum plant conditions? These are all things we can adjust to modify the conditions to improve the plant health. A healthy plant will naturally repel insects and disease.
Gophers and squirrels are notorious for liking just about every kind of plant. What do you do when they invade? Exclusion is often the answer for that. Pests like certain birds, rats and even some insects can be excluded from your garden by building walls, fences or screens and structures. There are so many possibilities depending on your situation. Traps work as well to trap and kill the intruders without chemical controls.
Then there is hand control. Got caterpillars? You can hand-pick them off. Not for the squeamish, obviously. And then there are traps and things like Tanglefoot which is a sticky substance that pests get stuck in.
Then you try biological controls, natural enemies and predators. Determine the type of pest that you have. Pretty much every pest in nature has a natural enemy or the planet would be overrun with that pest. Conditions in nature bring in the natural controls. In our artificial outdoor space, the natural controls are often out of whack. We need to supplement the environment with the natural controls. This might be anything from importing lady bugs to control aphids (aww..) to bringing in natural controls for snails and slugs like toads and snakes. ( I didn’t say it would be pretty) or birds, beneficial wasps and even bacterial pathogens like Bacillus thuringiensis, to control caterpillars . There are so many kinds of natural predators to choose from.
The next step might be to apply a chemical control to bring the pest threshold down to manageable levels. My first step in any bug issue is to wash off the plant. Pure and simple a blast of water can do wonders! It washes the majority of pests off the plant where many will not make it back to the plant. Washing off the plant often reduces the conditions that attracted the pest in the first place. Take aphids. They attract ants. Both are undesirable. Washing the aphids off the plant will not only reduce the aphid population drastically, but will also wash off the honeydew the aphids produce. The honeydew is what attracts the ants. Two for one with plain water!
The very last step in integrated best management is chemical control. As a licensed pest control applicator, I do not often resort to chemical controls. When a chemical control is warranted due to severe plant damage, with potential loss of the plant or a high value plant in danger then I consider chemical controls. When chemical controls are used, always use the least toxic product that will get the job done. It’s the responsible way to protect our earth.
1 http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/GENERAL/ipmdefinition.html
By Cindy Poore
Spring is a time for new beginnings. It gets us all warmed up for a summer of fun and activities. Seeds are popping up all over. They are mostly weeds, but if you play it right, you can choose. Decide what you want your world to look like this year and get out there and sow some seeds of your own!
“It’s spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you’ve got it, you want—oh, you don’t quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!”
― Mark Twain
Spring is big for…
- Composting. If you are planning on planting, especially a veggie garden or fruit trees, now is the time to get your compost pile going if you didn’t do it in the fall. To speed up the process in your compost pile, shred your greenwaste clippings or straw in smaller pieces and keep the pile wet and turn frequently. Add some nice amendments for your soil like oyster shell (calcium) and some store-bought organic compost to inoculate your pile to get is going faster. You could have a pile in as little as 6 weeks.
- Pruning. Time to cut back the driedleaves, grasses and branches on those perennials. Russian Sage will still look like it’s dead. Don’t believe it! It will be budding out and blooming very soon.
- Planting. Now is the second best time to plant. While we can plant literally anytime here in Southern California, some times are better than others. Fall being best and spring is a close second.
- Weed Control. Still doing weed preventative spraying Call now to get on our schedule.
Embrace the lawn replacement!
The big push is on to get rid of our lawns. 🙁 It does not, however have to be rock! AND it can be green and soothing while requiring much less water so we can still enjoy our yard and be responsible to the earth and the future of our granchildren.
There are lots of ground covers that work really well as lower water use and allow us to be responsible and earth-friendly. The plants on the list below all work in different situations but all are beautiful and require a lot less water than a lawn.
Ajuga
Moneywort
Creeping Thyme
Sedums
And my favorite,……Carpet Junipers
One of th
e main reasons I got into designing and installing landscaping was frustration. I helped maintain many home gardens and the thing I hated most was the unnecessary trimming of plants that were planted in the wrong spot.
Far too often, a plant was a beautiful plant and good for the general location according to climate, soil and desired look, but people often did not plan for the plant to grow to its mature size. Week after week…, I would have to prune back the growing ends of plants to detriment of the plant and the possibility for them to reach their fullest potential merely because they were planted where their size would be a problem as they grew. Time and money were spent to whip that plant back into the desired size, generating bushels and bushels of waste to be thrown away.
Just exactly where is “away” you (hopefully) ask? Why to the landfill. What is the problem with that? It will be buried where it will decompose, feed the earth and all that, and all will be good, right? Actually, no. In the landfill, the plant material gets broken down by anaerobic bacteria which produce carbon dioxide and methane gas, both of which are greenhouse gases and are contributing to the global climate change.
So by just choosing the correct plant in the correct location, you can cut down on your environmental footprint on the planet. A small thing, right? Well no single raindrop believes it is to blame for the flood and every person can make a difference, because when they join together they are a formidable force.
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- Weeds are Back! March 10, 2018Is your yard Exploding with weeds ? You may think a few weeds here or there aren’t much to worry about, but did you know most weeds are capable of producing over a thousand seeds each? Rain and the warmer weather that will follow will make conditions just right for hose little land mines […]