Botany

Botany
by Berton Braley

There should be no monotony
In studying your botany;
It helps to train
And spur the brain--
Unless you haven't gotany.
It teaches you, does Botany,
To know the plants and spotany,
And learn just why
They live or die--
In case you plant or potany.


You learn, from reading Botany,
Of wooly plants and cottony
That grow on earth,
And what they're worth,
And why some spots have notany.


You sketch the plants in Botany,
You learn to chart and plotany
Like corn or oats--
You jot down notes,
If you know how to jotany.


Your time, if you'll allotany,
Will teach you how and what any
Old plant or tree
Can do or be--
And that's the use of Botany!

Stefano Mancuso

Composting

Ventura County has a composting program for homeowners. I bought the Garden Gourmet model several years ago. I filled it with vegetable scraps and yard clippings and coffee grounds. I never turned the content over like you are suppose to. It was full of bugs and spiders. I think I threw in some worms one winter hoping to speed the decomposing process. I moved the composter to different areas in the yard a couple of times. I didn't do it justice. I'm a lazy gardener. And really, nature does such a wonderful job with the pit composting method that I have come to think of these composting bins as 'make work' bins for the homeowner. Especially for those of us who do not have lawns to mow and hedges to trim.

This last weekend I took my Garden Gourmet to the hose, gave it a good power wash and put it up on the street with a FREE sign on it.

I went into the house to make a cup of coffee. I walked right back out with my coffee to water my baby manzanita plants and the composter was already gone. It's a beautiful thing.

For the last several months I have been pit composting. You dig a hole, dump in the kitchen / garden scraps and cover it up. It's so simple. I have been digging the holes along the wide pathways in my vegetable garden. Sometimes when I trim away the damaged leaves of the Swiss chard, I simply lay them on top of the soil, around the growing Swiss chard, thinking I'm helping to keep the soil cool and moist.

Composting is for vegetation that is exactly like nature made it. It is not for anything that has been cooked or buttered or sugared. A compost pile or pit, will attract spiders, grubs, worms, earwigs, sow bugs, lizards and who knows what micro organisms. Miraculously nature turns the waste into soil.

My classes have suggested that native plants don't like to be fertilized. So I am composting only in the vegetable garden area. So far, it's working out just fine. My ficus is dropping leaves now and I will bring to them to garden also (they are falling on the driveway - what a waste). Mulch. I plan to naturally fertilize my vegetables. I'll let you know how it works out.

Collaboration

I subscribe to TED. I get an announcement now and then that they have new videos available for me to watch. One week they let me know of a video from TEDxSydney. It was there I met Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers, the authors of What's Mine is Yours a book about Collaborative Consumption.



It's an old idea expanded to use our new technologies. Now we can barter with neighbors or strangers with a lot of confidence.

Then one of the flower blogs I follow made me aware of these gals. The Wonder Weeders. Just what I need. A group of women and men who share gardening skills. Once a week they meet to work in one members garden. What a boost that would be. Every 6 weeks, 12 hands digging in my garden, sharing the work and the bounty of my vegetables and future fruits. New friends. Shared knowledge.

The Wonder Weeders Real Simple

Think about it. If you would like to join me and 4 other men and women, we could do wonders for each others gardens. Just leave a comment here or email drcdgardener@gmail.com

Vegetables

The tomato hornworm starts small.

And grows quickly.

And then they seem to disappear. Where do they go? Underground. They drop to the ground and bore into the soil to complete their life cycle.

This year I've had only a couple of tomato worms. They have provided some excitement for my granddaughter and me. The worm is very beautiful and a master of disguise. It is also a very good reason to do some research and learn about the amazing life cycle of the moth and butterfly world. A shape shifter? A transformer?

Mr. Gopher, Sir

Can a gopher get a little respect? I am working on it. I want to co-exist with my wildlife. Is a gopher ever beneficial? Knowledge is power. So around and around the Internet I went.

October, November, December are prime planting months in Ventura County. I'm busy making my plant list. At the same time I'm aware that there is danger that my baby plants will not reach maturity if I don't address the gopher issue. I love baby plants. Gophers love baby plants. It could be that I'm about to plant a gopher deli. What to do?

Mr. Gopher and his 100s of brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles and friends mostly keep out of sight under my yard and the yards of my neighbors. On both sides of me are men who trap gophers with great success. And yet the gophers keep multiplying, raising their families in this dangerous neighborhood of trapping men. How do I suggest to a gopher that he/she move on? Hey Gopher, take a vacation, get out of town, discover a wild canyon free of gas and traps and poison.

I've heard of a talented gopher hunting cat. How do I find one of those? And why is it easier for me to accept a cat killing my gophers, than to accept me trapping them? Simply because the image of a dead gopher hanging from a trap gives me the shivers. Worse, injured gopher hanging from a trap. Can I get over that?

The University of CA Integrated Pest Management Program has some gopher management suggestions. A gopher snake and an owl?

In a website written for children. Here, I learned this:

There are over 100 types of this rodent in the United States.
Gophers are easily identified by their long, hard front teeth, tiny ears, small eyes and short tails.

Size: 5" to 10"
Shape: Gopher shaped made me smile
Color: Brown with soft, fine fur.
Legs: 4
Wings: No really?
Antenna: No you're kidding

Common Name: Gopher
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Geomyidae

DIET
Gophers are vegetarians. They only eat roots, trees, shrubs, grass and plants.

HABITAT
Gophers are known for building complex underground tunnel systems. They use their front legs and long teeth to push dirt out of their tunnels and onto the grass above. Gophers like to be alone and only one gopher will be found in a tunnel system. (right there - I learned that maybe there aren't that many gophers in my yard, maybe less than a dozen.)

IMPACT
Gophers can be responsible for ruining lawns, killing trees and destroying gardens, but they can also be an important part of the local ecosystem. They increase soil fertility by mixing plant material and fecal wastes into the soil. Their burrowing aerates or tills the soil. (My Oregon grower friend has given up on trapping gophers, and aeration as a reason to leave them alone. His soil is heavy, mine is sandy. Maybe my gophers are merely stirring the sand around.) They can help speed up the formation of new soil by bringing minerals to the surface and they also serve as food for a variety of animals including owls, coyotes, weasels, and snakes. (I saw a snake on the road yesterday. If I see him again I may invite him over.)

PREVENTION
Use underground netting or screen fencing to protect gardens.
Build gardens in raised plant boxes to prevent gophers from being able to dig into the garden.
Gophers do not thrive on annual grains because the roots of these plants do not provide them with enough food, so try planting annual grains as a buffer strip to protect other crops that are preferred by gophers.
If you do not want to plant grains, you could try a buffer of bare ground or a barrier of six inches of coarse gravel. This buffer idea was suggested by the University of CA website too.

An annual grain. What's that? One you have to plant every year. Wanting to go native, I might add many buckwheat plants to my yard. Here I found some guidance.

The gophers in my yard will not be trapped. I'll let you know how things go. I'm still studying.

8/12

8/12 = 2/3. Two-thirds of 2010 gone. Adios. See ya later. That leaves me with 4 months to get the yard in shape for the Certified Wildlife Habitat sign installation. Can I do it? Will I? I will.

Just making a declaration today. Getting back on track.

Burning Nettle

The truth? I don't even like to look at this picture. Notice that I am wearing the gloves with the plastic coating.

Burning Nettle is a perfect name for this weed. If you touch those hairy leaves with your bare hand, you will know it quickly and you won't forget it for several hours. Nothing seems to diminish the sting it causes.

I do wonder what advantage the stinging quality has given this weed in the evolution of it's life.

The scientific name for this weed is Urtica urens. My very limited research suggests that it is used medicinally as a histamine. Please keep it away from me.

Bottle Brush

A buzzing noise brought my attention to the bottle brush. Only then did I notice how floriferous she is this year. Was it the trimming or a little extra water? Whatever it is, the bees and the humming birds are loving it.

Not a California native, but drought tolerant. It was here before I was, so it will stay in my yard. It's in Zone 3, sharing the space with my vegetable garden. It might get more water than it wants. I'll have to keep an eye on that.

Bottlebrush (Callistemon) is a genus of 34 species of shrubs in the family Myrtaceae. It's a native of Australia. On the Camarillo garden tour last weekend I saw a bottle brush so low to the ground you could call it ground cover. It was very attractive. Definitely tall enough to crowd out weeds.

Get Ready

May 1st is International Sunflower Guerrilla Gardening Day. Since I'm determined to be a CA native gardener, I'm thrilled to say that the Sunflower family (Asteraceae) Helianthus annuus, is native. It is a huge family. Will I be a guerrilla? I'm not telling, but it could be unavoidable. It might be genetic.

The Los Angeles Guerrilla Gardeners have a great website. It reminds me of the Improv Everywhere group, only more stealth. The picture gallery is inspiring.

So what's a guerrilla gardener? Some one who gardens with or without permission on public land.

My parents, Wisconsinites, don't take long walks down the railroad track turned nature trail anymore, but when they were able, they always took a bag of seeds or bulbs or little seedlings to plant along the way. They didn't know they were guerrilla gardeners. They were just having fun. Little by little they beautified the walks they took with Wisconsin natives.

Noise

Driving to the market, listening to NPR, I learned that today is International Noise Awareness Day. I immediately thought of Owen Dell. He mentioned noise in his lecture at the Native Plant Symposium in Camarillo on February 20th. The Native Plant Symposium was a gathering of outstanding speakers. I'm going to mention Owen Dell in this post, but I'll get to the others later.

Owen Dell specializes in SUSTAINABLE landscaping, a landscape that supports itself. Nothing is hauled away because everything is used. When sustainable landscaping is your goal, you plan what you plant, where you plant, what materials you build with, your water needs etc by asking, "What does it do?" How does it contribute to the community in your garden?

You don't have to be a dummy to understand that CA Native plants have evolved to live here. They like our soil, our temperature and natures water schedule. "No one gardens nature," Owen says. So why do we work so hard creating an artificial environment, when nature is already so beautiful?

I was so impressed with his lecture, I bought his book Sustainable Landscaping for Dummies. It sits beside me as I type this. It has already saved me money and helped me to slow down. My garden will evolve carefully, quietly, eventually.

What Not To Do

Some years back, I planted a long row of heirloom tomato plants. Before I planted, I covered the row with a roll of weed barrier fabric to control the weeds around my tomato plants. It worked.

Now years later, coming back to gardening, I plan to plant watermelon there. Now, years later "there" is full of weeds. The weed barrier fabric is buried under wind blown dirt and weeds. A four letter word comes to mind. Today with a shovel and a commitment to remove the fabric the whole length of the bed, I tackled the job.

Like most jobs, getting started was the hard part. HOW to approach the project? The obvious place to start was at the end of the row. I dug until I found the edge of the fabric and then I pulled. That didn't work. More digging, more coaxing, more digging and tugging and digging and grunting and surveying and digging. The first foot was up, but it wouldn't tear away from the other 30 feet, no way, it was a unit. I tried to cut through it with the shovel blade. It's tough stuff, even after all this time. Disintegrate already! It's not just fabric that needs to come up. Weeds have grown through the fabric and into the dirt and roots hold on for dear life. You pull, they pull back. Grrrrrrrr.

Weed barrier fabric advertises itself to last 6 years. For those of us wanting it to be the solution, we read that to mean we won't see weeds in that area for 6 years. WRONG. Weed seeds fly in with the wind from ABOVE. Weeds win. The fabric probably does last 6 years. Maybe longer. It's a polyester fiber. It's another landfill clogger.

If weed barrier fabric is something you are considering to help control the weeds in your garden, I shout, DON'T DO IT. Pull weeds. Watch the new baby weeds come up and knock them down when they are small. Be persistent. It's cheaper than the gym. You'll get a little vitamin D. It's very rewarding. And if you are like me, an hour in the garden might solve the problem you have been mulling over. Solutions come to an aerated mind.

Happy Birthday John James Audubon

It's the birthday of wildlife artist John James Audubon. (1785 - 1851). Raised in France he traveled to America at the age of 18 and became a pioneer in the documentation of wildlife, inspiring Darwin and other ornithological works by his artistry and high standards.

I was fortunate to have a birdwatching mother. Bird books were thumbed through and worn out at our house as she persevered to know every bird that landed on her feeder or in the trees around our yard. She wanted to know it all; the bird, the nest, the diet, the habitat they preferred. When I moved away from the Great Lakes states and west, I had to start over, learning the west coast birds. I'm still learning.

While pulling weeds on Saturday, a scrub jay joined me to eat up the grubs and bugs I exposed. An easy meal for him and a thrill for me. There he was, 2 feet away, a beautiful, slender, single minded scavenger, helping me. He had an aristocratic air about him. I don't care about his bad habits, all that noise about eating the eggs of other birds is just part of the circle of life. He's welcome in my yard anytime.

Wildlife finds a native plant garden and the curious might wish to find the Ventura Chapter of the Audubon Society.

California Burclover

Medicago Polymorpha

I do NOT like this weed. Those little burrs hurt.

This is NOT a CA native. It is a dicot, annual herb that flowers beginning in March and produces large quantities of pain.

ABC's of Native Plant Gardening

January 30, 2010 - still catching up on the lecture series:

Lil Singer was the second speaker of the Nopalito Lecture Series. Lili Singer is an L.A. Times garden writer and Special Projects Coordinator for the Theodore Payne Foundation for Wildflowers and Native Plants.

Lil brought us a plant list including ground covers, perennials, shrubs, trees and grasses; a resource book list; and an article about Natives in the Landscape - Pruning. Then she told us that she couldn't get to everything and dove in.

These were the highlights for me.
1. You can't change your soil. Find a plant that fits your soil.
2. Never plant a dry plant. Water your plant and the hole before you plant.
3. When planting dig a hole ONLY has deep at the pot it came in.
4. Dig the hole twice as wide as the pot it came in.
5. Water often the first year as needed. Give the native a chance to get established.
6. A one gallon plant will do better than a five gallon plant because it hasn't spent much of it's young life getting used to a pot.
7. Plan a green backbone for your yard and it will look good all year.
8. We live in a Mediterranean climate. Embrace it.
9. Read the plant labels. Believe them. The plant will be as big as the label says when mature. I know I never thought my children would ever become 6' men and 5' 9" women, but they did. Consider the sun or shade requirements of the plant. Honor them.
10. Once established these plants can die from too much water.

I planted my first native yesterday. A Roger's Red grape vine. I was thinking of Lil the whole time I was watering and digging and watering. I found a perfect spot for it in the front, where it has 20' of fence to grow along, unchallenged. The birds will find it, it will look great when it turns red in the fall. I feel confident. That's the best part. I had information. My decision was educated.

Ladybugs

Weeding my yard is a huge project. So far in spite of the fact that it's only 1/4 finished, it has proven to be very advantageous. One more reason to love weeding - ladybugs and a 5 year old.

My granddaughter (Miss M) has a little clear plastic collecting container that she got at Big Lots. It has a handle, a screw on top and a smaller lift-off lid for easy disposal of bugs. This center lid is also a magnifying glass for close inspection of her collections.

Ladybugs seem to love the Erodium Cicutarium, (Common names: Redstem filaree, Redstem stork's bill, Common stork's bill) weed in my yard. Miss M had 7 ladybugs in no time. Then she said, What's this, you pick it up. It's scary.

I didn't know what it was, but we collected it for a good look. Researching ladybugs I learned that that scary thing was a ladybug larvae. This site has all kinds of information about ladybugs. Their anatomy, life cycle, fun crafts. Look at these fun facts they list there:

Because Ladybugs eat lots of aphids and other pest insects, many gardeners and farmers use them for pest control instead of chemicals.
A Ladybug can lay up to 1000 eggs in its lifetime.
Not all Ladybugs have spots.
Ladybugs will clean themselves after a meal.
Ladybugs come in many colors like pink, yellow, white, orange and black.
Over 300 types of Ladybugs live in North America.
Ladybugs make a chemical that smells and tastes bad so predators won’t eat them.
Ladybugs hibernate in large groups in cold weather.
Many countries consider a ladybug to be a sign of good luck.
Ladybugs are actually beetles, so sometimes are called LadyBeetles.
The bright colors of Ladybugs warn birds that they don’t taste good.
The spots on a Ladybug fade as they get older.

We let all the ladybugs go. We need them in our yard. They eat aphids, mites, white fly, and scale insects. And they are so pretty.

California Legless Lizard

Last night while weeding I discovered two California Legless Lizards in the weeds. So far I have seen 4 in my yard. They look like a shiny big earth worm and move like a snake. Earlier this winter my granddaughter and I witnessed a mockingbird try to fly off with one. The lizard dropped her tail and slithered away. The bird was left bewildered, holding a moving tail in her mouth. She dropped the tail and we watched that tail do the circle c dance, moving one way to make a circle, then the other way to make a circle, back and forth. I'm happy to have these in my yard. They are welcome to all the spiders and grubs they can eat.  I found an article about this lizard on line and I've copied it in part below.

Image from Google Images

Article copied from:
The Silvery Legless Lizard Anniella pulchra Gray, 1852

Robert George Sprackland, Ph.D.

Family: Anniellidae, completely restricted to the California coast, from Monterey County south to central Baja California, Mexico. Some authors consider these lizards part of the larger family Anguidae.

Comment: California law protects silvery legless lizards. Only one specimen may be collected and kept per collector. "Anniella" means "little worm," and "pulchra" means "pretty." You can find additional information in the web of life section of http://www.curator.org/ on the Internet.

Appearance: A pencil-long lizard that completely lacks legs. Body slim, about one-third the diameter of a pencil. The head is depressed, with a sharp snout and under slung lower jaw. Legless lizards have short, broad dark tongues, with a very feeble nick at the tip. The tongue is frequently flicked as lizards explore their surroundings. The eyes are tiny, and have moveable eyelids. There is no ear opening. The body is covered in small glossy scales, and there is no lateral fold. Belly scales are about equal in size to the lateral and dorsal scales.

The tail is longer than 50% of the total length and extremely fragile. Most specimens display regrown tails. The tail tip, whether original or regrown, is blunt.

Legless lizards range in size from 2.25 inches at birth to 8.5 inches for a large adult. A large adult will be thinner than a standard number 2 pencil of similar length.

Coloration: The head upper body and sides are silvery gray. There is a black stripe along the vertebral column, from the back of the head to near the tail tip. Two thinner stripes are found along each side of the body. The throat and belly are yellow, often bright lemon. In young specimens, the belly may be pale pink. In all specimens, the belly is slightly translucent.

Distribution: Historically, silvery legless lizards ranged from San Francisco and Vallejo in the north to the northern third of Baja California, Mexico, and inland as far as California's central valley and Barstow. Today, the northern limit seems to be some 70 miles south of San Francisco, along the Pajaro River, northern Monterey County. Many local populations have become extinct in the past thirty years, mainly because lizards prefer habitats that are in high-dollar real estate areas.

Subspecies: Two subspecies are currently recognized. The widespread silvery form (Anniella pulchra pulchra) is the subject of this article. A dark brown to black morph (Anniella pulchra nigra) is found in two disjunct localities, one in Monterey County, between the Elkhorn Slough and Carmel Rivers, the other around Morro Bay to the south. Black legless lizards ("nigra" means "black") have yellow bellies, but no distinct dorsal stripes. Young of both color phases all resemble the silvery lizards. Black legless lizards are completely protected by law and may not be collected without a special permit.

Habitat and Habits: Legless lizards are burrowers, and their small size necessitates their living in loose sandy or loamy soils. They prefer soils that collect moisture and stay cool. Unlike most lizards, legless lizards are active at fairly low temperatures (64-70º F) at which other lizards are dormant. Peak activity is between February and May. They can move forwards and backward in the sand with equal facility. They spend most of the time burrowing, but may expose part of the body in the mid-morning or late afternoon.

Suitable habitats range from coastal sand dunes to grassy open inland areas to near desert areas. Lizards are typically found a few inches under the sand under broad, low-growing shrubs and other plants. Though found under non-native ice plants, they are more common under sagebrush and mock lupine bushes where a variety of small soft-bodied insects also live. The lizards are generally absent from otherwise suitable habitat that is home to scorpions, a predator on the lizards.

When handled, legless lizards will probe your hand with the sharp snout, looking for a place to burrow. They are very active and must be handled carefully, lest they loose part of the long and fragile tail. The lizards almost never try to bite, but even a large Anniella lacks the gape to bite even the smallest of human fingers.

Breeding: Anniella is a live-bearing species. Mating generally occurs in April and May, and one to six (generally 1-2) live young are produced by late summer. Neonates are about 60 mm (2.3 inches) long, barely the length of a quarter's circumference, and often have pink, instead of yellow, bellies. They feed on very small insects such as some beetle larvae (young mealworms), silverfish, and small worms.

Availability: I have not seen this species on a dealer's list since 1973, and commercial collecting or sale is now forbidden by law. People are allowed to collect and keep one specimen per collector with a valid permit (a California fishing license) but these may not be legally sold in California. Availability is, therefore, highly restricted. ..........

Legless lizards feed on small soft-bodied arthropods in nature, taking springtails, small worms and centipedes, spiders and soft-shelled insects. .............

Dr. Sprackland is a herpetologist and Director of The Virtual Museum of Natural History at http://www.curator.org/. His new book, Giant Lizards: second edition, is scheduled to be released in October 2008.

Zone One

It's abstract art. Nature scribbling all over the Pepper Tree. Is there a tree under there? 

And then there are the neglected fruit trees. Never given enough water the dwarfs are stunted. I have decided that they have to go. And before I plant, I will plan a space to back my garbage cans into.

I have Corona Tree Service out there today, pulling the ivy off the Pepper Tree and trimming it away from the power lines. Even though the Pepper Tree is an invasive tree, I'm leaving it. It's complicated to remove it and plant something else there. Trunk removal, water lines, a big hole in the landscape - I'm just not in the mood for all of that.

On Sunday after my hike at the Carpinteria Beach, I tackled fruit tree removal myself. Shovel in hand and without a real plan, I started digging around the root ball. My neighbor saw me there and came out to chat. Finally he asked, Would you like some help with that? I'm a good digger. I dig gopher holes all the time. I know he does. Every year he keeps track of the gophers he's trapped and it sometimes gets above 100. And I can use the help and the company.

We each took a side of the little tree and made some progress. It wiggled a bit when we tugged on the trunk. It was a little like a loose tooth. I'd pull the tree one way and my neighbor would get his shovel in a little deeper. Then he'd pull the tree toward him and I'd get a few more bites of dirt. Back and forth we went until we got it out. We did the same with the second dwarf, under a little rain sprinkle. It was quite satisfying.

The best part is that my neighbor took both trees to his yard and found a new home for them. He will take good care of them and who knows, they may have a long life ahead of them. He already has one of my fruit trees, a grapefruit tree I gave up on several years ago. It's bearing fruit at his house.

We dug up against the water line a couple of times. This is a good example of why it is important for me to do some of the work myself. I have changed my mind about what to plant in the side yard. It was going to be some kind of hedge, but now I know that I want any future water line repair to be easy and a hedge would make that complicated. I have decided that one CA Wild Grape (Vitis californica or Roger's Red) will be beautiful there. I will water it by hand until it is established. I promise.

Zones one and two will have NO automatic water system supplying it's needs. With my right hand on my heart, I solemnly swear to keep an eye on my front yard plants and personally give them the water they need when they need it.

Rincon Point to Carpinteria Bluffs Nature Preserve

Sunday March 7th, 2010

Rain the night before threatened to reappear in the morning hours. The group was small and enjoyed a beautiful stroll along the beach. Organized by the Channel Islands chapter of the CA Native Plant Society.

William Abbott and Andrea Adams-Morden were our guides. They prepared a three page list of CA Natives and Non-Native plants we would meet. They organized the list by Genius, Family and Species. I took many pictures, a few are good enough to share.

Just about dead center you will see an iridescent green beetle.

Coyote Brush

Baccharis pilularis

This dragon guards a salt marsh developing behind its wall.

Field Mustard

Brassicaceae Mustard Family

Brassica rapa

Coastal Morning Glory. A CA Native.

Convolvulaceae Morning Glory Family

Calystegia macrostegia ssp cyclostegia

Silver Beach bur

Asteraceae Sunflower Family

Ambrosia chamissonis

Before we even began our hike Andrea was saying, "I didn't put that one on the list." In the parking lot area we saw CA's state grass, Nassella pulchra, Purple Needle Grass. I wish my picture had turned out, but you can see it in the California Native Plants for the Garden book, by Carol Bornstein, David Fross and Bart O'Brien.

In addition to looking at Native Plants, we discovered some wildlife. I borrowed this picture from google images because mine is blurry.

Shark egg pouch

sometimes called a Mermaids Purse

Overhead we watched an American Kestrel Falcon. We noticed unusual earth striations along the beach and began a discussion about earthquake fault lines and the relative newness of our mountains. The more you learn the more there is to learn. I admit that I have been hours online exploring plants and insects and birds and ocean and earthquakes. Isn't this the best? What a beautiful way to spend a Sunday Morning.

Sour Grass

Oxalis pes-caprae

Buttercup Oxalis

Goats? I don't think so.

Stubborn about not using chemicals to rid my yard of weeds, and rain that encourages rapid growth of weeds, and scheduling weeding into my weeks has the weeds winning 30 to 1. My creative mind is always searching for a novel solution and somehow I decided I needed a goat or two to clear cut the weeds for me. I know cotton farmers use geese to weed their rows, a goat seemed a reasonable solution.

I googled 'goats and Camarillo' and found a mother daughter team at Chivas Goat Farm. They have French Alpine goats and make soap and skin products. I found their 'contact us' icon and sent off my strange request, hoping they would know the local goat community. Donna wrote me that all of her goats are currently pregnant and not traveling. She wished me luck with my project. I've put her name on my list of possible future field trips.

I found the 4-H office number online and gave a woman a call. She was very kind to me and suggested another number for me to call, she had been out of 4-H for a couple of years and no longer in touch with the animal projects. (Budget for website updates must be low.)

I emailed an address I found online and it came back to me as no longer an active email address.

I did have success when I emailed Tisha Fisher at the Ventura County 4-H office. She emailed me a list of people who may be able to help me. I was encouraged.

I called and left messages with 3 women. One called me before the evening was out and said her children are now in their 30s and she is no longer involved in 4-H, but she has 30 goats. She related her story of her first cute little goat, who got out of a 6 foot pen quite easily before she and her husband could get to the back door. Goats are herders. They like company. They are not grazers. Goats are browsers. They eat bushes and trees. They climb and jump. But I could tell she didn't want to discourage me.

Still stubborn about not using chemicals, I have given up the idea of a goat or a sheep.

This morning Terry Griffin of Oasis Catholic Charities called. She too is out of the 4-H but likes the idea of a creative weed solution. She even suggested I investigate a llama. There is a llama farm in Somis that I visited many years ago, I may call her. But really, I can't imagine a llama in my yard. Terry invited me to volunteer with the Oasis Catholic Charities. They provide assistance to the elderly, with emphasis on keeping residence in their own homes.

So, a goat journey led me to 3 interesting women and a decision. I will pull weeds forever.

Bees, ants, grubs, caterpillars, worms......

Many times I have worked in the yard with a book on tape in my ear. Right now I have too many decisions to make about the yard to be distracted by books or music. I have to listen to my yard. It helps to have a 5 year old near by to share the excitement. What will we plant to attract butterflies and bees and birds and lizards?

Bees were swarming my elms in January. The unusually warm weather had produced an early bloom. Ants aren't a big problem right now, must be too cold. The grubs I've unearthed are motionless and still they unnerve me. We are seeing lots of lady bugs and little caterpillars on the weeds. A white moth is flying around.

The little guys I call them. It shames me to say I haven't given them much thought until recently. At the lectures we learned that ants outweigh humans on earth. We're outnumbered. I think it's time I pay attention.

Designing Native Gardens

On January 16, 2010 Nopalito Nursery sponsored their first in a series of gardening with native plants lectures. The series included design, how to plant a garden with natives, Chumash Ethnobotany, grow your own fruit and then the all day Native Plant Symposium. Next up is "What to do with a lawn." These lecture classes have been just what I needed. Themes have been repeated and repeated. I'm beginning to get it. So here are some quick notes, so I won't forget.

What a great place to start. Design. The speaker was Carol Borstein.

Carol Borstein with David Fross and Bart O'Brien wrote California Native Plants for the Garden, a comprehensive guide to planning your own native plant garden. Pictures, pictures, pictures identified by plant type, geographic zones, light, soil, water and natural habitat and range. That's where I started. I skipped all the words and went straight to the pictures. Then I went back to the text.

Carol was the first to discuss the reoccuring themes of gardening with natives. The garden can be pretty all year if you plan. Think about color and seasons and fruit and flowers. Read the label on the one gallon plants you buy and believe them. If it says that little plant will grow to be 6 feet wide and 10 feet tall, believe it. She said horticulture is a mix of art and science.  The rewards of planting with natives are less water, less maintenance and less waste.

A Little Knowledge

Many years ago, I called the Engineer to proudly tell him that I had decided to personally fix an electrical problem in my house. I had been to the library, found a book with clear and direct instructions for me to follow and I was ready to tackle the job. His reply, "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing." It made me pause. I don't remember the problem now, only the caution.

"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing", is one of those records in my head. It's a good one for me. I'm a jumper. I'm usually in a hurry to start a project, then something interrupts my flow and I am off hurrying in another direction. The finish line is a novel place for me to find myself. When I decided to tackle my whole yard and introduce CA Natives, I knew I needed some education and perseverance. I needed all the help I could get.

The question I wrestle with now is: Am I stalling or learning? In rapid succession I will enter my learning journey of gardening with native plant, discovering local floral and fauna, meeting a community of like minded gardeners. I will give each class and field trip a blog page, the better to sort it all out later. This is the journal I've always wanted to keep.

Prickly Sour Thistle

Asteraceae, sonchus asper

sharp-fringed sow thistle, spiny show thistle

A member of the sunflower family.

NOT a CA native. The leaves are edible. Hmmm.

The leaves are bluish-green, simple, lanceolate, with wavy and sometimes lobed margins, covered in spines on both the margins and beneath. The base of the leaf surrounds the stem. The plant can reach 180 cm (6 ft) in height. The leaves and stems emit a milky sap when cut. The flowers grow in clusters and the end of the stems. (wikipedia)

Wild Cucumber

Echinocystis Lobata

Wild Cucumber

See the spiny fruit in the upper lefthand corner?

This invasive vine grows all over a tree in a neighbors yard. She's not fond of it since when the fruit dries and falls, it is rather unpleasant to step on. I searched the web to identify this vine and finally I found this wonderful article all about wild cucumber - pictures galore. Enjoy.

Capeweed

Arctotheca calendula

Capeweed, Cape Dandelion, Cape Marigold

This weed comes from Cape Prince in South Africa. Some plant it on purpose as a ground cover. It grows in rosettes and sends out stolons. Stolons are stems growing along or under the ground and taking root at the nodes or apex to form new plants. In other words, trouble.

Red Sand Spurry

Spergularia Rubra

red sand spurry

This is another non-native plant that has done well in CA.

Camarillo Bird Museum

Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology

The Bird Museum (Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology) is located at

439 Calle San Pablo in Camarillo, CA.

On the last Friday of the month from 3-4pm they conduct a public tour of the Museum. They limit the group to 20 people, so if you plan to visit them it is a good idea to make a reservation by calling 805-388-9944.

I took this tour on Friday, Jan 29th. This is what you can expect:

The tour will be full.

The museum is cold. Bring a jacket.

You will be entertained. Rene Corado, the Collections Manager gave us a very informative tour and told us exciting stories about his travels to collect specimens.

The museum houses 190,000 bird eggs, representing 4,000 bird species; 18,000 nests; 55,000 bird study skins and 8,000 books on birds and natural history. You will see a tiny fraction of these.

I hope you visit their website. Check back again in July to find information about bird identification classes they will offer in September and October.

Common Stork's Bill

Erodium Cicutarium

Common names: Redstem filaree, Redstem stork's bill, Common stork's bill.

This pretty 'weed' is an herbaceous annual, and in warm climates a biennial member of the Geranium Family of flowering plants. It is native to the Mediterranean Basin and was introduced to North America in the eighteenth century.

The stems bear bright pink flowers, arranged in loose cluster, and often have dark spots on the bases. The leaves are pinnate and fern-like, and the long seed-pod, shaped very much like the bill of a stork, bursts open in a spiral when ripe, sending the seeds (which have little feathery parachutes attached) into the air. Fun for all. I know you've done it, barely touched the tip of one of those spines and watched it curl back in fear.

Here's where it gets tricky:
The seeds of this annual are a species collected by various species of harvester ants.

It is a food plant for the larvae of the Brown Argus butterfly.

The entire plant is edible with a flavor similar to sharp parsley if picked young.

If I watch them carefully, maybe I'll put a couple plants aside for the ants, the butterflies and me.

Oriental Hedge Mustard

Sisymbrium Orientale

Common names: Oriental Hedge Mustard, Indian Hedge Mustard, Tumble Mustard

Not a CA native. It's a dicot (dicotyledon). Dicot is a name for a group of flowering plants whose seed typically has two embryonic leaves or cotyledons.

Still Planning

Books help a lot in the planning stage and the library has been a great source of information. I am building muscles carrying books back and forth. I have spent hours pouring over pictures and information, making notes and visualizing the future of my yard. However, there is nothing like a field trip. Seeing plants and fountains and gardens in person is essential for me. So off I went.....

Jackie Worden suggested that I check out Terra Sol Nursery in Santa Barbara. She knows that I need a water source (fountain, birdbath) in my yard and that I love succulents. Both are in good supply at this nursery. I also found a worm can

and some benches that I like. On a rack in the office area I found seed packets from Botanical Interests seed company. Organic. Some heirloom.

From there I drove to The Santa Barbara Botanic Garden. I walked the entire garden, making notes of the manzanitas, meadow grasses, vines and ground covers. I'm aware of benches and paths, of color and texture. I enjoyed an outdoor art exhibit, 'from ashes to art' to honor the May 2009 Fire - they sliced burnt trees and had visitors write on them, then constructed these art-poles.

Then a friend suggested we visit Seaside Gardens in Carpinteria. Seaside gardens is planted in sections so you get a real feel for different types of atmospheres. Asian, Australian, Mediterranean, CA Native, Meadow, and so on. Exquisite. If you get a chance, stop by to look for yourself. I'm going to have a meadow. I fell in love with this grass.

I kept my hands in my pockets and my wallet in the car. It's hard to maintain this planning discipline. For me, it's essential to get the water structure in place before I plant. It's look, don't buy for another month or so.

Velvet Leaf

January is an important month for the Ventura gardener. This is year One in my garden and most of the big jobs for the gardener will wait. This is a start up year. I won't be trimming trees, I'm still planning. Weeds are my big January job. A little rain has turned my backyard into a tangle of weeds. A walk around my neighborhood proved that I'm alone.

I am curious about these weeds. What are they? Some have pretty little flowers. When you look closely at them, many are quite beautiful. I found a weed identification website that is very helpful. They have a weed ID tool. It's a series of multiple choice questions. They tell you not to answer all of the questions, because one false answer will lead you to the wrong weed.

Here is the weed:

The first question to answer is Board leaf, Grasslike or Woody? I chose Broad leaf.
"Where was this weed found?" I answered Urban - Garden/Landscape/Parks.
"General Characteristics - Growth Form," I chose- upright.
"Leaf Characteristics - Leaf Arrangement," I chose - alternate.
With that, I hit 'search database'.

The result was a list of possible weeds, with scientific names and Common names and pictures. I need pictures and they are very generous with pictures. This weed is definitely, without a doubt: Abutilon theophrasti or commonly called Velvet leaf because of her soft leaves or China Jute because of her tough fibers. She came here from China originally, to be a fiber crop, now, she's a lowly weed.

The Plan

"Before you can have a meadow, you will have to get rid of these weeds," Jackie said. So I'm pulling weeds. I am not listening to music or a book on tape through this task. I'm listening to my yard. I'm connecting. I'm thinking about if and where to plant a fig tree. I'm wondering what will grow against the back of the garage. I'm cussing at this stubborn weed that finally pulls up with a 12 inch root.

Brendon East from Channel Islands Landscape & Design visited my home on Wednesday Dec 16th. He was recommended to me by Nopalito Nursery in Ventura. I checked out his website and was impressed. They do it all.

Brendon listened to my vision for my yard. He walked with me, making comments about the soil, the gophers, the ivy growing up a pepper tree, my driveway that will need to be replaced, raised beds for my kitchen garden. He took some measurements. I told him that I would be interviewing Jackie Worden from A Water Wise Garden and he seemed pleased. They have collaborated on other projects and made a good team. Jackie draws up the plans and recommends plants, and Brendon and his crew concentrate on the “hard scape”.

Hardscape is irrigation, fencing, driveways, raised garden structures, walls, and other inanimate elements of the yard.

Softscape is the plant material.

I was looking forward to meeting Jackie. She came by on Dec 23rd. I liked her immediately because she couldn’t help noticing bird calls and named the birds. A hawk flew over and I got a lesson in the warning calls of the little birds congregating in a tree. When I described a snake I found in my yard, that dropped its tail, she told me it was a CA legless lizard. She knows her stuff. I want bougainvillea in the front, but it’s too shady in the front of my house. But she wants to please me and kept looking for the perfect spot for bougainvillea in the backyard. I like this.

I met Jackie at the Salmon Run in November. She was answering questions at the National Wildlife Federation table, featuring Bird-friendly Habitat. While talking to her in my dining room, I learned that she is a Environmental Biologist. She knows her stuff.

She liked my amateur yard plan and noticed right away the sticky notes I had pasted to the side that said things like, weather station, compost pile, worm farm, kitchen garden, outdoor shower. I had a stack of books from the library to show her pictures to illustrate my ideas. She sensed my vision. What cinched the deal was when I showed her a picture of a meadow in an LA garden in one of the library books.

“Can I have a meadow?”

“Sure, we could make a meadow area.”

“No, not an area, the whole backyard.”

“Oh better yet. You might be able to do everything in your budget if we postpone the driveway. But before you can have a meadow, you have to get rid of these weeds.”

No problem. I skipped. Maybe it was a hop.

The Getty

Last week I met with Brendon of Channel Island Landscape & Design. This week I will meet with the Jackie of A Water Wise Garden. I'll discuss those visits in my next blog. I will be working with both of them and I want to blog the whole story in one piece.

After the Brendon left I was feeling buoyed for a couple of hours and then panic stepped in again. What plants do I want? Do I want color in the front or shades of green and white and lots of texture? Since I can't do it all on my budget this year, what is really the most important? What can wait until next year?

Action always calms me and the most immediate thing I could think to do was to dig through my old Sunset magazines. I found gardens I loved and ripped out the pages; I started a new folder. I have to see the mature plants. I have to think about what they will look like in the summer and in the winter. I'm thinking about butterflies and birds. And gophers. I'm thinking about vegetables and herbs. Do I really need a little orchard that will produce too much fruit? Maybe. Maybe it will be barter produce. What about a cutting garden? Doesn't that sound romantic? "Where is C. D.? Oh, she's gathering a bouquet in the cutting garden."

In October of 2008, Sunset Magazine wrote an article; well did a 2 page photo spread with a few words, about the The Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Specifically about the cactus garden. Light bulb. I'll go to the Getty.

On Sunday I went to the Getty and took the garden tour. At the entrance to the Central Garden there is a concrete plaque on the walkway.

It's hard to read but it says

EVER                  EVER

PRESENT          CHANGING

NEVER                 NEVER

TWICE            THE LESS THAN

SAME                  WHOLE


DECEMBER ROBERT

1997 IRWIN


All of the Getty gardens were experiencing CA winter. The deciduous trees were bare. The grasses that grow 6' and cascade, were cut back. The bougainvillea was cut back. Plantings of dogwoods, red, yellow and orange were placed just for the winter. OH NO. I thought. Will I want to plant for the seasons and replant? Definitely NOT. I took some pictures of some plants that I thought I would like. I hope the gardeners can tell me what they are. The garden guide didn't know this detail. She was versed in the art of the garden, not in the horticulture of the garden.

My Getty garden guide opened my eyes to 'view'. How will the garden look when driving by? How will it look from inside the house looking out? If I plant a tree there, will it block my view of the city? And she pointed out lines and colors and water and fragrance. I know that it will all get more comfortable as I go along, but right now I feel overwhelmed.

I went to the library and checked out books on Mediterranean gardens, kitchen vegetable and herb gardens and Robert Irwin's Getty Garden. I went on line to the Sunset Magazine website. My 5 year old granddaughter helped me measure the area I am considering for the kitchen garden. I drew up a couple of ideas for the lay out of raised beds. She helped. The budget is tight and I need to know a little about what I am doing. Time is money. I’m cramming for an exam.

I dreamed that the installation crew was here. They had dug a big hole and were installing a globe in the top left corner of my front yard. They had the driveway pulled up and several men were planting I don’t know what along my circle drive. And, they were doing something structural in the garage. “I haven’t approved the plan. I haven’t signed a contract, how much is this costing me?” I ran screaming out the front door. “And I haven’t even met Jackie yet.”

The project has taken over my days and my nights.

The Designers Are Coming

Yikes. Why do I feel this panic? What have I done? I'm about to hire a landscape designer. The idea is exciting and frightening. What am I thinking? I'm thinking can I afford it? Will I be able to get my vision across? There's so much to do. Now here's a curious thought. I'm thinking it so I'll put it out here. There is so much to do can it ever get done? Is this normal? This yen and yang of my thought process?

I decided to take a walk around the yard with pen and paper. Make a list. Start in the front and work to the back. List everything, sort it later. It calms me. It's just a yard. I've already wasted so much money in past years, planting and not watering; getting excited and then distracted. I could have paid 6 designers by now.

So BRING IT ON. I will interview 2 designers this week. My first one is coming on Wednesday. I'm ready. I'm calmer now. It's just a yard. And what a yard it will be.

Nopalito Nursery

My appointment with Antonio at Nopalito Native Plant Nursery was at 1pm on Tuesday. I left early. I have a reputation for taking the long way. Who was the wise man that said there is no wrong way? Well, I like that philosophy. I knew the Nursery was near Lassens, I had the map on the back of their business card and I had visited their web site. I was prepared.

I took the 101 N from my home, took the Telephone Rd off ramp, turned left onto Telephone, drove under the freeway and turned right onto Main St. I started looking for that view I saw on the website, of the benches and the wagons and the office kiosk. I saw Lassens, but no benches. I continued down Main St.

Plan B. Check the address. 4107 E. Main St. I had clearly gone too far. I turned around. When I got to 4100 block I knew I was close and pulled into a parking lot (now on the left). There they were. Over there. ACROSS from Lassens, sharing the parking lot.

(I made a second pass at the Nursery to give you better directions. When you turn onto Main Street from Telephone, you will drive 2 blocks and cross Donlon. Pay attention now because there on the right is the Lassen's sign - that's the driveway you want. Turn right into the driveway and you will see Nopalito Nursery in the back on the right.)

It's a tough find. But once you know where they are, you can't get lost again. I was early. I had brought my 3 ring binder. I felt like the first time I visited my accountant with my shoe box of receipts and papers, not knowing what to expect.

I was pretty sure that Antonio was the man in the kiosk helping customers. I decided to have a look around. I was greeted by Kenji. Seeing my 3 ring binder he had me pegged for a sales rep. I was feeling like a bumbling amateur gardener and he thought I was a sales rep. What about that? We talked about my yard a little, about their business a little. He told me that they would be having classes and speakers in the building adjacent to their business, beginning in January. Kenji, being the gentleman that he is, stayed with me until Antonio was free.

In my notebook I have some photos of my yard. An empty canvas I call it. And I have a plan I made in a landscape design class years ago. I had a wild list of my wants. A weather station, a compost pile, a little worm farm, an outdoor shower, a small orchard, a little propagation house, a vegetable garden, a reading room, a fire pit ...... Antonio was able to see right to my most immediate need. FIRST I needed a landscape designer to make the big plan. And then they can help me with the plants. Before we were finished, Rick dropped by. So I got to meet all of the owners. Antonio gave me the business card of a couple in Ventura that do landscape design. I signed my name to their email list so I would be informed of their classes and lectures and went on my way.

I left Nopalito Nursery content. I had what I needed. Kenji, Antonio and Rick are professional. They know their product. They have been in business since late October but it feels like they are long established. I'll be back for sure, for classes, lectures and plants. And I'll be bringing my neighbors.