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.