Earth Day is Wednesday, April 22! by Audrey Stokes

Each year, Earth Day marks the anniversary of what many consider the birth of the modern environmental movement which began in 1970. At the time, Americans were slurping leaded gas through massive V8 sedans. Industry belched out smoke and sludge with little fear of legal consequences or bad press. Air pollution was commonly accepted as the smell of prosperity. “Environment” was a word that appeared more often in spelling bees than on the evening news.

How Honeybees Survive Winter by Audrey Stokes

Photo courtesy thetruthwins.com

When winter rolls around, bears hibernate and birds fly south, but what about the bees? Like every other creature on earth, bees have their own unique ways of coping with cold temperatures during the winter season. One way bees prepare for the winter is by gathering a winter reserve of honey.

Fall Vegetable Garden Cleanup by Audrey Stokes

Photo by Audrey Stokes

You and your fall garden benefit when you give your plants the same TLC in fall as you do in spring and summer. A vegetable garden left unattended through winter provides a cover for pests and disease. 

Plant disease agents such as bacteria, fungi and viruses all remain alive, though dormant, during the winter months. By recognizing the places where these organisms hide, gardeners can often destroy them and prevent disease outbreaks the following spring. Many fungi spend the winter on or in old leaves, fruit and other garden refuse. These fungi often form spores or other reproductive structures that remain alive even after the host plant has died. Cucumber and squash vines, cabbages, and the dried remains of tomato and bean plants are all likely to harbor fungi if left in the garden over the winter.

Insects, too, survive quite nicely over the winter months. Cucumber beetle, Colorado potato beetle and Mexican bean beetle all overwinter as adults. In spring they migrate to young plants where they feed and lay eggs for a new generation. Insects and plant pathogens survive on weeds as well as on garden plants. Many weeds serve as alternate hosts for insects and fungi, helping them to complete their life cycle. Destruction of these weeds removes a source of future troubles.

Fall Pruning “Dos and Don’ts” by Audrey Stokes

Mild fall weather may have you thinking about pruning shrubs and trees but it's better to wait until winter or at least until after deciduous trees’ leaves have fallen. When it comes to fall pruning, procrastination is the way to go.  One exception to any ‘no-pruning’ advice is that dead, diseased and damaged wood should be removed as soon as possible.  Hire a professional arborist to remove big limbs, high branches, and any other tree job that you’re not prepared to do.

Pruning timetables can be broken down according to the type of plant: trees, shrubs, perennials and roses.

Native Perennials by Audrey Stokes

Mirabilis multiflora, Desert four o'clock

Governor Hickenlooper has just proclaimed June 10-16 as "Native Plant Appreciation Week"! For more information and a list of related events, visit the Colorado Native Plant Society's webpage.http://www.conps.org

It's a great time to add native plants to your landscape! Following are some helpful facts and tips from CSU Extension by I. Shonle, L.G. Vickerman and J.E. Klett (4/14).

Celebrate Earth Day by Audrey Stokes

Each year, Earth Day marks the anniversary of what many consider the birth of the modern environmental movement which began in 1970. At the time, Americans were slurping leaded gas through massive V8 sedans. Industry belched out smoke and sludge with little fear of legal consequences or bad press. Air pollution was commonly accepted as the smell of prosperity. “Environment” was a word that appeared more often in spelling bees than on the evening news.

The Importance of Insect Pollinators by Audrey Stokes

Bumblebee

First things, first: What are pollinators?

Many insects, birds, and animals help move pollen between flowers and act as “pollinators”. Butterflies, moths, bees, wasps, and flies are examples of insect pollinators. When a pollinator visits a flower it is looking for food but while feeding, these insects inadvertently transfer pollen grains between flowers and help the plants produce fruit and seeds.

Next: Why is pollination important to plants?

Pollination is important because it leads to the production of fruits we can eat, and seeds that will create more plants. Pollination begins with flowers. Flowers have male parts that produce very small grains called pollen. Pollination is the transfer of pollen grains from one flower to another.

And, so: What are the importance of insect pollinators?

Pollen Wasp

• Pollinators support biodiversity: There is a correlation between plant diversity and pollinator diversity.
• The pollinator population of an area is a great indicator of the overall health of an ecosystem.
• Some crops, including blueberries and cherries, are 90 percent dependent on honey bee pollination.
• Honey bees visit five million flowers to make one pint of honey.
• To produce 150 pounds of honey, bees cover a distance equal to 13 trips to the moon and back.
• 90 percent of the nation's apple crop is pollinated by bees.
• There are 4000 bee species in the U.S. 
• Increased yields and higher quality crops are benefits that growers and consumers realize from a healthy pollinator population, native or managed.
• Worldwide, approximately 1,000 plants grown for food, beverages, fibers, spices, and medicines need to be pollinated by insects and animals in order to produce the goods on which we depend.
• It’s estimated that there are about 2.4 million bee colonies in the U.S. today, two-thirds of which travel the country each year pollinating crops and producing honey and beeswax.

Identifying Poison-Hemlock by Audrey Stokes

Poison-Hemlock (Conium maculatum).

Scientists recommend that you learn to identify and avoid plants that produce dangerous toxins. Your life may depend on it! Each year dozens of people die or are sickened by weeds they didn’t know would cause them harm. Gardeners and outdoor enthusiasts need to be well-informed in order to stay safe. Recently in Larimer County, a dog died from ingesting water hemlock. http://kdvr.com/2015/06/30/dog-eats-poisonous-plant-dies-within-1-hour/

Why are some weeds poisonous?  Most plants produce their own naturally occurring pesticide to deter predators so they won’t be eaten. No plant could survive without producing some defense mechanism. Most lists of Colorado’s toxic weed species that I researched were topped by the very dangerous Poison-hemlock (Conium maculatum). I found this especially alarming due to the fact that I have this weed growing on my property!  Originally imported from Europe as an ornamental plant, it has spread rampantly across North America.

Plant a Perennial for Mom by Audrey Stokes

Coral Baby Penstemon photo Plant Select©

Mother’s Day is May 10 this year -- just around the corner!  All moms like to be given flowers on their special day. This year why not give a gift that “keeps on giving” and plant a perennial for Mom? Perennials may not have as great a visual impact in the container or immediately after planting as traditional horticultural species. Over time, however, they will reward Mom with their natural beauty.

A few of the many reasons native perennials are the ideal choice for a home landscape are:

• they are naturally adapted to Colorado’s climates, soils and environmental conditions. 
• they require less external inputs such as watering, fertilizing and other cultural factors when the planting site mimics the plant’s native habitat. 
• they create habitat and attract a variety of wildlife including mammals, birds, butterflies and other native pollinators.

Rejuvenation (“to make young again”) Pruning by Audrey Stokes

Pruning photo Cyrus McCrimmon, Denver Post

This article is an excerpt from the CMG Garden Notes publication Pruning Flowering Shrubs and is re-printed here because of the extreme timeliness of the information – early spring is the time for rejuvenation pruning! http://www.ext.colostate.edu/mg/Gardennotes/616.html

Hügelkultur – Who knew? Composting Process Using Raised Beds! By Audrey Stokes

Raised bed gardening using hugelkultur photo Open Hand Foundation

Used for centuries in Eastern Europe and Germany, (in German it translates roughly as “mound or hill culture”) hügelkultur (pronounced ‘hoo-gul-culture’) is a gardening and farming technique where woody debris (branches and/or logs) are used as a resource (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%BCgelkultur).

Often employed in permaculture systems, hügelkultur allows gardeners and farmers to mimic the nutrient cycling found in natural woodlands to realize several benefits. Woody debris (and other matter) that falls to the forest floor can readily become sponge like, soaking up rainfall and releasing it slowly into the surrounding soil, thus making this moisture available to nearby plants.

Hügelkultur is a composting process that uses no-dig raised planting beds constructed on top of decaying wood debris and other compostable biomass plant materials.  Hügelkultur farmers believe this process helps to improve soil fertility, water retention and soil warming, benefiting plants grown on or near the mounds. providing great spaces for growing fruit, vegetables and herbs.

The hügelkultur process is bleived to work well anywhere.  On a sod lawn Sepp Holzer, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sepp_Holzer) hugelkultur expert, recommends cutting out the sod, digging a one foot deep trench and filling the trench with logs and branches. Then cover the logs with the upside down turf. On top of the turf add grass clippings, seaweed, compost, aged manure, straw, green leaves, mulch, etc... In most situations, the bed may only have to be watered the first year.

Winter Identification of Deciduous Trees by Audrey Stokes

For most of us, tree identification begins with leaves. Typically, it is the only characteristic of the tree that we ‘dabbling foresters’ examine. Identification of deciduous trees in the winter can be more of a challenge but not impossible when other characteristics are considered.

To make matters easier keep in mind that in one forest location in Colorado you will generally find only five or ten types of trees. There are only some fifty kinds of trees native to all of Colorado, or even less if you do not count those which often grow as large shrubs - low diversity for such a large forested region, some 25,000 square miles, with many habitats.