BIRDS, BEES AND BUTTERFLIES… OH MY!! Attracting These Beautiful Creatures to Your Yard by Janet Merriweather

Photo by Tina Ligon

BIRDS: Be careful what you wish for when it comes to calling all birds to your yard! The type of seed you supply can somewhat determine what kind of birds you will attract to your feeders. Just remember, you cannot discriminate against your little feathered friends! When you call them, they will come, all of them! So, when you see all of the black birds and sparrows eating up your seed don’t cringe, rejoice in the fact that you are one with the bird world! Don’t hit the bargain table when buying your seed. You want the best food for the health of your little feathered friends. Things to consider: Suet can go rancid in the high heat, sunflower seeds and peanuts in the shell leave a mess, cracked and whole corn attract unpopular birds and squirrels. Just remember, the more natural the better. Try planting flowers and vines in your yard with birds in mind. Some good resources on the web are: National Audubon Society; www.audubon.org and Backyard Wildlife Habitat Program; www.nwf.org.

A Case for Cover Crops and Green Manuring by Sally Berriman

Crimson Clover and Annual Rye Photo by Peg Tillery

A cover crop is simply a high number of plants, not grown for food but as plant material which is used to improve the soil.   When the cover crop is tilled into the soil, it is referred to as a green manure crop or green manuring.  The terms are often used interchangeably.  While cover crops have been used extensively in commercial agriculture, recently more home and community gardeners are starting to use cover crops on a smaller scale.

Cover crops are beneficial because they build soil structure, add organic materials, replenish soil nutrients, fix atmospheric nitrogen, protect the soil from wind and water erosion, suppress weeds and reduce insect pests.  Additionally, cover crops can provide a green and much more attractive alternative to an expanse of dry dirt during the off-season.  

Fantastic Foliage Plants by Gardener Dave

If you are considering reducing maintenance in your annual garden next year, consider having fewer flowers and adding more foliage plants. When you find a “happy spot” for them, they will increase in size and become even more colorful throughout the summer. Most like more shade than sun, but many will enjoy several hours of morning sunlight if they are watered adequately. They require no deadheading and most take trimming and shaping well. They are available in many contrasting colors, all the way from greens to browns, maroons and reds - many are variegated interestingly and can make striking color combinations with other annuals or even some perennials. 

Consider mixing them in with other plants that like partial sun or shade, such as hostas, caladium, or begonias. Or, plant them in pots as “specimens”. They will grow and reward you with evolving, sun-dappled colors from spring up until frost with minimal care. They are colorful without being overbearingly bright or “in your face” and have the best effect where you can see them up close as you pass by.

A Cut Above the Rest; Choosing An Arborist by Kate Sullivan-Sisneros

Liontailing Photo by Kate Sullivan-Sisneros

My neighbor to the North of us has two 30+ year old willow trees.  Recently, I watched helplessly as a local tree service butchered them with inappropriate pruning cuts.  This company must not have been aware of ANSI pruning standards (American National Standards Institute), as the tree was riddled with heading cuts – a big ‘no, no’ when pruning mature shade trees and ‘lion-tailing’ which shifts the weight to the outer making the tree more susceptible to wind damage.  And NO care was taken to safely lower the branches to the ground.  Instead, my husband said it was literally “raining branches.”  In the process, my upright juniper sustained four broken branches, leaving a gaping hole on one side.  This will not grow back.  Save yourself this experience and read this article!

Dual-Purposing Your Satellite Dish By Amy Norwood

 

 

 

Photo by Amy Norwood

Though you can’t see them too well in this picture, there are about twenty pieces of twine tethering my Chadwick Cherry tomato plant to my satellite dish.  And we still get TV reception!  So get satellite tv and throw out your tomato cages!

Harvesting your Pumpkins By Joyce D’Agostino

Rouge Vif D'Etampes (Cucurbita maxima) photo by Joyce D'Agostino

This growing season was a challenge for most of us due to the heat and lack of rain. Many pumpkin growers this year reported their crops maturing weeks earlier than the normal schedule due to the extreme drought conditions.

If you grew pumpkins this year, now is the time to prepare them for harvest and storage. Knowing when to cut and store your pumpkins is important.  Pumpkins are not only suitable for eating but are great for fall decorating and carving. Like winter squash, pumpkins take most of our growing season to produce the pumpkin. Choosing the right variety for your climate helps you achieve a successful fall pumpkin harvest.

Kim Bone's Garden

If you missed the Jeffco Master Gardeners' garden tour or the Garden Conservancy Tour then you missed Kim Bone's beautiful garden.  Here's a music video of it.  Enjoy!

Cider Pressing and Tomato Tasting 2012 by Duane Davidson

Tomato Tasting Table

Char and Tom Gottlieb's harvest season event, making cider and tasting multiple varieties of tomatoes, celebrated its 15th anniversary this September. Family, friends, neighbors, and Char's Colorado Master Gardener colleagues gathered in the Gottlieb front and back yards on a recent Saturday afternoon. It was a pleasant, sunny day with a hint of fall, a perfect afternoon to celebrate the bounty of garden and orchard.

Though gardeners agreed this year's hot temperatures hampered tomato production, they provided about thirty different varieties for the tasting. Many were familiar, but several newcomers were introduced by their proud growers. Some were a little sweeter, some more tart; all were delicious and fun to taste.  

Using the Cider Press

 As for apples, it was a bountiful year according to those carrying in large buckets and boxes to the cider press. They took their turns, first chopping the apples into small pieces in the grinder, then squeezing the juice out in the turnscrew press.

Word has spread about this gathering. Even a news photographer turned up to record this year's activities. Watch for a feature item in your newspaper.

Lavender Hyssop is a Great Bee Magnet by Joyce D’Agostino

Photo by Joyce D'Agostino

A few years ago, I overheard some gardeners remarking how much they enjoyed hyssop.  Since I enjoy growing herbs, especially those that produce both attractive flowers and fragrant foliage, I decided to give it a try.

I chose a Lavender Hyssop, Agastache foeniculum,  and started it from seed. The seed information promised that it would attract bees and butterflies.

Since this is a perennial, the first year it remained small and didn’t flower but did survive the severe hailstorm of the summer of 2009. It continued to grow each year since and this was the first year that it produced fluffy lavender flower spikes.

Mulch-Moving Turkeys by Elaine Lockey

As if deer weren’t enough of a struggle for mountain gardeners, throw in some mulch-moving turkeys! 

Turkey surveying her handiwork

Ever since I put down new mulch on my garden bed, I‘ve had regular visitors who like to do some landscaping of their own.  A group of turkeys scrape out all the mulch onto the driveway and sidewalk with their strong feet, on an almost daily basis.  This not only causes a big mess but damages the plants. 

They are searching my garden for food, most likely insects as turkeys are opportunistic omnivores.  They eat a mostly plant-based diet of herbaceous green leaves, berries, seeds, grasses, and acorns.  Insects play a smaller but important part of their diet, especially for the young turkeys, called poults.  Insects might include grasshoppers, dragonflies, slugs and snails and beetles.  Turkeys do a large amount of scratching for food especially in the fall, so possibly coincidental timing with my new mulch.  They are enjoying the ease of moving the soft mulch to most likely find plentiful insects hiding within the bed.  

I wondered if this was a unique situation but I did find some fellow internet gardeners who have experienced the same thing.  And they weren't just mountain gardeners - many lived in suburban settings and reported that there were more turkeys moving in. There are some various solutions that they offered.  

Golden Rain Tree Bugs by Gardener Dave

Golden Rain Tree

A  while ago Carol King wrote an informative article about box elder bugs on this blog. Well, my yard has now been “occupied” by some of their close relatives – golden rain tree bugs – uninvited by me, mind you, but very numerous all the same. They go by several other aliases: red shouldered bug, soapberry bug and Jadera bug – the latter comes from their Latin name “Jadera haematoloma”, apparently the most common species that we see here in Colorado.

The bugs have set up housekeeping near my one golden rain (GR) tree at the west side of my house – so far I have seen only a few actually ON the tree – but they are raising families and getting ready for a big celebration for sure!  So far their favorite spot seems to be out of the sun on a cedar fence about 6 feet from the tree. They are very active bugs – and most of their life cycle (except eggs) seems to be displayed all at one time.

Early Leaf Color is Drought Related by Mary Small

When fall coloration appears early, like this year, it usually means plants are stressed.  Many factors can stress trees, but in 2012, the likely culprit is the weather.  Conditions in the Denver metro area have been dry since fall of 2011.  March, June and July were warmer than normal months.  


The excessive heat and dry conditions can kill roots or stress them.  When roots are stressed they can’t absorb water well from the soil.  Tree leaves still continue to transpire (lose moisture to the surrounding environment) and the poorly functioning roots can’t supply the need.


During the growing season, trees are constantly making and breaking down chlorophyll (the green plant pigment) to produce starches and sugars, their “food”.   When a plant is stressed, it can’t produce as much chlorophyll, so the green color fades, allowing other pigments to show.  (These other pigments are always present, but masked by the presence of chlorophyll.)  So reds, oranges and yellows begin to appear even though the calendar tells us the normal leaf coloration period is a ways off.  


You can apply water to help improve plant health, although it won’t reverse leaf color changes now.  Be sure to provide water this fall and winter to help already stressed plants survive the winter. This fact sheet  http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/garden/07211.html