Sanhedrin Nursery – Garden Blog

• Cover cherry trees with bird netting to protect your crop.

• Roses bloom all summer with their abundant flowers in so many different colors. Choose some now when you can see their lovely flowers.

• Attract hummingbirds to your patio this summer with hummingbird feeders, so you can enjoy their iridescent beauty and charm.

• Azaleas, camellias and rhododendrons can be pruned now without sacrificing next years bloom. Ask at your nursery if you need help.

• Paint trunks of young fruit trees with Tree Trunk White. This will keep the soft bark from sun-burning which leaves cracks for borer insects, the most common cause of death of young apple trees.

Secrets of Companion Planting

The practice of mixing flowers and herbs into the vegetable garden or around certain shrubs to attract beneficial insects and repel harmful ones is known as companion planting. Hundreds of examples of plant companions are recorded in garden folklore, and scientific studies have supported many of these.

There are many varieties of herbs, flowers and vegetables that can be used for companion plants. Certain plants act as “trap crops” that draw pest insects away from other plants. Nasturtiums are used this way to attract aphids which seem to prefer them to other crops. Planting a ring of them around apple trees limits woolly aphid damage to the trees (although the nasturtiums won’t look too great).

“Nurse plants” provide breeding grounds for beneficial insects. Herbs such as fennel, dill, anise and coriander are members of the carrot family that produce broad, flat clusters of small flowers that attract beneficials. Grow these plants near your vegetables to keep parasitic wasps nearby. Sunflowers, zinnias and asters also attract helpful insects.

Cucumber beetles, which look like green lady bugs, are a common pest in the vegetable garden. You can lure them away from other plants by planting radishes or nasturtiums nearby. Nasturtiums also deter whiteflies and squash bugs.

Radishes will lure leafminers away from spinach. The damage the leafminers do to radish leaves does not stop the radish roots from growing and being edible, a win-win situation.

Flea beetles are tiny black insects that riddle eggplant leaves with holes. Catnip nearby will deter these creatures. It will also reduce aphids on pepper plants. Keep the catnip in a pot, though, because it can grow out of control in the garden.

Sweet basil is known to repel aphids, mosquitoes and flies. Planted near tomatoes, it is said to help them overcome both insects and diseases and also improves their growth and flavor.

Garlic grown in a circle around fruit trees is good protection against borers. It also deters aphids, weevils and spider mites. It is beneficial when planted around rose bushes for these reasons. Plant near cabbage to repel the cabbage moth and resultant caterpillar damage.

Rosemary deters cabbage moth, bean beetles and carrot flies, so plant some around your vegetable garden.

Marigolds are known for their ability to suppress nematodes. However, we do not have soil nematodes in this area of California. French marigolds help to deter whiteflies when planted around tomatoes and can be useful in the greenhouse for the same purpose. Marigolds may help repel flea beetles from eggplants. For best results plant marigolds that are tall and strongly scented, with the eggplants.

There are many other interesting possibilities. So fill your garden with flowers and herbs and reap their protective benefits as well as their beauty and fragrance.

• Gerberas Daisies with their large, bright-colored flowers are a standout in containers. Water them infrequently and give them plenty of sun for flowers all summer.

• Asparagus plants should be fed with good, rich compost when you have finished cutting spears. Keep the bed mulched and weed-free all summer, and the soil moist.

• Ivy geraniums make wonderful hanging baskets for partially shaded spots where they will bloom all summer.

• Tomatoes are the most popular summer vegetable. Choose from the many varieties available now so you can enjoy delicious home-grown flavor.

• When you plant your vegetable garden, why not grow a little extra to donate to the Willits Food Bank this summer.

The Ancient Art of Bonsai

One of the most fascinating of all the varied garden arts is Bonsai. Centuries ago, the Japanese collected and cultivated trees in miniature form, capturing the spirit of nature, and thus creating a unique art form. Bonsai is a Japanese word, meaning ‘tree in a tray.’

Nature’s forms are so exactly reproduced in these elegant trees, that you can almost feel the wind blow as you contemplate a weather-beaten, windswept mountain tree.

As with other hobbies, there are skills involved, but with practice wonderful results can be achieved. Your initial attempts, though not perfect, will bring you joy and pride as you watch them grow. A young tree has the potential to grow into a great work of art with your careful attention.

Spring is the best time to start a new bonsai while the trees are strongest and growing vigorously. When you visit the nursery to select your tree, examine the basic form of the trunk since this is what you will work with. Specimens that are lopsided or deformed often make very good bonsai subjects.

The easiest plants to start with are juniper, cotoneaster and Japanese maples. Keep in mind that you are creating a tree in miniature – small leaved species will help the beginner to create this image. Small starter plants are easiest for the beginner, while the more experienced may look for larger, overgrown nursery plants.

Choose a pot with large drain holes. This will help prevent overwatering, which is the leading cause of death with bonsai. A netting or screen can be placed in the bottom of the pot to keep the soil from falling through the holes.

The soil should be light and porous. You can buy a premixed bonsai soil, or make your own with three parts loam, two parts sand and one part peat moss.

After your tree is potted, pay close attention to its water needs. Daily watering is necessary during very warm weather, but may drown the plant in mild weather.

Bonsai plants like to be kept outdoors. They are not house plants, unless they are made with tropical plants that tolerate household conditions. Find a location where they will receive as much sunlight as possible without overheating or burning. This will vary according to the kind of plant. A high-branching tree or latticework can shelter them from excessive heat. Also protect them from strong winds and heavy rain.

To create the weather-beaten or windswept look, branches are often removed and tops are trimmed. Branches and trunks can be temporarily wired to produce twisted shapes. The goal is to create a plant that looks like a small old tree. The Chinese frequently use figurines and/or rocks in their compositions.

Bonsai is a very popular horticultural hobby that can be enjoyed by young and old alike.

• Mulch blueberry plants with aged sawdust and feed with cottonseed meal or an acid fertilizer.

• Set out zinnias, cosmos, impatiens and begonias for lots of colorful flowers all summer long.

• Earwigs are out and about and hungry. Control them with the new “Sluggo Plus”, or diatomaceous earth sprinkled around the plants, or go out after dark with a flashlight and a spray bottle of Safer’s Insecticidal Soap. One squirt will put an end to the spoiler.

• The “Wave” petunias make wonderful hanging baskets for full sun. They come in purple, bright pink, reddish-purple and pale “misty lilac.” They can also be used for a colorful summer ground cover.

• Cage or stake tomatoes while still small so that you can train them as they grow.

The Importance of Bees

Bees are extremely important to gardeners. Without them, we would not have fruit to harvest. Peppers, eggplant, tomatoes and beans are pollinated by bees. Watermelons, cantaloupe, cucumbers and squash require bee pollination to set fruit. Strawberries, apples, cherries, plums, peaches, pears, berries of all kinds and grapes need bees for pollination.

Three types of bees do most of the pollinating: honeybees, bumblebees and solitary bees. There are 1600 species of native California bees, 26 of these are bumblebees and most of the rest are solitary bees. Honeybees come from Europe.

California native bees are great for your vegetable garden, and bumblebees are great pollinators of tomatoes. You can add flowers and shrubs to your garden or landscape that will attract the bees. In so doing, you will be helping to sustain these valuable insects and, as a reward, you will enjoy bumper crops in your own orchards and vegetable gardens as well.

Since native bees are around all through the growing season, it is important to plant flowers that bloom successively over the spring, summer and fall. By grouping the flowers that attract bees together, you are more likely to draw bees to your garden. Gardens with ten or more species of attractive plants will attract the largest number of bees.

Flowers clustered into clumps of one species will attract more pollinators than will individual plants scattered through the area. Where space allows, make the clumps four feet or more in diameter.

Choose several colors of flowers. Bees have good color vision to help them find flowers and the nectar and pollen they offer. Flower colors that particularly attract bees are blue, purple, violet, white, and yellow.

Some of the best pollen sources that bloom in the spring are California poppy, calendula, larkspur and wallflower (Erysimum). A planting of mixed spring wildflowers will give you many fine bee plants. Manzanitas, flowering currant (Ribes), Oregon grape (Mahonia) and wild lilacs (Ceanothus sp.) are good shrubs for early in the season.

There are many good choices for late spring and early summer. Yarrows of all kinds attract bees, as do catmint, penstemons, lavenders, lupines, thymes and borage. Bush anemone (Carpenteria californica) attracts several kinds of bees and huckleberries are good bee plants. Rosemary is very attractive to bees and so are elderberries.

Midsummer choices include gaillardia, echinacea, coreopsis, germander, salvias, verbenas and asters. Basil, carrots and herbs left to flower, cosmos, bachelor buttons, squash and pumpkins will all attract bees to your garden. Rudbeckias, sedums and sunflowers will provide forage for the end of summer and into the fall.

Plant native plants, if possible, to readily attract our native bees. Let your garden be a little “wild” with a variety of plants to make a bee-friendly garden. What’s good for the bees is good for our fruits and vegetables and a good thing to do for the planet.