If you plant it, they will come~

Butterfly Mint Bush, Monardella-antonina, 

Photo Courtesy of Las Pilitas Nursery

Here in Southern California gardeners experience unique challenges, drought being one, but there are joys as well, such as having hummingbirds that visit all year long.  If you want to attract more butterflies and hummingbirds and even native bees (which do not sting, BTW) to your garden, then you want to plant more flowers.  It’s as simple as that, really. And, if you like seeing flowers blooming, then this is a win-win for you: Plant them and they will come!

While our East Coast friends are blanketed in snow, their gardens asleep and requiring little care, here in Southern California we are somewhat obligated to keep our front yards looking tidy and vibrant--- all year long.  At the same time, after working in the garden we can enjoy sitting back in our favorite chair with a cold drink--- all year long.

To my mind, there is nothing more rewarding than watching pollinators move about my garden.  It means that I have planted enough nectar-rich native plants.  Butterflies, hummingbirds, and native bees are all looking for nectar.  They zoom in on the splashes of color they spy down below in your yard, and close in to see if they can feast at your place today. I used to grow flowers just for the beauty and fragrance, but now I’ve found that adding wildlife to the garden scene makes it all the more interesting.

I recommend native plants and wildflower seeds. Why? Because native plants are naturally adapted to our climate, our soil, and our weather, so they require less water and little maintenance.

Costa's Hummingbird (Calypte costae)

on Alpine sage (Salvia clevelanddii) 

Photo Courtesy of Las Pilitas Nursery

Attract Pollinators with Nectar Rich Wildflowers: Native wildflower seed mixes are a wonderful addition to your garden. They can be spread en masse for a sweeping meadow look, even replacing your lawn entirely, or they can be tucked into existing flower borders.  An interesting idea is to hand-sow wildflower seeds in pots or barrels and place them in sunny locations.  Their blooms will be unique from the usual big box store flowers we see everywhere.  And the pollinators will come.  For better success, you need to sow local native wildflowers, rather than a generic mix meant for the entire country. Native seed mixes are available for both Southern California’s coastal areas and for inland areas.

Attract Hummingbirds: The hummingbirds will thank you over and over again with repeat visits if you plant their beloved sage, aka Salvia.  Salvias are perennials that will stick around, growing larger year after year, filling out a garden bed and adding more flowers.   While there are many different varieties of sage, look for Hummingbird sage (Salvia spathacea) with whorls of red flowers. Hummingbirds are attracted to these plants, with red being their favorite color. Hummingbird sage can be grown in garden beds, as a ground cover, or under trees.

Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) on
San Joaquin Willow Bush (Salix gooddingii)Location: Leo Carrillo State Park
 Photography by Kathy Vilim

Attract Monarch Butterflies: We should all add milkweed plants to our gardens for the monarch butterflies. I watch the monarchs sometimes on my walks, flitting about my neighbors’ yards, looking for that splash of color that means one thing: nectar, and looking for that special plant, the Milkweed (Ascelpias), that is the only plant they can lay their eggs on to raise the next generation (called a host plant).  When the young caterpillars emerge, they will devour the plant, consuming as many as 20 leaves each; it will be their food and their safety until they emerge as butterflies.  So, plant milkweed for the youngsters and a variety of nectar-rich flowers for the adults.   (Important: Plant the variety of Milkweed (Ascelpias) that is native to your region – NOT the Tropical Milkweed.  For most of us in Los Angeles, that would be the Narrow-Leaf Milkweed for coastal regions.)

Attract Native Bees: Having more bees in your yard is the answer to a flourishing vegetable garden. Native (wild) bees do NOT sting, so don’t be afraid to attract them. For an easy-to-grow bee magnet, plant the wonderfully aromatic Rosemary plant. Did you know this herb helps improve memory retention? Not remembering the past, but future-memory, remembering what you have planned for tomorrow! Anything that helps me with my To-Do List is a welcome addition to my garden.

Go Organic:  One more important thing to mention: Your garden will NOT support butterflies and other pollinators if you are spraying chemicals.

Resources: One source of native wildflower seeds is the Theodore Payne Foundation.  They also raise native plants, like Salvia and Milkweed.  http://store.theodorepayne.org/SFNT.html. For more resources on finding native plants, visit your local chapter of the Native Plant Society http://www.calscape.org/plant_nursery.php

Six Smart Reasons to Leave the Autumn Leaves

Six Smart Reasons to Leave the Autumn Leaves

Autumn is in full swing. No matter where you live in North America, gardeners are watching leaves falling as temperatures cool. Even if you don’t have a deciduous forest in your backyard, you still have bare tree branches, bushes going dormant, perennial plants dying back, and lawns turning brown.  You can’t leave all the leaves on the lawn; that wouldn’t make for a healthy lawn come spring.  But, you don’t have to rake up every single leaf and over-tidy the garden. And you don’t want to send those raked up leaves to the dumpster either. 

There are plenty of reasons not to over-tidy when preparing your garden for winter, and here are (6) of them:

1.    Create Winter Landscape Interest

When you look out on your backyard on a winter’s day, the expanse of white landscape need not be bleak. Instead it can be wonderfully serene, still, and punctuated by the appearance of seedpods left standing. Sedums are some of those plants that add visual interest, as well as tall grasses, and even the dried brown seeds on bushes such as lilacs. Fallen tree branches and hollow logs that stand out like dark sentinels against the white, can leave us to wondering as we gaze out our windows what wildlife might be hunkered down for protection there.

2.      Consider Wildlife

Ice Covered Berries, Photo from womanseyeview.me

There are beneficial insects, such as bees, butterflies and ladybugs, that need to overwinter in your yard, sometimes in the very leaf litter you were about to rake up and throw away. More and more gardeners are becoming aware that their yards are home to an entire world of critters besides themselves. The web of life is interwoven on so many levels, with insects relying on protection during cold winter months in the thickets of snow-covered branches, in hollowed logs, under the lowest branches of bushes, or even under peeling bark high up in tall trees. Some of these insects provide essential food for birds in the wintertime when insects are scarce.

Native bees are among those insects seeking protection. Some spend the winter as larvae burrowed into the ground. Others hide in the stems of grasses or inside tree hollows. Then there are pest-eating insects like ladybugs, who hibernate in the winter. If you leave them a comfortable place to sleep, they will be there for you first thing in spring when they can go to work right away policing your garden for pests.

Not all butterflies migrate to warmer climes in winter, and those that stay can hide in leaf clutter that the responsible gardener has thoughtfully left alone. Some survive as caterpillars hidden in their host plants; they will stay hidden there until spring comes to warm them up.

You can see how fragile the web of life is out there in your backyard, and how we must be very vigilant not to destroy it, for the continued health of the garden.

3.      Making Homes for Bird Friends

Eastern Bluebirds in the Snow

Of all the birds that have visited your feeders throughout the year, some do not migrate south.  Instead they choose to stay on and make a go of it. They find refuge in tree cavities and under bushes, eating winter berries and what insects they can find. Some birds are insect-eating birds that cannot survive on feeder seeds alone. Gardeners welcome wrens, nuthatches, pheobes, bluebirds, titmice, as they consume many of the insects and caterpillar pests that would otherwise wreak havoc on your spring garden. These birds can find insects hibernating in the natural habitat you have left for them by not tidying up too much.

4.      Caring for the Rose and Perennial Gardens

A heavy layer of leaf mulch is a perfect way to protect roses from freezing temps. Snow is a great insulation, keeping perennial beds sheltered from frigid, biting winds that would harm soft perennial plants.  If you live in an area that freezes but gets little to no snow, it is especially important to have leaf mulch to pack into your garden beds. Caution: Some perennials will suffer from rot if too much leaf litter is piled up against them, so be aware of which plants you are mulching.

      5.  Saving Essential Nutrients for Next Year’s Lawn

Photo AP

Your lawn can benefit from the many nutrients found in that leaf litter, as well. So, too, can the rest of your garden. Leaf mulch also cuts down on weeds and stabilizes soil temperatures. To do this, instead of raking up leaves, run them over with your lawnmower and save them in piles. You can store them in plastic bags or bins made of chicken wire.

     6.   Planning the Spring Vegetable Garden

Photo: Hannah O'Leary / OSU Extension Service

Come spring, you will need compost for your vegetable garden.  Compost consists of not just food scraps. A large bulk of it can be decaying leaf litter mixed with manure.  Ideally, for every gallon bucket of kitchen scraps and grass clippings you toss into the pile, you should have three gallon buckets of fall leaves or straw to cover it with.

Mulch vegetable beds with a thick (6-inch) layer of leaves. Make a blanket of oak leaves to cover fallow vegetable beds in the fall. This will protect the bare soil from hard rainstorms. Slowly over the winter months leaves will break down, to be turned back into the soil come spring.

Composting creates a sort of semi-artificial nutrient cycle. Yes, the nutrients are eventually recycled back into the soil, but instead of allowing plant and animal waste to sit around and naturally decompose wherever it falls, composting makes all the decomposition take place in one spot. 

~ Instead of all that work tidying up the garden this autumn, hope you enjoy instead walks through the backyard with your camera, perhaps looking for wildlife in hiding or photographing the artful arrangement of dried plants that nature has waiting for you.

Celebrating the Great Western Monarch Migration

Photo Credit: Kathy Vilim, Monarch Butterfly on Willow Bush

~Orange wings against blue sky, floating effortlessly high above us…their flight is so Free! Watching Monarchs fly makes our spirits fly free, too~

Pismo Beach, California:

The Amtrak train (at Grover Beach Station) lets off a good hearty whistle, as I step out onto the platform with my sister, Jeanne. We have traveled some 175 miles north to the Central Coast from Los Angeles to experience the Annual Western Monarch Migration.  Loaded with supplies for a couple of days of camping, we walk outside into the fresh ocean air and make our way northwest on Pacific Coast Highway to the Butterfly Grove of Pismo Beach. It is a short walk alongside the railroad tracks, and our campground is located just next door.

Migration of the West Coast Monarchs:

It is Autumn and the Great Monarch Migration is underway.  Most of us have heard of the Great Annual Migration of the Monarchs, where the butterflies travel as far as 4500 miles from Canada south to the overwintering grove in Michoacan, Mexico. But few people know about the Migration of the West Coast Monarchs.  The Monarchs that live west of the Rockies (California, Arizona, Oregon, Utah, Nevada and New Mexico) do not need to make the long journey to Eastern Mexico to overwinter.  Instead, they choose to fly to groves on the Central and Southern California coast where the climate is just right for their needs. These groves are some of California’s natural treasures, and how the Monarchs find these groves is one of the many Monarch mysteries.

Of the more than 400 overwintering groves along the Pacific Coastline... READ MORE 

As published in Whole Life Magazine February/March 2017 issue.