Birds of a feather...

I like to see all kinds of birds in the yard. From those teeny yellow finches, squabbling over the Niger thistle seeds, to the handsome chickadee and the flying jewels that are the hummers.

Of all the birds you can invite in, hummingbirds are probably the easiest and least messy to have in your yard as a guest. The best time to get started is RIGHT NOW – early spring – when they are starting to return from migration and looking for the best places to build their nests.

When you bring out your feeders to wash them and fill them, give them plenty of time for the hummers to find them. I’ve been told it could take a month or more. I, personally, have not had that experience. Hummers seem to come looking for them. If you have one that’s busy and you add another, the numbers seem to exponentially increase and pretty soon, you got hoards of the little beggars. However many feeders you put up, make sure that you keep your feeding solution fresh.

When you’re choosing a feeder, be sure to choose one with some red color on it. Most of them do anyway. We got a feeder kit recently that uses a one liter soda bottle for the solution tank. Kind of cool, a great way to recycle a pop bottle and the kit was reasonably priced.

Fill your feeder with either a commercially prepared feeder solution or a solution with a ratio of 1:4 of sugar and water. Boil the solution to rid it of any potential bacteria, fungus or mold. Let it cool before filling your feeder. I hate to shriek this out in all capital letters, but here goes: DO NOT USE HONEY OR ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS IN YOUR HUMMINGBIRD FEEDERS. These are both harmful to hummingbirds. Make a gallon at a time and keep it in an empty milk jug in the refrigerator (recycle recycle recycle) so you can easily keep your feeders filled. You can store it for up to a week and, in summer, you’re going to use at least that much. Skip the red food coloring. Your feeder probably has enough red on it to attract the hummers and that red chemical is likely not all that great for the birds.

I can’t say this enough – keep the solution in the feeders FRESH. In cooler weather, change it out and wash your feeder once a week, even if it’s not empty. When it gets warmer – say mid-June or so – two or three times a week. Mold and fungus grows pretty easily and it’s hazardous to hummers.

Male hummers are very territorial towards their feeders and spend lots of time chasing interlopers. While it’s entertaining to watch, it’s really better to simply reduce the competition by hanging out several feeders throughout your yard. I generally keep feeders for the hummers away from feeders for the other birds.

There are many types of plants you can offer in your garden that have a dual purpose of being gorgeous and attracting hummers, honey bees and butterflies. Good choices for our area are: Honeysuckle, sage or salvia, columbine, bee balm, comfrey, foxglove, delphinium, red hot poker, coral bells, dianthus, nicotiana, lupine, petunias, impatiens, fuscias, morning glories and trumpet vines.

For the other types of feathered friends, there are some really easy things you can do that will attract more birds to your yard.

Of course, the first thing is feeders. Mesh bags full of Niger thistle seeds will bring in the finches, chickadees and a host of other tiny birds. Feeders containing the more traditional seed offerings will bring along everyone else. We had a suet plug feeder that was quite entertaining with the flickers, woodpeckers and Stellar jays duking it out for a snack.

The basket style of suet feeder actually can serve a dual purpose. Once you’re done feeding suet and nest building time arrives, you can fill it with cotton cushion stuffing, dog hair from grooming your dog, sheep’s wool, llama down, snips of yarn and such. Hummers, in particular, seem attracted to the cotton down cushion stuffing.

If you have the room on your property to have one, a brush pile will be used by birds to get out of the harsher elements. Take fallen and pruned branches from trees and shrubs on your property and loosely stack them in an area where they won’t bug your neighbors or be an eyesore. Try to make your pile about 6’ x 6’. It should be airy and have lots of open spaces for the birds to flit in and out. A brush pile will provide food in that there will be insects among the decaying branches or on the ground beneath the pile. Brush piles seem to be used the most during the winter and earlier spring months. You can burn it, if you wish, toward the end of the burn season. Don’t forget your permit.

Planting a hedgerow – a long line of shrubs and small trees at the border of a field or lawn. Birds will use hedgerows in all seasons because they provide food, shelter and nesting sites.

Leave the leaves. Fallen leaves provide nutrients to your soil as they break down. They provide an insulation layer over the soil that keeps it warmer and moister. Insects and other microbial soil denizens live under these conditions. There are many garden birds that love to feed in leaf litter, including thrushes, robins and sparrows.

Providing a dust bath area will allow many birds a way to rid themselves of mites and other parasites and to fluff their feathers to keep them in top condition. Choose a sunny area about three feet square in the vicinity of your seed feeders. Clear it of vegetation, hollow it out two to three inches. If you can, get some fine dust or that super fine sand you find in the river bed. With the river much lower these days, access to the sandy spots should be more available. You can always mix sand with topsoil as well. Rim your dust bath with rocks and natural timber to make it more attractive. Be sure to keep an eye on any cats wandering about. Birds won’t use the dust bath it the cats have been using it.

I’d like to leave you with some suggestions for shrubs and perennials that would be great for drawing our feathered friends to your yard. Of course, the annual Sunflowers are perfect and make me happy just to have them around.

Shrubs: Holly, pyracantha, lilac, Oregon grape, sumac, barberry, raspberry, hackberry, elderberry, gooseberry. If you have them, and the means to take care of them, those “pesky” blackberry brambles, trimming them up, watering them and providing some decent fertilizer will not only give you some superior fruit, but really provide some great habitat for the birds.

Perennials: Coreopsis, bleeding heart, penstemons, phlox, globe thistle or even artichokes, goldenrod and just about any of the large family of ornamental grasses.

They say variety is the spice of life. It’s also the key to encouraging birds of all kinds to hang out in your yard. Providing a mixture of trees, clumps of berry bearing shrubs, fruit trees and a variety of flowers and grasses, weeds allowed to go to seed, a wildflower patch, insects to forage, a well stocked feeder and maybe even a water feature, like a fountain or birdbath will please a great variety of feathered visitors.

There's tomatoes and then there's TOMATOES...

Is bigger always better? When it comes to a tomato sandwich, usually.

The two most often asked questions in the veggie gardening world are:

How can I grow BIGGER fruits/veggies?
How can I get a BIGGER harvest of my fruits/veggies?

One assumes that, if you do the basics – plenty of water, feed your soil and the right amount of sunlight – you’ll get that bumper crop of whatever it is that’s making your heart sing. Tomato Bob has provided a lot of great information as have a number of other gardeners in the Rogue Valley for growing tomatoes, but most of this information can be applied to anything you’re growing. Some factors that you can’t easily modify are weather and insects. Last year, I wrote about some home remedies for various nasties in the garden. Email thegardengrrl@gmail.com for a reprint of that article. They say that soil is one of those things you can’t easily remedy, but I don’t believe that for a minute. Feed the soil and the soil will – to a large degree – feed your plants.

Let’s talk first about soil. The best soil conditions result in a well-drained garden that holds moisture well; within its structure, not pooled on the surface. A loose structure allows for superior root development, which is vital to healthy plants and thus greater yields. Dense clay or sandy soils can be improved greatly and immediately by adding peat moss or compost. You can use uncomposted leaves or grass clippings, but it’s recommended that you till those in four to six months before you plant as this kind of soil amendment lowers the available nitrogen. You’ll get slow growing plants with yellow leaves if there’s not enough nitrogen. If you mulch with either leaves or grass clippings, it won’t affect the nitrogen levels, will provide a really great long-term source of nutrients, keep down weeds and conserve water. You can add compost any time.

Perhaps the greatest mistake people make with tomatoes is over fertilizing. A number of the commercial liquid or mix with water fertilizers are high in nitrogen and produce huge glorious plants. But they do this at the expense of the harvest. A good average nutrient formula, found in several available commercial organic fertilizers is N-P-K (5-5-5). Nitrogen promotes growth of the plant, phosphorous promotes blossom development and potassium promotes root growth and disease resistance.

Prior to planting, you will want to till in an application of a dry organic fertilizer with an NPK rating similar to what I’ve described above. At the time of transplanting, liquid fish emulsion is a really great choice, as it will give your seedlings a nitrogen boost, as it’s a 5-1-1 fertilizer. Every three weeks throughout your growing season, use that same dry organic fertilizer as instructed on the package. When your ‘maters (or whatever) start to bloom, apply some bone meal (4-12-0) to help increase the number of blossoms and to help the dreaded Blossom End Rot.

Be aware of the pH of your soil. This is really important, folks. The optimal levels you need to provide for the best rate of nutrient absorption is between 6.5 and 7.5. Main Building has some inexpensive pH test kits available. If they’re out, have them order one for you.

Let’s talk a minute about WHAT you’re going to be growing…

If you’re after size, some of the best varieties for HUGE beefsteaks are: of course, Beefmaster, Brandywine, Amana Orange, Giant Belgium, Mexico and Old German. My kids LOVE tomato sandwiches – bread, mayo and tomato – and the beefsteak varieties totally fit the bill for those one-slice sandwiches.

If it’s sheer numbers you’re after, any variety of Roma or paste tomato is going to produce in copious amounts. Others include Rutgers, Old Brooks, De Pinto, Campbell’s 1327 and Avalanche.

Of course, everyone has his or her favorites and I’m no exception. Every year, I tell myself, “Only five plants, only five plants…” Last year, I had twenty-three. The year before that, nineteen. My neighbors actually started to hide and pretend they weren’t home when I showed up with my bags of tomatoes, zucchini and Armenian cucumbers. (If you haven’t tried those, do. They’re super tasty and seem to appear in your garden overnight, as if by magic!) I love the Heirlooms and I love anything weird or different. My kids love any tomato, but have a marked preference for grazing on anything small. Hits in our garden have been Green Zebra, Green Grape, Moon Glow, Dr. Wyche’s Yellow, Oxhearts, Royal Hillbilly, Blosser Pink Beefsteak, Black Cherry, Black Krim, Red Fig, Marmande, Fox Cherry, Pantano Romanesco, Pineapple, Red Zebra, Black Pineapple, Yellow Pear and Lemon Oxhearts.

Now, about seeds…

Start with fresh seeds that will give you the healthiest seedlings. Old seeds may not germinate well and inferior plants will be the result. They are more likely to become diseased and produce poorly. I’ve had good luck with the variety of seedlings available from a number of sources. Without shoehorning in a shameless plug for my favorite places, email me if you’d like to know. thegardengrrl@gmail.com.

Temperature is a huge factor as well. Seeds need it to be at least between 65 and 80 degrees to germinate. You can direct sow in your yard at 50 degrees. Tomatoes will blossom from 55 to 95 degrees. However, several days above 95 degrees and most tomato varieties will drop their blooms until things cool down a bit. The warmer the ground, the more quickly your plants will become established.

Tomatoes are both HUNGRY and THIRSTY. If you’re growing Heirlooms, you have to be really consistent with your watering to be successful with them. Their skins are thinner, so if you skip a day and then make up for it with extra water next time, you can almost count on your ‘maters splitting. Try and keep even moisture in your ‘mater bed. Compost, plastic and any kind of natural mulch will help retain moisture. In my opinion, a soaker hose or drippers on a timer are an excellent choice for a couple of reasons. #1 – you don’t have to think about them; they do all the work for you. #2 – they provide bottom watering preferred over top spraying as it helps prevent soil borne disease.

Tomatoes need at least six hours of full sun a day. Seems like a lot. I’ve tried growing near a grove of trees and between a small orchard and – people – it just doesn’t work. They want the sun. If you’re looking at getting the most out of your tomato plants, get the out into the sun!

The preferred spacing for tomatoes is two to three feet apart. They need air circulation to keep the leaves dry, otherwise you’re just asking for disease to come make a home in your garden. If you’ve chose an indeterminate variety of Heirloom that’s going to try to grow to be eight feet tall, I’d recommend training against a fence. Sure, you can cage them and stake them, but if you’ve got a fence with nothing on it and have no plans to run your beans there or grow morning glories on it, why not use it for tomatoes? Now, when you plant your seedlings, dig your holes deep and plant them all the way up to four or six leaves. This will help them develop a robust root system as roots will develop all along the buried stem.

Heirloom tomatoes are more susceptible to disease than their hybrid relatives. These include Fusarium and Verticilium Wilt, Septoria Leaf Spot, Tobacco Mosaic Virus and Root Knot Nematodes. “That’s all?”, you say. Not really, but those are the major ones. Keep your plants well- but not over-fertilized and utilize bottom watering and you will minimize the risks greatly. Rotate tomatoes and potatoes (or grow your spuds in a bag) every year if possible. Clean up your crop residue in the fall and get rid of it instead of composting it or tilling it under.

Pests, ah pests. First of all, get some marigolds and put those around your tomatoes. Maybe some garlic and onions, as well. That’s a start. The biggest – literally – pest of tomatoes is the Tomato Hornworm. They’re disgusting. You can spot the leaf damage from about a mile away and – horrors! – the best way to get rid of them is to hand pick them off your plants. Ick! But worth the effort. Nasty little beetles can be kept at bay with insecticidal soap, garlic spray or tomato leaf spray (either one made by soaking garlic or tomato leaves in warm water over night and then decanting into a spray bottle).

OK…Now for the good stuff…The secrets…

For MONSTER tomatoes, remove all the tomatoes from a plant except for four or five. Snip off the blossom clusters and keep an eye out for more blossom production. When fruit sets, always leave the largest. This allows more energy to go into those remaining tomatoes.

For SCADS of tomatoes, prune off any branches that don’t appear to have blossoms on them. They’re just taking up space. Your plant will now focus energy on producing tomatoes and not on growing fruitless branches. This IS time consuming, but well worth the effort, if you’re going for numbers.

Remember, plant a row this year to help feed those less fortunate.

Elegance

Nothing says “unique” and “elegant" like a calla lily. Callas make a spectacular addition to your garden, are popular as houseplants and very popular in cut flower arrangements and with brides.
In addition to the well-know white calla, these plants are available in various shades of green, pink, purple, yellow and orange.

The calla lilies are a flower that humans have been enjoying for centuries. While some have said that callas grow from tubers, they actually grow from a form of bulb called a rhizome and produces very large, spotted green leaves. Flowers bloom from the top of a fairly thick stem and rather resemble a twist of rolled paper. Callas are relatively easy to grow and are fabulous as a cut flower.

Beth Jarvis of the University of Minnesota Extension tells us that the botanical name for the calla lily is Zantedeschia. Quite a mouthful, I’d say. The calla belongs to the same family as the caladium and jack-in-the-pulpit. Related to the calla genus, it’s not a true calla at all. Although called a lily, callas are not truly members of the lily family. The members of the calla genus, after close botanical scrutiny, were discovered to not be as closely related as once thought.

Zantedeschia is a genus of twenty-eight different species, all native to Southern Africa. Once named after the famed Swedish botanist, Carolus Linnaeus, the genus was split up and renamed after the Italian botanist Giovanni Zantedeschi. Callas became a huge hit in Europe and, as we know, are still extremely popular.

Callas do well indoors or out. To grow callas indoors in a container, first moisten the potting soil. Place your mix of choice in a plastic tub and slowly add warm water, stirring with your hands until the mixture is moist but not soupy. Fill your container about 2/3 full and set your calla rhizomes, with the pointed growing part facing up, on top of the potting blend. Cover the rhizome with the rest of your mix, water thoroughly and place in a warmer spot in your house. Keep the soil moist until you see signs of an emerging plant. When you see that growth set the pot in a sunny window, preferably a Southern facing one. Callas are one of the few plants that thrive with wet feet, so make sure there is always water in the catch saucer of your plant. Your calla should bloom 8 to 16 weeks after potting, depending on how much sunlight it gets.

Plant your callas outdoors after the danger of frost has passed. Make sure to select a location that consists of bright morning light and partial shade in the afternoons, especially in hot summer areas. They like a rich, moist soil need to be kept well watered and weeded. Callas grow best when the soil includes organic matter. Plant the bulbs 4 to 6 inches deep and 1 to 2 feet apart. Fertilize monthly with a good organic all purpose fertilizer. Although callas are generally known as “spring bulbs”, in zones 8-10, callas thrive outdoors year around and can be planted at any time. In our valley, callas should be planted when temperatures rest higher than 55 degrees. Below that, calla lilies stop growing. Make sure that there is no danger from frost. If you’re in one of those zones-within-a-zone, or a frost pocket, you may need to lift your callas before the first frost and replant in the spring. A thick layer of mulch to over winter under could be enough to protect your callas if you’re not on one of those “zone-lets”. Rhizomes should be planted horizontally with the growth points facing up.