Gardening is Exercise

By Carol O'Meara, Boulder County Extension I recently underwent a health assessment which involved a lengthy questionnaire on how I care for myself. It was part of a getting acquainted process with a new medical company. Things went smoothly until the interviewer asked about any exercise I routinely do. I said “gardening.” She nodded and said she was interested in what I did for exercise, ignoring my input on my green thumb activities. I reiterated, “yes – I garden. Every day. Vegetable gardening.” Again, I got the nod without any notation on her questionnaire while she said “ok, so, no routine exercise.” In retrospect I should have remembered I was trying to impress, not frighten, them but my gardener’s heart was insulted. Taking a deep breath, I launched into what my friends describe as my oh-no-here-she-goes mode. “Gardening is exercise, and there are many studies that back this up,” I said. “And plenty of gardeners say it’s like Pilates or yoga. But in my case, let me give you a glimpse: imagine yourself in my version of the yoga Warrior position. This is where you stand with your legs as far apart as they can go front to back, forward knee bent, with your arms held out.” Patiently, she nodded. “Now, add in downward dog, bending at your waist until you’re eye-level with the mulch. It’s basically a downward dog who thinks it’s a warrior; I call it The Chihuahua. Hold the Chihuahua position while you pick every cherry tomato from the plants. It could be 30 seconds or 3 minutes. Are you with me so far?” I said with seriousness. Her stare became fixed. “Now, let’s sprinkle in the child’s game The Floor Is Lava – do you remember that?” I asked and she nodded. “You can’t put your feet anywhere else because you’d step in lava – or in this case, on your pumpkin vines. Keep holding that position until the tomatoes are picked; it’s strength training for all sorts of muscles.” “Walking through the garden is a game of garden Twister, where you swoop your torso around to avoid squirrel-netted grapes, trellis outcrops, and lean over dog fencing. It’s great for your glutes,” I note. “All this time the basket you carry can’t be tilted or it spills but it’s getting heavier and lopsided – that’s for your arms and shoulders.” “Pumping iron in a gym is fine for some, but it’s a whole-body routine when squashes and pumpkins come in. Some of them – pumpkins, Hubbards, and banana squash especially – often weigh 20 pounds or more. You’d better lift with your legs when moving them. And, while most of the other winter squashes are smaller, gardeners try to carry them all at once in a spectacular demonstration of the Human Wheelbarrow maneuver.” “This is just harvesting. Weeding, now there’s an activity to rival any rowing machine,” I say rocking back and forth while mimicking the grab and pull of the activity. She starts rocking as well, in small motions that suggest her subconscious is getting into the conversation. “Bend-and-pull and bend-and-pull, plus there’s the breathing activity, where you explosively scream ‘where do they all come from?’ It’s very therapeutic.” “Honestly, it’s why many gardeners have a spring training routine, to get our bodies ready for the rigors of summer,” I said. “It’s also why plenty of us have stock in ibuprofen manufacturers.” At this point, the interviewer acquiesced, noting that my exercise is gardening. I felt pretty good about making my point, but then she moved on to the next section: mental health. Looking up at me she said, “I think we have all the information we need.”

Basil saves the summer

 By Carol O'Meara, Boulder County Extension

 

August is a time that separates the wheat from the chaff, when vegetable gardeners can tell if a season is successful or a bust.  Though you might not be hauling in record breaking harvests in everything you plant, usually you have a few items that are the stars of summer.

This year is particularly telling on a gardener’s skill, with a cold start followed by record heat, and as I assess my vegetable patch, one thing becomes clear:  I can’t grow a darned thing this season.  The peppers are puny and eggplant nearly nonexistent; the spinach, lettuce, and broccoli bolted so quickly I pulled them before we got to eat them.  My squash is beset by squash bugs and the potatoes - though sky-high in growth - probably won't yield much.

In response, I’m complaining about it, which in hindsight was not a good thing to do when talking about a paltry harvest.  Like scenting the weakest of the herd, other gardeners seized the moment, soothing my pain by gifting me with photos of their bountiful harvests.  Now I find myself bereft of garden produce and green with envy.

Thank heavens for basil, or I’d be petitioning the Governor to have my garden declared a disaster.  Basil (Ocimum basilicum) has boomed this summer, producing an abundance of fragrant, sweet leaves on plants that have shrugged off the extreme conditions.

Originally from the Asian areas of Thailand, Pakistan, and India, basil is popular in Italian, Thai, Mediterranean, and other cuisines.  Grown throughout history, it’s the root of interesting superstitions, such as being able to spontaneously transform into a serpent if crushed and left under a stone, or if eaten, turn into scorpions that infest the brain.  These things make me wonder why people eat certain foods.

Other cultures considered basil more fondly:  Hindus consider it a symbol of protection, Italians a sign of love but some use it as a pest repellent, which shows just how confusing love can be.    

Culinary basil comes in many forms, and cooks who enjoy diverse cuisines should indulge in planting sweet, dwarf, Thai, African, citriodorum, or purpurascens types.  Citriodorum, such as New Guinea or Sweet Dani, are lemony flavored plants; Purpurescens are the purple leafed varieties that taste like the classic green basil. 

If you’re interested in traditional sweet basil, pop in Cardinal, Pesto Perpetuo, Genovese, or super-size with Lettuce Leaf or Green Ruffles; their enormous leaves are excellent in salads.  Smaller leafed types can have a peppery kick to their leaves.

The Thai group, with varieties like Siam Queen or Cinnamon, has a surprisingly fruity, licorice-like, or spicy flavor.  The African group are boldly distinctive and often better suited to potpourris rather than food.   African Blue, a hybrid between Dark opal and Camphor basils, is stunning in the garden with spires of lavender-colored blooms.  

Most basils grow in full sun here, but a touch of shade is helpful during the hot summer.  Harvesting it is simple: pinch off the leaves just above the bottom two to four sets of true leaves.  Leaf flavor is best just prior to bloom, but you can pinch off and use the flowers in salads also.

Garden gazing ball predicts busy 2021

 By Carol O'Meara, Boulder County Extension

  As a little girl, I thought the ornaments in my grandparents’ garden were old-fashioned to the point of being fogey. The ceramic squirrel perched majestically on the lamppost, the horsehead gripping a never-used tying ring in its teeth, or the green gazing ball nestled in the roses didn’t inspire my preteen mind to anything other than an eyeroll.

Now that I’m older I have more appreciation for garden tchotchke, although not to the point of immortalizing a squirrel in statue. The disembodied horse’s head isn’t fully appreciated out here in the West, either. But the gazing ball has made a comeback, and I admit, I can see why.

Gardeners always want to peek into the future to see if their flowers will bloom, vegetables thrive, or  rain is on the way. We check almanacs, weather reports, fuzz on caterpillar’s backs, and moon charts to get an edge on Mother Nature.  We have many reasons for wanting to know how 2021 will shape up, especially in the garden.

To sleuth it out, I talked with a person wise in the ways of gardeners, one who runs a business on gauging trends and what new seasons will hold. And while Curtis Jones can’t tell us if we’ll have a wet season or drought, the co-owner of Botanical Interests Seed Company has some solid advice for 2021.

“This past season, 2020, was an unbelievable year; the U.S. had 19 million new vegetable gardeners. People are thinking about where their food comes from and self-sufficiency,” said Jones, who shares ownership of the seed company with Judy Seaborn. Across the country, seeds packets sold out rapidly and many seed companies ran out of their stock.  “We were the only seed company to ship throughout the year, because we time shipments for seed throughout the season.”

Michael Lowe, General Manager for Lake Valley Seed, agreed, saying that they have a high demand for seed in 2021. Their company is busy supplying retailers plenty of stock to meet gardeners' needs. Experts tracking garden trends are all predicting strong interest in 2021, although a few claim that this is a fleeting interest brought on by the pandemic.

Asked if the interest in gardening was a flash in the pan, as some prognosticators predict, Jones didn’t think so.“A lot of people that started gardening find that they really enjoy it.  A lot of younger people tried it and many are already into houseplants. People are psyched up for it; fall seed sales were very impressive. People were buying for spring.” Flowers as well as vegetable seed sales were strong, not surprisingly.  People staying closer to home wanted to surround themselves with beauty.

So what does next year have in store for us?  Jones says gardening in 2021 will be just as strong as it was this year, so plan your garden now. “If we can get the seed in, we’ll increase the amount we’re offering,” Jones said, commenting on source and supply during the pandemic. He doesn’t expect a seed shortage, but to get the varieties you want, buy them now.

“If we can get the seed in, we’ll increase the amount we’re offering,” Jones said, commenting on source and supply during the pandemic. He doesn’t expect a seed shortage, but to get the varieties you want, buy them now. "Even though last year taxed our inventory, we are in good shape for the upcoming season, but if I didn't own a seed company and I was planning my garden, I would get my seed sooner than later."

Those of us who have been around the vegetable patch a time or two should dive into catalogs to find coveted new introductions; the key to success is planning and preparation, so get shopping gardeners.

• Trade or brand names mentioned are used only for the purpose of information; CSU Extension does not guarantee nor warrant the standard of the product, nor does it imply approval of the product to the exclusion of others which also may be available, nor does it intend discrimination or criticism of products or providers that are mentioned or not mentioned.

Smoke and Ash on Plants

 By Carol O'Meara, CSU Extension Boulder County

Go outside and look at your car – see that dirty grey coating covering it?  Fires in Colorado have been blanketing communities across the state with smoke and ash, with soot and fine particles falling hundreds of miles from the flames.  The grey-and-white layer covers everything from cars, patio furniture, even plants.  

Plants can withstand a bit of dirt and dust sitting on their leaves, but once the ashfall gets slightly thicker, it can interfere with photosynthesis, according to Dr. Mark Uchanski, Specialty Crops professor with Colorado State University. “ I do think it will interfere with normal photosynthesis due to the physical shading of small ash particles on the leaf surfaces. Some shading (e.g. tomatoes in a high tunnel) can be a good thing, but ash was not likely part of anybody’s gardening plans this summer."

 "So I would suggest removal as long as it does not waste water,” noted Uchanski. Many residents in the foothills and mountains don’t have water to spare and some well permits don’t allow it for outdoor use. Do the best you can to get the coating off of leaves if it’s one-eighth inch or deeper; if it’s very bad and piling up towards one-quarter inch, the plants will be set back by the difficulty in having sunlight strike the leaves.  

In your vegetable and perennial beds, without water, you could try fanning the plant vigorously. An added benefit of this technique will be entertaining your neighbors who stare as you move through the landscape waving air across your plants. Stay downwind with this technique or wear a mask so you don't breathe in the ash.

 

A gentle sluicing off with water is all you need; avoid hitting the plant with a strong jet of water. That would do more harm than good. If you can't hose off your trees due to their height, that's ok. Hope for rain and thank your Firefighters when you get the chance.

The struggle with squirrels is real

By Carol O'Meara, Boulder County Extension

My nemesis

  Four years of escalating tensions with the squirrels in my garden have driven me nuts.  Each year dreams of a bounty of squash, tomatoes, melons, and pumpkins are left in ruin as my plants serve as snacks for the bushy-tailed beasts. Though cute and fun to watch, they haven’t taken my admonishments seriously, growing bolder and more willing to strip the plants of all that is good.

They’re burying peanuts everywhere; so much food is being cached in my yard it’s as if they’re prepping for the Squirrelpocalypse.  My neighbors are feeding them and when I walk by in the mornings at least a squadron of squirrels gambol about they trough of nuts set out for them.  

They leave their nuts in my lawn, containers, flowerbeds and gutters; we’ve found peanuts on cable boxes, in camper crevices, and centered on the walkway to the house.

If only they would stick to eating those peanuts, but no, they prefer fresh produce plucked from the vine. Tomato theft is an issue when love apples ripen, with squirrels pilfering ripe fruit and scurrying off to feast.  

Adding insult to injury, they often eat only half of the tomato, leaving its savaged carcass for the gardener to find. The gardener’s wails upon discovery reverberate throughout the neighborhood and the rest of us lift our hands in a three-finger-Hunger-Games salute to the fallen. 

A clever gardener in Wyoming offered her solution: hang round, red Christmas ornaments on tomato plants at this time of year.  Her idea is intriguing; the Trojan tomato, once or twice bitten, tricks the animal into thinking that there’s nothing interesting on the plant and it leaves the real tomatoes alone later in the summer.  I have no idea if this works and it isn’t based in science, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Festoon your garden like its Christmas in July.

Pitting my mind against a wily opponent is exhilarating and confounding, as they deploy adaptive thinking faster than I can counter it. It began several years ago when the squirrels discovered the pumpkins, gnawing them into hollow husks before I could harvest.  In response, I caged off the ripening squash.  The following year, they preyed upon squashes before the flowers could close, eating the young fruit before it had a chance to swell.  So I caged off the flowers before they opened.  

The following year, the bandits ate the vines, robbing me of any hope for pumpkins.  The solution, it seems, was simple: cage the whole area. 

Thus the madness of gardening takes over; now chicken wire tunnels, 19-feet long and five-feet wide,   During construction, the bushy-tailed beasts pay close attention.  Never far from the rising fortifications, they watch, noting depth and angle of the wire, deviously plotting their Squirrelshank Redemption.

are erected in my yard.

It might be folly, but I’m a vain enough gardener that I don’t want a huge expanse of chicken wire visible in the raised beds near the front yard.  So those beds are discreetly covered in bird netting in hopes that it’s sufficient protection.  But the squirrels are testing the perimeters, shoving their paws underneath the cloth to dig at the edges of the bed.

If things get bad I might borrow a co-worker’s dog, Hank, a coonhound who takes protecting his humans from the impending Squirrelnarök seriously.  Padding onto his deck each morning, he sniffs for his opponent.  Upon discovering them in nearby trees or along the railing, he rushes back and forth, yodeling his alarm to nearby neighborhoods.

Hank’s warbling bray amuses the squirrels, who natter and chuff in response.  The tease him but he doesn’t give up his patrol until running out of energy, whereupon a nap is required.  I haven’t quite gotten to the point of a yodeling hound circling a caged off garden filled with Christmas baubles.  But I’m close, very close.

A Halloween Love Story

By Carol O'Meara, CSU Extension Boulder County

Send the children from the room.  Normally this is a family column but in celebration of the end of October, I wanted to share a Halloween love story.  You see, some time ago, another CSU Agent asked if it’s true that spiders scream while mating.  Her friend had read this in the paper and was fact-checking it. 

This set me to wondering: why would they?  From the female’s perspective, the wooing and winning of love often involves having to endure the male dancing about, rushing in to tap her on the head to see if she’s interested, and dashing away in case she’s not.  This goes on, back and forth, until the male, convinced of success at winning her heart, gently enfolds her in his arms.  All eight of them.  Who wouldn’t scream at being held in arms covered in spines and tipped with claws?

How delighted she must be when he runs his fangs in a loving caress along the back of her head.  Oh, yes, the male doesn’t like to approach the front – that’s where her fangs are, after all, and one mustn’t take chances.  His embrace is from the back, and since the female is typically much, much larger than the male, he has to hold on somehow.  His fangs come in handy to use in gripping her in the embrace.  How romantic.

If this weren’t enough, ladies, consider that the male spider has not one, but two pedipalps - the male spider genitalia - with which to woo her.  

Female spiders aren’t the only ones who have good reason to scream.  There’s a lot of risk involved for the male and the whole episode is one long stressful event.  After his final molt, a male spider will leave his web in search of a female.  He may no longer hunt or be interested in food.  Instead, he is so consumed with finding the female that he may wander far and wide to find her. 

This often leads him into danger such as other spiders, predatory birds, or into human houses.  Males wandering in the fall are a large proportion of spiders found in our homes, often meeting a tragic end under some human’s shoe.  The female doesn’t engage in such nonsense; she has better sense than to give up her food and housing just to search for a guy. 

Once the female is found the risk increases.  They are almost always larger, faster, stronger, and, quite often, hungry.  It’s a thin line between being a suitor and being a supper, and males must take steps to ensure that the female is well fed before any love happens.  Some males will use the ‘tap-and-dash’ method to test her willingness, others take no chances and bring living food as a nuptial gift.  “Here, have a fly - enjoy it”, is a good plan when wooing a female of any species.

Once she accepts the male, it’s still risky.  Yes, the male has two pedipalps and that may seem impressive and worth boasting over.  But there is a rather gruesome reason for this:  in many species, after the nuptials take place, the male must seal off the female to make sure no other male can impregnate her.  He does this by snapping off the pedipalp to leave as a plug.  When a spider decides to ‘break it off’ with his girl he really means it. 

To answer the question “do spiders scream while mating?” one has to respond: “who wouldn’t?”  The reality is that spiders don’t have vocal chords or bellows-like lungs with which to scream.  Their sounds come from rubbing legs, drumming the ground and other external means.  Thus, the answer is no, but that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t if they could.

Peppers have it made in the shade

Posted by Carol O'Meara, CSU Extension Boulder County

If you look forward to perfect peppers but are disappointed when they get sunburn, there aren’t as many as you thought, or they aren’t as big as you’d like, chances are that you have sunlight to blame.  High solar intensity and temperatures work against getting the most of our pepper crops.
Research on shading peppers is casting light on the benefits of cooling things off a bit on leaves and the root zone.  Heat stress reduces plant’s ability to photosynthesize and cool itself efficiently, which in turn limits root development.  Increasingly higher temperatures in summer limits root growth and damages fruit.

Colorado’s research into solving this problem is led by Dr. Mike Bartolo, Senior Research Scientist and manager of the Arkansas Valley Research Center in Rocky Ford.  He’s been researching the development of chili peppers since 1992.

Bartolo’s research into preventing sunscald on the fruit of peppers led him to using 30-percent

Shade barrier over peppers

shade barrier over some plants to protect the fruit from harmful rays.  But now that shade is proving effective in shielding plants from high temperatures as well – the transplants he covered with shade in early June aren’t showing the stress the exposed peppers are.

Globally, researchers concerned with the effects climate change could have on crop production are exploring ways to buffer hotter temperatures.  Growing under shade cloth has garnered interest, and researchers are working to find the type of shade cloth that gives the most benefit.  University of Georgia has shown that the color of the shade netting doesn’t make much difference; however, leaf surface temperature remained higher under white shade cloth.

In our gardens, peppers covered with shade cloth or floating row covers are also in much better shape.  Popping a tent of 30-percent cloth over your crop might help get things growing again, Bartolo said.  “As long as the stem is ok and not injured by sunscald, things should get moving again once things cool down or you shade the plant.”

A bit of shade is helpful to other plants as well, such as basil or tomatoes during fruit production.  Mulching also helps keep the plant cool since it protects roots from water loss and soil cracking.

Shade cloth is available at garden centers in various lengths.  It’s a durable fabric that can be used for several years.  When covering your plants, remember that this is to be suspended above them, unlike floating row covers that can sit right on the plants.  Create a frame for holding the shade barrier two to four feet above the plants, taking care that it’s secure for wind.

Floating row covers provide about 15 to 19-percent shade, which might not be enough at this time to break the grip of heat.  Early in the season it would help for root development, so keep it handy for next year.

A Good Time To Deadhead

Posted by Carol O’Meara, Boulder County Extension

  This summer has been glorious for flowers, thanks to wet, cooler weather for the first part of the summer.  Gardens are showing off, and with a little help from those who tend them, the flowers should have a spectacular second show.

Keep the bloom going with a simple, but necessary practice. Deadheading, as it applies to gardening, is the removal of flowers from plants when the flowers are fading or dead. If you’ve never done it, here are a few tips to keep it from being a long, strange trip through the garden.

The purpose of a flower is reproduction: attract pollinators by flaunting yourself, either with alluring scent or bodacious color. It isn’t an empty promise; usually, this is a win-win situation for pollinators, who collect pollen, nectar, or fiber from the proffered bloom. Once a flower has been pollinated, the plant produces fruit and seeds.

Deadheading redirects the plant’s energy from fruit swelling, ripening, and seed production into extended flowering. It cleans up the appearance of the plant, and in turn, the garden.

You can use a variety of methods to deadhead: snapping or pinching flowers off by hand, shearing, or clipping with pruners.  In all cases, it’s important to get a clean cut to prevent leaving an open ragged wound for diseases or pests to enter the plant.

Roses are a plant that responds well to deadheading. The American Rose Society recommends deadheading roses just before they drop their petals, cutting the canes at a 45 degree angle just above a 5-leaf set.

Plants such as lilacs and peonies won’t bloom again this season, but deadheading immediately after blooming cleans them up and keeps the plant healthy. Marigolds, verbena, nicotiana, petunias, columbines, and pansies also benefit from deadheading.

Bulbs should have flowers – but not leaves – deadheaded to keep them from expending energy on producing seed instead of storing it in the bulb for blooming next year. Cut back tulips, hyacinths, and daffodils before they begin to drop their petals or look faded and cut individual blooms off of the flower stems of flag iris and lilies as they whither, removing the entire flower stalk only after the last bloom is finished.

Get to know which plants have decorative seed heads after the flower is spent, like echinacea, alliums, and native grasses. The stalks and seed heads provide winter interest as well as important nooks for beneficial spiders to live within.  Leave flowers on fruiting shrubs so that the berries can provide winter interest and attract birds.

If you want some flowers to reseed, leave the flowers on the plant.  Poppies, foxglove, columbine, flax, and lupine reseed.  Their offspring might not hold the colors of the parent plant, though, so you won’t get an exact copy. 

Other plants can be thugs if allowed to reseed, such as some salvia, obedient plant, or cosmos.  To limit their spread, deadhead these plants. Compost the flowers unless they’re diseased. 

Spring's not so nice things

By Carol O’Meara, Boulder County Extension 

In an annual emergence in spring, the queens are awakening, shrugging off a winter’s sleep with conquest on their minds.  They’re strong, hungry, and looking for real estate in which to build a nest – probably under your porch, your patio, or in the rock walls of the raised garden.

Western Yellowjacket

  Yellow jackets are beginning their year, and to keep your yard from the black and yellow bullies, these queens must die.  In winter, yellow jacket colonies die, leaving only queens survive.  They emerge when the weather warms in spring to begin colonization of our landscapes. Waking up eager to feed and alone, they’re the ones out foraging for food; by trapping her, you will prevent hundreds of her offspring from harassing your family in fall.

Put out your wasp traps now, filled with heptyl butyrate, or design your own with chunks of cantaloupe – all it takes is a 2-liter sized pop bottle.  Cut the top off the bottle at the shoulders, turn it around and slide it into to the lower part of the bottle so the neck points inwards, and staple this together.  Before you fit the top on, fill the bottle with a small amount of cantaloupe.  Some wasps prefer protein, so make another trap and put a bit of lunch meat in it.  Hang these away from your house. 

European Paper Wasp

 Another wasp that’s becoming active is the European Paper Wasp, Polistes dominulus.  This builds open-faced nests up in the eaves, inside sheds, and in other spots located above ground.  They aren’t aggressive unless you get too close to the nest; if you do,  then they may sting.

 Paper wasps look a lot like yellow jackets but aren’t attracted to traps at all.  They’re predators, hunting the yard for soft-bodied insects.  They, too, start the spring with a single queen per colony, so if they bother you, wallop them with a flyswatter.

 As long as we’re on a painful topic in gardening, it’s time to talk ticks.  Good health in gardening involves understanding potential risks and avoiding them where possible.  Gardeners are familiar with mosquito avoidance, but ticks remain a bit less publicized, and perhaps less understood.  Of the 30 species we have in Colorado, none are those known to carry Lyme disease, which is fairly serious in the eastern U.S..  However, ticks can carry other problems and gardeners should take steps to keep themselves free of them.

 Ticks begin activity in early April when the young hatch from eggs and crawl to the top of tall objects to wait for an unsuspecting animal to walk by.  Size is relative when you’re a newly hatched tick nymph, and a tall object to a tick is a grass stalk.  There, at the top of the stalk, many ‘ticklets’ bivouac – a cheery term for describing a mass of the tiny creatures hoping for dinner to come to them.

 Keeping ticks at bay involves simple precautions.  If possible, stay away from areas that ticks like, such as animal trails through brushy areas, at the edges of fields, wooded or shrubby areas and grasslands.  But if you want to enjoy the outdoors, a better approach would be to wear protective clothing that includes long pants with socks pulled up over the lower cuffs.  Repellents may also be applied to clothing to help ward off ticks.

If you find yourself in tick country, don’t panic.  Ticks take time to attach, usually several hours, so there is time to check yourself and remove them.  If possible, have another person help you check – nothing quite says “I love you” like checking one another for parasites.

Feed the Birds for Winter Interest

By Carol O'Meara, Boulder County Extension

In the quiet of January, as the garden rests and we spend time dreaming over catalogs, there is still a bit of life outside that needs our attention. Small garden members stay active, and in a seemingly barren winterscape, it’s nice to have the raucous activity of birds.  Keep them around by providing food and water.

Birds with access to feeders tend to have higher winter survival rates, especially if we have season-long cold. Food is energy for staying warm, but if you’re concerned about them becoming dependent on the feeder, relax.  Studies have shown that only 15to 25-percent of their food comes from feeders and they forage readily to fill in the rest.

There’s a wide selection of seed and feeding stations available for the backyard birds. 

Many birds, like sparrows and doves, prefer to feed on large, flat surfaces and may not visit any type of hanging feeder. To give them something to dine on, spread seed on the ground.

If that’s too messy for your taste, consider a hopper or platform feeder. Hoppers are platforms with walls and a roof that protects seed against the weather. A platform feeder is any flat, raised surface to spread bird food and can have a roof to keep seeds dry.  It should have plenty of drainage holes to prevent water accumulation. Place it near the ground to attract juncos, doves, and sparrows if squirrels aren’t a problem.

Tube feeders are hollow cylinders with multiple feeding ports and perches. Feeders with short perches give an edge to small birds while excluding larger birds that can be bullies. The size of the feeding ports varies as well, depending on the type of seed to be offered. Small feeding ports are ideal for nyjer seed, which is excellent for smaller birds, especially finches, juncos and sparrows. 

One essential menu item is suet.  Suet is pure fat with some seed, fruit, or insect carcasses and provides high energy in winter when birds need lots of calories to keep warm.  Suet attracts flickers, woodpeckers, and chickadees.  

The most common type of seed and one that packs a lot of energy for the feathered friends is black-oil sunflower seed. This small sunflower seed has thin shells, making it easy to crack open and popular with many birds, such as chickadees, finches, sparrows, and occasionally, woodpeckers.

Hulled sunflower seeds have the shell removed for quick eating and a "no mess" type of feed.  Many species will actually prefer to feed on this easy, work-free meal. Be sure to keep the seed dry because it tends to spoil more quickly than sunflower in the shell.

Water is another essential for birds in winter for drinking and bathing. Change the water often to prevent it from stagnating and keep ice from freezing it solid.

Victor Frankenstein should have taken up gardening

Posted by Carol O'Meara, Boulder County Extension

Cue up some Edgar Winter, it’s time celebrate the birthday of one of our most iconic Halloween bad boys: Frankenstein.  Two hundred years ago, Mary Shelly published the story of the reanimated monster that’s shuffled and groaned its way into the pantheon of ghouls that define the season.

Shelley shocked the world with her gothic horror treatise, widely regarded as the first true science fiction novel rather than fantasy, because it drew on scientific concepts of the day.  Pulled together from pieces of cadavers, the monster was reanimated through electricity from lightning.

A sewn-together creation of bits and pieces is nice and all, but gardeners know her tale isn’t as far-fetched as we’re asked to believe.  We’ve been doing this for thousands of years.  We live with creatures grafted together all the time; in fact, we search them out and make them the centerpiece of our landscapes.

Some are subtle; so seamlessly grafted you don’t realize its two different plants put together.  Others show the graft proudly, and gardeners use this to guide them in planting to proper depth.  Grafting provides us with plants that are sturdier, more disease resistant, or smaller than the original.  It’s how we get cultivars of the same fruit on tree after tree in orchards so we can enjoy Honeycrisp apples or Cresthaven peaches. 

In order to make sweet, edible apples one needs to grow the exact cultivar by cloning as grafts on rootstocks. If you try to grow them from seed, you get the result of apple flowers crossing with other, usually crabapples.

It’s also how we have trees sporting several different fruits on the same plant.  Often called “fruit cocktail” or “fruit salad” trees, gardeners with big desires but small space can have it all: with four, five, even six different fruits on a single trunk.  Nectarines, plums, apricots, and peaches or red, green, and yellow apples come together in a fusion of flavor.

Scientists are running wild having successfully grafted fruit trees they’re grafting anything that doesn’t move in the garden: tomatoes, melons, the neighborhood rabbits.  Ok, maybe not the rabbits, but horticulturists are very excited about grafting.

Clones, too, surround us; they give us perfect replicas of plants we covet at other’s homes or businesses. Technically, the definition of plant cloning is human-controlled asexual propagation of a plant, which doesn’t sound fun at all. But we do it all the time.

While Victor Frankenstein raided graveyards for his body bits, we raid plants we see while walking the neighborhood or sitting at the doctor’s office awaiting our turn.  With a quick, surreptitious pinch, we snitch a bit of plant to put in water for rooting, thus cloning the plant.  Love that African violet?  Pinch off a leaf and plant it.  The begonia at an atrium in the mall?  They root nicely from leaves as well (readers: denuding a plant you don’t own is unethical.  Ask permission before taking anything from the plants you see).

When it comes to bringing things back from the dead, gardeners have much in common with Victor; anyone who’s had a jade plant fall and shatter into pieces knows the desire to resurrect it by shoving a bit of stem or leaf into potting mix (the leaves should be dried a bit before doing this, but that’s a different story).  It takes a while for the leaf to root but shocking it with electricity to speed things up would end in disaster.

Ultimately, Victor wasn’t such a bad guy; he simply needed to take up gardening. 

Zucchini perfect porch packages

By Carol O’Meara, Boulder County Extension

  If you live near a gardener, the time for checking your porch for green, cylindrical squash has arrived. Generous by nature, gardeners love to spirit zucchini onto stoops and porches, and announce it with a merry ringing of the doorbell as we scurry away.

For us, the joy is in the giving, for our zucchini plants are overflowing with squash.  So much so that the family has learned to dread the words: “zucchini is ready for harvesting.”  Could it be the result of zucchini for breakfast, lunch and dinner day after day? 

Overabundance - and thus over consumption - of this summer squash is but one reason why people duck for cover during zucchini season.  Too much of a good thing usually results in needing a break from that particular food.  Coupled with the fact that many people have zucchini coming to them from several friends, any sane person would hide. 

There could be other reasons for our aversion, based on plant physiology.  When young, plant energy is at its peak and the fruits may be slightly more tender and delicious than from an older plant that has been producing for a while.  Speaking as an older person I am less than enamored of this theory, which is not scientifically researched and can only be considered an interesting possibility. 

A more likely reason for ‘zucchiniphobia’ may rest with a well-known fungus called powdery mildew.  Powdery mildew attacks the leaves of most cucurbits – the plant family that squash, cucumbers, and melons are in – later in the season and can reduce the plant’s production of sugar in the fruit, leaving a less than delicious squash.  It’s true that as we lose our enthusiasm for zucchini, it loses flavor and delicacy.

But gardeners don’t call it quits and pull the plant from the ground when powdery mildew strikes.  No, the obsessed gardener will struggle on, doggedly harvesting fruit and finding new ways to use it and new friends to bestow it upon.  For those die-hards, here are few tips for using that squash – none of which are research-based. 

Zucchini is an excellent vegetable to use in the Spiralizer machines. Turning the squash into long, spaghetti-like strands, the machine is one way to hide the fact that you’re serving zucchini every meal for the fifth week in a row. That the ‘zoodles’ are an odd green can be covered up with a bit of pesto.

It makes a tasty bread, and those with an abundant supply could get an early start on holiday gifts.  Imagine how simpler December will be by baking all of your holiday loaves and freezing them in August.  When the holidays roll around you simply pull the loaves from the freezer and voila!  Planning ahead pays off.

How convenient that school starts up in August, just the right time for a special ‘welcome back’ gift squash for teachers.  Of course, the student may have to work for months to get back into the teacher’s good graces, but hey, you have less zucchini to deal with.  Gift squash can be handled anonymously, with the ‘ring and run’ technique on neighbor’s doorsteps, or as a special 10 lb. box for your mother-in-law.  There’s always camouflage gifting – dressing the zucchini up with a prettily printed recipe card, some sparkling rhinestones and ribbon.

Please the kids with zucchini-boat carving and float them in a pond, or carve boat-themed centerpieces for summer parties. Slap some wheels on them and have zucchini races. However you choose to celebrate the squash, make August special.

 

Fireblight running rampant

Posted by Carol O'Meara, Boulder County Extension

Symptoms of Fireblight include browning/blackened leaves
drooping in a classic 'shepherd's crook'

Pulling into my drive, I noticed the Honeycrisp apple tree we love didn’t look quite right.  From a small distance away, wilt was evident around its branches and a sinking feeling settled in my stomach.  Upon closer inspection, my worst fears were confirmed: this tree has fireblight.

To have an apple tree is to risk infection from this deadly disease, one that includes oozing bacteria, curled, brown leaves, inedible fruit, and spreading cankers.  This year, with several hail storms coming just as the tree was in bloom proved fatal.  Temperatures and moisture played a role in the infestation and my tree is entirely engulfed and without hope for recovery.

My tree isn’t alone.  In the past week, samples and emails have been brought to our office by people in similar situations, conversations sound more like support groups, and the disease is everywhere I look.  My mind cues up the dramatic, Hitchcockesque music each time I see another blighted tree.

It’s a banner season for fireblight, a bacterial disease that is especially destructive to apple, pear, quince and crabapple. It attacks in spring, when temperatures reach 65 degrees F and frequent rain occurs.  Bacteria overwintered in cankers on the tree resume activity, multiplying rapidly.  Hail drives the bacteria around and into woody tissues.



Fireblight bacteria moving back into the twigs, blackening the wood

 

Our wet early summer weather created good conditions for this damaging disease, and masses of bacteria have been forced up through cracks and bark pores to the bark surface, forming a sweet, gummy exudate called bacterial ooze. Insects are pickingd up the bacteria on their bodies and carrying it to opening blossoms where it infects trees. 

 

Girdling cankers – areas of disease on the wood - eventually develop from branch or blossom infections.  Leaves wilt, darken and curl to form a shepherd’s crook. This gives the tree a fire-scorched appearance, thus the name "fire blight." 

There is no cure for this disease, so prevention is the best solution. Remove and destroy newly infected young twigs as soon as possible, so that your tree doesn’t become the mother ship for disease in the neighborhood.  Do this when no rain is predicted for at least two weeks.  It may be best to leave pruning until winter when the bacteria are not active. In young twigs, make cuts at least 12 inches below the dark, visible edge of infection to avoid slicing into the bacteria. Remove all blighted twigs and cankered branches. Prune larger limbs about 6 to 12 inches below the edge of visible infection.

After each cut, surface sterilize all tools used in pruning. Spray tools with Lysol or dip tools in 70-percent ethyl alcohol, or a 10-percent bleach solution.  Bleach can rust tools, so if you use this to sterilize your pruners, wash them after you’re done and apply a light tool oil to keep them rust-free.

Be on the lookout for apple scab, a fungus that attacks leaves and fruit, which also favors cool, wet weather.  You’ll seeing the rapid spread of this disease across apples and crabapples.  At first, leaves get yellow or dark olive-colored spots, then turn yellow and fall off.  Fruit develops dark, greasy-looking spots that then become sunken. 

The disease overwinters on fallen leaves, so clean the area during fall.  Avoid overhead watering that can splash spores around. 

 

Avoid Leafy Office Follies

By Carol O'Meara, Boulder County Extension

Keeping green and growing houseplants as office companions?  Spending long days in cubicles and offices can make the hardiest gardener pine for leafy companions.  But not all offices are ready for green thumbs; I’ve heard tales of well-meaning employees locked in battle with supervisors.  One side thinks plants need round-the-clock illumination, the other views plants as energy gluttons draining the world in a vampiric thirst for light.

 

Before your workplace engages in a war of wattage, clear up confusion on how much, and how long, plants should be illuminated.  Here are a few tips on lighting your foliaged office mates:

Light is essential for plant growth, and for your plants to be happy, keep three things in mind: intensity, duration and quality.  

Intensity, or brightness of the light, governs the manufacture of plant food, stem length, leaf color, and flowering.  Plants kept in low light rooms, as many offices are, tend to be spindly with leaves light green in color. In very bright light the plant would be stockier, with better branching and larger, dark green leaves.



Houseplants vary in their light needs: high, medium and low light. Control intensity of light by placing the plant closer to, or farther from, the light source, keeping in mind that light decreases rapidly as you move away from the source.

Southern windows have the most intense light, followed by eastern and western exposures.  Those receive about 60-percent of the intensity of south-facing windows, while northern exposures receive the lowest light levels of approximately 20-percent.

Duration of light received by plants is of some importance, but generally only to those houseplants that use day-length to stimulate bloom, such as Poinsettia, kalanchoe, and Christmas cactus.  Many flowering houseplants are indifferent to day-length; they respond to other factors so be sure to talk encouragingly with them. It may not inspire the plants to bloom but your co-workers will give you a wide berth; you’ll get plenty of projects done in that time.

  If you’re in a low light office, help your plant survive by increasing the length of time it gets artificial light.  This longer period of light during the day gives the plant more time to photosynthesize, producing food for itself. Comfort yourself with the knowledge that at least one thing in the office isn’t on a post-holiday diet.    

If artificial lights are to be used as the only source of light for growing plants, the quality of light (wavelength) must be considered. For photosynthesis, plants require mostly blues and reds but for flowering, infrared light is also needed. Fluorescent lights vary according to the phosphorus used by the manufacturer. Cool white lights produce mostly blue light and are low in red light. Foliage plants grow well under cool white fluorescent lights and these lights are cool enough to position quite close to plants. Blooming plants require extra infrared which can be supplied by incandescent lights or special horticultural type fluorescent lights.

However, plants require some period of darkness to grow; they should be illuminated for no more than 16 hours. Too much of a good thing is as harmful as too little.  Protect plants by turning off your lights as you leave for the day or put the lights on a timer.

 

Winter Water or Re-Sod, Your Choice

Posted by: Curtis Utley, Jefferson County Extension

Unless you have been living under a rock you will have noticed that

 we have been experiencing abnormally warm and dry weather

 this fall, and the long-range forecast looks to promise more

 of the same. In fact, NOAA reported: 

 
Native rocks which one could be proud to live under

...NOVEMBER 2017...DRIER AND MUCH WARMER THAN NORMAL...

AFTER AN OCTOBER WHICH EXPERIENCED A WIDE TEMPERATURE RANGE WITHIN

THE MONTH, NOVEMBER 2017 RECORDED A FAIRLY NARROW RANGE IN

TEMPERATURE DUE TO LACK OF EXTREME COLD. TWO DAILY HIGH TEMPERATURE

RECORDS WERE SET IN NOVEMBER. THE HIGH ON THE 26TH REACHED A RECORD

SETTING 74 DEGREES WITH 81 DEGREES REACHED ON THE 27TH. THE HIGH OF

81 DEGREES ON THE 27TH ALSO ESTABLISHED AN ALL TIME MONTHLY HIGH

TEMPERATURE RECORD FOR NOVEMBER. THE HIGH OF 81 DEGREES ON THE 27TH

EXCEED THE PREVIOUS MONTHLY HIGH TEMPERATURE OF 80 SET ON BOTH THE

6TH OF THE MONTH IN 2006 AND THE 16TH OF THE MONTH IN 2016.

AS FOR PRECIPITATION, NOVEMBER 2017 LANDED SHORT OF THE MONTHLY

AVERAGE AS PREDOMINANT STRONG WEST TO NORTHWESTERLY FLOW ALOFT

PROVIDED FOR FREQUENT BOUTS OF DRY DOWNSLOPE FLOW ALONG THE NORTHERN

FRONT RANGE. A FEW WEAK COLD FRONTS PUSHED THEIR WAY INTO NORTHEAST

COLORADO DURING THE MONTH, HOWEVER WITH LIMITED MOISTURE ASSOCIATED

WITH EACH ONE, ONLY LIGHT PRECIPITATION AMOUNTS WERE RECORDED. A

STRONG AND FAST-MOVING DISTURBANCE, WHICH PASSED ACROSS SOUTHERN

WYOMING AND NORTHERN COLORADO LATE IN THE DAY OF THE 17TH, PUSHED

RAIN SHOWERS ONTO THE LOWER ELEVATIONS AND GAVE DENVER THE HIGHEST

PRECIPITATION FOR THE MONTH WITH 0.23 ON THE 17TH.

AS THE THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY APPROACHED, A LARGE RIDGE OF STABLE HIGH

PRESSURE BEGAN TO DEVELOP OVER THE SOUTHWEST UNITED STATES ON THE

21ST. THIS STABLE RIDGE PERSISTED ACROSS THANKSGIVING AND INTO THE

NEXT WEEK WHILE KEEPING THE REGION AND DRY WITH WELL ABOVE AVERAGE

AND EVEN RECORD SETTING TEMPERATURES.

TEMPERATURES:

THE AVERAGE TEMPERATURE AT DENVER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT FOR THE

MONTH WAS 45.3 DEGREES F, WHICH IS 7.0 DEGREES ABOVE NORMAL. THIS

NOW RANKS AS 10TH WARMEST NOVEMBER`S SINCE TEMPERATURES RECORDS

BEGAN IN 2017 1872. THE WARMEST NOVEMBER ON RECORD OCCURRED IN 1949

WITH AN AVERAGE MONTHLY TEMPERATURE OF 50.9 DEGREES F. THE COLDEST

NOVEMBER ON RECORD WAS OCCURRED IN 1880 WITH A MONTHLY AVERGAE OF

22.0 DEGREES.

TEN WARMEST NOVEMBER`S IN DENVER WEATHER HISTORY SINCE 1872:

50.9 1950

47.2 1999

46.2 1933, 1914

45.9 1981, 1927

45.6 1910, 1917

45.5 1917

45.3 2017

TEN COLDEST NOVEMBER`S IN DENVER WEATHER HISTORY SINCE 1872:

22.0 1880

28.9 2000

29.7 1985

31.5 1929

32.3 1952

32.5 1889

32.8 1972

33.0 1886

33.1 1872

33.3 1979

PRECIPITATION:

PRECIPITATION FOR THE MONTH OF NOVEMBER AT DENVER INTERNATIONAL

AIRPORT WAS 0.29 INCHES, WHICH IS 0.32 INCHES BELOW THE NORMAL OF

0.61 INCHES. THERE WERE 3 DAYS WITH MEASURABLE PRECIPITATION DURING

THE MONTH. 0.23 INCHES OF PRECIPITATION FELL ON THE 17TH, WHICH IS

THE GREATEST DAILY AMOUNT FOR THE MONTH.

TEN WETTEST NOVEMBER`S IN DENVER WEATHER HISTORY SINCE 1872:

3.21 INCHES 1946

2.67 INCHES 1991

2.63 INCHES 1983

2.13 INCHES 2015

1.95 INCHES 1922

1.93 INCHES 1886

1.88 INCHES 1975

1.74 INCHES 1908

1.69 INCHES 1972

1.68 INCHES 1881

TEN DRIEST NOVEMBER`S IN DENVER WEATHER HISTORY SINCE 1872:

TRACE 1949, 1901, 1889

0.01 INCHES 1939

0.03 INCHES 1917

0.04 INCHES 1905, 1904

0.05 INCHES 2003

0.07 INCHES 1903

0.08 INCHES 1920, 1874

NO THUNDER WAS OBSERVED AT DENVER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT AND

4 DAYS WITH DENSE FOG WITH A VISIBILITY AT OR BELOW 1/4 MILE DURING

THE MONTH. THE PEAK WIND GUST OF 52 MPH FROM THE NORTHWEST OCCURRED

ON THE 1ST.

While attending the Rocky Mountain Regional Turfgrass Association Conference and Trade Show last week my colleague, Carol O’Meara and I were lamenting the fact that landscapes along the Front Range are going to suffer if the dry warm weather continues through the winter. Both of us planned on watering our landscapes a little, over the weekend, to prevent winter-kill from desiccation.

I also received a few calls last week from landscape maintenance companies concerned about protecting customer’s lawns from turfgrass mites which can kill drought-stressed turf in the winter months. This morning I decided to inspect the turfgrass outside of my office for mite activity and sure enough, I found clover mites actively feeding on the turf close to a south-facing retaining wall. Without natural winter precipitation or winter watering it is likely the clover mite population will explode and cause enough feeding damage to the quasi dormant turf to kill it out right.

Southwest facing retaining wall

Active Clover mites

Clover mites and Bank’s grass mites are cool-season pests of turfgrass along the Front Range and have caused economic damage to landscapes in the past and will kill turf this year too unless susceptible aspects of lawns receive irrigation or natural precipitation. To learn more about turf mites, check out the factsheet http://extension.colostate.edu/docs/pubs/insect/05505.pdf   

What does that mean? Damage caused by these cool-season mites is always most severe on south or west facing slopes (aspects) or on the South or West sides of evergreen trees, shrubs, buildings, walls, and fences, so focus your winter watering efforts on those areas of your lawn specifically. To learn more about winter watering, check out the factsheet  http://extension.colostate.edu/docs/pubs/garden/07211.pdf

South facing slope with mite damage

South facing side of a blue spruce

West facing slope with mite damage

Check for mite activity in your lawn by swiping a white sheet of paper over the lawn. Turn the paper over and examine it for small red streaks; the streaks represent crushed mites. If found, know that your lawn at that specific location is in peril and you should water. If the paper has lots of streaks, consider spraying that aspect with an insecticidal soap to knock back the population of mites then begin watering. To learn how to check for mites, watch this video

Next spring, if you notice the south and west aspects of your lawn are not greening-up with the rest of your lawn, check the margins of the damage with a clean sheet of white paper. If you find streaks, begin watering.The areas of turf that have not greened up by April are probably dead and should be re--sodded, reseeded or, consider mulching those areas and planting western natives in those locations. To learn more, check out this factsheet http://extension.colostate.edu/docs/pubs/garden/07241.pdf  or this Plantalk script http://planttalk.colostate.edu/topics/lawns/1517-sodding-lawn/ . A little water now may save you the cost of replanting, and a lot of water next spring to re-establish your turf.

Small red streaks are crushed mite bodies and indicate activity