Posted on in Gardening, House Plants, Plant Profiles

Christmas Cactus (Schlumbergera sp.)

christmas-cactus_home_20091103_lah_5353x-1Small succulent-looking plants covered with huge, florescent  red, pink or white flowers are featured prominently in many stores right now. Go ahead get one. You won’t regret it.

Christmas (or Thanksgiving) cactus are both beautiful and easy to grow.

Yes, they’re cactus, but these plants are native to tropical rain forests in the mountains of Brazil, where they grow on tree branches as epiphytes. That should tell you that they like to be kept somewhat moist, but never soggy. This is particularly important while the plants are in bloom. In fact, uneven watering is a main cause of blossom drop. (Another is an abrupt decrease in humidity, such as comes when you move a plant from the greenhouse to your home.) The rest of the year, they are a bit more forgiving, and will tolerate a bit of drying out. It’s always best to let the top inch of soil dry out between waterings.

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Posted on in Gardening, Seed Starting, Surviving Winter, Veggies

Seed Catalogs

catalogs LAHThere’s “only” 55 more days until Christmas. Catalogs are pouring into our mailbox. Most go straight into the recycling pile, but a few I set aside, saving them for a break in the holiday frenzy. I don’t keep the gift catalogs, or the home décor catalogs. I only save the important catalogs… the seed catalogs.

The gardening season is over for the year, but next season’s garden is already germinating in my mind. Regimented rows of bush beans spread their leaves toward the spring sun, lettuce forms tight rosettes and huge broccoli plants are crowned with enormous heads of perfect buds. No hail has punched holes in the leaves; hungry cutworms have yet to fell a single stalk.

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Posted on in Gardening

Witches’ Brooms

witches-broom-mtalmagreco-2007aug07-lah-dscf8204You won’t see them being ridden on Halloween, they’re no good for sweeping, and they aren’t caused by witches. Instead, witches’ broom is the term for a dense cluster of leaves or twigs growing haphazardly among the branches of a plant, usually a shrub or tree. At times, the appearance of the broom is strikingly different from normal growth, as in the example shown at left.

Any plant can grow a witches’ broom, from deciduous trees such as willow or cherry, to conifers including pines, firs and spruces. Hackberry is especially susceptible. Aster Yellows is an example of a damaging broom that affects non-woody plants.

Many factors can cause broom formation, including viruses and other microorganisms, fungi, mites and insects, nematodes, mistletoes, and even random genetic mutations. An environmental stress that affects the growth point of a branch will also result in a witches’ broom. Sometimes, two of more factors are involved. Often, the cause cannot be determined. In most cases, the best way to control a witches’ broom is to simply prune it out.

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Posted on in Birds, Books, Media Reviews, Nature

Book Review: Outwitting Squirrels

Outwitting-Squirrels-193x300Anyone who puts out food for wild birds quickly learns that the squirrel food alert network is very efficient. Within hours, often before the birds find your new feeders, the squirrels are on site, shoveling sunflower seeds into their mouths as fast as they can. That’s pretty fast.

Some people actually like squirrels. That’s fine with me. If they want to feed expensive seeds and nuts to squirrels, let them go right ahead. Of course, their largess will encourage the production of more squirrels….

On the other hand, most bird feeders want to feed birds, not rodents. Banging on the window and waving your arms may alarm the neighbors, but it won’t faze the squirrels for long. So what’s a frustrated bird lover to do?

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Posted on in Plant Profiles

Flowering Cabbage (Brassica oleracea)

_dbg_20090915_lah_0651Cold-resistant flowering cabbage takes the stage after tender annuals have succumbed to Fall’s first frosts. Flowering cabbage isn’t really a flower, but a loose head of large ruffled, fringed, or smooth leaves in vibrant combinations of cream rose, purple, and green. Although grown as an ornamental, flowering cabbage, also known as ornamental or flowering kale, is completely edible.

Technically a biennial, these cabbages are grown for the open rosettes that forms the first season. Summer heat results in stunted or leggy plants that are often attacked by cabbage loopers; plants are at their best in cool fall weather. Frosty nights intensify the colors. In late August or September, set seedlings out 15 – 18 inches apart in full sun. All cabbages prefer rich, moist soil.

Ornamental cabbages are most typically massed as bedding plants. Plants continue to look attractive for a while after the ground freezes. Use for fall/winter color, contrasted with dormant perennial grasses in shades of tan and gold, or harmonizing with groundcovers, such as some junipers, that turn purple in winter.

Posted on in Birds, Hotspots

Bajillions of Snow Geese

dsc_0367It was almost 5 am, well below freezing, and I was clumsily trying to attach my camera to my tripod with gloved fingers. The last of the stars had finally given way to the growing light in the eastern sky, but the sun wouldn’t be up for a while yet.

A class of a dozen photography students arrived and began setting up their cameras next to me. Their fancy lenses dwarfed mine. Not for the first time, I wondered what in the world I was doing here!

Of course, I’d love to be back in bed sound asleep, or at least in the coffee shop with a nice hot cup of tea, but 50,000 snow geese, glistening white in their winter plumage, were sleeping on the wetlands in front of me. At some point in the next hour or so, the growing daylight would reach a critical intensity, and the entire flock would lift off as one, circle overhead, and then fly off into the new day. I wasn’t about to miss it.

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Posted on in Gardening, Veggies

Taking Stock of the Garden

The gardening season is over, at least for us here in Colorado. Our September snowfall put an early end to beans,  tomatoes, and summer squash. Hardier veggies (and, unfortunately, most weeds) survived, but haven’t grown since the weather turned cool. Carrots are waiting under their mulch layer for winter harvesting; garlic has been harvested and next year’s crop replanted.

With much shoveling and sneezing (I’m allergic to chickens), the broken-down, soiled straw in the chicken coop has been distributed over my garden beds and dug in, adding nutrients and organic matter to enrich my soil. A thicker layer of newer straw mulch keeps my earthworms happy and protects against insect pests that are waiting lay their eggs underground.

It’s finally time to lay down the shovel, step back and take stock. How did the garden do this year? What did we have too much of (not zucchini, for once)? What were we lacking? How did the new varieties I trialed compare to my tried-and-true favorites? What should I do the same next year? What should I change?

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Posted on in Birding Tips, Birds, Hotspots

Birding Trails

hiking-geese001

When I first encountered the term “Birding Trail,” a mental image flashed into my mind of a migrating flock trudging down the road, heading south with their suitcases tightly grasped in their wings. Turns out that wasn’t quite right.

Birding trails are actually comprised of a series of birding hotspots (places where birds are known to congregate)  connected by a driving route. You pick up the map, hop in the car, and set off on your birding adventure.

Texas started the whole idea several years ago with the establishment of the Texas Coastal Birding Trail. A special map marks out the route, and signs along the highway indicate where to pull over, take a break, and look for birds. The concept is so popular that half the states have followed suit, and birding trails abound.

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Posted on in Gardening, House Plants, Surviving Winter

How to Grow a Houseplant: Light & Temperature

spider-plant_home_20090908_lah_0280“Mom, can you fix it?”

My college freshman was looking at me with a dejected, mournful expression, holding the spider plant I had sent to school with her. It looked awful. Wilted, brown leaves hung limply over the edge of the plastic pot. There were no signs of life.

“Well, that one looks kind of done, but I can give you another one. I’ve got plenty of spider plants. What happened?”

The story unfolded… it was well below freezing outside, but the central heating in the dorms was turned way up. Suffocating in her room, she’d opened the window a crack. No one thought to move the plant on the windowsill. Unfortunately, tropical spider plants aren’t equipped to survive 6ºF drafts. The poor plant had succumbed during the night.

As I potted up another victim, er, spider plant, I explained to my daughter that the primary thing to remember is that plants are alive. I know this seems obvious, but too many people treat them as decorations rather than living organisms. It’s better to think of them as pets—sort of like green hamsters without the exercise wheel. They need food and water, shelter and room to grow. If you meet their needs, they’ll not only survive, they’ll grow and perhaps even bloom. It’s really not that hard.

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Posted on in Gardening

R.I.P.: Colorado’s El Paso County Master Gardener Program

cmg_plant_swap_20090606_-339
Master Gardeners making selections at the annual plant swap.

Last month I learned that, as of October 1, I would no longer be a Colorado Master Gardener. Due to extreme budget deficits, our county can no longer fund their portion of the “cooperative” extension program, and the Master Gardener program is being put on furlough. The long-term prospects remain unclear, but for the present, I’m going to have some extra time on my hands.

On one hand, I’m sad. Volunteering as a master gardener for the past nine years has benefited me in many ways. I’ve improved my writing and photography skills, gained confidence as a public speaker, and learned a huge amount about horticulture. I also had a lot of fun. After focusing primarily on raising our kids for so many years, it was good to get back into the bigger world out there.

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