All posts by Jan Nelson

I am a landscape designer and consultant in the Santa Cruz mountains in California. I write a weekly gardening column for the Press Banner newspaper. I am also a Calif. Advanced Certified Nursery Professional and managed The Plantworks Nursery in Ben Lomond, Ca. for 20 years.
Enchanted Gardens in the Valley, garden tours, sustainable design, sustainable gardening

Enchanting Gardens in the Valley- A Garden Tour for Locals

I?ve seen my share of spectacular gardens and always come away with new ideas and inspiration. It?s part of the fun to imagine how one might incorporate a unique type of path or a water feature into your own garden. Maybe a particularly breathtaking plant combination would look just right next to your patio. It?s even better when the beautiful gardens are in your own neck of the woods. What could be better than to see what fellow gardeners have created nearby?

English cottage garden

Recently I was able to preview several local gardens that will be featured on the Enchanting Gardens in the Valley garden tour on Saturday, June 24th from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. As a fundraiser benefit for nonprofit Valley Churches United there are seven beautiful, unique and inspiring gardens in Felton and Ben Lomond that shouldn?t be missed.

Weeping Atlas cedar near pond

Dappled by the morning sun the pond and waterfall in the first garden I visited was even more enchanting after the owner, told us an interesting story. Seems that one spring she looked out her office window and saw a live blue heron strutting and displaying, trying to get the attention of the metal heron sculpture. ?He was really doing his thing?, she laughed. The pond is surrounded by grass-like plants like lomandra and carex that provide movement in the wind while the upper bed where the waterfall originates features flowers of bright orange, red and magenta along with the blue foliage of a weeping Atlas cedar and blue oat grass.

Other highlights in this garden include raised veggie beds, a rose and cutting garden and a special fire hydrant garden for the dog. You?ll just have to see it for yourself.

Antique baby’s bed planter

Several gardens on the tour allow visitors to walk through the main living and kitchen areas. It?s a treat to see how the outside reflects the interior design from a gardener?s perspective. Under massive native oaks one such garden will keep you exploring for hours. With red as the primary color accent along with touches of yellow and blue every nook and cranny has been tastefully decorated with hand made glass collectables. An antique baby?s bed has been converted to a planter, a vintage stove overflows with ferns, ivy and begonias. The English cottage look is complete with mature boxwood hedges and a large white pergola with wicker furniture. There are sitting areas at every turn throughout the garden, however, the owner confesses she sits for about 15 minutes before the urge hits her to trim or re-arrange something. Sound familiar?

Rainwater catchment system

Another garden on the tour features a Newport Fairy rose as big as a van. A rainwater catchment system designed by the owner/engineer waters his orchid greenhouse with pure rain water. The rhododendrons in this garden are 20 years old and all the hydrangeas are from cuttings his wife has propagated. There are many great tips and ideas to take away from this garden.

Edible garden

A study in sustainability and permaculture, one of the gardens is a mega food source for the owner?s family. From grapes to vegetables to recycled wood arbor and decks with fancy railings, this garden is a certified wildlife habitat and pollination garden for bees and beneficial insects. Using organic practices and water conservation techniques it?s brimming with life.

galvanized water tank pond

If your space is small, you?ll want to visit a garden nearby, Designed by a landscape architect and her creative husband the garden rooms surrounding the compact home feature a koi pond, meditation garden, galvanized water tank with wall fountain, outdoor dining table re-purposed from old deck and vegetable garden. The outdoor experience connects to the interior with large open doors at both the front and the back.

So whatever type of garden appeals to you there?s sure to be one to please at the Enchanting Gardens in the Valley garden tour. Tickets are available at Mountain Feed and Farm Supply, several other local nurseries and from Valley Churches United office in Ben Lomond. Contact them at 831-336-8258 for more information.

aphids, fertilizing, gardening tips, how to prune vines, pests, plant maintenance, plant problems, pruning rhododendrons, pruning tips

June in the Garden-What to Do?

I didn?t get everything done in May that I had on my to-do list. Who ever does? Anyone who tends a garden knows how fast plants grow with the longer, warmer days and nights. So this month I continue to work on my own garden tasks as well as help others renovate their gardens to look great, support native pollinators, wildlife and habitat.

If you battle dandelions and don’t want to use chemical weed killers around pets and children, get out the white vinegar from the cupboard. On a hot sunny day spray straight white vinegar directly on the weed. This method will kill whatever it touches so direct the spray carefully. If the dandelion is in the lawn, wait a week, pour some water on the dead spot to dilute any lasting effects of the vinegar. Then poke a bunch a holes and drop in some grass seed. Sprinkle a bit of fertilizer where the seed is planted and keep the area moist. In three weeks you won’t remember where the dead spot was and the dandelion will be long gone.

Many plants, both vegetable and ornamental, are bothered by aphids and other sucking insects as well as foliage and flower eating bugs. From cucumber beetles, flea beetles, stink bugs, weevils, curculios to borers, the list of trouble makers is endless. To help deter them mix up some pepper spray in your kitchen.
1 tablespoon hot pepper sauce or 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
6 cloves garlic, crushed
1 quart warm tap water
Let stand I hour, strain and spray plants either in the morning or evening.

Pink rhododendron.

When the last flowers of your rhododendron, azalea, camellia, weigela and spirea have finished it?s time to prune them. If you prune too many months after flowering your risk removing the flower buds forming for next year. Basically it?s best to prune lightly each year to shape plants that have become too leggy. The rules apply to most plants. Prune to the next whorl or set of leaves. To increase rhododendron bloom next year, break off any faded flower trusses just above the growth buds being careful not to damage the new buds.

Swallowtail feeding on lemon

Apply the second fertilizer application for the year to your citrus and fruit trees. The final one for the season should be immediately after harvest. Apply the fertilizer to the soil around the drip line of the tree where feeder roots are located and scratch into the surface. Water in well. As with all fertilizers, make sure the trees are moist before you fertilize. Young trees in their first, second or third growing season should receive half the rate of established trees.

Another garden to-do this month includes summer pruning of wisteria. To increase flowering next spring and keep these vines under control cut new growth back to within 6″ of the main branch. If you want to extend the height or length of the vine, select some of the new streamer-like stems and tie them to a support in the direction you wish to train the plant.

Erysimum ‘Apricot Twist’

Another maintenance tip is to shear spring blooming perennials to keep them full and compact. Candytuft, phlox subulata, aubrieta and other low growing perennials benefit if you cut off spent bloom and an inch or two of growth. Other perennials and shrubs that benefit from the same treatment to keep them compact are erysimum, lavender and Pink breath of heaven.

gopher control, gopher resistant plants

Gophers in Your Garden?

I didn?t have much of a gopher problem during the dry years. All my plants went into the ground with nary a thought as to the danger they would one day find themselves in. Now it?s a different story and it?s war. I?m not giving up and I?m not giving in. Here?s my story and what I?m doing about the destructive critters.

Zebra iris blooming just one week before rhizome was eaten by a gopher.

As you know there?s nothing, well almost nothing, as heartbreaking in the garden as losing a favorite plant you?ve nurtured and enjoyed for years. Whether the death comes from fungal problems, insect infestation or a rodent, you feel a loss. And so it was with me just recently when I discovered one of my prized Zebra iris eaten by a gopher. Then a couple of years ago my birch tree keeled over in the driveway, roots mostly eaten off. I saved the birch by replanting it in a huge gopher basket. Thankfully it was dormant season so the tree had time to recover the next spring. The jury?s out on whether I can save the iris.

Did you know that gophers usually live alone within their burrow system except when females are caring for their young or during breeding season? They are nocturnal, territorial and active year round. All those mounds you see are created by one animal as the female will drive off her young just a few weeks of giving birth. If you dispatch a female before she gives birth in the spring you can often solve your problem. Don’t give her the chance to have another litter in June. She can live for 3-5 years.

White birch gopher victim

I don?t advocate using poison baits as those anti-coagulant toxins can be passed on to pets, hawks and other predators that might eat them. Each morning I do look for any signs of fresh activity and I?ll set a cinch trap with a flag after probing for the tunnel direction. I also discourage them by flooding the tunnels and stomp hard on any new surface tunnels.

There are no gophers in the Northeast but the Golden gopher of the Midwest is twice as large as our Pocket gopher who got it’s name as they love to store food in side pockets inside their head. Gophers love sprouts and apples and will gorge themselves to destruction if they are plentiful.

Urban myths to control gophers include Juicy Fruit gum and laxatives but they are not effective per studies at UC Davis. Putting glass or dried rose cuttings with thorns down a hole is effective as gophers are hemophiliacs and will bleed to death if cut. Castor oil is effective for a short time as is coyote, cat or any other urine. Fish emulsion or meat products are deterrents as gophers are committed vegetarians.

Are there plants that gophers won’t eat? They seem to avoid lavender, sage or salvia, rosemary, thyme and oregano. As a designer I have a slightly longer list of gopher resistant plants but always recommend planting in stainless steel gopher baskets anyway. You can?t be too careful.

I have to chuckle at a list of plants supposedly not on a gopher’s menu that I found in a magazine several years ago. Apapanthus was on the list. I can assure you that a gopher will burrow right underneath an agapanthus in order to get water from the roots.