Do you know what the definition of the word ‘conundrum’ is?
I do. Actually, I had to look it up – but it basically means a “difficult situation”. That sums up what I am facing in my back garden.
Here are the ‘parts’ that make up my conundrum:
First, there is my wonderful husband….
You may have noticed that he is bit camera-shy when it comes to appearing on my blog 😉
The second part is the nest box that my husband made to attract leaf-cutter bees.
As you can see, there are already some occupants in some of the larger holes.
You may be wondering why my husband is trying to attract leaf-cutter bees. Well, he has recently become interested in beekeeping and is considering raising honeybees someday.
In the meantime, he decided that he would try to attract leaf-cutter bees.
I was more then happy to encourage him in his experiment. Leaf-cutter bees are important pollinators, are non-aggressive and rarely sting.
But, that was then……
Do you know what else leaf-cutter bees do?
Like their name suggests, they cut circular sections out of leaves which they use to line their nests with. They then store a supply of pollen and nectar, lay eggs and then leave.
Now my husband’s nest box is located right above my roses….
Guess what a leaf-cutter bee’s favorite type of leaf is?
You guessed it….rose leaves.
So, you see what my conundrum is?
I want to be a supportive wife…
I want pollinators in my garden…
Bees are in huge trouble and their populations are declining and I’d like to help…
I don’t mind some holes from leaf cutter bees, which won’t hurt my roses. However, I would rather not have too many holes cut out of my rose leaves…
So, what should I do?
I will ask my husband if he wouldn’t mind moving his nest box elsewhere in the garden. That way my roses will not get too ‘holey’, I’ll still have pollinators in my garden and my husband still gets to have fun attracting leaf-cutter bees.
I think that works, don’t you?
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Roses can handle a fair amount of activity from leaf-cutter bees, although too many holes will affect the health of your roses. Remember that it is leaves that make the ‘food’ for your plants.
I don’t like to use pesticides if I can help it in the garden, but they wouldn’t help me against leaf-cutter bees. Since the bees don’t actually eat the leaves, the pesticide is useless. **More importantly, I don’t want to harm the bees, so I wouldn’t use pesticides against them, regardless.
If you don’t want to see any holes in your rose leaves, you can cover them with cheesecloth or fine netting to keep the leaf-cutter bees away (as people who exhibit their roses in shows do).
**So how about you? Have you experienced a conundrum in the garden? Who or what was involved? I would love to hear about it 🙂
What’s Chewing On My Leaves?
Over-Pruning Epidemic Hits Again….
PruningOkay, for those of you who have read my ‘ramblings’ for any length of time, you are probably familiar with my personal crusade against the widespread pruning epidemic of creating balls, cupcakes, frisbees and other assorted shapes with flowering shrubs.
The fact that pruning flowering shrubs too often can lead to early plant death plus extra maintenance because it causes your shrubs to grow faster as well as causing them to require more water may not be reason enough for someone to stop.
Well, maybe the fact that repeated pruning (shearing) of flowering shrubs can leave them looking like this, may help them to finally stop….
Not very pretty, is it?
This is what is left of three Desert Cassia (Senna nemophila) shrubs after they had been repeatedly pruned into round shapes using hedge-trimmers.
Well when flowering shrubs are repeatedly sheared with hedge trimmers, to create the much desired green ‘ball’ – it keeps the sunlight from penetrating inside of the shrub. This leads to the death of some of the interior branches. In addition, pruning repeatedly with hedge trimmers, does not get rid of any old branches and therefore new branches do not grow.
Now a healthy flowering Desert Cassia (Senna nemophila) looks much healthier and beautiful.
The Desert Cassia, above, was planted by me in a large feature area located next to a golf course. I would have the landscape crew prune it back to 2 ft. every spring, once it had finished flowering, which is when this particular shrub should be pruned.
I did not let the crew use hedge-trimmers, although they certainly wanted to. But, I actually took the time to teach them the reasons why repeated shearing with hedge trimmers was a bad idea and then I made sure that they used loppers or hand pruners to prune them correctly.
Now, when flowering shrubs are pruned back severely to 1 – 2 ft. – they don’t look pretty. In fact, they look like a bunch of ‘stick’s sticking up out of the ground. But this stage only lasts a few weeks.
But, what happens is that the pruning stimulates the formation of new growth, which produces more leaves and flowers then if you just continued pruning off the top inch or so.
I would much rather see a flowering shrub with flowers on it, wouldn’t you?
Now, if you haven’t gotten enough of my ‘preaching’ against over-pruning, you can read more at Flowering Shrubs Aren’t Meant to be Cupcakes
So, do you want to stop over-pruning your shrubs?
How do you start?
Well, it is best to start by severely pruning your shrubs –
BUT ONLY AT THE TIME OF YEAR WHEN YOUR PARTICULAR SHRUB SHOULD BE PRUNED.
I will work on a list of the most popular shrubs that grow in the low & high desert and give you a timeline in my next post 🙂
A Conundrum….My Husband, His Bees and My Roses
AZ Plant LadyDo you know what the definition of the word ‘conundrum’ is?
I do. Actually, I had to look it up – but it basically means a “difficult situation”. That sums up what I am facing in my back garden.
Here are the ‘parts’ that make up my conundrum:
First, there is my wonderful husband….
You may have noticed that he is bit camera-shy when it comes to appearing on my blog 😉
The second part is the nest box that my husband made to attract leaf-cutter bees.
As you can see, there are already some occupants in some of the larger holes.
You may be wondering why my husband is trying to attract leaf-cutter bees. Well, he has recently become interested in beekeeping and is considering raising honeybees someday.
In the meantime, he decided that he would try to attract leaf-cutter bees.
I was more then happy to encourage him in his experiment. Leaf-cutter bees are important pollinators, are non-aggressive and rarely sting.
But, that was then……
Do you know what else leaf-cutter bees do?
Like their name suggests, they cut circular sections out of leaves which they use to line their nests with. They then store a supply of pollen and nectar, lay eggs and then leave.
Now my husband’s nest box is located right above my roses….
Guess what a leaf-cutter bee’s favorite type of leaf is?
You guessed it….rose leaves.
So, you see what my conundrum is?
I want to be a supportive wife…
I want pollinators in my garden…
Bees are in huge trouble and their populations are declining and I’d like to help…
I don’t mind some holes from leaf cutter bees, which won’t hurt my roses. However, I would rather not have too many holes cut out of my rose leaves…
So, what should I do?
I will ask my husband if he wouldn’t mind moving his nest box elsewhere in the garden. That way my roses will not get too ‘holey’, I’ll still have pollinators in my garden and my husband still gets to have fun attracting leaf-cutter bees.
I think that works, don’t you?
*************************************
Roses can handle a fair amount of activity from leaf-cutter bees, although too many holes will affect the health of your roses. Remember that it is leaves that make the ‘food’ for your plants.
I don’t like to use pesticides if I can help it in the garden, but they wouldn’t help me against leaf-cutter bees. Since the bees don’t actually eat the leaves, the pesticide is useless. **More importantly, I don’t want to harm the bees, so I wouldn’t use pesticides against them, regardless.
If you don’t want to see any holes in your rose leaves, you can cover them with cheesecloth or fine netting to keep the leaf-cutter bees away (as people who exhibit their roses in shows do).
**So how about you? Have you experienced a conundrum in the garden? Who or what was involved? I would love to hear about it 🙂
What’s Chewing On My Leaves?
A Barely Controlled Vine
AZ Plant LadyLast year, I said that I would never grow a pumpkin vine in my vegetable garden again….
We did get a single pumpkin, but I was not prepared at how much the pumpkin vine grew inside and outside of my garden.
Now before you say that I should have read how large a pumpkin vine grows before I planted one – I did read how big they can become.
However, it is something to read it on paper and another thing entirely to see it happening in your own garden. I wrote about it last year – “Escapee From the Garden”
So this year, I kept my word. I did not plant any pumpkins.
Instead, I decided to plant two bird house gourd vines….
Now I almost wish that I had pumpkin vines instead 😉
Although my bird house gourd vines are rooted in my vegetable garden, most of them are growing outside of its confines.
I decided to plant bird house after I saw them when I visited Amish country in Pennsylvania last year. They were perfect for making bird houses out of and I couldn’t wait to try it out.
Right now, I have at least 4 gourds growing, but there may be many more. It is hard to tell with all of the vines and leaves covering them up.
Each week, I am kept busy removing the seeking tendrils of the bird house gourd vines from my cucumber plant cages as well as from my bush beans.
I do enjoy watching this plant grow and I will probably grow it next year, but not in vegetable garden. I will have to look for a bare area where it can grow to its heart’s content.
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Have any of you had any experience growing pumpkins or gourds? Did your vines grow all over your garden? Or perhaps, you paid attention to the directions on the seed packet and placed your vines in a spot with more space 😉
Curiousity, A ‘Good’ Bug and Chocolate Chip Cookies
az plant lady familyNow you may be wondering how on earth am I going to combine the above topics into one post.
Well, they all occurred yesterday while we were visiting my in-law’s house. We go there every week to help out around the house and do the things that my father-in-law can no longer do since he is suffering from ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease).
Okay, first I will talk about curiosity and a bug. Actually this involves my three youngest children and a praying mantis that they found in my in-law’s backyard.
Do you remember how curious you were as a child about living things? There seems to be a natural connection between kids and certain bugs. Now, my kids will not touch a spider knowingly, but they are fascinated by other bugs.
Yesterday, they discovered a praying mantis on a Pink Trumpet Vine in the back garden.
As you can see, it was very young and small. I don’t think my kids would have handled a full grown mantis.
The kids had fun taking turns holding the little praying mantis, who in turn would walk up and down their arms.
I remember playing with pill bugs as a child and seeing them roll up into tiny, gray balls. We would put them into a margarine container with some grass and leaves. Of course, they would die if we didn’t let them loose.
My youngest daughter, Gracie, who can be a little afraid of bugs even decided to hold this little insect (you can just barely see it on her arm)…
It lasted about 3 seconds because the praying mantis scurried up her arm and she was afraid it would go up her sleeve 😉
We have a rule that if the bugs are beneficial, that the kids can play with them for a while, but have to release them out into the garden the same day.
So, since praying mantis are great at eating harmful insects, we let him go.
**Here is an interesting fact for you – Did you know that praying mantis are carnivores and have been known to actually eat hummingbirds if they stray too close? It’s true!
The kids were having so much fun with their new little friend that they forgot about the chocolate chip cookies that they had just helped to make with their grandma.
Chocolate Chip Cookies
I didn’t forget though….
I must confess that I ate 3 of those big cookies, which is why I don’t make a lot of cookies at home. I did try to make it up for it by eating salad for dinner 😉
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I hope your week is off to a good start. My kids start school today and my husband and I are ‘celebrating’ by going to the movies and enjoying some time alone.
Does that make me a bad mom or maybe one that just needs a little break…..
Cookies and Sugar Cone Christmas Trees
Summer To Do List
TreesOkay, I must begin this by admitting that I have no idea what to post about today….
Maybe I shouldn’t admit this to you, but there are times when I have nothing. I think it may be because there is so much going on in my life.
– My three youngest kids start school on Monday (we have a modified year-round school calendar). My daughter Ruthie, begins Jr. High and is understandably nervous. We went shopping yesterday for some new clothes and shoes.
– We have guests arriving tomorrow from Kansas City who we will be entertaining for the weekend. There is a very special story behind these people and my daughter Ruthie. I can’t wait to share it with you later 🙂
– I just finished writing 4 gardening articles and have one more left to go.
– We are busy helping my in-laws each week with miscellaneous tasks around their home. My father-in-law is continuing to suffer more debilitating effects from ALS.
However, with all of this going on, my garden is thriving. I thought that I would share with you some summer things that you should do in your garden.
It is from an article that I wrote earlier this month for a local community newsletter. I hope you enjoy it 🙂
Thankfully, there is not a lot of things to be done in the garden during the hot Southwest summer, but there are some tasks that are important this time of year.
I recommend going out into your garden during the early morning hours to do these tasks, as I do, or at dusk, once the sun begins to set to avoid the extremely hot period of the day. So, put on your hat, sunscreen, gloves and sunglasses and let’s get started.
Hot Southwest summer
Succulents: Cacti, agave, yucca and other succulent plants can suffer from both the extreme heat and sun of summer, especially on the side of the plant that points toward the southwest. Signs of heat damage include a yellowing of your succulents. If your succulents are not connected to your irrigation, they need to be watered to a depth of one to two feet. Larger succulents such as saguaro, ocotillo and yuccas need to be watered to three feet deep. Do this once this month and again in August.
This can be easily done by simply placing your hose next to the plant and barely turning the water on so that the water trickles out slowly. Leave the water on for at least an hour and then check to see if you need to leave the water on for longer.
Shrubs: Make sure that your shrubs are receiving enough water. They should be watered to a depth of 2 feet each time you water. Avoid fertilizing this time of year since this creates more stress for your plants, which are struggling to handle the heat of summer. You can deadhead spent flowers from your shrubs to promote additional bloom, but avoid pruning away any foliage at this time of year. Spider mites can become a problem this time of year. Look for any tiny webs, which are a sign of these tiny mites. Controlling them is easy since they like to hide in the dust, so spray your plants every few days with water to help keep the mites from becoming established.
Hot Southwest summer
Trees: Avoid planting any trees this month, except for palms. Mature, established trees require deep watering this time of year, especially if they are not connected to your irrigation system. This should be done once a month in summer, watering to a depth of 3 feet. Using a hose, allow water to slowly trickle out around the drip line of the tree (where the branches end, not against the trunk) which is where the roots are located. You may need to move the hose so that you water around the entire tree. You can skip one watering if you receive 1 inch of rainfall, which replaces a single irrigation.
As the increased humidity, (25 – 33% humidity is considered high in the desert), makes it more uncomfortable for us to go outside, it helps to keep in mind that plants just love the extra moisture even if it is only in the air around them.
**I hope you find this helpful. I wanted to also tell you about a fabulous sight that I saw on our vacation. I blogged about it on my Birds & Blooms blog.
Keywords, Encyclopdias and Answers….
AZ Plant LadyDo you ever use a search engine to find answers to your gardening questions? I remember the old days, before search engines when I had to drive to my local library and look through gardening books and encyclopedias to find the answers to my non-gardening questions.
Okay, now that I have dated myself by admitting that I used to use encyclopedias, I must say that I am quite addicted to finding information in just a few seconds using search engines.
Many people find my blog by entering a gardening question using a search engine. I am able to see what questions that people type in the search window that leads them to my blog by using an application that tracks my stats.
Some of the searches are humorous while others are totally unrelated to gardening. But, there are often the same type of questions asked. So I thought that I would reveal the three most common questions for this month in hopes that it may help some of you as well.
Question #1:
“Can I prune my Texas Sage shrub when it is in flower?”
Gardening question #1
Answer:
“You could, but why would you want to remove the beautiful flowers?”
Please don’t participate in the epidemic of pruning shrubs into round shapes. It is not healthy for most desert-adapted shrubs and strips them of much of their beauty.
You can read more about this in an earlier post,
“Shrubs Aren’t Meant to be Cupcakes, Frisbees or Pill Boxes”
Question #2:
“What is the white stuff on my prickly pear cactus and how do I get rid of it?”
Answer:
Many people assume that it is a fungus. Well, it isn’t. The ‘white stuff’ is actually produced by an insect called cochineal scale. The insects produce the cottony stuff to protect themselves and their eggs while they suck upon the cactus.
The good news is that it is very easy to get rid of it. A strong jet of water from the hose will remove both the insect and the ‘white stuff’.
There are actually some very interesting information about this insect and how native Americans would use them. You can read more from this post “Purple Prickly Pear“.
Question #3:
“What plant smells like rain?”
Answer:
Creosote shrubs dot the desert from California to New Mexico. They have small resinous leaves that smell like rain when wet or crushed.
One of my favorite things to do is to take a few leaves, crush them and then have people smell the intense fragrance that smells just like rain.
You can read more about Creosote from this earlier post “A Desert Shrub That Smells Like Rain”.
So, what do you think? I hope this has proved helpful to some of you. I plan on doing more of this in the future.
Now, I have a question for you….
How many of you have used an encylopedia in the past?
Going Fishing….
az plant lady familyI absolutely love fishing. I really do….
I grew up fishing as a child when we would go camping each year. And although my sister and brother would catch their share of fish, I never did….
It was really frustrating because I was using the same bait and fishing right next to them. So as I grew up, I was happy to leave it behind.
Until we started spending time up in a small town in Arizona along Route 66 called Williams. You see, my sister-in-law’s family owns some cabins up in the woods there and they graciously allow us to stay there each summer.
Close by the cabins are some great places to go fishing and 4 years ago, I caught my first fish. It was a decent size rainbow trout and I was as excited as a little girl….I had finally caught my first fish!
So ever since, we spend time fishing up in Williams every year.
Sometimes we have to leave because of thunderstorms, like the one that was coming in the photo above.
The kids love fishing too and my husband is just wonderful about putting worms on our hooks….I won’t touch them 😉
Last year, we caught 18 fish in a period of two hours…..I caught 5.
But my son caught the most of all of us….6!
Even if we don’t catch any fish, I enjoy sitting and enjoying my beautiful and peaceful surroundings. Sometimes in the midst of my busy life, I wish that I could just take off for a couple of hours and fish.
You know what? I really could….we have stocked lakes just minutes away 🙂
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So, do you like to fish?
Where is your favorite place to go?
A Dog’s Best Friend is a…….Chicken?
Double S FarmsOkay, let me be more specific…..3 chickens!
Lucy, Effie and Flo
My mother’s dog, Addy, is a very sweet Australian cattle dog mix. My parents adopted her from the animal shelter back in 2001, when she was 3 years old. My dad just loved Addy.
When we adopted our son, Kai, from China we spent a few days at my parent’s house, who were living in California at the time. Addy was the first dog that Kai had ever met.
My dad assured Kai that Addy was friendly and loved kids.
Addy is a ‘herding’ dog by nature. The first object of her herding instinct was my parent’s black cat. Addy was obsessed by her and would spend all of her time keeping track of the cat.
After the cat died (from old age), Addy transferred her attentions to the squirrels in my parent’s backyard. I don’t think she was ever successful in actually catching one though.
After my parents moved to Arizona and my dad’s death, my mother along with my sister and her family moved to a small farm, which they call Double S Farms. Addy was in heaven with a huge backyard and plenty of gophers to go after.
The other day as we were sitting on the back patio, I noticed 4 figures around the apple tree in the distance….
Australian cattle dog
It was Addy and my sister’s 3 pet chickens. Now, I knew that Addy got along with the chickens, but I didn’t know that the chickens just loved being around her.
According to my sister, the chickens just love to hang out with Addy, even when she is sleeping outside. They just settle in around her.
At the ripe old age of 14, I guess Addy finally got to lead a flock, so to speak 😉
Addy was my dad’s special dog and although my mother loves her and takes care of her, I still think of her as my dad’s dog.
So, as I see her slow down, it is rather sad, because she is a link to my dad, who has been gone for 4 years now.
But, she isn’t going anywhere soon…. except to run inside to escape the coming thunderstorm, along with her feathered best friends.
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So, how about you?
Have you encountered any unusual friendships between animals?
I would love to hear about them!
A Bountiful Harvest and a Special Helper
Double S FarmsBesides eating hot dogs and watching fireworks this past 4th of July, I also spent some time picking apples with my daughter. We use them to make applesauce.
We grabbed some old Target(r) bags got to picking.
Believe it or not, the two apple trees at Double S Farms produce tons of apples and this was the last of many harvests this year.
I have already made a batch of applesauce and my mother has been making apple butter like crazy.
Some of you may be surprised to hear that apples grow in the desert. Well, it is quite easy as long as you use a variety that needs low-chilling hours.
Chill hours refers to the cumulative number of hours each year when the temperatures dip below 45 degrees. In warm areas, you want to use varieties that have a low-chill requirement.
The apple trees on Double S Farms are the ‘Anna’ variety. They are crisp, sweet and delicious.
As we got into picking the last of the apples, my mother’s dog, Addy, was on the prowl for any apples that we dropped, since she loves them.
You know what? Apple trees are really the perfect size….
My daughter, Ruthie, was small enough to get into the smaller, interior areas.
While I could reach most of the apples up high.
Of course, apples taste best freshly picked, when they are ripe. If you plan to store them for a while, it’s best to pick them a week before they are fully ripe.
After we finished picking, we had 4 large bags of apples.
Perfect for making applesauce!
You can read my post about how I made applesauce here if you like 🙂
Have any of you picked apples from the tree before?
Or, do you enjoy cooking with apples?
What do you make?
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For more information on what type of apples that do well wherever you live, check out this link. Be sure to curse down a bit to see the listing of apple varieties state by state.
A Toad, Star Wars and a Chicken Coop….
AZ Plant LadyOkay, you are probably wondering what on earth I am talking about when I mention a toad, Star Wars and a chicken coop in a single post. And if you aren’t curious…..you can stop here 😉
This is a story of a toad that is called “Jabba the Hut” after the infamous Star Wars character who lives in a chicken coop. My post title makes sense now, doesn’t it?
Both of my nephews are extreme Star Wars fans and love collecting the Star Wars Lego figurines. My youngest nephew is only 3 years old and he named the toad, “Jabba the Hut”
So, where exactly does Jabba the Hut live exactly?
He lives in a moist area by the Elm tree.
Can you see him?
The chickens don’t seem to mind him sharing their yard.
Jabba the Hut likes to burrow into the moist soil during the day and comes out at night.
It was still hard to really see him and so I tried to coax him out…
If you have never seen a toad looking cranky, here is your chance.
Jabba definitely did not enjoy all of the attention…..I think we woke him up a bit early.
I am a strong proponent of leaving wild animals alone, but I think I failed in this instance in my desire to take some pictures of Jabba to share with all of you.
He definitely did not enjoy all of the attention…..
I think that he decided to start his night time escapades early and get away from us.
You can why my nephew thought of the name “Jabba the Hut”. There is definitely a resemblance 😉
***More about “Jabba theHut”***
Mr. Toad is a Sonoran Desert Toad. They are quite active during our summer monsoon season.
They eat quite a lot of insects and keep to themselves. Do not pick them up, since they secrete a poisonous substance through their skin. Be sure to wash your hands thoroughly if you do happen to touch one.
When we lived in Phoenix, we saw quite a few toads during the summer months. It wasn’t unusual to see 3 to 5 in our front yard. We lived in a neighborhood that had flood irrigation, which may have been why we had so many.
So, have you seen any toads out and about?
A Pair of Boots and an Empty Chicken Coop….