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Potted cactus care: 5 tips to keeps plants happy, hands unhurt

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John Trager, curator of the desert collections at the Huntington Botanical Gardens in San Marino, offers these five tips for growing cactus and succulents in containers: 

1. Plant in a well-drained mix of 80% pumice and 20% compost.

2. Fertilize during the growing season, spring and summer.

3. Handle cactus carefully. Wear latex surgical gloves, which provide the dexterity you need without damaging the plant. If you have to handle larger specimens, use a piece of old carpeting or an old pair of pants. Best strategy: Carry them by the roots.

4. Along the coast, give the plants full sun. If you live inland, provide a little afternoon shade.

5. Water judiciously — usually no more than once every one to two weeks, depending on the size of the container.

Trager shared his advice while we reported on the potted cactus and succulent garden of author Kurt Kamm in Malibu. If you have any questions about cactus, succulents, California natives, edibles or any other types of plants, write to our SoCal Garden Clinic panel of experts. Garden design questions also are welcome.

Email them to home@latimes.com and put “SoCal Garden Clinic” in the subject line. Because of the volume of mail we receive, we cannot respond to all questions, but some will be answered here and in our print edition.

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The Pecks: Water-wise plants, tips for dry garden borders

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Here’s a very brief multiple-choice quiz to start your day.

Dry borders are:

A) Lines of demarcation between any of the states in the southwestern U.S.

B) The only people prohibitionists would rent rooms to.

C) An ill-conceived idea to diversify a struggling major book-selling chain by adding dryers to their stores, so your laundry could dry while you were looking for the next David Sedaris book. If that had worked, they would have added washing machines later and called themselves Wash Dry Borders. But alas, it did not.

D) A delightful way to grow plants that don’t require a whole lot of supplemental water, relying almost entirely on Mother Nature to do any watering, even during the summer.

Of course, the answer is B.

And D, too, which brings us to this week’s topic, timely given the extended period we went through without rain.

Really, it starts with watering. Over the years, Marcia and I have not always seen eye-to-watering-can on how much water plants need. I’m always inclined to water more, more, more, while Marcia has insisted it’s possible that plants look punky at times because they’re actually getting too much water.

But that’s a discussion we don’t need to have about the dry borders or beds in our yard. The plants in them, when the soil is properly prepared, thrive quite nicely on their own without me worrying whether they’re looking a bit parched.

The wide range of plants that you can include in a dry border was really brought home for us — well me, actually, since Marcia already had a pretty good idea — when we visited Dancing Oaks Nursery  in Monmouth,  which has some of the most amazing plants I’ve ever seen that are just perfect for those kinds of areas.

And if that weren’t enough, an evening touring the private grounds of Burl and Cindy Mostul‘s home, also the home of Rare Plant Research  in Oregon City, showed in no uncertain terms how spectacular such xeriscaped designs can be.

By the way, for those who might be confused, xeriscaping reduces or all but eliminates the need for any additional watering, and has nothing to do with the personal grooming habits of Xena the warrior princess.  

Glad I could clear that up.

And now, to Marcia.

I love all kinds of plants and gardens, but there’s something about Mediterranean gardens that touches my soul.

We are lucky to have summers as dry as those in the Mediterranean region and fortunate that we can grow a wide range of plants in the Pacific Northwest. Sure, we have wet winters and clay soil (which is what can sometimes kill these plants, not the lack of summer water), but with a few water and soil adjustments, we can really push the limits.

This is illustrated particularly well in the dry borders at both Dancing Oaks Nursery and Rare Plant Research.

Dennis and I have our own little dry bed facing the western sun, and it’s my favorite part of the garden. Usually, we — OK, I, not so much Dennis — associate the word “border” when talking about gardens with English perennial gardens, and it usually refers to a big, beautiful, blooming perennial bed.

But in this case it’s a dry bed with water-wise plants that can be just as beautiful in their own way.
 
SOIL PREPARATION

Most plants that want dry conditions, meaning very little if any supplemental water, need good drainage.

1. The dry bed at Dancing Oaks is a mix of native soil and 6 to 8 inches of composted yard debris topped with the same depth of quarter-10 crushed rock to form a raised mound. Dennis and I use the same combination.

2. The dry bed at Burl and Cindy Mostul’s  consists of 40 dump-truck loads of large boulders filled in half with gravel scalpings (he now wishes he had used the quarter-10 crushed rock instead for better drainage) and half with composted horse manure and wood chips.

 
TIPS

1. Plant during the fall rains or in late winter to let plants establish themselves before the dry summer season.

2. Fred Weisensee and Leonard Foltz at Dancing Oaks don’t give their dry border any supplemental water. Burl Mostul waters his several times each summer but says he really doesn’t need to. Dennis and I water our dry bed at the start of summer and only infrequently in succeeding months, unless I put in a new transplant. (Dennis: Which only happens, well, always.)

3. These beds are for plants that can take a lot of sun as well as just a little water.

4. Most of the plants that don’t make it despite their liking for dry, hot conditions die from poor drainage during the rainy season and not because of lack of water in the summer.

5. Burl has some very unusual plants in his borders, which probably explains the Rare Plant Nursery name. Make sure you use plants that are suitable for both dry conditions and our hardiness zone.
 

GOOD PLANT OPTIONS

The following is a list of plants that were used in the dry beds at Dancing Oaks and on the Mostuls’ grounds.
 
Dancing Oaks Nursery
17900 Priem Road,  Monmouth
503-838-6058, dancingoaks.com
Eremurus species and hybrids
Eryngium giganteum  
Eryngium bourgatii  
Penstemon rupicola  
Scilla peruviana  
Allium flavum  
Iris reticulata  
Dichelostemma congesta  
Euphorbia x martinii ‘Ascot Rainbow’  
Euphorbia rigida  
Cistus  
Daphne x burkwoodii ‘Gold Dust’  
Daphne x burkwoodii ‘Silveredge’
Iris spuria  
Zauschneria  
Eriogonum umbellatum  
Eriogonum compositum  

Rare Plant Research
Oregon City (the nursery is open only one or two weekends each year)
503-780-6200, rareplantresearch.com
Opuntia fragilis  
Opuntia phaeacantha  
Opuntia imbricata  
Yucca rostrata  
Yucca thompsoniana  
Yucca aloifolia ‘Variegata’  
Agave parryi  
Olearia lineata  
Hesperaloe parviflora  
Sempervivum  
Lewisia cotyledon  
Nassella tenuissima  
Fremontodendron  
Ceanothus ‘Point Reyes’
 
Marcia Westcott Peck is a landscape designer (pecklandscape.com) and Dennis Peck is not. He is the editor of The Oregonian’s Living section, which is a good thing for him, because if he actually had to use his hands for anything other than typing, it would not be pretty.

Garden jewels shine on the Emerald Isle

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In 2013, over a 10-day period, our group of 11 visited selected gardens in Ireland as well as places of interest to us individually.

Ireland is called the Emerald Isle, and we found the name well deserved with verdant landscapes nourished by cool rain. On most days we found there were three time periods that cycled within an hour or two: rain, just finished raining and about to rain. The landscapes included ancient mountains and vast areas of pasture.

In 1840, Ireland had about 8 million people. In subsequent years the potato blight, then not understood as a plant disease, resulted in large-scale crop failure, famine and emigration. Ireland has not yet re-attained its population of a century and a half ago; the Republic of Ireland has currently 4.59 million people. What that means is there are large expanses of open land with cattle and sheep, and even the larger cities (Dublin, Cork) seem small in comparison with the megacities of much of the world.

We also found extraordinary hospitality and friendliness that extended to a series of favors both smaller and larger, such as picking up an umbrella someone had dropped, and we were given group discounts virtually everywhere we went although not technically at the required group size.

The gardens we visited fell into three groups. The first group comprised botanic gardens where plant identity was central, and plants were often arranged by genus or family.

The second group of gardens had a large component of natural woodland in which plants were placed among trails and pathways. The third type of garden was found around manor houses or castles; these tended to be formal in design.

Several of the gardens were particularly unusual. We visited Birr House and Gardens, located toward the center of Ireland. Birr House has been and still is the home of the Rosse family since 1620 — even with a 30-year mortgage the house has been paid off for centuries.

In the mid-1800s, the third Earl of Rosse was very interested in astronomy and built the world’s largest reflector telescope with its 6-foot mirror, made not of glass but of metal. We were able to see the restored telescope as well as indoor displays of science and scientists. The best part of the gardens at Birr, I thought, was the long pathway along the Little Brosna River with dense forest and overhanging branches stretching over the stream. It wasn’t too difficult to imagine oneself in the Middle Ages — or Middle Earth.

Ilnaculin, or Garinish Island, is located just offshore in Bantry Bay, so one takes a boat to reach the garden island. The 37-acre island is home to natural areas of forest, rock and bogs, but also contains a formal Italian garden, a walled garden and other plantings interspersed among the native plants.

On the highest point of the garden, the British built a stone tower about 1805 as a lookout and defense against a feared invasion by Napoleon. One can climb the steep spiral staircase to the top level to enjoy the vista.

After the U.S. and Australia, Ireland is the third country for breeding race horses. One can see why: It’s the grass, rich in calcium and plentiful, nourished by frequent rains.

Attached to the national horse breeding farm is a Japanese garden, said to be the finest in Europe, and perhaps it is. This garden is unique in that the pathways are marked according to stages of a person’s life, such as the cave of birth, the bridge of marriage, the hill of ambition, and the final climb on the hill of old age.

Plant selection and extraordinary attention to maintenance complement the design. I find words or even photos inadequate to describe the overall construction and impact of this garden.

If you come to one of our fall horticulture classes at the UC Cooperative Extension office, we’ll show photos. I hope you, too, will be able to visit some of these gardens, perhaps as a side trip during a business visit to London or as part of a vacation. As a further incentive, Dublin is home to one of the world’s greatest libraries of ancient manuscripts and, lest we forget, Guinness is the local beverage.

The Secret Garden Party reveals this year’s installations

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Wed, 10 Jul 2013 | By Tom Banks

While many UK summer music festivals have tried to embrace public art, interactives and installations in recent years, in many cases it appears a bit bolted on – a bit of an afterthought.

The Temple by An Architecture

By contrast The Secret Garden Party, which isn’t that secret – here’s the website – has a Secret Arts division, which has garnered a reputation for delivering some heavyweight installations.

This year the festival is imbued with the theme Superstition, which has been broadly interpreted by installation artists.

Although ultimately an inconvenience, being pooped on by a bird is said to be good luck. Armed with this knowledge Hungry Castle, the people bringing you the incredible Lionel Richie’s Head at Bestival this summer, have also designed Lucky Shit.

This brilliantly infantile contraption appears to have been taken straight from the pages of Viz. 

Sparingly and indiscriminately, after spending large periods of time doing absolutely nothing, a giant bird sculpture will ‘shit’ yellow muck on people who dare to walk beneath it. Yum.

Elsewhere we can expect a giant florescent triangle, which is a gateway to a space mirrored on all three sides.

Luz – as it will later appear at Burning Man festival – by Les Mechants

The installation is called Luz, has been designed by Les Merchants and will give the sense of being inside a kaleidoscope. Geometric patterns on a hand screen-printed floor will conjure an infinity perspective. Indeed your own reflection will be refracted into an eternity of fragments.  But you will leave fully formed.

While details of a centre-piece lake sculpture by Pirate Technics remain under lock and key, we can tell you The Temple by An-Architecture, will rise out of the site’s main lake, and can be accessed by a pier designed by artist Edward Lewllyn, giving festival goers a unique view gained through gaps in its mesh of beams.

The Temple by An Architecture

If you can climb up to the top, as well as a confusing view below through the interlocking beams, you’ll be able to see across the lake and over the rest of the site.

We Find Comfort in the The Common by It’s Nice That is a presentation of three works that look at the ambiguity of horoscopes, and tackle Superstition head on.

While the form of these remains deliberately ambiguous, we are at this stage aware of contextual research by the likes of David McCandless, which will feed into the pieces.

Part of the We Find Comfort in The Common series by It’s Nice That

McCandless conducted a study in 2011, which showed how 90 per cent of the words used in a sample of horoscopes were exactly the same.

It led him to write the following meta-prediction that could be applied to any star sign on any day of the year: ‘Whatever the situation or secret moment, enjoy everything a lot. Feel able to absolutely care. Expect nothing else…Keep making love. Family and friends matter… Help and talk to others. Change your mind and a better mood comes along.’

The Street by Katy Beveridge and Fernando Laposse

Kat Beveridge has looked at the ghostly side of Superstition for The Street, a piece made up of ‘flying paper houses’ which are inert and invisible by day but at night take on a haunting presence as they appear to rise from the lake.

The White Death is an extraterrestrial take on this year’s theme, and provides a safe zone from the electromagnetic bombardment we are all subjected to everyday.

Created by Bob Winslow, it’s essentially a Faraday cage and will protect festival goers from electromagnetic radiation – the stuff of radioactive rocks, neutron stars, and radio transmitters – which is apparently harmless.

Winslow’s supposition is that this electromagnetic radiation is in fact the work of extraterrestrials scanning us from space ships, and the mating calls of creatures burrowing toward the earth core.

Twilight Tweets by Tetsuro Nagata and Guy Woodhouse

We’re excited about Twilight Tweets by Testuro Nagata and Guy Woodhouse, which will see a parliament of owls take to the trees. By day they will sleep, twitch and flutter, and by night they will come alive – responding to each other, and people below.

Their party piece is unfolding their wings to form screens, which will display short films shown elsewhere in the day.

Meanwhile Leeland Crane is creating 3rd Planet, which is being kept under wraps, but organisers tell us it’s about ‘awe, beauty,  perspective and introspection.’

The context, is the 1967 photograph of earth captured from space and how it changed the way we perceive ourselves.

Secret Garden Party takes place from 25-28 July, Mill Hill Field, Grange Farm, Abbots Ripton, Huntingdon, PE28 2LA

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Emerald ash borer ready to strike county

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by Paul Rignell

Contributing writer

The emerald ash borer, a beetle that has infested green, gray and black ash trees in its native Asia and around the globe, is in Minnesota.

Last March the population was as close to Elk River as the city of Shoreview, in Ramsey County, according to resource conservationist Gina Hugo from the Sherburne Soil and Water Conservation District.

Photo by Paul Rignell Volunteer Kelly Thomas measures the circumference of a tree trunk.

Photo by Paul Rignell
Volunteer Kelly Thomas measures the circumference of a tree trunk.

As an important step to combat the emerald ash borer once it crosses enough borders to reach Sherburne County, Hugo’s office contacted city halls across the county last spring to organize a call for volunteers to walk neighborhoods for gathering data on all trees.

Hugo then met with 45 volunteers in May. Each of them took nine hours of training over two days at their respective city halls.

They learned to distinguish the several species of ash trees they could expect to find, along with maples, oaks and evergreens. The instructors showed them how to use tape measures for finding a tree’s drip line, or the diameter of its lower branches and foliage, which the volunteers recorded along with other data such as trunk circumference.

The last remaining neighborhoods to be toured on the conservation district and city project maps were in Elk River, and those walks ended in the final days of July.

Two of the city’s volunteers were Kelly Thomas and Georgeann Bianchi, who teamed up for tours in many Elk River neighborhoods that were new to them. Bianchi regularly carried a clipboard with a pen and their data sheets when walking lawn to lawn, and Thomas often noted the drip lines and other observations with a third team volunteer who would hold one end of their tape measure.

“(The instructors) really taught us what we needed to know,” said Bianchi, who logged her written data into a computer after each tour. “They covered what we did encounter.” She was familiar with data entry as a retired software developer.

For any tree in the public right of way, the width of which varied from 8 to 13 feet, Bianchi said, they went in-depth and recorded all noticeable defects such as dead branches, rotting bark, cankered trunks and girdled roots. They found challenges with many trees, as full foliage in July can help with finding accurate drip lines while maybe hiding some defects toward the trunk.

“Sometimes it’s easier to assess a tree when the leaves are off,” said Thomas, a cellular biologist who volunteers through the year as wildlife project leader for Sherburne County 4-H.

As they recorded notes about trees in required boxes on their forms, the women saw and retained other ideas for landscaping they might choose to do in their own yards.

“It is fun learning about different types of trees,” Bianchi said. “You get some ideas for what you might like.”

Thomas said they found elms and cottonwoods to be prevalent in older Elk River neighborhoods, while some species seem to dominate elsewhere, including burr oaks, sugar maples, red pines and Colorado spruce.

Property owners were told of the neighborhood tours before any volunteer wrapped the tape around a trunk, and one team member traditionally checked at the door for anyone at home on a weekday morning or whenever the teams could coordinate their walks.

Bianchi and Thomas said their maps contained very few markings for property owners that requested their lots to be excluded.

“Everybody was really friendly,” Bianchi said. “If they were home, they were great.”

Supporting this urban forestry initiative with the Department of Natural Resources, University of Minnesota and St. Cloud State University among other groups, the conservation district is pleased by the assistance from its strong volunteers, Hugo said.

“It was such a huge undertaking,” she said. “(They gave) several hours of work that someone else didn’t have to do.”

Hugo explained that upcoming steps in the process will involve budgeting to replant ash trees and other actions.

Minnesota is believed to lead the United States with nearly 1 billion ash trees, including more than 10,000 in Elk River.

An adult emerald ash borer spends warmer months on the tree surfaces, but its larvae will burrow beneath the bark and destroy the tree. One precaution that anyone can take to prevent the spread of this insect is to not transport firewood.

More information on local efforts is available at www.sherburneswcd.org.

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An emerald ash borerOnly a matter of time before ‘the green menace’ arrives

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Lightning struck an Elk River residence on Thursday, June 14, splitting a tree and sending debris all over the yard in the 14000 block of 202nd Ave.Lightning strike damages Elk River tree

Ways a small business can use Instagram

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One of the great features of Instagram is that it offers the ability to share your images across other social platforms, including Facebook.

One of the great features of Instagram is that it offers the ability to share your images across other social platforms, including Facebook.










Brian Bushner
Social Engagement Manager- The Business Review

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Instagram has been in the news a lot lately. Have you discussed this social platform for your brand?

Instagram allows users to take photos and video with a mobile phone, store it on the site and share it with others.

One of the great features of Instagram is that it offers the ability to share your images across other social platforms, including Facebook.

Should you use Instagram for your business? The answer is easy – ask your customers, are they using it? If so, here are some ideas to get you started:

Product demo – use either the photo or video features for this one. A photo of a dish your restaurant is serving tonight, or a video of how your product works go a long way.

Create a living portfolio – run a hair salon? Share photos of finished hairstyles. Run a coffeehouse? Share images of beverages you’ve made. Selling cars? Share photos of each car you’ve sold.

Search hashtags – is there a trending hashtag you can use? #518WX is always a popular one in Albany when there is a weather event. Specialize in replacing windshields damaged by hail? Well, this hashtag was almost made for you!

Before after – do you restore things? Remodel offices or homes? Landscaping? Whatever you do, before and after photos and videos are a great advertising tool to show off your skills!

These are a few basic ideas, which can also be used for Twitter, flickr, and other platforms your customers use.

Above all, whatever you do with Instagram, make it fun.

Instagram has a brand page that shows how some national brands have creatively used the platform – check it out here.

Bushner writes on all things social media.

Going native:… |

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Fall is just around the corner, which happens to be the best time of the year for planting landscape plants here in the High Desert.

Are you thinking about ideas of what to plant in your landscape? Are you trying to conserve water? Do you want your landscape to be an aesthetically pleasing fit with the desert surroundings? All of these questions can be answered with the use of California native plants, specifically those that thrive in the heat of summer and the chill of winter.

Native plants can be used for a number of reasons, including establishing a sense of place, wildlife habitat, biodiversity, conservation of natural resources, less maintenance and their inherent natural beauty.

Using native plants allows the landscape to look uniquely Californian. Many wildlife habitats have been destroyed by progress a n d development; using native plants can help create new habitats that provide food and shelter for many animal species, including native mammals, reptiles, birds and insects.

Because native plants are adapted to the area’s climate and soils, less water and fewer fertilizers are used, thus conserving natural resources. For the most part, native plants require less maintenance than many exotic species. And creatively designed landscapes using

native plants can be even more beautiful than those using traditional plant materials.

The native plant choices are nearly endless — there are multitudes of flower and leaf colors, various textures, groundcovers, grasses, shrubs, trees, annuals, perennials, evergreens and deciduous — and you can have something interesting happening in the landscape all year long. Of course, you don’t have to limit yourself to Mojave Desert natives — there are numerous California species that are easily adaptive to this climate and soil. As long the plant can tolerate alkaline soil, hot and cold temperatures, intense sunlight and some wind, it should do just fine.

Generally, natives’ only requirements are well-drained soil, little to moderate water and a few hours of sunlight. Try to avoid species such as Cottonwood (Populus fremontii), which make an attractive shade tree but are native to wet areas and therefore require abundant amounts of water to thrive. When you go out to purchase the plants, just pay attention to the label or ask a knowledgeable salesperson about the plant’s needs.

This brings me to the subject of where to purchase native plants. Some nurseries carry a huge number of native species and some have only a few. Reliable local sources include Heavenly Growers at the Apple Valley Farmers Market, Cal Herbold’s Nursery in Hesperia, Oak Hills Nursery in Hesperia/Oak Hills, The Tree of Life Nursery in San Juan Capistrano and The Living Desert in Palm Desert, to name just a few. Many of the garden centers such as Lowes and Home Depot sometimes carry a few native selections as well.

Here is a short list of available plants that do quite well in the Victor Valley area: Blue Palo Verde (cercidium floridum), Desert Willow (Chilopsis linearis), Deer Grass (Muhlenbergia rigens), Deer Weed (Lotus scoparius), Brittlebush (Encelia farinosa), Quail Bush (Atriplex lentiformis), California Buckwheat (Eriogonum fasciculatum), Prince’s Plume (Stanleya pinnata), Woolly Blue Curls (Trichostema lanatum), Chaparral Whitethorn (Ceanothus leucodermis), Western Redbud (Cercis occidentalis), Matilija Poppy (Romneya coulteri), Blue Sage (Salvia clevelandii), Foothill Penstemon (Penstemon heterophyllus), Scented Penstemon (Penstemon palmeri), Desert Verbena (Verbena gooddingii), Desert Sage (Salvia dorii), Beavertail Cactus (Opuntia basilaris), California Flannel Bush (Fremontodendron californicum), Incense Cedar (Calocedrus decurrens) and California Fuchsia (Zauschneria californica). Remember this is only a partial list of beautiful possibilities.

Happy gardening!

High Desert resident Micki Brown is a drought-tolerant plant specialist with an M.S. in Plant Science. Send her questions to be answered in the column, and garden-related events to HorticultureHelp@aol.com  

Trowel & Glove: Marin gardening calendar for the week of Aug. 10, 2013

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Click photo to enlarge

Marin

• The Marin Open Garden Project encourages residents to bring their excess backyard-grown fruit and vegetables to the following locations for a free exchange with other gardeners on Saturdays: Mill Valley from 10 to 11 a.m. on the Greenwood School front porch at 17 Buena Vista Ave.; San Anselmo from 9 to 10 a.m. at the San Anselmo Town Hall Lawn; San Rafael from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. in Sun Valley Park at K and Solano streets; San Rafael from 9 to 10 a.m. at Pueblo Park on Hacienda Way in Santa Venetia; San Rafael from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. at the Terra Linda Community Garden at 850 Nova Albion Way; and Novato at the corner of Ferris Drive and Nova Lane from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. Go to www.opengardenproject.org or email contact@opengarden project.org.

• West Marin Commons offers a weekly harvest exchange at 1:30 p.m. Saturdays at the Livery Stable gardens on the commons in Point Reyes Station. Go to www.westmarin commons.org.

• The Marin County Outdoor Antique Market, with antiques, collectibles, books, jewelry, art, rugs and vintage furniture, is from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Aug. 11 in the parking lot of the Marin County Veterans Memorial Auditorium at 10 Avenue of the Flags in San Rafael. Free. Call 383-2552 or go to www.golden gateshows.com.

• The Novato Independent Elders Program seeks volunteers to help Novato seniors with their overgrown yards on Tuesday mornings or Thursday afternoons. Call 899-8296.

• Volunteers are sought to help in Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy nurseries from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays at Tennessee Valley, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesdays at Muir Woods or 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays or 9 a.m. to noon Saturdays in the Marin Headlands. Call 561-3077 or go to www.parksconservancy.org/volunteer.

• Tony Mekisich speaks about “Rose Garden Irrigation” at a Marin Rose Society program at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 13 at the San Rafael Corporate Center at 750 Lindaro St. in San Rafael. $5. Call 457-6045.

• The Marin Organic Glean Team is seeking volunteers to harvest extras from the fields for the organic school lunch and gleaning program from 5 to 7 p.m. Wednesdays at various farms. A community potluck picnic follows. Call 663-9667 or go to www.marinorganic.org.

• Jenny Stroebel speaks about “Best Combination of Plants” at a Peacock Garden Club meeting at 11 a.m. Aug. 14 at the Falkirk Cultural Center at 1408 Mission Ave. in San Rafael. Call 453-2816.

• Katherine Randolph of Marin Master Gardeners speaks about “Fire Safe Landscaping” at noon Aug. 16 in the Board of Supervisors Chambers in Room 330 at 3501 Civic Center Drive in San Rafael. Free. Call 473-6058 or 472-4204 or go www.marinlibrary.org or www.marinmg.org.

• The SPAWN (Salmon Protection and Watershed Network) native plant nursery days are from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Fridays and weekends. Call 663-8590, ext. 114, or email jonathan@tirn.net to register and for directions.

• Marin Open Garden Project (MOGP) volunteers are available to help Marin residents glean excess fruit from their trees for donations to local organizations serving people in need and to build raised beds to start vegetable gardens through the MicroGardens program. MGOP also offers a garden tool lending library. Go to www.opengarden project.org or email contact@opengardenproject.org.

• Marin Master Gardeners and the Marin Municipal Water District offer free residential Bay-Friendly Garden Walks to MMWD customers. The year-round service helps homeowners identify water-saving opportunities and soil conservation techniques for their landscaping. Call 473-4204 to request a visit to your garden.

San Francisco

• The Conservatory of Flowers, at 100 John F. Kennedy Drive in Golden Gate Park, displays permanent galleries of tropical plant species as well as changing special exhibits from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays. $2 to $7. Call 831-2090 or go to www. conservatoryofflowers.org.

• The San Francisco Botanical Garden Society, at Ninth Avenue and Lincoln Way in Golden Gate Park, offers several ongoing events. $7; free to San Francisco residents, members and school groups. Call 661-1316 or go to www.sf botanicalgarden.org. Free docent tours leave from the Strybing Bookstore near the main gate at 1:30 p.m. weekdays, 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. weekends; and from the north entrance at 2 p.m. Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Groups of 10 or more can call ahead for special-focus tours.

Around the Bay

• Cornerstone Gardens is a permanent, gallery-style garden featuring walk-through installations by international landscape designers on nine acres at 23570 Highway 121 in Sonoma. Free. Call 707-933-3010 or go to www.corner stonegardens.com.

• Garden Valley Ranch rose garden is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays at 498 Pepper Road in Petaluma. Self-guided and group tours are available. $2 to $10. Call 707-795-0919 or go to www.gardenvalley.com.

• The Luther Burbank Home at Santa Rosa and Sonoma avenues in Santa Rosa has docent-led tours of the greenhouse and a portion of the gardens every half hour from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays. $7. Call 707-524-5445.

• McEvoy Ranch at 5935 Red Hill Road in Petaluma offers tips on planting olive trees and has olive trees for sale by appointment. Call 707-769-4123 or go to www.mcevoy ranch.com.

• Wednesdays are volunteer days from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Occidental Arts and Ecology Center at 15290 Coleman Valley Road in Occidental. Call 707-874-1557, ext. 201, or go to www.oaec.org.

• Quarryhill Botanical Garden at 12841 Sonoma Highway in Glen Ellen offers third Saturday docent-led tours at 10 a.m. March through October. The garden covers 61 acres and showcases a large selection of scientifically documented wild source temperate Asian plants. The garden is open for self-guided tours from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. $5 to $10. Call 707-996-3166 or go to www.quarryhillbg.org.

The Trowel Glove Calendar appears Saturdays. Send high-resolution jpg photo attachments and details about your event to calendar@marinij.com or mail to Home and Garden Calendar/Lifestyles, Marin Independent Journal, 4000 Civic Center Drive, Suite 301, San Rafael, CA 94903. Items should be sent two weeks in advance. Photos should be a minimum of 1 megabyte and include caption information. Include a daytime phone number on your release.

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Tweetery, Tweetery, Tweet: The Bird Friendly Landscape

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Very late at night, not quite dawn, the insects shush and the first bird says hello. If your garden is particularly bird friendly, lots of sweet tweeting and chirping and song-of-the-morning bird music greets  you before the sun arrives. And then, during the day, more birdsong fills the garden, making it a place of sound and motion, not just color and light and fragrance. And I swear, varieties of plants that are bird friendly tend to be hardier and lovelier than other plants.

sunflower in the cutting garden at CGC

sunflower in the cutting garden at CGC

If you’d like to make your garden a place birds want to hang out, sign up for The Bird Friendly Landscape, a class offered by Sue Trusty, Horticulturalist, on Thursday, August 22nd from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. It’s fun and interesting to incorporate plants in the landscape that will attract the interest of our flying friends. The presentation reveals the secrets to attracting birds to your yard using appropriate plants and landscaping. Also learn how to make your backyard a certified wildlife habitat. Go to the Civic Garden website for registration details.

Cindy Briggs

Posted in: classes, favorite, garden, Wildlife

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