Ever since my early college days, I’ve been in the habit of keeping a detailed calendar to remind me of future appointments, events and activities. A National Geographic engagement calendar fits this purpose nicely. In addition to providing ample space in which to write, the photographs from across the world are awe-inspiring.

So I wasn’t especially in the market for a new calendar when I noticed a stack of Coconino Master Gardener wall calendars while shopping at Warner’s one autumn day several years ago. Since I find anything pertaining to the field of gardening alluring, I leafed through it as I waited for the associate to ring up my order.

Upon viewing the full-page photographs, my first thought was, “Wow, people can actually create appealing landscapes and grow productive gardens such as these in the Flagstaff Region? Impressive!”

I decided to get the calendar to spice up my kitchen and to serve as an impetus for my husband, Hugh, and I to aim high in our landscaping and cultivating endeavors.

This year, I found additional purposes for my Coconino Master Gardener calendar: By merely jotting down any event associated with nature and gardening, I have used it as a reference to help us plan future gardening and wildlife viewing ventures. Here are some examples:

Looking at the month of March, I see that the night of the 23rd reached a low temperature of 13.8 degrees at my house. Surprisingly, a mere one week later, a pair of Western bluebirds commenced constructing a nest in the bluebird box set atop our fence. In future years, I’ll be able to reference back to March of 2013, which will remind me to have the bird box cleaned out and in full repair by the end of March. I also noted that the baby birds flew the coop over Memorial Day weekend.

With the onset on April, our yellow currant was one of the first shrubs in the neighborhood to break the drab monochrome of winter. Boughs laden with soft yellow blooms beckoned insect pollinators of all sorts. I’ll keep in mind that April is an ideal month to snap insect photos.

By May 18, Hugh had prepared and amended the soil in the vegetable garden plots one of which we set out tomato and pepper plants on June 3. (This was a bit risky because it’s not unusual for our neighborhood to experience frost up through June 10.)

I jotted down on June 8 that we planted corn seed, which had been soaked in water overnight. I’ll definitely refer back to this date next spring because this year, for the first time, the corn seed achieved nearly 100 percent germination. The first ears of corn were plucked on September 13. I kept track of the number of ears harvested by making tally marks at the top of the September page of the calendar; our crop yielded a total of 59 ears of corn.

I couldn’t recall the date I sowed our delightful bed of California poppies last year, so this year I gambled on June 20. The resulting germination rate was near zero. Poppy seeds require nearly constant moisture to germinate, so I assume that even though I watered their plot three times a day for ten days (as recorded) they didn’t receive enough. My Master Gardener calendar will allow me to look “back to the future” to motivate me to sow poppy seeds closer to the onset of the monsoon.

Anyone interested in obtaining a Coconino Master Gardener calendar will be glad to know that they’re available now at Native Plant and Seed, Warner’s, Noah Stalvey Allstate, Riordan Mansion, Wyatt Woodard NP, Pioneer Museum and the Coconino County Extension office on North Third Street. Your donation of $10 for one calendar or $25 for three will help fund Master Gardening projects. The gardens of Riordan Mansion, Emeritus Nursing Home, Olivia White Hospice, Sunshine Rescue Mission, Cromer Elementary School, YMCA, Flagstaff Medical Center and North Country HealthCare are a sampling of past projects the calendar proceeds have helped support.

Cindy Murray, who has written before about corn and apples, is a biologist, substitute elementary teacher, and a Master Gardener. Dana Prom Smith and Freddi Steele edit Gardening Etcetera. Smith blogs at http://highcountrygardener.blogspot.com and can be emailed at stpauls@npgcable.com.

Posted Dec. 21, 2013 @ 8:00 am

This post was co-authored by Cathy Weiss, artist and educator living in Laurel Canyon.

The Theodore Payne Foundation is a great place to visit. Theodore Payne moved to Southern California from England in 1893, and while working as a gardener on a local ranch, he grew to love the special beauty of our native plants. He felt that most people did not appreciate their beauty or their value to the local ecology. As the city grew, natives were quickly being replaced with imported plants like palm trees, eucalyptus, bougainvillea, and roses. In response, Theodore Payne opened a nursery with native plants and seeds, and he helped design native wildflower gardens at Exposition Park, Griffith Park, Descanso Gardens, and many other places. If you visit the Foundation today, you can see hundreds of varieties of native plants in the nurseries, learn about the Native Americans indigenous to Southern California, and practice twisting rope out of reeds. Here we interview Lisa Novick, The Foundation’s Director of Outreach and K-12 Education: Lisa not only studies native plants, she has made them an important part of her family’s home.
For information about visiting, see http://www.theodorepayne.org/


Lisa Novick by ariellbphoto.com

Can you tell us something about the Foundation?
Theodore Payne wanted to honor and cherish the California landscape as nature made it. When he came here in 1893 he saw people chopping oaks, plowing under poppy fields, planting species not native to California. He fell in love with matilija poppies, wildflowers, and fields of lupine. He saw people ignoring those and rushing to plant exotic species. He spent his entire life trying educate people about the native flora of California and awaken them to the beauty we’re losing and that works so well for our climate and soil types – the hot, dry summers, cool rainy winters. There are over 3,000 species and sub-species of California native plants. The different exposures on mountains, our four mountain ranges west to east, our varied distances from the equator – all these different exposures make different habitats. We have geological and landform richness – we are a biodiversity hotspot almost as good as the Amazon. Most of my own kids’ classmates knew incredible facts about Amazon, but didn’t know anything about the plants and animals in our own backyard.

Why are native plants important?
Did you know if you plant certain plants, you can attract butterflies and hummingbirds, and you will be helping them survive? 90 percent of insects have co-evolved with plant species native to their region, and can only digest that combination of chemicals. Insects are essential as pollinators, food for other insects and animals, and decomposers. Insects are the foundation of any food web. The caterpillars of most butterflies and moths can only eat a few types of native plants. Without those plants, they go extinct. Butterflies and moths are important because they are pollinators and their caterpillars are the main food of baby birds. Without caterpillars, we lose birds. In the U.S., populations of many bird species have fallen between 60-90 percent in the last forty years.
A native oak feeds up to four hundred species of beneficial insects, where a non-native maple feeds relatively few. Native plants also use much less water.

San Gabriel flannel bush, ariellbphoto.com

What can we do as individuals to help our ecosystem?
We are entering the sixth mass extinction on Earth, and this one is because of human activity. The other five were from natural causes. The extinction rate now is 1,000 times the normal background extinction rate. What we do in our urban and suburban areas with our landscaping is hugely important. Doug Tallamy wrote a beautiful book called Bringing Nature Home, which talks about how we can use our residential neighborhoods to restore native habitats, even in small ways.

What do we need to do?
Only 4 percent of the US is left as wild land. 41 percent of our land is agricultural use, and 55 percent is urban and suburban usage. How we use our gardens and landscaping is hugely important for stopping species loss, and providing homes for the bees and pollinators who service the insects and animals whose ecosystem services we need for our own wellbeing. For instance, birds give us seventeen different services, including reforestation and pest control. Without birds, we would lose a lot of beauty and all the things they do for us for free. A butterfly garden can feed butterflies and caterpillars. It takes 450-600 insects or worms to feed a family of four baby birds from the time they hatch until they fledge seventeen days later. Native plant gardens make thirty-five times the number of caterpillars of non-natives. Celebrate the holes in your leaves – non-native gardens usually have little bird or insect life. Holes in plant leaves mean that someone – an insect or bird – is actually there eating. A garden with no holes is a dead garden.

What influenced your appreciation of nature?
What made a huge difference was the first time I spent real time in a forest. Before fifth grade, I went to summer camp, where we slept in a teepee and woke up to dozens of different bird calls and the wind moving through the leaves and forest sounds instead of helicopters, car horns, and traffic noises. Being serenaded in the morning was beautiful and had never happened to me. When my own kids were born I started seeing climate change affecting species loss and habitat loss and making species numbers plummet. So many problems seemed so overwhelming – there was so much bad news out there. Habitat restoration using native plants is something everybody can do no matter where they live – on a balcony, parkway strip, or little hillside behind a house. Anyone can do this. We can bring nature back. That’s the restorative, positive message about why gardening with native plants is so essential for our souls and our planet – the beauty has been here all along and can be here again if we nurture it.

How has LA changed during your years of living and working here?
I grew up in west LA and saw migrations of painted lady butterflies – we don’t see that any more because we have lost the habitats. You can see them in the desert because the desert is more intact. Not only has the landscape changed, but I think people’s appreciation for what’s still here has changed – people seem to be less aware of what’s here than they were. Years ago, people would have understood that there are trees that are native to LA. Now, at outreach events, people at city government say, ‘There are no trees native to LA.’ The level of disconnect to the natural environment seems larger and larger and makes our education efforts even more crucial.

What should children know about making a positive contribution?
Children have it in their power to do something right now to make the world better – by planting even one native plant in their backyard or parkway or in a container. That one plant can support insects and butterflies. When that plant’s flowers are pollinated, those will become seeds or berries or nuts of some kind, and those will feed birds – either migrating birds or those that live here full time, and will feed a host of other insects as well. Plant just one in your yard, and you can begin to see the ecology shift.

California bay nut, ariellbphoto.com

How have you changed from doing this work?
Working here has been a privilege because I am constantly around other people who know so much, and I see all the different native plants that our production crew is propagating. I get to see new species and subspecies all the time and learn about them. There’s always a new butterfly I notice feeding on a plant. There are 1,600 known species of California native bees. I’ve only seen a couple dozen. Some are emerald green and fuzzy, others are pewter colored. Native bumblebees are black and yellow striped, or mostly striped with one little yellow stripe – there are all sizes, shapes, and colors. That variety is what people need to understand.

Can native gardens help us with the crisis in bee health and pollination?
Native gardens give you all different types of pollinators by their sizes and shapes. There are different shaped insect bodies with hair on different parts of their bodies, and the those sizes and shapes attract different pollen grains and take on different flowers. You will get a better yield from your vegetable garden if you have native flowers around it. This will work better than if you just have European honey bees, with only one shaped body. Working here has exposed me every day to more and more richness of the local natural environment, and I know this is possible for everyone. We shouldn’t have to drive to Joshua Tree or Yosemite to experience the beauty of nature in our yards.

What is your own garden like?
When I moved into our La Canada house, there was grass and roses and Mandevilla and thirsty willows. The landscaping was shamrock green, and there was hardly a bird or bee to be seen anywhere in that garden. It satisfied conventional perceptions of what’s pretty, but if you sat and waited for birds or butterflies to come in, they didn’t. There were no food sources for them. So we killed the lawn and let the dogs girdle the English willow tree. We replaced it with a native elderberry that our kids made into giant green cave. It has platter-sized clusters of blossoms that are butterfly landing pads in summer. When pollinated, it grows big bunches of berries that are delicious off the tree or in pies. We planted a Toyon shrub, native bunch grasses; we ripped out privet and planted native cherry trees for an informal hedge. Blue jays zoom in all the time to eat the cherries, and so do our daughters. We have native grape, buckwheat, and sage. In our front yard we killed the Bermuda lawn and planted a native garden. Amongst it all I have a vegetable garden. It all works together and complements each other.

Is there a story that demonstrates the joy a garden can bring?
Theodore Payne Foundation and L.A.’s Best were involved in planting a native and edible garden at an elementary school in North Hollywood that had just been moth-eaten Bermuda grass area with a sickly walnut tree remnant from the old groves. We installed a native garden with a line of edible boxes around the edge. We put in about 20 penstemons. As we were watering the garden with the kids, a hummingbird zoomed in and went from plant to plant to plant feeding from all the flowers. He took up residence in the walnut tree and built a nest. The kids were over the moon. I had told them, if you plant them, they will come – everything will follow. The kids wondered, ‘is this really true,’ and the hummingbird zoomed right in

Try this:
Plant a bush for butterflies. Manzanita plants come into flower at exactly nesting time – that’s an example of co-evolution. A tiny insect as big as a pinhead lives in the flower, and that’s what parent birds feed their babies.

Manzanita flower, ariellbphoto.com

Did you know?
Hummingbirds use fuzz from the back of sycamore leaves and clean spider webs to make their nests.

Did you know?
Mother butterflies can smell from up to seven miles away the chemical signal of the kind of leaf they need to lay their eggs. If they can’t find it, they will lay their eggs on what smells as close as possible. But if the caterpillar digestive system has not co-evolved with that particular ratio of chemicals, usually the caterpillar will die – it can’t digest the leaves. Butterflies prefer certain plants that they have co-evolved with in their own eco niche. There are over 90 specific California species that will only lay their eggs on certain species of leaf, like the monarch on milkweed, because that’s what the caterpillars can eat.
That’s why it’s important, when planting butterfly gardens, to think about what the babies will eat in addition to nectar for the adults.

By Neil Sperry

It’s entirely appropriate that we chat about hollies at this most special time of the year. If you ask me, of course, it’s entirely appropriate to talk about them at any time of the year. I’ve said it before here, and I’ll say it again: You could build an entire landscape using nothing but hollies, and it could be wonderful.

That’s essentially what I’ve done at our house. I’m not embarrassed to say that I’ve had a long-standing love affair with the genus Ilex, since my buddy, the late nurseryman Steve Dodd, gave me a tree-form Nellie R. Stevens holly to try in my landscape. That was 43 years ago this month, and that plant is still doing beautifully.

Steve declared himself to be a “holly fanatic,” and when we lost Steve years ago, I decided it was my job to pick up his torch. So if you ask me today to list plants you ought to consider, grab a tablet and pull up a chair. We’ll be starting with hollies.

Having written this column for 35 years and having been on the radio as a garden talk show host even longer, I’ve heard all kinds of reasons why some people refuse to use hollies. Almost always, it plays back to the subject of spines.

And so it is that I begin by saying that hollies come in all shapes, all sizes and all manners of textures. Yes, some do have sharp spines, but most types either have no spines or spines that won’t hurt you.

I’ve always thought about hollies with spines much as I think about a gas grill in the patio garden. Sure, it’s hot when it’s in use, and you could get hurt if you brushed against it. But you know that ahead of time, and you just give it a few extra inches as you walk past it. That concept works just fine with hollies as well. Let’s move on.

What is it about hollies that makes them so sacred to many of us here in North Texas? Many types grow very well in our alkaline black clay soils. They do well in sun or shade. Very few other shrubs are their match on tolerance of a wide variety of lighting. You can find a holly in any size range, from dwarf types that stay at 2 to 3 feet tall and wide, all the way to small trees 15 to 25 feet tall. Some are coarse-textured (large leaves); others are fine-textured (very small leaves). Many bear handsome red fruit all winter. And hollies are available in a wide range of container sizes at almost any month of the gardening year.

To help you plan, here are my own personal favorite hollies for Blackland landscaping. I probably have 20 other types, but this dozen makes up the bulk of our half-acre garden. They’re all plants that are long tried and true. I’ll start with the smallest and step up to the tallest.

Dwarf yaupon. Grows to 24-30 inches. Small leaves. No spines. No fruit.

Carissa. Grows to 30-36 inches. Medium-size leaves. Single spine. No fruit.

Dwarf Chinese. Grows to 36-42 inches. Medium-size leaves. Many spines. No fruit.

Dwarf Burford. Grows to 42-48 inches (can be kept shorter with shearing). Medium-size leaves. Single harmless spine. Large red berries.

Little Red. Grows (in my landscape in 15 years) to 48 to 54 inches. Small leaves. Several harmless spines. Red berries.

Needlepoint (Willowleaf). Grows to 6-8 feet tall. Medium-size leaves. Dependable producer of large red berries.

Mary Nell. Grows to 8-12 feet tall. Large leaves, toothed with harmless spines. Mine have never borne fruit but produce red berries. (Introduced by Tom Dodd Nurseries in Alabama — brother of my friend Steve Dodd.)

Oakland (very similar to Oak Leaf). Grows to 10-14 feet tall. Dense habit. Large leaves with harmless spines. No fruit to date in my landscape.

Weeping yaupon. Grows 10-15 feet tall. Heavy, weeping habit. No spines. Copious fruit.

Nellie R. Stevens. Can be kept shorter, but grows to 12-18 feet. Large, dark green leaves. Harmless spines. Very large red berries. Outstanding screen.

Yaupon. Grows to 15-18 feet. Very small, spineless leaves. Female selections produce multitudes of berries. Usually trained and sold tree-form.

Possumhaw. Native to North Central Texas. Grows to 15-18 feet. Small leaves resemble those of yaupon, except these are deciduous. Choose variety ‘Warren’s Red’ for best red fruit.

Finally, while I hate to end on a negative, there are several hollies that are occasionally brought in for sale in our area. In my experience, these are hollies to avoid, mainly because of our very alkaline soils and water, and therefore, acute (and uncontrollable) iron-deficiency symptoms after a few years: Heller’s dwarf, Sky Pencil, Savannah and East Palatka. Generally speaking, varieties from Ilex cornuta lineage will be fine here, but those from Ilex crenata or I. opaca will not survive very long in alkaline soils.

Neil Sperry publishes “Gardens” magazine and hosts “Texas Gardening” from 8 to 10 a.m. Sunday on WBAP AM/FM. Reach him during those hours at 800-288-9227.

By Brandon Dumsky
brandon.dumsky@examiner.net


Posted Dec. 20, 2013 @ 12:06 am

Blue Springs

While the Washington County Water Conservancy District seeks
to repair a pipeline collapse in the district’s main line, a request for local
residents to help conserve water remains in force.

Delivery of water to the district’s municipal partners will
continue due to storage in reservoirs, but the pipeline collapse will prevent
the district from collecting water to replenish the reservoirs until needed
repairs are made.

While most water is consumed by agriculture and for
municipal and industrial uses, there are still things local citizens can do to
conserve water:

• • It is winter, there is no need to
  water lawns or gardens right now.

  • If doing winter gardening or
  landscaping choose water wise plants, use less turf or xeriscape and use water
  efficient, timed, drip irrigation.

  • Make sure to run full loads of
  laundry and adjust your washer to the right load size.

  • Do not using running hot water to
  defrost food, stick it in the microwave.

  • Showers use less water than
  baths, so if you have the choice, shower.

  • Dishwashers actually use less
  water than hand washing, so make sure the dishwasher is full and use it if you
  have one.

  • Scrape food into the trash rather
  than rinsing dishes off in the sink.

  • Check for and repair any water
  leaks on faucets, showerheads, toilets and pipes.

  • If you have a swimming pool, use
  a cover to reduce evaporation.

  • Store drinking water in the
  refrigerator to keep it cool rather than letting the faucet run until the water
  gets cold.

  • Don’t leave water running.

“Anything else you’re interested in is not going to happen
if you can’t breathe the air and drink the water. Don’t sit this one out. Do
something. You are by accident of fate alive at an absolutely critical moment
in the history of our planet.” – Carl Sagan

Written by Greta Hyland

Cami Cox contributed to this article

While the Washington County Water Conservancy District seeks
to repair a pipeline collapse in the district’s main line, a request for local
residents to help conserve water remains in force.

Delivery of water to the district’s municipal partners will
continue due to storage in reservoirs, but the pipeline collapse will prevent
the district from collecting water to replenish the reservoirs until needed
repairs are made.

While most water is consumed by agriculture and for
municipal and industrial uses, there are still things local citizens can do to
conserve water:

• • It is winter, there is no need to
  water lawns or gardens right now.

  • If doing winter gardening or
  landscaping choose water wise plants, use less turf or xeriscape and use water
  efficient, timed, drip irrigation.

  • Make sure to run full loads of
  laundry and adjust your washer to the right load size.

  • Do not using running hot water to
  defrost food, stick it in the microwave.

  • Showers use less water than
  baths, so if you have the choice, shower.

  • Dishwashers actually use less
  water than hand washing, so make sure the dishwasher is full and use it if you
  have one.

  • Scrape food into the trash rather
  than rinsing dishes off in the sink.

  • Check for and repair any water
  leaks on faucets, showerheads, toilets and pipes.

  • If you have a swimming pool, use
  a cover to reduce evaporation.

  • Store drinking water in the
  refrigerator to keep it cool rather than letting the faucet run until the water
  gets cold.

  • Don’t leave water running.

“Anything else you’re interested in is not going to happen
if you can’t breathe the air and drink the water. Don’t sit this one out. Do
something. You are by accident of fate alive at an absolutely critical moment
in the history of our planet.” – Carl Sagan

Written by Greta Hyland

Cami Cox contributed to this article

TAHLEQUAH —
Curb appeal for a home includes a trim lawn and landscaping to enhance the overall appearance. But there is much more to lawn care than just mowing, even in the winter.

Leaves get bagged, roses pruned, and elephant ears and bulbs may need to be dug up and stored in a garage or greenhouse until spring. Plants may appear dormant above the ground, but roots grow and spread out at a slow pace, even in winter.

It’s a good idea to rake leaves and clean out the gutters before winter, so they won’t clog up the gutter drain, said Jack Garrett, who has provided lawn care for 20 years.

“The best thing is to cut and trim brush, shrubs and tall grass the first week of October, to give plants time to seal and heal the cut before the first cold front,” Garrett said. “If it is last minute or the day before a cold front or snow, leave the plant alone until sprig, around March, to make sure there are no more cold fronts.”

In March, make sure it’s at least 55 degrees before cutting plants, Garrett said.

Mulch is important to protect flowerbeds, he added.

“Mulching leaves, pine needles or cedar in small amounts – not big chunks – will protect the roots from cold weather,” Garrett said. “Add the mulch in October.”

Fall and winter lawn care includes pruning crepe myrtles, ornamental grasses, and spirea, mulching flower beds and picking up leaves, said Trey Scarsdale, owner of Pro Lawn and Landscape.

“We recommend a good coat of mulch in all flowerbeds,” Scarsdale said. “Day lilies and hostas all need to be pruned back to the ground.”

Leaf removal can be used for mulch, but don’t leave too much leaves or it will choke out the grass, he said. He recommends picking up most of the leaves.

“Thatch build up will happen if you mulch and dry leaves and leave too many. Clippings develop thatch sitting on top of soil, because it doesn’t breathe,” he said. “And it can causes diseases, dollar spot and broom patch.”

Piles of leaves will stay wet and cause winter kill, leaving bare spots.

“We blow off all hard surfaces, starting on the roof top and valleys when removing leaves,” he said. “We clear the gutters and down the spouts, then the driveways and sidewalks.”

They suck up the leaves  with lawn mowers, to use as mulch and compost, about three years later.

And when they trim branches, they cut at an angle, said Jimmy Washington, with Pro Lawn.

“An angle cut keeps the moisture from getting in and freezing or splitting the branch,” said Washington. “Trimming the top off this crepe myrtle will make it bushier in the spring.”

When cutting a spirea, Washington takes at least half of it off. He trims holly bushes when they need it.

“When it has lot of new growth, it looks like it needs a hair cut,” Washington said.

January and February is the time to spray pre-emergent herbicide on the turf to control weeds, Scarsdale said.

“Now is the time to fertilize fescue lawns,” he said.

When it comes to herbicides, follow the directions on the label.

“The label will include MSDS information, do what it says,” Scarsdale advises. “And follow the 24-hour REI, re-entry interval, so all animals and humans should stay off for 24 hours.”

TAHLEQUAH —
Curb appeal for a home includes a trim lawn and landscaping to enhance the overall appearance. But there is much more to lawn care than just mowing, even in the winter.

Leaves get bagged, roses pruned, and elephant ears and bulbs may need to be dug up and stored in a garage or greenhouse until spring. Plants may appear dormant above the ground, but roots grow and spread out at a slow pace, even in winter.

It’s a good idea to rake leaves and clean out the gutters before winter, so they won’t clog up the gutter drain, said Jack Garrett, who has provided lawn care for 20 years.

“The best thing is to cut and trim brush, shrubs and tall grass the first week of October, to give plants time to seal and heal the cut before the first cold front,” Garrett said. “If it is last minute or the day before a cold front or snow, leave the plant alone until sprig, around March, to make sure there are no more cold fronts.”

In March, make sure it’s at least 55 degrees before cutting plants, Garrett said.

Mulch is important to protect flowerbeds, he added.

“Mulching leaves, pine needles or cedar in small amounts – not big chunks – will protect the roots from cold weather,” Garrett said. “Add the mulch in October.”

Fall and winter lawn care includes pruning crepe myrtles, ornamental grasses, and spirea, mulching flower beds and picking up leaves, said Trey Scarsdale, owner of Pro Lawn and Landscape.

“We recommend a good coat of mulch in all flowerbeds,” Scarsdale said. “Day lilies and hostas all need to be pruned back to the ground.”

Leaf removal can be used for mulch, but don’t leave too much leaves or it will choke out the grass, he said. He recommends picking up most of the leaves.

“Thatch build up will happen if you mulch and dry leaves and leave too many. Clippings develop thatch sitting on top of soil, because it doesn’t breathe,” he said. “And it can causes diseases, dollar spot and broom patch.”

Piles of leaves will stay wet and cause winter kill, leaving bare spots.

“We blow off all hard surfaces, starting on the roof top and valleys when removing leaves,” he said. “We clear the gutters and down the spouts, then the driveways and sidewalks.”

They suck up the leaves  with lawn mowers, to use as mulch and compost, about three years later.

And when they trim branches, they cut at an angle, said Jimmy Washington, with Pro Lawn.

“An angle cut keeps the moisture from getting in and freezing or splitting the branch,” said Washington. “Trimming the top off this crepe myrtle will make it bushier in the spring.”

When cutting a spirea, Washington takes at least half of it off. He trims holly bushes when they need it.

“When it has lot of new growth, it looks like it needs a hair cut,” Washington said.

January and February is the time to spray pre-emergent herbicide on the turf to control weeds, Scarsdale said.

“Now is the time to fertilize fescue lawns,” he said.

When it comes to herbicides, follow the directions on the label.

“The label will include MSDS information, do what it says,” Scarsdale advises. “And follow the 24-hour REI, re-entry interval, so all animals and humans should stay off for 24 hours.”

Workers at the water garden at Bury St Edmunds’ Abbey Gardens will now have to complete work around the bat.

Mariam Ghaemi
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
1:00 PM

A single bat has meant some work to revamp part of a popular tourist attraction in Bury St Edmunds is on hold until the spring.

Work has begun in the last two weeks on improving the water garden at the Abbey Gardens including remodelling the shelters to provide a walk-through from the garden to the bowling green area.

But one pipistrelle bat, which was found roosting in one of the shelters, means work at this spot to do with the glass windows is on hold.

Pipistrelles are the smallest and commonest bat in the UK, but they are a protected species.

John Smithson, parks manager for St Edmundsbury Borough Council, said: “We have stopped working where we know the bat is so we don’t disturb it any more and all other landscaping work is carrying on.

“We are waiting for a report from an ecologist who will tell us what we need to consider because it is a protected species, and we will abide by any recommendations they make.

“In the spring pipistrelles will start hunting again and will have a summer roost which is a different roost to a winter roost.

“If we do need to do work that would potentially disturb it we will leave it until the spring.”

Mr Smithson said the work was due to be finished in the spring anyway because there was a lot of planting to do.

Referring to the bat, he said: “It’s not a deal-breaker as they say.”

Plans to improve the water garden have been in the pipeline for some time, but two bids for funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund’s Parks for People programme for the Abbey Gardens were unsuccessful.

Mr Smithson said the cash – about £30,000 – for the water garden works had been donated by a benefactor who wanted to make a difference to the gardens, which are visited by thousands of people every year.

He said the revamp would make the water garden more accessible, adding: “It’s always been a bit of a hidden jewel really.”

He also mentioned a child drowned there many years ago, and the garden also suffered from some antisocial behaviour, which were other reasons for opening it up.

“There will be a new fence line and planting. The water feature itself is staying pretty much the same as it is,” he added.

The water garden is closed to the public while works are going on there.

Also being discussed are plans to create a route from the refectory at St Edmundsbury Cathedral through to the gardens, coming out by the bowls kiosk.

“It’s about trying to improve the connectivity between the other establishments in what we call the abbey precinct,” Mr Smithson said.

He said the benefactor had also donated £10,000 to revamp the sensory garden.

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