Apache Plume is Just Drought Tolerant Native Shrub to Replace My Roses

Posted on May 26, 2015 by admin

I’ve been looking at native shrubs to replace some of the roses and other not so

Apache Plume could be covered with feathery, pink seed heads resembling a Native America headdress. This picture was taken in late May. This plant will continue to have a few white flowers opening all summer and fading to feathering pink seed heads.

By summer Apache Plume could be covered with feathery, pink seed heads resembling a Native America headdress. This picture was taken in late May. This plant will continue to have a few white flowers opening all summer and fading to feathering pink seed heads.

drought tolerant plants in a portion of my garden that is exposed to drying winds and intense afternoon sun and heat. Even in the cold winter when evaporation is less I still had a hard time keeping the soil moist around roses I had planted on that side of my house. It didn’t help that we had no snow and almost no winter rain this year. The wind still blew but the storms were dry. One plant I’ve already started planting on that west face of my house is Apache Plume (Fallugia paradoxa).

Apache Plume is found naturally growing in piñon/juniper woodlands from Texas to California. In Texas, southern New Mexico, Southern Arizona, and California, Apache Plume is evergreen. Everywhere else in its native range, which can go as far north as Nevada, Utah, and Colorado, it is deciduous. In the higher elevations of the Mojave Desert where there are Joshua Trees, you will also find Apache Plume.

In the wild Apache Plume grows naturally in gravelly and well-drained soils but under cultivation, it will grow in most any soil. My soil is sandy and droughty so it should be happy on the west side of my house. With a little supplemental water, it should be full and beautiful as long as I don’t overwater it.

Apache Plume reaches a height of 4 to 6 feet and spreads as wide as it is high.

Pictured here is a hedge of Apache Plume. Notice how, even though most of the plant is covered with feathery pink seed heads, there are still a few white flower.

White, 1″ diameter flowers with five petals resembling single roses start to appear in spring. New flowers appear continually throughout the entire growing season and as they fade they are replace with pink feathery seed heads; hence the name Apache Plume. By late summer this shrub, covered with fluffy pink seed heads looks like a cloud of pink.

I’m hoping to create clouds of pink intersperse with other plants that I have not yet selected. I don’t want a monoculture of any plant. Even Apache Plume.

Small Apache Plume Plant Inside its Cage

Here is a better picture showing the plant inside the cage.

Cage to Protect My Apache Plume from Deer

Here is one of the Apache Plumes that I planted on the west face of my house. I put a cage around it while it is still small and tender to protect it from the occasional deer that wander into my garden. Once the plant is large enough a little graze by herbivores will not hurt it.

Planting a Vegetable Garden and Trying to Protect it From Rabbits

Posted on May 22, 2015 by admin

I realize it has been awhile since I have posted. In that time, I have been busy working on my vegetable garden. It is more than just simply digging up the soil and plunking seeds in the ground. My growing season is too short to allow many of my summer vegetable to ripen before the first killing frost in the fall. Additionally I had to devise a strategy for protecting my plants from the rabbits that have never been in my yard before and consider what to do to reduce the need for irrigating my vegetable garden.

To solve the short growing season problem I always start my seeds germinating about three to four weeks ahead of the last killing spring frost. I find a warm spot in my house to place my seedling trays. A temperature of around 68°F is ideal. Soon after the coteledons have popped out of the ground, I move them into the greenhouse where they will get more natural light. If I don’t move them soon enough the stems become etiolated or over elongated and weak.

In my area, we can usually figure on a very dry growing season. Almost all of our 4″ average annual precipitation falls in the winter in the form of snow. This winter we had no snow and only a small amount of rain. I spent some time checking my soil just to see how dry and noticed that where there was leaves and debris on the ground there was a little bit of moisture in the underlying soil. I’ve decided instead of tilling my garden soil, I will simply dig only enough soil around each plant I transplant and then push leaves and other plant debris back around the transplant. Each plant will still receive water from an emitter in my drip system. I’m hoping this way to conserve water and still keep my vegetable garden from being stressed for water. There is the real danger in my area for domestic wells to dry up in this drought since the agricultural land around it will receive no irrigation after the end of June. It could be a very long hot dry summer and crops will likely die.

Another consequence of this drought is that wildlife is concentrating around our homes and in town. On my property, I have rabbits I’ve never seen before and more deer than usual. I decided I needed a way to protect my plants so I am constructing cages to put around each plant. A larger enclosure might not be as effective in protecting plants since rabbits can burrow. I’m hoping that individual cages around each plant will reduce the problem. Maybe they will instead find my neighbors vegetable garden easier to devour.

These pepper starts have a cage around them because my vegetable garden is infested with rabbits.

Here are some snap bean starts that I have just transplanted to my vegetable garden.

I’ve constructed these little cages to put around my vegetable plants in order to protect them from the rabbits

Again My Fruit Trees are Blooming too Soon

Posted on April 2, 2015 by admin

Officially, spring arrived March 20 but here in northern Nevada we can still get some

This apricot blossom is lovely now but a heavy freeze is forecast for tonight and will likely freeze this blossom.

wintry weather. So far, it has stayed spring like since spring started. It even reached 79 degrees yesterday here in Fallon.

During yesterday’s inspection of my garden, I especially wanted to see how the fruit tree blossoms were doing. I’d noticed they had been opening for the last couple of weeks. I consider this to be too early but not uncommon in my high desert climate. We almost never get fruit. If we are lucky, we might get a few apples. So far based on my inspection we haven’t lost any fruit yet. Notice I say yet. We can still get a hard frost between now and the middle of May on the average. Also, notice I say average. That means we could get a killing frost after mid May as well.

So far, the apricots and peaches are in full bloom with the apples blossoms barely starting to open. I suspect I will lose the apricots and peaches totally and about a third to half of the potential apple crop with the blooms opening this early. So much for fruit production this year from these trees since it is highly probably they will freeze before fruit can set and mature. Instead, they are landscape trees that add some nice greenery during the growing season. In fall, they usually have nice color as well.

Why are my fruit trees blooming too soon? What can I do about it? The answer to the first

These apple blooms are almost open. Unfortunately they may never fully open because a heavy freeze is predicted for the next morning. They will like freeze and fall of the plant.

is that spring temperatures arrived before March 20 warming the soil up. Since our ground has no snow or other insulation to slow the warming of the soil sap starts flowing in the vascular tissue of the trees and shrub early. An additional reason in my given situation for this early bloom is I’m located in a relative low spot where cold air sinks every night. Without breezes to stir up the air allowing cold settle in and freeze the newly forming plant tissues in the floral buds. If fruit has already set, it too will freeze.

There are a couple of practices such as turning sprinklers on in the very early morning before temperatures dip below freezing or setting out smudge pots can protect blossoms and newly forming fruit but they are only effective to a couple of degrees below freezing for a very brief time. Even setting up a very large fan to keep air circulating could help. All of the measures have their limited effectiveness. That is they are only good to a couple of degrees below freezing for a very brief time. A little more effective would be to place a thick layer of mulch over the soil near the trees in the fall. This mulch helps to both hold moisture in the soil and to moderate temperature swing between freezing and thawing throughout the dormant period. Mulch doesn’t need to go right up to the trunk of the trees and shrubs to have it effect on soil moisture and temperature moderation. In fact, it is best not to put mulch right up to the trunk because it can harbor some pests that like to enter a plant from it trunk. The reason it can still effectively moderate the temperature around the roots is that tree and shrub roots extend quite some distance from the base of the tree and the actually growing points of the roots are at the tips which are located at the furthest distance from the trunk. These tips are also, where the greatest water absorption into the root system occurs. You can expect the roots to extend as far as the perimeter of the canopy sometimes referred to as the “drip line”.

One more way to increase the chance of producing fruit in the high deserts of the American West is to choose fruit tree varieties that are later bearing. This usually means it takes more degrees of heat to initiate blossoms. That has the potential to delay blooming as much as a couple of weeks and that reduces but doesn’t not eliminate the likelihood that blooms will freeze. Depending on where you live, greatly increase your chances of get a nice crop of fruit.

Back to Mulch. Mulch has an added benefit. If applied heavy enough it will keep spring weeds down.

Preparing my Garden for the Growing Season Ahead

Posted on March 24, 2015 by admin

My garden has many ornamental grasses that I’ve planted over the years. Most of these grasses are species native to the western United States. They have done quite well in my garden and added interest in the heat of the summer when many flowers that bloom don’t last long in the hot dry heat typical of the desert I live in. One of my favorites is Giant Sacaton (Sporobolus wrightii).

Giant Sacaton is native to the American Southwest. It is usually found growing in heavy

Giant Sacaton (Sporobolus wrightii) during the growing season

soils in the relatively low lying areas or periodic wetlands. These soils are usually quite alkaline or saline because they are areas where water collects and evaporative leaving behind salts. Because my garden is a mixture of clay and sand with a pH of about 8.0 and high in salts left behind by the now dried up inland sea, Giant Sacaton does quite well in my garden. It is my substitute for Pampas Grass. In some regions of the United States, Pampas Grass is a noxious weed.

Just like Pampas Grass, Giant Sacaton gets quite tall and large over a growing season. Its growth habit is that of a clumping grass that can grow to a height of 6′-8′ and a diameter of several feet at its base. The inflorescence differs from Pampas Grass in that it is more open and the florets are much smaller.

I use my Giant Sacaton as a screen from a major highway that borders my property. I’m quite pleased with its appearance. I think I will keep it.

Maintenance

Ornamental grasses require very little maintenance since you don’t want to mow or you

I’m starting to clip my ornamental grasses. Here I’ve clipped one of my Giant Sacatons (Sporobolus wrightii)

lose the most ornamental part of the grass which is the inflorescence. If you plant the grasses that are adapted or native to your climate, then very little water should be required to keep them nice looking.

Still, each late winter or early spring I must clip my ornamental grasses back so that new growth can be fully displayed and to extend the life of my grasses. I clip Giant Sacaton back to about 6″ to 8″ height. I clip my other grasses back to a height of 2″-3″ depending on the mature size of each species.

I don’t clip my grasses until late winter or early spring since they have an ornamental value through the winter and some beneficial insects such as lady beetles over winter among the blades.

When I clip my grasses, I’ve started just laying the clippings around the base to help hold moisture in the soil and keep weeds down. I’m also hoping to build up some organic matter in my soil has very little organic matter naturally.

Getting Started With My Garden Renovation Project

Posted on March 21, 2015 by admin

Assessing What Renovating Needs to Be Done

As spring arrives, the weather has warmed up enough that it is comfortable enough to walk and crawl around in my garden. I crawl around to check the drippers and prepare to water what is worth saving in my garden. All winter I did some spot watering but not with my drip system. I had to do this spot watering to keep plants dying due to lack of soil moisture. In a good year, I don’t water at all but this past winter and the winter before have been exceptionally dry.

I only watered plants that were not native and that I wanted to save. Most of those were my roses. The desert plants I didn’t worry about because they are adapted to low water conditions and can survive an occasion dry winter if they have received water otherwise at other times such as when I watered them during the summer through the drip system.

I don’t use the drip system during the winter because we do get freezing temperature that can freeze the water in the drip system and damage; not to mention render it plugged up with ice when you try to use it a second time after it has frozen solid.

It is this dry winter and the realization that it might be less burdensome if my non-desert adapted plants were fewer and closer to the house.

Weeds! Weeds! Everywhere!

This is one of three species of winter annual weeds that is dominating my garden right now. It is an annual mustard.

As I walk my garden, I notice the winter annual weeds have thrived despite the very dry conditions. My first garden task is going to have to be clearing these weeds out before they can go to seed. If I don’t get them out they will mature and dry to become a serious fire hazard. Additionally, if can get them out before they go to seed they won’t contribute to the already infinite seed bank that has built up in the soil from previous years of neglect.

As I focus on my garden at ground level inspecting the drip system I can’t help but notice all the weeds. This one is Cheatgrass and it is doing quite well despite a very dry winter.

Starting a Garden Diary

Posted on March 18, 2015 by admin

Purpose of this Blog

For now, I’m going to turn this website into a diary of my gardening in the desert. In doing so, I might be able to become more dedicated to both my garden and my writing. Additionally I’ll be able to get in a little photography. All three are my passions but in the past, it seems I neglected one or more them at the expense of paying attention to another.

This past year I neglected my garden but I took some wonderful pictures on my various trips. Now my garden looks sad.

A Little Bit about my Garden

My approximately two acre garden is part of an 18 acre farm located in the Nevada desert.

This picture is deceiving. The foreground is an irrigated alfalfa field. My garden has desert soil and a desert climate that required lots of supplemental water unless I plant desert adapted plants.

From the picture one may be deceived into believing it isn’t located in desert but that greenery you see is an alfalfa field that must be irrigated every couple of weeks to keep it green and producing hay throughout the growing season. Our average annual precipitation is only 4″. This past year I doubt we had 2″. We are in a prolonged drought that started about four years ago.

My garden’s soils are of about pH 7.0 to 8.0 and very low in organic matter. In some patches of my garden, the soil has a white crust of salt at the surface. At one time in ancient history my garden and the surrounding community were at the bottom of a very large inland sea.

I’m not entitled to water my garden with the superior quality irrigation water from the Newland’s Irrigation Project which delivers surface waters from the Carson River and Truckee River combined. Instead, I must use well water, which is higher in salt content. Fortunately, it is of acceptable quality with a pH of only 7.6.

Right now, my garden is a disheveled, eclectic mix of desert adapted native plants and non-native plants you might find at garden center. It’s also full of weeds. Particularly some escaped noxious weeds from the alfalfa field that I don’t have total management control of.

I’m working on a plan to renovate my garden to something that is more manageable and more water thrifty.

Think Before You Prune

Posted on February 6, 2015 by admin

In many locations in the arid western United States, the weather starts to warm up

This is an example of hat racking. It creates a hazardous tree that will require extra maintenance in the years to come.

in February and gardeners start getting anxious to start doing yard work. Go slow though since many times this is only a false spring. One gardening task that you can start in February is pruning of fruit trees, trees, and summer blooming shrubs. Before you do, read up on how to do pruning properly. I’ve seen too many bad pruning jobs can increase maintenance tasks later and even leave a more hazardous plant that could become a liability; not to mention lower the value of your property.

Before starting on any pruning, make sure your implements are sharp and sterilized with a 10% solution of Chlorox. For chainsaws and any thing that can’t be dipped in a solution of Chlorox there are sterilizing sprays that can be used. Better yet, save the chainsaw for total tree removal! Chainsaws are hard to sterilize and harder to control. So unless you want to remove the tree they really aren’t very useful.

A good set of pruning tools consists of hand pruners, lopping shears, curved tree saw, and a bow saw. Extended handle pruning tools can be included but they are awkward to use and don’t always make a clean cut.

Now that you have a clean set of pruning tools it might be time to prune but before doing so I recommend checking the Internet for some good information on what to prune and how to prune. Most land grant universities have very good online publications with good illustrations. More detailed and extensive information on pruning can be found in some very good pruning books that can be purchased at local nurseries or bookstores.

Most trees, except for fruit trees need very little pruning. Removing branches that rub other branches or diseased branches is really all that is needed. Also branches that block walkways or rub against the house should be removed.

Fruit trees do benefit from thinning the branches so that more of their energy goes into making fruit but shade trees usually do not need this thinning. If you do thin the branches remember that it’s best not to reduce the crown more than 25% and never top the tree.

Though fruit may benefit from heavier pruning, don’t forget to think about which wood may produce fruit. Some fruit trees only produce fruit on two-year-old wood. If you prune too aggressively you may prune away all of your fruit. Many years this is a mute point if you live in a high desert valley because the frost will freeze the blossoms before pollination. Still, if you prune too aggressively, even good years will not bear fruit.

Do not prune spring flowering shrubs such as Forsythia and lilacs until after they bloom in the spring. Pruning before they bloom will only reduce if not eliminate their showy blooms in the spring.

Roses are one flowering shrub pruned in spring before leaves appear but save pruning them until after you are finished pruning all the other woody plants that you want to prune. This is because you may still have some cold weather and more wood could die or you may have piled up some mulch around the base to protect them from dying below the graft. If you live in an area where winter can hang on until early or even mid spring you may still need that mulch which could get in the way of pruning. Additional, you could find you have pruned the wrong canes and will have no live canes left.

It would take a book to get all the information you need to do a good job proper job of pruning your trees and shrubs and more than anyone wants to read in a blog post so check out your local Cooperative Extension publications and check book stores for pruning books. Many Extension publications are online. Don’t worry if the Extension publication you find is not from your state; most of the information on pruning works no matter where you live. The publications I’ve found online have very good drawings of just how a cut should be made and what should be cut. So before you prune, do some reading and please don’t top the trees.

Garden of Edith

Desert Gardening for Brown Thumbs

Category Archives: Uncategorized