Gardening Bytes

Posts Tagged ‘Garden Visitors’

If you have a birdbath be sure to keep it clean and refill the water often. Fresh water is essential for birds for drinking and for bathing all year long. Birds need food, water, and shelter which may be scarce in winter. In cold weather water may freeze over, keeping the supply of water out of reach for needy birds. Remove ice once it is warmer in the day, scrub the birdbath to remove leaves and algae, and refill the birdbath with fresh water. Make sure your birdbath is placed in an open area up high where cats cannot easily gain access to it. If you do not have a birdbath but want to provide birds with water, use solid based saucers from terra cotta pots, fill with water and again, place the saucers around the garden in an open space where cats cannot easily access them.

Chives are great for cooking and an easy herb to grow. If you let them grow to flowering, the pink flowers are a nice addition to the garden, and re-seed readily once established. Many gardeners grow chives under roses as a companion plant. Chives are known to help keep aphids in check and off your roses, the theory is that the onion smell of chives keeps aphids away. Chives also reportedly help prevent powdery mildew, black spot, and brown canker. If you have other plants bothered by aphids plant some chives nearby and see how quickly they vanish. This companion planting idea for roses will not only help keep them disease free naturally, the lovely pink puffs of chive blooms look wonderful in the garden as well.

Looking for good nectar plants for hummingbirds? Watching these garden visitors dive into flowers in the garden is entertaining and satisfying knowing you are helping them thrive. Hummingbirds are particularly attracted to tubular shaped flowers and red and purple hued flowers.

Plants that provide rich nectar for hummingbirds include:

Butterfly bush
Pestemon
Foxgloves
Morning glory
Jasmine
Fuchsia,
Trumpet honeysuckle
Passionflower vine
Columbine
Bleeding hearts
Trumpet vine
Bee balm
Cardinal flower

Here is part three of deer resistant plants to use in your garden. The list includes plants that are rated as rarely damaged by deer:

Lavender-Cotton/Santolina – Perennial
Leatherleaf Viburnum – Shrub
Lily of the Valley – Groundcover
Marjoram – Herb
Monkshood – Perennial
Mountain Pieris – Perennial
Pampus Grass – Ornamental Grasses
Poppy – Annual
Pot Marigold – Annual
Purple Rock-Cress
Red Pine – Tree
Rose Campion – Perennial
Rosemary – Perennial
Rue Anemone – Perennial
Russian Cypress – Shrub

Looking for plants that will keep your visiting butterflies well fed in spring? Here is a list of nectar rich plants that will keep your butterflies happy:

Aubrieta
Bluebell
Clover
Daisy
Dandelion
Forget-Me-Not
Honesty
Primrose
Sweet Rocket
Wallflower

Looking for summer and autumn plants your visiting butterflies will flock to? Here is a list for the best nectar rich summer plants butterflies will like:

Buddleia
French Marigold
Hebe
Honeysuckle
Ice Plant (Sedum)
Ivy
Knapweed
Lavender
Marjoram
Michaelmas Daisy
Mint
Red Valerian
Scabious

A mix of dish soap with water will give you an organic way to spray against pests such as aphids, blackfly and more. Use this natural spray consistently until the pests die back or disappear:

Organic Pest Control

2 tablespoons baking soda
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon dish soap (do not use dish soap that contains bleach)
2 quarts of water

Combine the above ingredients in a spray bottle to spray on your infested plants. Shake to mix every time you use this natural spray in your garden.

We have a gang of raccoons that like to visit our back yard every month or so. These mischievous critters like to investigate potted plants, play in water and find new places to poop in the yard. As cute as the raccoons appear from a distance, they can cause some damage to your yard and should never be approached directly since they can be carriers of the rabies virus. Raccoons can be deterred by eliminating some of the items they find interesting in your garden.

If you put out food or water for cats or dogs in the yard, take them out of the yard at night when these night time animals like to visit. Raccoons enjoy playing in water and can make quite a mess when they want to. Keep potted plants at a lower level, curious raccoons have great manual dexterity and like to tip over high set pots, having been known in our yard to dig for bulbs in pots. Fruit trees can be attractive as a food source for raccoons since they have a sweet tooth when it comes to food. If you have a pond or water feature this may attract raccoons to your yard. Making sure there is no water or food supply in your yard will lessen the goodies available to these nocturnal visitors.

Iron phosphate is a natural snail bait that is safe for use in your garden, as well as around wildlife, children and pets. Iron phosphate works by the snail ingesting the ground particles, giving them a stomach ache so they stop feeding, they crawl away and in a few days eventually die. The iron phosphate based snail bait is sold under the names Sluggo and Escar-Go. Bait in areas that snails frequent since they tend to return to food source sites. Baiting during temperate weather is helpful since snails tend to hide out in very hot or very cold weather.

Learn more on here about managing snails and slugs in your garden: http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7427.html