July 10, 2012 by Born To Organize

Mason Bees Move In!

I snapped this photo of our Mason Bee Habitat, unaware that several of the tubes were already filled. We mounted the tubes to the side of the house above the vegetable garden last summer, but never saw any activity.

Mason Bee Tubes

I prepared to write about my disappointment when the enlarged photo revealed this:

Mason Bee Tubes
Space Still Available

Those clever Masons have been nesting away while I had my nose to the ground, planting.

We bought our Orcon PlanBee! kit at Yamagamis Nursery, along with a book by Christopher O’Toole called The Mason Bees, Taking the Sting Out of Beekeeping. Mason bees live in holes like hollowed-out twigs or reeds, so they are easily attracted to nesting tubes like the ones pictured above. Blue orchard and horn-faced bees are spring season pollinators and will only sting if squeezed or stepped on. They don’t have a queen, so no hive to protect. They are both beneficial and docile.

You can read more about these beneficial Mason Bees and their nesting habits in this wiki article. Resources, below, for buying or making a nesting box of your own.

Orcon’s PlanBee Mason Bee Nest
Do-it-yourself Mason Bee nest (for woodworkers)
Do-it-yourself Mason Bee nest (using reclaimed materials)

July 8, 2012 by Born To Organize

Growing a Birdhouse

Birdhouse Seeds

Though we were out of room in our planter boxes, we went ahead and tucked in a few of these Gourd hard-shelled birdhouse seeds. They were too cool to pass up.

Botanical Interests gourd heirloom seeds grow into the birdhouse shape on the left. When dried, they last indefinitely. Gourds can be carved, painted or drilled. I sure hope we can grow at least one. We have two viable plants, each about 18 inches long. The packet says the vines can grow an astonishing 15′ (5 meters) to 35′(11 meters) long.

The pumpkin vines are about a month ahead in the growing cycle, so as those vines give the last push towards ripening, the gourd vines will have lots of room to grow.

Here are a few pointers on birdhouses:

Drill the hole for the size of the intended bird and not a speck more. This prevents predatory birds from following the mama bird indoors. The entrance hole should be high enough that the mama bird can line her nest and still protect her young from view.
Likewise, the perch often shown on commercially produced birdhouses is not only unnecessary, but again allows a predator a place to perch and peer in.
Drill a small hole in the bottom of the birdhouse to allow for drainage.

Fingers crossed!

Gourd Vines

July 7, 2012 by Born To Organize

Sunflower Success

Early in the season I envisioned a wall of sunflowers growing across the front of the deck. After several false starts, I configured a system of screens, designed to deter squirrels and birds from eating the seeds and seedlings. It worked! All three planters have several healthy plants. I can’t wait till they flower. I can see the plants from my kitchen window as well as on deck, and they can also been seen from the street.

The lower leaves are full of holes but no sign of the culprit…until this week when I saw a bird in the act of pecking away at the leaves. My friend Doug, also a nurseryman, thinks they are trying to get to the as-yet unavailable seeds. The leaves look tattered, but the plant remains healthy so all is well.

With warmer temperatures, the plants are shooting skyward. I can’t wait till they bloom.

Wall of Sunflowers

Broken Lantern Covers Keep the Screen Open at the Top

Lantern Cover in Place

Sunflowers: Looking Up

Bird Snack

July 5, 2012 by Born To Organize

The Ladybug Diet

Water First

Weight Watchers teaches you to eat well, and South Beach helps break sugar cravings, but have you heard of the Ladybug Diet? Those red-spotted beauties consume several times their body weight, ridding your roses of numerous garden pests. I wish I could consume several times my body weight in a day and remain looking as fresh as the Coccinella septempunctata.

Ladybugs, also referred to as ladybirds, eat Aphids, Spider Mites, Thrips, White Fly and other harmful pests. They are a boon to organic gardeners and a treat for the youngsters in the house, who enjoy setting them out at dusk.

Most garden centers now sell containers of live lady bugs. I bought ours at Almaden Valley Nursery. Keep them in a cool place during the day when they’re inactive.

Tuesday night we watered the infested plant, cut open the mesh bag and offered them dinner. By morning, they had done a decent job eradicating the pests. Some years it takes two “applications” to wipe out the aphids or flies, but it’s always a treat to see hundreds of them gathered in one place so we don’t mind.

Ladybugs and Aphids

Garden Lady’s: Nature’s Pest Control

Dinner Awaits

It’s 9:00. Do you know where your ladybugs are?

Read more about these farming heroes and the origin of the ladybug rhyme at Animal Planet.

July 4, 2012 by Born To Organize

4th of July Flowers

4th of July Bin

I’ll use any excuse to decorate so I headed to my favorite nursery on Tuesday and picked up some red, white and bluish flowers for the garden.

I replanted the curb-side pot, spruced it up with goodies from the 4th of July bin and used the extras for the fairy garden. We’re cooling our jets during the mid-day sun, but will join the block party shortly.

If you celebrate the 4th, may you have a fun and festive day. If it’s just another day on the calendar, I hope you are simply enjoying life in your corner of the world.

Celebratory Planter

: Small Vinyl Bag from the Holiday Bin

Fairy Garden: Ready to Celebrate

July 2, 2012 by Born To Organize

Having Fun with the Magnoliaceae

Taking a Page From Queen Elizabeth II’s Book

I like to get silly from time to time, and what better place to do that than my garden. A couple of years ago, I put a Magnolia ‘tepal’ on my noise and had my son snap a couple of pictures. When I started Gardening Nirvana I picked that photo for my Gravatar. The photo embodied my love of gardening, the beauty of the fuchsias behind me and the silliness of wearing a flowering appendage on my nose. These were qualities I also wanted to embody in my blog. Unfortunately, that photo also travels with my organizing blog. I was recently referred by a client whose friend saw the photo and voiced alarm that something was seriously wrong with my nose. I got quite the chuckle out of that, but have since replaced it with a more professional photo.

Today I learned a few things about Magnolias from a Wikipedia entry, excerpted below. My English teachers would be proud to see me correctly using my new terminology in a sentence. If you need me, I’ll be dancing on the lawn, casting tepals to the wind.

Magnolia Branch

Magnolia is a large genus of about 210 flowering plant species in the subfamily Magnolioideae of the family Magnoliaceae. It is named after French botanist Pierre Magnol.

Magnolia is an ancient genus. Having evolved before bees appeared, the flowers developed to encourage pollination by beetles. To avoid damage from pollinating beetles, the carpels of Magnolia flowers are extremely tough. Fossilized specimens of Magnolia acuminata have been found dating to 20 million years ago, and of plants identifiably belonging to the Magnoliaceae dating to 95 million years ago. Another primitive aspect of Magnolias is their lack of distinct sepals or petals: Magnolias possess undifferentiated flower parts for which the term “tepals” was coined. – Wikipedia

The Curious Photo

July 1, 2012 by Born To Organize

Scurvy in Rats? Not in our Yard

Our orange tree produces fragrant blossoms, shelter for the squirrels and mediocre fruit. Unless of course you’re a roof rat. The last time my son climbed that tree at dusk he encountered a rat. He hasn’t been up the tree since. I’ve never actually seen them in action, but every morning I find half a dozen perfectly hollowed oranges littering the ground. The rats are probably out there as I type this, peeling an orange and getting high on vitamin C. When the party is over, they could at least have the decency to clean up after themselves!

Orange Deception

Here’s the Scoop

June 30, 2012 by Born To Organize

Ferny You Should Ask…

Flowers and fruits are the focus of many a blog, but in the cool, quiet corners of the garden, ferns flourish. Fronds unfurl curling upward as they unwrap from their coil. Sword ferns, native to North America, favor shade as they fearlessly stand guard beneath the orange tree. Asparagus ferns are fond of climbing and twining, sending out long straight shoots. Within a fortnight, feathery emerald leaves should follow.

Southern Sword Fern ‘Nephrolepis Cordifola’

Gian Chain Fern ‘Woodwardia fimbriata’

Asparagus Fern reaching for the fruit tree

Fern about to unfurl

Other Worldly

June 28, 2012 by Born To Organize

Blooming Thursday: Dwarfed by the Cosmos

I’d like to give a shout-out to the bird, or perhaps it was the wind, for planting the cosmos. These pink and yellow beauties are my new garden darling, the flower I didn’t know I loved. They were part of a mixed flower seed packet from last season. We had several flowers bloom over many months, but nothing as spectacular as this. Around the corner from their original home, a leafy green plant emerged. I let it grow along with the pumpkins and now this flowering lovely is taller than I am. I’m 5’10” so that is saying a lot.

Here’s a little photo journal of life among the cosmos:

Dwarfed by the Cosmos

Sisters

Ruffles

Seeds!

The flower cycle

June 27, 2012 by Born To Organize

Tweet-tweet: Self Watering Gadgets

Watering Hole

Unless you live in Kauai, Hamburg or Seattle, you probably have to water your outdoor potted plants. This holds true for indoor plants that don’t get the benefit of seasonal rain. It’s a fine line between over-watering which can drown the roots, or under-watering which can quickly kill a summer annual. The mix of shallow roots and rising temperatures dry out plants. Mulching helps, but plants still need a regular drink of water. Further, seeing water pour out of the bottom of the pot on to the deck or walkway is a water-conservation no-no. What to do?

We’ve been experimenting with various self-watering devices, a misnomer since you still have to fill the reservoir with water. Our first self watering gadget was a glass globe about the size of a baseball. It came with a porous clay reservoir that you staked into the soil. After filling the glass globe with water, you quickly upended it and inserted it into the reservoir. They looked pretty, but presented two problems. The opening was narrow and hard to fill from a watering can. When I carried them to and from the sink, I worried I would drop them. Once full, you couldn’t set them down.

Next, my husband came up with the idea of using plastic apple juice containers, the ones that are about the size of a large apple. The opening was larger and they had a flat bottom. They worked, but they didn’t look nice after several weeks in the sun. When empty, they were light enough to be knocked out of the container by a squirrel…or a gardener… and often ended up under the shrubs.

Pictured below are our current watering stakes. The ceramic bird has a built-in reservoir in the back made of clay but molded into one piece. The stake remains in the soil and you add water from the top. Isn’t it cute? The verdict is out at this point. I like the ease of use and the little pop of color but I’m not convinced that one per pot is enough.

The baby bird or BORDY, is also molded in one piece but you add water through the mouth. For some reason it reminds me of a dolphin more than a bird. What do you think?

Do you have a favorite self-watering gadget? Please share in the comments, below.