Due to the ongoing wildfire coverage, this week’s In a Northstate Garden is a repeat from earlier this season. We will return to our regular on-going programming the weekend of July 5th and 6th.

Julie Nelson has a jones for daffodils, and so she told me in our first correspondence about her garden northeast of Redding. Over the years, she and her husband, Jim, and sons, Paul and Soren, have planted some thousands of Narcissus of all kinds in their garden. (Photo at left: Soren, Julie, Jim and French-exchange student Florian, who is living with the Nelsons this year.) The bulbs start blooming before Christmas (the early tazetta type Narcissus such as Paper Whites) and finish in April. Julie and Jim are both professional botanists – she works full-time for the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. As a family the Nelson’s are engaging and thoughtful: they like to discuss politics, the natural history of our region, Garrison Keillor and good food. They name roosters for head’s of state and using plays on words. They are as warm and easy-going as the Narcissus genus - and the home garden - they so clearly love. (Although Paul, the elder brother, now lives in an apartment in the city and it makes Julie wonder if she did not make him dig one too many holes for bulbs.)

The Nelsons moved to their several acres of blue oak woodland in 1989 and created their garden on the red dirt left over from the construction of the house. “My garden consists of anything that thrives in this challenging climate–lots of Mediterranean things, lots of natives, bulbs, old shrub roses, and volunteers,” she told me. The whole garden – including large chicken run, enclosed vegetable garden, mixed borders of perennials and shrubs, and lemon and pomegranate trees closer to the house - is nice. But visiting in spring, it is easy to see that not only the sheer number of Narcissus but also their generous and deft placement in the landscape, is outstanding.

(more…)

I wager most gardeners would say that they welcome birds and butterflies into their gardens, and that many gardeners would say that in part they even plan their gardens or choose their specific plants in order to attract butterflies, hummingbirds and songbirds. Brian and Jill Williams and their two young boys, Canyon and Cooper have a bird and butterfly friendly garden well beyond what I have ever imagined, and in fact is more accurately described as a wildlife friendly garden. The Williams’ work to attract waterfowl, raptors, song birds, butterflies, moths, woodland mammals, lizards, snakes – even grubs, because the Williams’ philosophy is that “wildlife makes a garden alive and adventurous,” and who would want anything less?

Brian Williams is a consulting wildlife biologist. He comes from generations of farmers in Placer County and graduated with his graduate degree from Sacramento State. He and, Jill, an educator, have been creating their house and 10 and a half-acre garden outside of Honcut since 2002. The concept of planning for a wildlife friendly garden actually started with the Williams’ search for a home site. They had very specific criterion, which included that their dream property had to have water. After looking at several different land parcels around the Northstate, the Williams chose their property outside of Honcut in part for the ½ mile of Honcut Creek, which runs year-round through the property. They also chose this property for its many mature, native Pines and Oaks. These elements – creek and trees - were not only aesthetically attractive, but – from the Williams’ perspective - they would provide the water, food, and shelter necessary for a truly wildlife friendly garden.

Next, the Williams’ carefully sited and then built their house by hand – literally – of adobe bricks mixed from their property’s red clay, straw and sand and then baked in the sun. While building, Brian and Jill noticed that rough wing swallows were darting in and around the adobe walls as they progressed. Brian came up with an ingenious version of a “bird house” by building 3-inch PVC pipe lengths into the house walls in three spots around the house. The pipes are open to the outside and lead into three nesting boxes that are faced with removable ¾ inch exterior-grade acrylic on the inside. These peek-a-boo nesting boxes are curtained so that they remain dark and private for the nesting families, but still allow the Williams family occasional close-up looks at the nesting cycles of the birds. The acrylic panels are removable so that the boxes can be cleaned out annually. Besides the bird boxes, the exterior of the adobe walls host many a swallowtail butterfly larvae in the winter.

This attention to the patterns of the wildlife already on their property - noticing the rough wing swallows exploring for nesting sites – is one of the important habits to develop if your really want to create a wildlife friendly garden, Brian emphasizes. Pay attention to when the animals that are already there come out to feed, where they show up already and either re-produce sites like the ones they already like, or make the ones they already like more protected from predators, more accessible, whatever. Brian and Jill do more than just pay attention to patterns – they track the patterns of the wildlife in their garden on a spreadsheet. Brian keeps track of when different species appear each year, if and when they nest, how many eggs, if the nest was successful, what they eat, when they depart. Williams says that an average garden equipped with a handful of bird-feeders will attract 6 or so species. At last count, the Williams’ garden in Honcut had 160 different species of birds visiting every year.

When I visited his garden, Brian said: It doesn’t look like a garden does it? And in fact there is little in the way of traditional lawn, or flowerbeds as of yet. The Williams plan to add a very small adobe walled garden close to the house in time. But theirs is already a garden nonetheless - carefully planned and cared for specifically to welcome and nurture wildlife. Besides the “infra-structure” of water and trees that they looked for when choosing their home site, the Williams have used the ensuing six years to create even m ore “habitat” for creatures. “Encouraging the whole food chain is the best way to encourage any one part of the food chain,” says Brian, so if you want birds, you need bird food. And by that he does not mean man-made feeders outside of your windows. He means the whole web of things that feed wild birds throughout the year: plants that create the seeds as well as attract the worms and grubs and bugs and other small critters that will nourish a large bird population, including migrating, nesting and with young, or over-wintering birds.

(more…)

Denise Kelly always wanted to own The Plant Barn (www.theplantbarn.com) Denise spent her early childhood in Southern California. Her family relocated to Susanville when Denise was in the 8th grade and she moved to Chico to attend CSU Chico. After graduation, Denise stayed in the area and worked variously as an event planner, wedding consultant and landscape designer, all the while raising her children and home gardening herself. Each corner she turned for work seemed to bring her back to the Plant Barn for flowers and plants. “I have always been a plant nerd, and it just made me so happy to be there and chat about plants with the owner Ilona Cronan. I always thought, that is what I really want to do. I want to own the Plant Barn and make other people feel this way all day.”

She failed, however, to mention this fact to Ilona and one day about 5 years ago, she realized that without the business ever going on the market, the Cronan’s had sold it to one of their employees. Denise was devastated and felt as though she had missed her one chance, but she did not make the same mistake twice. Without delay, she told the new owner that if she ever wanted to sell, Denise would be interested. Sure enough, almost two years ago, Denise got a call asking if she was still interested. YES! She said immediately and with the help of family was able to make her dream come true. What she did not know at the time, was that two other buyers had also lined up to purchase the long-time nursery. One of them, however, wanted to tear down the iconic barn for which the business is named and the other was not able to get their financing. “Good things always happen for me in threes,” laughed Denise showing me a tattoo of a key and the number 3 on her inner wrist, “I have three great kids, I was the third owner in line, I am the third owner of The Plant Barn. 3 is the Key.” She got the tattoo shortly after securing the purchase and it’s a constant reminder of how she is making her dream come true.

Ilona and Dave Cronan started Chico Propagators wholesale plant greenhouses and The Plant Barn over 27 years ago. When they sold The Plant Barn, they kept the wholesale growing business in the greenhouses behind the retail nursery. This is a great arrangement that spreads out the work and responsibility of two such big businesses, which are related and yet very different. “There’s a great symbiotic relationship between Dave Cronan, the owner and Sally Greenwood, the head grower at Chico Propagators and myself at the Plant Barn,” Denise says. “I am learning as I go here, about plants and about the business (Although she clearly knows a good bit about both). When a customer comes to me and asks if I have a certain plant, I can call Sally on the walkie-talkie and ask if we can grow it.”

This capability in turn allows customers a remarkable opportunity to learn about and explore new plants as well. It also helps the staff at The Plant Barn, including full-timer Rebecca and part-timer Nancy as well as Denise to stay on top of what they do best. One of the things The Plant Barn is now known for is its fabulous array of custom planted containers – the plants they put together and they containers they put them in will make you take note and consider amping up your own home container plantings.

One of the other things The Barn does really well is to set customers at ease. The staff are always cheerful and never seem to mind if you buy something today or not. The site is not too big and so is not overwhelming, but it has lots of ever-changing interesting vignettes made up of gifts, pots, furniture, fountains, and loads of interesting plants tucked into the main display space. The greenhouses are also available to walk through, and walking into a warm, moist, plant filled greenhouse on a cold grey winter day is just short of heaven. And for me one of the best draws of the plant barn is how many of their specialty perennials are available in 4 inch pots rather than just gallons – as a plant-aholic myself, this takes some of the financial sting out of trying out some new plants, as well as allowing me to buy three or more so my garden runs less risk of becoming a cluttered mess of one of every kind of plant on the planet.

(more…)

Jeff and Cheryl Armstrong founded Chico’s NutriLawn, a company specializing in lawn and shrub fertilization and recreational lake management, 20 years ago. They currently care for over 2000 lawns in the Chico area and they employ 18 people. In the last two years the Armstrongs have moved their business away from the chemically dependent mainstream and toward a more sustainable future through what they term “biological” lawn care. Photo above: Jeff Armstrong at a ground breaking ceremony for the Northern California Natural History Museum.

I first met Jeff Armstrong in person when I heard him speak on sustainable lawn care at an evening lecture hosted by Northern California Natural History Museum’s Museum Without Walls program last winter. Since hearing his talk, I have spent time with Jeff - driving with me as he made his rounds evaluating lawns, I have watched him brew compost tea, look at his brew under a microscope, and then watched him apply that compost tea to some of his lawns. We have talked about soil chemistry and mineral balances; preserving Northstate water quality, and whether it is possible to have a lawn as part of your landscape and still be a sustainable gardener. Ultimately, what is clear to me is that Jeff Armstrong is a man who likes a good lawn in the right place, likes healthy plants of all kinds, and has been positively re-born by his personal epiphany about two years ago that environmentally friendly and sustainable lawn care is the only future for him, his family, for the people who work under him and for their families, for the financial viability of his business and for the environment – local and global. Photo above: Jeff Armstrong applying foliar compost tea to a client’s lawn.

Jeff’s personal epiphany led him first to the library and the internet to research what other people were doing in the field of environmentally friendly lawn care and agriculture. He studied the work of Dr. Carey Reams, who developed and wrote widely on what is called the Brix Method of evaluating plant health and quality through analyzing plants’ sap, primarily for levels of carbohydrates. To simplistically summarize the Brix Method, the analyses of the sap of plants is used to determine what the soil in which they live might need in order to improve the health or nutritional value of the plant. Armstrong also studied the work of Dr. Elaine Ingham, who writes and teaches widely on another plant health approach model known as the Soil Food Web. Again simplistically, the Soil Food Web starts with any given soil’s micro-life, primarily looking for nutrient, mineral and organism levels. The Soil Food Web approach encourages a healthy soil biology with a good population of beneficial soil micro-organisms which in turn feed and protect the plants. Both the Brix Method and the Soil Food Web are used widely by growers of all kinds trying to increase the quality and quantity of their crops while never depleting their soil. In the course of his studies, Armstrong has also spent time visiting soil specialists, microbiologists, other sustainable lawn care companies, and mines producing leonardite, the primary source of humic acid a critical element for the health of any soil, among others. He has attended workshops and symposiums. He has thought long and hard and continues to do so. Photo above: a cross-section of a thick, green healthy and well cut lawn.

(more…)