The Death of Columbo

No, I'm not talking about Peter Falk. I'm talking about plastic containers that used to hold Columbo brand yogurt. General Mills no longer continued with their Columbo brand and stopped distributing it in Utah a long time ago. However, Columbo has been an integral part of my garden now for nearly a decade.

When we first moved into our house, we used just about every resource we had to get a down payment. Shortly after, my wife quit her job and we struggled financially for many years. So landscaping was done on the cheap, with me growing perennials and even shrubs and trees from seed, starting in my basement under grow lights. Once seedlings grow their first true leaves, it is time to transplant them into a little pot. It just so happened, that Columbo yogurt containers were the perfect size. And over the years, through attrition, more and more of my Columbo containers broke, were lost, accidently discarded, etc. The last one I had, housed a beautiful Utah Penstemon (Penstemon utahensis), and after removing the penstemon and placing it in the ground, the Columbo container finally succumbed to wear and tear and crumbled.

I wonder how many plants found their first secondary leaves in this old Columbo container? Probably atleast 8 or 9. Some of those plants probably succumbed to various forms of death, such as a dog's trampling, or an excessively cold winter. Perhaps a late frost killed one or two. But as it found it's way to the garbage, I hope atleast a few of it's former residents are still residents of my yard. Perhaps they have descendents volunteering here and there.

Even so, Columbo may not have worked out for General Mills, but their containers worked out well for me. Yoplait containers don't cut it for planters with their bottoms wider than their tops. Some of the cheap yogurt brands still dot my planting apparaturs, but none did as well as Columbo. So to Columbo, I say adieu. I don't remember whether the yogurt it contained was any good or not. But I do know, that seedlings do well in just that amount of potting soil. So Columbo, thanks for the greenery.

Plant Profile- Salvia darcyi

I found an interesting plant last year in Tooele Valley Nursery under the name "Red Mountain Sage." It's scientific name is "Salvia darcyi", and most reports I've seen show the flower as only hardy through to zone 8, though I've seen one report of it making it through a zone 6. Being at zone 5, I'll be interested to see if it comes back. If it doesn't I did atleast gather a good batch of seeds which I now am growing in my basement. This sage is a quick growing plant, that grows tall and is an impressive hummingbird magnet. So even if last year's plants don't make it, I should have an abundance of them this year. (In the picure above, Salvia darcyi is being visited by a female broad-tailed hummingbird)
This salvia is native to the high mountain ridges of the Sierra Madre in Mexico. My experience with many of these southern sages that live in the mountains, is that they are often hardier than we think. I have had success with Salvia lemmonii as well as Salvia pinguifolia here in the cold great basin desert valley of Tooele. The tops completely die off, but from the root crown comes new and rapid growth that sends the plant two feet high and loaded with flowers. Salvia pinguifolia, a beautiful blue flowered salvia is a very popular nectar source for honeybees right up till the frost, providing valuable stores for these bees during their long winter months. Salvia lemmonii provides excellent blooms into the fall, helping south migrating hummingbirds. I'm hoping Salvia darcyi turns out to be much like these other southern sages. My first year experience with this plant was positive. We'll see if it is perennial here in Tooele, or an impressive annual I'll need to grow every year. Time will tell.

Gardening Goals

This year, I have some goals I would like to accomplish in my garden and yard. One is to scale back the vegetable portion of my garden, and to concentrate more on creating a small fruit orchard. I’ve found that my family won’t eat much of what I raise, and I can only eat so much veggies. I’m not doing away with veggies, just refocusing a bit on what I raise. Plants I will consider planting this year include:
Raspberries
Currants
Nectarines
Hardy kiwi
Grapes

Vegetables I still plan on growing include:

Tomatoes and peppers
Summer and Winter Squash
Green Beans (pole)
Kale
Spinach
Swiss Chard
Beets
Carrots

I overgrew winter squash last year, and I’ll never get all of it eaten. I plan on one hill of butternut, and that is it. Greens, beets and carrots can be planted together and don’t take up much room, and I’ve had good success with pole beans climbing large tomato cages with some twine added to the ribs. And tomatoes and peppers have got to be part of a home garden. Melons? I'm only succeeding 50% on those. I'll see how much room I've got after I've planted the rest.

The Cricket Meter

I admit, that I am different than your traditional gardener. I try to create not only a garden that is asthetically appealing, but useful to critters. Lawn is not of much use to insect diversity. Therefore, I plant large amounts of space devoted to native trees, shrubs and perennials. The result is something that is asthetically pleasing to me, but isn't conducive to someone who has a distate for creepy crawlies.

One measure of success I had in appealing to the invertebrate class this last summer, is something I call "the cricket meter." Crickets chirp (rub their legs together) to call to potential mates. How loud and numerous the chirps, the more crickets you have in or near to your yard. I found it fascinating to go for walks after dark in my neighborhood and listen to how loud the crickets are from house to house. Inevitably, the houses with the most perfect and expansive lawns, the quieter it got. Proudly, my yard was a crescendo of cricket chirps, letting me know, atleast one of my gardening goals had a measure of success.

I once had a former neighbor complain to me about the number of bees in my yard. My response was, "if she planted a few more flowers in hers, maybe they'd stay on her side of the fence." She didn't really like my response. It is amazing to me, that with the voluminous number of pollinators I have in my yard, how infrequent bee/wasp stings are. Stings attributable to our native bumblebees? Zero. A periodic yellow jacket sting is just as likely in our neighbor's yard as it is in ours.

Let's learn to live with nature and appreciate it's amazing diversity and beauty. And if you see a gnarly looking caterpillar crawling on your bush, remember, you can't have butterflies if they don't start out as caterpillars.

The Hedgerow and Wildlife

One of the things I decided to plant in my yard was a hedgerow for wildlife. This hedgerow provides benefits for the human animal occupants at our address as well. As a wind screen, the hedgerow slows the massive winds we get in the Tooele valley. It also provides cover for birds, insects and spiders. The hedgerow provides many things for wildlife. The bushes and trees in the hedgerow are generally fairly xeric, requiring only minimal amounts of water to keep them healthy. Year after year of leaf litter builds up the soil there creating humous which retains much of the moisture it gets. Below are the list of bushes and trees in the hedge.

Cercocarpus ledifolius- curl-leaf mahagony
Forestiera neomexicana- new mexican privet
Quercus gambellii- gambel oak
Acer grandidentatum- rocky mountain sugar maple
Shepherdia argentea- silver buffalo-berry
Quercus macrocarpa- bur oak
Pinus aristata- bristlecone pine
Cornus sericea- red-twig dogwood

All of these are native to the U.S. and the diversity of food provides for many different species of lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) as well as insects for birds such as nuthatches, wilson's warbliers, and members of the woodpecker family.

Planting In Winter

Several of the penstemon species I planted in the fridge are now beginning to germinate. Setting them on potting soil and keeping them watered, hopefully, I'll have some healthy plants ready for the garden in May. You have to love penstemons, because it takes love to grow them. But boy do they reward you every spring and early summer. Just as the bulbs fade, the penstemons are there to pick up the slack, providing color for your yard, and nectar and pollen for the critters in your yard.

I'm also looking forward to planting more of several species that I fell in love with last year. Salvia mojavensis, Salvia darcyi, and Aquilegia chrysantha are just a few plants I've decided I need more of. Happy planting.

Gathering Seeds and Pulling Exhausted Plants

It is for me, a melancholy time of year. The harvest has run it's course, and though many flowers are still in bloom, they are one good frost from turning to black mush. I leave the flowers in bloom alone as they help nourish my allies, the pollinating insects with the vital nectar to survive the harsh winter that is rapidly coming. The hummers are long gone, though I still have red flowered salvias designed for them still in bloom. Salvia lemmonii and darcyi are mojave and sonoran desert plants, and will die back to the ground, but will generally return each year from their root crown.

Now is the time to gather seeds. Most penstemon seeds are fully ripe and I'll fill my old prescription bottles with seeds for next year's plantings. Who knows, there may be an interesting hybrid in the works, as penstemons are known to cross-pollinate at times and produce interesting intermediates. Same for the agastaches.

Now is the time I pull up my squash plants. By the end of the year, they generally have some powdery mildew on the leaves, and I need to discard them and make sure I plant squash in a different location next year. There's always a smattering of small squashes that just didn't make it, but I have enough hubbards, sweetmeats and butternuts to keep me eating squash till atleast January.

My tomatoes are still producing, though the flavor tends to wane this time of year as fewer hours of sunlight means less sugar in the fruit. The first frost will doom them. Same for the peppers.

Soon, all I'll have of this year's garden are pictures and whatever food I have stored for future use. The other thing I'll hold on to is hopes for the future. That next year's garden will be more productive, and next year's flowers more spectacular than this year.