THROUGH THE GARDEN GATE

Several years back, I wrote about creating mouse habitat. Why
would you want to bring mice into your yard? Because these little
rodents are favorite prey for owls, hawks, foxes, snakes, and other
predators. Month by month, prey and predators are losing habitat, a
safe place to live and hunt. Every field bulldozed for a new
development means loss of habitat. If you’re an apartment dweller
or live in town, you don’t want to build a mouse house. But many of
us live in the country and have space to do it.
A couple of hay bales, side by side on a pallet or a few boards
will provide the house. You might cover it with a tarp, held down
by a few rocks, and you now have a safe dry place for mice to hide.
They venture forth at night to eat and become food themselves for
predators.
The straw also becomes a place for other critters and insects to
hide. If kept away from dwellings, the presence of rodents will not
be a problem. Rats will have no interest in the bales. Often a pile
of sticks and twigs provide the same kind of accommodation for
animals and birds.
February in Sonoma County often ushers in a “false spring.” The
rain stops, the sun shines, the soil seems to warm up, and the
nurseries tempt us with tomato and other summer vegetable starts.
But be careful: The frosts may return, the rain will return, and
the soil will become soggy again. Be patient; spring is on the way,
but it’s not here yet!
While you’re in the nursery, watch that you don’t accidentally
buy an invasive exotic plant. Some of these culprits include pampas
grass, licorice plant, acacias, periwinkle, privet, heavenly
bamboo, tree of heaven, the ivies, ice plant, honeysuckle, and many
others. A friend with ivy draping from the gorgeous old oak trees
in her yard told me how much she loves the look of the ivy hanging
from the tree limbs. When I told her that the ivy would ultimately
kill the oaks, she seemed indifferent; it was more important to
enjoy the appearance of the ivy. But on these hills in Forestville,
I do see progress in some backyards. People have been pulling the
ivy and cutting it off at the base. The twining vine stems and
leaves will die and fall off. But you have to be diligent and keep
ripping the roots out of the ground. Ivy is tough, but you can beat
it. Go to www.cal-ipc.org for
more information.
Bog sage (Salvia uliginosa) is a wonderful habitat plant. It is
not one of our native salvias, but it seems to go through our
frosty winters without a murmur. It spreads like crazy, however, is
quite easy to pull out. The flowers are sky-blue and are favorite
nectar plants for bumblebees and black carpenter bees. Hummingbirds
go to the blossoms. But don’t plant it if water is an issue for
you. It loves water. I have a very small patch, I give it water in
the summer just enough to keep it blooming and I don’t let it
spread.
Another plant with sky-blue flowers is an annual; borage. It
seeds itself everywhere and likes water. The bees love it. So it’s
another plant I allow to bloom in moderation in the yard.
Not much is happening in gardens at this time of year. Rosemary
and manzanitas are in full bloom though, and are helping get
hummingbirds through the winter. I have a feeder out to supplement
the few flowers there are. I notice mildew in the feeders and I
wash them out every time I fill them.
A few calendulas are bright with orange blooms and the
California poppies are pushing out leaves. The fragrance of the
lovely wet soil is an aphrodisiac to my nose! The towhees are
scratching through the unraked wet leaves, robins are pulling worms
from the moist soil, the sparrows are finding seeds and insects…and
the ubiquitous French and Scotch broom seedlings are joyously
pushing their way up through the soft ground. It’s a great time to
weed. They slip easily out of the butter-soft soil. If you didn’t
do it earlier in the fall, or if it got eroded or washed away, it’s
a good time to buy bags or loads of organic compost and cover the
soil two or three inches deep. It will keep the weeds down, retain
the moisture when we get warm sun, and of course, it will feed the
soil.
It’s not quite the time to trim the old, seemingly dead branches
from frost bitten shrubs or perennials. Leave them there to protect
the tender branches that will appear in the spring. And let the
soggy dead leaves stay on the soil. There is lots of life happening
under them. To be productive, soil must have cover of some kind.
Bare soil becomes dry, hard, and easily eroded. It ultimately
becomes desert.
Don’t forget the CA Native Plant Society meeting on February 16,
Tuesday, at 7:30 P.M. Meetings are held at the Luther Burbank Art
& Garden Center at 2050 Yulupa Avenue in Santa Rosa. Call:
April Owens at 528-3387 for more information.
Please write me at: jo*******@co*****.net. I would
love to hear from you!