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GardenGuides Newsletter
July 25, 2006
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Winning the Weed War
[www.bhg.com]
1. Be a mulching maniac. Mulch acts as a suffocating blanket
by preventing light from reaching weed seeds. At the same
time, it holds moisture for your plants and provides
nutrients for your soil as it decomposes. Apply coarse mulch,
such as bark or wood chips, directly onto soil. Leaves,
grass clippings, or straw work better as a weed deterrent
with a separating layer of newspaper, cardboard, or fabric
between them and the soil.
2. Water those weeds. Pulling weeds is easier and more
efficient when the soil is moist. You are more likely to get
the whole root system, and your yanking won't disturb
surrounding plants as much either. No rain? Turn on the
sprinkler or even water individual weeds, leave for a few
hours, then get your hands dirty. (Just ignore the strange
looks from your neighbors as you water your weeds.)
3. Cut weeds down in their prime. Weeds love open soil. But
if you till or cultivate, then wait to plant, you can
outmaneuver the weeds. Till the ground at least twice before
you plant. Your first digging will bring dormant weed seeds
to the surface where they can germinate. Watch and wait for
a few weeks until they begin to grow. Then slice up the
weeds again with a tiller or a hoe, only don't dig as deep.
Now it should be safe to put precious plants into the soil.
4. Pass the salt. Try sweeping rock salt into crevices
between paths. Although more harsh, borax also works well.
Be sure to wear rubber gloves with the latter material. You
might need to apply a few doses, but be aware of any
surrounding plants because both products kill the good
plants along with the bad.
5. Lay down the law. Try using landscape fabric as a weed
controller. Landscape fabric is usually made of a nonwoven,
porous polypropylene fabric, which enables air, water, and
nutrients to reach the soil but keeps weed seeds in a dark,
cool environment where they can't germinate. You lay down
the fabric, cut a hole where your plants are positioned or
will be planted, then cover the fabric with a 2- to 4-inch
layer of mulch or gravel. However, landscape fabric doesn't
work well on steep slopes or windy sites, where the mulch
often slides off or is blown away, exposing the fabric.
Never use plastic, as it prevents moisture and air from
reaching your plants' roots.
6. Boil them alive. If you have pesky weeds in a spot with
no nearby grass or valuable plants, boil water and pour it
over the unsuspecting weeds. To control the stream of boil-
ing water and to save surrounding plants and your toes from
a scalding, use a teakettle.
7. To compost or not to compost. After you've labored to rid
your garden of weeds, be careful that you don't throw weeds
onto the compost heap where they can drop seed and infect
your entire yard. When you pull or till young weeds, leave
them where you chop them and let the sun dry them out, then
use them as mulch. Throw mature weeds on a hot compost pile
where they should cook at 200 degrees or higher for several
weeks to ensure the seeds are killed.
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Grin and Bear It
By Kathy Bond Borie
I could say I feed the birds to help them make it through
the winter with its scarcity of food, but that would be
stretching the truth. I feed them as much for my benefit as
theirs, because I don't stop even in summer when wild food
abounds.
I feel like I'm welcoming back old friends when the first
rosy breasted grosbeaks arrive in spring to break open the
sunflower shells with a loud "crack," and the woodpeckers
resume their fancy footwork up and down the tree trunks look-
ing for insects. But something put a stop to my bird feeding
this spring -- something big and furry, like a bear.
A neighbor heard a noise one night and looked out her window
to see a bear demolishing the wooden hot tub on her deck. No
amount of shouting and barking dogs and projectiles out the
window distracted the bear until he reached what he was
after: sunflower seeds inside the tubing, probably hidden
there by a squirrel. Subsequently the bear visited other
homes, climbing back steps and appearing on decks and porch-
es looking for food. Apparently, sunflower seeds are like a
drug to bears, at least when they emerge, hungry, from winter
hibernation.
After many phone calls amongst neighbors and phone
conversations with the game warden, every homeowner on the
road was directed to stop feeding the birds or risk a fine
for luring the bear. So now we need to rely on our land-
scapes to attract birds. Of course, some berry-producing
plants are also tempting to bears (especially blueberries,
and especially in the Rocky Mountain region), but in our
area, plantings aren't considered lures, and they don't
typically draw bears close to homes in summer the way bird
feeders do.
Plants not only offer tasty meals of berries and seeds, they
also give shelter from storms and summer's heat, and provide
a place to rest, to nest, and to hide from the neighbor's
cat. Here are some ways to make your landscape more welcom-
ing and nourishing to birds:
Seeds and Berries
Plants that are native to the region are easy choices since
birds are already accustomed to the food they provide. And
when birds unwittingly deposit the seeds in new locations,
there won't be the risk of spreading unwanted introduced
species. Here are some of our common birds' favorite food
plants:
Continued...
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American goldfinch - Birch, spruce, fir, pine, oak, hemlock,
maple, white ash, box elder, grape, rose, mulberry, service-
berry, thistle
Black-capped chickadee - Pine, birch, hemlock, sunflower,
viburnum
Eastern bluebird - Dogwood, sumac, cedar, hackberry, Virginia
creeper, holly, chokeberry, cotoneaster, dogwood, crab apple,
mulberry, rose, blueberry, grape, viburnum
Northern cardinal - Holly, hackberry, dogwood, mulberry,
sumac, viburnum, hawthorn, magnolia, black cherry, rose,
blackberry
Northern oriole - Mulberry, highbush blueberry, maple,
serviceberry, black cherry, blackberry, elderberry, grape,
honeysuckle
Tufted titmouse - Hackberry, mulberry, pine, oak, grape,
crab apple, blackberry, Virginia creeper
Yellow-rumped warbler - Honeysuckle, viburnum, pine, sumac,
cedar, dogwood, American elm, juniper, Virginia creeper,
American beech
Continued...
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Include plants that offer fruit at different times of the
year. For example, elderberries and mulberries are ripe in
summer (and blueberries and brambles, if you're inclined to
share), winterberries and crab apples are ripe in fall, and
sumacs and hollies hold their fruit into winter.
Water
Birds need water for drinking and bathing, and birdbaths can
be as decorative as they are utilitarian. A birdbath with a
rough surface and a gradual slope to a depth of 3 inches is
best, and for added safety, set it out in the open and off
the ground where it's out of reach of any interested felines.
Gimme Shelter
Consider planting some of these trees and shrubs for shelter:
alder, ash, azalea, beech, birch, cedar, cherry, cotoneaster,
cottonwood, crab apple, dogwood, fir, hackberry, hawthorn,
hemlock, holly, juniper, larch, maple, mountain ash, oak,
ornamental grass, pine, rhododendron, rose, serviceberry,
sumac, yew.
Plant trees and shrubs in mixed groupings of different types
and sizes of plants, rather than a homogenous planting. That
way you'll attract more different kinds of birds.
Being a neatnik about your landscape won't help the birds as
much as if you leave some brush piles and dead trees about,
and some perennials gone to seed. Isn't it lucky that you
can do the birds a favor and at the same time relieve your
conscience about not getting to that garden cleanup!
I miss the birds chattering at the feeders this summer, but
they are still drawn to my yard by other enticements. Blue-
birds perch on the deck railing, and an indigo bunting
stopped by for the first time. I just planted some choke-
berries, which will be covered with blue-black berries in
the fall. It's better than luring a bear too close for
comfort.
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GopherCentral's Question of the Week
Do you think we are either in or headed toward WW III?
Question of the Week
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