Prepare for Spring with Proper Pruning of Grapes and Fruit Trees

Spring chores for yuour fruit trees and grape vines.

We’re not done with winter, but we do have garden chores to do this month. Outdoor tasks center mainly around pruning fruit trees and grapevines. This is the month we prune table grapevines in the Valley and begin pruning fruit trees.

Why should you prune grapevines? If they’re left unpruned, they’ll set too many flower-fruit buds, reducing the quality of the harvested grapes. When the vine blossoms, the food (carbohydrates) available will be diluted over the length of the vine, resulting in some bunches not filling out properly, other bunches never maturing and some having an insipid or sour flavor when ripe.

If you don’t prune a grapevine, it also may delay fruit’s ripening past the first frost, which will destroy your crop and put the vine at risk for freezing damage, since it didn’t have chance to prepare for winter dormancy. Annual pruning prevents a tangled mess of vines, too.

If you have a young table grapevine, three years old or younger, leave from 10 to 20 fruiting buds per vine. If the vine is older, you may leave 40 to 60 buds. There should be twice as many bunches of grapes on the vine as the fruiting buds that are left.

June is the proper month for fertilization.http://www.cascadegardens.biz/ A good application of well-rotted compost should be sufficient, and preferable to synthetic chemical fertilizers that may attract harmful insects. If you’ve bought bulk compost, try to make sure it doesn’t contain herbicides.

Pruning fruit trees requires that you first prune out the damaged, dangling and dead limbs and twigs. Then go after crossing branches and twigs that, when wind blows, movement can damage the adjacent branches or twigs.

Prune 1/3 off the new top growth, and 2/3 of new growth on the laterals. The purpose of fruit tree pruning is to open up the crown to admit sunlight and air movement to all branches, reducing fungal infections.

Heed too her other advice: If a ladder is required, make sure a second person is at hand to call an ambulance if needed. Also have a designated caller on hand if you’re using a chain saw.

Pruning stimulates vegetative growth (more limbs) when spring and summer come around. “Water sprouts” or twigs rising vertically from limbs will appear and they should be removed. No flowers/fruit form on vertical limbs, only on horizontal limbs. The closer to horizontal, the better a limb will fruit, but unless you keep that limb cut back and fruit thinned in June, heavy fruiting will break the branch.

If a branch looks to be in danger of breaking, prop it up. Breaking large limbs tear bark from the trunk, putting the tree in danger of infection.

Want to learn more, Click HERE for Cascade Gardens web.

The Top Fall Plants for your Landscape

Top Fall Plants for your landscape
­Fall can be depressing. The leaves are falling, leaving behind bare-limbed and dead-looking trees for the winter to come. Dismal, steel-gray skies create a dreary cast over everything. Some­ types of grass actually turn brown. It's cold and monochromatic.
­The landscape doesn't stay that way, thank goodness. The spring and summer months burst with color and wonderful scents that remind you that you're alive. With some smart selection and good placement you can create a new palate of color in your yard after season's end. Some plants show their stuff in the fall and can help lighten your spirits. While your neighbors shuffle sadly and aimlessly about their homes with nothing to look at but dead leaves, you'll be feeling fine.
Follow the next five blogs to see the  top five picks of plants that bring renewed vigor to a fall landscape, in no particular order.

First is the Blue Rug Juniper.

­Blue rug juniper (Juniperus horizontalis "Wiltoni") is a nice, low-growing evergreen shrub. Its foliage is thick and hugs the ground, achieving a maximum height of 6 to 8 inches (15.2 to 20.3 centimeters). During the warmer months, blue rug juniper foliage is silvery blue-green; during the autumn and winter, the evergreen becomes purplish blue. It brings an unexpected splash of color to any fading landscape.
Blue rug junipers make a great, hardy addition to embankments (they hold soil and prevent erosion well) or to any sunny area. They're also highly adaptable to different s­oil and water conditions [source: Nature Hills Nursery]. Installing some around a tall plant or shrub like a gardenia or dwarf crape myrtle will provide colorful contrast all year [source: Wilson Bros. Nursery]. In the fall, the purple juniper will pop against dark green evergreen leaves of broadleaf plants.

Want to see the rest, check next weeks blog for #2?  Click HERE to see more that Cascade Gardens has to offer.

Deer Resistant Plants in the Sierra Foothills?

When food sources dwindle for deer in late summer and Fall, they will eat to survive, but, these plants have deterred deer a“test garden” in Oakhurst-Yosemite area for the last five years.  New mountain area gardeners may become discouraged when their neighbors shake their heads and say, “Oh, I can’t grow anything, but the deer eat it!” Don’t be discouraged, just try these:
(Acer palmatum, Japanese maple
Acer negundo, Box Elder
Achillea, Yarrow
Agastache, Anise hyssop, Hummingbird mint
Ajuga, Carpet bugle
Allium, Wild onion
Aquilegia formosa, Western Columbine
 Artemisia
Asclepias, Butterfly weed
Asters
Berberis thunbergii, Barberry
Berlandiera lyrata, Chocolate Scented Daisy
Brachycome multifida, Rock Daisy
Buddleia, Butterfly bush
Campanula, Bellflower
Carpenteria, California anemone
Ceanothus, Wild lilac
Cerastium tomentosa, Snow-in-Summer
Centranthus ruber, Jupiter’s beard
Chamaecyparis, False Cypress
 Chrysanthemum parthenium, Golden feverfew
Cercis occidentalis, California Redbud
Cistus, Rockrose
Chrysanthemum maximum, Shasta Daisy
Chrysanthemum paludosum, Ox-eye Daisy
Coreopsis, Tickseed
Cotoneaster
Dahlia
Delphinium
Diascia, Twinspur
Dicentra formosa, Western bleeding heart
Digitalis, Foxglove
Dudleya cymosa Hen & Chicks
Echinacea, Cone flower
 Epilobium, California fuschia
Erigeron karvinskianus, Mexican daisy
Erysimum,  Wallflower
Eschscholzia californica California Poppy
Euphorbia,  Spurge
Ferns
Gaillardia grandiflora, Indian Blanket
Grass and grass-like plants
Helichrysum
Helleborus, Hellebores
Hemerocallis, Day lily
Heuchera, Coral Bells
Hypericum, St. Johnswort
Hyssopus, Hyssop
Iris
Laurentia fluviatilis, Blue Star Creeper
Lavandula, Lavender
Lilium, Asiatic Lily
Lonicera, Honeysuckle
Lupinus albifrons, Silver bush lupine
Lysimachia nummularia, Creeping Jenny
 Mahonia, Oregon grape
Mentha, Mint
Miscanthus sinensis, Maiden Grass
Monarda didyma, Bee Balm
Monardella, Coyote mint
Myrtus, Myrtle
Narcissus, Daffodils
Nepeta, Catmint
Nigella damascena, Love in a Mist
Nicotiana, Flowering tobacco
Origanum, Oregano
Oxalis oregana, Redwood sorrel
Papaver, Poppy
Peony
Perovskia, Russian sage
Phlomis, Jerusalem sage
Phlox subulata, Creeping Phlox
Picea glauca, Alberta Spruce
Potentilla, Cinquefoil
Pyracantha, Firethorn
Rhododendron
Romneya coulteri, Matilija poppy
Rosmarinus, Rosemary
Rudbeckia hirta, Gloriosa Daisy
 Sage
Salvia apiana, White sage
Salvia ‘Bee’s Bliss’
Salvia clevelandii, Cleveland sage
Salvia leucophylla, Gray sage
Salvia mellifera, Black sage
Salvia sonomensis, Sonoma sage
Salvia spathacea, Hummingbird sage
Santolina, Lavender cotton
Sedum
Senecio, Dusty miller
Sisyrinchium bellum, Blue-eyed grass
Solanum, Potato vine
Spiraea, Spirea
Stachys, Lamb’s ears
Syringa vulgaris, Common Lilac
Tagetes lemmonii, Mexican bush marigold
Teucrium, Germander
Thymus, Common thyme
Umbellularia californica, California bay
Want more information click here: http://www.thisismytownusa.com/cascade-gardens.php
Cascade Gardenshttp://www.thisismytownusa.com/cascade-gardens.php

Landscaping Design with Ornamental Grasses

Throughout the year, your garden can offer wonderful changing patterns and colors. You can see changes as you watch your garden move through the seasons, month to month. A dynamic plant to include in your landscape design are Ornamental Grasses which  offer movement, quick growth and long extending plumes or flowers.

Ornamental grasses can play an important role in your garden design, providing an anchor with which to pull all the formal and informal elements of your garden into a well planned design. Their beauty lies in their linear clusters and extending blossoms with a variety of colors that reach their peak just as the rest of your garden is slipping into dormancy.

Grasses have not only beauty and variety but also ease of cultivation. Given ordinary earth and a place in the sun, most are extraordinarily drought tolerant and need little care beyond an annual grooming.
In short, ornamental grasses would seem to be a perfect addition to your landscape design, because of their ease of care, their drought tolerance, their winter beauty and the way they augment our gardens with their color patterns.

Qualities of Grasses
Ornamental grasses can range in height from 1 foot to 14 or more feet and can be used for ground covers, erosion control, architectural features and screens. They make excellent companion plants due to the contrast they provide with traditional herbaceous perennials. Since grasses come in a variety of design forms—from tufted to upright to arching—you can certainly find a grass that will provide just the contrast you need to make your garden design come together.

It is important to recognize the different qualities of various grasses before planting them in your garden. Some grasses are rhizomatous, or “running” grasses, meaning they spread by underground stems. These grasses make excellent ground covers, provide erosion control and, due to the nature of their spreading, are naturally resistant to the invasion of weeds. But if they are heading where you don’t want them to go, rhizomatous grasses give you the added hassle of vigilant spading.

Keep in mind that not all rhizomatous grasses spread at the same rate—some advance as much as twelve feet a year in ideal circumstances. If you must have a grass with pernicious runners, you can plant it within an underground barrier, much the same way you keep varmints in check. Other types of grasses form clumps that increase in circumference every year and require division every two to three years. Distinguishing between these two types of grasses will enable you to place them in an appropriate location in your garden and help to prevent headaches in future years.

Another variance in ornamental grasses is the distinction between warm and cool season grasses. Warm season grasses will grow and thrive during warmer times of the year and remain good looking even when temperatures are high and moisture is limited. These grasses do not begin to show growth until the weather becomes stable and the soils warm, and they usually do not require as frequent division as cool season grasses. Some warm season grasses include Japanese Silver Grass (Miscanthus sp..), Hardy Pampas Grass (Erianthus) and Switch Grass (Panicum).

Cool season grass will start to grow early in the spring and may even remain semi-evergreen over the winter. These grasses also seem to do better and have better foliage quality when temperatures are cool or if they are given sufficient water during drought periods. If they are not watered during drought, they tend to go dormant resulting in brown foliage. These grasses may require more frequent division to keep them healthy-looking and vigorous. If not, they tend to die out in the center of their clumping form. Some of the more popular cool season grasses include Fescues, Blue Oat Grass (Helictotrichon), Tufted Hair Grass (Deschampia), and Autumn Moor Grass (Sesleria).

Caring for Your Grasses All ornamental grasses must be trimmed at some point during the year. How and when you trim depends on the weather and the type of grasses they are. The best time to groom grasses is just after the winter, which will allow you to enjoy their beauty through those colder months. The warm season grasses will need to be cut back to within six inches of the ground, while the semi-evergreen grasses will need a trim in the spring-just snipping off the frayed ends and winter damage.

Use sharp shears to trim if you only have a few plants. A hard blade attachment on a weed whacker makes shorter work of more extensive plantings.

As a rule of thumb, grasses should be fed lightly or not at all. Over-fed grasses tend to grow out of character, falling down when they should be standing upright. Generally, 1/4 the amount of fertilizer you feed your flowering plants is adequate, with the exception of bamboos which require a much richer soil and standard fertilizing practice. It is especially important to keep nitrogen levels low so that you don’t have to be out staking your grasses when you want to be enjoying them for the low-maintenance beauties that they are. In fact, fertilizers high in nitrogen causes excess growth and weak stems so the usual neat habit is lost as the plants become floppy and unsightly.

In most gardens the biggest problem with ornamental grasses is that weed grasses may seed themselves into the crowns of desirable species. It is important to keep on top of this and not allow the weed species to become established.

Edible Landscapes: Add Leafy Garden Greens to Your Yard this Summer

Some people tend to have trouble growing leafy greens throughout the hot steamy days of summer. If you're an expert or beginning gardener you can select the specific leafy greens that can stand the heat and combine them with your landscape giving your a colorful and edible garden.

Sure, most greens are more comfortable during the cool days of early spring or fall, but there are many varieties that are comfortable growing during hotter times. Here is a list of leafy summer greens that great for growing during the warmer seasons and they will keep producing nutritious leaves that can be harvested on a daily basis.

Kale

Leafy Greens for Summer Garden Production

Collards – One of the hardiest of all greens, collards can grow through the summer just as easily as it survives cold winter conditions out in the garden.
Kale – Not quite as tolerant as collard greens, kale is capable of providing summer greens from the garden. Tuscan Black Palm Kale is an especially good variety for summer production. These can expand to produce a nice light to vibrant green low growing ground plant.


Giant Red Mustard

 Mustard – Not everyone’s favorite because of its spicy flavor, mustard greens will grow well during summer. Try Red Giant and pick the leaves young to add color and some kick to salads. This is a great example picture of how leafy greens can add a unique touch to your landscape.
Amaranth – These plants are very ornamental and will grow over five feet tall. In addition to the edible leaves the plant also produces a seed cluster that can be used as a grain.

Amaranth

Orach – Another attractive leafy green that is seldom seen in the vegetable garden. This beautiful plant is offered in a number of strains and is usually reddish or green in color. These are beautiful and unique even for deck potted plants.
Lambs Quarters – This one is an “edible weed” that tastes better than many of the greens cultivated in the garden. You may be trashing this wild plant without realizing it is edible.
Dandelion – Another edible weed with cultivated strains and close relatives that can all be grown for food. Dandelions won’t struggle a bit under the summer’s growing conditions.

Lambs Quarters

Malabar Spinach – This unusual leafy vegetable even thrives in the tropics and once established it can be cut to the ground and it will resprout and continue to grow.
Swiss Chard – Take care of those despicable leaf miners and your Swiss Chard will have no trouble at all in withstanding all that the summer season can throw at it. These plants have beautifully colorful stalks that can also add to the aestetic of your landscape.

Swiss Chard

Beet Greens – Don’t overlook vegetables like red beets that are typically grown for their roots or fruits, but also produce leaves that make excellent greens!

That’s just a partial list of heat tolerant summer greens but that’s enough to give you a feel for the options available to raise greens during even the hottest days of of the year. Obviously you will have to be aware of wildlife that might enjoy your edible landscape but these are also great options for those with fenced yards, deck pots and front yards that tend to be frequented less by animals.

Drainage Problems: Keeping Your Yard & Garden Above Water

What can cause poor drainage in your garden?

There are several factors that can contribute to poor garden drainage. On new housing estates, it is often caused by compacted soil as a result of builders' trucks repeatedly driving and sitting on the ground. This combined with the mixing of sub-soil and topsoil when all the trenches and foundations were excavated often leads to a heavy, wet plot.

Of course, drainage problems are not always caused by human activity, the soil may, by its nature (e.g. clay soils) be water retentive or, if it is low lying, be affected by the natural water table of the area. This is often the case in our area in Northern California especially Meadow Vista with it's red clay and low water table. On clay and other water retentive soils, the flow of water though the soil is very slow, this can be exacerbated if the contours of the land form depressions in which the surface water can collect. On land which has a very shallow water table, not much can be done to avoid water logging after heavy rain as the water table can rise to the surface of the land or actually above it, in this latter case a pond will naturally form.

How to know if a garden needs better drainage?

Wet weather in the winter or spring will show how good or bad the natural drainage is. Patches of water on the surface are the most common signs of problems. To check how well the land drains, dig a hole about 24 inches deep and 12 inches square, then fill it half full with water. Leave it for 24 hours in which time it should empty on well-drained soil. On very wet land, the hole may actually fill.

What sort of drainage system should be used?

If the top-soil is very poor, it may be worth stripping off the top 6 inch and importing new topsoil. Where the topsoil is just very water retentive, the problems may be reduced by double-digging and incorporating large amounts of bulky organic materials, but where the soil is inherently heavy and waterlogged, some form of drainage will be necessary.

The type of drainage used depends largely on the extent of the problem. If the water logging is not severe and there is only excess surface water, it may be possible to overcome the problem by shaping the garden surfaces so that the water flows off into ditches. These ditches should be 3 to 4 feet deep, with sloping sides.

More extensive issues may need items such as perforated plastic pipe which is crush-resistant and the holes allow the entry of water from the surrounding soil. The pipes can be supplied in lengths of up to 50 ft which can just be laid into a trench and surrounded by gravel. With a large area to drain, the most efficient way is to lay a number of pipes in a "herring-bone" pattern.

Underground pipes should always be laid above the local water table otherwise the pipes will just be moving the groundwater instead of draining the topsoil On level ground, the pipes should be sloped underground to encourage water to drain away quickly and on sloping land, the main drain should run down the slope. Drained water obviously needs somewhere to go so all pipes should terminate in a soakaway or ditch.

It is always best to seek professional advice before attempting to extensively re-direct the drainage issues in your garden or yard to best save you time and money. Most landscape experts offer a free consultation to help assess the severity of your issue.

Winterizing Your Garden and Water Feature

Winter is definitely on its way, so now is the time to plan for next spring with some simple steps in the fall.

Pick up, Clean Up.   Remove fallen leaves, branches, and cones from your water feature and the garden in general.  This includes spent annuals and vegetables.  If any of them are diseased throw them away. otherwise, the leaves can head right for the compost pile. Large branches and cones will take too long to break down and should go to a recycling center.

Weeding is important now because you don’t want the weeds to get a head start in the spring.   Invasive plants should be removed as well.  Do not put weeds or invasive plants in your compost pile!  They will reappear when the compost is spread.

To Prune or Not to Prune.  Typically, fall and winter are not times to prune, except for evergreens and alpine perennials like Dianthus and Huechera.  Remember seedheads of some perennials provide food for birds in the winter.  Roses should be pruned in January, snow or shine. And for bigger blooms, apply Epson salts and compost a few inches from the stem.

Mulching Made Easy.  Mulch doesn’t have to be an elaborate mixture.  It can be whatever you have on hand or can easily find.  Mulch with bark, shredded leaves, pine needles or rice straw.  The idea is to keep the soil around the plants warm, but keep the mulch several inches away from the plant stem.

Running the Water Feature. On most Cascade Garden features, you can run them during the winter as well.  Just be sure that the pump is placed so it doesn’t freeze up.  And of course, if you are running it, pick up debris so it doesn’t clog the filter.  If you have fish in your pond, you need to protect them and take additional steps.  See the website of Flora Tropicana in Elk Grove at http://www.floratropicana.com/

Evaluate Your Garden Design.  In winter?  You bet.  It’s a great time to plan for next year.  Here are some questions to think about:

--What worked and didn’t work this past year?

--Take photos of the areas you want to address.

--What is lacking?  Fall colors?  Spring bulbs?  A water feature to sooth the nerves?

--More space for entertaining?  A veggie garden?

There are some great websites to help you think about what your goals may be:

 http://www.sunset.com/garden/landscaping-design/ 

http://www.bhg.com/gardening/

 Also, you should contact local landscaping companies for an evaluation and some suggestions.  Most companies do that at no cost.

But most of all, have fun!

Marc Krupin is the owner of Cascade Gardens, a foothills-based landscaping company. With over 25 years in the business, he can help you design the garden you’ve been wishing for.

How to Protect Your Plants In a Freeze and Cold Weather

Many gardeners plant trees, shrubs and flowers that can survive in their garden during typical weather. But what can a gardener do when the weather is unpredictable? Unexpected freezes can cause havoc and devastate landscapes and gardens which in turn can cost a homeowner hundred to thousands of dollars. It can leave a gardener wondering how to protect plants from freezing and what is the best way to cover and keep plants from frost damage.

At what temperature do plants freeze?

When cold weather heads into town, your first thought will focus on the lowest temperature predicted. What temperature will be low enough for plants to freeze, or how cold is too cold? There is no simple answer to this. Different plants freeze and die at different temperatures. That is why they are given a hardiness rating by experts. Some plants produce special hormones that keeps them from freezing and these plants have a lower hardiness rating (meaning they can survive colder weather) than plants who produce less of this same hormone.

That being said, there is also different definitions of survival. A plant may lose all of its foliage during a freeze but still survive. The plant can regrow from the stems or even the roots. So, while the leaves cannot survive a certain temperature, other parts of the plant will.

How to Protect Plants from Freezing?

If you are only expecting a light freeze, you may be able to protect plants in a freeze simply by covering them with a sheet or blanket. This acts like insulation, keeping warm air from the ground around the plant. Frost and ice will form on the covering instead of directly on the plant. The warmth may be enough to keep a plant from freezing during a short cold snap.

For added protection when you protect plants in a freeze, you can place plastic over the sheets or blankets to help keep warmth in. You should never cover a plant with just plastic as the plastic will damage the plant. Make sure that a cloth barrier is between the plastic and the plant. Be sure to gently remove the sheets and blanket and plastic first thing in the morning after an overnight cold snap. If you do not do so, condensation can build up and freeze again under the covering, which will damage the plant and undo your efforts.

When protecting plants in a freeze that is longer or deeper, you may have no choice but to expect to sacrifice all or part of the plant in hopes that the roots will survive. Start by heavily mulching the roots of the plant with either wood mulch or hay. For added protection, you can nestle gallon jugs of warm water into the mulch each night. This will help drive off some of the cold that can kill the roots.

If you have more time before a freeze happens, you can also create insulation barriers around a plant as a way how to protect plants from freezing. Tie up the plant as neatly as possible. Drive stakes that are as tall as the plant into the ground around the plant. Wrap the stakes in burlap so that the plant appears to be fenced in. Stuff the inside of this fence with hay or leaves. Again, you can place milk jugs of warm water on the inside, at the base of this fence each night to help supplement the heat. A string of Christmas lights wrapped around the plant can also help add additional heat. As soon as the freeze passes, remove the covering so that the plant can get the sunlight it needs. Watering the soil (not the leaves or stems of the plants) will also help the soil retain heat and can help the plant’s roots and lower branches survive.

As you can see there are 'degrees' of freeze protection so if you have any doubt you should contact a professional landscaper or plant expert in your area to get tailored advice.