It’s time to talk about the birds and the bees (and the butterflies).

Around this time every year, one of my big summer treats is to hang out in my back yard and watch how my garden is helping pollinators. It gives me a warm feeling – and not just from the sun on my back. Seeing those visits from my flying friends lets me know I’m helping out our local eco system.

Did you know that more than 85 percent of the Earth’s plants need pollinators to exist? That translates into about a third of the food you eat being made possible by bees and other pollinators. (This skyrockets when you think about summer treats like blueberries and cherries, which are 90% dependent on honeybees when they bloom.)

Besides bringing buzz and birdsong into your yard, your strategic garden planning can help Mother Earth by providing a friendly place for pollinators. If you are wondering what you can do to attract the birds and insects, here are some suggestions:

• Bird feeders. Suet, seed and sugar water keep my backyard filled with beautiful birds. We also have a water feature with running water that the birds seem to love. (I’d like to think that if birds had a Michelin guide, my yard would get three stars and comments like: “Excellent food selection, plus a bird jacuzzi!”)  
• Layered plantings. By layering your plants, you give little critters more safe spaces from creatures that might prey on them. It also allows them to go from plant to plant without expending too much energy.
• Give them variety. Choose a variety of plants that will bloom in rotation throughout the growing season and make sure they have different colors, shapes and sizes as different pollinators prefer different types of plants.
• Pollinators favorites. My garden is full of Dianthus, Catmint, and Monarda. Other choices popular with the pollinator set are (from a to z): Asters, Basil, Black-eyed Susan, Caryopteris, English Lavender, Globe Thistle, Goldenrod, Honeysuckle, Marjoram, Purple Coneflower, Rhododendron, Rosemary, Sage, Snowberry, Sunflower, Trumpet Vine, Wild Lilac and Zinnia.

If you have any questions about setting your garden abuzz this summer and making it a home for our oh-so-important pollinators, stop by the nursery or give us a call; we’d be happy to help.

Happy Gardening,
Misti Warner-Andersen

Please mark your calendars for next Friday, July 1 and start the Independence Day holiday weekend right by saving a life.

That’s when Warner’s Nursery will be having its annual summer blood drive in the safe and super comfy Vitalant bus in our parking lot.

This has been a long-standing tradition with us and we typically host it in the summer for one very important reason: It’s when donations are most needed.

You see, every summer, blood donations dry up. Throughout the country, blood banks tend to experience a drastic decline in donations when it gets hot, primarily because of vacation schedules. 

But the need for blood never takes a break.

It’s estimated that every two seconds, someone in the U.S. is in need of blood. And the blood that is donated doesn’t have a long shelf life: platelets (critical for people with clotting problems, cancer or undergoing major surgery) are only good for about five days and red blood cells (needed for acute blood loss or transfusions) only last for about 42 days.

In addition to the good feeling you’ll get from donating blood, there’s some other benefits. Blood donors will receive a voucher for “the ultimate chocolate chip cookie” from Pizza Hut;  a coupon for 15% off regularly priced items at Warner’s, and can enter a drawing for a chance to win one of two $50 gift certificates from Warner’s. Additionally, donors will be automatically entered to win a 2022 VW Taos S.

All you need to do to sign up is go to the Vitalant website, click on “blood drive code” and enter the word “warners.”

Thank you so much and we look forward to seeing you on Friday, July 1.

Happy Gardening,
Misti

For gardeners in northern Arizona, there are many benefits to using native plants when creating our gardens. They are naturally adapted to our climate and extreme growing conditions. They also add a unique beauty to cultivated landscapes.

Many native plants are drought tolerant and require less supplemental water once established. That’s becoming increasingly important, now that the “new normal” for the southwest is hotter and dryer.

Gardening with native plants increases the biodiversity of your landscape. It attracts native insects, pollinators and other wildlife, including birds, to your yard.

What is a Native Plant?

A native plant is a plant that is found naturally in the environment without human influence. The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines it as “A plant that is a part of the balance of nature that has developed over hundreds or thousands of years in a particular region or ecosystem.”

By contrast, a “cultivar” has been bred by humans for a desired trait, such as a specific color, more vigor, or bigger blooms. Some of our native plants have been selected for these traits by plant breeders and are commonly found in nurseries.

True native plants species that you can find pretty easily at local nurseries include Firecracker Penstemon (Penstemon eatonii), Rocky Mountain Penstemon (Penstemon strictus), sulphur-flowered buckwheat (Eriogonum umbellatum), Mexican hat (Ratibida columnifera), fern bush (Chamaebatiaria millifoium), and Apache plume (Fallugia paradoxa).

There also are a few backyard growers and organizations in Flagstaff that specialize in growing true native species, including The Arboretum at Flagstaff.

Caring for Your Native Plants

Here is some general information and growing tips about some of the most common native plants available in northern Arizona.

• Penstemons typically bloom earlier in the season giving the pollinators something to feast upon during spring. They are quite showy and an excellent choice for a low water landscape. They come in a variety of colors and can be found in a number of different habitat and soil types. In general, they prefer well-draining soils, but a few species can handle clay.
• Sulphur-flower buckwheat attracts several bees and butterfly species to the garden. They are also an important food source for a variety of birds. This plant prefers sunny dry spaces, and their low-growing habit makes them an excellent choice for rock gardens.
• Fern bush and Apache bloom are both native shrubs and members of the rose family. They have white flowers that bloom in the late spring-summer. Fern bush has unique, aromatic, fernlike leaves, while Apache plume has seeds that look like a plume of smoke that show up in the fall. Both are drought tolerant and make a wonderful addition to the native plant garden.

If you haven’t already discovered the horticultural benefits of using native plants in your garden, I urge you to try them. You’ll be adding beauty to your landscape while using plants that are uniquely adapted to our environment.

Gayle Gratop has been working with native plants in the Flagstaff area since 2007. She is an instructor in the Master Gardener Program with Coconino County Cooperative Extension. Before joining the Extension team, Gayle was the greenhouse manager at The Arboretum at Flagstaff for five years. She has also worked monitoring native plants for the Coconino National Forest. She loves everything about native plants, including growing them, gardening with them, and looking for them while hiking all around northern Arizona.

I gave a talk at Warner’s Root Camp recently on Deer and Javelina Resistant Gardening. I thought by putting this talk together, I would have a lot more answers on what to do. We get many calls at the extension office on what do about wildlife damage in the garden. I figured all I had to do was some research.

How hard can this talk be?

Building Fences

I quickly learned that aside form a sturdy fence, there aren’t many easy solutions for either deer or javelina control. In fact, for most wildlife problems in the garden, the key to control is prevention, and exclusion is the best remedy.

But exclusion isn’t always that easy. Your HOA may not allow fences. Or the cost may be too expensive. So, before you throw up your hands and give up, let’s visit the four habitat elements that wildlife require: food, water, shelter, and space. Modifying these elements can be used to discourage unwanted visitors.

Food is a main attractant to many gardens. A colorful tulip bed is like a dessert table for both deer and javelina. And if food resources are scarce, almost any plant will do. There are some plants that both critters avoid, especially when dry conditions haven’t driven animals to eat almost anything. Butterfly bush, oaks, skunk bush and other sumacs, daffodils and daylilies are good examples.

Javelina are opportunistic eaters, and their diet can change with the availability of food. They nibble on many plants or dig up plants that they don’t actually eat. They are especially fond of prickly pear cactus, and are known to seek out flowers and fruit. One Master Gardener lost spaghetti squash to a squadron of javelina. Vegetable plants that they seem to avoid are chili pepper, cucumber, and eggplant, and most herbs. Since javelina have a keen sense of smell, maybe strong odors can keep them away.

There are no guarantees on what javelina won’t eat, so the best strategy is to put up sturdy fencing that is a minimum of two to three feet tall. At my house recently, a javelina opted for cat food as a meal avoiding all the native plants in my front yard. (Feeding wildlife though is never a good practice.)

More Options Available for Deer

There are more options when considering how to prevent damage by deer. Again, you can think about what plants deer love and what they avoid. Favorites include roses and fruit trees. They often avoid smelly plants, particularly herbs such as lavender, sage, thyme, oregano, and rosemary. Plants that have fuzzy leaves like lamb’s ear and fern-like leaves like yarrow are not preferred choices.

In combination with growing less palatable plants, repellants such as capsicum pepper, garlic and coyote urine sprayed on plants can reduce the amount of damage. These all work to some degree but varying them often makes them more effective. Frightening with outdoor lighting or noise may seem like a good idea but many animals quickly learn to ignore these methods – and it can really annoy your neighbors. Motion sensors can work but I know a group of gardeners that got sprayed by oscillating sprinklers when they accidently tripped the sensor while visiting a garden.

As with javelina, the only sure way to control deer damage is to erect study fencing ideally at least eight feet tall. Colorado State University has a great publication on preventing deer damage.

Hattie Braun is the County Director of the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension in Coconino County, and coordinator of the Master Gardener Program.