Rain tests out the new stain job on the wooden wheelchair ramp

Rainwater beads up nicely on this freshly stained wood.

Nothing beats a trial by fire.  Or, in this case, rain.  We thought we did a good job of staining this wooden wheelchair ramp, but a nice little rainstorm early this morning really put it to the test.  The water beaded up and ran off just like it should. 

Even these handrails repelled water well.

We inspected the whole job and found that even the dryest and most weathered wood took the stain well and is repelling water as it now should.  It doesn't rain often in the desert, but when it does, it still does damage to wooden structures so this was worth doing.

Why stain your wooden hardscape? This picture tells the tale.

We had some stain left over after finishing the ramp (better too much material than not enough), so we stained a few other wooden hardscape objects as well.  It makes them all match and they all needed protection just as badly as the ramp did.  The puddles on this raised garden bed tell the tale of why staining wood outdoors is worthwhile. 

But how does water repellant wood stain work? I mean, it's liquid itself right? It soaks into the wood, especially this weathered wood, really well.  It didn't form a plastic like coating on the surface of the wood. Other than being a little darker, it looks and feels the same as before.  But now the rain water isn't soaking in.  I did some research.

The first thing I found out was that the stain we chose contains linseed oil. The oil fills the pores in the wood so that water cannot enter them.  It, like all oils, is naturally water repellant.  Everything is made from atoms which are incredibly tiny, electrically charged particles made up of negative electrons, positive protons and neutral neutrons and those atoms are combined to form molecules.  Some molecules are fundamentally stable enough to be considered elements, such as the oxygen and hydrogen that make up water. The hydrogen bonds that hold water molecules together are such that they leave some electrons still free to attract to other positively charged molecules, such as those that make up cotton fibers (which is why cotton clothes soak up water like a sponge).

Oil on the other hand, is made of chains of molecules that are bound together in ways that there aren't nearly as many electrons free to bond with other things, making a liquid oil nearly neutral in charge, thus the negatively charged water isn't attracted to it.  It get's quite complex, but that's about the most simple way to explain it. 

A great picture of the flax plant and its products by Handwerker on Wikimedia Commons.com

Water molecules. Note the positive charge of the hydrogen (H) is attracted to the negative charge of the oxygen (O)

A simple oil molecule. Hydrogen (H) electrons have filled all the available bonds with protons in the carbon (C) atoms, thus no space for the available electrons on the oxygen atoms of water to be attracted.

The stain we used also has what they call WaterGuard water repellants, which are trademarked and not disclosed, but are likely to be man-made polymers that are a lot like natural oils and that enhance the properties of the linseed oil. 


In addition to the raised bed, we also stained this wooden fence protecting a little patio area.

Water is running off this wooden fence now.

Stained this shade awning for the water system

And this shade awning.  Shade awnings like this are essential for protecting hoses, pipes, etc. of water systems for homes in the desert. Otherwise, the UV light from the sun will weaken the rubber and plastic they are made from. The awning also reduces the amount that the water gets heated during the summer so that water won't be so warm when it comes from the tap in the sinks.

Staining wood isn't terribly fun as it's difficult to keep the stain from getting on places where you don't want it and it's a sticky mess to get off your hands (rubbing alcohol on an old rag works about as well as anything), but it is important for having a sustainable landscape.  Being sustainable and environmentally friendly includes preventing materials in the landscape from becomming so damaged that they have to be thrown away and replaced.  By protecting these wooden structures, we're avoiding adding damaged wood to the landfill (or even the effort, time and money involved in getting it recycled before its useful life is truly over) and avoiding having to contribute to the demand for new lumber (and all the enviromental costs involved there), at least for the time being.  

Rescued Butterfly Bush Finds A Home

Butterfly Bush Buddleia davidii

This Butterfly Bush (Buddleia davidii) was rescued from the discount rack at a local big box store that we call 'The Orange Store'.  It came in a tiny, flimsy plastic pot barely big enough for the roots, but only cost $2. It was wilty and sad looking at the time, but we saw promise in it because it had the best formed trunk and branches; no obvious evidence of girdling roots and several flower buds. 

When we brought it home, we put it in a spot under a California fan palm sapling (that will be transplanted too someday) and on the East side of the house to protect it from being blasted by the hot, setting sun each afternoon.  We transplanted it into two nested pots filled with a soil-less potting medium high in pearlite to ensure drainage and watered it until water began to drip from the bottom of the pot (it was sitting on a stand so that the water could drain out) every day.  

After it quit wilting, about two weeks later, it started to flower. The flowers sure are pretty! We are looking forward to seeing how it looks when the plant can support full inflorescences of blossoms.

Butterfly bush blossoms

The pink blossoms contrast nicely with the opposite leaves of this plant which are dark green on top (adaxial surface) and covered with fine, silvery white hair-like wax on the bottom (abaxial surface).  It may continue to produce pink blooms, or the next set might be a darker red, even almost purple as these plants have some variety in blossom color.  The flowers are quite small as seen above and are rather simple, yet elegant, in design with one row of petals, each with serrated edges, fused into a tube with a deep center that hides the pistil and stamens. 

Butterflies and hummingbirds possess tongues long enough to access the sweet nectar that these flowers produce.  We hope that this bush will become a natural feeder for them so that we'll get to enjoy watching them flit around the yard.  Since we never spray pesticides in our yard, we think we stand a better than average chance of attracting them now with this bush.


Once the bush flowered for a while (another couple of weeks) and even began growing new leaves (a very hopeful sign that it might survive after all), we decided to transplant it again.  The weather was cooperating too with highs in the 80's forecasted the whole week and a 40% chance of rain.  Cool, rainy weather is ideal for transplanting many species in the desert. 

To give the plant the best chance of success, we carefully planned its new location.  A well placed and well dug hole is the key to success when it comes to transplanting out here.

The ideal spot was between this wall

And this planter

We paced 7 ft from the wall to give the bush room to grow

This is a good spot because it will get morning sun, but afternoon shade from the house and it is close enough to my makeshift drip irrigation set up (someday, I'll install a proper irrigation system) that I can set a drip on it if I'm gone for an extended period.  It is also in a fairly level spot which will make controlling runoff much easier than planting on a slope.

Butterfly bush can grow to be about 15 feet wide and 12 feet tall, so we wanted a location where it would have plenty of room to grow without getting in the way of anything.  As you may have noticed from other blog posts, we are not big fans of needless pruning.  Had we planted this bush closer to the sidewalk or wall, it would need pruned almost annually.  Where it will be, it won't be too close to any of the traffic paths, and may even cast a little shade over the planter box someday. 

 

"Weed Barrier" is in the way!

Weed Barrier is a myth. It doesn't prevent weeds for more than a couple of years after installation.

Fine gravel under the plastic?

When we started digging, we discovered to our dismay, that the previous owners of this property had fallen for the myth that putting a layer of black plastic under your rocks would prevent weeds.  Apparently, they placed it over the entire yard.  We'd already removed some of it around the trees shortly after we moved in.  This plastic is going to have to go away if we can hope for healthy root systems for our plants.  It's preventing gas exchange between the soil and the air and is impeding water infiltration.

Good soil under the rocks

The soil profile of our yard. Note the compacted layer on the surface.

Now that we've gotten the rocks and plastic and compacted soil out of the way (please oh please dear reader, never cover your yard with rocks no matter what your water district says!), we've found actual soil.  We're blessed to have chosen a location in the Las Vegas Valley that has loamy sand soil with fine gravel! This is primo soil for the Mojave Desert. Very good drainage and just barely enough clay and loam in it to help hold moisture and nutrients.  Other places in the valley aren't so lucky and have layers of caliche 'clay' which is actually coral that was pulverized and buried when the volcanoes that are now the Black Mountains to the South erupted, burying what was once a huge lake as big or bigger than the Great Salt Lake to the North of us.  Where I am digging used to be part of the shoreline around that lake and is a bit more like digging in a beach than a lake bottom.  This is perfect for many desert native and adapted plants, including our little Butterfly bush.

I know this soil well, so I know what its physical and chemical properties are.  If I wasn't sure, I'd do a couple of tests before deciding to plop a plant in here.  First, I'd get a little vinegar and drip it in a shallow hole.  If it fizzed a lot, I'd know that the soil was very alkaline and may not be the best material to use for a plant species that is not adapted to the desert (such as roses or violets). Then, I'd dig a small hole down to my planned root zone depth and fill it with water, noting the time that I did so.  I'd come back every 10 minutes or so to check the water depth.  If the hole still had standing water in it after 30 minutes, I'd consider planting somewhere else or build a raised bed if there were no other good locations for the plant.  Never plant anything (other than maybe plants from swamps or marshes) in a place with poor drainage. Your plants will never be healthy there. 


We dug the hole down just as deep as the flower pot was and about four times as wide to be sure to get as much plastic and rock out of the way as possible.

Luckily, the pot happens to be as deep as a spade is tall....

Makes measuring hole depth easy

People used to think that digging a really deep hole was key, but research has found that most trees and shrubs do not grow a really long tap root that winds up being as deep as the tree is tall. Only a very short list of trees actually do that, most of which aren't even grown in the U.S.  Actually, the key to tree stability is lateral roots. A wide fan of lateral roots extending out beyond the drip line of the mature tree canopy is what keeps trees from falling over.  That's why one spade deep is deep enough for this bush, but we made it as wide as we could. Someday, we'll probably come back and dig up even more of the rocks and plastic and move them out of the way as the bush gets bigger. 

Gently tapping the rootball out of the pot...

keeps the roots from being damaged

 

Placing the rootball in the hole, ensuring that potting soil is under and on all sides of it

Since the Butterfly bush was grown in soil-less potting media, we chose to keep that around the roots and to line the inside of the hole with it.  Our soil is pretty good by desert standards, but it's good to keep as much of the original soil around the roots to avoid breaking off any more root hairs (the tiny, almost invisible parts of roots that do all of the water and nutrient uptake) than we have to.  Eventually, the roots will grow out of the potting media and into the native soil, so we made sure to avoid compacting the bottom and sides of the hole, even raking at the surfaces with our fingers to make sure the spade didn't compact the soil too much.  Smooth, firm holes just become underground pots, preventing future root growth.

The native soil was gently placed around and on top of the rootball and gradually sloping away from the trunk, leaving a gap about a finger's width around the trunk to help prevent stem rot.

Bare soil was then covered with wood chip mulch out to what will soon be the dripline

Now that the plant was in the hole, we gently placed native soil around the sides of the potting media pile and over the top of it up to about a finger's width of the trunk.  Then, we covered that with a two to three inch thick layer of wood chip mulch also within a finger's width of the trunk.  That will help reduce the chance of stem rot that sometimes happens when soil and mulch are piled up around the trunk.  The mulch will help keep the soil moist and reduce soil erosion.  We used such a thick layer to help prevent weeds and to keep the mulch in place better than a light scattering would have.  As the bush gets bigger, we will move more rock and plastic away from it and add more mulch in its place. 

We then irrigated the plant with about a gallon of water and will water it about every other day to prevent wilting.  Thanks to the good drainage of this soil, that won't water-log the roots.  In heavier clay soil or in caliche, we would have to wait longer between waterings to avoid drowning the roots.  If the soil was really tight, we would have just built a tall planting box full of potting medium on top of the ground with a reservoir hole filled with gravel underneath it and planted the bush in that.  Once the bush is established, a deep watering once a week will be all it needs, even in summer.   

  Now, if all goes well, no guarantees when it comes to growing things, we'll have a lovely Butterfly bush to enjoy for years to come. 
 

Control. Control! You must learn control! - Yoda

Anger, aggression....the Dark Side are they.....

Felt in the Force a disturbance, did I.  I went outside this balmy, cool 80 degree morning, which is downright pleasant by Las Vegas standards, to carry out my daily morning ritual of enjoying our garden and making sure that nothing needed special attention.  Every day, I check the soil for adequate moisture, the mulch and soaker hoses to see if they need re-arranged (our neighborhood cats love to redecorate the yard at night) and the plants to see if they are reasonably healthy depending on the species and where they are in their life cycle. 


Usually, when I examine our surprise pumpkin vine, I notice a little insect damage, heat stress and general aging of the older parts of the vine and think little of it.  It's what one can expect when a plant of this type is nearing the end of its life cycle and is starting to focus on fruit production.  It is still getting a few new leaves and flowers, but they are fewer and farther between.  I had long ago learned that plants do not have to look 'Better Homes and Gardens' Coverplant perfect in order to be pleasing....or so I thought. 

For some reason this morning, the insect damage on the pumpkin seemed so much worse than before. Bad enough, in my eyes, to jeopardize the nearly ripe pumpkin featured in my previous blog post. 

The oldest leaves are being eaten alive!

All I could see in that moment was the damage and ooh! I had to find the culprits and make them pay! 



There they are!


But what were they?  Even in my fit of righteous indignation, I still had the presence of mind to go to my trusty home-built computer and look it up.  According to University of California - Davis' Integrated Pest Management website (a great resource, be sure to bookmark it!) A list of critters that love pumpkin as much as we humans do 
 
This miscreant was a Squash Bug (Not the most inspired name, but it'll do) AKA Anasa tristis.  To quote the site they are
"0.63 inch long, grayish or yellowish brown, flat-backed, and somewhat speckled, often with a dense covering of black hairs. Edges of the abdomen are orange or orange and brown striped. Nymphs are pale green to almost white."

A moment of translation may be in order.  the 'abdomen' is the last segment of an insect, that is, the South end of a Northbound bug.  'Nymphs' in this case are not fairy tale creatures, but rather the younger versions of an insect. In some species, the nymph stage looks noticeably different from the adult stage other than just being smaller.  Knowing what the young look like can help you spot an infestation sooner than waiting for adults to show up before you can recognize the critter. 

That was what I was seeing alright.  To confirm, they had a lovely little mug shot of some adult versions along with another shot of the wilty result of the damage they cause as they suck your plants' leaves dry.

Leaves on the left starting to wilt from damage. Note also the grayish nymphs taking a break from wreaking havoc on these leaves.

So, now I knew who my nemesis was, but what to do about him? UC-Davis' IPM page doesn't have anything very comforting to say for this momentarily impatient gardener:

"  In spring, search for squash bugs hidden under debris, near buildings and in perennial plants in the garden. Inspect young plants daily for signs of egg masses, mating adults, or wilting. Place wooden boards throughout the garden and check under them every morning, then destroy any squash bugs found...."

"Squash bugs are difficult to kill using insecticides because egg masses, nymphs, and bugs are often hidden near the crown of the plant and difficult to reach with sprays.

"Several insecticides are available that are less toxic (note it does not say harmless) to the environment including products containing soaps and oils such as neem oil, horticultural oil, and canola oil. These soaps and oils are most effective on the smallest nymphs, but good penetration throughout the canopy is essential so that nymphs under the leaves and deep within plants will be covered. Other more toxic pesticides are also registered for use on squash bugs; however, these materials should be used with caution because of negative impacts on bees and beneficial insects such as predators and parasites that help to keep other pest insects and mites in check. In addition, they are not likely to give better control than handpicking combined with softer chemicals. "
So, at this point where I had let so many of the Squash Bugs become adults and so much damage was already done, it was too late to waste my time and money on such things as Neem oil and insecticidal soaps since those, and even the 'harder chemicals' only work on the nymphs and only when you can get to the bottom side of every leaf and bit of debris in the garden.  The shade cloth, logs and soaker hose that I had placed in my raised bed earlier this Summer to create a cooler, moister microclimate so that the little pumpkin and other plants could survive the dry heat was now working against me!  Oh well, that's how it goes. 

That leaves just 'hand picked' and that's what I ran back out to the garden to start doing with abandon!  

EVEN RESORTING TO FENCING PLIERS ON SOME OF THEM!  THEY DON'T BITE PEOPLE, BUT THE BIGGER ONES LOOK LIKE THEY COULD.

 

 

 
I wetted down the entire raised bed of  plants with water (I'm fresh out of canola oil as I rarely fry anything) to flush the bugs out from hiding and started squishing! It's not for the squeamish as green goo gushed forth from them each time I smashed one.  Sometimes, I folded them up in the leaf they were on and squeezed the whole thing, other times I used my bare hands.  On the bigger, nastier looking ones, I resorted to using my handy dandy fencing pliers that my mentor at the NRCS gave me years ago, saying "If you have a pair of these along with what you've learned, you are equipped to do a lot of our work." 

 When I couldn't find anymore that I could catch (they are adept at crawling out of the way and at falling off their perch when you aren't fast enough).  I took a break....then realized that what I was doing was wrong.  Not only was it futile, since I couldn't possibly find every Squash Bug, nor especially ever find all of their tiny eggs, but also because the vine was just about done doing its duty anyway.  It has almost completely ripened the only pumpkin that is likely to survive the dry heat of my yard (others had started, but had shriveled up right on the vine from the heat), so what's the point of postponing the inevitable? 

Even if the Squash Bugs had never shown up, the vine would eventually shrivel up when the cold Autumn winds froze it anyway.  Moreover, the pulp in this pumpkin that I'm so worried about is destined to wind up in a pie.  The rest is destined to first be a jack-o-lantern, and then to be mulch for the seeds inside it....provided that it survives long enough to be picked.  Either way, it's going to die and turn back into the nutrients from whence it came eventually.

"Death is a natural part of life.....Rejoice for those around you who transform into the Force. Mourn them do not, miss them do not" - Yoda 


If I am going to commit to being an 'organic' and 'Earth friendly' gardener, shouldn't I be much more careful about how I attempt to exercise the powers at my disposal?  Sure, I could spray the whole raised bed with pesticides ('organic' or not) and try to wipe them out...all of them.  But there's no guarantee that I'd actually get all of them. In the meantime, I would be risking poisoning the very fruits that I hope to someday eat from the plants.  I'd certainly be killing any beneficial insects that happen to prey on the bugs I'm so worried about for a living.  Even though my squishing tirade didn't kill all the Squash Bugs, if I do have any predatory insects in my bed, they'll have slimmer pickin's for a while.  They might even move on and leave my bed altogether if their prey population drops too much.

It would be easier to spray than to squish, but then if I spray my own vegetables for bugs, why bother growing them at all? Why not just buy them all from the store? All of those are sprayed too. Even the allegedly 'organic' ones are probably sprayed at least with Neem oil (which isn't totally benign either and even has warning labels) otherwise, how could they send so many lovely looking fruits and veggies to the store? They can't possibly be turning most of their crop into compost since picky customers won't buy insect or disease 'damaged' produce...can they? 


I could give into the Dark Side every morning and squish bugs until my hands were sticky with their fluids, but I'd still never get them all and I'd feel just as bad as I do when I pull 'weeds' from a bed.  Who am I to say whether this plant or that bug is 'bad' or 'doesn't belong'?  If we get carried away with pest control, are we really being 'green' or just being 'green-ish' when it suits our purposes? 

As Yoda says, we must learn control.  Control of our own egos, emotions and short shortsightedness.  Something to think about for me and for all of us.

The leaves on my pumpkin vine may not look so pristine anymore, but my pumpkin is still growing. So are the peppers on this neighboring plant in the foreground (which the experts tell me the Squash Bugs won't eat anyway, just hide in). That's what matters, right?

 

A Touch of Autumn in August

We've got a pumpkin ready for autumn decor! How'd this happen? Here's the story in reverse.

When I knew for sure this wasn't going to be a squash :)

Hey! Here's a fruit! Note the soaker hose. It's coiled throughout the raised bed for even watering.

It's Blooming! Aren't they pretty? I hear they are yummy too.

From a "Weed" in the flowerbed to this! Is it Summer Squash?

It all started out looking like this. This is another one popping up in another pot.

If all continues to go well (our pumpkin vine is facing challenges from aphids, leafcutters and etc. now, but that's the breaks when you garden organically.  We try to remove insect eggs and larvae by hand, but you can't get them all.), we'll have our own little pumpkin for a tiny jack-o-lantern!  Raising your own plants from seed is fun. Give it a try.  If you have, drop us a line below about how it went along with any questions you may have about growing plants from seed. 

Speaking of surprise plants, here's an update from my last post: the top ear of corn is starting to fill out and the silks are fully elongated.  It's like waiting for Christmas morning, the anticipation of seeing how well the cob has been pollinated.  Each plump kernel will be a female flower on the cob that was pollinated.