What's going on in our garden

3 Steps to Success in your Garden

Time to get down and dirty! Once the rain let's up, it's time to dig in. Here are 3 tips to ensure you get the garden of your dreams. Step 1 Get rid of all those weeds. Weeding by hand is still the most effective. Make sure when you pull, try to get the whole root. You can use Round Up for those hard to reach areas. After weeding use some pre-emergent to prevent future weed seeds from sprouting. Step 2 Unfortunately, most of us have hard clay soil in our area. If you have not amended the soil with any organic soil amendment, now is the time. The employees at Green Thumb really love E.B. Stones' Soil Booster. It helps break up clay while adding organic matter to your soil. Other choices are Planting Compost and/or Planting Mix which will essentially provide the same result. The more organic material you can add to your soil, the happier your plants will be. Turn into your garden soil whatever product you choose while the soil is still moist for easier digging. At the same time you add fertilizer or wait until you plant. Step 3 Mulching is a great final touch. You can put mulch down now or wait until you plant. Mulching conserves water and keeps the weeds from coming back in a week. It creates a beautiful clean look to any garden bed. This may seem like a lot of hard, dirty work but the returns will be worth it, and you will find that you won't have to work as hard in the future.

Cyclamen; our Queen of Winter

The cyclamen pericum of today looks very different from the wild forms that grow in Turkey, Africa, Italy and other countries of the Mediterranean. In medieval times the wild cyclamen had many medicinal uses; worn by women in delivery to speed up delivery, used to counteract poisons, heal snakebites, clear sinuses, remove boils and skin blemishes only to name a few. Cyclamen breeders regard 1870 as the year when they started to develop larger flowers and the different leaf patterns. Today we have minis, sierras, lasers and many more types to choose from. Sierra-type cyclamen have larger flowers and are available in white, red, purple, lavender, pink, wine; frilly and flame styles too. Lasers are medium to small flower with many colors and are fragrant. Cyclamen can be grown indoors and out. They need good drainage and tend to like their soil on the dry side; too much water can lead to wilt and rot. The cyclamen flower symbolizes resignation and goodbye. This makes it an appropriate gift for someone retiring or relocating. We at Green Thumb feel fortunate to have one of the best growers of cyclamen in the area, Sunset Nursery. Come see our great selection! Kathy Brigante, Manager Green Thumb Nursery of Los Gatos

Lawn Grubs ... food for Racoons!
Fall is a time for pumpkins, cyclamen and cornucopias. It is also one of the few times where it IS politically correct to adopt the NIMBY stance (not in my backyard) when it comes to certain critters!
If you see this ...
then chances are you've been visited by this ...
in search of this ...
Grubs in the lawn are a particular delicacy for raccoons and skunks, neither of which are very delicate in their harvesting! The grubs (larvae laid by beetles in the spring) live beneath the sod resulting in an autumn feast for these critters easily accessible by peeling back the top layer of sod and revealing the main course. While nematodes present the 'greenest' solutions to ridding the lawn of the food source, grub control pellets distributed via a seed spreader provide the quickest and easiest means of elimination. It usually only takes one application to send the grubs to the great beyond, and the raccoons farther beyond the back fence. Raccoons and skunks can decimate a lawn over night and return for seconds the next. The best defense is diligent observance and at the first hint of a visit by the masked bandit, a generous application of grub control. Then you can feast on homemade pumpkin pie! by Joni Holland