Alden Lane Nursery is encouraging everyone to help pollinators by planting a few pollinator plants in their garden from seed or plants. Everyone has a bit of room for pollinator habitat!

Our favorite seed company, Botanical Interests offers these Pollinator Tips:

4 P’s of Pollinator-Friendly Gardening

Plant flowers
Provide food for pollinators by sowing flowers, especially native varieties.

Plant diversity
Plant a diversity of bloom times, colors, and heights. By staggering bloom times, you provide a reason for pollinators to call your garden home throughout the growing season. Some pollinators are very small and need very small, open flowers in order to access the pollen or nectar. Sow a diversity of flower shapes and sizes, usually simpler (vs. double petal) varieties of flowers work for more species.

Provide water
In your water feature, create small islands with stones where pollinators can land, and climb in and out.

Pass on pesticides
Look for organic ways to block pests, disrupt their life cycle, and invite their predators. Integrated Pest Management (IPM) techniques utilize simpler solutions, such as using a fabric row cover to block pests. Sowing varieties like alyssum or allowing dill to flower will attract beneficial and predatory insects.

Alden Lane Nursery carries hundreds of pollinator plants including natives. We also carry Botanical Interest Seeds (being restocked this week!), offering dozens of seed varieties to add pollinator habitat to your landscape.

Get on Board!  Plant something for the pollinators!

As the weather has warmed, we’ve seen aphids appear. Aphids are little green (although they can be other colors such as black, yellow or grey) insects that suck the juice from new spring leaves. The subsequent scarring can cause the leaves to warp and curl around the aphids, protecting them.

In addition to weakening the plant, aphids drop a messy, sugary residue on items below their work site and they are also prolific in their reproduction, making problems exponentially worse if left unchecked.

The first line of defense with aphids is to hose them off the plants physically with a spray of water. If you have a small infestation, you can wipe them off the leaves. These techniques would need to be repeated daily.

A favorite way to handle these invaders and also very effective are to release lady bugs into your garden. These beneficial insects are a valuable addition to the toolkit of every Valley gardener. Alden Lane Nursery can provide them in useful quantities and advise you on where and how to use them most effectively. Each adult ladybug will consume over 5,000 aphids in their lifetime.

Don’t panic when you see the black “bug” pictured! That is the ladybug larvae.

For those wishing another organic or natural method of controlling aphids, we suggest a one-two punch, first with Bonide All Seasons Spray Oil followed up with a fresh release of Ladybugs a day or 2 later.

The spray oil simply sprays on at the end of a hose, no mixing. It smothers pests, rather than poisoning them. The Ladybugs mop up the leftovers and stand guard against local aphid uprisings.

It’s Vegetable Season! Alicia in our Bedding department wanted to give you some fun varieties to ponder. You probably already know the old favorites, but have you ever tried….

• The Italian Rampicante Squash. It’s tender, mild, nutty, and sweet. And just a lot of fun with its pale color the curved neck so long you can wear it as a necklace.
• Do you have trouble with your cucumbers turning bitter? Try the Armenian Cucumber. It has a long pale green fruit that is reliably not bitter.
• Consider the Marchant pepper, the iconic pepper of the California Gold Rush. They are a hot pepper, but not too hot, and often pickled although we have used them in salsas and sauces of all descriptions. Also known as the California Italian Wax pepper or Chileno. This pepper is in commercial production, so you have to grow them to have them.
• Do you love the Golden Ground Cherries (Goldie) that we are just starting to see in the grocery stores? They are actually a variety of tomatillo, and we have them in stock for a limited time. Remember for all tomatillos you need 2 plants (does not need to be the same variety) because they are not self-pollenating.
• And let’s not forget our tomatoes! Continue the California Connections with San Francisco Fog (a mid-sized red slicer,) Berkeley Tie Die (a multicolor beefsteak,) the Napa Chardonnay (a sweet yellow cherry tomato,) and the Napa Rosé (a pink cherry tomato).

Snails and slugs are among the most bothersome pests in many garden and landscape situations. Snails and slugs move by gliding along on a muscular “foot”. This muscle constantly secretes mucus, which later dries to form the silvery “slime trail” that signals the presence of either pest; both pests have voracious appetites.

Snails and slugs are most active at night and on cloudy or foggy days. On sunny days they seek hiding places out of the heat and bright light; often the only clues to their presence are their silvery trails and plant damage. During hot, dry periods or when it is cold, snails seal themselves off with a parchment-like membrane and often attach themselves to tree trunks, fences, or walls.

Damage they can do
Snails and slugs feed on a variety of living plants as well as on decaying plant matter. On plants, they chew irregular holes in leaves and flowers and can clip succulent plant parts. They can also chew fruit and young plant bark. Because they prefer succulent foliage or flowers, they are primarily pests of seedlings and herbaceous plants, but they are also serious pests of ripening fruits, such as strawberries, artichokes, and tomatoes, that are close to the ground. However, they will also feed on foliage and fruit of some trees; citrus is especially susceptible to damage. Look for the silvery mucous trails to confirm slugs or snails and not earwigs, caterpillars, or other chewing insects caused the damage.

Earth and pet-friendly Sluggo!
The base ingredient of Sluggo is naturally occurring Iron Phosphate that does a great job of controlling snails and slugs in the garden while not harming other creatures including pets and people; and as it breaks down it actually nourishes the plants.

Make your environment less snail and slug friendly
A good snail and slug management program relies on a combination of methods. The first step is to eliminate, to the extent possible, all places where snails or slugs can hide during the day. Boards, stones, debris, weedy areas around tree trunks, leafy branches growing close to the ground, and dense ground covers such as ivy are ideal sheltering spots. Reducing hiding places allows fewer snails and slugs to survive. The survivors will congregate in the remaining shelters, where they can more easily be located and eliminated.

Note, there will always be shelters that are not possible to eliminate e.g. low ledges on fences, the undersides of wooden decks, and water meter boxes. Just be sure to locate vegetable gardens or susceptible plants as far away from these areas as possible. This will not only protect your plants; it will also reduce the capacity of these pests to hide and proliferate.

Choose and locate plants carefully
Choose snail-proof plants for areas where snails and slugs are dense. Many plants resist damage from snails and slugs including begonias, California poppy, fuchsias, geraniums, impatiens, lantana, nasturtiums, and purple robe cupflower, and many plants with stiff leaves and highly scented foliage like lavender, rosemary, and sage. Most ornamental woody plants and ornamental grasses are also not seriously affected.

A penny apiece bounty is a great incentive for kids. Remember to tightly secure the bag before putting into the trash OR you could turn your catch into escargot.

Use barriers to protect susceptible plants
Snails and slugs favor seedlings and plants with succulent foliage and these plants must be vigilantly protected. Some plants that are seriously damaged include basil, beans, cabbage, dahlia, delphinium, lettuce, marigolds, strawberries, and many vegetable plants.

Copper barriers are effective because the copper reacts with the slime the snail or slug secretes, causing a flow of electricity — to take advantage of this just put 2 widths of copper tape around your planting beds.

Proper water management
An important tool in your anti-snail and slug arsenal is careful irrigation. Avoiding over-watering and/or using drip irrigation will reduce humidity and moist surfaces, making the habitat less favorable for these pests.

Snail and slug baits should be chosen carefully
Snail and slug baits can be effective when used properly in conjunction with a cultural program incorporating the other methods discussed above. However, baits alone will not effectively control snails or slugs in gardens that contain plenty of shelter, food, and moisture.

Note, do not use salt to destroy snails and slugs; it will increase soil salinity – making the cure worse than the illness.

Feed! Feed! Feed! It’s time to refresh your garden plants. Fertilize all of your plants to support spring growth. For landscape shrubs and trees feed with Master’s Formula 49 All Purpose Plant Food. If you have citrus or avocado trees, use Master’s Citrus Food. Early March is an ideal time to start feeding fruit trees, grapes, and berries. We recommend Master’s Fruit Tree & Vine Food for the nutrition your plants need to produce the best crop ever! Your roses will appreciate a monthly feeding of Master’s Rose & Flower Food.

Prune azaleas and camellias into shape after their blooms have faded. Feed them with Master’s Camellia, Azalea and Gardenia Food and Iron Plus monthly through October.

Place Yellow Jacket traps out early this month to catch the queen before she starts her family. Prevention is the best cure! We have wasp & carpenter bee deterrents too.

Give your lawn “a meal – not a snack” with Master Green Lawn Food.

Control snails with organic Sluggo Plus and pet-safe Sluggo.

 This is a good time to think about lawn renovation.

 Add a lilac to your garden and enjoy its fragrant spring blossoms.

Remember to plant gladiolus bulbs (corms) every two weeks, and you’ll have armloads of cut flowers through the summer.

Remember to water plants under eaves and in containers. It’s important now to deep water trees and shrubs if it isn’t raining on a regular basis. Their root systems are starting to grow now.

Start annual morning glories from seed this month and establish them in the garden or a pot by summer! Morning glories are one of the most stunning of the old fashioned garden flowers. Flowers are huge – three to five inches across – and bright, colorful blue, purple or pink. Best of all, morning glories are easy!

Combat Citrus leafminer organically. Hang traps in your citrus to catch the flying adult, doing so will reduce damage to new growth of your lemons, oranges and other citrus plants.