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I’d bet that we’re all pretty happy that the rainy season is over and cherishing the beautiful sunny days. With a good layer of mulch to help retain moisture in the soil, plus the warm days, plants are now putting on growth that can almost be measured day by day!

Over several years now, I’ve been creating a meadow in an area within my garden; and this year some nice patches of clovers have taken hold. It’s mostly a non-native rosy-colored clover, but it's still good for the animals! While the new leafy growth persists, the deer browse the patch every morning, and once the flowers have set, bees of all sorts are buzzing around.

The time for planting natives is pretty much past, but now as the nights are warming, it’s time to get the summer vegetables in the ground. Though most of my gardening efforts are devoted to creating and restoring natural habitat, I do also grow lots of plants useful to humans. Tomatoes, beans, and peppers, as well as lots of herbs such as parsley, dill, and basil; many of these plants are providing resources for both humans and native creatures!

Plants for People and Animals

The Flickers have now left my oak woodlands and moved to higher elevations in the Coast Ranges; I’ll look forward to seeing them again when we’re camping in the forests this summer. Meanwhile, the Tree Swallows are here already and I’m waiting to hear the first calls of the Ash-throated Flycatchers as they arrive from wintering grounds in Baja California. For the last five or six years they have shown up about the fifth of May, and by June are raising a brood in the nesting box hung in an old Coast Live Oak.

Last year the Flycatchers did not breed here, perhaps due to the drought conditions and reduced insect populations. This year is obviously very different, and I’ve already seen dense clouds of insects floating upwards into the air, massing and dispersing, shifting patterns of light and dark as the tiny creatures come together and then move apart again, much like the famous murmurations displayed by large flocks of Starlings.

What is a Weed – and are they of Value in our Environment?

A number of animals store acorns for later consumption; notably the Acorn Woodpeckers with their ‘granary trees’. They place each acorn just so, packed tightly into a hole, and then tend to their store regularly, moving the acorns to smaller holes when they start to dry up and shrink.

Western Scrub Jays also store acorns, but they do it individually in holes in the ground. They prefer the long, skinny acorns of the Coast Live Oak – these fit perfectly in their bills! They are very sneaky about hiding their acorns; if another Jay is looking, or if there is a person close by, they will find another spot to hide it. Most they remember to retrieve, but those which they don’t have a chance to grow; many of the oaks that grow uphill from the parent tree were most likely planted by Jays! 

At the end of the dry season my garden is just that; at a glance many of the native plants look dry, and dead; but once you look more closely there’s always a bit of green within the brown. Plants are dormant, but definitely not dead; seeds are abundant, as are all the creatures coming to the garden to partake in this abundance.

Goldfinches come for the tarweed seeds, each plant with a flock of five or six birds taking the small flat seeds from each spent flower. Bushtits, most always in a flock of course, make their way from one side of the garden to the other, working over one shrub, then on to the next closest, and so on, carefully inspecting both the top and the bottom of leaves, flowers and seed heads  as they forage for tiny insects. The Golden-crowned Sparrows are back in Marin, busy practicing their songs and doing the sparrow double-scratch, which both brings up seed for them to eat, and helps those they miss get properly planted.

Now that fall is soon upon us, and hopefully the rainy season as well, the time is perfect to plant California natives.  Many gardeners have issues and great frustration with the deer interfering with their planting plans. I happen to love and respect these animals, and from personal experience know that it is possible to create a beautiful native garden despite the presence of deer. You can have it all; a wonderful habitat rich in natural resources, complete with the native wildlife; your own zoological parkland !

I've summarized some simple steps for success below; if you care to know a lot more about the Columbian Black-tailed deer that live throughout the Bay Area, read my "Gardening in Deer Country' essays in Home Ground's resources pages.

GETTING FAMILIAR WITH YOUR GARDEN ZONE

1 –Familiarize yourself with native plants that grow wild in areas close to your home by participating in naturalist’s led hikes.

2 – Go to http://Calscape.CNPS.org, where visitors can enter their street address to get a list of native plants that are most appropriate for your locale.

The term Ecology is a relatively new field of study in the world of Biology; it was coined in 1866 by the German scientist, Ernst Haeckel (1834 – 1919). There are now two major subdivisions; animal ecology or plant ecology; and as many as twenty-one different specialty areas of study. One of the broadest specialty areas is Bioecology, when plants and animals are given equal emphasis; Autecology is the study of a single species of organism; and Synecology is the study of ecological inter-relationships among communities of organisms. I quickly realized that this is exactly what inspires me! I’m a Synecologist! I think about inter-relationships when I’m out walking in the wilds, and when I’m working in my garden. I’ll use one of my favorite native plants, Elegant Madia (Madia elegans) as an example.

Several other smaller groups of butterflies are included in the larger family commonly known as the Gossamer-winged butterflies; there are the Blues, the Coppers, Metalmarks and Hairstreaks. Most of these small butterflies are uncommon in Marin gardens; many of them have associations with just one or two species of native plants in specific habitats. There is just one butterfly within the sub-family of Hairstreaks that is often seen in Marin gardens, and that’s the Common, or Gray Hairstreak.

The Gray Hairstreak (Strymon melinus) is easy to spot, even amongst lots of other butterflies because of a distinctive behavior; its wings are folded while it’s sipping nectar, and it rubs its hind wings together steadily as it feeds. On both surfaces of the hind wing, close to the abdomen, is a large black-pupiled red spot, and delicate, highly mobile ‘tails’. The spots are vaguely like eyes, the tails like antennae, and the rubbing sets it all in motion; constituting a ‘false head’ which diverts predators away from the real body. It’s another wonderful example of ‘back to front’ mimicry!