by Sue Van Stee and Joan Youngren

Overview:

Because this garden is an ongoing project maintained from year to year, the primary purpose continues to be choosing, planting and maintaining flowering plants that attract and sustain populations of beneficial arthropods and vertebrates including birds and lizards. We also try to determine the plant preferences of these various organisms. We share this information with other Master Gardeners and the gardening public.

Soil preparation:

Needless to say, the garden is maintained organically. Since the initial development of the garden in 2003 we have regularly added compost and mulch and watered. No additional fertilizer was added.

Watering:

During the summer into the fall for the year 2006, irrigation was set for 3 times per week, 30 minutes each time, very early in the morning.

Planting:

Plants that failed were removed; few replacements were added partly because little space was available with the explosive growth of several perennials, the result of the seven weeks of almost constant rain in March and April. Where possible, some annuals such as Cosmos and African Blue Basil were planted because of their attractiveness to beneficials. Plants were pruned when necessary; cuttings from some of these plants, including African Blue Basil, Salvia 'Hot Lips,' and Caryopteris incana were rooted and subsequently grown for the Spring Garden Market or replanted in other areas at Nine Palms. In some cases seed heads and complete plants were left after blooming ceased to feed birds such as Lesser Goldfinches, yearly residents, and crowned sparrows, winter visitors.

Cosmos	African Blue Basil
Salvia 'Hot Lips'

Discussion:

Visual observation was the primary means of identifying and recording data. Use of hand lenses and appropriate field guides supported our activity as did invaluable help by other Master Gardeners at Nine Palms. Frequently, we observed insects, spiders and birds in other areas of the project. Considering that seasonal and yearly changes are important, we have also tried to observe and record such changes.

With respect to seasonal and yearly changes, two events affected the Beneficials Garden in 2006: the seven-week period of rainy, chilly weather in March and April and the two-week spell of extremely hot weather in July. The March-April deluges subsequently stimulated immense growth of some perennials including the Salvias 'Hot Lips' and 'Waverly' and the Nepeta varieties; perhaps the great amount of rainfall provided a reservoir of underground water to help support the irrigation regime and sustain the garden during the hot, dry summer into the fall. However, the chilly, rainy weather caused the decline of most butterfly populations; we observed very few species except for Skippers - and very few individuals within species. As an example, only occasionally single Monarchs flew around Nine Palms, but we have observed no Monarch eggs, larvae or adults on the Asclepias plants scattered about Nine Palms; a few Western Tiger Swallowtails were observed throughout the year, but no Buckeyes, usually regular visitors in past years, Painted Ladies or Hairstreaks were seen. Skipper species started appearing early in the year, became absent mid-year, and returned in great numbers in late summer into the fall. The continuously high temperatures in July perhaps eliminated any possible revival of subsequent generations of butterfly species.

Salvia 'Waverly'	Nepeta faasenii 'Six Hills Giant'

While we observed very little activity of Honey Bees and the native Carpenter Bees in March, April or July, they did continue to visit at other times, especially late summer into the fall. Native Bees, including Bumble Bees, mostly Bombus vosenenskii, and the smaller, gray bees, probably Osmia species, were observed occasionally early in the year, then became almost absent during the heat spell and returned in greater numbers than in previous years in late July concomitantly with the explosive growth and flowering of many of the plants in the garden. Occasional fly species, including Syrphids and Soldier, became more numerous following the heat spell. Wasps, too, although not in such great numbers as in previous years, visited the various flowering plants. Dragonflies and Damselflies were observed frequently at Nine Palms. And lizards were present many of the days we were working in the garden as were the birds.

Bee on basil	Bee on salvia 'Hot Lips'

Lady Beetles seemed to increase greatly in late summer into fall. While we observed no Monarchs on the Asclepias plants, Lady Beetle adults were evident on them as predators of aphids in periodic invasions. In the melon plot dozens of Lady Beetle pupae appeared on the leaves and stems of the melon plants in mid-to-late September; with the warmth of fall days many adults with their new, brightly colored wing covers emerged from these pupae. We think also that some of the pupae became food for the birds. Although we have no way of tracking the surviving adults, we should like to think that they will remain as over-wintering residents in Nine Palms and not fly to other areas.

Spiders also have been important organisms in the garden. While many of the smaller wolf and jumping spiders no doubt have remained invisible to us, the Orb-Web Weavers, Araneus sp., appeared with their webs in September and October. One Black-and-Yellow Araneus constructed a web on the melon trellis in September and also deposited an egg sac, well protected by silken fibers and melon leaves, on a melon plant on the trellis. Then the adult female moved from the trellis and built another web between melon plants of two rows; within two weeks the spider was gone because of predation probably by a bird. The egg sac remained intact, and before the melon plants were removed, the sac with a few leaves and stem of the supporting melon plant was removed and placed on a branch of a nearby Plumbago shrub.

Also in September, another Orb-Web Spider, the Banded Araneus, constructed a web on the Kniphofia uvara plant in the Beneficials Garden. As of October 24, the web and spider were still there, although a smaller companion, probably a male, seen on the web two of the four weeks we have observed the spider and web, was no longer present. Joan Kendig noticed on the 24th that the female seemed much thinner than before, so we immediately thought of the possibility of an egg sac very near her; as we looked farther down on the plant, we found it supported between long straplike leaves and very different from the egg sac of the Black-and-Yellow Araneus.

As for birds at Nine Palms, just a couple of observations. Anna's Hummingbirds continued to visit the Beneficials Garden and other areas at Nine Palms; their targeted plants were the Salvias. Lesser Goldfinches preferred the seed-bearing plants but also seemed to prefer that we not be around while they picked about.

When considering the variety and diversity of the flowering plants in the Beneficials Garden as well as the Cutting Garden and other parts of Nine Palms, we have tried to organize them into a few categories to help gardeners understand which types of plants are more attractive to beneficial arthropods. One category includes the tubular or semi-tubular flowering plants including Salvias of many species and varieties; many herbs such as Basils, Hyssops, Lavenders, and Oreganos; California Fuchsia; Penstemon species; Nepeta species and Cuphea species.

Ornamental Oregano 'Hopleys Purple'	Epilobium canum (California fuchsia)

Another category includes the flowering plants with large or adequate landing platforms - the qualifier adequate is used because many attractive flowers such as fall asters have relatively small platforms but attract a great diversity of small beneficials; these platform plants include Lantana species, Scabiosa species and Asteraceae family members. Another special category is plants with "fuzzy flowers," or flowers with many visible stamens such as Coyote Bush and species of Yarrow, Sedum, Ageratum, Eupatorium and Caryopteris.

Scabiosa columbaria	Sedum 'Autumn Joy'

Summary:

We must assume that we are seeing only a fraction of many diverse organisms in what we hope is healthy ecosystem. These "invisibles" include the larval and adult nocturnal ground beetles, bugs and flies, and all life stages of litter-dwelling and sub-surface beetles, bugs and flies as well as earthworms. Also, the smallness of some of these organisms such as mites and wasps, perhaps as small as 1/16 of an inch, limits our ability to find, observe and identify them. Because of the limited number of hours we work at Nine Palms we cannot observe what is happening for most of each day and night. We can only assume that the birds are picking at the seed heads, picking up fallen seeds or picking off aphids, scale, mealybugs or other pests that arthropod predators and parasites have not disposed of; that the lizards are consuming surface-dwelling pests; that the dragonflies are behaving as predators of other flying insects.

We realize that beneficials will inevitably be preyed upon as will the pests, but we have to think that a healthy ecosystem with much diversity will be balanced enough to allow survival of effective beneficials populations. Therefore, we must maintain a healthy diversity of plants. While we must consider water conservation as one of our primary research goals and include not only natives but also drought-resistant or drought-tolerant Mediterranean plants and other perennials with low water requirements, we should plant annuals and herbs as well. From the observation of interactions between plants and beneficials in the Cutting Garden and other areas at Nine Palms, we appreciate the importance of African Blue Basil and single-flowered members of the Asteraceae family such as Zinnias and Cosmos. Next year we intend to plant a small area near the Beneficials Garden with natives or mostly natives as well as to plant a greater diversity of plants in the Beneficials Garden where we have space. With all of this effort at providing diversity, we must remember our role of providing such useful information to the gardening public and especially their willingness to incorporate many different kinds of plants into their gardens.

Appendix 1: Beneficial Plant List and Observations

Note: In this list and the report as well, we recognize that Bumble Bees and Carpenter Bees are native species. We do use the term native to designate the smaller bee species, most of which probably are Osmia, and to distinguish them from Honey Bees.