“To inquire into the intricacies of a distant landscape, then, is to provoke thoughts about one’s own interior landscape, and the familiar landscapes of memory. The land urges us to come around to an understanding of ourselves.”
-Barry Lopez,
Arctic Dreams
These monthly newsletters are intended to bring practical techniques to your email, allowing you to make your immediate landscape reminiscent of your favorite distant landscape.
Current events, history, review, and notes
“Well it ain’t gonna rain no mo’ no mo’It ain’t gonna rain no mo’
How in the world can the old folks tell
It ain’t gonna rain no mo’.”
“It Ain’t Gonna Rain No Mo'” (Wendell Hall, 1923)
Watering
Simply restated:
The Deep Soak with refreshing Sprinkles Method (revisited) (DS + RS)
Deep Soak. (DS) To make up for our scant rains and warm spring temps, we need to get water into the soil to a depth of 14-18”. Do this by applying the equivalent of 1-1.5” of precipitation every 4-5 weeks, starting as soon as possible. You can set a hose-end mini sprinkler in one spot for several hours, and move it over the next few days, or if you have a sprinkler system, water the entire garden three days in a row with the sprinklers on for 30-45 minutes each time. You can do “spot watering” on new plants by hand, by strategically setting a mini sprinkler where needed.
Refreshing Sprinkles. (RS) Usually reserved for heat waves and summer weather, this is a technique supplemental to the Deep Soak in which you simply wet the leaves of all the plants. Best done by hand, you simply stand in a good place and spray the whole garden with water from a hose-end pistol sprayer, wetting the leaves and the surface of the soil. Do it late in the afternoon so the leaves will be dry by around dusk. Plants absorb water through their leaves and this technique gives the plants a reprieve overnight, and helps make the DS moisture more effective. RS can be done a few times a week, and you will not need them at all during periods of May Gray, June Gloom or other overcast moist conditions.
Deep Soak (DS) – every 4-5 weeks, 20-30 sprinkler minutes per day, three mornings in a row to make one DS.
Refreshing Sprinkles (RS) – a few times a week, spray 5 minutes by hand, early evening, especially during hot periods.
Related to Watering
Avoid applying DS or RS during the heat of the day. DS in the early morning. RS in the early evening. Be aware of “mid-day depression”, an agricultural term describing stems that are wilted even though there is plenty of moisture in the soil. New growth from spring is affected when the sun hits it during the heat of the day because the plant simply cannot get water from the roots to the leaves as fast as it is being lost through transpiration. If the plant remains wilted in the evening, check the soil, it’s probably dry and you need a DS. If the branch tips are revived, it was mid-day depression, a natural phenomenon. Don’t be fooled into watering, and know that the plant will eventually learn to cope.
Come to our 2025 Re-wild Workshops
#1-4 at Tree of Life Nursery. Presented by Tree of Life Nursery and www.calnativehort.org
#1 Summer Watering in Native Plant Gardens
July 12, 2025
Register Here.
#2 Swale and Dry Steambeds plus New Plant Establishment
August 9, 2025
Register Here.
#3 Site Design plus New Plant Establishment
September 13, 2025
Register Here.
#4 Planting Design plus New Plant Establishment
September 27, 2025
Register Here.
Pruning
Most corrective pruning should have been done in May, but if you need to remove a whole branch, or lightly thin your woody shrubs June is still OK. As we get into longer, hotter, brighter days there is some danger of sunburn on newly exposed interior bark and branch wood.
Weeding
Presumably, the dry year, recently applied topdress, and your diligence add up to a weed free garden. Presumably.
Mulching / Top Dress
Always leave the natural leaf “litter” under native plants, especially in summer. Avoid adding imported (foreign) topdress at this time, the reason being that fresh organic mulches might heat up too much and promote disease in the root zone of your plants. Best to apply them at cooler seasons.
Feeding
No fertilizer at this time.
Troubleshooting – Varmints, Pests and Diseases
After a dry winter, many shrubs, (native and exotic) may be subject to attacks by injurious plant pests in the insect order called homoptera; aphids, scale, mealy bug, and hemiptera; leafhoppers and sharp shooters. These guys might be hard to find, and sometimes the first sign of their presence will be “sooty mold” which grows on “honeydew” which is the term for the sweet liquid excretions of these insects that feed with a piercing, sucking mouthpart and leave honeydew behind. Another sign your plant might be infested is the presence of Argentine ants moving around on the branches. They have no business up there unless they are feeding on the honeydew and “tending” the insects by moving them around and protecting them, to increase their population and provide more honeydew.
Control measures, all organic:
Refreshing sprinkles (as preventative) will help
Strong blast of water from a hose nozzle (works only on aphids)
Spray with Safers (insecticidal) Soap
Spray with horticultural oils (better for winter treatments, avoid oils hot days)
Annual Wildflowers
Remember the blooms last spring? Do you have all the remaining plants scrunched into mulch and/or most of the seed harvested (hand collected) and stored in paper envelopes or medicine bottles? Are you anticipating flowers from your own seed next spring? If yes, you need to wait until Oct / Nov to sow the seed. If not, then would you like to start the cycle of wildflower blooms in your garden? Stop by in early fall and we will have fresh seed for sale.
Adding New Plants
Inland – safest to plant only in shade or wait for Sep / Oct
Coastal – safest to plant in shade or part sun, OK in sun if you can be vigilant on watering. Sep / Oct for big projects
My Patio Re-wild
The Monarch butterfly larvae are stripping my milkweed bare! Yes, that’s what they do. You planted milkweed to attract Monarchs, right? Well it worked, and this is the time when the caterpillars are both numerous and super hungry. Hopefully, they have plenty of food. If not, come on over, we have a good supply of beautiful milkweed plants.
Phytophilia
Our love of plants and their love for us. When I look and listen over the natural landscape or into a natural garden, this month I see and hear the word “cohesive.” When a diverse plant community, or natural garden is caught between seasons, especially as the dry season approaches, all the living components work together to thrive.
As a cohesive whole, the organism is much stronger than the simple sum of its parts. It is the knitting of the weave that gives the multiple threads added strength.
Re-wild
If you have the right combination of milkweed and flowering nectar plants for adult monarchs, you are seeing the butterflies flitting about, males defining territory, females laying eggs. Now comes your challenge: find the chrysalises. They can be almost anywhere. Way more fun than an easter egg hunt, people find them in the strangest places, but sometimes it takes a keen eye.
Important Review
No more rain
DS + RS = Success
Corrective pruning
Be weed-free
No new mulch
No fertilizer
Watch for ants and homoptera
Seed in fall
New plants, summer, be careful
Milkweed madness
Cohesive whole, not disjunct parts
Monarch chrysalis hunt
Engage
Starting January 2026, your new home for these monthly newsletters will be www.calnativehort.org
Membership and volunteering opportunities in CNHF will be available in Autumn 2025 so please watch our website and follow us on Instagram at @calnativehort.
As Tree of Life Nursery finishes over 45 years in business growing California native plants, we invite you all to stay connected, as we build an even larger native plant community in the new nonprofit California Native Horticultural Foundation, Founder and President, Mike Evans.
Let’s keep makin’ it.
From JUNE and JULY in the Natural Garden,
Mike Evans
Questions? Help is just one call or one email away. Call (949) 728-0685 or email (with pictures if you like) our special helpline: gardenhelp@californianativeplants.com