If you could hire a skilled hunter who was able to kill up to 40 rodents a night, would you do it? What if that hunter had friends and they were all willing to work for free? 

Your neighborhood owls are those hunters.

A barn owl can kill 10-15 rodents per night. If there’s a nesting pair with youngsters, they can kill many more than that. A great horned owl can kill 40 rodents a night. This makes them far more effective than any rodenticide or trap. Many people resort to poison because they think that is the most effective solution to their rat (or mouse or gopher) problem. Unfortunately, poison (any poison) is killing owls and other predators. Even the “safer” rodenticides are harmful to non-target wildlife and pets due to their cumulative effect.

A poisoned rat is going to seek out water, so if you have an outdoor water feature (or pet water dish), you’re likely to find a dead rat nearby. As you’ve discovered, poisoned rodents can become disoriented and will often seek cover in sheltered spots like inside that box of stuff in your garage or even within interior walls. 

So, if you don’t poison the rats, the owls should be able to help with the problem. (Old-fashioned snap traps can also be effective.)

Q. Is there a more effective way to control weeds besides just pulling them out? I am trying to get rid of bindweed, but the vines are hard to pull out.

Any kind of vining weed can be a pain to pull out because you often end up pulling out or damaging neighboring plants in the process. In many cases, the weeds have extensive root systems that make weed-pulling a never-ending task.

Mix up a half-strength solution of weedkiller (Round Up) and fill several floral water picks (plastic tubes designed to hold water so flowers can stay fresh in a floral arrangement). Cut the weed stem and place the ends into the pick. The plastic cap should contain the solution so it won’t spill and kill neighboring plants. Poke the pick into the ground and refill the solution when it gets low. You want to use dilute herbicide so the plant has a chance to take up enough to kill the root system. If you use full-strength weedkiller, you may end up killing the stem before the roots are affected.

Los Angeles County

mglosangeleshelpline@ucdavis.edu; 626-586-1988; http://celosangeles.ucanr.edu/UC_Master_Gardener_Program/

Orange County

ucceocmghotline@ucanr.edu; http://mgorange.ucanr.edu/

Riverside County

anrmgriverside@ucanr.edu; 951-955-0170; https://ucanr.edu/sites/RiversideMG/

San Bernardino County

mgsanbern@ucanr.edu; 909-387-2182; http://mgsb.ucanr.edu

Flowers: Canary Island sage (Salvia canariensis) is the most robust of the ornamental sages. It grows to a height of eight feet with an even wider girth, and may persist in the garden for several decades. The large, distinctive saggitate leaves are covered in white hairs and large clusters of pink to magenta flowers are on display for months on end. Moist soil is its enemy, so you should not water it in summer unless soil is absolutely bone dry.

Fruit: Imagine a weed that grows 20 feet tall and produces more than 50 pounds of edible fruit. The fruit is yellow-orange with the texture of an apricot. Its taste is sweet to tart, depending on the tree. Some people like the fruit and others are indifferent to it but considering that it grows from a tree that just pops out of the ground with no effort on your part — its seeds distributed by birds and rodents — you have no cause for complaint. It is also drought-tolerant and will easily subsist on a single weekly soaking. The uncanny arboreal weed of which I speak is the loquat (Eriobotrya japonica), one of the most recognizable Valley trees. If you have been a gardener for more than a short time, you have probably encountered seedlings of this tree somewhere in your domain of earth. They are recognizable by their leaves, which are long, dark green, ribbed and fuzzy underneath. When loquat seedlings reach a height of 6 to 8 feet, in their second or third year, flowers and fruit begin to develop. There are sweet, named varieties such as Big Jim and Gold Nugget which are easily located through Internet vendors.

Vegetables: Unlike sprouts that are consumed just 3-7 days after seeds are planted, microgreens, as the name implies, are harvested for their green cotyledons (or first leaves) and stems between 1-3 weeks after their seeds are sown. Sprouts grow in water, whereas microgreens grow in soil. You can grow microgreens in any shallow repurposed container, such as the one that encloses your take-out burger or store-bought cupcakes; detach the base from the lid and you will have two trays for growing microgreens. After punching a few holes in the trays for drainage, cover the bottoms with a one- or two-inch layer of moist potting soil. Spread your seeds, sprinkle a thin layer of soil over them and add water. If you cover the container with cling wrap, you will not have to water again as the cover will keep soil moist. Microgreens can grow on a windowsill or kitchen counter as long as they get at least four daily hours of sunlight. The tastiest microgreens sprout from pea, radish, beet, and mustard seeds, while the healthiest are born from broccoli seeds.

Herbs: Chives can be planted now or any time in this part of the world. If you care for them properly, you will have them or their progeny forever since they propagate from bulbs and self-sown seeds. Individual clumps can expand and persist for years. Harvest leaves by cutting them nearly to ground level upon which new foliage begins to emerge promptly. There are garlic (chives Allium tuberosum) and onion chives (Allium schoenoprasum) — the latter being more common — and each has a taste that matches its name. Garlic chives have white flowers while onion chives’ flowers are pink. Grow them in full to partial sun, and they will perform best with soil kept somewhat moist although they will continue to grow despite a measure of neglect.

Start new plants through layering. This technique involves making a cut an inch or two long and halfway through the underside of a long, low-growing stem — from a rose, a tomato bush, a begonia, an azalea, or nearly any other plant. Dust the cut with root hormone and bury the cut portion of the stem a few inches deep. Allow the leafy end, a foot or so beyond the cut, to extrude from the ground. Roots will form along the cut, from 1-6 months after making it, depending on the softness, or woodiness, of the stem. Once it has put down a solid clump of roots, cut the stem back to where it joins the mother plant. Now, carefully dig up the clump of roots and transplant immediately to a spot picked out for it. Powdery root hormone is available at most nurseries and home centers, and may be ordered online as well. Even without root hormone, your buried stem is likely to produce roots where it has been cut.

If you intend to grow corn in the garden, plant seeds directly in the earth. While you can plant seeds in pots, transplanting them is not recommended. You will occasionally see corn growing in those plastic six-packs in the nursery, so it is possible to make a successful transfer from container to garden soil, but you’ll need to provide much greater care nursing your corn seedlings along once installed in the garden.

Plant a single variety of corn in any given plot. If you plant two different varieties together, cross-pollination will yield kernels of inferior quality.

Plant in a grid as opposed to rows. If you want to grow 20 plants, situate them in four rows of five plants as opposed to two rows of ten plants. A grid arrangement ensures full ears since pollen falling from tassels at the top of the plants will find the silks that need to be pollinated below — whether on the same plant or another close by. Plant a minimum of four rows to maximize wind pollination.Plant corn seeds or kernels one inch deep in compost-enriched soil. Space seeds 10 inches apart and rows two feet apart.

To prevent corn earworms from nibbling your kernels, apply mineral oil to the silks between three and seven days after they begin to form and just as they are turning brown. The earworms, which are actually moth larvae, will suffocate in the oil as they crawl down the silks. If, when harvesting an ear, you should see earworms, there is no reason to panic. The larvae are invariably found at the tip of the ear, leaving most of it intact. Once the damaged tip has been removed, the large remaining portion of the ear is suitable for consumption.

Corn is most flavorful at the moment of harvest so drop it into boiling water as soon as it’s detached from the plant and shucked. Should you wish to delay cooking, keep it in the refrigerator but don’t shuck it until you want to eat it.

Have you ever thought of growing corn for the purpose of popping its kernels? Not all corn can be popped, but many varieties are grown exclusively for that purpose. At heriloompopcornseed.com, you can find 70 such varieties. The Calico variety, available at stclarseeds.com, is especially suited to growing in Southern California. It is a multi-colored corn so that, in addition to popping, it can be used for decorative purposes. Popcorn is divided into white (with white to pale yellow kernels) and yellow (with yellow to orange to multi-colored kernels) varieties. White popcorn is less robust than yellow, but white popcorn also has a more delicate flavor and fewer hulls to get stuck in your teeth. Movie theater popcorn is yellow since it takes butter, caramel,  and other toppings — without losing its shape — better than white popcorn.

Ears grown for popcorn require special harvesting and post-handling procedures. While sweet corn is harvested once the ears or full of kernels even while husks are still green, popcorn husks must be completely brown and dry before ears are ready for harvest. Once the popcorn ears are picked, and every layer of husks peeled away, they must undergo additional drying for three weeks to two months until kernels are primed for popping. You can dry the ears on a wooden table or hardwood floor. Since popcorn kernels must contain between 13.5 to 14% moisture, it is important that the kernels be given time to dry out but not completely. The conventional way of testing whether kernels are ready to be popped is simply to try popping a sample of them. Do this with an air popper which eliminates the need to heat oil in a pot for popping the kernels. Take a sample of kernels and see if they pop in the air popper, nearly all of which should pop if they have been dried to the proper extent. As for removal of kernels from their ears, you can do this by hand, after putting on gloves, using your thumbs to push and prod the kernels until they detach, starting from the bottom of the ears. An easier way of facilitating kernel removal is with a metal popcorn sheller. You simply push your ear of corn through the sheller which strips your popcorn kernels from the ear. A recommended sheller is made by Decker and sells for under $20 on the Internet.

The earliest use of corn for eating was in the form of popped corn, a kind of multi-colored flint corn, whose fossil evidence was discovered in Peru and dates back 7,000 years. The earliest instance of cultivated corn goes back 10,000 years to Meso-America, what is Central America and southern Mexico today. It eventually made its way north to southwestern North America from where it traveled by trade to the southeastern part of the continent and eventually to the northeast. The corn used at the first Thanksgiving was brought by the Wampanoag tribe. It was not corn on the cob that was eaten but either corn bread, hominy (corn kernels softened by soaking them in wood ash mixed with water) or porridge. Dent or field corn — so-called because of the indentation on the top of drying kernels — is the most widely grown corn since it is a major component of animal fed. Sweet corn was a mutation of dent corn and it was first cultivated by indigenous tribes of the Northeast. One of these tribes, the Iroquois, introduced sweet corn to European settlers in the late 18th century.

Although corn needs heat to develop properly, plants can be stressed in extremely hot weather, making them more susceptible to corn smut, a debilitating fungus that appears as swollen blue-gray growths upon the developing ears. In Mexico, however, this fungus is consumed as a delicacy in some locales and ears infected with it fetch a higher price than those that are fungus-free. Proper mulching and watering practices, such as root-directed drip irrigation and mulch to mitigate water stress, are preventive practices where corn smut growth is concerned.

California native of the week: Pacific gum plant (Grindelia stricta var. platyphylla) is a coastal, ground-hugging perennial that displays a blanket of two-and-a-half-inch daisies this time of year, but will be in bloom to one degree or another at all times. As a coastal plant, it welcomes wind and salty air, but will do better in half-day sun in inland gardens. Flower buds are covered with a tip of resin, from which their “gum plant” name derives, protecting the blooms from predators once they open. In the manner of most plants in the daisy family, it attracts a plethora of pollinating insects and butterflies. Foliage is also sticky with margins that are charmingly toothed. This is a prostrate species that grows eight inches tall and roots wherever its stems touch the ground, expanding to six feet or more. It is available at the Theodore Payne Foundation (theodorepayne.org) nursery in Sun Valley and from online vendors.

Has anyone reading this been successful at growing popcorn or, for that matter, sweet corn? If so, what variety would you recommend? If popcorn, how long did you dry it following harvest before it popped successfully?  Your questions and comments, sent to joshua@perfectplants.com, as well gardening conundrums and successes, are always welcome.

Landscape fabric may sound like a neat, tidy and easy solution to all your weeding woes, but, as often is the case, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

To be fair, landscape fabric has its place. Unfortunately, it’s widely misused in most home landscape applications, where it does more harm than good in ornamental beds and around perennials and crops.

The woven (or sometimes non-woven) synthetic (or sometimes biodegradable) barrier is meant to suppress weeds while allowing water and air to pass through to the soil beneath it. And that’s exactly how it works -– for a short time, after which buyer’s remorse almost always sets in.

Before long, soil and other organic matter settle on top of the fabric, seeds find their way to the surface, and weeds begin to grow. Since their roots penetrate through the fabric, removing them becomes extremely difficult.

Under the barrier, which restricts water and oxygen from reaching the soil and carbon from escaping, microbes, earthworms and other insects die, fertility declines and roots struggle.

In perennial beds, the fabric creates heat pockets and impedes the spread and self-seeding of plants. In time, the fabric will shift and tear, and attempts to remove it will no doubt make you rue the day you had the bright idea to use it.

Plastic sheeting is even worse, as it completely blocks water and air from reaching the soil, overheats roots and releases microplastics into the ground.

There are exceptions, however. Landscape fabric can be helpful under gravel or stone paths or walkways, where it creates a barrier between the hardscape and the soil below.

It can also help smother grass and weeds when used temporarily to help create a clean slate for future planting beds in areas that are difficult to clear. Still, I recommend using thick layers of newspaper or cardboard instead, as they biodegrade naturally and perform the same function without having to be removed.

When your landscape fabric becomes a torn, weedy, root-tangled mess – and it will — good luck removing it. The painstaking process involves slowly and carefully pulling up individual fragments of the fabric, which will be heavy under the soil, and cutting them away from around and between roots, which will have grown above, below and through the textile.

Instead of shooting yourself in the foot with landscape fabric, opt for an organic mulch like shredded bark, wood chips or straw. It will regulate soil temperature and moisture, nourish the soil as it decomposes and support the soil life that supports your plants.

Apply a 2- to 4-inch layer, keeping it away from trunks and stems, and refresh it when it breaks down. You’ll still get a few weeds, but they’ll pull up easily, roots and all.

Jessica Damiano writes weekly gardening columns for the AP and publishes the award-winning Weekly Dirt Newsletter. You can sign up here for weekly gardening tips and advice.

Fruit. White sapote (Casimiroa edulis) will grow wherever orange trees feel at home. Its flavor is a combination of vanilla, peach, and banana. The tree, which is in the same botanical family as citrus (Rutaceae), is a prolific bearer, as a single specimen yields up to a ton of crop per year when it is fully mature. White capote has the potential to reach 50 feet in height and tolerate wetter soil than most fruit trees and will yield a good crop in less than full sun exposures. Although indigenous to the tropics, white sapote is native to high elevations and can withstand a light frost. Much experimentation has been done with this tree but its custard-like pulp is so soft as to limit its commercial application due to fruit damage sustained during shipping and handling. Papaya tree nursery (papayatreenursery.com) grows three white sapote — which it calls “ice cream fruit” — varieties.

Vegetables. Consider planting the three sisters – corn, pole beans, and squash – in a portion of your vegetable garden. Build a mound three feet wide and one foot tall, flattened on the top. Plant four to seven corn seeds six inches apart in a circle on the top of the mound. After the corn is six inches to a foot tall, plant bean seeds six inches to the outside of each corn plant; the developing bean plants will use the corn stalks for vertical support. Once the bean plants are six inches tall, plant two winter squash seeds at opposite ends of the mound. It is desirable to plant a winter squash such as spaghetti squash since its prickly leaves deter pests. The beans provide nitrogen for all three plants while the squash covers the earth. In so doing, the squash foliage serves as a living mulch, preserving soil moisture and squelching weed growth.

Herbs. Vietnamese cilantro or Vietnamese mint (Persicaria odorata) is unrelated to either common cilantro or common mint but evokes their fragrances. This is a fast-growing perennial ground cover with red stems and bell-shaped white flowers. It will grow well as long as winters are warm and is suitable for the 10-12 USDA climate zones, which encompass most of the area where readers of this newspaper reside. Vietnamese cilantro will need soil that is steadily moist and is best planted in partial shade in our part of the world. It can be eaten fresh as a spicy salad green and is used to liven up soups, stews, and fish dishes. Find it through Internet vendors.

Flowers. Rose moss (Portulaca grandiflora) is an annual that graces the summer garden, persisting until winter comes. Portulaca means “little door” and refers to the lid that opens the plant’s seed capsules. Rose moss is a name that accentuates the moss-like carpet of its foliage and its rose-resembling flowers, albeit on a miniature scale. As is the case with common garden roses, you have rose moss varieties with a single tier of petals and billowy, ruffled two-tiered varieties, or doubles, as well. Pastel flowers include yellow, peach, orange, red, pink, magenta, lavender, purple, and fuchsia. Rose moss grows superbly in half-day sun but can also handle full sun exposures.

Now that the heat is thoroughly upon us, you may want to consider the drip irrigation option. Drip irrigation gets the job done for as little as 30% of the amount of water required when it is applied through conventional sprinklers, where much water is lost through wind and run-off. Conventional sprinklers also water unevenly and do not soak the root system with the efficiency of drip irrigation. Keep in mind that you can also recycle water from showers and baths, bathroom sinks, and washing machines in the irrigation of your plants by installing what is known as a gray water system. You can find contractors through the Internet who install such systems or, if you have some plumbing skills, install a gray water system yourself.

In the garden, the start of the growing season means the return of dirt under our fingernails, the scent of freshly spread mulch and the first blooming roses. In my neighborhood, and perhaps yours, it also means an audible onslaught of lawnmowers, leaf blowers and other tools of the landscaper’s trade.

From 8 a.m. through at least early afternoon — five or six days every week — the hum of power tools and other machines disrupts my peace. But even more concerning is that my peace pales in importance to that of my property’s other residents.

Birds, squirrels, rabbits, frogs, insects and other wildlife are critically affected by human-made noise. They’re outdoors right in the middle of what must seem to them a war zone — with no escape. And the battleground noises that surround them aren’t merely nuisances; they disrupt the basic instincts the animals’ lives depend on.

Instincts such as those that alert them to the presence of predators become masked under the gas-powered cacophony prevalent throughout most of suburbia.

The unnatural sounds can also force birds, bats and insects into changing their feeding, nesting and mating habits, says Kevin Munroe, Long Island Preserve Director for The Nature Conservancy, based in Cold Spring Harbor, New York.

“Quite a few animals communicate primarily through song, and their songs are how they find each other,” Munroe said. Those with soft and quiet songs, like warblers, small species of owls, bats and some species of crickets, for instance, can be so badly drowned out by noise pollution that “they literally cannot build families or reproduce,” he said.

To illustrate the point, Munroe likens the animals’ songs to navigation systems.

“Imagine these songs are the birds’ roadmaps to each other, and imagine you’re using your GPS to get somewhere and all of a sudden it turns off, and that’s the only way you can find your family. Now, with it turned off, there’s no way you’ll find your family. That’s what song is like for these animals,” he said.

Artificial noises from power equipment, traffic, construction and industrial sources, can also cause stress and hearing loss in animals. A University of Georgia study even found that highway noises can elevate heart rates in monarch caterpillars.

Thoughtful planning can reduce the noise

This may seem like a losing battle in modern society, but there are steps we can take to help.

The Nature Conservancy recommends changes to industrial practices that include accounting for sensitive areas when siting noise-producing facilities, such as access roads and compressor stations, and designing them to include sound barriers, such as walls, vegetative screening and noise-absorbing equipment.

Altering the timing and duration of noisy activities during breeding and hibernation periods could also reduce adverse effects on wildlife, the organization said.

What you can do at home

On our own properties, small changes can make a big impact. Because birds do their “most important talking to each other” between dawn and 9 a.m., Munroe recommends shifting noisy yardwork later. Another critical time for many species of wildlife is after dark, he said.

“You can play music and have fun, but try not to make any loud noises,” he said.

In addition, creating sound buffers by planting dense native trees, evergreens or deciduous shrubs, and switching from gas- to battery-powered tools, including leaf blowers, string trimmers and chainsaws, are simple things homeowners can do to avoid causing harm.

Educating and introducing change to local communities is important, too. Munroe suggests working with your homeowners’ association, schools, businesses and churches to limit loud, destructive activity on their properties.

“Talk to local municipalities about their noise ordinances and (encourage them to) create a sound sanctuary in the neighborhood (to protect) wood thrushes, katydids” and other wildlife, he said.

And always observe noise ordinances at home and in public places, like parks.

Wild animals serve as “pollinators, affect pest control and have a positive effect on our agriculture and our economy,” Munroe said. “We want them in our neighborhoods.”

___

Jessica Damiano writes weekly gardening columns for the AP and publishes the award-winning Weekly Dirt Newsletter. You can sign up here for weekly gardening tips and advice.

California is home to at least 48 species of ticks, and only 6 of these tend to attach to humans. One of these, the Western blacklegged tick, transmits the organism that causes Lyme disease (Borrelia burgdorferi). These ticks can be found almost exclusively in Northern California. The deer tick, responsible for transmitting Lyme disease in the Eastern U.S., is not a concern in the Western U.S.

Lyme disease was first reported in California in 1989. As of 2016, there have been 2600 reported cases in the state. Only 1-2% of adult Western blacklegged ticks carry Lyme disease, but up to 20% of the immature nymphs carry it. Nevertheless, avoiding contact with ticks is always a good idea, Lyme disease or not.

Ticks like to hang out in heavy forest areas or in grasslands that border forests. January through October is considered prime tick season, so if you are hiking or entering tick territory, you should take some precautions to avoid acquiring these obnoxious hitchhikers. Wear long pants, socks, shoes, and a long-sleeved shirt. Tuck your shirt into your pants and your pants into your socks. Use repellents containing Permethrin or DEET – these will repel mosquitoes as well as ticks.

Afterwards, inspect yourself for any ticks – check any exposed areas, particularly the scalp, neck, and behind the ears. Take a hot shower and wash clothes in hot water. If you find a tick, remove by using a pair of tweezers, grasping the body and pulling the tick straight out, taking care not to leave the mouthparts behind. Do not use a hot match, alcohol, gasoline, or any other dubious (and dangerous) remedies. If you have pets, make sure to keep current with their flea and tick treatments as well.

Ticks are not just creepy and icky. They can transmit Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, tularemia, human babesiosis, and borrelia. Opossums devour hundreds of ticks as a regular part of their diet, so you may want to leave them alone if you see them. 

Q. Is table salt good for weed control? 

Salt is good for killing weeds – and any other plant as well. I cringe every time I see a post recommending any combination of salt, vinegar, and/or Dawn detergent for weed control. Salt tends to remain in the soil for a long time, rendering it uninhabitable for any plant life. If you water the ground where a high concentration of salt was deposited, the runoff will kill anything in its path. (There’s a reason ancient armies would salt the farmland of their enemies.)

Vinegar, especially 30% “cleaning vinegar” is extremely acidic and can cause chemical burns. This, too, will damage the soil and kill many beneficial organisms. Dawn detergent strips away plants’ waxy cuticle that protects leaves from water loss. Save it for greasy dishes.

Los Angeles County

mglosangeleshelpline@ucdavis.edu; 626-586-1988; http://celosangeles.ucanr.edu/UC_Master_Gardener_Program/

Orange County

ucceocmghotline@ucanr.edu; http://mgorange.ucanr.edu/

Riverside County

anrmgriverside@ucanr.edu; 951-955-0170; https://ucanr.edu/sites/RiversideMG/

San Bernardino County

mgsanbern@ucanr.edu; 909-387-2182; http://mgsb.ucanr.edu

Watering is a concern now that 100-degree days are upon us, yet certain ground cover choices at least, once they cover the earth, protect against evaporation from the soil surface and may never need to be watered. I am always on the lookout for these special species, and it seems that they are more in evidence as time goes by, especially in parkway strips — those planters between sidewalk and street.

One of these is Tuttle’s Natal plum (Carissa macrocarpa var. Nana Compacta Tuttlei). It grows up to three feet tall and spreads to five feet. In addition to hermetically sealing the ground so that no water is lost through evaporation, it yields an abundance of pinwheel, fragrant white flowers that bloom throughout the year, followed by an impressive red, spherical fruit which, although edible, is not especially sweet. (Note: hybridizers are currently working on sweetening the fruit of Natal plum.)

There is a parkway strip near my home where this ground-hugging Natal plum serves as the principal species, although it is regularly smothered, in places, by a vibrant ground cover known as fantasy Venice or pink Nanouk (Tradescantia Nanouk). Fantasy Venice — supposedly resembling the striped shirts of gondoliers — is remarkable for its pink, green, and white striping and rapid growth. In this planter, it is continually being cut back to keep it from overgrowing the Natal plum. Where variegated plants (those with multi-colored foliage) are concerned, pink Nanouk is an anomaly. In general, increased sun exposure leads to an increasingly pronounced display of foliage colors. With Fantasy Venice, however, the pink that gives this plant its special glow is diminished by too much sun. Partial or morning sun, as opposed to full sun or even afternoon sun, is more to its liking.

Smooth variegated agave (Agave desmettiana var. Variegata) serves as an accent plant in this parkway strip. Unlike most agaves, its foliage is without thorns. Its yellow-margined leaves are irresistible with their unusually wavy aspect. As for a flowering touch in this planter, rock purslane (Calandrinia grandiflora) has been chosen. This succulent from Chile is seen more often due to its plethora of magenta flowers along stems reaching three feet tall; it has a bare minimum water requirement.

If you wish to keep dogs and cats from trespassing on your property, consider planting a malodorous ground cover known as dog gone or scaredy cat. In its native South Africa, it is promoted for its ability not only to deter canine and feline creatures, but insect pests and snakes as well. Due to its leaf texture, it is also sometimes labeled Fuzzy Wuzzy. In any case, this is a ground cover that is nearly always in bloom with flowers that appear as small purple candles. Once established, it never needs to be watered.

Lantana is a well-known champion when it comes to waterless ground covers. To conserve water, it is best to plant the robust types that grow 4-6 feet tall — the one with yellow and orange blooms is most frequently seen — but can be kept at two feet through regular pruning. Although the trailing species (Lantana montevidensis), with purple and white-flowered varieties, is popularly used as a ground cover, it is far less robust than the upright varieties and will begin to decline in a few years, even when given regular water.

You might not think of bougainvillea as a drought-tolerant ground cover candidate, but it is. In Westwood the other day, I saw a mixture of bougainvillea varieties growing in a median strip near UCLA. It will need to be pruned a few times a year to keep it at a manageable height, but there will be no concern about irrigation since bougainvillea is a plant that may as well be a cactus when it comes to its water needs.

Greg Fitze, who gardens in Long Beach, emailed regarding a sidewalk planter of nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus) that he seeded 35 years ago. Exposed to morning sun, the nasturtium grows back each year without the benefit of any water other than winter rain. If you ever laid eyes on an expanse of nasturtium, It’s easy to see why this plant never needs watering. It’s on account of its large leaves, which blanket the earth. Although its leaves are thin, flimsy, and far from succulent, their dense growth habit does not allow water to escape through them from the soil surface. Yes, water on any plant is lost though transpiration — the process by which water moves from soil into roots up through stems, into leaves, and out into the atmosphere — but this is of little significance in the case of nasturtium. Over the years, I have become familiar with several patches of nasturtium that reseeded from year to year, and none of them were ever irrigated. It should be noted, however, that all of them were exposed to no more than half a day of sun.

For a final example of a ground-hugging plant that grows without the benefit of irrigation, I will tell you the story of a cherry tomato plant. Last fall, in a crawl space access well at my house, I saw a tomato seedling sprout. Not paying it much attention, I decided to just wait and see what would happen, looking forward to what I thought might be a favorable outcome. Plants have an uncanny instinct in this regard; when a seed sprouts without the benefit of human assistance, it’s generally in a place suited to its cultural requirements. It’s almost like an animal choosing a spot to nest and give birth. It invariably chooses a place that offers it and its offspring safety and the proper conditions for growth. I waited patiently until this spring, not knowing what to expect. My crawl space access well is located in a narrow side yard with the wall of my house to the north and that of my neighbor’s to the south. Thus, the area receives good enough light as the sun moves over it from east to west, but no more than 4-6 hours of direct sun.

This tomato plant is now eight months old. It has grown out of the two-foot deep access well and sprawled to a length of ten feet with a width of three feet. The foliage is not only thick but also hairier than the foliage of most tomato plants. The layers of foliage together with their rough texture impart considerable drought tolerance to this plant which, until today, has never been watered. A couple hundred fruit have been harvested with many more to come.

California native of the week: Creosote bush (Larrea tridentata) is one of the most brilliantly flowering native shrubs. Growing up to 10 feet tall and wide, it is dramatically covered each spring with golden yellow flowers. Native to the Mojave, Chiuhuahuan, and Sonoran Deserts, it does not require any water once established but will flower and put on new growth at any time following either rain or supplemental irrigation. This species gets its name from the creosote odor that it exudes, especially when wet. It has a curious growth habit. Although individual plants have a lifespan of 30-90 years, adventitious shoots grow up from roots. These develop into new plants, clones of the original, that form a ring around the spot where the original plant stood. Lucerne Valley is home to the oldest known clone of this kind and has been dubbed King Clone. It is 11,700 years old and measures 72 by 26 feet.

Please send your questions, comments and more to joshua@perfectplants.com. 

Perennials. Tall slipper plant (Pedilanthus bracteatus) is a highly drought-tolerant selection from Mexica whose bracts are suggestive of Dorothy’s footwear in “The Wizard of Oz.” These bracts are produced without interruption from spring until fall and beyond. This species can grow up to six feet tall and — even in a collection of botanical curiosities — stands alone for its closely spaced stems, each bearing clusters of slippers. Note: The bracts of a distinct group of plants provide color nonstop. This list includes bougainvillea, crown of thorns (Euprhobia millii), peace lily (Spathiphyllum), and flamingo flower (Anthurium). These last two species is typically grown indoors but may be cultivated outdoors in frost-protected locations. Although not visible all year long, the bracts of the shrimp plant (Justicia brandegeana) are on display most of the time.

Plant a boysenberry bush. In the opinion of many fruit connoisseurs, boysenberry is the most flavorful of all bramble fruits. There is good reason for this since boysenberry’s progenitors include European blackberry, European raspberry, loganberry (a blackberry-raspberry hybrid), and dewberry, a kind of blackberry native to the central and southern United States. Boysenberry is highly suitable for growing in Southern California, as it was developed by Rudolf Boysen on his farm in Anaheim. Rumors of this special berry’s presence on Boysen’s farm, after it had been sold, aroused the curiosity of Walter Knott. Knott tracked down a couple of the struggling vines on Boysen’s by now weed-infested farm and propagated them on his own farm in Buena Park. When he began selling them in 1932 and was asked what they were called, he named them boysenberries in honor of their developer. Knott eventually planted 2,400 acres of boysenberries, which became the signature berry of what became Knott’s Berry Farm.

Vegetables. As ironic as it sounds, one of the most problematic aspects of growing vegetables is harvesting them in a timely manner so that the pleasure of eating them is not lost. Perhaps this is due to laziness or perhaps to pride: We are so pleased with what we’ve grown that we just want to look at our beautiful crops and resist removing them from the stem or stalk or soil. However, if you delay harvest once your vegetables are ready for picking, you will lose out on quality and sometimes lose them altogether. Delaying harvest may lead to sunburned bell peppers, split tomatoes, earworm-infested corn, woody or cracked carrots, pithy radishes, oversized and flavorless zucchini, hardened asparagus spears, and lettuce that becomes bitter when it bolts (sends up flower stalks). To get maximum flavor out of your vegetables, harvest them early in the morning since starch converts to sugar overnight. Vegetables are also crisper and juicier in the early morning due to moisture absorbed at night.

Melissa officinalis, commonly known as lemon balm, is an herb in the mint family that makes an enduring, self-sowing, water-thrifty ground cover for partial sun locations. In Greek, Melissa means honeybee and speaks to this insect’s powerful attraction to the eponymous herb. Lemon balm becomes prickly once established, so wear gloves when harvesting its leaves.

Powdery mildew is one of the most common fungal diseases. It affects both ornamentals, especially roses, and vegetable crops. It starts on the underside of leaves and, to be proactive, those leaves should immediately be removed with the first sign of fungal infection, which appears as a white powdery substance. You can prevent powdery mildew and other fungus diseases — and kill the spores of the fungi involved — with a solution made by mixing one tablespoon of food-grade potassium bicarbonate and a half teaspoon of Dr. Bronner’s Castile Soap in one gallon of water. Apply the solution through a sprayer and make sure you cover leaves completely, both on the surface and on the underside.

For about two weeks every spring, my letter carrier, delivery drivers and just about everyone else who walks into my yard comments on the deliciously strong scent emanating from the two lilac shrubs flanking the front gate. Most days, the breeze carries the fragrance all the way to the front door or even indoors if the windows are open.

Not many flowers have that power. Some never did. Others no longer do, thanks to breeding that has developed bigger, prettier, hardier and disease-resistant plants at the expense of scent. Most carnations and violas aren’t what they used to be, and even some roses are now fragrance-free.

But if it’s an intoxicating perfume you’re after, there are still some flowers that will make your nose — and your heart — happy.

Choosing the ideal fragrant bloom

Of course, not all lilacs are the same. Syringa meyeri Palabin, the dwarf Korean cultivar I grow, is among the most powerfully fragrant. It’s suitable for zones 3-7. Other lilac varieties that stand out for their scent include Syringa x Josee (zones 2- or 3-9), Syringa vulgaris Krasavitsa Moskvy, also known as Beauty of Moscow (3-7), and Syringa vulgaris President Lincoln (3-7).

Magnolia, especially the southern grandiflora species (7-9), is another highly aromatic shrub or tree that puts forth large, sweetly fragranced flowers you’re not likely to forget. The more cold-hardy sweet bay magnolia (Magnolia virginiana) will provide a similar service in zones 5-10.

Texas lilac, also known as chaste tree (Vitex), is a beautiful specimen with purple flowers that bloom in midsummer, imparting a delightful scent that wafts through gardens in zones 6-9.

Old garden roses, the original heirloom varieties that haven’t been tinkered with, are less popular today than modern hybrids and cultivars, in part because they bloom just once a year. But their powerful, true-rose fragrance is worth the tradeoff. Consider roses in the tea, gallica, damask and alba classes for the most intense scent.

As far as vines go, the scent of star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides), a climbing evergreen vine with star-shaped white flowers, will stop you in your tracks. It’s perennial in zones 7-10; elsewhere, grow it with support in a large pot placed where you spend most of your time, then move it indoors over winter. Although not related, common jasmine (Jasminum officinale) also smells as good as it looks.

Dutch — or common — hyacinths (Hyacinthus orientalis) make the early spring garden smell delightful. Think ahead and plant a grouping of bulbs by the front door in autumn in zones 4-8.

Sweet peas (Lathyrus odoratus), not to be confused with edible garden peas, are annual plants beloved for their intense, sweet aroma. Other beautifully scented annuals include heliotrope (technically a tender perennial in zones 9-11) and flowering tobacco (Nicotiana), although, these days, some varieties are more fragrant than others. When shopping, let your nose be your guide.

Jessica Damiano writes weekly gardening columns for the AP and publishes the award-winning Weekly Dirt Newsletter.