Super Hot Spots

There’s a “hot side” to every home’s landscape. The hot side of a landscape becomes its ugly side because all flowers planted in that exposure seem to wither in the afternoon sun. No matter how often you water, how you tweak the drip system, or how many extra bags of compost are added to those plants they just can’t make it on that hot side. The solution might be as simple as using the right plants for a hot location.

When plants at a garden center are labeled “full sun” or “sun loving”, there is no way to know if the grower meant full Midwest sun or intense Arizona sun. They are two very different conditions requiring completely different kinds of plants. Midwest “full sun” plants are unlikely to survive the baking conditions of our mountain climate. It takes experience or the word of an experienced southwest mountain gardener to find the right plants for the hot side of a landscape.

Hot Lips sage is a specific group of plants guaranteed to thrive in our hot climate. Garden trials have shown it to be a fast, vigorous grower with excellent heat tolerance for those brutal hot spots in Arizona’s mountain landscapes. It is an ever-blooming hybrid with a stunning profusion of fluorescent raspberry-red flowers held well above its arching branches. Growing just past knee height, its deep green perennial foliage has a sweet herbal fragrance.

Sages are perfect for containers, annual borders, courtyards, or in any hot area in need of more color. All sage varieties are in full bloom at the garden center right now, but do take a close look at the ‘Hot Lips Series’. Also good to know is that while sage plants are absolutely irresistible to hummingbirds and butterflies they are soundly rejected by javalinas and rabbits!
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Gardening in this part of Arizona means having to contend with wild mammals. Sometimes sage plants aren’t quite enough to keep furry invaders at bay. Having farmed in Chino Valley, Cottonwood, and Skull Valley, I’ve had to contend with rabbits, javalinas, bears, lions, deer, and elk. Below are some valuable tips culled from years of experience in keeping plant munching mammals out of my gardens.

The most common trespassers are deer and rabbits, which are easy to keep out of gardens, so let’s begin with them. Fencing is the most convenient barrier to these mammals. Six foot high fencing seems to be the magic height for keeping most deer out of a garden. To keep rabbits out of a garden, field fencing with spacing of one inch or smaller is the required deterrent; a chain link fence will not keep rabbits at bay. I have seen a rabbit, with a dog hard on its heels, run full speed right though a chain link fence as though it wasn’t there!

The answer to javalina control is electric fencing, especially if the critters live on the property. A one-foot high fence with a 12-volt jolt seems to be the best way to keep these pig-like animals away from a garden. A charged wire fence four inches above the ground will keep rabbits away.

Another form of mammal control is organic fertilizer, specifically blood meal. Blood meal is an all-natural fertilizer for the garden that really is made from blood. It greens up a garden, but more importantly it’s the smell of a fresh kill that terrorizes the minds of smaller mammals. The message it conveys to prospective invaders is, “I just killed a fellow trespasser and if you enter to munch this part of my garden the same can happen to you!”

Unfortunately, blood meal’s effectiveness is short-lived. Because it is a dry product, water causes it to break down quickly. Fortunately, there is a weatherproof solution that keeps blood meal dry and proves effective for up to a year. It’s ‘All Season Deer Repellent’. Each package contains six weatherproof containers with stakes to keep the blood meal suspended above the ground at nose level of a deer.

Another highly effective repellent is ‘Repels All’. Made from all natural repellents that will not harm pets this garlic-based deterrent is proving effective against javalinas. It also does a good job against cats and dogs that roam a neighborhood looking for a new place to mark as their own. It convinces the animals that your landscape isn’t for them.

Snake Away, Rabbit Scream, Gopher Scram, and a host of other repellents are all effective against local critters and available at most garden centers. Many of the electronic scare devices get positive results as well. Solar powered mole spikes, Yard Guard electronic repellent, and a series of other devices also do admirable jobs against furry intruders.
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I have two valuable free-for-the-asking handouts: ‘Deer & Rabbit Resistive Plants’ and ‘Javalina Resistive Plants’. The key word in these handouts is ‘resistive’. That’s because some of the herds forget to read the list, but in general animals would rather eat any other plant in the neighborhood than the blooming plants on these lists.
Until next week, I’ll see you in the garden center.

Ken Lain, "my personal mission is to help local homeowners garden smarter and get our local garden timing right." Throughout the week Ken can be found at Watters Garden Center located at 1815 W. Iron Springs Rd, Prescott, or may be contacted through his web site at www.wattersonline.com

Until next week, I'll see you in the garden center.