Re: birds in the garden (and fennel)
- Subject: Re: birds in the garden (and fennel)
- From: John MacGregor j*@earthlink.net
- Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2003 15:38:43 -0700
on 6/23/03 1:47 PM, Catherine Ratner at catherineratner@earthlink.net wrote:
> If you grow it as a garden plant and cut off the flowers
> as they fade, of course you will never be troubled by seedlings.
I should have added that the plants will look a lot better if you cut off
the faded blossoms, too! But I always find that there are ladybug eggs and
pupae (along with some aphids and some adult ladybugs fornicating and making
their next generation), on these shopworn structures, and I just can't bear
to cut them off. The garden's owner eventually will ask if it isn't about
time to cut the clump down--usually sometime in November or December--so I
begin cutting off the unoccupied seed heads, finally cutting down the whole
clump in January. By then most of the seeds have fallen, but I find that I
can usually pot up most of the seedlings and pass them along to other
gardeners that come to tour the gardens or use them to fill spots where an
older fennel clump has died for some reason.
John MacGregor
South Pasadena, CA 91030
USDA zone 9 Sunset zones 21/23
