University of Yavapai County Cooperative Extension Yavapai Gardens Master Gardener Newsletter October/November 2016

Watch out for the Jumping

by Nora Graf

You grew up in the desert if you know that cholla cactus would jump at you if you walked close to it. It is the equivalent of a rattlesnake. The good news is that cholla cactus does not wildly leap at you to defend itself, even if the nickname of jumping cactus persists. It is still a wicked plant to grow in your landscape if you have children or pets. On the other hand, the perception of the cactus jumping at you is well-deserved. Cholla consists of jointed thin cylinders. The connections between cylinders are weak and even the slightest brush can break that connection and the dense detachable spines will penetrate almost anything including skin, leather and clothing. The plant also sheds joints readily. When you are walking in the desert it’s easy to bump a joint loose with a foot or elbow. The spines latch on to any surface they touch. The tip of the spine slightly bends when it enters something and becomes a hook, making it difficult and painful to remove. I have personal experience so please take my word, IT HURTS! If you own pets, these can be an expensive choice. Pets tend to experience cholla face first and that means a trip to the vet. Humans get into trouble also. Unless you are like the person in the photo, chances are you can tolerate it. The larger spines can be pulled out with a pair of tweezers or pliers. Table of Contents (More info on removing cactus spines follows this article. That said, Watch out for the Jumping Cactus . . . 1 chollas can have a Removing Cactus Spines . . . 3 Meet a MG - Scholly Ketcher . . . 4 place in a native Community Gardens, A Time-Honored landscape plan. Tradition . . . 5 Chollas provide homes Potato Soup . . . 6 for some birds and Announcements . . . 7 rodents.The papery sheaths that cover the spines cause the plant to glow when the sun 1 of 8 is low in the sky. Think of all the classic photographs spineless. The flowers show up mid-summer. They of shimmering cholla in the desert. The flowers can aren’t gorgeous, be small and are colorful, and can cover the ends of being green to the stems, creating a beautiful show. They also make yellow-bronze, but good barriers if you want to keep people away. the bright red Depending on the species, chollas can be grape-sized fruit shrubs, bushes, arborescent (resembling a tree in will show you why properties, growth, structure, or appearance) or small it was named trees. They can be pruned to keep them under Christmas cholla. control. Seeds are one way they propagate but those In fact you would joints on the ground can hardly notice the grow roots. Wildlife, dogs, plant until the fruit and even you can spread the ripens. It is a good plant by carrying joints to wildlife plant as it provides nesting sites for cactus new areas. Like prickly wrens and is a food source for , bobwhite quail, pears, the new growth has wild turkey, other birds and small mammals that eat short green leaves that drop the berries. off as the stem matures. The kleiniae (Kleins pencil cholla), plant is supported by an is native to central Arizona. This is a large, over 6 internal woody structure. feet tall, plant and will create a dense bush that can Most of you have seen the woody interior as it is used be pruned to fit in smaller spaces. Like the for making a variety of craft items like lamps (quite Christmas cholla, it has small diameter pencil-size popular when I was a kid). stems. They will turn purple in the winter. It has They are adapted to our climate and take little widely spaced silver spines. The flowers are a pretty special care. Good-draining soil and sun are rose color about 1 ½ inch diameter. The fruit is bright essential. In Yavapai County one of the limitations for red and persists on the plant until fall. It is very cold them would be cold weather but there are several tolerant and its stems don’t droop like some other cold-hardy species. If chollas do come cold weather. Limestone flats and you don’t mind the hills are its preferred habitat (perfect for the Verde spines, try one of these. Valley) and it can be found along washes at One of the more elevations ranging from 2000 to 4400 feet. manageable species is Cylindropuntia echinocarpa (silver cholla, Cylindropuntia golden cholla) comes in two different forms, one with leptocaulis (or Opuntia silver spines, the other golden. It resembles the leptocaulis), also known teddybear cholla, as the Christmas or Cylinropuntia bigelovii. pencil cholla. (There The spines create a dense are several different cover for the joints. It is species whose common name is pencil cactus.) It is considered a medium-sized native to the Verde Valley and is cold tolerant. This cholla, only growing four to cholla grows over a wide area. It grows at elevations five feet tall and about half ranging from 1000 feet to 5000 feet, from into as wide. In colder areas it , Arizona and California. It prefers heavier can be slow growing. Like soils in desert flats and in bottomlands, and can the C. kleiniae it is a good frequently be found growing underneath or around winter plant because the arms do not droop very shrubs and trees, and even fence posts. Birds eat the much. While the flowers are a pretty greenish yellow, fruit and spread the seeds in their droppings in those the dramatic spines make this plant attractive. In locations. Christmas cholla is often small but can Arizona it can be found in the high elevations of the grow to 6 feet. The stems are ½ inch with the main Mogollon Rim. Its range includes Arizona, truck reaching 4 inches in diameter. Spines are white and California. to gray, ¾ to 2 inches long, with some being Cylindropuntia imbricata (tree cholla) as its

2 of 8 common name implies is a large plant but is also At some point, if you spent any time in the desert you the one most tolerant of wet and cold conditions. will be poked and/or They can grow over stabbed by cactus six feet tall and can be spines. Some leave a dense three to four you with a small hole feet wide. The trunk is in the skin and a heavy and the stems temporary ache. can be over an inch Others can result in thick. It can make a you being miserable statement in a for days. So grit your landscape. The bonus is it has lovely pink to bright teeth, prepare for reddish-purple 2 inch flowers in late summer. In some pain, but there are solutions. the winter the stems get droopy and dehydrated There are two different types of spines on a looking. Spines are short, ¾ inch and are yellow to cactus. There are the impressive large spines that are gray in color. There is a cultivar that has white readily visible. They range from the giant thick ones flowers and there is one with no spines, although I like on a barrel cactus to the thinner sharper ones on do not know how available they are. Tree cholla chollas. Some spines are barbed–some are not. Then can be found in gravel and sandy soils, mostly in there are very tiny ones that can look like soft fuzz. grasslands, 4000 to 6000 feet. It has a wide range These are called glochids. No matter how soft and including , Arizona, Utah, Texas, Kansas, fuzzy something appears on cactus, do not touch it and north central and central Mexico. with your bare hands. Cylindropuntia whipplei (plateau cholla, If you have a cholla joint attached to your Whipple’s cholla, snow leopard cactus) is one of clothing the easiest way to remove it is with a comb, the most attractive chollas you can plant. It has preferably a large comb with a long handle (so you can large, 2 inch, yellow flowers and silvery spines. avoid the spines) but any comb will do. Comb the joint The plant can take on different appearances out of the fabric. You will likely have to apply some depending on where it force so don’t get your hand close or accidently flick is growing. In high the joint onto another part of your body or onto altitudes C. whipplei someone else. may look different If you can see the spines, use a pair of pliers or than one growing in tweezers to remove them. It can be painful but if they Arizona. In Arizona aren’t pulled the pain won’t go away and they could the plant is usually become infected. If you have the misfortune to get more upright. Its covered in spines (see picture) I would suggest going native range goes to the emergency room or urgent care. from 5000 to 7400 feet in elevation and can be The tiny fine spines are difficult to see so found in Arizona, Colorado, , Nevada getting them out with tweezers is possible but difficult. and Arizona. It is extremely cold hardy. This cholla The recommended technique is to tweeze out as many forms dense, low spiny thickets which are hard on as you can see and then use a thin layer of glue (like a livestock. This cholla is very spiny so guard your white glue) covered with a piece of gauze. Let the glue fingers when planting. dry and use the gauze to peel it away. Using products There are several other chollas that will like adhesive tape, duct tape or a commercial face work in cold climates, along with a large variety of mask does not work as well and results in leaving other cacti and succulents. For more information spines in the skin and inflammation. check out “Cacti and Succulents for Cold Climates” Another option is to use panty hose to remove by Leo J. Chance, Timber Press, 2012. Don’t small spines. Ball up the panty hose and rub it across forget to pick up pliers, tweezers and band-aids the affected area. Move the panty hose around so you before planting. use a fresh area every few rubs. It may not remove all of them but will help if you have no glue handy. Removing Cactus Spines Clean the area with soap and water to help prevent infection once you get the spines out.

3 of 8 Meet A Master Gardener - Scholly Ketcher by Lori Dekker

On a beautiful late takes a lot) and when it tops off the water slowly, with summer afternoon, I met kudos to capillary action, moves upward into the root a Master Gardener with zone. She says it’s not good for seedlings but a an English accent and a highly efficient way to use water for more established heart of gold. Yep, plants. An overflow mechanism prevents pooling and Scholly Ketcher is her rot in the bed. name, and kids and On the Master Gardener side of her life, gardens are her game. Scholly spends two or more days a week tending and Scholly describes teaching in the Head Start Preschool garden, just herself as a “jack of all around the corner from the Extension office. It’s a trades and a master of well-groomed but lush little patch filled with none,” which to me vegetables started from seed by the preschoolers seemed themselves. Tomatoes, like a radishes, and carrots join modest forces to teach city kids that description our food comes from seed in of a woman who has worked as a the ground and is helped pediatric nurse (US and England), a along by the labor of many. preschool director (in England), a It’s a great and valuable gardener with a wide range of plant lesson AND the tomatoes are interests, who also paints, cooks, sweet, to boot! In her off- manages the finances for Yavapai hours (does this woman clean County Girl Scouts and actively house or sleep?), Scholly volunteers as a Master Gardener. She manages the Chino Valley and managed to do all this while moving Prescott Farmer’s Markets, around the US and back and forth from and she’s always looking for England while raising two little girls. help with those projects. She and her husband, Duncan, a Meeting Scholly Ketcher was retired Boeing engineer, are hands- on a privilege and a joy. Any Williamson Valley homeowners—in Master Gardner with an other words, they do lots of their own opportunity to meet her should remodeling and landscaping. do so, she’s a fun gal loaded She attributes her accomplishments to what her with great ideas and interesting stories. This reporter husband terms “enjoying messes.” She has always is hoping for scones and clotted cream at our next gardened, and like many of us, started with mud pies Master Gardener Association meeting! “frosted” with flower petals. Today she grows herbs, flowers, vegetables and potted plants, and is planning for a small fruit orchard. She and Duncan are slowly building raised beds and pathways around their large yard, because having grown up on the east coast of England, she has a love of English Cottage Gardens and would like to try one here in the arid South West —well, wouldn’t we all? Scholly and Duncan have built their raised beds around a subterranean irrigation system that places perforated irrigation piping several inches below the surface of the soil. An envelope of pond liner encloses the bed a few inches or so below the pipes to provide a fairly closed system. On watering days she fills the system with water (and she says it 4 of 8 Community Gardens – A Time-Honored Tradition By Lori Dekker and Marti Griggs

Community public and private, along with sympathetic individuals gardens labored to provide growing space to the needy. By 1934 might seem an amazing 23 million households were participating in like a cooperative gardening ventures and it’s postulated that modern $36,000,000 (in 1930’s dollars) of food was privately concept, produced in what became known as Thrift Gardens. generated World War II rekindled the patriotic gardens by the campaign with Victory Gardens promoted as a means to needs of an improve health, recreation and morale. By 1944 nearly increasingly 20 million families with Victory Gardens produced 40 urban population. In fact, they have been around percent of the vegetables in the United States. for a very long time. The first American In the 1970’s, inner city decay, environmental community garden was planted in 1759 in a concerns and Back-to-the-Land movements gave rise to Moravian settlement just outside of another campaign to create viable Winston Salem, North Carolina. community gardens. Not only were people Even then it was not a new idea, worried about what they ate and how springing from an old English blighted their neighborhoods had become, tradition of “allotment” plots where there was a growing desire to connect and landowners rented plots to their get to know one’s neighbors. Community landless neighbors for food gardens became a focus of local production. The concept has networking, increasing community evolved through a long and involvement and developing community fascinating history. resources. Modern community gardens st In the 21 century, the U.S. really took off in Detroit in the Department of Agriculture launched the 1890’s. Educational and social People’s Garden Initiative by planting an reformers, as well as folks urban garden on the National Mall and concerned with city beautification, pushed the gardens throughout all fifty states. The concept is alive idea of cooperative gardens as a way to assist the and well within Yavapai County with a wide variety of unemployed, and to teach civics and good work community gardens located in schools, parks, places of ethics to youth. As cities got more crowded, worship and community centers. green spaces for food production were welcomed Calder Whitely, Director of Prescott Community and community gardens flourished. Gardens, echoed the desire During World War I, in an effort to expand for the gardens to be a domestic food production, the federal government community hub, not only for embarked on several efforts to make gardening a food production, but also for patriotic act. The Bureau of Education education, socialization, incorporated agriculture education into the public community networking, and school curriculum with a program called the nutrition awareness. He is United States School Garden Army. There was reaching out for support from also the War Garden Commission that called on local businesses and citizens to become “soldiers of the soil” by partnering with two local planting Liberty Gardens and War Gardens. schools to assist with The Great Depression brought hungry agricultural education. The unemployed people to the fore. Community gardens provide the “lab” gardens were an obvious solution and agencies,

5 of 8 portion of the coursework. Students are learning basic Potato Soup biology, nutrition and food production and I’m sitting here, the end of September and its’ cloudy, cool soon (hopefully) they and rainy out. Fall seems to arrived on schedule this year. will be taking their We are usually still grumbling how hot it still is. There products to the may be more days of heat yet to come but for today it Farmer’s Market to seems like time for a nice soup to enjoy with the fall develop marketing skills. weather. I love potato soup and it is a really easy soup to make. So if you are looking for a hearty meal to get Master Gardener Marianne Jimenez is through the rain this could be it. Cottonwood’s Community Gardens (CCG) Manager with 42 vegetable garden plots in Riverfront Park and 6 slices bacon (about 6 oz.), cut into 1-inch a community fruit orchard on the Willard Street pieces Extension. Many of the trees were donated by 1 onion, diced businesses, including local nurseries and there is a 1 clove garlic, chopped program for individuals to donate a tree to the orchard 1/8 teaspoon dried thyme in memory of a loved one. Cottonwood joined in the 3 baking potatoes (about 2 lb. total), peeled and Let’s Move program initiated by First Lady Michelle cut into 1/2-inch pieces Obama. The goals of the program are to encourage better eating habits, diminish childhood obesity and 3 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth provide healthy, affordable food to the community. The 1 cup sour cream CCG also strives to educate people in good garden Salt and pepper practices and help people new to the area learn about 2 tablespoons minced fresh chives gardening here. The biggest challenge for Marianne has been discouraged gardeners who are unprepared 1. In a large pot over medium-high heat, cook for the difficulties of gardening in the region. It takes a bacon, stirring occasionally, until crisp and concerted and ongoing effort to keep people browned, 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer to paper motivated. towels to drain. When cool enough to handle, Gardens for Humanity sponsors a variety of crumble. programs and projects in Sedona and the Verde 2. Discard all but 2 Tbsp. fat and return pot to Valley. These programs expand the traditional idea of medium heat. Add onion, garlic and thyme and cooperative gardens with an emphasis on education sauté until onion is soft, about 7 minutes. Add and environmental stewardship. Their projects include the Peace Garden at the Sedona Creative Life potatoes and broth; bring to a boil. Reduce heat Center, the Big Park Butterfly Garden, the Sedona to low; simmer until potatoes are tender, 12 to Winds Assisted Living accessible garden, the 15 minutes. Working in batches, process in community garden at St. John Vianney Catholic blender with sour cream until smooth. Season Church and several school gardens in Sedona, with salt and pepper. Cornville, Camp Verde and Cottonwood. According to 3. Ladle soup into bowls and top with chives Richard Sidy, President, there are several and bacon. opportunities for Master Gardeners to become involved. Other areas throughout the County are offering their local neighborhoods the “garden” experience, where the public can share in the value only a garden can bring. No matter what they are called, community gardens have been an important part of American life - bringing people together, serving a variety of purposes and providing a place to share the love of gardening. 6 of 8 From the Editor: Send or email Congratulations on articles to the address below. Email is preferred. Please see schedule completing 50 hours of for deadlines. volunteer service! Nora Graf [email protected] PO Box 3652 Camp Verde, AZ 86322 Lois Johnson — mentor, Carol Young 928-567-6703 Steve Miller—mentor, Suzette Russi Laura Mineer— mentor, Jane Harrington Carol Quasula—mentor, Linda Kimberly.

Jeff Schalau County Director, Yavapai County Extension Agent, Agriculture & Natural Resources email: [email protected]

Prescott Office 840 Rodeo Dr. Building C Prescott, AZ 86305 928-445-6590 MG Help Desk 928-45-6590 ext 222

Camp Verde Office 2830 Commonwealth Dr #103. Camp Verde, AZ 86322 928-554-8999 Searching Yavapai Gardens MG Help Desk 928-554-8992

Looking for a topic or article in a past issue of the the newsletter? It’s easy to do. In your search engine type in “Yavapai Gardens” and then Issued in furtherance of Cooperative your topic. For example: “Yavapai Gardens” propagation Extension work, acts of May 8 and June You must put the quote marks around Yavapai Gardens. 30, 1914, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Jeffrey C. Silvertooth, Associate Dean & Director, 2016 Newsletter Deadline Schedule Economic Development & Extension, College of Agriculture and Life The newsletter comes out every two months. Please note the Sciences, The University of Arizona is deadlines. an equal opportunity, affirmative action Publish Date Deadline institution. The University does not Feb-Mar—Feb 1—Articles Jan 5, announcements Jan 25 discriminate on the basis of race, color, April-May—April 1—Articles March 5, announcements Mar 25 religion, sex, national origin, age, June-July—June 1—Articles May 5, announcements May 25 disability, veteran status, sexual Aug-Sept—Aug 1—Articles July 5, announcements July 25 Oct-Nov—Oct 1—Articles Sept 5, announcements Sept 25 orientation, gender identity, or genetic Dec-Jan—Dec 1—Articles Nov 5, announcements Nov 25 information in its programs and activities. 7 of 8 Arizona Cooperative Extension Yavapai County 840 Rodeo Dr. Building C Prescott, AZ 86305

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