Dig Into the Past for Fresh Gardening Ideas

Question: Can you recommend some early authors on gardening in California?

--T.N., Pasadena

Answer: It sometimes seems as though some of the best books on California gardening were written awhile back. The earliest in my library dates from 1904 and is titled “Gardening in California,” by Wm. S. Lyon, published in Los Angeles and “Designed Chiefly for the Use of Amateurs.” It’s fun to read since, as with many early books, it is aimed at people newly arrived from the East.

Other authors of that vintage include John McLaren, superintendent of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park; Belle Sumner Angier; Charles Francis Saunders; and the prodigious E.J. Wickson, whose books are a bit technical, as he was essentially our first University of California expert.

Later, more readable authors include a Sunset editor in the 1940s named Norvell Gillespie; Ernest Braunton, who wrote for The Times in the ‘30s; and one of my favorites, Berkeley gardener Sydney B. Mitchell, who wrote several books, including “Your California Garden and Mine” (Barrows, 1947).

Landscape architect Roland Stewart Hoyt wrote the still useful “Ornamental Plants for Subtropical Regions” (Livingston Press, 1938) and Ross H. Gast wrote my favorite vegetable gardening book, “Vegetables in the California Garden” (Stanford University Press, 1933).

Lester Rowntree was one of the first to write about using native plants in the garden with “Hardy Californians” (MacMillan, 1936).

Northern Californian Albert Wilson wrote several classics in the 1950s. And don’t overlook the early Sunset books, such as “Sunset’s Visual Garden Manual” (Lane, 1941) or “Vegetable Garden Book” (Lane, 1943).

Most of these authors’ books may still be found at used-book stores. Advanced Book Exchange on the Web at https://www.abebooks.com, with its 4,900 member booksellers, lists many.

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Q: I grow a plot of sweet corn each year and have a lot of damage from the large green worms that invade the ears. How can I control them?

--D.G., Encino

A: Those green caterpillars are corn ear worms--although they are not always green. They exist in a variety of dusky colors. Some have side stripes and all have--if you look very closely--short hairs growing from wart-like bumps.

They not only eat through ears of corn but can eat holes in tomatoes (they’re sometimes called tomato fruit worms), lettuce, even beans.

The easiest way to deal with ear worms on corn is to simply cut off the damaged end of the ear once you harvest it. The ear worms usually eat less than a third of the ear, so slice that off and you’ll never know they were there.

Send all damaged fruit to the dump, not the compost heap, to prevent the pest from spreading. That goes for infested tomatoes too..

The biological control Bt or Bacillus thuringiensis (sold by Safers as Caterpillar Killer) works well on tomatoes and beans and can be dusted or sprayed on corn silks every few days from formation to when the silks dry.

The university also recommends a technique in which you dribble 20 drops of mineral oil from an eyedropper into each ear, three to seven days after the silks appear. Both approaches kill baby worms as they enter the ear.

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Q: I have a 35-year-old Green Gage plum tree that still produces delicious fruit. It is riddled, however, with termites. Is there anything I can do, and will that affect the fruit?

--M.S.

A: It depends on the kind of termite. If they are subterranean termites, you can try using those growth regulator stakes or the stakes that contain a stomach poison (such as Terminate, made by Spectracide) that are pushed into the ground. Although the stakes are made for treating home perimeters, try placing them around the tree. The materials will not end up in the fruit.

Subterranean termites live underground and feed in any handy wood, including the old heartwood of living trees. If a tree is healthy, termites tend to leave it alone because they generally enter through wounds or dead areas in roots or branches. They don’t eat the living wood, or cambium, so the tree keeps growing.

Dry-wood termites also enter through wounds, but live above ground. If you can’t prune off the infested wood, the colonies are difficult to get to. After harvesting the fruit, you might try using Term-Out, a product that can be sprayed into termite tunnels. It comes in an aerosol can with a tiny hose you insert in the entrance holes.

Dry-wood termites are the ones that get into patio furniture and wood fences, and Term-Out works great in those instances. Another outdoor termite product is Termite Prufe, a safe borate powder that can be painted or sprayed on fences and sheds, but not on live trees.

There is no sure-fire way to control termites in live trees but your plum will probably last another 10 years, even with the termites. Spur-bearing fruit trees such as plums and especially apples live a long time, unlike peaches and nectarines, which are often removed after only 10 years.

You may want to plant a back-up plum, so you’ll have a bearing-age tree when the 35-year-old plum finally does fall over. And I wouldn’t recommend taking a nap under a termite-infested tree or attaching your hammock to it.

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Robert Smaus’ column is published Thursdays. Send your questions to Robert Smaus, SoCal Living, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053; fax to (213) 237-4712; or e-mail robert.smaus@latimes.com.