Desert Blooms

Southwest Yard & Garden  By Marisa Thompson The crocuses in this photo are beautiful, but the mulch is what really catches my eye. Photo credit Marisa Thompson. Few people are as excited about mulch as me. Maybe it’s the name. Maybe it’s time for a rebrand. Whatever you call it, mulch can be defined as any material (organic or synthetic) that’s added on top of the soil surface to benefit the soil, the plants, the gardener, or, in some cases, all of the above. Organic mulches are made of natural plant materials, like woodchips, shredded bark, pine needles, leaves, etc. Synthetic mulches consist of human-made materials, like recycled rubber bits or sheet plastic. Each mulch type has its list of pros and cons. Once applied, mulch may look like it’s just sitting there, existing, but that’s the beauty of it. Behind the scenes, mulches perform a variety of proven benefits—when applied correctly. When I recommend mulching, I’m...

Southwest Yard & Garden Partial Reprint by Dr. Curtis Smith  with an added note by Dr. Marisa Thompson Leaf miner patterns in a luffa leaf.  Photo credit Forest and Kim Starr, Wikimedia Commons . Partial reprint from   July 23, 2016 Question:  My bean and luffa plants have been diagnosed with leaf miners. What should I do now? Answer:  Several unrelated insects are called leaf miners. The one infesting your vegetable leaves is probably the larvae of a very small fly. Like all leaf miner insects, the eggs are laid by the adult female insect on the outside of the leaf, usually on the underside. When the egg hatches, the larva immediately enters through the lower surface of the leaf into the layers of cells between the top and bottom surface. The larva then feeds on the layers of cells inside the leaf that contain chlorophyll. Because the green cells containing chlorophyll have been consumed, the path of the larva's feeding appears white or yellowish, and the...

Southwest Yard & Garden By Dr. Marisa Thompson   Desert marigold seedling with tiny, fuzzy, blue-ish leaves at Elephant Butte Lake, February 2020 (left); mature flower stalks in a new development off Hwy-10 in Las Cruces, October 2020 (middle); and a sunny flower head soaking up the sun in Los Lunas, August 2017 (right). Photo credits M. Thompson. Question: I want to try growing flowers from seed in my front yard. Which do you recommend I start with first? -           Sylvia S. (age 10), Las Cruces   Answer: I’ve had great luck growing flowers from seed, and I think you will too. I try different combinations each year and usually forget the ones that didn’t ever come up. One tip is to get a mix of wildflower seeds the first year, pay attention to the ones that flower and thrive in your particular environment, and then buy more of those in future years. To save you the trouble, here are a few that have worked well for me:...