Happy Winter Solstice!

December 21, 2009 at 6:05 pm (Uncategorized)
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Today is Winter Solstice, and very thankfully, from now on the days will be getting longer.  It can be a grey, damp and drear time of year, but Winter Solstice gives you something to look forward to if you are a gardener.  The story of solstice celebrations goes back to the Celts, who didn’t really understand about astronomy, yet the Druids did.  So the Druids, wanting to keep the power over the people, when the people were scared because the light in the sky was waning, said they could help them out.  On the solstice, the Druids would go up to the top of a mountain and set a tree on fire (which is where we get the Christmas tree with lights motif), and then after this ceremony the people noticed that the days started to get longer, and thus they were happy, the Druids were happy (and sneaky), and the days got longer.

We celebrate a gardener’s solstice with greenery adorning the house, and a dinner of Northwest bounty, featuring a wonderful Louisiana gumbo with Dungeness crab and shrimp.  Good times!

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Winter-Blooming Jasmine

December 11, 2009 at 1:05 am (Uncategorized)
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My Jasminium nudifolium, or winter jasmine, despite the frigid temperatures started to bloom today!  The bright yellow tubular flowers stand out against a grey December sky, and they are a favorite with the hummingbirds that winter over in my garden.  It is a shrubby vine, so it does need a bit of space, but looks wonderful with a rock wall as a backdrop.  Very easy to grow, and blooms during the bleakest time of year–I love this plant!

Try it in your garden!

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Bird Feeding During the Winter Months

December 9, 2009 at 6:07 pm (Uncategorized)
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During this cold weather you will want to take a few steps to keep your feathered friends well fed.

  • First, it helps if you know what types of birds are coming to your garden, so you then can determine what types of foods they like to eat.  If you can describe the bird, you can set a search engine to “images,” and then type in your description–this is a quick way to figure it out.  Bird identification books suited to our area can also help–check the library for these.
  • Once you’ve identified the birds, then figure out what they like to eat.  I serve a few different types of foods for the birds that show up here.  In general, many types of birds really like black oil sunflower seeds with the shells on.  Although the books recommend millet, I have found that the birds that frequent my feeders tend to toss it to the ground in search of tastier sunflower seeds, and the millet grows an awful invasive grass that is a pain to keep weeded, so I no longer serve millet.  I do serve suet as well–this will attract many birds.  I use a storebought suet that does not melt in the summertime that has peanuts in it, and the birds really seem to enjoy it.  I also have put out niger thistle seed, as a few birds will eat it–again, do be careful with it and don’t spill it on the ground–it forms another awful invasive weed that you do not want in your garden.  The best local source I have found for all manner of bird foods, as well as a great assortment of materials for making garden fertilizers, is a store in Portland, Oregon called Concentrates, Inc.  They have a large variety of seeds and the best prices in town.  They are getting ready to move to a new location, so give them a call before you visit them for updated location information.
  • Types of feeders that I use varies.  My better half made me a great tray feeder with a roof out of scrap wood that works very well, and I keep this one stocked with sunflower seeds.  It has a roof but is open on both sides, so the little birds can fly in and out of either side, and they like that.  Feeders with roofs keep the seed dry in the rain, so look for that.  A metal tube feeder works well for serving thistle.  I’ll have more on hummingbird feeders and feeding following.  You can make your own feeders–there are a wide variety of designs available online and in books, or you can find good ones for purchase.
  • Placement of the feeders should be near a tree or shrub that will provide the birds with protection.  They like to eat a bit and then retreat to shelter, so plan accordingly.
  • Water is important in the wintertime.  Normally there is rain, so nature takes care of it for you, but when it’s frozen out, it can be hard for birds to find enough moisture, so if you can provide them with even a small container of warm water, it will be appreciated.  There are heaters that you can place in bird baths that keep the water unfrozen; I have not experimented with those yet, but many find them effective.
  • A garden for the birds is easy to create.  Some people forgo the work of the feeders and simply plant a garden that provides the birds with what they need.  Make sure to include shrubs and trees to provide shelter, and many plants that provide food.  Make water available, either naturally with creeks or streams, or with bird baths.  I leave many annuals and perennials uncut in the fall to provide the birds with seeds.  Bird gardens should never use pesticides, because it will harm the birds–the birds will eat a lot of the bugs, anyway.
  • Hummingbird feeding in the winter is possible, but must be regularly adhered to or the birds will suffer from lack of care.  Right now I have two male Anna’s hummingbirds that are wintering over in the garden.  I have provided them shelter with arbovitae shrubs, which they like to nest in.  In freezing weather, keeping the feeder going can be challenging, but possible.  I usually put the feeder out during the day, and if it’s really cold–below freezing–I will warm the nectar a bit on the stove before filling the feeder.  I bring the feeder in overnight so it doesn’t freeze over.  The best feeder I have found is Dr. JB’s Hummingbird feeder, because it has a wide mouth that makes it easy to clean, and it should be cleaned 2-3 times per week.  It is also made from durable glass.  I also grow a lot of plants that flower over the winter that provide food for the hummers.  Viburnum rank very high on their favorite food list, as does flowers on ‘Tuscan Blue’ rosemary.  Flowering quince bloom later and are also good.  Jasminium nudifolium, or winter jasmine, is a great garden addition.  A very shrubby vine, it flowers bright yellow in the dark winter months.  Glossy abelia flowers off and on all year, including the wintertime.  If you provide them with year-round shelter, food and water, they will stay in your garden year round.  And it is worth repeating that if you are not prepared to do the minimal but regular work required to maintain this type of feeding system, it is best to bypass it and just feed them in the summer months.

These tips will get you off on the right foot with feeding the birds during the cold winter months–give it a try!

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Baby, It’s Cold Outside

December 8, 2009 at 5:20 pm (Uncategorized)
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I read with interest last week that the temperatures were going to drop way down (today we have a high of 25 degrees, with a whopping 16 degrees overnight), so I took a few steps to protect tender plants.

–The salad greens:  Under PVC pipes  that make hoops over the beds, and then covered them with clear plastic, holding down the edges with bricks.  Of course, it has also been very windy, so I had to modify some of the bricks with larger rocks, and that seemed to work.  They’ll look a little wilted with these extreme temperatures, but should spring back when it warms up and starts raining again.

–The more tender perennials:  I covered my cut-back delphiniums, agapanthus and young phygellius plants with clear plastic and rocks.

–Annuals that never die:  I’m thinking Cerinthe major ‘Purpurescence’, which is a lovely turquoise-foliaged and purple tubular flowered beauty.  I have several baby plants and a few large plants out in the garden, so I covered those as well with plastic and rock to hold it down.  If last year was any indication,  I will lose some of these in the more open areas, but the ones tucked in beside the house in warmer pockets should survive.  I’ve had them blooming in February in some years.

I had waited til the last minute to pull up the tender bulbs, but I did get the dahlias, begonias, canna and calla lilies dug up, washed off and bagged up with labels.  I keep the mesh bags in which onions and oranges are often sold and use them for this purpose.

For another post, but worth a quick mention now–keep your bird feeders full now, and if you can provide water, do so.  The little guys, including black-capped chicadees, scrub jays and Anna’s hummingbirds that are in my garden now certainly appreciate it.

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A Use For English Laurel

December 4, 2009 at 9:48 am (Uncategorized)
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Many homes in Clark County have English Laurel growing as a large hedge.   It does require extensive pruning to keep it somewhat in check, but now is a great time to use some of those prunings and turn them into holiday decorations for your home.

I like to use English Laurel, with its glossy leaves, as a perfect foliage foil for use in containers.  These containers live outdoors year round, and I like to dress them up a bit for the winter holidays, and this laurel does the job.  Just stick them in the dirt in the container in artistic clumps, add a ribbon if you wish, and you are done.

English laurel is also wonderful on the mantel of the fireplace.  The shiny leaves stay green for at least 3 weeks or more indoors.  Pair it with some prunings from  dwarf bamboo that has red foliage in the winter, and you are off to the races with natural decor that you can get for free from your abundant garden.  Add some pinecones for a wonderful display of holiday cheer!

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Getting Amaryllis To Reflower

November 18, 2009 at 6:31 pm (Uncategorized)
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Growing amaryllis indoors is a great way to have luxurious, large flowers indoors during the drab winter months.  It’s actually fairly easy to get them to rebloom year after year.  Here are the steps if you are starting out now with a new bulb, which typically go on sale at hardware and department stores as well as gardening centers sometime in the month of November.

1.  Plant the bulb.  The bulbs like snug containers, and the pointy top 1/3 of the bulb needs to be above the soil level in the pot.  The little plastic pots that come with the bulb that you purchase have no drain holes, so you will not need a saucer beneath them, but you also have to water carefully so you do not waterlog the bulbs.  Water so it’s moist but not soggy, and place the pot in a sunny window.

2.  Continue to water and fertilize with a complete organic fertilizer every two weeks after planting.  Eventually leaves will sprout from the bulb, and a thick stem will emerge, from which the flower head will grow.  With a smaller bulb, this may or may not happen the first year, but should as the bulb matures.  I have read that for every five leaves on the bulb, you will get one flower stalk.  My younger bulbs have bloomed with as few as three leaves.  My bulbs are not mature enough to have more than five leaves at this point, but we will see if this is true as time goes on.

3.  After the bulbs have bloomed, hopefully around or just after the winter holidays,  continue to water and fertilize every other week all winter, and through the spring and summer.  In the summer, if you wish, you may move the pots outdoors in a protected spot like a porch  in July when it warms up, but they also do well hanging out indoors in front of a sunny window.

4.  In the beginning of September, stop fertilizing the pots, and cut way back on watering.  You want them to dry out a bit, but not die from lack of water.  Very little is needed.  Foliage may wither and die at this point, and that is fine–simply use a scissors and cut off any unsightly browned foliage as it occurs.  If the pots were outside for the summer, in the beginning of  September bring them back inside to their sunny window.    Keep the pots barely moist and no fertilizer for the months of September and October.

5.  Starting in the beginning of November, resume watering and fertilizing every other week, and keep them in a sunny window.  This will help to wake up the bulbs, and they should start eventually to send out new foliage and flower stems.

Another note:  The flower stems can get very tall, and so I like to keep very slender stakes, even a thin skewer or chopstick can work, and slide them into the pot and use twine or even ribbon to tie the stem to the stake, so that it doesn’t break.  I had a cat knock one over, and the stem was hanging over.  I  used scotch tape to wrap around the stem and stake to get the damaged stem back up into an upright position, and it actually bloomed, but your mileage may vary.

That’s all there is to it–as you can see, a very easy process.  You can place plain pots together in decorative baskets found very inexpensively at thrift stores, and cover the top with Spanish moss to hide the pots, making a lovely holiday decoration for your home.

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Cleaning Up Garden Beds

November 13, 2009 at 11:20 pm (Uncategorized)
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In between rain squalls, I have been running out and weeding, finishing up planting bulbs, pruning back dead perennial tops and in general trying to bring order to the chaos outdoors in the garden beds.  We are down to three good-sized and 2 small salad greens beds, and hopefully that will see us through until spring, barring horrible deep snow like last year.  On one hand, it is nice to not have all the work that comes from tending a garden in the busy summer months, but I don’t like to give things up entirely just yet.  And I have not been super thorough, because the black-cap chicadees and other birds have been enjoying the seedheads of several of the annuals that I have left for them out in the garden.  Dahlias are still blooming a bit, and a few roses on the shrubs.  I noticed a bit of blue borage, California poppy and a bit of ‘Jupiter’s Beard’ blooming.  There is a little bit of annual feverfew blooming, as well as the viburnum shrubs, with dark evergreen foliage and clusters of white flowers that the hummingbirds appreciate during the winter months.  Still a hardy fuschia flower or two hanging on as well.  A few nasturtium and chamomile flowers in the hanging baskets still carrying on, and primrose blooms.  The ‘Tuscan Blue’ rosemary (one I highly recommend–the flowers are gorgeous, and it is a wonderful evergreen plant that is edible) is starting to send out a few blue flowers very early.  The plumbago was lovely for quite a long time this fall.  With burgundy leaves highlighting the bright sky-blue flowers, it has alas succumbed to the colder temperatures and excess rain.  I still need to bring the few pellargonium I still have outside, inside for the winter.  If they are placed under lights, they will bloom all winter long.  I do a bit here an there as I have time, and it is an ongoing process for a while.  I also need to collect some maple leaves to shred and then use on the beds as mulch–if it ever stops raining long enough.  I also like to add them to the compost pile.

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A Gardening Quote From Shakespeare

November 9, 2009 at 7:11 pm (Uncategorized)
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In Othello, Act I, Scene III, Shakespeare wrote, “Our bodies are our gardens to which our wills are gardeners.”

I like this –how about you?

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Autumn Decorations From The Garden

October 22, 2009 at 5:00 pm (Uncategorized)
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The deciduous trees are turning luscious shades of orange and burgundy now, the grape leaves and witch hazel leaves are spun gold, and so it is time to spruce up the front of your home with some easy autumn decoration from the garden.  I’ve started to plant corn, and even if it doesn’t yield edible ears, the stalks and baby ears are lovely grouped together  in pots by your front door.  Combine with them rosy and blue hydrangea blooms, and bind them together in bouquets using garden twine.

I also grow ‘Rouge Vif d’Entemps’ pumpkin, also known as Cinderella pumpkin.  These are rather expensive to buy, but you can easily grow them yourself for a fraction of the price.  These look beautiful at all stages of growth, so I have them gathered near the top of the steps by the front door.  I also mix in any of the squash that are growing–anything that has perhaps grown beyond a size that will make it good to eat will work well for decorating, and especially if the skin is a different color from the pumpkin, like dark green or creamy white.  I ended up with some plants that turned out to be a pumpkin and danish squash hybrid that was stringy and not very good to eat, so those squash were put to use as decorations.

To add some contrasting color to the orange, add something blue to the mix.  I have pots that are a great shade of deep turquoise, and I placed a two-gallon turquoise pot behind an orange pumpkin.  The pot was filled with yellow grass of unknown origin, as well as black mondo grass, a gorgeous filler for containers, and a yarrow with grey filagree leaves.

None of this cost anything except for the cost of a few seeds, but it offers quite an impact to the front of the house.  These decorations can go up now, and can stay up through Thanksgiving if you do not carve the pumpkins or squash.

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Inexpensive Northwest Native Plants Now Available To Order

October 17, 2009 at 2:51 am (Uncategorized)
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The Clark County Conservation District each year holds a Northwest Native plant sale. The way it works is you fill out their order form and mail it with a check to the Clark Conservation district, or you can drop off your order at their office during the work week. The ordering deadline is February 12, 2010 at 4:30pm or while supplies last  (I suggest you place your order early, because they run out fairly quickly).   You then go to their office and pick up your plants on February 25, 26 or 27, 2010, where people will be available from 9am to 1 pm each of those days to give you your plants.

These plants are typically sold bareroot. What this means is that you will end up with several sticks with roots sticking out of the bottom. But, these bareroot plants take off very quickly once planted. I have had good luck by potting the bareroot plants up first in one or two-gallon containers, and growing them on for a season in the containers. Then, when they have more of a root system in place, I plant them out in the garden, typically in fall when it starts to rain again.

This is certainly the least expensive way to expand your Northwest Native plant collection. The bareroot plants come in bundles of 5, with prices ranging from $3 to $8 dollars per bundle. (My kinda plant sale!)   There are a variety of plants suitable for dry or wet growing conditions, full sun or shade.

To get on their plant sale mailing list and receive their plant sale flyer each year, contact the Clark Conservation District office at 11104 NE 149th St., Bldg. C, Suite 400, in Brush Prairie, WA. Their office is open Monday-Friday from 8am-4pm. You can also call them at (360) 883-1987, or visit their website at http://www.clarkcd.org/Plant_Sale.htm for more information.

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