Saturday, February 26, 2011

Spring Confusion

One thing I don't expect living on the mild Oregon coast-- crunchy snow on the steps of my greenhouse.

Note- new olive tree in the background, swaddled for winter.
This, and 22 degrees F overnight in late February... in an area that barely reaches freezing in mid-winter.  Suffice it to say the plants are slightly confused.

Just last week I was admiring the blooms on a client's deep-red camellia, and the daffodils are sooo close to opening.

For the most part I'm not worried about a late frost, as it's too soon for us to have un-winterized anything like the water spigots outside.

I will admit to some concern about my prized peach fan, and the just-emerging leaves of my treasured raspberries.  The raspberries less so, they will grow more leaves if these are damaged.  But early-blooming fruit trees are always a gamble against late frosts, as that short period of bloom secures the potential summer harvest.  I haven't the heart to check my espalier pear yet, it almost always blooms the same time as the peach... and the peach was showing its fat pink-tipped buds the other day.  Fingers crossed.

Many plants were lured into emerging from dormancy after some pleasant weather earlier this month.  Daffodils were already 4-5 inches out of the ground when we returned from our long trip in late January.

The poor winter-blooming heath was in mid-bloom when the unusual snow and ice arrived this week.

Appreciating the snow-light:  nothing like a bright clear day dawning on the reflective surfaces to light up the landscape.  A photo-hound's dream.  Snow just looks right on a blue-star juniper, doesn't it?


One standout shrub, overlooked, in early spring:  Berberis darwinii, wow.  The contrast of that mango-orange blooms and deep pink pedicels, against the backdrop of shiny black-green leaves.

I'm not usually an advocate of "poke-y" plants (holly, barberry, yucca, etc) since I end up maintaining the painful things.  But if you have room for a tall hedgerow, or a steep slope where no people will likely need access, this plant can really highlight your February landscape.  It also provides nicely for wildlife.

Finally, when the weather is uncooperative for gardening, take time to step back and appreciate something special.... like the tidepools I was able to explore on an extremely scoured-out winter beach after very high and minus tides last week.  Exploring these sculptural gardens and natural water features was something special indeed.

Lincoln City tidepools, just south of the D River

Monday, February 21, 2011

Top 10 Mistakes by Coastal Gardeners

I love plants-- and truly enjoy working with my clients to fully appreciate the plants in their gardens.

Frequently, I am asked by concerned homeowners the same questions about their landscapes.  So I figured it might be useful to make a list of what this professional landscape gardener would advise clients NOT to do in their coastal gardens, and avoid common pitfalls.

10.  Planting shrubs or trees because they are cheap or familiar, without any research on coastal conditions.  A common mistake: new coastal residents may think, well it's still Oregon, still the same zone, and I like this or that plant.  Why not grow it here?  The Willamette Valley, where most new residents come from, provides ideal growing conditions for a vast array of nursery plants-- the coast has a much smaller palette from which to draw.  Wind, salt, sandy soil, heavy winter rainfall and a much milder growing season (insufficient heat for many plants) are among the reasons.  Please visit with a quality coastal nursery and spend a little time talking with the knowledgeable staff, before you design and plant your garden.

9.  Failing to provide for torrential rain (drainage) in winter.  This might seem obvious but it really gets overlooked when people design the new house and yard, or purchase an existing one.  Really take the time to figure out where the water from your downspouts will end up, and where it comes rushing down your street, and talk to neighbors about any problems with storm drains, etc.  Many times when we see a tree or shrub mysteriously die in someone's landscape, we dig it up and lo, the hole is filled with water.  Drainage!

8.  Failing to provide wind shelter (from the north and west) in summer.  Coastal homeowners often realize there are strong winds in winter with the dramatic storms, but fail to account for the persistent dry winds that occur in summer.  These are mostly from the north, more often than directly from the ocean (west), and usually the cause of brown leaves and dieback on the north side of plants.  Often the solution is a simple windscreen (made from shadecloth) for the first couple years until plants are established. Related to this problem is inadequate summer water.  If you want to grow a good-looking lawn, it will unfortunately require lots of summer water.  Shrubs are less needy but need water if they are exposed to ocean winds.

7.  Choosing to grow mostly lawn on the lakefront or oceanfront.  Following on the last item... lawns are cheap and easy to install, but we all know they cost plenty to maintain.  If you are willing to do all the mowing, there are still the costs of water, fertilizer, weed control, lime, moss killer, and repair/fuel for the mower.  While you ponder those costs, allow me to point out the cost to our watersheds.  Runoff from fertilizers and the destruction of useful habitat for wildlife are just two of many reasons that lawns are bad for lakes and oceans.  If you are lucky enough to own waterfront property, please consider reducing your lawn.

6.  Using "quick-green-up" fertilizer, or that containing phosporus, on any waterfront property.  If you are still set on the necessity of that waterfront lawn, choose your fertilizer carefully.  Common lawn fertilizers contain very high percentages of nitrogen that is immediately released when wet.  The fast "green-up" results from that sudden injection of nitrogen to the grass plants.  But grass like any plant, can only use so much nitrogen at any one time, and the excess is leached into the soil and our watersheds.  Excess nitrogen levels, along with phosphorus, contribute to problems like growth of algae and "dead zones" in the ocean.  Instead, choose fertilizer (preferably organic) with low nitrogen percentages, and check the label to see that part of it is slow-release.  This means it's not all flushed into the soil at once.  Phosphorus is unnecessary to grow a healthy lawn and detrimental to lakes; it's already been banned in Minnesota in lawn fertilizer.

5.  Shearing every last shrub into geometric shapes instead of skillful pruning.  Take the time to learn about your trees and shrubs, how they bloom and grow naturally.  Or hire someone who knows, not just how to wield a hedge trimmer.  A few plants sheared is fine-- but really, do we have to torture them all?

4.  Resorting to repeated heavy use of herbicides or pre-emergents to control weeds.  If we are weeding then we aren't doing our job very well.  Weeds can almost always be prevented with careful attention and light maintenance, or caught at a very early stage.  Simply patrolling your landscape with a good sharp hoe once or twice a month will catch them small.  Mulch will prevent most of them if it's refreshed on a regular (annual) basis.  Planting close together will reduce large areas for weeds to get started. Cutting your lawn at a taller height will shade out many new weeds. By the time you get out the herbicides or pre-emergent chemicals, you are just treating a symptom.

3.  Excavating valuable topsoil during construction and failing to replace it before planting.  It's a common practice for builders to remove topsoil when building a new home.  This gets the structure onto more stable mineral-based subsoil instead of the topsoil that is filled with organic matter.  But subsoil is lousy for plants!  A responsible builder will stockpile the topsoil and bring back a decent planting depth so you can start your landscape.  In my opinion at least 6" should be expected, and more is better.  If you are stuck with a final grade that is done with mostly subsoil, you have work to do.  Amending large areas before planting a shrub, amending several inches before growing a lawn, adding compost and mulch over many years.  It's a big job to try and re-create what nature did over hundreds of years.

2.  Cutting down trees or foliage on the ocean bluff.  When development was going like crazy on the coast, those oceanfront lots became wildly expensive.  As a result, homes built on the bluffs were going to maximize every legal square foot they could build on, and creating "open views."  Unfortunately many folks have learned the hard way that vegetation is the only thing holding that bluff together, and protecting the soil from wind/rain erosion in winter storms.  Trees and shrubs on the ocean bluff will also provide helpful wind screening from strong ocean storms, and make your yard and deck more habitable.

1.  Topping any tree to provide for better ocean views.  Lately there has been some debate in our town about a local tree ordinance designed to protect and preserve our city's trees.  One of the original requirements was a ban on topping trees.  Unfortunately our city leaders received a lot of negative feedback to the effect that they were preventing "pruning."  Folks, topping is not pruning.  Topping is cutting off the leader of a large-maturing tree.  It causes decay to enter through that cut (which does not heal) and creates unstable, new "tops" out of side branches that try to fill the leader void.  These branches are weakly attached and become hazards, and the tree is never the same.  Instead, thin out some interior branches to allow for a view through the trees, or as a last resort, replace the tree with one that doesn't grow as tall.  There are many options of tall shrubs and small trees to choose from, ask your power company for a list.

Monday, February 7, 2011

Coastal Travels

Manzanillo, Mexico

Followers of this blog may have wondered why no posts in the past month.  Well, when you're on a cruise ship, internet access can be difficult and/or extremely (!) expensive.

We had the rare opportunity in January to join family on a 3-week trip beginning in NYC, sailing down to the Caribbean and through the Panama Canal, finally ending in LA.  Besides the welcome change in weather from wet/cold/windy to warm, sunny and... did I mention warm?  The places we visited were remarkably different than our day-to-day, in so many ways.

Since this blog is about coastal gardening, I should begin with the flora.  Setting aside NYC, the plants are so different from home in every port we visited.  There were the expected palm trees of course.  But what took me by surprise, as we were north of the equator the whole time, was all of the flowers.  From bouganvillea hedges in Mexico to hibiscus in Florida, to stunning flowering trees in the hills of Costa Rica, everywhere we went plants were blooming.  I guess it should have come as no surprise; perhaps the real revelation was how much I had missed them.  Color, shape, scent.  Sigh.



One of our favorite stops was in Costa Rica, as we were able to connect with a family my husband had known many years ago, and they took us for a grand tour in the few hours available.  After a lovely drive through the countryside, surrounded by coffee growing on every steep hillside, we stopped for lunch in an open-air restaurant.  Afterward they mentioned, perhaps you would like to see the butterfly farm?  Turns out there was a Lepidoptera nursery on the same property.  Just walk down the short path, enter a tall shadecloth-netted structure... and wow.  Hundreds of beautiful butterflies, gorgeous flowering plants (including a red banana) for their food and shelter, and a gracious young woman who raises them to show us around.  My knowledge of butterflies is brief, but a place like this will take anyone's breath away.
Bananas inside the butterfly nursery



Cactus fences in Bonaire help to keep the wild donkeys and goats at a distance
We were lucky enough to observe sea turtles and dolphins alongside our ship, birds of all kinds (including flamingos in Bonaire), and my brother witnessed a gray whale breach at sunrise off the Baja coast.  Transiting the Panama Canal is an experience all in itself, but the natural wonders are what will stay with me.  To see plants and animals along other stretches of coastline than our own, mostly that I cannot identify, was humbling and inspiring.  Returning home to our amazing Oregon coast, I am seeing it with new eyes.

Germinating coconuts in Acapulco