A Walk on the Wild Side

Wet and cool weather for the whole of March has made it tough to find opportunities in the garden-- much less, to feel like spring has finally arrived.

Alas, the adapted coastal native plants may be our surest signs: a recent wetlands walk had me surrounded by these cheery Northwest harbingers: Hooker's Willow, Skunk Cabbage, and Indian Plum.

In Lincoln City we are fortunate to have several parcels of undeveloped land set aside for the community as "open space."  In addition we are lucky to have an Oregon State Park on the shore of Devils Lake right in the middle of town, and this park features a public wetlands trail.  The route is short but pleasant, changing from muddy track to raised low-impact boardwalk made from recycled lumber.  The construction is a special pier-type system which requires fewer intrusions into the ecology and allows for water passage beneath.

Walk this trail in late March beginning at the park entrance gate-- a small marked footpath to the right-- and the sight of Skunk Cabbage, Lysichiton americanum, will stop you in your tracks.  The glowing yellow bracts pushing from the mucky creekbed seem to light your way along the path, recalling the alternate common name Swamp Lantern.  I find them every bit as spring-cheerful as daffodils, and somewhat miraculous in their adaptation to the heavy sodden soils of our coastal wetlands.  Their notorious odor was not even noticeable on this day.

Strolling further south, the larger trees of the park give way to a sunny (if there were ever sun shining) opening featuring wetland grasses, forbs and shrubs.  It's here that both Hooker's Willow and Indian Plum take center stage.  Indian Plum, Oemleria cerasiformis, is one of my favorite natives both for its charming delicate blossoms that hang in white clusters and for its brilliant green spring foliage.

Oemleria cerasiformis, Indian Plum

The little flourishes of upright new leaves decorate its branches, startling against a backdrop of dark and dreary forest edge.  They are most noticeable along Northwest highways, such as driving through the Coast Range, before all the other deciduous plants leaf out and retire the plum to its background role.  Although this little native shrub produces actual plums, valuable as wildlife food, rarely is the plant noticed at that time of year. It's in early spring when Indian Plum steals the show.

A spring bouquet would not be complete without a few showy branches of Pussy Willow... but the coastal native Hooker's Willow, Salix hookeriana, is the one on display in our wetland.  An amazingly tough and adaptable shrub, it will grow into the sandy bluffs where drainages flow toward the ocean, as it does in the north end of town on a foot path from NW 50th.  Showing its preferences for wet soils, the lovely shrub proliferates on the Devils Lake wetlands trail, those classic fuzzy buds bursting forth on long arching branches that reach overhead.

One method I've been meaning to try is to use cuttings of our native willow to create a rooting-tea: plants in this genus all produce a natural rooting chemical that can be extracted by soaking in water, then used as a drench for propagating other plants.  I'm a sucker for free plant products.

Finally, I had to make note of the Red Alder trees just breaking dormancy.  Delightful year-round, alders in this season dangle their ornamental cones from last year along with both male and female catkins as they prepare for pollination.  The unique stalked, red buds become more deeply colored just before leafing out, lending an overall impression of rosy glow to the dense branches.  Alders are somewhat shorter (probably limited by the challenging soil conditions) in the wetland, but lend a nice overstory component to the collection of low vegetation found on this charming wetland walk.

To access this trail, approach from the Devils' Lake Campground entrance gate on NE 6th, just behind the Lincoln City Cultural Center.  If you are driving (and not staying at the campground) you can alternatively park in a public lot at the other end of the trail, at NE 1st Street.  Turn east from Hwy 101 at the Comfort Inn (on the north side of the D River), and continue on the gravel driveway to its end for the parking lot.


My favorite reference for native NW plants:

Experimental Fruit 101

Last weekend I visited (for the first time) our local Fruit Scion Exchange, held by the Home Orchard Society in Canby at the Clackamas County Fairgrounds this year.

As an avid fruit grower with just a middling knowledge on the subject, it was a thrilling sight!  Hundreds of people cramming excitedly into the building for the chance to get their hands on some rare variety of fruiting plant.  Isn't it great that food gardening has become so popular?

For the novice, this event can be overwhelming and confusing with so much to choose from and little explanation of procedure. The volunteers work really hard to make it come together, so it's not meant as a criticism... but the noise level inside made it nearly impossible to ask questions. Would have liked to watch the expert grafters at work but those lines were forever long, as was the rootstock table.  I took some grafting in horticulture school but never did enough to get really good at it-- yet.

Female Seaberry leafing out

Basically the way a "scion exchange" works is that you pay an entry fee, which entitles you to as many fruit scions as you want, for free.  Scion wood is the part on your tree/plant that produces the edible variety.  That part is grafted onto a rootstock, which determines overall height and vigor of the tree, among other characteristics.  Your free scions must now be grafted onto something... so you can either stand in the long line to buy rootstock ($5 or so) and do it yourself, or pay the experts to graft it for you (another table).  Now you have a complete fruit tree to take home and baby for a year so the graft can knit together.

The other option is to take your scions home and graft them onto existing trees in your landscape.  Perhaps you have an old vigorous cherry tree that only produces the tiny sour cherries and you want some sweet ones.  Or you have an apple tree with a single variety and you'd like several on that tree.  Some folks even graft onto related plants, like a named apple variety onto wild crabapple.

Since I was unprepared as to variety information, I picked up a few scions knowing nothing about them.  Some had been recommended to me as a coastal gardener, from folks on the HOS forum.  Everything fruit-wise on the coast is an experiment, so I'm willing to give things a shot. Here's what I brought home:

Apples - Honeycrisp (a favorite), Airlie Red Flesh (also known as Hidden Rose), King Luscious
Pear - Orcas (a Puget Sound variety), Swiss Bergamotte
Asian Pear - 20th Century
Grape - Swensen's Red

Other fruits I'm growing in my home landscape in Lincoln City OR are experimental, those already bearing fruit successfully are marked in bold.  Others are quite young so it's too soon to tell, stay tuned.

Lingonberry 'Red Pearl' (OGW)
Espalier apple, 3 way: Liberty, Akane, Melrose (BL)
Espalier pear, 3 way: Bartlett, Rescue, Anjou (BL)

'Rescue' pear blossoms

spring peach blooms

Peach 'Frost', fan-trained on south wall  (BL)
Thornless blackberry 'Black Satin'
Cascade Berry, gift from our clients' Seattle home
Purple-leaf fruiting plum, unknown rooted variety, heirloom from client
Olives 'Arbequina' and 'Leccino' (OGW)
Seaberry (male & female) 'Garden's Gift' (OGW)
Honeyberry 'Blue Pacific' and 'Blue Velvet' (OGW)
Strawberry 'Seascape' (BL)
Raspberry 'Saanich' (RT)
Asian pears 'Kosui' and 'Chojuro', training into pleached form as screen (BL)
Alpine strawberry 'Mignonette'
Hops- 'Golden' (BL), 'Nugget' and 'Cascade'
Grapes - Sauvignon Blanc, 'Price', 'Crimson Bunch', 'Ortega'  (RT)
Black currant 'Crandall' (RT)
Evergreen huckleberry, native
Blueberry- 3 bushes, 'Duke' and 'Blue Crop' (BL)
Cranberry 'Stevens' - creeping groundcover type (RT)
Fig 'Negronne' - potted in greenhouse
Hardy kiwi 'Issai' (OGW)
Pomegranate (BL) - potted in greenhouse, outside summer
Citrus, unknown orange variety - potted in greenhouse, outside summer
Nanking Cherry (bush-type) - heirloom from my grandfather's garden

Non-fruiting food plants, perennial:
Rhubarb, 'Victoria' (BL)
Asparagus - unknown (BL), this will be the 3rd year
Artichokes - 'Green Globe' I think (BL)
Cinnamon vine (tuberous) 'Dr. Yao' (OGW)
Ginger -potted, from organic grocery
Wintergreen - leafy groundcover (OGW)
Tea shrub 'Sochi' (OGW) - man, do the deer love this one!
Saffron crocus (OGW)
Daylilies (for edible flowers) - several

Deer protection on tea

Jerusalem sage - not an herb, but leaves edible - (BL)

Legend: Plants purchased mail-order from Raintree Nursery (RT), One Green World (OGW) or in-person from Blake's Coastal Nursery in Gleneden Beach (BL).  Some were obtained from other gardeners.  Please note whether they can ship to your state before ordering fruit.


What kind of fruit are you growing in your landscape or garden?

Coastal Rain Gardens

Spring bulbs in rain garden

A little over a year ago, I wrote about dealing with our heavy rainfall on the coast of Oregon and mentioned in that post the idea of "rain gardens."  Then last summer I had the opportunity to attend a workshop hosted by Oregon State University on this topic, and wanted to share this idea a little further with readers.

The basic idea of a rain garden addresses this problem: too much of our heavy rainfall comes all at once in a large "event," and rushes across impermeable surfaces like roofs, sidewalks, parking lots and driveways, then flows directly into the storm sewers (or nearby water bodies) without any filtration.  When this happens, lots of pollutants including fertilizers and motor oil are swept along with the water, requiring treatment if they make it to the sewer system, or just polluting the water bodies if it flows there directly.

If instead we create a mechanism to slow down the water flow, and cause it to slowly drain through layers of soil, plants and rock, it is much cleaner by the time it gets to its final destination and reduces our need for storm sewer treatment capacity.

Flagstone set into a permeable rock/sand base
provides additional area for infiltration

So the rain garden is simply a designed area which intentionally collects water that might otherwise flow from your downspouts to the storm drain, or across a large paved area, and directs it to an attractive planted feature which can contain the likely amount of water from a single "event" and let it filter through slowly.

"Stream" catches water from center
downspout & sidewalk

Benefits of the rain garden obviously include improved water quality and a reduction in the need/cost of storm water treatment.  Other less obvious benefits to the homeowner might include a very attractive landscape feature including grasses, shrubs and flowering perennials; wildlife habitat when using carefully chosen native species; turning a difficult area of the yard into a useful landscape feature; and preserving your structures from additional erosion or mud-splash by directing the flow elsewhere.

Commercial rain garden installation

A terrific guide is available from Oregon State University (free) to help homeowners, builders and landscapers  design rain gardens into their ecologically-friendly landscapes.  This guide is very thorough including design specifications and plant lists, so I'm providing here some photos of local examples.  The tiny residential rain garden is in my front yard, installed last fall.  The larger, commercial project is located at our new fire station and the garden is about 3 years old.

Note the curb cuts which allow parking
lot to drain into rain garden

Looking north: varied planting includes
Oregon grape, purple-osier willow, vine maple and rushes

Further reading--

March Preparations

Raspberry foliage emerging

As the days get longer and the buds begin to swell, we gardeners start to get a little itchy.  Time to get to work on something... anything... in the garden.  But when the weather is not cooperating, what to do?

First I will point out a few things to avoid in the wet and windy weather we are having this week, as March comes storming in.  One of the first things we are tempted to do is mow the lawn.  Especially when it starts to look a little shaggy.  While it's best to catch the growth before it gets too long and you end up mowing several inches at once, one of the worst things you can do for a lawn is plop your 200 lbs of mower on those little skinny wheels onto sodden soil.

Soil compaction is one of the enemies of growing healthy plants, and this includes grass plants.  The more you run around on that saturated ground with a heavy mower, you are compacting the soil particles-- which in more exact terms, means you are removing all-important "pore space."  Pore space is comprised of thousands of tiny voids which allow for passage of air, water and nutrients, and penetration of roots.  Aerating your lawn doesn't even cure this problem; it remains compacted between the new holes.  Let the lawn dry out before you mow, and it will respond with better absorption of nutrients, water and therefore healthy growth.

Another thing to avoid, for the same reason, is tilling wet soil.  While it's tempting to haul out the rototiller on the one dry day, the soil around here usually stays wet for a while.  Additionally if you receive heavy rainfall in the days following your handiwork, it will merely turn to mud.  And more compaction.  Get the idea?

Moving on to what we should do in preparation for what will surely be a banner year (one can dream), here's a few ideas from the list that I've been doing in my own and others' landscapes and veg garden:

Empty out the composter or dig out the bottom of the old pile to remove the beautiful finished material.  Be sure to protect it from heavy rain while you work, and store it somewhere dry like in a trash barrel with lid.  Then it will be ready to use in your garden beds and containers as needed, and the composter will be ready for the next season of trimmings.


Start seedlings for cole crops, also known as brassicas, such as broccoli, kale, cabbage, cauliflower.  They germinate well in cool temps and will thrive when you transplant them in a few weeks to their outside bed.  Also any salad greens, or Asian greens, will happily germinate in the cooler spring weather.  Start warm-weather plants like tomatoes and peppers, on bottom heat.  All of these are ideally started under lights or a sunny window, then raised to the stage of transplanting. Seed catalogs are great resources for more exact timing and procedures.

Cut back any of last year's growth on most herbaceous perennials if you haven't already done so.  If you cut back ornamental grasses, watch for any early growth that's emerging.  Ferns cut all the way back in early March will allow the new fiddleheads to emerge untouched, for beautiful fresh foliage after a couple weeks.

Plant peas outside in a spot that can support a trellis for climbers; otherwise you can try your hand at 'bush-type' peas.  I always have more luck with climbers, and higher yield.  These include sugar-pod and shelling types. Other than tomatoes, I think garden peas are one of the best reasons for growing your own veg.
It's a little late for dormant sprays on fruit trees, these should have been completed in February.  If you wish to enjoy indoor blooms, now is a good time to trim a few small branches to bring inside.

If you haven't already finished ordering seeds, do it now.  There are still many deals available for early ordering in March.  Also check your local garden center for seed potatoes and onion sets, if you didn't order them by mail.  Onion sets will give you a big head-start on growing onions rather than starting from seed, and your local nursery will order the appropriate varieties for your area.  For mail order, my favorite seed catalogs are Johnny's, Territorial and Seeds of Change.

Side-dress hungry plants with complete fertilizer or compost (I prefer well composted chicken manure); this includes plants like raspberries, asparagus, rhubarb, artichokes.  Also consider top-dressing your lawn with a thin layer of compost instead of high-nitrogen fertilizer.  It should be very fine with no woody pieces.

Clean up storm debris from winter/spring wind events.  There are inevitably plenty of needles, small branches and leaves that should be raked up and composted.  Raking also just makes things look tidy and gives the gardener a warm feeling of satisfaction.

Finish planning and/or construction of any cold frames, raised beds, cloches or other structures you are planning to use this spring. Once your starts get going you will be surprised how soon these are needed!

Locate sources for potting and garden soil, compost, fertilizer that meets your needs and sensibility.  I prefer and recommend organic materials, which can be harder to find and expensive.  Spend a little time now talking to others who use similar methods to yours, call the extension office, and find the best places to buy.  In NW Oregon, I like the deals at Concentrates Inc.

Tune, clean and sharpen garden tools, including power equipment. Frustrating beyond measure when you need a tool to work and it doesn't... trust me, when you need it to work, the small-engine shop will have a backlog. Do it now!

Control weeds (I mostly use a sharp hoe at this point) before they get too large, and set seed. You will save a lot of work later. Our favorite tool for this is a De Van Koek (Dutch) diamond hoe, which is now the DeWit diamond hoe. To this same end, refresh any mulched or bark areas toward the middle of March so you don't lose it all to heavy rain and wind. The rock yard should have new supplies by then.

Control moles as you see fit; some folks use sound-devices, some use poison or traps. My experience and that of my organic farmer friends is that traps are most effective, but require daily monitoring and a strong stomach.  I don't care to use poison for many reasons, not the least of which is non-target animals getting hold of it.  Sound devices (I have used many kinds) don't often work. You may have a different outcome. My best luck has been with the non-toxic, castor-oil based repellent products, especially those in a liquid hose-end application which soaks the soil. Be aware they don't kill, but move the critters somewhere else.

Slugs and deer are a challenge in most western Oregon gardens; now is the time to bait (I use the less-toxic iron phosphate kind) for slugs or use some form of control. I used to try beer traps, copper bands, etc. It just depends on your site and how many there are!

If you have a large defined garden to protect from deer, get some fencing up-- not the cheap kind but the 7' tall, strong-as-metal kind. This stuff lasts for years-- ours is over 10 (like new). We had deer knock down our posts one time running into it, the fencing held. If you want to keep out deer it has to be at least 7' tall, they jump. For repellents, I've had good reports of this one and I started using another last year that worked great and smelled a lot better, made from rosemary & mint oil. Might try making it myself. Repellents are helpful where you can't install a fence, or don't like the look of one, like an ornamental landscape.

Finally, if you are wanting a handy guide for western Oregon, check the website of Oregon State University extension, where they provide a handy month-by-month garden calendar. You can click on a printer-friendly PDF for each month and insert that into your garden calendar as a guide throughout the year.