buzz buzz

Nursing the tail end of a cold, I headed downstairs last night seeking honey laced chamomile tea.  I ambled into the kitchen bundled in pajamas and a robe, and to my dismay noticed the honey jar was almost empty.  As the kettle was boiling, I attempted to extract the remaining honey, but found that each utensil I chose would not fit into the honey jar.  Finally, I found something that worked, and scraped what was left of the honey…and while doing so, realized just what a Pooh Bear moment this was.  Ah, but honey is worth it.     

My love of honey aside, bees are an important part of our lives and it is quite alarming what we have seen recently with Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD where entire colonies of commercial bees will abruptly disappear.   Data is not entirely conclusive, and several theories have been proposed (including pesticides).  So what is the good gardener to do to help bees and other pollinators?  First, toss the herbicides and pesticides (aka – dispose of them properly through local hazardous waste resources) and vow never to use them again.  Next, take a look at The Pollinator Partnership pollinator.org/index.html.  They have some fabulous information on their website – including regionally specific guides with tips for helping pollinators pollinator.org/guides.htm.  We can help these wee creatures by including food source plants in the garden, access to clean water and for some types of bees, like the mason bee, we can actually provides homes www.masonbeehomes.com/index.php.

Nothing makes me happier than the garden full of life in summer with bumblers, hummingbirds and other pollinators.  See what you can do improve your garden for your neighborhood pollinators.  Pooh Bear would strongly approve.

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spring!…oh my back…

Day after day of sun, clear blue skies, chirping birds…perfect spring weather for working in the garden – - a complete anomaly for Seattle this time of year.  And of course, I injure myself.  A recurring injury I have from too much heavy lifting when we were building this garden.  Actually not my back, I have the joy of costochondritis - inflammation of the rib cartilage.   I did not know that I was blessed with cartilage in this spot, until it screamed in pain.  Worse, it completely takes me out of the game for a week or two.  And even worse, this pain very closely mimics cardiac pain, so the first few times I had it, it was a bit unnerving.  If I ignore it and keep working, it sticks around for over a month.  Apparently, this is an injury most common in weight lifters.  Maybe the Governator and I do have something in common. 

Jest aside, I most likely sustained this injury from hauling very heavy river rock to skirt our house among other lifting tasks that I stubbornly took on.  Which brings me to my point – Adam and I did the majority of the hard labor in our garden because we wanted the ability to design as we built, and we thought we could.  The “thought we could” is the tricky part.  Of course, it is possible – however, the question is whether it is wise.  Clients often want to do a portion of their installation, and I always am excited by people who want to get involved.  What I advise, is for them to select the work that they want to do carefully.  It seems like we should just be able to do much of this work, but the truth is our bodies are generally not conditioned for it.  Even if you are athletic as Adam and I both are, you are demanding hard work from muscles and joints that are perhaps rarely used, and thus prone to injury. 

So if you have a long list of gardening chores to do, and are already visualizing the hot soaks in the tub and ibuprofen it will take to undo the damage to your body, consider getting strategic help.  This is particularly true for any significant garden development or renovation.  This does not mean to recruit some poor unsuspecting teenager to help you – they risk injury too.  The guys I work with know how to use their bodies to avoid injury, and are conditioned for the work through experience.  Most important, they have the right tools to do the job safely.  Thus, a licensed/insured professional is always the best choice.  To that end, I do make sure any landscape installer I work with is insured as required for on the job injuries because I want to make sure that the best treatment is available for anyone who needs it.  Accidents don’t happen often, but when they do, everyone is covered.

Enough of the tough love talk – do get out there and enjoy spring.  But keep in mind, good body mechanics when you do lift or haul and bring in qualified help when you need it.

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i edit, therefore i am…

I worked with a friend in her garden this morning suggesting which shrubs to move and remove so that the garden once again feels inviting on a human scale and not over grown.  This was an inherited garden, and the prior owner planted far too many large specimen shrubs and not enough of the goodies - grasses, perennials, ferns etc.  We are rectifying this with strategic eliminations and bringing in masses of a few types of grasses and perennials.  In short, we are editing.

Spring always reminds me just how important editing is in creating a garden.  Fortunately for me, my clients allow me to return year after year (or sometimes I show up on the doorstep) to check on the design and make adjustments.  A great garden is neither created in one season, nor in one design.  It must be revisited because gardens are living art and they change.  We have to adjust with them, and at times, intervene and redirect.  For those who have inherited a garden that was perhaps wonderful 5 years ago, but now is overgrown due to lack of editing – do not fear taking charge.  We must be ruthless editors at times.  Often a friend or neighbor will gladly help reduce your jungle by taking some plants and also offer an extra pair of hands to take them out.

Making choices for editing is not unlike pruning.  As with a tree or shrub, we start with the deadwood.  In editing, this equates to the plants shrubs that are not doing well.  If they can be rehabbed in another area, give it a try but do not be afraid to compost a sulky plant.  If I balk about taking something out, a landscape installer I work with always says “they are plants, not puppies.”  She is right.  It’s all too easy to anthropomorphize plants…but you might feel different when the sulker is still looking ratty in mid summer – it can bring down an entire area.  So don’t lie to yourself that the one good branch means the thing will finally come back this year.  Man up and get rid of it.

Next up in editing is similar to the “crossing wood” step in pruning.  When we prune a tree or shrub, we take out the crossing branches to allow others to thrive.  In editing, look for over grown plants that are crowding out their neighbors.  This is the oft committed gardening sin – planting cute little shrubs that grow to be monsters.  Here in the Pac NW, the sin is double when these sleeping giants are placed near the house…and ultimately grow in front of windows.  We need light here, and keeping plants from shutting out the light is a must for our mental health…not to mention for preventing wood rot and critter invasion.  I once consulted with a woman whose garden had blocked most of the windows in her little rambler. Many of the shrubs were not healthy as they competed for light.  The views out the windows were naked rhodie legs.  Not pretty.  After much hand wringing about taking out these shrubs, I finally had to be firm.  “Take back your garden”, I told her. “The plants are eating your house.”  Learning from someone else’s mistakes is a good lesson for when you select new plants.  Don’t just look at the nursery tag, they are often incorrect (or lie).  Look up the plant online or in a book to make sure you know ultimate landscape size.  Another educational experience is a trip to a local arboretum…always sobering to see those cute little guys at 40′ tall.  Makes you think.

In pruning, after deadwooding and taking out crossing branches, we look at over all shape & form and make adjustments.  Same goes for editing.  Once the scraggly sulkers and mammoth monstrosities have been dealt with, see what does not work aesthetically.  For some this is the most intimidating step.  If you feel overwhelmed, bring in some design help.  One easy technique that I use is to figure out what is working, and add more.  Pretty simple, but it works.  After all, massing and repetition are the secrets to a fabulous looking garden.  Next up, I consider the garden as a whole in terms of color and form…and determine whether I need to pull a specific foliage color, texture or leaf size into this area.  Finally, I look at seasonal performance.  Is this a tucked away area in the part of the garden that only gets a summer audience, or is this smack by the front entrance?  This makes a tremendous difference in plant choice.  No point in putting a ‘Diane’ witch hazel out in the back 40 where no one goes in January (when it blooms), nor would I put a plant that looks like a soggy mess in winter right by the front door.  Eww.

Finally, remember to take notes and photos throughout the year too.  I take notes in every season, and use these with photos as the basis for my editing.  Otherwise, I can easily forget that the Rheum will indeed grow to be 4′ wide, and I cannot put anything in that open spot.  Or perhaps it’s the Rheum that needs moving if the empty space is too noticeable in winter…there I go, editing again…

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garden conservancy open days

I just got an email officially announcing the Garden Conservancy 2010 Open Days Program www.gardenconservancy.org/opendays/index.pl.  This year my garden will be a part of the program, and will be open all day June 26th along with several other Bainbridge Island gardens.  I am looking forward to opening my garden again – I love to have visitors and to chat about everything plants with them.

So mark your calendar and if you are in the area, come over to the island and make a day of it.    There are a few great cafes in town to enjoy, like Cafe Nola (www.cafenola.com) not to mention must see nurseries (Bainbridge Gardens, Bay Hay and Feed and Mesogeo).  I hope to see you here.

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be a good gardener

Last week, I attended a lecture at Bloedel Reserve (www.bloedelreserve.org/) given by the design team of Withey Price (Glenn Withey and Charles Price).  If you are not familiar with Withey Price, they are not only revered designers here in Seattle, but also curators of Dunn Gardens www.dunngardens.org/index.php.  Prone to be being name dropped by clients and other landscapers, it is truly well earned as their work is stunning.  They are a treat to hear speak as they are knowledgable and provocative, while still being friendly and approachable.  Best of all - they are very witty. 

The subject of their lecture was questioning whether gardening can be sustainable.  They raised some good questions about sustainability in sourcing materials and the trade offs of using one material over another.  Many landscaping materials are obtained or created at some ecological or humanitarian detriment, so the question they asked is which evil do you pick.  They also raised the question of native vs exotic and the very nature of gardening….is an all native garden really a garden…and where do you draw the line on ”native” – local to your neighborhood, island, county, state, region???  Is something that is native to Western Oregon ok to call native here?  What if it is invasive here? Not to mention manures…how are these animals kept – are they in cages or on feedlots?  I know I don’t spend the crazy amount of $5 a dozen eggs to ensure the chickens are hormone free, organically fed, free range and while we are at it – well adjusted - to then by yards of manure produced by oppressed chickens.  No way.  And as Charles and Glenn pointed out, as you start asking hard questions of many garden product suppliers – you are met with blank stares.   So what is a good gardener to do?

Paralysis by analysis aside, there are choices we can make as gardeners that collectively will have a profound impact.  I know that it is easy to say to oneself, “it is really not a big deal to use a little of this or that because afterall, my plot is small compared to the rest and I am not doing near the damage of agribusiness.”  Seductive, but the problem is that if too many of us think that way, collectively, home gardening and lawn care can create a significant amount of pollutants and toxins for our furry, feathery and buzzy friends.  And it does.  So what can we do?  I tend to think that using common sense almost always aligns with sustainable and organic practices and this combined with a little relaxing of our need for perfection takes us forward leaps and bounds.  Below are a few of my design and gardening tenets that I believe to be sustainable.  After all – we gardeners are out to create beauty and if this is at a detriment to the very things we find beautiful, it is just not right.

1. Toss the chemical pesticides and  herbicides:  Number one, without question.  I am chemically sensitive so I can’t go near the stuff – a visit to Home Depot’s gardening section gives me a headache (my husband calls me “the canary”).  I am like the shop teacher missing fingers – do as I say, not as I do.  My chemical sensitivity may well be due to unprotected exposure to a garden chemical several years ago.  Even if you can tolerate it, most creatures can’t.  So don’t use it – if a plant requires toxic chemicals to look acceptable to you or to survive – it needs to be replaced.   Careful design, right plant – right place, and ruthless editing can completely eliminate the need to rely on chemicals.  Hey, those bees are important to us, let’s keep them around.  Learn about organic methods for dealing with pests when they crop up.  There is a plethora of data out there.
2. Reduce or eliminate the lawn: I know why we love lawn – there is much research out there pointing to our natural inclination to open, savannah environments on a primal level (we can see those enemies coming).  It’s also a monoculture that covers space effectively.  However, in many climates, lawn requires too many resources.  In California, it is water which is in peril after many years of drought.  Here in Washington, water usage in the summer is also an issue as this is the drought season.  Add to this the fact that many grasses do not grow well here, and certainly not in the shade of large trees.  In spring, when out biking, I often see fellow gardeners dutifully sprinkling their moss kill out on the lawn and I think uuugggg, just let the moss grow instead – obviously you are working against nature.  Moss is green too.  Some other alternatives to consider -
   • reduce your lawn size to what I call a “pocket lawn” – still gives you the open space to rest the eyes with less resources and time required to maintain
   • if you do have lawn, research which varieties do best for your conditions and always grow from seed, not sod
   • convert your lawn to a “meadow” using ornamental grasses – check out John Greenlee’s new book “The American Meadow Garden” (photography by Saxon Holt, enough of a reason to buy it).  Why go out hiking to seek “nature” when you can create it in your front yard.
   • eliminate your lawn entirely and replace with permeable hardscape combined with beds of carefully selected plants right for the site and conditions
3. Research, plan, design:  Don’t underestimate the design step in creating a garden.  You don’t necessarily have to hire a professional (although we always love it when you do) but do give this step its due - planning is very important to the success of a garden.  Check out my prior post on things to consider when designing a garden blissgardendesign.wordpress.com/2009/03/08/design-and-sustainability/
4. Think carefully about water usage:  Here in Western Washington, it seems like we have more water than we want most of the year.  The issue is during those dry months, and that is when we need to water our gardens.  Xeriscaping is not appropriate for all conditions here – some sites will kill drought tolerant plants in winter.  However, there are many ways to achieve water conservation such as grouping plants with like water needs together, using a low volume drip system that delivers the water needed to the plant roots, allowing grass to go dormant in summer and harvesting roof water for the ornamental garden (personally I would skip the edibles) with rain barrels or other more sophisticated systems. 
5. Use compost: Pretty much the wonder material in my opinion.  Feeds, reduces weeds, retains moisture.  You can make your own or buy it.  If you are feeling productive, make your own – but be sure to keeps those weeds and diseased materials separate and try to get the pile heated up to pathogen killing temperatures.  If you buy – you are helping to close the green waste cycle, but not all composts are created equal.  Look for a certified organic producer and if you want to take it one more step – ask if they test their product regularly or you can have it tested.  Some composts are exacerbating fungal issues here in Western Washington – but I still think it is the best thing since sliced bread.
6. Rethink perfection:  This one is tough for me.  After a few years of having my gardens on tours, photographed and looked at by prospective clients, I have gotten a little obsessive.  And in general – perfection is sold to us at every turn.  But it is OK to lower our standards.  A good reminder…so – repeat after me…

“There is no garden police.”

“If my plants don’t look picture perfect like a magazine layout, then that just means I am normal and have a life outside of gardening.”

“I am the only one that notices the idiosyncracies.”

“I do not need to have the greenest lawn on the block – in fact a dormant, golden lawn makes me think of the sun kissed hills in  Sonoma.”

“My garden is naturalistic (eg ok to be a bit wild).”

And most important:

“I took up gardening because I love it and it is relaxing.” 

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