Divide and Conquer October 27, 2008

I finally decided that today was the day to dig up my overgrown orange crocosmia and see if I could figure out how to divide it. I inherited it from a previous gardener but hadn’t touched it in the 3+ years we’ve been here, so it was pretty much now or never since it had basically stopped blooming.

Northwest gardening expert Ciscoe Morris recommends digging up the entire clump, hacking off sections from the side, and discarding the middle (why? not mentioned in his article). So, that’s what I did. I had to remove a lot of quack grass roots, I hope I got it all (ha ha, I don’t think that’s ever possible, is it?) – this is the “before” pic, the white roots are the evil weed grass.

I ended up with about 8 small clumps, most of which will go down in the parking strip (where I toss all my free/self-seeding/divided plants).

While I was at it, I decided to make a little pathway for the mail carrier, who uses that space as a cut-through to avoid having to go up and down a million stairs to the street on our (hilly) side of the block. I’ve never made a path before, so I don’t know why it struck me that I had to. I used some old bamboo pieces left over from a decommissioned water feature to outline it,

and then filled it in with cedar debris from the massive tree that adjoins the path.

I didn’t level it very well and the cedar berries are a little unstable. Hm, I hope he doesn’t fall and sue me! I’ll have to work on it a bit more to make it better.

I put back one clump of crocosmia in the original spot and will hope for the best next summer. Then I remembered the two sad little native huckleberry plants I’d bought at a long-ago plant sale – they’d been languishing in a flat along with a still-unplanted hydrangea and a yellow cotinus I’m still deciding if I have decent spots for. I know huckleberries need rich forest-type soil and a lot of moisture to be happy, but that’s never going to happen here. So, in they went and I added a lot of compost and mulched (when do I ever mulch?! That bag was probably three years old and had some weird whitish cast to the soil, which I hope was not plant-killing mold of some sort!). The bed needs more residents but I’m done for the day.

Now I just have to put in the rest of the crocosmia or give a few clumps away to neighbors. Then again, they probably don’t need the quack grass! What do you do when you divide plants – replant elsewhere in your garden, give away, or toss the rejects? Or a bit of all three?

Day of Rest October 26, 2008

In (lazy) celebration of my 100th post yesterday, I am taking the day off for the first time since starting this blog back in early August. There is much to do around the house and we are heading over to my folks’ for another round of cider pressing this afternoon, so thinking up topic, fiddling with photos, and writing an even moderately interesting post is just not in the cards today.

Instead, I will wish you all a happy day either in the garden or doing something else that you enjoy (or at least the satisfaction of getting necessary tasks done, which can at least be enjoyable in retrospect once those things are crossed off the to-do list!), and offer you this photo of my last fennel flower of the summer. The green vase was an apartment-warming gift, many years ago, from a dear friend who is no longer alive. She had a fabulous garden and was one of the folks who got me started thinking how nice it would be to someday have one of my own.

Knock-out Parking Strip Garden October 25, 2008

Early to pick up my daughter at school the other day and happening to have my camera along, I decided to amble around the nearby streets to see if I could find any parking strip gardens to photograph. It’s become sort of an obsession for me, and I get the same satisfaction when I spot one coming into view as I imagine a predator might when sighting its dinner.

I could tell this one was going to be a little out of the ordinary, especially for the neighborhood. This photo shows where the previous property ends (spindly tree and plain grass at right) and the amazing one begins (fully planted parking strip and banana trees next to the house, in Seattle!?!).

It was a bright day so these photos will not do the garden justice. It is a riot of colors, textures, and shapes, all harmonious and contrasting at once. It’s one of the most impressive parking strip gardens I’ve come across since I started looking for them, and I’ve seen a lot. It was either designed by a pro, or the person living there is a master landscaper. I might have to sneak a note onto their porch and ask if I can come back for more photos and an interview. I want to go back anyway, since my camera ran out of memory card space before I even got around the bend to look at the other stretch of plantings (it’s a corner lot, so twice the space for parking strip glory).

Walking down the sidewalk, it was like taking in a botanical garden on both sides:

I’m not good enough at plant ID to get even half of these, feel free to call out any you know and especially admire (or despise) for their looks or habit. What I found literally breath-taking was the amazing combinations and the sheer variety. Let’s see, just the ones that I know off-hand in this one small section: lavender, purple coral bells, senecio, penstemon, red-twig dogwood, bergenia, and at least a few others. None of those so amazing on their own, but the grouping seemed unique, and so densely planted.

An apple tree provides scale (note the pest-protection footies!) but is under-planted with perennials such as lungwort, sedum and euphorbia.

I think I literally let out a gasp when I saw the grouping of variously colored pitcher plants:

I grew this orgage-y coralbells variety in my previous garden but it was in the shade and always looked floppy. This one was really healthy-looking, and placed so that the striking color and wavy texture would stand out:

Zany green and yellow striped canna foliage contrasts well with bright red dahlias, pale cream-yellow phygelius, and what looks like a bamboo in the far background.

Garden art-haters (and I found out there are definitely some after my previous post!) will be happy to see that there is not a single non-plant item in this landscape. Well, with one exception:

I have many more photos of this garden and may put up another post later to show the continued marvels of plant pairing creativity the designer has come up with. If even a square yard of my parking strip looked this good, I’d be a proud gardener. That they’ve got 60′ X 5′ and it all looks perfect… I’ll try to focus on being inspired rather than jealous!

(Bonus thanks to anyone who can ID the yellow-leafed plant with blue-purple flowers in the last photo – it’s crazy bold!)

Tree Watering Bags October 24, 2008

The City of Seattle is using some bond initiative money to improve its urban forest – the plan is to plant over 8,000 street trees in the next decade.

One challenge is how to water well while the new trees are being established. In a time of budget crunches, the City just does not have the staff to allow for individual watering of each tree as often as needed to help it thrive.

Starting a year or so ago, I noticed these funny green plasticized cloth bags showing up at the base of each tree newly planted by the City:

Each bag, which according to the City’s site holds 20 gallons, is filled several times per week while the tree is establishing its roots. The water seeps into the soil directly where the tree needs it most, slowly draining out over the course of 6-10 hours.

Here’s what it looks like in relation to the full tree, this one a lovely red-bark Japanese maple with its golden fall plumage on nearly-full display:

Speaking from personal experience, a new tree in the parking strip is easy to forget about. I put in a very small Japanese snowbell that is not doing well, and I’m sure it’s due to lack of water during the dry season. I know these bags are kind of unsightly but maybe they are a good idea for those out-of-the-way plantings in super dry weather. That said, I have seen a row of trees in a parking strip near my house where some trees seem to be thriving and others are near death. All had the green bags on so presumably they were watered equally. What made the difference? No idea.

Has anyone used these successfully in a home garden? I found one online called the Treegator but it’s not cheap, $25 plus shipping for one bag. That’s a lot more than my Japanese snowbell cost!

For more information from the City of Seattle on watering in newly planted trees, click here.

Parking Strip Garden Art October 22, 2008

In my walks around Seattle, I haven’t seen too much in the way of garden art out on the street. It’s understandable, since the risk of theft or damage is greater out there. Nobody wants to lose their favorite gnome or cast iron bird figurine! But every once in a while, gardeners decide to go for it and put something a little offbeat into their street plots.

One good rule of thumb seems to be not to spend too much on anything or have something too sentimentally valuable.

I liked this pairing of two pieces of thrift-store pottery, half buried in the soil.

A Calder-esque spinning rainbow flower orbits while dangling from a low tree branch:

A trio of sculptures reminded me of the insanely marching brooms in the “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” segment of “Fantasia:”

From the same garden as the previous sculptures, an old engine part on a pedestal, balanced together with an ovoid stone:

Another trio, this time a stack of turtles, on an old overturned stock pot (hm, I’m thinking a trip to the thrift store might be in the near future for me, to look for cheap finds for the garden).

Same garden, another traditional garden ornament but made more whimsical with the addition of broken shards of painted pottery, to make it look more like a sun.

No art? No problem. Nicely placed shells or stones can suffice. Here in Seattle, we have a lot of saltwater beaches that are great for shell collecting as long as you don’t expect to find anything too fancy.

What are your favorite ways to add art to the garden? Are you up for putting any of it out on the street? Or do you consider ornaments just a waste of space where more plants could go?

Sidewalk Fig Espalier October 20, 2008

The inventiveness of Seattle gardeners never ceases to amaze me. Out of space in your garden but craving fresh, home-grown figs? Colonize the parking strip and plant them on an espalier, as this gardener has done.

Ficus carica, the common fig, is native to the Mediterranean and grows in Zones 6-9. Its fruit matures to green, brown, or black depending on the variety. Raccoons love them, so I’m not sure how to protect the ripened fruit from them and other marauders. Maybe cheesecloth?

The espalier is an old technique for growing trees and other plants in narrow spaces and can be either free-standing or against a wall. Here is a link to information about how to make an espalier structure and also a list of which trees and other plants might benefit from using this method. This shot shows the fairly simple hardware used to anchor the wire to the support posts.

Simple C-shaped heavy-gauge wire hooks help train the branches to the desired shape.

Oh man, now I want a fig tree… maybe I could shoe-horn one in on an espalier somewhere, on the south-facing wall of our house?? That fruit looks just too good to me.

Late to the Party October 19, 2008

Down in the parking strip garden, ripping out the awful-looking late-season asters (they have a horrible rust-looking problem, visible in the photo below, so I may just yank out all that come up next spring), I came upon a nice little surprise. I had spent the summer bemoaning my lack of cosmos re-seeding volunteers, even as some other garden bloggers were commenting that they had almost more than they wanted.

So, it was with great delight that I found, where the asters had been hiding them, a few late season cosmos. This one, a bright bubble-gum pink, even has another bud or two on it. It’s getting pretty cold here at night, into the high 30s, so it may not bloom further. But I’m grateful to have seen it at least briefly.

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Parking Strip Garden in Progress October 18, 2008

Taking a stroll in the Wedgwood neighborhood of Seattle the other day, I found very few parking strip gardens. It’s a very tidy-yard part of town, with most gardens featuring heavily fertilized grass, tightly clipped shrubs, and very little wacky innovation.

So I was pleasantly surprised to come upon this corner lot, with twice the space for taking over the street with something a little different. It’s obviously a work in progress, and a narrower strip than those in my neighborhood, which to me made it even more interesting. The first step, taking out the grass, is done, but the plantings are still going in.

I’m partial to the slow phase-in too, although maybe just from laziness. I think it takes a bit of courage to leave the blank spaces for a while until the right plant enters your life.

I noticed some Pacific Northwest natives like this small vine maple (acer circinatum), and in the distance you can see that they are also using small berms of soil and mulch and planting into those.

This red-twig dogwood (Cornus stolonifera, another NW native) is getting its lovely fall colors. I also like the sawn tree branch as an accent.

Sword ferns (Polystichum munitum) are ubiquitous in Seattle but somehow seeing one by itself instead of the usual massing makes it seem more unique and kind of sculptural. Not sure what the buried milk jug is for, slug traps or ?? Wouldn’t think that would be necessary near a fern but who knows.

I couldn’t resist a peek over their low fence into the front garden. I felt like a spy so didn’t look too long, but a prominent feature of the front yard is a chicken coop, with three lovely ladies (Buff Orpingtons, I’m guessing, only two were out but you can see the shadow of the third) clucking and pecking the grass under a twirling rainbow wind ornament. They looked like really content birds.

Proceeding around the corner, I saw this grouping of an aster (boy, only one aster? My garden needs to come over and learn something about aster restraint next year!) and senecio. My asters did that icky bottom-leaves rot thing too, so I just ripped them all out because looking at them was making me ill.

More nursery babies waiting to go into the ground, just like at my house… at least these ones are in place and all that’s left is to dig the holes. Looks like drip irrigation is getting put in, or at least a soaker hose – good idea for a parking strip garden.

This is not a showpiece garden, or at least not yet, but I thought it was a great example of a work in progress that will grow and evolve as the gardeners have the time and interest to spare. I think that sometimes people are afraid of such a large and blank canvas, and of the special requirements of gardening on the street, but we can see here that an unfinished plot can provide enjoyment and interest too.

Surprise Shallots October 17, 2008

When spading over the veggie patch the other day, getting ready to plant the winter salad seeds and starts, I accidentally unearthed some small treasures – two baby shallots, forgotten from last spring.

Sadly, they were mushy inside and couldn’t be eaten. They should have been harvested last spring, since I planted them the previous fall (a year ago). Not sure why they got missed or if I will ever figure out onion/garlic/shallot growing. I seem to do okay with green onions (scallions) but not much else. I’m not even so great with chives. Maybe it’s genetic – my mom can’t digest onions very well and she only grows the mildest garlic.

For more info on growing many members of the onion family, click here.

Trashed Toadstools October 15, 2008

I saw these gigantic mushrooms in someone’s parking strip the other day, the largest were at least seven or eight inches tall. These fungi, which I will not attempt to name but which used to sprout seemingly overnight on our shady, mossy lawn at our previous house, are kind of wonderful and horrifying at once.

Doesn’t it look like a bunch of gnomes got wasted and wrecked their toadstool hotel room? Either that or they forgot to pay off the rat mafia and the goon squad came by. Mushroom mayhem!

Identifying wild mushrooms is a tricky business. Personally, I’d never eat anything I foraged myself, I just don’t know enough. But local mycological societies often offer classes on ID-ing. Be careful, though – you don’t want to end up on the liver transplant list! Here is a nifty site that has very clear photos of many basic wild mushroom types.

And if you see some hung-over gnomes stumbling around looking for a new place to crash, they probably came from my neck of the woods.