Monthly Archives: May 2021

Design trends

How to Make your Garden More Sustainable

Yarrow (achillea millefolium) collects phosphorus, copper and potassium from the soil and brings it to the surface.

We all want to do the right thing for the environment by reducing our carbon footprint and becoming good stewards of the land. We want to build our landscapes with green products and incorporate sustainable practices in the garden. A good way to do this is to create gardens that offer food and beauty for people while providing habitat and other benefits for the rest of nature.

Permaculture is the fancy name for this approach to garden design. When you garden using organic fertilizers and organic pesticides you reduce pollution in the environment. When you plant edibles like fruits, vegetables and herbs in your yard, you create a more natural landscape that takes better care of itself while yielding a plentiful harvest of plants for food.

You can put these ideas to work in your own garden by using water more efficiently and carefully selecting and siting plants. Deep rooted trees like fig, mulberry, peach and plum help break up heavy soil and shade the plants beneath them. Planting drought tolerant trees creates shade which in turn slows the evaporation of moisture from soil and prevents erosion.

Group plants with similar water needs. Grow thirsty plants in the lowest areas of your garden where more water collects. You might install a rain garden in an areas like this. A rain garden is simply a planted depression designed to absorb run-off from areas like driveways, walkways, roofs and compacted lawn ares. The rain garden acts to replenish ground beds while preventing water from running into storm sewers, streams and creeks.

Bee’s Bliss salvia is a good low water use ground cover that shades the
soil and conserves moisture as does ceanothus ‘Heart’s Desire’.

Plant dry climate plants like lavender, rosemary and sage in open, sunny areas and drought tolerant ground covers like Bee’s Bliss salvia and ceanothus ‘Anchor Bay’ or ‘Heart’s Desire’ to shade the soil and conserve moisture. Use less turf grass and more walkable ground covers where possible.

Place hardy perennials like artichoke, butterfly bush and rhubarb under tree canopies to conserve moisture. In general, use deep-rooted, low maintenance perennials that provide food and also shade for plants underneath.

For food, plant fruit trees, berries, nuts, herbs and vegetables. To create habitat, plant fennel, spearmint and yarrow for beneficial insects; butterfly bush and sage for pollinators such as bees and hummingbirds, ceanothus and other native shrubs and trees for birds and other wildlife.

To improve soil structure, plant deep rooted plants to break up heavy soils and add organic matter. You can plant rhubarb, bear’s breech or other large leaf plants for a living mulch. Using wood based mulch on garden beds helps contain moisture in the soil, too. To provide soil with nitrogen, plant ceanothus, clover, legumes like beans, and peas and lupine. To supply minerals as compost or mulch plant chives, comfrey, garlic and yarrow. Yarrow is often planted in young orchards to bring nutrients near the top of the soil for young trees to use. S

Sustainable landscapes do not have to look like a weed patch. With a little planning your garden can be beautiful and productive.

Design trends

Give A Hardy Geranium a Place in Your Garden

Geranium ‘Orion’

On my daily walk near the Boulder Creek Golf Course I see my neighbor has planted their partly shady bank with blue hardy geraniums. Already starting to bloom this large swath of color is going to be breathtaking very soon. True geraniums are becoming more popular. They are the work horses of the perennial border – hardy, versatile, long blooming plants for edgings, borders and ground covers.

Most people use the common name geranium to describe what is actually a pelargonium. Ivy geraniums, Martha Washington pelargoniums and zonal geraniums are all pelargoniums. Hardy geraniums, also called cranesbill, look very different. Leaves are roundish or kidney-shaped and usually lobed or deeply cut. Flower colors include beautiful blue, purple, magenta, pink or white and often completely cover the plant with color. I’ll bet if you visited a garden on a tour or admired a picture in a garden magazine it contained true geraniums. Here are just a few strong performers available among the dozens of species.

Blue flowers in the garden are always a hit as they combine so well with other colors. Geranium Orion’s abundant clear blue flower clusters bloom over a long season. Use this 2 foot spreading plant in sun or part shade in a mixed border or as a groundcover. There are other blue flowering geraniums. I use to grow geranium ‘Brookside’ in my own garden. It’s large bright blue flowers are larger than ‘Johnson’s Blue’. ‘Rozanne’ is another common favorite with stunning blue flowers.

Another fast growing variety is geranium incanum which covers itself spring through fall with rosy violet flowers. Cut back every 2-3 years to keep neat. This variety endures heat and drought better than other types but needs some summer water. It self sows profusely which might be exactly what you want as a groundcover in a problem area.

Geranium ‘Biokovo’

If pale pink is your color, plant geranium x cantabrigiense ’Biokova’. This excellent groundcover spreads slowly. The numerous one inch flowers are long lasting and cover the plant from late spring to early summer. Their soft pink color is indispensable when tying together stronger colors in the border and the lacy foliage is slightly scented.

Karmina geranium

Another geranium in the same family is ‘Karmina’. I’ve been using this deep rose flowering variety for several years in designs in areas that receive moderate irrigation. With lush green leaves on a low spreading plant it’s pretty even when not in bloom.

There are a couple other varieties that are popular and deserve a try. They are Award Winning Mavis Simpson’ and Russell Pritchard’. Both have bright pink or purple flowers and make good additions to your perennials.

Geranium maderense grows best in shade. This dramatic native of Madeira is the largest geranium with huge 1-2 foot long leaves shaped like giant snowflakes. Clusters of thousands of rose tinted flowers form on a 3 foot trunk. This perennial is short-lived but self sows freely. Add some of these architectural plants to your border for color and structure.

Give a hardy geranium a place in your garden.

Design trends

All About Soil

This pine tree growing in Bryce Canyon must have found just the right soil to survive.

“The soil is made of butterfly wings, dinosaur teeth, pumpkin seeds, lizard skins, and fallen leaves.                 

Put your hands in the soil and touch yesterday, and all that will be left of tomorrow shall return so that new life can celebrate this day.” 

-Betty Peck

Soil makes all the difference to the plants you grow. The biggest issue we gardeners face is the ongoing battle with soil. If yours is difficult to manage or unproductive you’ll be disappointed with the performance of many of the plants you put in the ground. Even tough plants like California natives have soil preferences and they are not always what’s in your garden.

We live on ancient sea cliffs. Soils in Bonny Doon and Scotts Valley consist of shallow, excessively drained weathered sandstone and shale. Felton soils were formed from shale, sandstone or mica schist. Those in Ben Lomond and Boulder Creek had their beginnings from weathered sandstone or granite. Although these provide the necessary mineral component of our soil, organic matter or humus from decayed plant and animal material are necessary for fertility.

Here’s why improving your soil will make a difference to the health of your plants.

Gardens in Poland use organic methods to increase soil fertility.

Good soil-with both organic matter and minerals-helps plants grow by forming the food supply for soil bacteria that help make food available for plant growth. Most of a plants energy goes to producing substances that drip out through the roots to attract bacteria and fungi. These in turn attract good nematodes and protozoa to the root zone. The protozoa eat bacteria and the nematodes eat not only the bacteria but also fungi and other nematodes to get carbon. What they don’t need they expel and this feeds the roots much like earthworm castings.

Down in the soil, if a plant needs different foods it can change what is secretes. Different substances will attract different bacteria, fungi, nematodes and protozoa. This huge diversity of soil biota helps the good guys keep the bad guys in check.

A common way to destroy the microbiology of the soil is to add salts in the form or non-organic fertilizers. The salts kill the bacteria and fungi by dehydrating them. Then the plant can’t feed itself and becomes dependent on its fertilizer fix. Without the good bacteria and fungi in the soil other parts of the food chain start dying off as well.

The soil food web is also responsible for soil structure. Bacteria create slime that glue soil particles together. Fungi weave threads to create larger soil particles. Worms and insects distribute bacteria and fungal spores throughout the soil and create pathways for air and water.

What can you do to bring your soil back to life?
• Mulch around perennials, shrubs and trees with1/4“ of compost and 2-3” wood chips or other organic mulch.
• Apply mycorrhizal fungi, especially in a new garden that’s been rototilled or chemically fertilized. You can find this in most organic fertilizers and some organic potting soils.
• Use aerated compost tea
• Try to avoid walking on the root zone of plants. This kills fungi in the soil. Install stepping stones to preserve soil structure.

Feed your soil- not your plants.