Monthly Archives: July 2024

Design trends

The Gardens of Poland

I couldn’t resist having my picture taken in this field of sunflowers in Poland.

I’m vacationing this week in Oregon visiting a my webmaster Evan in Eugene and also my friend Janie who lives in the historic mining town of Jacksonville near Ashland. We have taken several trips together including the Mayan ruins in Mexico and birding in Southeast Arizona. But the trip we both think might have been our favorite was the one we took to Eastern Poland. From kayaking and hiking to exploring forests, heritage sites, churches and especially the gardens of the people we met, we still talk about it when we get together. Here are some of the highlights of that trip.

The first thing you notice in Poland are the flowers. Although winters are harsh in this country spring starts suddenly in April after the snow melts. The climate in eastern Poland is influenced by the interior of the continent towards Russia and so receives summer rain. The wildflowers, vegetable gardens, perennial and annual flowers love the moisture and were in full bloom.

This part of Poland is protected from any industry. A primeval forest and several national parks are here. Agriculture makes up 50% of land use in this country. Even during the Communist control, a farmer was allowed to keep 3 hectares of land for himself. Land ownership provided some freedom and even to this day little land comes up for sale.

I couldn’t help but fall in love with the neat farm houses made of brick, local mutli-colored granite, wood or brightly painted stucco most with a red roof and surrounded by a flower garden, a vegetable garden and always a fence. I’ve never seem so many kinds of fencing- ornamental iron, willow branches woven together, fancy picket fences or concrete cast to look like wooden bed posts.

The sandy soil here was deposited by glaciers, the last one only 10,000 years ago and is rich with sediment and nutrients. Sunflowers grow tall between fields. Black-eyed Susan grow wild covering the hillsides with gold and every garden had hydrangea, petunia, geranium, yellow mullein, scabiosa, canna lily, dahlia, chicory, apple and plum trees, grapes, hollyhock, marigold and sweet peas. I was amazed at the number of annuals that were grown. Marigolds and petunias of all colors and styles are very popular and probably started from seed as I never saw a nursery of any type even in the outdoor markets. Tender perennials are overwintered inside or cuttings taken in the fall.

A typical vegetable garden had rows of cabbage, of course, as well as red beets, several types of potatoes, lettuce, carrots, onion, cauliflower, cucumbers and leeks. Tomatoes are very popular but grown in greenhouses. Even short season, cold tolerant tomato like Early Girl or Stupice are grown inside.

Red currants, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries are commonly grown. Fields of sunflowers surround farmhouses. Brightly colored bee hives find a home in many orchards. Pigs are kept in barns but dairy cows graze in the meadow. Geese, chickens and goats are common.

Poland has more than 3500 species of mushrooms and hunting for them is a traditional past time. I enjoyed many soups and other recipes made with wild mushrooms. Two million private farms grow most of the potatoes and rye for Europe and is one of the worlds largest producers of sugar beets. and triticale, a self-pollinating hybrid of wheat and rye, leading Poland to be called the future breadbasket of the European Union.

I’d love to go back to Poland. It’s a beautiful country rich in history and the gardens are spectacular.

Design trends

“Oh Deer” – Part 2 Ways to Deter Them

Believe it or not Japanese maples are usually safe from deer browsing.

A Facebook friend posts photos taken of her yard with lots of turkeys and deer families. How can you not love a picture of those cute fawns covered with spots? There’s something about babies. You know that feeling when you see a new infant and can’t help but gush “how cute and tiny!”. It’s universal to be drawn to new life. This applies to other babies in the animal kingdom, too.

At this time of year last year’s youngsters are being chased away by their deer mothers. In heavily wooded areas their territory may be only the square mile right around where they were born and since they eat about 5 pounds of food per day, this would fill a large garbage bag, your garden is this year’s smorgasbord. Eating mostly semi-woody plants they supplement this with soft foliage and, as we all know, our beloved flowers. They browse, moving from place to place seeking plants that taste good and have a high protein content. Knowing their habits can be your advantage. Don’t let them make a habit of eating in your garden. Employ some of the following techniques before they print out a menu of your plants.

There are many barriers you can use to keep deer out of your garden like mesh fencing, deer netting, chicken wire or fishing line. Two short fences a few feet apart can also keep them out. Frightening devices that hook up to your hose work well, too. But if you can’t fence your area then the following tips may help.

Protect young fruit and nut trees by encircling the trunk with fencing to a height of 6 ft. You can remove it after the tree has grown taller and can be limbed up.

Plant deer resistant plants as well as plants that deter deer. Make sure deer find the entryway to your garden unattractive. Concentrate deer repelling plants here. Highly fragrant plants jam the deers’ predator-alert sensors and make them uneasy. Try planting catmint, chives, lavender, sage, society garlic, thyme or yarrow around your favorite plants that they usually eat and you may have better luck this year.

Jam their senses with repellents like fermented eggs solids, mint, rosemary oil and garlic. You can buy these ready-to-use or in concentrates and are very effective. The idea is that you spray directly on the plants and the surrounding area two weeks in a row and then afterwards monthly. They stay on the plants through the rain but keeping it fresh during the peak spring browsing period is a good idea. Soap bars are effective for small areas for short periods. You would have to use 450 bars per acre for a large area. Deer get used to the smell of hair real quick and so it isn’t effective for very long. Blood meal and sprays are effective also but can attract predators.

Taste repellents must be sprayed directly on the plants you want to protect and don’t use them on food plants. You can buy hot pepper spray or mix it yourself: 2 tablespoons hot pepper sauce, 1 gal water, 1 tablespoon liquid dish soap. Another spray you can make up yourself: 5 tablespoons cayenne pepper, 1 tablespoon cooking oil, 1 gal water.

Calla Lily are deer resistant

My personal list of deer resistant plants that are flourishing in the shade are philodendron selloum, all ferns, liriope, mondo grass, Queen’s Tears hardy bromeliad, aspidistra or cast iron plant, bamboo in containers, podocarpus, carex grass, Japanese maple, fragrant sarcococca, clivia, calla lily, sago palm. douglas iris and hellebore.

There are many deer resistant plants for the sun, too. The main thing is to start using one or several of these ideas now before deer establish feeding grounds for the season.

Design trends

“Oh Deer” – Part 1

This young buck at Quail Hollow is perfectly happy browsing on the native plants that grow there.

I thought my plants were safe from deer. Because most of my sunny spots are in front, I planted lots of colorful annuals and perennials out there. Then a couple months ago, all my snapdragon flower spikes were eaten overnight. I was stymied. I live in a condominium complex, after all. Then the buds of my agapanthus were severed and the snapdragons for the second time. It was then that my neighbor told me she had captured a young buck on her security camera heading right for my plants.

So I now spray with Squirrel Stopper (I have a squirrel problem, too) as it’s similar to some of the deer repellents with rosemary oil, corn mint oil, putrescent eggs solids and cinnamon oil. I don’t need to spray the zinnias, cosmos, geraniums, petunias or even the large hostas, just the snapdragons. Picky deer, I guess. But are there any other safe plants that deer seem to avoid?

There are native plants that are poisonous for us but only some of them are avoided by deer. It got me thinking. How do deer eat poisonous plants without apparent ill affect?

Deer are browsers. They thrive on a mixed diet. You’ve seen them eat a few roses then saunter over to the abutilon and then on to the daylily flowers. Deer will eat almost anything, even plants with a strong scent like catmint, lavender, or thyme when they are hungry or need water. They can even eat a few bites of various toxic plants.

According to Tom Hanley, a wildlife biologist with the Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station, “There seems to be threshold levels for the toxicity of different plants, and as long as deer eat below that threshold, they’re okay.” Plant toxicity varies with the time of year also and flowers may be less toxic than leaves or roots. They just mix it up.

That explains the eating habits of deer but what about us?

Many of us are including native plants in our landscapes to attract wildlife and save water and resources. Here are some common native plants that you should be aware of if you have small children. This list comes from
Borstein, Foss and O’Brian- California Native plants for the Garden.

Coffeeberry- leaves, berries and bark
California buckeye- all parts (poisonous to bees also)
Western azalea- all parts
Elderberry- all parts except ripe berries and fruit
Solanum-all parts
Snowberry-berries
California buttercup- juice of the plant
Berberis- roots and leaves
Prunus ( cherry )- seeds
California poppy- all parts
Lupine (annual)- seeds, fresh leaves and stems.

Mostly though, native plants make great additions to the garden. They tend to be well behaved and are rarely invasive. Birds and butterflies rely on them for food, shelter and nesting. And best of all they are beautiful.

When I’m designing with native plants I find the following plants are fairly safe around deer. They are not perfectly safe at all times of the year but they are usually avoided.

Artemisia also called Ca. sagebrush
Asarum – Wild ginger
Baccharis – Dwf coyote brush
Ceanothus ‘Julia Phelps’
Eriogonum – Ca. buckwheat
Douglas iris
Mimulus auritanicus – Sticky monkey flower
Monardella – Coyote mint
Ribes speciosum – Fuchsia-flowering gooseberry
Salvia

Enjoy your garden. Let the deer browse elsewhere and be aware of plants that may be toxic to children.
Next week I’ll give you some good techniques that help deter deer.

Design trends

Solutions for Gardening in the Shade

Clivia tolerate deep shade and the blooms are spectacular.

If you see a recurring theme in my columns about growing successfully in a shady garden, it’s because my last three houses have all had a lot of shade. You’d think I’d have so much experience by now that all my plants would bloom their heads off, shade tolerant veggies would grace my table and everything would be lush and productive at this time of year. Well, I have to tell you that only one of my 4 hydrangeas set flowers this year and I’ve given up trying to grow veggies. A harvest of twelve green beans just wasn’t worth the space and effort. So here are some tips if you garden in shady conditions or morning shade with the dreaded short, hot blast of afternoon sun.

Looking for shade tolerant flowering shrubs to cut for bouquets? Fragrant daphne odora is a wonderful small shrub. For summer fragrance grow Carol Mackie or Summer Ice daphne. Sweet olive or osmanthus fragrans is a large evergreen shrub or small tree with blooms that smell like apricots in winter.

Oakleaf hydrangea (hydrangea quercifolia) also looks good in shade or sun. Showy leaves resembling oaks, turn bronze or crimson in the fall. Huge white flower clusters bloom in late spring through summer and turn pinkish as they age. They are attractive if left on the plant for the rest of the season.

Looking around my own garden one of the plants that does well in sun or shade is Fringe Flower (loropetalum chinense). This handsome evergreen shrub comes in two versions- green foliage with white flowers or burgundy foliage with raspberry flower clusters. Flowering is heaviest in the spring but some bloom is likely throughout the year. You can prune loropetalum to any size but please don’t turn it into a tight ball and ruin its shape. Another plus is that it is not attractive to deer.

Lily of the Valley shrub (Pieris japonica) looks good in shade or sun. An evergreen shrub with year round interest this plant blooms early in late winter through early spring and is covered with little bells for several months. Starting in fall when reddish flower buds appear through summer as the new foliage emerges with a red tint there is always something attractive happening with this plant. It’s deer resistant also.

Plants to grow in dry shade areas include liriope, coral bells, bergenia, mahonia, nandina filamentosa, fragrant sarcococca, clivia and Viburnum ‘Mariesii’.

Chinese Ground Orchid ( Bletilla striata ) is another of my favorites plants for shade. A natural companion for ferns and wildflowers, this plant is tougher than it looks. Vivid, magenta blooms resembling small cattleya orchids emerge on long stalks for about seven weeks in the spring.

California native Western Wild Ginger and Pacific Coast Iris grow well in shade also as do Western Sword fern and Woodwardia ferns. Coral Bells, columbine, lewisia, lobelia cardinals, ribes, salvia spathacea, fragraria, dicentra, calycanthus, philadelphus or Mock Orange and carpenteria to name just a few.

What veggies can you grow in shade? Without much sun, plants photosynthesize less and produce less sugar. On the bright side- no pun intended – shade does offer some benefits. Gardens in the shade don’t have to be watered as often and weeds don’t grow as quickly.

Root crops and leafy plants can tolerate more shade than fruiting crops. Beets, carrots, celery and turnip will grow quite happily in partial shade. So will shallots and bunching onions, cilantro, garlic, chives, kale, leeks, parsley and thyme. Leafy plants can tolerate partial to light shade because their leaves grow larger to absorb the sunlight the plants need. In very light shade areas concentrate on leafy green like Swiss chard, lettuce, spinach, radishes and tarragon.

Shade tolerant vegetables for your brightest spots – the partial shade areas – include beans, peas, potatoes, pumpkin, summer squash and early maturing tomatoes like Early Girl, Stupice, San Francisco Fog, Isis Candy as well as other cherry tomatoes. Corn and peppers will be lankier and bear later and only modesty in partial shade.

Shade can be decidedly helpful to some crops. Leafy greens will be more tender and succulent, without the bitterness they tend to acquire when conditions are too hot. A combination of a bit of afternoon shade and an abundance of moisture will help cut-and-come-again crops like broccoli, lettuce, cabbage and celery stay in good condition longer in hot weather.

Whatever plants you grow in your shady garden, be sure not to crowd them. Plants tend to sprawl there and if placed too close together they will compete for available light. Place your vegetables plants wherever they will get the most light even if it means putting different crops in separate places. A small harvest is still better than no harvest at all.

Sure, every garden is different– different look, different soil, different degree of shade, but it’s surprising how often one of these plants plays a starring or supporting role in a vignette or border

Those of us who live under the trees know a shady garden is a pleasant place to spend time on a hot summer day. Don’t give up if your garden is like mine. There’s a solution for everything.