Design trends

Veggies in the Shade

Hopefully my Tasmanian Chocolate tomatoes will look like this by mid -summer and ripen by dummer’s end.

Being the type who doesn’t take no for an answer, I’m going to try growing veggies on my shady deck again. I wasn’t very successful a couple years ago. I thought that 3 hours hot midday sun would be enough for green beans but alas, it was not. That is unless you consider 12 delicious green beans over the course of the growing season a success. So maybe green beans is not the answer. This year I’m going to stick with those I know will deliver for me. No sense wasting valuable space on my deck for edibles when I could grow perennials that the hummingbirds would love. Now that I think about it, I’ll grow both.

Early season veggie starts have arrived at the nurseries plus I see lots of good choices from Renee’s Garden Seeds.

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.

Root crops and leafy plants can tolerate more shade than fruiting crops. Beets, carrots, potatoes, celery and turnip will grow quite happily in partial shade. So will shallots and bunching onions, cilantro, garlic, chives, kale, leeks, parsley, oregano, cilantro 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, arugula, radishes and tarragon.

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.

I’ve always wanted to enjoy carrots from my own garden. From Renee’s Garden Seeds, I think I”ll try growing some Babette French Baby Carrots. They germinate quickly and grow quickly. I plan to harvest while they’re still small- 3-4 inches long. I eat a lot of spinach so I’m going to grow Little Hero, Container Baby Leaf Spinach. The catalog says it has a mild, nutty flavor, is fast growing and highly ornamental in containers. And I might try my hand at an heirloom tomato for containers like Tasmanian Chocolate. They sound delicious and would be worth fighting the squirrels for.

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. Your vegetables may take a bit longer to mature without full sun so be patient.

Design trends

Long-Lived Garden Survivors

Forsythia – One of the earliest, easy-to-grow, spring blooming shrubs in our area.

Many, many years ago my landscape designer group was fortunate to get a private tour by the head gardener at Filoli Gardens. One of the takeaways from this informative afternoon was the plants that have survived there since the early 1900’s without any care. They are true survivors. Growing in out of the way places in the over 600 acres of Filoli are plants that you see blooming around here right now.

Old fashioned shrubs like flowering quince and forsythia figure prominently in many old gardens because they are tough plants able to survive neglect and still look beautiful. The bare stems of forsythia are completely covered with deep golden-yellow flowers in late winter and early spring and become the focal point of the landscape when in full bloom. The showy stems of this easy-care shrub are great for cutting. Forsythias are native to eastern Asia but a chance discovery in Germany by a grower who specialized in breeding for the cut flower industry led to the especially vivid variety ‘Kolgold’ in the 1800’s. Forsythia has long been used in Chinese medicine. The flower petals contain powerful bacteria-fighting properties which make it an important dressing.

Flowering quince is another old garden staple providing early color. They are easy to care for and nearly indestructible in almost any soil that is well drained and not overly fertile. Once established quince is a very drought tolerant plant and their spiny branches make them an excellent choice for hedges, screening or as a security barrier. There are red, pink, orange and white flowering varieties. The Toyo Nishiki cultivar even has pink, white and solid red flowers all on the same branch.

Recently while reviewing plant preferences with a client they mentioned that spirea has done very well in their poor draining soil. I haven’t thought about this workhorse plant in quite a while. They’re not “trending”, but they are good, love-lived, easy-to-grown beautiful shrubs that deserve a second look.

Spirea japonica is drought tolerant once established. Bunnies and deer don’t like them and they are not invasive in our area. Blooming for a very long time they attract pollinators and can control erosion. Several varieties are grown and available including the classic ‘Antony Waterer’. Other popular varieties include Double Play Gold, improved form of ‘Goldmound’ and ‘Goldflame’. The brighter yellow foliages covers a more compact shrub and it blooms profusely with hot pink flowers from early to late summer.

Another early flowering plants that is easy to grow in the shade is Clivia or Kaffir Lily. Buds are just starting to form on mine. Every year I look forward to their huge flower clusters that emerge between dark green, strappy leaves. Even in dark shade they will bloom and brighten the late winter/early spring garden although they would do fine in morning sun. If you have a north facing window you can grow them as houseplants. Clivias are hardy to several degrees below freezing. Clivia bloom best when crowded.

Design trends

Fragrant Spring in the Garden

Enjoy the fragrance of yellow primroses in your garden this spring.

I’m ready for spring. These warm spells have given me spring fever. Many plants blooming now are fragrant. Mother Nature encourages pollinators to find sweet nectar thereby ensuring plant propagation What makes flowers fragrant anyway?

Fragrance in flowers is nature’s ways of encouraging pollination. Just as it draws you to take a deeper whiff, it lures insects to blossoms hidden by leaves. Some flowers are fragrant only at night and attract night-flying pollinators like moths, while others are more fragrant during the day and attract insects like bees and butterflies.

The fragrance itself comes from essential oils called attars that vaporize easily and infuse the air with their scent. Aroma chemistry is complex and the smell of any flower comes from more than a single chemical compound. These molecules are present in different combinations in different plants, but often they are markedly similar which is why there are irises that small like grapes and roses that smell like licorice.

Our noses can detect those chemical compounds that have a major impact on the aroma. Often a particular molecule will make a large contribution. Some roses, for instance, derive their scent from rose oxide and other from beta-damascenome or rose ketones. These molecules are detectable by our noses at very low concentrations. Carnations, violets, lilacs, chrysanthemums, hyacinth- all have their own set of compounds that contribute to their particular scent.

It’s interesting also that as we become accustomed to the same smells our brain phases them out. A compound called ionones, found in violets and rose oil, can essentially short-circuit our sense of smell, including the receptors. This shut down is only temporary and the ionones can then be detected again and registered as a new smell.

Blooming now since early winter, the pale yellow primroses fill the air with the sweetest scent. It’s only the yellow ones and not all shades of yellow that are fragrant but these make your head turn. The sweet alyssum I planted last fall on the deck is getting a run for the money in the fragrance department, too.

Many other spring bloomers are deliciously fragrant. Whether you’re planting edibles in the vegetable garden or containers on the deck, include plants that entice you to linger and enjoy their sweet scent.

The word fragrance comes from the 17th century French word fragrantia, meaning sweet smell. A garden’s fragrance can be as unforgettable as its appearance. The scent of a particular flower can make you remember past times and places. Plant them along a garden path to enjoy as you stroll, in containers to scent a deck or patio or locate them beneath a window and let their aroma drift indoors.

Old fashion lilacs will be blooming soon. Nothing says “spring” like the legendary scent of these shrubs. Give them a spot in full sun with enough room for them to spread 6 feet wide. While most plants accept slightly acidic soils, lilacs are an exception. Dig lime into your soil at planting and side dress yearly if your soil is acidic.

Looking for something in vanilla? Evergreen clematis vines make a great screen with 6 inch long, glossy leaves and creamy white, saucer shaped, vanilla-scented flower clusters. Provide study support for them to climb on. They are slow to start but race once established.

Fragrant shrubs that are easy to grow are Mexican Orange (choisya ternata) which blooms most of the year. Pittosporum eugenoides, tenuifolium and tobira all have tiny blossoms that also smell like oranges. The tiny flower cluster of Fragrant Olive (osmanthus fragrans) have a delicate apricot fragrance. Other fragrant shrubs include California native Philadelphus lewisii (Wild Mock Orange). Calycanthus occidentals (Spice Bush) is another native to our Central and Northern California mountains. Their fragrant burgundy flowers smell like red wine. Ribes viburnifolium, carpenteria californica and rosa californica are mildly scented, too.

Plant for fragrance. It’s your reward for all the care and tending you give your garden.

The Mountain Gardener's Weblog