Category Archives: gardening tips

fall foliage, gardening tips, houseplants, plant care

Fall Gardening Tips

Leave a comment

Someone asked me the other day  " What’s good to plant this time of year "?  It’s a good question.  I often receive emails asking for advice or ideas for solving all sorts of gardening problems and landscaping situations.  You may be wondering about some of these yourself.  Hopefully, they will solve your problem, too.

What is good to plant at this time of year ?
Fall is a good time to plant just about anything in this area. If you want an ornamental tree with spring flowers or a shade tree to keep the house cool in the summer, now is the time to plant.  The ground is moist now so digging is much easier and the warm soil will encourage root growth.  Shrubs of all types as well as perennials settle in nicely when planted in October and November.  Don’t have color in your garden from fall foliage like you see in other yards when driving around?  Take advantage of fall sales at local nurseries.  There are tons of plants now in fall color to choose from.

Why do trees turn colors in the fall?
The shorter days and cooler temperatures of autumn cause trees to switch into energy-storage mode, at which point their leaves stop producing chlorophyll.  For the few weeks before the leave fall to the ground, they are colored only by their natural pigments.  It’s these colors – red and purple anthocyanins,  yellow  and orange carotenoids –  that make fall foliage  so glorious. Some years the show is more dramatic than others.  The best conditions for intense leaf color to develop are dry sunny days followed by cool ( but not freezing ) nights. 
A warm, wet autumn will almost surely result in less-than-spectacular foliage because the process of chlorophyll loss will be less consistent.   Freezing temperature, meanwhile can cause leaves to drop suddenly, denying the opportunity to enter their slow, colorful dormancy. 
 

 

When do we usually get the first frost here? 
I have kept a weather calendar since 1992 and based on my records there was a light frost on Oct. 29, 2002.  I’ve seen an early hard frost as early as November 7th but more commonly, frost comes later in November.   In "97-’99 frost didn’t occur until the first week of December.  Be prepared.

How long can I leave my houseplants outside? 
Halloween is a good time to bring them in.  We don’t have the heater on full blast usually this early so they don’t suffer  shock going from a cold environment to a heated one.  Be sure to inspect them for insect pests and wash them off before bringing them inside. I have to confess, I roll the dice and leave spider plants, wandering jew, Hawaiian shefflera and creeping charleys outside under the overhang. I’ve been pretty lucky most winters.

Some winters my tree ferns and bananas suffer.  How can I protect them if we have a really cold spell?  
Many subtropical plants benefit from extra mulch to help them survive a hard frost.  People from the east coast know all about this.  Just be sure to take it away from the stem or trunk come spring or the mulch can cause rotting.

garden design, gardening tips

How to Plant a Vignette in your Garden

Leave a comment

Most people want to do the right thing, they just don’t always know what it is- in the garden, anyway. Often when I visit a garden to help with the design, I find lots of great plants scattered about that just need to find the right spot to call home and something to tie them together.

We all do it – over the years buying plants we just have to have with no plan of where they might be used effectively. The garden becomes a collection of mismatched plants and that dramatic border you’ve envisioned just don’t come together.

Where to begin? Picture sections of the garden as separate scenes composed of small groups of plants that look good together because of their complementary and contrasting features.

Start with a strong foliage plant, then add other plants with interesting textures, forms and colors to complete the scene. Don’t simply alternate textures because that could make the garden look too controlled and predictable. Sometimes repeating a bold, course texture makes the planting restful.

Select the first plant in a vignette for its foliage. Because it serves as the main plant, it has to have leaves that look clean year round or from the time they emerge in spring until fall. Avoid plants that become discolored or tattered as the season progresses from weather, disease or pests. You can discover reliable foliage plants by observing other gardens, especially in late summer.

Examples of strong anchor foliage plants for shade include Japanese maple, hydrangeas, dogwood, pieris japonica, camellia, aucuba, rhododendron, ribes sanguineum and viburnum,. Good plants to anchor a sunny garden vignette would be butterfly bush, a tall grass like miscanthus sinensis Morning Light, ceanothus Concha, rockrose, western redbud, bush anemone Japanese barberry and lavatera.

Select supporting plants to balance the main plant in your grouping. Vary the shapes of these secondary plants to create interesting compositions. Too many plant like iris, daylilies or liriope with swordlike leaves, for instance,  would create vertical chaos. You can use one but no more than two plants to add vertical emphasis. Also using more fine-textured plants than course, large-leaved plants seems to work better. Shady medium-sized plants might include hardy geraniums, hosta, carex Evergold, ligularia, coral bells, Pacific coast iris and western sword fern. Good supporting plants for sun include salvia, penstemon, rudbeckia, yarrow, artemisia, eriogonum, blue oat grass and society garlic.

Groundcovers finish a vignette. Look for color cues from your first foliage plant and choose a low grower that complements it. Color can connect plants that differ greatly in form and color. Think of groundcovers as carpeting for your garden. Golden creeping Jenny and lamium Pink Pewter are good choices for a shady area while elfin thyme and dymondia would tie together a group in the sun.

Don’t be afraid to move a plant that is not working where its growing now. Make a note in your journal reminding yourself to transplant it sometime in the fall. Gardening is a dynamic and fluid process. Enjoy piecing  together pieces of the puzzle.
 

gardening tips, sustainable gardening

Permaculture and You

Leave a comment

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 ( when necessary ) you reduce pollution in the environment. When you plant edibles like beautiful 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.

Plant dry climate plants like lavender, rosemary and sage in open, sunny areas and drought tolerant ground covers like oregano and thyme 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 , 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 white yarrow.

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