Design trends

Spreading Holiday Cheer with a Wreath

You can make a wreath like this one with just a few supplies.

I know what I’ll be doing today. The annual wreath making extravaganza at Barb’s house in Felton is again on my agenda. Barb and her husband Reg are collectors extraordinaire, knowing all the good places to gather wreath-making materials. Every year the varieties vary but for all who come over the weekend it’s sure to be fun. Their driveway will be covered with colorful berries and foliage, conifer clippings, cutting from shrubs, dried hydrangeas and you name it – they’ve found a source.

I was first invited to the Annual Wreath Makers get together about 10 years ago but Barb has been creating wreaths with friends since about 2003. Friends and relatives come from near and far to enjoy some bubbly and pastries. We’ll have a great time. Barb told me a couple years ago that 44 wreaths were created over a few days. Hers will all be stunners as she likes ‘em big and lush.

You can make a stunning wreath yourself from most anything you find around your garden. Barb and Reg have favorite places they have scoped out to collect greenery including neighbor’s yards. They get permission from the homeowner first but have several people who look forward to the free pruning of their shrubs each year.

Some of the plant material that they harvest include conifers like cypress, deodar cedar, redwood, arborvitae and fir. Broadleaf evergreens such as camellia, bottlebrush, variegated pittosporum, variegated holly, green holly, silver dollar eucalyptus, boxwood, bay, oleander, acacia. melaleuca and abelia are also good. For color, try snippets of leptospermum ‘Ruby Glow’, leucodendron ‘Safari Sunset’, camellia and rose buds and dry hydrangea flowers. Favorite berries are myrtus communis, texas privet, pepper, holly and nandina berries.

If you’re thinking of getting together with others to make wreaths or swags, start by having each bring a couple grocery bags of greens to share with other wreath makers. It helps if you can borrow a couple tables and have a few extra clippers on hand in case someone forgets theirs. Each person brings their own wreath frames of wire or grape vine and some thin gauge wire on a paddle to attach the bundles to the frame. Wire coat hangers work just fine, too.

Take advantage of this opportunity to prune your evergreen shrubs and conifers but don’t trim off snippets indiscriminately. To reveal the plant’s natural form, prune from the bottom up and from the inside out. Avoid ugly stubs by cutting back to the next largest branch or back to the trunk. If the plant has grown too dense, selectively remove whole branches to allow more air and sunlight to reach inside the plant.

Take a few minutes to create a wreath or swag for your door or to give away to a friend or neighbor. It’s a fun way to celebrate the holidays and trust me, you can’t make a bad wreath. They all turn out beautiful.

Design trends

A Poem of Thanksgiving by Jan Nelson, The Mountain Gardener

Once upon a time when our area was under water
there were no parks or trails or trees or gardens.
I’m thankful that our mountains rose from an ancient ocean
so we could enjoy this beautiful place we call home.

I’m thankful for the Bigleaf maples
that shower me with leaves as big as saucers
as I walk in Henry Cowell along the river trail
and for the giant redwoods that sprouted long ago
at the time of he Mayan civilization.

I’m thankful for the Five-fingered ferns that grow lush along
the lower parts of Fall Creek
and for the canyons, hiking trails and small waterfalls
that feed the year-round creek.

I’m thankful for the Felton Covered Bridge
that overlooks the San Lorenzo River
and for the sound of children laughing as they play in the park.

I’m thankful for the western turtles who live at the Quail Hollow pond
and for the unique sandhills, grasslands and redwoods, too,
and for the plants, birds and other small creatures that live only there.

I’m thankful for Bonny Doon where you can see both the Pacific Ocean
and the San Lorenzo and Scotts Valleys
and for the resilience of the people recovering after the fire
on the mountain made of sandstone and shale.

I’m thankful that California’s oldest state park, Big Basin, with its waterfalls and lush canyons
and slopes covered with redwoods sorrel, violets and mountain iris
that will recover in time as will the salamanders, banana slugs, marbled murrelets and red-legged frogs who make it their home.

I’m thankful for the whisper of the wind blowing across the water at Loch Lomond
and for the gentle whir of fishing reels at the edge
of thick tanoak, redwood and madrone.

And finally, I’m thankful for friends and family and neighbors who share all this with me.
There’s always something to be grateful for. I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving.

Design trends

What is a Cover Crop & Why Plant One?

Orin Martin of UCSC’s Alan Chadwick Garden shows the
extensive root structure of bell beans. Photo from 2013.

Every time we get a bit of rain I run out to see how deep it has penetrated the soil. Wishful thinking on my part but now through the end of November is the time to sow cover crops to enrich your soil and prevent erosion. You might need to irrigate lightly a couple times per week if it doesn’t rain. You can also wait to sow just before the rains really start. Be careful about working overly wet soil, however, as you can ruin the structure of your soil.

Not that long ago I got an email from someone whose house burned down in Bonny Doon. The site has no water yet but the owner wanted to plant something now to cover the soil and prevent the prolific succession plant Yerba Santa from taking over the area. After a bit of research from the National Resources Conservation Service of Santa Cruz County website, I discovered that Santa Cruz Erosion mix, which used to be widely recommended, would “crowd out native bunch grasses, degrade rangeland and diminish wildlife habitat.” It contains non-native plants with very weedy attributes including Blando brome grass, Rose clover and Zorro fescue. These weeds are rapidly spread by wind, water, animals, humans and equipments and once established they are almost impossible to remove.

If you need to stabilize soil quickly you could sow sterile grass that will germinate in winter, stabilize the soil quickly and not become invasive. These would be Common barley and sterile wheat. If you are looking for long-term erosion control, native shrubs and grasses grow deep. Some grasses to consider are Meadow barley, Blue wild rye, Creeping wild rye, Purple needle grass, Nodding needle grass or California brome.

If you are looking to increase fertility in an area, cover crops like bell beans, vetch and fava beans are especially valuable as they increase nitrogen levels in the soil in two ways. Atmospheric nitrogen can be “fixed” and left in the soil to fertilize subsequent crops. This is in addition to the nitrogen left from the foliage of the legume. Growing a cover crop also increases beneficial soil bacteria.

Cover crops are called green manure when they are chopped up and turned into the soil in spring before going to seed. The planting of legumes like peas and beans can actually increase nutrients in your soil giving you a net gain which is needed to offset what you take out of the soil when you harvest fruits, vegetables and flowers.

A mixture of grasses and legumes tilled into the soil in spring increases soil fertility.

Recent research now recommends planting a mixture of grasses and legumes. Annual cereal grasses such as oats, rye and barley germinated quickly to hold and shield the soil until the legumes take hold. Bell beans, fava beans and vetch, which are the best legumes for our area, grow slowly the first 3 months then take off growing 70-80% in the last 3 months. The ratio of grass seed to legumes can vary from 10% to 30%.

There are other legumes that fix nitrogen but nowhere near as efficiently as bell beans. Crimson clover seed is more expensive, needs lots of water to sprout and competes poorly with weeds. Mustard causes competition with the fruit trees as bees will concentrate on the mustard flowers instead of the fruit tree flowers.

Work the soil lightly with a metal bow rake then broadcast 8-10 seeds per square foot. Weeds should be already cleared but this step doesn’t have to be perfect. Afterward the area should be raked again lightly 1-2 inches down and covered with 3-4 inches of straw. Wood chips would be fine, too. Mulch heavier if you have bird competition. Cover crops are vigorous and will come up through just about anything. Water in lightly.

If you plan to let your small vegetable garden lie fallow over the winter instead of planting it with a cover crop you can cover it with manure and straw.

The Mountain Gardener's Weblog