ANd then the frost and more snow and now frigid air..

It's not the refrigerator; it's colder. I spoke last time of spring and of course it's around the corner. By this time next week, we'll have spring-like temps for good, (I think). But this is a badly timed bit of winter re-dux. The new growth on cutback roses (among other things we've already been working on in the post-president's day rush to prune), is prime for the bite of cold this week. Micro-climates are important factors in the nature's cruel decision as to whether the tender new growth lives or dies. South-facing walls and areas that are somewhat sheltered will, perhaps, fare better.

Just to clarify one thing. The freakishly cold temps this winter, the record breaking cold events are not an indication that "Global Warming" is not happening but rather more likely part of the bank of evidence that Climate Change, caused by the warming temps on the Earth's surface and water, really is happening. The term Global Warming seems to trip people when they see weird cold trends and shifting climate in places that are just not usually this chilly. The Earth's climate is changing and there are things that we could do about it to slow the porcess or adapt to the process.

For sure, we can do the usual drive less, bike or walk or ride public transport, we can heat less, and all that. We can als be less heavy on the food production system. Eat more locally, more sustainably, grow your own food, perhaps.

I've started plans for my own garden of food. (Notice that I've started the plans and not the actual work). I'm going to grow lettuce (easy crop), chives, spinach, tomatoes (in a container in the hottest part of my yard), basil and maybe some blueberry shrubs. The 3 year old loves blueberries. Bringing it all back to our own spot of ground (if we have one) or our own porch of containers, maybe we can help a small bit. Maybe that small bit we each do will add up to a big force for change..

Stay warm, here comes the Frost!

Timing... Spring's gotta be here soon!

I've done nothing in my own garden yet. Nothing at all. And yet the crocus and iris near that red-twig are making a show of early spring. Indeed this is the year I'll want to hard prune the red-twig Cornus, but maybe I'll wait a bit.

Out in the gardens around town we're focusing on that early spring shrub pruning. Cotinus and Cornus, Salix and Roses are all getting some good attention as the season pushes onward.

The designers are busy replacing or re-working winter trashed areas of the garden. As we remove the whipped Phormiums (notice the partly flat one behind these irises) and Hebes, sometimes a good amount of space opens. The obvious sustainable solution is drought tolerant, native oriented plants, but maybe now we also have to think more about cold hardy plants too. If the air temps are low enough long enough (which they were this winter) the soil levels drop too chilling rootballs that may not be able to take it. So now Phormium which doesn't mind a bit of snow and ice is resembling a very bad hair-day. The big ones can be pretty hard buggers to dig out, for sure. It can be somewhat refreshing to rip out things that didn't make it and start over.


I'l end this post with a bit by the great mad man poet e.e. cummings... (read it a few times out loud...)

"Spring is like a perhaps hand..
(which comes carefully

out of Nowhere) arranging
a window, into which people look (while
people stare
arranging and changing placing
carefully there a strange
thing and a known thing here) and

changing everything carefully

spring is like a perhaps
Hand in a window
(carefully to
and fro moving New and
Old things, while
people stare carefully
moving a perhaps
fraction of flower here placing
an inch of air there) and

without breaking anything."

Snow again? Is the garden still ok?

Some may be worried about the recent snow and its effect on anything that you may have already cut back in the garden. That Buddleia or Cotinus that just got whacked with early bud swell is in a delicate stage. But the only real worry will be if temperatures drop and stay low. The snow really isn't helping matters, but it's not doing as much damage this time a week of 20 degree temperatures would. As long as the overall temperatures stay above freezing, we're ok. Snowfall ahead of a freeze helps insulate from the frigid air that ruins tender growth.
That said, I looked out my kitchen window at the melting snow on an untouched Choisya. I noticed that the weight of the snow had helped complete a branch tear near the middle of the shrub that had started with the the December and January storms. It will need some restorative pruning for sure... I'll get to that when it warms up!

What's a Late Winter or Early Spring Cleanup?

So, out there in the winter-wrecked garden where the cold seems endless but maybe the Hellebores are starting to bloom and the Crocus are just pushing themselves up. There's a mess of things that need to be cut back and branches all over and flopped shrubs throughout your garden. You look out the window and wonder what to do. Run away? Hide?

You go out, look around and see that maybe the storms of winter tore apart tree limbs and knocked them into the hearts of your favorite Escallonia, or maybe the wind and heavy snow tilted that tall Camelia, bending it's bud-laden branches low. The Choisya has parted like the seas before Moses, and you don't want them to look like that. Or maybe there's a mess where your Phormiums and Hebes and Fuchsias were.

But not to worry, your garden is still under all that debris.

In estimating an early spring cleanup, I try to think about a few main concerns among other lesser concerns. As always, the usual late winter pruning that needs to happen for the health of the plants, the care of the design is a main consideration. But, first we need to address the winter damage.

Winter damage is more obvious, obviously. The downed limbs are the most visible as well as the toppled shrubs. Some will need staking and some will need to be replaced. But there may also be broken crowns of some shrubs that may have caught too much snow, wind, ice, cars or tree limbs that might not be as easily noticed until later in the season. Check for shrubs that have fallen over.

There are quite a few things that need to get pruned the month of February and early March. But gardeners still need to play that fine line of when to do it. To do some of that pruning too early is to risk the chance of further frost damage, so we need to do some guess-work, cautious predicting of the weather to come. The roses can handle a hard prune, but it's best to wait until after Presidents' day. Even if there's a bit of a frost, for a day or two, no worries. That said, if there is a hard frost for several nights and the day time temperatures stay low, well that new growth might end up looking like parts of a salad tossed in the freezer. But usually (I use that word cautiously) there's no reason to believe that an extended frost will be occurring after the 3rd week of February. Look at me, trying to place reason into the chaos of weather. We have to start somewhere.

Miscanthus and other deciduous grasses can be cut back now. Many decidous shrubs and trees can be done now, but there are many, many exceptions so don't just go tearing out into the garden with a pair of loppers expecting good results.

A good spring cleanup from our garden crew can take the confusion off your shoulders and put it where it belongs, in the gardeners day. In a day we can get that garden ready for your spring and summer vision. Because spring and then summer are sure to come, soon... right?...

Until next time..

Happy gardening..

New Directions v.2

Ok, so in the interests of working with nature, not against it, (and as gardeners it is the goal, I think) I wanted to look at a few ideas that City People's Design and Landscape are going to be bringing to our clients as a way of stepping up our campaign toward better gardening practices.

Of course everyone wants a beautiful lawn and garden, with peace of mind to go along. The problem with conventional landscaping has been that its techniques focused on the superficial results alone. This style of gardening relies on pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers without actually considering the harmful effects along the way, not to mention these old practices can cost you more in the long term.

Such chemicals harm children, pets, streams, fish, & the overall environment. You broadcast those bags weed 'n feed onto the lawn to get the hyper-green, weed-free lawn and never really notice the negative effects. Quiet little particles are carried into your home on your shoes and they get trapped into your floors. Our culture is just beginning to realize what illnesses or problems these chemicals are causing.

It is now understood that Pesticides + Chemical Fertilizers lead to infertile soils, stressed plants, diseases and insect attacks. Simply put, putting aside their intent, these chemicals are Poisonous.

All this is to say that this method has, in the long run, proven to work against the original intent of the garden costing hundreds, even thousands of dollars to fix.

Don’t Panic, Its Organic! We do not want to harm our customers, our employees,
or our environment. Our gardeners work with a wide array of eco-friendly solutions for any
gardening need.

Soil is the foundation of the garden. Healthy Soil = Healthy Roots = Healthy Plants. We offer amendments to rebuild and repair damaged soils. We advise cultivating soils where needed especially with new plantings. We also advise planting the right plants in the right places for best results. In the end, helping to balance what goes into the garden will lead to better overall soils and more healthy gardens. City People's offers organic fertilizers for a variety of different uses from shrubs and perennials to bulbs and trees. Work with nature and we'll can help our garden, our communities as well as our planet.

~(one of our gardeners, Diane Styers contributed to this post)

To wait or not to wait...

So your Hebe "Amy" or similar variety looks like a standing corpse, brown and wilted. People think of Halloween when they drive by and the crows are watching the plants with cautious curiosity. Is it time to remove the sickly plant and try again or should you let it ? Should the same cool variety go in it's place or should you think about something new all together? We are advising gardeners to wait, if you can.

Many plants we use here in the Pacific Northwest are drought tolerant for our relatively dry summers and are hardy to temperatures in the 20's or low 30's. A lot of these varieties are natives to climates like from New Zealand and Australia. So when unusual shifts in weather cause intense freezes lasting longer than a few days and then the snow falls and then the ice... issues arise.

Microclimates will be the final deciding factor. If they are in a wet situation and unprotected, they will more likely be set for the compost bin. There is also the possibility that the rootball is stillviable and that it may resprout from the base. If you have the patience to wait a year or two your plant may or may not survive well. But the reason we are suggesting that you wait before you cut, is that the plant may regenerate from lower on the stems. As the weather warms, you start to see new growth appear. This is a possibility, but as I look around at a few of these sickly shrubs, I am more and more convinced that they most are going to perish, but it's still advisable to wait a few more weeks.

In the end you could try to replant the same and hope we don't have more of this uncharacteristic, yearly deep freeze or it might be time to consider something new for the space. Other hebe varieties can be more tolerant of the cold such as Hebe "Mrs. Winder". City People's Designer, Anne Janisse also suggests that the grey varieties seem to hold up in the cold as well.

Green Gardening. It's All supposed to be "Green"

Ok, so gardening is supposed to be "green", right? Gardeners are the stewards of the earth and should be working more with nature than against it. Pruning, soil care, composting and proper planting are all part of the healthy garden.

What has happened to the landscape and gardening industry over the past century is that in many cases we (gardeners and customers and designers) have come to think of the landscape as exterior furniture to be manipulated by machinery and chemicals to achieve an idealized goal of the perfect garden. That nandina grouping in that foundation bed is not a couch or neglected counterspace but a growing plant. The trees around your yard, even if they are listed as "dwarf" will get bigger. We've come to think of a lawn that is techno-green as a healthy lawn. We think of a static garden as a "good" garden and forget about the dynamics of a garden.

Maintenance of the gardens in this area needs to be done year round but some of the tactics that have been used are outdated and often work against us in the garden. Removing all that leaf debris and applying compost seems like a good idea but can cause poor local soils not to mention excess labor and debris/ material charges.

Coming up in this space, I will be discussing some of these ideas and more and describe more details about what can be done to bring the garden into more "green friendly" practices. Go Green!