Garden Tips: Top 5 Spring Garden Prep Tips

Posted on February 20, 2012 by carol
Evergreen Orange Sedge

Groom Evergreen Orange Sedge grass but DON'T cut them back

Here are my Top 5 spring garden prep tips or things to do now or in early March:

  1. Cut back deciduous (gets dead looking in winter) grasses to 2″ tall stubble. Don’t cut back evergreen grasses-they grow back too slowly and will look ugly for a full year.
  2. Scrub your flagstones, especially in the odd corners where they have become very slick. Same for concrete, where you don’t typically walk, it can be very slippery. Bleach will harm your stepables and if you track bleach in on your carpet, it will be a sad thing.  Some do use a 1 to 10 water and ammonia on their flagstone with steppables.  (10 is the water, 1 is the ammonia okay?)
  3. Cut back Lavender to the lowest bits of new growth. Do this now or before mid March. We are running out of time for best results.
  4. Trim a bit of Rosemary and make some good chicken soup. The flu season has me making a lot of soup. We have had our patience sorely tested waiting to get over this years flu. (2011) Rosemary is both fragrant and flavorful. It lifts my spirits just picking it, I also like it with eggs and potatoes for breakfast, so simple, so good and so easy to step outside my door and snip.
  5. Time to start thinking about an inch or two of compost for as soon as you finish spring clean up or April 15 which ever arrives first.
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Easy Edible Plants: Blueberries

Posted on February 15, 2012 by carol

Blueberries very easy edible plants. Blueberries are great for your brain. Did I mention easy? Once your plants are established, the trick to growing blueberries is proper pruning. We want to encourage new growth and to do that, we have to remove some of the old growth. This is a great thing to do together on a garden coach appointment. Do mulch around your plant periodically with coffee grounds to increase acidity in the soil (any time of year works for this – you could do it up to ten times per year! ) Don’t use peat moss even if other experts say to do it.

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Winter Garden Plants that Sizzle with Color

Posted on February 11, 2012 by carol
Hamamelis – Witch hazel ‘Jelena’ Foreground, ‘Arnold’s Promise’ in background-photo Carol Lindsay

Don’t miss seeing the bare stems of witch hazel come alive with bright yellow or red orange flowers. I stopped en route to The Oregon Garden last Saturday to take photos of a field of flowering witch-hazel. I could feel the dozens of hummingbirds working these flowers.

Places to go to catch winter color would be Bishops Close in Dunthorpe, the Winter Garden in Hoyt Arboretum, and Portland Chinese Garden.  See winter color in action and stretch your legs.

Acer Conspicuum, Photo by Treephoria

Don’t miss seeing the thick texture of flowering Heather whose foliage has turned hot colors in winter along with red twig dogwood. Some red twigs like Arctic Fire have 3 colors to their twigs. Hellebores such as Mardi Gras Parade Strain Yellow are just starting to flower and others will soon to burst with color.  Some Japanese Maple have red hot twigs in winter but the Red Snake Bark Maple – Acer Conspicuum is even more colorful.  Heathers, Hellebores, Red Twig Dogwood, and Nandina pick up hot winter color in the cold.  It’s probably wrong to hurry in a garden but hurry and don’t miss all the excitement of winter in the garden.


							

	
			

									
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The Best of 2011 showcases Landscape Design In A Day


			

				Posted on January 14, 2012 by carol			


				

				
Check out the Oregonians Best of 2011 which showcases me and Landscape Design in a Day.  The article talks about how todays landscape and garden designers do it all…….a carefully conceived plan just has to encompass layout of hardscape and plant materials compositions….read on o gentle reader…………

							

	
			

									
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Garden Design Gives Rental Property Added Splash


			

				Posted on January 4, 2012 by carol			


				

				
“Hi Carol, We just rented our former home to our first tenants. They loved the house, all the remodeling we did paid off. We worked so hard to have everything just perfect. But the yard would have been a sad thing without your design and help. Watching the transformation of our back yard into a very attractive outdoor entertaining area was exciting to see and we think our renters are very lucky!!! Even the inspectors who came out from the City of Portland were very impressed with the design. Burt gave your cards out. Thank you! We love the yard!

- Stacie and Burt W.

							

	
			

									
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Garden Tip: Using Stone in the Garden


			

				Posted on December 27, 2011 by carol			


				

				
I love to work with stone. Placing boulders in a hillside rockery, selecting patio flagstone for a patio, or creating a pathway that weaves through the lawn……..stone anchors the design and brings nature to our doorstep.


Flagstone versus stepping stone=No contest


Entry focal point at Hilton Residence Inn in Raleigh Hills, OregonUse flagstone which is by definition 2″ thick by at least 12″ x 12″. In patios, I prefer a mix of Flagstone at 14″ to even 24″ across. Why? It makes better visual impact, and if set into a proper crushed rock base, it won’t move under your feet. Since it is thicker, it’s less prone to crack. Steppng stone by definition are smaller and often end up being precarious. The only thing worse than poorly set, dinky stepping stone is to use pea gravel instead of crushed rock for your base. The pea gravel looks pretty but is not remotely stable, resulting in a mess. It can be an ankle turner as well. No pea gravel!


Select Flagstone for how it will look weathered


    

  • When selecting flagstone, keep in mind that over time it will look more weathered than what you see initially at the rock yard. All stone gets a coat of flora and fauna on it, faster in the shade than sun.
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  • Stone with red or orange areas in it indicates iron. Some types of stone w iron can come off on your shoes. Those colors are wonderful especially for color in the winter. What to do? Ask a professional like Lew or Sherrie at Smith Rock about what types will run.
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Low Stone for an Entry Garden


Try something different? Instead of going vertical with your rock, go horizontal!! If we all do this instead of the typical vertical style, 10 years from now I will be saying, let’s try something different and go vertical.! It takes longer to wear out an idea in the landscape than interior decor. The Hilton water feature idea would normally have been brought in using a millstone from China. Our final selection was a chunk of local basalt drilled at Smith Rock, a much better environmental choice than shipping stone using up so much precious fuel from so far away.

							

	
			

									
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Garden Tip: How to Plant a Big Tree


			

				Posted on December 16, 2011 by carol			


				

				
How to plant a big treeWe probably won’t plant a tree this big at your house, but sometimes a really big tree is the answer. If it is, we can do it! The most important thing is to select the right tree. The next is to have it planted by someone else!

							

	
			

									
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Garden Tip: Slug Love


			

				Posted on December 9, 2011 by carol			


				

				
Slug Love


Here come Paul and Mary kissing in a tree, K I S S I N G……………Well, slug love is like most other kinds of love and produces little slugs sooner rather than later.  Right now they are curling up under your fallen leaves making prospective little slugs and laying eggs. These next few weeks are your last chance to dent the slug population before they disappear leaving their eggs for you to deal with in the spring.. This is the best tip, and many people are surprised because it is not what we have all been told in other gardening lessons. Here’s how to get rid of pesky slugs safely and successfully. 


Slugs on a Date


Read on:  Please remember that if you put out enough bait for an army of slugs, you will call an army of slugs. They will eat the bait but not die right off, giving them time to peruse your plants and lay eggs.   Be discreet and be safe for your pets and others. Use pet safe slug bait cautiously and sparingly to entice the slugs at your house only!  In practical terms that means using 1 or 2 slug pellets a week for the entire back yard of a small property. SERIOUSLY. A slug’s brain is pretty much all nose.

							

	
			

									
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Garden Tips Planting in Late Fall or Early Winter


			

				Posted on December 5, 2011 by carol			


				

				
Buyer Beware! Watch out for fall discount plants at nurseries or garden stores. When you select plants on the leftover table at nurseries you are running some risks. The top of the pot will be chock full of weed seeds and the roots may well harbor larvae of undesirables such as my favorite foe, the root weevil. Here are some tips to help if you decide to buy and plant in the late fall or early winter. 


Garden Tip #1: Successful Planting in Late Fall


If it is a small deciduous  shrub or perennial, (leaves fall off for winter),  I remove the top 2″ of soil at a minimum.  At the maximum,  I gently rinse the whole root ball to remove most of the soil.  Squash any cream colored larvae you find and toss the wet potting soil/mud into the garbage.  Most of us do not get our compost hot enough to kill weed seeds and eggs of root weevil.


I then re-plant  in a bigger pot w clean potting soil, or I plant it in its long term spot. Too much work? Don’t buy off the discount table.


Garden Tip #2: What Not to Buy in the Late Fall


After trial and error I’ve learned never to buy or plant these specimens in the late fall or early winter. True grit soil prep allows a person to plant nearly everything in the winter and the fall but I still hesitate to plant these specimens:


    

  • Salvia, Hummingbird mints (agastache)
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  • Spanish Lavenders
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  • Rosemary
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  • Most Phormiums
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  • Expensive fancy Echinaceas
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  • Expensive Clematis Montana
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Garden Tip #3: What to Plant in the Late Fall


Most plants are game for being planted this time of year. Heathers and various evergreens prefer fall and winter over late spring or early summer planting.

							

	
			

									
						Posted in Fall Gardening, Garden Tips, Winter Gardening					
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6 Tips to Prep Your Garden for Winter


			

				Posted on December 2, 2011 by carol			


				

				
    

  1. Winterize your irrigation system . This may mean flushing out an older system, or just draining your drip system.

    

    Hen and Chicks
    

    Remember: no mulch over your Hen and Chicks
    

    

    2. 

  2. Bait for slugs all through fall and early winter.
    3. 

  3. Don’t bait for slugs if you live in the woods, you will kill all the big native slugs who don’t even eat Hostas, or your garden plants. Instead don’t plant things the little gray french slugs like. It is easy to do, just ask your designer or give me a call to schedule a garden coaching session.
    4. 

  4. Schedule your winter mulch application for last week of November through mid-December. If you can’t stand being out in December’s cold—do it now.
    5. 

  5. Hire a blowing service such as Bark Blowers. Did you know they will blow the good Mighty Microbe Mulch instead of bark dust for you if you know to ask them. Email me for contact info.
    6. 

  6. Did you mulch? Great, now go back out and un bury all the crowns of your plants, especially if you blew in the mulch. Some gardeners cover plants with black nursery pots to try to avoid having the crowns buried. A buried crown often means a rotted plant come spring.
    7. 


							

	
			

									
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