Cows, manure, and you

I just ran across a company that looks like it's actually doing something good for the environment rather than just ranting and raving about how the world's going up in flames. They're called Organix (not the most original name, but okay) and they're based in Walla Walla, WA-and if you haven't been there, take a little vacation. It's quiet, beautiful and the wine is exceptional esp for the prices.

I digress. Organix sells a peat moss alternative and a compost made from cow manure that's been fussed with and made nice and fluffy for you. If you want a slightly more scientific explanation than the one I offer, visit the website:

http://www.organix.us/

If you go to Walla Walla, make sure you stop by Woodward Canyon for some out of this world wine and then hit Merchants for a really tasty deli sandwich on fresh homemade bread.

Ed Begley Jr and other Gardening Mysteries

I just finished reading Garden Rant's post referring to Ed Begley Jr's latest "eco-indulgent idea" on how the White House should get rid of its lawn (not to mention several other half-baked, Hollywood poolside ideas on how to make the world a better place).

While I spend the afternoon trying to figure out how and why I should have some goofball B-lister dictate to me what happens in my yard, I will also try to ponder other gardening mysteries that Garden Rant reveals such as what manned Mars expeditions have to do with gardening and why it is that anyone thinks synthetic turf as an alternative to lawn is in any way, shape or form going to catch on in this country. Hmm, products that never caught on. The segway, the Yugo, warm toilet paper, pet rocks, New Coke, cow fart offsets.

Maybe Woody Harrelson, Ed Begley Jr and Matthew McConaughey will save the world by getting really stoned and creating an orbiting Global Hemp Shield that prevents global warming and is powered by BEAD: Bong exhalation and drumming.
http://www.gardenrant.com/my_weblog/2010/05/ed-begley-on-losing-the-lawn-telling-half-the-story.html

Surviving the so-called frost

Well, Portland didn't actually hit freezing last night as was predicted-some out-lying areas got a little nip, but we survived. Since I'm not really growing any vegetables right now, I wasn't too concerned but I can see how others might go nuts with the plastic wraps and wall-o-waters in attempts to keep the tender starts alive and thriving. So this is why gardeners say wait until after the last frost to start your warm weather plants...

Do pay attention to the weather reports this time of year and keep some little plastic jackets handy...hmm, I'm having a marketing idea. Little sweaters, scarves and hats for your plants. Better patent that one before someone steals it.

Reblooming lilacs!

According to the Portland nursery website, two new lilacs are around and ready to perform twice for you! "Bloomerang" and "Josee" are two repeat pink bloomers-once in spring, again in summer or fall. Both get to be about five feet tall and wide so you're not going to have a really large plant. Make sure you remove the spent blossoms and keep your eyes out for a second bloom-yeehaw!
http://www.portlandnursery.com/

A real stinker...

After a strange little beast landed on my shoulder while watching a movie at a friend's house, I was immediately informed to remain still until the little guy was captured and removed. Not killed or squashed, mind you, simply removed. Apparently, they stink when threatened or killed. I have not as of yet witnessed this noxious odor myself so I can't help describe to you the scent, however I may be doing a little devious experimentation this spring next time I see one...don't tell PETA.

Halyomorhpa halys or "the brown marmorated stink bug" are from China and they showed up about a decade ago on the east coast. They've now made their way to several states including Oregon. Apparently, fruit and soybeans are at the top of their list of munchables. Great, just what our berries need. It's not known what kind of threat they are yet (at least it's not known to me) to our crops although they can infest and overwinter in your home and cause quite a ruckus because of their odor. It's best to seal up all the cracks and windows before they get a foothold into your house.

Clumsy fliers with bad breath-they won't be making a lot of friends in the new country they call home...

Introducing the tiniest horse in the world...Einstein

Prepare yourself for total and complete cuteness as you click on this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wF0Ukge8C9A&NR=1

Plant banishment

The Meyer Lemon Tree has fallen out of favor. I've not completely given up on it yet, but after I woke up one morning to an army of ants swarming on and around it and marching towards the kitchen I grabbed it and banished it to the fire escape-I haven't visited it since then.

Normally, I'm less cruel and quickly kill plants I don't like or that are dying. But I'm going to give this guy one more chance if he has the will to live. I'm going to re-pot it and stick it outside even though it's still really much too cool for it here in Portland. I simply can't bring it back inside what with the sap suckers and now the ants. Still, I can't seem to completely toss it, esp since it was given to me as a gift. You have one more chance Meyer...

Problems with Powdery Mildew

Powdery mildew happens to be one of my most hated of plant diseases. It's a fungus that rears its ugly head come spring and it's spread by spores that hang out in your soil or travel to your garden via wind and birds. Basically, it sucks.

The first line of defense is to grow disease resistant plants. I've seen powdery mildew affecting everything from forget-me-nots and roses, to boxwood and bee balm. Do some research on varieties that are less likely to get infected.

Nip it in the bud. Remove affected leaves and buds once you detect the fungus. Spray with a fungicide of your choice. I've had good results with neem and a homemade garlic spray. Don't let diseased leaves sit around in your yard. Rake them up and get rid of them. (Don't put them in your compost, you'll just spread it back into the garden).

Water in the morning and water the base of the plant allowing the leaves to stay dry. Powdery mildew likes humidity and heat and if you overhead water in the summer you'll increase the chance of spreading the disease.

If you just can't get rid of it, consider removing the plant and replacing it with that pretty Japanese iris you've been admiring in your neighbor's yard...

Discover the Encyclopedia of Life

The Encyclopedia of Life is an ambitious project launched by E.O. Wilson, a biologist, naturalist and author whose goal is to document all the living species on earth on one site. No small task, for sure, considering there may be at least 1.9 million and counting. Experts and non-experts alike are encouraged to take photos and send them in for a look see. Next time you go scuba diving in Australia and you're convinced you've discovered a new species of nudibranch, take a picture and send it in. You may, however, want to hold off on sending in pictures of your cat or that wierd looking worm you just dug up in your garden-it's probably already in their system...
http://www.eol.org/

Birds gone wild

A woodpecker relative known as a Northern Flicker has moved into the city hall building in Lake Oswego, Or. I've actually had the misfortune of having one of these birds mark its territory by pecking at the metal covering on the chimney over my bedroom when I was in high school. The flicker is an intense pecker-if you know what I mean. Every morning at 5 am I awoke not to the relaxing sounds of chirping and song, but to what sounded like heavy machine gun fire.

It took me awhile to figure out where the sound was coming from and my parents thought I was going nuts until they finally heard it. And, like the beleaguered city manager, we were at a loss as to what to do. I think finally my dad settled on shouting and arm waving-eventually graduating to launching stones and heavy cones at it. It would not be swayed. It returned to our chimney all spring until it finally moved on to annoy the crap out of someone in Canada.

Check out this link and enjoy the schadenfreude...

http://lakeoswego.katu.com/content/lake-oswego-city-manager-vs-noisy-woodpecker

Voyeurism at its finest

I'm posting this link to our local "raptor cam" that spies on a mother red-tailed hawk as she incubates her eggs here in downtown Portland. Basically, it's kind of boring but the eggs should be hatching any day now and so it gets a little more suspenseful. Do yourself a favor and avoid reading the comments unless you enjoy observing weird human behaviors as much as you enjoy bird watching...

Raptor Cam Link

Make a knit hat from your rabbit

Want an animal with more fur than face? Consider an English Angora Rabbit like this one pictured. They are nice, friendly creatures with only one main concern; grooming.

These cute not-so-little tribbles need to be shorn every ninety days lest they succumb to a condition called "wool block" in which they injest more wool than they can digest. Shear them regularly and feed them lots of quality hay so that PETA doesn't show up on your doorstep launching vials of fake blood at you and your children.

Oh, and, oddly enough, Angora rabbits are good for people with allergies as they do not carry the same allergens as other rabbits and pets. Take your pick between the English, the French, the German, the Satin, and the Giant. Who wouldn't want a giant rabbit? The bigger, the better eh?

My Meyer Lemon is Crying

Now I remember why I don't keep houseplants. They are fussy little fuss-budgets and rightly so-I would be too if someone kept me in a box, gave me an occasional glass of water, didn't let me shower and kept me on a restricted diet.

So I know nothing about citrus plants except that they need sun and that I really can't provide in Portland, in April. I'm hoping that I can repot it and keep it alive until summer-at which point it's going outside and soaking up the sun.

Something is eating it. There is sticky stuff on the leaves so I'm thinking that it may have a sap-eater. Some leaves are notched and whatever the culprit it snacks at night. I really don't know what else to do at this point except to repot it and spray the leaves. I could keep it under a lamp, but is this realistic?

I could get rid of it. Bring it to a farm upstate, "take it to the river." But what do I tell my friend that gave it to me? Now I feel guilty. Now I have to nurse it back to life. Thanks Catholicism.

I see Foliage...

What makes Asian gardens so pleasing to the eye is not a garish color display (you know, those gardens that look like they were designed by an aging myopic clown), but subtle, healthy displays of foliage that range in color and texture. Most great designs consider foliage just as or more important than flower.

Nothing against bright fancy blooms, but here's the thing. When you design with only flowers in mind you may end up with a rag tag, bug eaten, scraggly mess. For instance, if you want only roses, what happens when you get black spot? All your roses get it. Ugh. Bare rose stems are not the prettiest part of the plant.

Check out a Japanese garden, take a walk and observe. What do you see? Form, texture, shape most likely. A little bloom here and there, but it's subtle and delicate like a piece of sushi topped with a tiny garnish.

Here are the basics: Use plants that have nice form and healthy foliage. Keep the leaves healthy if you can by getting hardy plants. Dwarf conifers are not only evergreen, but easy to grow. Mix them with rhodies, azaleas and lace-cap hydrangeas. Sound boring? It's not if you get good ones and keep them healthy and vibrant. Throw in a small patio tree with interesting bark or great structure like stewardia, or vine maples.

Does your garden look like a bomb went off in winter? Is it because all your plants are daisies, iris, and dahlias? Mix in some evergreens or shrubs with winter interest so you have something to look at other than your spigots and bird feeders come winter. Gardening is not just about April showers and May flowers.

Man eating plants!

Well, it may not eat a man but it might slowly dissolve one of your fingers if you happened to drop it into the "mouth" of Nepenthes attenboroughii, a pitcher plant discovered several years ago in the Phillipines and named after everybody's favorite naturalist Sir David Attenborough. Attenboroughii is said to be one of the largest pitcher plants ever discovered.

Also discovered on the 2007 expedition were unidentified blue mushrooms and never before seen pink ferns. Hmm, rat eating plants, blue fungi and pink ferns. Maybe these botanists took a long strange trip and never actually left their laboratory.

So does it really eat meat? Yes. Mostly insects-however last year it was found to-perhaps incidentally-trap, drown and "eat" animals as large as frogs and mice if they happen to slip into the dreaded pool of slime from which it can't escape. Perhaps rat infested cities like New York might want to invest in a few million pitcher plants peppered around the city...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1207076/Rat-eating-plant-named-David-Attenborough.html

Bulb Senility

Bulbs often mystify gardeners. Where did my daffidols go? I know there were some tulips here somewhere...I saw them last spring, didn't I? Maybe I am getting senile. Can I blame my memory loss on global warming as well?

I admit I forget about bulbs once their foliage dies off and the holidays are well on their way-esp when I've been digging away in a client's yard. Oops. That's where he planted his beloved snowdrops...oh delicate harbinger of spring...

Here's an incredibly easy way to remember where you planted your bulbs. Take photos of them. And here's the really easy part. Take photos of them while they are blooming! Make sure you have some perspective and some points of reference so that you can easily recognize the area of your yard. File your pictures and date them. And if you're the kind of bulb maniac that digs up your bulbs and plants new ones every year good for you. I'm too lazy. Besides, bulbs are expensive, hey?

Spotting that elusive prey: the perfect client

I happened to briefly take in a conversation (if you can call it that) today on my midday jog that made me cringe. A homeowner standing in her yard "talking" to a garden designer while several children screamed, phones rang, dog's peed willfully on anything green and growing. To make matters worse, the woman was just totally a loud know it all-you know what. I was overjoyed that I could continue to run away from her even though my heart went out to that poor garden designer. I was once her.

Donald Trump might disagree with me (but that is why he is rich and I am not). I simply don't take obnoxious troublemaking clients anymore and I can spot them the second I pull up. Some people you just don't click with, but these people make everyone's life a living hell (and if you feel sorry for their contractors how about their spouses?)

The perfect client is the opposite of this woman. The perfect client is not necessarily a perfect person, but a person who listens to you and realizes that you actually know more than her-because that is why you were hired, right? Pretty simple. Thankfully, they flourish in abundance around Portland. There will always be weeds that need to be yanked no matter how lovely the garden...

Good Garden, Bad Smell

I had a client several years ago with a really pretty little back yard and patio area. She was a really nice woman, and I really enjoyed working in her yard except for one minor issue-it stank. It smelled like a combination of dead squirrels and rotting stilton cheese-esp in late summer and fall. The odor was distinct, but elusive. It would reach my nose and I would remain steadfast and alert in an effort to sniff it out-but to no avail. No matter how many times I tried to discreetly follow the scent on my hands and knees as I weeded, the smell would elude me. I could not for the life of me, pinpoint it. Good God, woman! What are you burying under your mock orange and your vinca minor? Your neighbors limbs? I never had the heart to ask her why her yard smelled like shit and the issue hardly ever came up. Maybe, she had grown accustomed to it. Then, I became paranoid. Maybe I was the only one who smelled it...

Eventually, we went our separate ways but the smell returned back into my life two years ago on my jogging route. Not again, I thought the first time it hit my nose. What cruel fate is this? Since the area in question was next to a busy avenue, I was forced to wait for the light and therefore take in the noxious odor as I jogged in placed and waited anxiously for the light to change.

Some days I just ignored the smell, other days it was as pungent as I remembered and I would march around the area in question demanding answers from silent shrubs and skittering birds. Damn you stench! Reveal yourself! It may or may not be true that at one time I turned to the roar of traffic, waved my arms and exclaimed, "They call me mad while they are all mad themselves!" Then again, on reflection, I think I just quietly made a face and trotted home taking in the scent of freshly cut lawn to counteract the evil emanation.

Call it an act of god or a simple firing of neurons, but one day, last fall, upon jogging to the site in question, I had an epiphany. What, I asked, does this area have in common with the nice lady's yard? And then, perspiring and breathing heavily, it dawned on me. The tree. The persimmon tree. The fruit! The stinking rotting fruit! Ah Ha! It was in front of my nose the whole time, just standing there quietly laughing to itself as it would drop stink bomb after stink bomb. Dumb human. Silly, bipedal beast. What took you so long?

Though this be madness, yet there is method in't...

I am Slug, hear me munch

I seem to be a little fixated on slugs at the moment. Perhaps, having just planted a bed of lettuce greens and spinach, I am a little paranoid. They haven't yet germinated and already I have compulsive visions of stripped and ravaged young plantlets.

I've been using Sluggo (Iron Phosphate pellets, yes they are safe) now for years, and I'm pretty happy with the results. You do, however, have to replenish the bait and you do have to look at those little white pellets which look kind gross of after they start to sprout spores and mildew.
But it works-great. And it's easy. It is not, however, particularly cheap.

Try and use preventative measures to keep slugs under control. Keep the garden tidy and clean, and keep mulches away from the base of targeted plants. There are other prevention methods, like barriers: copper tape, eggshells, wood shavings if you aren't inclined to use bait. Some insane people actually hunt slugs at night with a flashlight and claim that it works but I say let them have a little nibble-I'd rather not have my husband send me to the psyche ward in the morning.

Not all slugs are bad, mind you. Our native Oregon banana slug is a good guy. He eats decomposed material, leaves and animal droppings and returns it to the soil. Don't kill this guy (and gal-they're hermaphrodites) if you trip over it in the forest.

The slug that feasts in our gardens is an import from Europe-Britain, in particular. A smaller, voracious thing that also likes techno music, has bad teeth and launches into incomprehensible tirades about how Americans put ice in their water and drive giant, gas guzzling pick-up trucks...sorry folks, but it looks like they're here to stay.

Growing a Meyer Lemon tree indoors

A friend of mine just gifted me a fragrant and pretty improved Meyer Lemon tree. I'm not much of a houseplant kind of gal, but I'm excited about this plant because it might provide some tasty little lemons for me-that is, if I can get it right.

I've done some research and it looks pretty basic. I'll need to re-pot it with some slightly acid all purpose potting mix, keep the room temperature between 70 and 55 degrees, keep the soil evenly moist, mist the leaves, and place it in a sunny spot in the house.

Okay, fine, easy. But wait, because this is an indoor plant I'm told that I'll have to pollinate it myself with a Q-tip or other some such implement. Okay, I'll take the challenge, but my cheeks are already a little red...

There will be Bugs

I'm by no means an expert on garden pests. The main reason for this is that I faint easily at the sight of all things disgusting and most insects, esp the wormy ones, freak me out.
Basically, I just don't like to think about them, so therefore I remain fairly ignorant.

However, it is my duty to at least be familiar with the common ones. Slugs, snails, cutworms, rootweevils, spidermites etc. Imagine if you were only two feet tall and immobilized by a complex root system as some befanged, multiple-legged monstrous vermin approached you in the night and doomed you to a death by a thousand tiny bites...

I've always encouraged my clients to be philosophical about bug damage. There will always be bug damage. Even after Armageddon there will be bug damage.

Select your battles wisely: If you buy the same plant year after year and you (mystically!) are beset by the same bug eating that same plant, might I suggest a different plant for no other reason than for the sake of my sanity! If the cutworms are eating your petunias than buy some lantana, or some verbena. If you have to have those same petunias year after year you may be in a rut anyhow. Get to the nursery right as they get the first flush of annuals so that you have a variety to chose from and let yourself be a little more creative...

Deal with a few missing blooms: Are you going to kill yourself because you wake up with a pimple? Gardens don't need to look a Sunset catalog. You don't need to be perfect and neither does your garden. Besides, I, the consummate perfectionist, have studied these so called perfect gardens and I have found plenty of weeds and scraggly looking perennials in many of their photos.

Go all out if you choose to fight the battle: Just spraying some pesticide here no there? (whether "organic" or "toxic") Do it right. Finish your antibiotics, as they say. Spray and keep spraying so that you actually kill the beasts and get some satisfaction out of dousing your plant with chemicals. Non-toxic products contain chemicals too you know. Ever get Neem oil in your eye? They aren't made out of pixie dust and angel's tears.

Select tried and true hardy plants:
Every now and then I get really attached to a high drama, needy plant that requires constant attention. (Although I have to admit, I usually reach a critical breaking point with these Primadonnas after they piss me off one to many times). After a while, dragging that bougainvilla and that datura into the garage every winter or picking diseased leaves off your hybrid tea one by one as it snags and punctures you, you start to really appreciate those hardy, easy, loyal friends that take a winter beating, a little neglect and then some. Beginning gardeners often fall victim to a pretty face in the nursery and then wonder why it stabs you in the back after you take it home. Go for the nice, cute guy with glasses sitting in the corner girls...

Oh, right, I was supposed to talk about bugs. How easily I digress. Try and figure out what kind of bug you have before you assault them. One bug may know Jujitsu, another may be swinging a baseball bat. Lift up dead leaves and watch the earwigs scatter. Follow the slime trail to the slugs resting spot. A great book for pest/disease id is the Sunset Gardening's book of Problem Solver. It has really good, gross photos and detailed information on what your problem is and how to solve it if you can bear the grisly pictures...

Introducing the Carnivorous Ghost Slug

Yes, carnivorous. A recently discovered slug in Wales, it hunts worms at night. There have been several sightings throughout Wales and it is believed to have been a stowaway on potted plants imported into Wales-its origins may be, according to National Geographic, deep caves in Turkey and surrounding regions.

The ghost slug has blade-like teeth that sucks down worms and other prey like a noodle. One end of the worm may still be alive as it consumes and then slices through the other end. Yum! Nature is a relentless mistress.

Like all invasive species, it may take time to see if the ghost slug is a threat to native worms and other native critters. Maybe I should incite a protest downtown. Ghost slugs! Not in my backyard!
I'd hate to lose a pinky...

Naked gardening vs clothed

Peppers. Tomatoes in March? Because it's cold out I want to think hot. Growing peppers and tomatoes in the Portland area is certainly possible though not ideal. Why? Our cool nights. I've mainly grown hot peppers and a few varieties of sweet peppers in containers so that the soil stays a little warmer than it does in the ground. You can also move them as you chase the sun in August and September. I've had a lot of success with tomatoes even with as little as seven hours of sun. They weren't the most productive but they were tasty and better than a slap on the forehead.

I run into a problem of aesthetics when growing vegetables and using growth aids like wall o water and plastic mulch tarps. I know wall o water works but I just don't want to look at a plastic tomato plant in my garden. I'm willing to settle for less yield and a shorter growing season because I am so vain. Would you rather be ugly and live to a hundred or beautiful and live to 80?

Okay, you don't have to answer that question. But answer these. Are you a canner? Do you want a truck-load of salsa that you can eat all winter? Than use wall o water. You'll get more yield. Do you enjoy the beauty of a tomato or pepper plant but don't need a mess of fruit that might just go to waste? Then garden naked, the old-fashioned way.