Archive for Fall Gardening – Page 4

Treatment for Blackberry and Ivy – How To Get Rid Of It

Posted by Carol

· September 13, 2012

Garden Tips for getting rid of Plant Invaders

The best time of year to treat blackberries and English ivy is coming right up…..so prepare now!

How can anything so sweet, be so evil?

Plan to treat invasive blackberry in September and early October. The reason for the specific timing is this: only in the fall will the plants pull an herbicide to the roots, thereby killing the entire plant. The rest of the year treatments are only partially effective. For greener garden practices that use less chemicals treat the plants only in the fall, and water your bad old blackberries well prior to treatment. In fact you could even fertilize them and pamper them for about two weeks…….and then treat them with an herbicide.

My long time client Pat Tangeman is clearing a large area of her property. She bulldozed last winter and got rid of a decades old blackberry wilderness that had an extensive root system with many large stumps. However, even a bulldozer didn’t kill all the blackberries! Many came back this spring so she called me to problem solve and design a planting plan for the area.

The result:
This fall she will treat her remaining blackberries and will allow the herbicide to trans-locate to the roots to truly kill the plant. Then she will have the remainder of large roots dug out. Once this is done she can plant the new garden we designed together. Victory over the blackberry!

Another client in the Dunthorpe area is having her English ivy treated by professionals the first of September. She is utilizing the same techniques by doing the pre-watering and pampering herself. Once the invasive plants are dead we will be ready to place her new garden plants from her garden planting plan.

Not sure still when would be a good time? Need a professional hands on approach to help get you started? There are still a few appointments for Garden Coaching open in September and October. Winter is also a great time for making plans so you can have what you want instead of taking your precious time to care for a layout and plants you don’t like.

Categories : Fall Gardening, Garden Pests, Garden Tips, Shade Garden Tips, Shade Plants

Tags : blackberries, fall, garden tips, herbicide, invasives, ivy, plant invader, weeds

Heather – The Perfect Low Maintenance Ground Color

Posted by Carol

· April 1, 2012

Heather is a Must in Your Low Maintenance Landscape Design

Mrs Ronald Gray heather is low maintenance for your landscape.

Specialty form of heather ground cover (photo from Singing Gardens)

Look at your landscape right now…Could it use a little ground color? A plant with full season color which prefers full day sun, stays low – think 4 inches tall (never higher) and best of all……..has the texture of 100 tiny fern sprays? Did I mention it is evergreen and fully drought tolerant after its first summer of careful watering? It looks great in the dreary spring monsoons with bulbs popping up through the evergreen textural sprays. It is cheery, plucky and graceful all at once.

Here are the super low varieties I use most often:

White Lawn – bright and green- the only white flowered form
Glenmorangie – whiskey colored foliage-gets bright!! in winter
Mrs. Ron Green – dark green w pale pink flowers
Golden Carpet – amazing texture-brilliant winter foliage color
Pat’s Dream- very similar to Golden Carpet

Tips for success: Heathers require good drainage so clay must be well amended. I have two different methods that work well. One is when the entire area has been prepped ala “True Grit” soil prep technique. The other is a “break all the rules” use of bark dust. Neither one can be safely explained in a blog. If you are one of my clients, or client to be, call me and I can walk you through it. It isn’t that hard but it has to be right.

Easy care? These low creeping mini heather fit into the true low maintenance landscape because they are the only heather that does not have to be pruned yearly. They also fit into a “passionate, lots of work, hot color, knock your socks off” garden because they can tolerate regular water. These varieties look great with Heuchera (Coral Bell) for instance. Please note they are not for use in rain gardens or at edge of ponds. I used this plant in a NE modern landscape design for the front yard.

These plants look great with masses of Hens and Chicks, dwarf conifers, those trendy new Echinacea (Cone Flowers) or with grasses. The heather holds the combination together. These heathers have flowers that stick out at a 90 degree angle which is an interesting extra hit of texture. Some of the plants listed have bright foliage in the coldest temps of winter which then holds into mid-spring.

A fall planting is the best, you will have fewer plant losses and you can relax a bit which you cannot do with heather planted in the late spring or in summer. Not relaxing!!!! My mother planted 30 plants in summer and didn’t lose a single one, but I nagged a lot. She was well tired of that by October. I was forgiven because they performed beautifully for many years and my mother does not hold these things against me.

Local source is Highland Heather in Canby or mail order is Heaths and Heathers in Shelton, Washington. Highland Heathers sells at the large local plant sales and via quality nurseries.

Please like this article on facebook or forward it your friends. Contact me if you would like to learn more about incorporating low maintenance plants like heather in your landscape design.

Categories : Fall Gardening, Garden Tips, New Improved Plants, Plants I Recommend, Spring Gardening, Winter Gardening

Tags : companion plantings for confiers, companion plantings for grasses, drought tolerant plantings, Evergreen groundcover, evergreen plants w color, Flowering evergreen shrub, garden coach recommends easy care plants, low water plantings, xeriscape plantings

Itoh Peony Low Maintenance Beauty

Posted by Carol

· March 5, 2012

Itoh Peony – Low Maintenance Beauty and Thrills for All

Perfect Mothers Day gift for a NO FEAR gardener.

What’s all the fuss about the new Itoh (say it Eeetoe) peony? These new plants eliminate the only weak point of the old fashioned peony, the weak stems which can really spoil the flowers in our often wild and wet spring weather. Okay, they do cost three times as much as the old fashioned but read on.

Why do we want peonies anyway? They are EASY and will outlive you!! The flower is fabulous, fragrant and since the 1400’s has been filled with historical and cultural significance for us humans. My grandmother loved them and picked an armload for the house and to decorate the family graves on Memorial Day.

I grew up loving to play and work in her garden and today I love these new peonies as well because:

#1 Later Bloom – June not May
#2 Sturdy fibrous stems
#3 Bigger flowers in new colors

Itoh cost more than the old fashioned so expect $50 to $100 for a medium priced plant. The tissue cultured plants may be cheaper but I don’t recommend them because they are not as strong rooted. This will effect how many flowers you get on your plant year after year and this is a plant where the flower really matters. The dissected foliage is great but hey it’s about the flower this time.

Here is my best source for peony of any kind, herbaceous, tree or Itoh. Rick Rogers is a second generation peony designer and grower in Silverton, Oregon. His father is an international star of the peony world. Rick grows peonies the old fashioned way, propagating new peonies by extracting these perfect bits of root stock. Taking these cuttings is an art form and his plants will outgrow and out flower tissue culture generated plants easily. Rick’s nursery is called Treony……www.treony.com. Email him for his list of Itoh if he doesn’t have them on his web yet. Also see Wayside Gardens web site, (with fabulous close up of the flowers). Their plants are a lot smaller however than what Rick offers. These are a lifetime investment. They will outlive you and can be dug when you move but plan to dig very very deep.

Now regarding NO FEAR gardening. The Itoh peony can test your ability to postpone gratification. The first year, cut off all flower buds, do not let any of them flower!!!! that takes faith, hence NO FEAR. The second year, let yourself have one flower and cut all the rest off while they are still buds. The third year, let them rip uhm……….flower. Those who cannot do this may have to wait ten years to get anything near the number of flowers that you, gentle but fierce gardener, will have. It rewards those gardeners who can take the long approach to getting their kicks. I think perhaps Dulcy Mahar would have recommended nibbling on some good chocolate while you cut off the buds. I can assure you having an Itoh peony with 40 blooms on it will stop you in your tracks so it is worth it. Did I mention the plant has very attractive foliage, is low water and has golden fall color as well?

Categories : Dramatic Flowers, Fall Gardening, New Improved Plants, Plants I Recommend, Spring Gardening

Tags : attractive dissected leaves, cutting flowers, foliage, fragrant flowers, garden coach favorite, huge summer flowers, improved peony, long blooming flowers, low maintenance flowers, low maintenance shrubs, no flop flowers, peony, Perfect plants for Oregon, Perfect plants for the Northwest, vase flowers

Garden Tips Planting in Late Fall or Early Winter

Posted by Carol

· December 5, 2011

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

Evergreens and deciduous shrubs.

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 with 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) Spanish Lavenders
Rosemary
Most Phormiums
Expensive fancy Echinaceas
Expensive Clematis Montana

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.

Categories : Fall Gardening, Garden Tips, Winter Gardening

Tags : fall gardening tips, what not to plant in the fall, what not to plant in the winter

6 Tips to Prep Your Garden for Winter

Posted by Carol

· December 2, 2011

Winterize your irrigation system. This may mean flushing out an older system, or just draining your drip system.
Remember: no mulch over your Hen and Chicks
Bait for slugs all through fall and early winter.
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.
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.
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.
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.

Categories : Fall Gardening, Garden Tips, Winter Gardening

Tags : extend plant life, fall gardening tips, how to gardening tips

Archive for Fall Gardening – Page 4

Treatment for Blackberry and Ivy – How To Get Rid Of It

Garden Tips Planting in Late Fall or Early Winter

Garden Tip #1: Successful Planting in Late Fall

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

Garden Tip #3: What to Plant in the Late Fall

6 Tips to Prep Your Garden for Winter

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