Late Winter In The Garden; Hellebores And Epimediums

It’s very tempting to call this Early Spring, but let’s not risk jinxing it.  CBC even threatened possible snow for next weekend, so I’ll be careful what I say.  Was it my thought of starting some seeding that brought back the cold weather??

It’s still very wet and muddy out there, so there shouldn’t be a lot of stomping around on the soil yet. However, there are a few tasks that should be done before the warmth progresses much further.

If you read my blog last year at this time about cutting back ferns,  you’ll remember how important it is to cut evergreen plants back before the new growth emerges, lest you cut off the new with the old.

Epimediums are a particularly useful ground cover; they thrive in dry shade, deer find them unappetizing, and they are evergreen.  What’s not to love? The dainty leaves take on a burnished bronze in winter, then just before spring they need to be lopped off in preparation for new growth. The key is to cut it all back just before the delicate little flower stems reach up into the canopy of leaves. The emerging stems unfurl, not unlike the way fern fronds uncoil, from a crouching position to standing  tall; well about 8” tall, anyway.  This seems to happen all of a sudden, and if the leaves aren’t already cut back, it’s impossible to separate the two, resulting in flower buds lying sadly on the ground with last year’s leaves.

Epimedium With Bud

In the dark days of February the light isn’t conducive to great photo shoots in my garden, but here you can just see the first little brave bud starting its journey skyward, after the leaves had been shorn. Within a few days, many more buds will follow.

Is there any more welcome sight in winter than the charming faces of Hellebore blooms? Modern hybrids offer not only a vast assortment of colours from pink to yellow to purplish black to pure white, but the outward facing blooms on sturdy upright stems make these gems irresistible.  They are very drought tolerant once established, do well in shade as well as sun, and the deer don’t eat them.

They don’t like being divided, are a low maintenance perennial with few pests. The one thing you do need to do at this time of year however, is to cut off the ratty leaves when the plant is blooming, as this is when the new foliage is emerging.   The old leaves become leathery and lay on the ground at this time, making it easy to see what to cut.   Don’t put the hellebore leaves in your compost, as a precaution against the black spot fungus that hellebores often get on old foliage.

Hellebores Needing Cutting

The picture shows the big glossy leaves surrounding all the new growth. Cut off all the big leaves, as hard as this may be to do!

By keeping your perennials cut back at the right time of year, you are refreshing and renewing the life of your garden, and giving yourself the much needed boost of a little time in the garden at a very dark time of year.

How soon until we can safely call this Early Spring? One thing we can do without harm, I think, is get our seeding trays washed and check our supply of seeds from last year, buy some choice new ones…..…next week, seeding indoors. 

A Quicker Way To Clean Mason Bee Cocoons

Have you opened and cleaned your mason bee condos yet?  If not, you should be planning to do this soon, and then get the cocoons into the fridge, in a ziplock bag, to delay emergence until the timing is right for pollination.  I opened and cleaned my condos a few days ago and I tried a different method for cleaning the cocoons, using fine sand to scour them, a bit like using Vim on your countertops.

Using sand worked a lot faster and resulted in much cleaner cocoons than the “multiple rinse” system, and I’ll be using it from now on.   I have a garbage can of coarse builder’s sand that I use on my driveway when it’s icy, and I made use of that, but sifted it first (with one of those handy kitchen sieves) so that in a small bucket I ended up with a few cups of fine sand.  The photo shows everything you need for this project.

Tools of the Trade

After the cocoons are scraped out of the channels into a bucket, add enough water to moisten everything, let it soak for 5 minutes and then scoop out perhaps 40 or 50 cocoons at a time with your trusty sieve and quickly rinse away most if the dirt, leftover pollen, mites or mite eggs (lots this year because of the wet Spring) and mite feces (the yellow stuff in compartments that don’t have a cocoon in them).

Cleaning With Sand

With the cocoons still in the sieve, and working above a bucket, sprinkle enough sand onto the moist cocoons until they are thoroughly covered in a sandy paste. Then swirl and swish this mixture around for a minute or two. The polishing action of the sand quickly removes any remaining detritus and a quick rinse shows very clean cocoons.  I repeated the process one more time, rinsed thoroughly, and then placed them on Scott towels to dry.  Clean cocoons leave almost no trace of yellow on the paper and I was able to achieve, with two quick sand washes, what used to take four or five long soakings and rinses.  Be sure to let the cocoons dry thoroughly, in a cool place, and then get them into the fridge.  I put mine in a small paper bag and then inside a sealed ziplock bag.

A word of caution about this system: sand is a great blocker of drains, so I worked and rinsed entirely into buckets and tossed the residue outside, and so should you. Lastly, go quickly now into the kitchen and replace your (spotlessly clean) sieve before anyone notices what you’ve been up to.

Mason Bees And Veggies In January

With our gardens under a beautiful white blanket at the moment, it’s a pleasure to think ahead of warmer months outside.  While the nursery is now closed until February, we have been busy planning, ordering, and generally looking forward to a wonderful new season ahead.

Veggies In Winter

Are you poring over seed catalogues? That always feels to me like the first step in the wonderful cycle of life that is gardening, and one of the best parts of winter.  With seeds coming in to the nursery in early February, it’s not too early to be drawing up plans for what you want to grow, and where to plant, being careful to rotate crops when you can.

Are you enjoying winter harvests?  The leeks that we just finished were plant starts in April, and the delicious kale and chard that we are eating now were mere seeds in August.  Here they are now in the great Canadian refrigerator!

Purple Sprouting Broccoli

This is my first time growing Purple Sprouting Broccoli, but I’m expecting a bountiful crop of nutritious, crunchy side shoots that will keep on giving……and giving…….and apparently giving until we’ve had more than our fill!

Even under the snow, the plants are impressive.

Have you washed your Mason Bee cocoons?  This morning, mid January, I washed my cocoons. Previous article.

While my earlier blogs describe the method I use, Brian has a New and Improved Method, which he’ll be writing about in a coming post. As long as you get the cocoons washed, dried and put into plastic bags in the fridge before the weather warms up, you’ll be fine.

I have some good news and some bad news on the bee front.  The good news is that my bees were very active last year in spite of the poor spring.  The condo obviously had been filled very well, but as you can see in the pictures, whole chambers were plundered and the cocoons themselves eaten.  I discovered THREE wasps, fat and still sleepy but alive, sheltered inside, where there had once been happily maturing mason bees.

Plundered Bee Condo

The chambers with only yellow dots are filled with mites, which devoured the cocoons.

It’s a cruel world out there if you are a Mason Bee, all the more reason why we must encourage these little creatures who do so much for us. Their life cycle is entwined with our own; let’s help them thrive as we embark on another year in our own journey with the garden.

We all wish you Happy Growing for another year and may 2012 bring you the best of health and happiness.

Christmas For Gardeners

A few weeks ago, I received one of those forwarded messages, the sort of thing we all dread finding in our Inbox. If I ever get another one of those things that tells me how wonderful I am, how needed and how ‘special’ I am, I think I will gag.  And don’t ever think I’ll “forward it to ten women that I think are special” too!  (Sorry to any friends who have done this to me, but just tell me to my face that you love me, not in something you send to your entire mailing list.)

However, this one made me sit up and think, because first of all, it didn’t wax eloquent about my positive attributes.  It was about starting a new Christmas tradition that entailed giving the gift of either your own time, or that of a local merchant or service provider, bought and paid for with your own locally earned dollars.

It led me to think of ways we gardeners can give to each other, whether to fully grown tillers of the soil, or the little ones just cutting their shovel blades on their very first plot.

As a person who loves my garden but rarely has enough time to accomplish the magnificence that dwells only in my head, I know that I would love to receive a gift certificate for labour.  There are many young landscapers starting out who would appreciate the business as well, so a call to Glendale Gardens might lead to a match made in heaven; hire one of the graduates for a few hours to help your favourite gardener with Spring cleanup.

How about hiring the boy down the street to cut the lawn for your good friend who works all the time?

Be honest now, can you imagine a more thrilling gift than a truckload of really good soil, rock, or that delicious triple mix of soil/compost/manure? Be still my beating heart…

A photo of a vegetable garden, and a promise to “Help you plant your vegetables” perhaps with a gift certificate for the seeds would be a gift that keeps on giving, all year long.

If you can splurge on a special gift that really would make a lifelong difference to anyone who wants to grow vegetables, I can’t think of anything more wonderful than Linda Gilkeson’s class Year Around Harvest, at Glendale Gardens.  If this is a bit beyond your budget, then Linda’s book Backyard Bounty would be the next best thing, and it’s available at the nursery.

If Mom or Dad loves roses (or Japanese Maples, or whatever), how about a gift certificate (to Russell Nursery, of course) for one of the chosen favourites with the best part being that you will help plant the gift.

Are you good at photography? How about pictures of your loved one’s garden? One of my daughters-in-law took seasonal pictures of flowers in my garden one year and framed them into four separate collections, one for each season. It is still one of my most treasured possessions.

If the gardener on your gift list happens to be a wee one, perhaps starting them out with a selection of easy seeds, hand tools, garden gloves, and their very own little plot of garden space, would spark a life-long love that will never be forgotten.  You can’t imagine how often we hear gardeners of all ages talk about what their grandparents taught them early on in their gardening lives.  What one package of sunflower seeds can lead to…

Many little girls are enchanted with fairies. A “fairy garden” either in a container or planted in a secret corner of your yard, is pure magic. Wondrous things can be imagined with just the right tiny accessories, plants with “fairy” in their name, flowers that invite the fairies to alight. Create a special place for the two of you to make memories that will endure forever.

We all wish you a very happy Christmas; may you give and receive the warm gifts of time, growth, and good gardening…and not too many of those sappy emails!

Brian’s Travels In New Zealand – Part Two

We’re in the North part of the North Island now for the last leg of our trip.  When you arrive in New Zealand you are cautioned repeatedly against bringing in fruits or vegetables (instant $400 fine) or any plant or bio-hazard, to the point that they may even check the soles of your shoes for soil.

You see, NZ has a long history of unwelcome transplants and they are understandably very cautious.  There have been home-sick Scots here too, and it wasn’t  just for the tossin’ o’ the haggis,  as you can see vast areas of Scotch Broom in bloom right now and it’s even worse than on Vancouver Island. Gorse is a big problem here as well.

Nice to be here in (their) mid-Spring.  The rhodos are in bloom and they love this climate. They can grow all the sub-tropical ones we can’t get away with.  The roses are just starting to bloom as well.

Do you have Corokia in your garden?  At home, we’re lucky to see it a foot or two high, and it never seems to have more than about six or eight tiny little grey-green leaves on it at any given time.

Well, that’s not the case here.   Corokia is a NZ native and the photo shows one about six feet tall and as dense and bushy as a boxwood.  I poked and prodded and pondered over this plant for a long time before I finally recognized it.

Sometimes, though, a NZ native doesn’t look a whole lot different here than at home and I would have to say this is the case with the Phormiums, AKA New Zealand Flax.

You know how they always look squashed, unkempt, tattered and half brown, especially after the last few winters?  See the photo for how they look right here, and I can tell you it’s not a lot better.    I really don’t think there’s any hope for this plant.  You should seriously consider using something else.

You can grow practically anything here.  All the stuff we know, plus a bewildering array of tender plants.  They have rich, volcanic soil and ample rain, and only light frosts (at least on the North Island) and the growing season is very long.  If you love plants, New Zealand will be an eye-opener for you.  It certainly has been for me.  See you soon!

Brian’s Travels in New Zealand

I spent a very enjoyable afternoon with my Dad today walking through Pukekura Park in New Plymouth. “Park” is too modest a description for this century old and world-class Botanical Gardens, situated on 20 hectares just a short walk from the center of the city.  How lucky are the residents of this small city to have such a gem in their midst.  There is a wonderful Victorian Fernery, an extensive Begonia House, several beautiful lakes, extensive pathways, a lovely tearoom and, everywhere you look, TREE FERNS.  Victoria gardeners try the hardier of these lovely plants, but the last two winters have shown most of us that ours is not the climate for them.  Here they grow into massive and majestic specimens, some as much as four stories high, and the individual fronds can be ten or twelve feet long.  They are at once elegant and prehistoric, and they’re like nothing you’ve ever seen.

New Zealand is a good country to visit if you think you are able to identify a few plants as it very quickly teaches you humility.  There are familiar faces here, but much of what I see here on the warmer North Island is new to me.  This is a special and curious climate.  It has a Winter of sorts and it is just barely cold enough to provide a dormant season so that so that they can grow many deciduous trees and shrubs that we know.  Their so-called Winter is nothing like we have on Vancouver Island, though, just the odd light frost and cool night.  Last year to everyone’s consternation they had snow, of all things.  It was the first time in a hundred years, and it melted as soon as it hit the ground.  These extremely mild winters allow them to grow a wide range of tropical and semi tropical plants and it makes for some very interesting plant combinations.  In the garden behind our very charming B&B (Issey Manor, give yourself a treat some day and stay here www.isseymanor.co.nz )  there is a large Japanese Maple planted between a huge  Dracaena palm and an even larger tree fern.  All of this is flanked on one side by a weeping silver-leaf pear and a flowering cherry on the other.   The under-plantings are camellias, Choisya and Pieris!  Not something you see every day at home.
Oh, did I mention it’s late Spring here now?  The  Rhodos and Camellias are in bloom and Cherries and Magnolias have just finished flowering.  See you soon!

Amending Your Soil For Winter

We are all used to a blanket making us cozy and warm in the cold days of winter, but feeding us too? Well that’s what winter mulch can do for your garden; nourish the soil and protect it from rain and freezing temperatures.

It may seem mysterious, but really all you need to do is provide lots of organic matter to feed the millions of microorganisms that will convert nutrients to usable food for the plants.  These little organisms will slow down for the winter, but by putting the mulch down in the fall, it’s already broken down by spring when the warmth wakes the little critters up and they can get to work right away. Usually we also have to correct the pH here, as our winter rains tend to make the soil more acid. With the exception of strawberries and potatoes, most veggies need a higher pH so the addition of dolomite lime in the fall is a good thing to do.  Of course the ericaceous plants (acid-loving) such as rhododendrons, camellias, heathers, pieris, and conifers are happier without the lime.

The easiest, cheapest, and most effective form of organic amendment is right there in your yard already; falling leaves need only be raked and layered in the beds; ideally, mow them on the lawn and dump onto the garden beds, both ornamental and veggie, but even just dumping them on in a 6” layer is fine, as long as they are nice and fluffy and not likely to pack down. Oak leaves are especially wonderful for the acid-lovers.  The practice in our culture of placing autumn leaves in a pile or plastic bag for the municipality to gather and sell back to us as compost is bizarre. Do you ever see forests needing fertilizing? Of course not, the leaves fall, they decompose, and return their nutrients to the soil, which feeds the trees and the cycle is repeated.  While you’re at it with the leaves, bag some up and save for spring and summer, when the “brown” part of composting is in short supply. You’ll be happy to have these crispy crunchies to add to your mostly-green compost, and the microorganisms in your soil will thank you.

By leaving the leaves in your garden beds, not only do you feed the soil and suppress weeds, you provide a haven for beneficial insects.  The lovely bumble bee nests in fallen leaf litter in garden beds.  One of the many pleasures of spring is seeing the groggy bumbles stumbling around when first awakening from their winter naps, going from crocus and heather to sarcococca, feasting on nectar and pollen

Leaf Mulch On Vegetable Beds

Here is a photo of Linda Gilkeson’s veggie garden, freshly topped with autumn leaves. As the queen of vegetable gardening on the coast, Linda offers her wisdom and practical experience in her book Backyard Bounty.  I really don’t think there is a better Christmas gift for anyone on your list who wants to grow food; talk about a gift that will keep on giving!

Another form of organic wealth I like to feed my garden is seaweed. As I live near several beaches, I am able to visit the local shoreline after a big November storm, and gather the seaweed that has washed up on the beach, detached from any living ocean plants. I don’t bother to rinse the seaweed as we have a lot of rain, nor do I even chop it up, I just pile it onto the garden beds to decompose, it seems to melt right into the soil, providing many important benefits; increased hardiness, resistance to disease, and better fruit production for many favourite crops. (Local biologists recommend rinsing the seaweed at the beach to make sure you are leaving all living creatures behind. If you are using a lot of seaweed it is probably worth freshwater rinsing, the salt in the seaweed will deter slugs but also the beneficial earthworms .) You will never find a more valuable resource for your garden! In the absence of a nearby beach, or if you aren’t comfortable hauling buckets and buckets of slimy kelp in your car, we do sell bags of kelp meal, as well as a powdered form of seaweed that can be diluted and makes an almost endless supply of seaweed elixir to foliar feed or root drench.

If you’ve been following my blogs at all, you will know that I’m a strong believer in the wonders of straw as mulch too. Straw improves the tilth of the soil, and as it breaks down, it provides carbon for the nitrogen-carbon ratio that we seek for our composts.  Its texture keeps the soil open, allowing the rains to drain through but not pummel the soil throughout winter.  Make sure it’s straw that you buy, not hay which is inclined to be full of weed seeds.

The ultimate treat for gardens is of course compost, but the recommendation is to leave the compost covered and in the bin for winter, staying relatively dry and warm.  Save it for spring mulching, preserving the nutrients that would be washed away by the winter rains.  The same is true for fertilizers; wait until spring, whether you choose organic blends or synthetic additives.

Such a combination will ensure a happy and well-fed soil, awaiting the warmth of spring. Bring on the seed catalogues!

The Vegetable Garden In October

A Harvest In Fall

October is a bittersweet time in the garden; while the beauty and generosity of the earth is upon us, we know that the dark days of winter are soon to follow, and we say goodbye to the daily picking of ripe produce from our beloved garden plots. I’ve learned so much this summer, and writing this blog has made me more aware of the lessons learned.

FAYE’S TOP FIVE LESSONS LEARNED THIS YEAR IN THE GARDEN 

1. Mulch  If I had to say the single most gratifying thing I’ve done this summer, it would have to be the straw mulch over the soil in the veggie beds. My soil hasn’t dried out as it usually does, the weeds have been manageable, and best of all, my strawberries and lower tomatoes don’t have evidence of slug lips, mold, or rot on them.

Tristar Strawberries

Here is a picture of my Tristar strawberries, taken on October 1st.  Not a slug bite in sight.

2. Cutting Canes  Raspberries used to be a mystery to me, but now I’m getting it. For summer bearing rasps, e.g. Tulameen, cut down all the old fruiting canes, leaving the new canes to produce next year. Right now they will be long and need support; tie them as horizontally as possible for the most prolific fruiting next summer.

Fall Gold In Summer

Fall Gold in Fall

My revelation was with fall bearing raspberries. Cut the fruiting canes down only half way, so there will be a summer crop on those canes, and then a larger fall crop on the new canes. I have Fall Gold, and here is a rather poor picture of my canes in summer, with the peach coloured fruit hiding under the leaves; my main fall crop is still fruiting now, in October.

3. Size matters  This is more a lesson on what NOT to do.  I have often forgotten how big plants will become, and thought “I’ll plant this right beside the peas, because the peas are over early, and then this crop can thrive later.” Wrong in many cases; the peas get bigger, and last longer, than I ever remember, and the result this year was my parsley bolting to seed early because it spent its formative months in the shadow of towering vines of (delicious) snap peas. Space your plants appropriately for their full size, to allow air circulation and room to produce a good crop.

4. Variety Matters Too Different varieties of vegetable plants are unique.  A tomato isn’t just a tomato, a leek not just a leek.  Some are winter hardy and some aren’t, important to know if you want to grow a winter crop. Some produce in less than ideal conditions, and some are prima donnas.  Check the ‘days til maturity’ in seed catalogue; we often have a short season, so choose varieties that mature quickly. Some varieties are resistant to certain plant diseases; so it’s important to know which problems are likely to arise, and choose a resistant variety. Do your homework; ask us, ask your friends, read LOCAL gardening news or magazine reports.

5. Beware Bolting Spinach  Spinach is sensitive to hours in the day, and will inevitably bolt to seed in the summer, when days are long.  Plant spinach in September as a fall crop to overwinter, or as an early crop in March, but expect it to bolt as June days start lengthening.

Kale In The Tomato Bed

LAST OF THE HARVEST, FOR NOW  Today, October 6, is a sunny and beautifully crisp fall day, a fitting time to take out my tomato plants. The increasing chance of rain has made me nervous, running out to put the plastic cover back on, and the risk of late blight increases as days go by.  Most were ripening anyway, but the greenish ones will finish up in the kitchen window, where I seem to have the best luck. Ripening in a box wrapped in newspaper is an old favourite method for many, but for me this always ends dismally with rotting fruit forgotten in the garage.What is thrilling to note in the picture is the winter kale in the tomato bed. The red flags were placed beside tiny kale starts, planted when the tomatoes loomed over them in August. Not visible in the picture are the crops of purple sprouting broccoli, chard and beets, being stored in the Great Canadian Refrigerator outdoors. Growing vegetables this summer has been a thrill and delight as the new skills have taken root, grown, and produced many delicious crops and meals. Next blog will be Amending the Veggie Garden for Winter. Stay tuned.

Putting Your Bees To Bed

We are now past the Autumnal Equinox, and into the third season of our year.  It’s been quite a year, with bees struggling against unseasonable cold and wet for a very long time this past spring. However, the cycle of nature worked through the challenges, and the bees are now fully formed in their cocoons, all settled down for a long winter’s nap.

I didn’t have the success I’ve had in the past, as you can see in the photo there are many apartments still for rent in my bee condo.  Fortunately, Brian has a full house, with most of his compartments mudded over, so we should have lots of bees available early next spring.

Around this time of year is a good time to put the cocoons, still in the condo, inside a shed, garage, or anywhere outside where it will be somewhat protected from the winter storms and predators, yet still cold enough to keep the bees in hibernation. Now that the bees are fully formed, there is no danger of moving them so just take the inside trays out of the condo (if using our condos or any kind that has a removable stack of trays) and put into a secure box where rodents can’t access for a mid winter snack, and keep the box in the shed. It should be noted that some bee nurturers choose to leave the condo outside, but if yours is situated where blowing rain and snow pose a hazard, then it’s worth the bit of effort to move to a protected place.  No need to clean them yet, that can anytime between November-January.

Click here………… for a link to our other bee articles and useful info.

As the winter cold and storms descend upon us, you’ll feel happy knowing that your precious little pollinators are snug in their beds, ready to continue their marvelous cycle of life next spring.

Less Is More

The buzz these days in the garden world seems to be all about ‘low maintenance’.  It is a concept I fully embrace in many aspects of my life, including my garden. It was my governing mantra as I reworked my front yard last year.

It started with a wet basement and ended with the drain tiles being replaced and a revamping of my front yard next to the house. When all the plants were removed and the lawn was buried in cardboard and soil, I was determined to put things back differently. Because I was also creating beds where there once was lawn I had to be particularly diligent with my ‘less work’ theme. I enjoy my garden, but middle age has made me realize that I don’t want to spend all of my free time maintaining it.

This was especially important in my front yard where little time is spent. I needed to limit my plant palette to easy care, trouble-free shrubs with much less focus on perennials. And of course living in Victoria also means the plants needed to be deer resistant. I did not want to spend time spraying, stringing or dangling product in the dance of the deer. To me low maintenance meant a simpler multiple planting, less variety of plants, more subtle colour in foliage over flower, more shades of green and grey, more focus on texture, and overriding considerations  of mature size and drought capabilities. It was a very deliberate and trying exercise in restraint. My final composition included a few carefully chosen small trees, a limited assortment of small to medium-sized shrubs, with perennial accents of ornamental grasses, herbs and ferns. Instead of gravel pathways I chose easy care concrete stepping stones with amenable ground cover.

The ‘less work’ mantra also meant that I completed the front yard planting with a 2 inch layer of mulch to ease up on the weeding, watering and fertilizing. It has also come to mean choosing my battles in the plant world. I am learning to embrace the violet which was never planted but is proving impossible to eradicate. I am also getting used to the somewhat disheveled, less tidy look of my garden. I am reaching for that cup of tea despite the dandelions.

The ‘low maintenance’ mantra will mean different things to different gardeners. I am still figuring out where I will draw the line in terms of my garden work. Two books with plenty of good ideas for minimizing our time spent toiling away are Tracy Disabato-Aust’s 50 High-Impact, Low Care Garden Plants and Valerie Easton’s The New Low-Maintenance Garden.