It is entirely appropriate to cut back all perennials, pull your annuals, prune trees and shrubs that require fall pruning and rake out your beds this time of year.  If you do that,  make sure to put down a nice layer of mulch, perhaps an inch.  I like to use a mixture of aged steer or chicken manure and composted sawdust.  Traditional garden and kitchen compost is great too.

Another option is to wait until late February or even early March to cut everything back and mulch.  If you do this it is still a good idea to do fall pruning on trees and shrubs..  The advantage to this is that you will leave a better habitat for insects and birds during the winter time.  Just yesterday I noticed a fat Bushtit enjoying the seeds of a spent Hosta as pictured.  I wonder if he will spread the seeds around?  One way or another they are unlikely to germinate.  Just make sure you get to it before the plants break bud and start pushing up new growth.

Many people will not want the mess of seeing leaves and dead branches laying about their garden during the holidays and winter months.  However, if you can tolerate it you might even enjoy the interesting shapes of seed pods melting slowly under our rains or the changing colors and shapes of old leaves turning from golden to brown to skeletal over the winter.  If you do, just make sure that you get out on President’s Day weekend and give everything a good thorough cleaning for the upcoming growing season.

If you don’t want to do either, then give us a call and we’ll help any time of year.

Happy Gardening

It was very inspiring to see the great work that Seattle gardeners are doing in producing eclectic, sustainable, creative and unpretentious gardens.  In those elements there is a constant band of beauty wove, but, as is often said of design, form follow function in all of these gardens.

The Kirlay and Bravo-Stacey’s gardens both have an a passionate focus on sustainable, urban food production.  The Bravo-Stacey’s have spearheaded a highly successful program to transform a neglected and trash-filled alley into a mulched garden trail lined with native plants that choke out most weeds, require very little water, and provide excellent visual appeal for humans and great habitat for a range of other living things.  This alley can be a great model for anyone in the Northwest who is hoping to keep a garden low-maintenance, sustainable and beautiful.  It may not be appropriate for every goal and every garden but is very successful here.

We followed up with the McDonnal-Wyman garden, a wonderful reflection of the style, sensibility, and grace of the owners.  They have a riveting blend of formality, practicality, grace and beauty.  Found objects and antiques seamlessly blend into the planting and lap-pool.  They charm the local children (and most adults) with their miniature horse and Nubian goat.

The day got away from us and we had to finish at the James W. Washington Jr. home and the Fowler Art Garden.  These neighboring gardens reflect the creative energy and relationship to home and community of a legendary Seattle sculptor and a contemporary mosaic artist and motorcycle collector. The James W. Washington Jr. home serves as both a homage to the past of a great artist and view into the domestic and horticultural values of an artist working from home in a community setting as well as refuge, inspiration, and breeding ground for contemporary artists.

The Fowler Art Garden (and garlic farm!) shows how rich an artistic life can make a neighborhood.  This home and garden are surrounded and interwoven by his vision, collection, and craft.  The sterile surrounding townhomes but in high relief how bare our neighborhoods get when there is not room left for individuality and creative expression.

More photos and captions can be seen at:

http://gallery.me.com/vertumni#100160

Hats off to the organizers.

Your garden, especially if newly planted, sees thing differently.

It most likely thinks its about to slow down its most verdant  growth to conserve moisture in the face of a dramatic reduction of moisture and increase in evaporation.

The reality is that very little moisture has been coming out of  the skies.  What may feel like a rainy day to you and me means almost no moisture reaching the soils.  In my 16 years of Northwest horticultural experience I see perhaps more damage from people not watering in mid-Spring than anytime of year.  Generally, we think to water in the height of Summer.  This time of year we let it slide.

What to do?  This is the nuanced part where it all depends on the amount of rain.  It is the time of year to most carefully pay attention to the weather and your garden soil.  I can guarantee that you don’t need to water during January.  I can guarantee, or almost, that you need to during August.  This time of year you are going to need to pay attention to the rains and how dry you soil really is.

Lawns will need 1’’ per week of rain.  Perennials, perhaps half that, depending the planting.  Best is to take a trowel to the ground and make sure it is not dry 1.5’’ below the surface.

If all this is too complicated, simply make sure your irrigation system is on by May first, with a rain sensor.  That will probably give a bit more than needed but will ensure you don’t miss the all important Spring growing season due to drought.  If you can set your lawn to every other day for ten minutes and the rest of the garden for once or twice a week you should be good.

If you don’t have an irrigation system, you might consider the investment.  Summer watering is right up there with weeding as the number one maintenance in our Mediterranean climate.

Happy Gardening,

Its waxy, translucent, butter-yellow flowers are some of the first of the true winter- season bloomers. They certainly look charming with their confused droop, but their real charm is their fragrance. (When a fragrance app is available for the iPhone I’ll make sure and post a smell.) It’s clean, bright, sugary and brightened with lemon and clove.

I am also quite fond of Wintersweet’s large, glossy, almost tropical leaves, which stay on the plant late in the season here in Seattle. Most years they drop just in time to reveal the tantalizing buds that will pop and the odd, sagging fruits of last year.

Some careful pruning will really help this plant achieve a nice form and it can be shaped to fit a fairly tall, narrow space. Partial sun will be fine and it takes moderate watering once established. It’s entirely cold hardy in the Puget Sound.

These pictures are from the fairly beat-up one in my garden. It has received so little light and minimal care and yet produces wonderful blossoms. I’m going to move it when about 90% of the flowers are spent. This will hopefully catch it before the sap starts to flow.

Now is really the time to start thinking about moving around your trees and shrubs. Once things come into leaf it will be much harder, so go out and take a hard look at bones of your garden. Are there small trees and shrubs that you find are too close to the home, pathways or other principle plantings. Now is a great time to correct without having to resort to inappropriate pruning.

Happy gardening!