Muck About

Variegated Buildup on Aisle Ten

I was cruising through a catalog this morning, enjoying all the flowers images inside its  covers.  Stunning photos of remarkable blossoms help nurseries sell their wares; however, what I want to see is foliage.  I love foliage.  It’s the reason I am keen on banana plants, cannas, and variegated foliage.  Almost any leaf that is bumpy or lumpy, brightly hued or unusual receives my attention.  Some leaves look like an impressionist painter created the artistic patterns and textures; other leaves such as the porcupine tomato (Solanum pyracanthum), look like Picasso had a bit of fun with it.

Foliage is the mainstay in the garden and without it, my little oasis would seem like a desert.  Don’t get me wrong; I love flowers just as much as the next woman does.  While blossoms take center stage, the leaves set the stage. Too many flowers in the garden is too syrupy for these eyes, I need a place to rest them in between the eye candy.  That’s where beautiful foliage creates balance and harmony, and a place to relax the eyes.

Too Much of a Good Thing

I’ve toured a few gardens where variegation has taken over. Ouch, my eyes!  Too many plants with variegated foliage, leaves me feeling slightly nauseous, like just before a huge migraine headache strikes.  I remember one home where acuba plants grew everywhere. They were foundation plants for the home as well as used as hedging for one side of their yard.  Whoever planted them; either received an excellent deal on them from a nursery, or really liked these plants to the point of obsession. Their bright gold and green foliage screamed at me whenever I walked down their long driveway.  Even now, I dislike this shrub even though I’ve seen single specimens used as understory plants in a shaded garden with toned down splashes of yellow on its leaves.  It immediately reminds me of the gaudiness of my first encounter with the plant.

Good Garden Design Includes Foliage

Foliage is an integral part of garden design. Gardeners, who design garden masterpieces, use foliage extensively in their artistry.  With all the diversity of size, color, and form in leaves, a creative gardener can give rise to combinations of plants that make any onlooker appreciate the garden canvas in front of them.

One of my favorite books, Consider the Leaf by Judy Glattstein, goes into much detail about using foliage in garden design.  Her fabulous foliage combinations are enough to make any flower gardener turn strictly to leaf gardening.

Click on images to view larger.
Top photo: Ilex 'Golden Milkboy' photographed in Wendy Tweten's garden.
Middle: Solanum pyracanthum photographed in Debbie Teashon's garden.
Bottom: Hosta 'War Paint' photographed in David Fishman's garden.

EWWW, The Broom is in Full Bloom

I was  on Facebook commenting about broom after reading Tamara Sellman's comment about it. So I poked around and found this interesting article in the Oregonian about what could be done with the  noxious plant, Cytisus scoparius. If you haven't seen it in full bloom around here, you would have to be certifiably blind.

Last year I blogged about it after reading our local feed and nursery store's humorous sign. Someone complained about the message, but I howled with laughter. Hey, it beats crying over weeds.

They Call it Noxious Yellow

Anyway, this amazing young man from Tillamook, Oregon came up with making biofuel out of scotch broom:

"Sixteen-year-old Hayden Bush arrived in Houston last month feeling pretty darned good about his odds for doing well in the International Sustainable World Science Fair.

Then he got a look at the competition: more than 800 students from 51 countries and 38 states, most from elite math and science academies, backed by government and university sponsors and armed with professionally bound books defining their projects to the letter.

And there was Bush, a third-generation farmer, with a simple journal on his efforts to convert Scotch broom, a noxious weed found throughout Oregon, into an alternative fuel. He had a partial scholarship from the Oregon Fairs Association and the company of his agricultural sciences and technology teacher, Max Sherman.

"It was like, 'Wow,'" Bush says. "Overwhelming would be a good word. I was definitely feeling outclassed."

Read the rest of this amazing young man's accomplishment: Oregon teen scores with possible biofuel from Scotch broom.

Hell Strip Veggies Need Permits in Seattle

Permits are needed to grow edible food on your hell strip. The cost isn't cheap either, according to Marty Wingate in her column in the Seattle Globe.

"Civic responsibility usually doesn’t put food on your table, but here’s a chance for you to make something out of nothing by growing vegetables in the parking strip in front of your home. The only hitches: You’re planting on borrowed land, you’ll need a permit and it could cost as much as $225 if you install any hardscape in this new garden strip."

It seems a lot of the problem may be due to height requirements along the street.

"Guidelines include restrictions on plants that overflow the parking strip and take up sidewalk space, and height limits (3 feet unless within 30 feet of a corner, then 2 feet) so that visibility isn’t impaired. That means that corn as high as an elephant’s eye is prohibited."

My first thought was ewww on the streetside vegetable growing. I'm thinking exhaust, but Marty also mentions a lot of other variables that make growing in a hell strip, well... hellish. I think if it can be done and there are no health issues, why not?

Although I wouldn't grow edibles there, I certainly love to see trees and other plants instead of desert lawns that need to be mowed. Street trees are beautiful, and who doesn't love to walk by a cornucopia of flowering plants and green textures?

What do you think?

Frosty Tonight Chilly Tomorrow

Gardeners beware; it is going to be a frosty one, tonight and tomorrow night, so be sure to protect your recently planted vegetables and annuals. In reality, it is still too early to plant tender annuals outside. If you haven’t planted them, place them in a garage or in a cool room indoors overnight. For the tender plants already planted outside, throw blankets, sheets, newspapers, or anything light enough not to break the small plants underneath your chosen material.

Some other ways to protect your young plants is by inverting pots over them, or use empty cottage cheese containers. Even milk cartons will work by cutting their tops off and sliding them over the taller plants. Anything that keeps the frost off the vegetation will work. Look in your recycle bin for plastics, glass or cardboard boxes you can use. If you use anything glass or clear, be sure to take them off the plants before the sun hits it or you will end up with fried green plants.

From the National Weather Service:
THE COLD WEATHER IN MARCH HAS EXTENDED INTO THE FIRST FEW DAYS OF APRIL FOR WESTERN WASHINGTON. AN UPPER LEVEL RIDGE WILL BEGIN BUILDING OVER THE AREA LATER TODAY AND TONIGHT. WITH THE RIDGE BUILDING SKIES WILL CLEAR OUT ACROSS WESTERN WASHINGTON OVERNIGHT INTO SATURDAY MORNING. A VERY COOL AIR MASS WILL STILL BE IN PLACE OVER THE AREA AND WITH THE CLEARING SKIES LOW TEMPERATURES SATURDAY MORNING COULD DROP TO BELOW FREEZING IN SOME LOCATIONS WITH SOME RECORD BREAKING LOWS POSSIBLE. THE RECORD LOW FOR SEATTLE IS 31 DEGREES SET IN 1948. THE RECORD FOR OLYMPIA IS 26 DEGREES SET IN 2001. THE BEST CHANCES FOR BELOW FREEZING TEMPERATURES WILL BE IN THE SOUTHWEST INTERIOR.

One of my favorite places to get weather updates is from Cliff Mass Weather Blog. Cliff Mass is a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington and is an unsurpassed authority on our Northwest weather. Besides his work at the UW, he is a featured weekly guest on KUOW; and he publishes articles about Northwest weather and leads the regional development of advanced weather prediction tools. I turn to his blog often for what is coming up weather wise.

For gardeners, his lecture, “Into to Northwest Weather”, is coming up on April 16, at 6:45pm at the Center for Urban Horticulture in Seattle and hosted by Dunn Gardens. The cost is ten dollars and well worth it, for understanding our weather as it pertains to our gardens. For more information and reserve a seat, visit Dunn Gardens.

A Little Spring Cheer

 This morning the sun is shining, but only for a short-lived moment.  I can see clouds progressing in from the southwest that will swirl around my little town and eventually envelope us in a gray murk.  For that reason, I am looking for sunshine everywhere I can uncover it and at this moment it is in this appealing little daffodil—Narcissus ‘Elizabeth Ann’. Not yet in bloom in the garden; however, the buds are plump with a promise of bursting into color at any instant.  I peered into the plant gallery at Rainyside.com and found it blossoming profusely on the web.

Arizona's Stark Contrast to Home

I recently returned from a five-day whirlwind trip to Arizona to visit my daughter, Kela and enjoy a slice of her world. The warm sunshine and stark splendor of Arizona boosted my spirits, much needed after a long winter I would just as soon forget.  While the Pacific Northwest took a bath in snow, I took walks in the daily sunshine. There was no need for me to take my vitamin D tablets with all the splendid light saturating my body.

It is strange to be in an unfamiliar place where the plants are alien and the bird song is in another dialect, unlike the familiar melodies of the chickadee, towhee or robin back home. I photographed the fruit of the cholla (Opuntia), which I mistook for flowers, silly me.  Kela and I enjoyed a day trip to Sedona where we photographed the beautiful red rock and plant life.  I took a walk down memory lane remembering our last visit to the red rock country, when she was two years old.  Now at age 27, she endures the endless stories about her precocious antics in Sedona her grandmother, auntie and I dredge up.

 Late winter to early spring is a beautiful time to be in Arizona, especially when our Pacific Northwest dreary and cold springs drag on until early July.  Although I miss being close to my daughter, it is good to be home in Washington again romping around the neighborhood with Kono dog and enjoying the antics of my four egg laying wonder girls. Even though it is cold, the signs of spring are everywhere, especially the early flowering, let’s-cut-to-the-chaise-it’s-spring plants.  Other less enjoyable signs crop up, such as the annoying weeds growing in leaps and bounds, the containers in the greenhouse need constant watering and I am behind in starting seed for the vegetable garden.  Nevertheless, I feel like Dorothy at the end of her trip to Oz, when she returned to the black and white world of Kansas and said, “There’s no place like home!” The clattering sounds of heavy rainfall falling on the skylight above me, reminds me why there is no place as splendid as our green Pacific Northwest.

Top photo: Opuntia fruit
Middle photo: Sedona
Bottom photo: Fragrant orange blossom

Crappy Decisions

Here’s another good reason to get off the herbicide-go-round. At the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, unacceptable levels of clopyralid was found in the compost that is made up of animal manure, straw bedding, wood chips, leaves and grass.

Dan Corum announced that the Zoo Doo will not be sold for garden use as the herbicide residue can kill some plants. Instead they will use it around the zoo this spring. Hopefully, this autumn Zoo Doo will once again be available in time for fall garden applications.

Go ahead and say it, you know you wanna!

The February End

The witch hazels (Hamamelis), winter sweet (Chimonanthus) and sweet box (Sarcococca) are in full bloom as are the pink flowering Viburnums, 'Charles Lamont' and ‘Dawn’.  Some of my favorite bulbs are in full swing—Iris reticulatas and snowdrops (Galanthus).  The sarcococcas are spreading their heavenly fragrance around the walkway.

When they begin blooming, it’s a signal that spring is coming sooner than I think.  I need to get out in the garden, finish pruning trees and shrubs, and weed out the shot weed. I despise weeding gravel where many of the errant weeds stray, and since I refuse to spray weed killers, it’s a chore.  Chickens to the rescue, I can put them in their moveable pen positioned over gravel paths and driveway. There they can peck the weeds to death or scratch them out of the ground in no time.  Not only are my four girls efficient weed killing machines, they are easy on the environment. 

If only I could teach them pruning techniques, but I’m afraid their attitude of mow everything down, would not translate well to good pruning skills.  Cass Turnbulls’ “Guide to Pruning” to the rescue, I pull out my favorite pruning bible whenever there is a question of how, when and where to prune.  My shrubs and trees would thank me if they could, because pruning is done for their optimum health and beauty.

Speaking of books, Seattle’s Miller Library’s 4th Annual Garden Lovers' Book Sale is coming soon.  If you have garden books you can donate, they are accepting them until March 31.  If you are a garden book nut like me, you can pick up some gently used garden books at the April 4 sale.  The Miller Library uses all proceeds from the sale to purchase the newest and best horticultural books and journals.

Kid Stuff - NW Flower and Garden Show

 Guest blog by Jeanne Keyes blogging at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show

(Click on images to view larger.)

The 2009 Northwest Flower and Garden Show (NWFG)  provides many fun activities for your child to enjoy. Sproutopia, a place for kids, features educational, hands on activities such as creating flower photo cut-outs and planting a seed.Seeds, dirt and a pot are provided so your child can plant the seed at the show, take it home, water it and watch it grow.

 The Sprout Stage features 30 minute presentations starting at 10am,running on the hour each day of the show. With titles such as "Don't Squish That Bug: Exploring the Incredible Insect World" and "Who Wants Garbage for Dinner: The Wonderful Ways of Worms", what could be more fun and interesting or a better way to teach your child about the little creatures in your garden?

Don't miss out on the treasure hunt! Pick up your treasure hunt form at Sproutopia: A place for Kids,look for the cute little Snooter-Doots at all the display gardens and win a prize. By the way, you can purchase a Snooter-Doot by visiting booth #2452 and help Make-A-Wish Foundation at the same time. There will be a silent auction of the Snooter-Doot hidden in each of the 2009 NWFG display gardens. A hundred percent of your bid will go to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Also, check out the childrens' gardens. These gardens are very inventive and creative. I for one would love a garden such as the "Drip, Drip, Bloom", a funky junk garden created by Interlake High School. The glass water drops "falling" into the drum, like a rain barrel are priceless.

As always, free childcare is provided in room 303 near the South entrance and is operated by licensed childcare providers. Children 5 and under are admitted to the show free and a youth ticket for those 6 to 17 years old is $4.00.

Rock Solid Conifers Display Garden

Guest blog by Jeanne Keyes blogging at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show

(Click on images to view larger.)

From brown and creame petrified wood boulders to golden evergreens such as 'Gold Cones' Cedar (Thuja occidentalis aurea 'Wells'), this garden packs quite a punch.

 I could be wrong but I believe this is the only garden in the NW Flower and Garden show that is not displaying flowering plants.I find it interesting that although Wells Nursery is known for Japanese Maples and other woody trees and shrubs, they confined their plant selection to conifers.

This garden is about foliage texture, form and all the subtle shades of color between blue and yellow. From 'Golden Grape' Hinoki Cypress(Chamaecyparis obtusa aurea 'Wells') to 'Emerald Creeper' Prostrate Deodara Cedar (Cedrus deodara prostrata 'Wells'), from 'Blue Totem' Columnar Blue Spruce (Picea pungens glauca fastigiata 'Wells') to 'Golden Sunset' Spreading Cedar (Cedrus deodara aurea prostrata 'Wells'), fine and coarse textures, tall,short, weeping and round forms, yellow, gold, green, gray and blue colors are well represented.

 Quartz, basalt and granite from across the United States, in diverse shapes and sizes were placed in natural groupings to enhance the mulitiude of textures,colors and forms of coniferous plants.

Flowers, smowers, this garden would be exciting and colorful any time of the year. 

Top photo: Rock Solid Conifer display garden.

2nd photo: Picea pungens glauca fastigiata 'Wells' (blue totem columnar blue spruce).

Bottom left photo: Cedrus deodara prostrata 'Wells' ('Emerald Creeper' prostrate deodara  cedar).

Bottom right photo: Thuja occidentalis aurea 'Wells' ('Gold Cones' cedar).