Muck About

Whether the Weather

Whether the weather be fine
Or whether the weather be not.
Whether the weather be cold
Or whether the weather be hot.
We'll weather the weather
Whether we like it or not.

That old poem is a reminder we are subject to the winds of change. I wouldn’t mind a little wind to change the weather. However, I reserve the right to complain when we reach these extremes.

With record temperatures over 100°F degree and no end in sight, I am wilting along with my plants. I wish today’s theme song was Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head by Burt Bacharach; instead, our theme song is more like Martha and the Vandella’s, Heat Wave. We were hotter than most of the rest of the country; now there is a switch!

Today Scott Sistek, our weather person over at Komo 4 news, tells us we have more 3-digit heat ahead of us.  I long to be complaining again over the cooler 80° F heat waves we normally experience this time of year.  Hey Scott, will you please appease the weather gods and get us some relief?

A sad note for today, Wallace Wylie Hansen of Salem, Oregon died yesterday after a long illness. After his retirement in 1988, Hansen began Wally Hansen's Native Plant Nursery, at a time when few realized the beauty of growing native plants in the garden. Our hearts and minds expanded when he showed us how to appreciate our Pacific Northwest indigenous plants. Many of us in the garden community will miss him.

On the organic trail, Portland, Oregon’s  Zenger Farm has an organic workshop open to both novice and experienced gardeners, starting August 15, 2009. Learn how to manage your soil, care for vegetables and fruit trees, how to save your seeds and winter planning.  Advanced registration required so check out their web site for more information and which classes you want to participate.

Remember the rain?

WSU/Native Plant Salvage and  rain garden project sponsors invite you to attend the King County Library rain garden installation workshop at Covington on Saturday and Sunday, August 1 & 2.   The site preparation is just about, done and they need your volunteer support to complete the project.  Please RSVP to Stewardship Partners, ba@stewardshippartners.org, (206) 292-9875. 

Wishing you cooler days ahead!

Oh noes, there are bugs on the campus! Nuke 'em!

Today I went to Olympic College Poulsbo Campus to take care of some business.  As I was walking into the building, I spotted a sign taped to the door, warning everyone that there was going to be pesticide spraying the next day. The reason? They are spraying for general insects.

Shoot, if you are going to spray the generals, why not use an all-purpose spray for the colonels, lieutenants, and privates?  

A pesticide company will be doing the dirty work to keep us all safe from the insects. The bugs just might crawl on the students when they sit outside on a bench, causing mass hysteria, nobody showing up for class, because someone had an ant crawl on their sack lunch.  They must spray the whole campus down, and kill everything in sight.

I thought at least a college would be enlightened enough to realize there is no need to do a general spray down for insects.  The building is made of concrete and bricks, so there is no danger of bug damage to the buildings.  

I can only shake my head at the idiotic  hysteria over the bug world that makes some humans want to nuke them all.

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.

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.

A Man Named Pearl

I think this will be the documentary to see this year.  This world could use a lot more Pearls!

A bigoted remark dissuades Pearl Fryar from moving into a white neighborhood. Told “Black people don’t keep up their yards,” Pearl creates an extraordinary topiary garden that conveys his philosophy of Love, Peace and Goodwill.

Opening in Seattle, August 1st (see schedule below for other cities.)
SIFF Cinema
321 Mercer Street at 3rd Avenue, McCaw Hall
In the heart of Seattle Center's theatre district
Show Information: 206.633.7151

View the Trailer.

COLD SPRING, N.Y.: The Pearl Fryar Topiary Garden, a preservation project of the Garden Conservancy, is the subject of a new feature length  documentary film entitled A MAN NAMED PEARL. The film will have its nationwide launch at the Angelika Film Center in New York City on July 18th, 2008.

A MAN NAMED PEARL is about Pearl Fryar, an African-American man who challenged stereotypes by creating a garden paradise on his three acre yard. With no formal training and limited resources, Pearl takes throwaway plants from a local nursery and teaches himself the art of topiary gardening.

Told in a candid and often humorous way A MAN NAMED PEARL opens both hearts and minds and is an expression of Pearl’s genuine belief that anyone can rise above obstacles and social barriers.

The schedule to date is:
May 23 (pre-release) WASHINGTON, DC - Avalon Theatre
SANTA FEE, NM- The Screen
June 13-16 (pre-release) DETROIT, MI – Detroit Institute of Arts
July 18 NEW YORK, NY - Angelika Film Center
July 25 ENCINO, CA – Laemmle Town Center
IRVINE, CA – Regal Westpark
LAGUNA NIGUEL, CA – Regency Laguna Niguel
LOS ANGELES, CA – Laemmle Music Hall
PASADENA, CA – Laemmle One Colorado
August 1 PLEASANTVILLE, NY - Jacob Burns Film Center
SEATTLE, WA – SIFF Cinema

 

Jeff Gillman Goes to Beaverton

Here I am again, jealous of Oregon’s Get Gardening series.  This month’s guest is Jeff Gillman author of The Truth about Organic Gardening: Benefits, Drawbacks, and the Bottom Line and The Truth about Gardening Remedies.  I’ve read the latter from cover to cover, enjoying Gillman’s writing style and the slew of information packed between the paperback covers. I even reviewed it.  I ordered my copy of the former book mentioned, after hearing it was as good as his first. 

I’ve gardened organically most of my life.  I’ve made a few bad choices along the way--using Round Up one year and metaldehyde-based slug bait another time.  I stopped when I found the benefits did not outweigh the harm I was doing to the land.  Not too bad, considering the 33 other years, I gardened organically.  However, there are organic gardening practices that also raise my eyebrows, especially ones that are dangerous to the user.  In addition, some organic practices are a useless waste of time, resources and money.  Therefore, when Jeff Gillman writes a book about it, I take notice.

If you are in the Portland area, I recommend you check him out at this event coming up this Tuesday, May 20, 7 p.m., Powell’s Book Store at Cedar Hills Crossing, 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd., in Beaverton.

For the rest of us, we will just have to be content with buying his book or checking it out at the library.

Wallingford Garden Tour in Seattle

I love the Wallingford District and to visit private gardens there would seem like a slice of heaven on earth. I am going to try to make this tour that sounds promising.  It may prove tough to get to all ten gardens in one day; but I am up for the challenge! Maybe we'll bump into each other?

The Wallingford Garden Tour slated for June 1, 2008, from 10am to 4pm. features ten beautiful gardens.  The self-guided tour also has a bike-safe route for bikers who would rather pedal the Wallingford District in Seattle.  It will be exciting to find all the hidden gardens in this community, from lush to secret gardens for only a 15 dollar donation.

Tickets are on sale at the Wallingford Neighborhood Office.  You can also purchase your tickets ahead of time by calling 206.632.3165 or at the businesses listed below.

• Wallingford Neighborhood Office - 2100-A N 45th St (Behind Tully's on N 45th @ Meridian Ave)

• Emerald City Gardens - 4001 Leary Way NW

• Ravenna Gardens - University Village

• Season's Nursery - 1051 N 35th St (between N Albion Pl and N Woodland Park Ave)

Be there, or be ordinary.

RSG Celebrates Ten Years on the Web!

 

It’s official; Rainy Side Gardeners is celebrating ten years on the web.  Hard to believe it’s been that long and shows how fast time flies when you’re having fun in the garden or when gardening on the web.  West Side Gardener Travis Saling, a past associate of RSG, wrote a bit of history about how we came to be a regional gardening site for the Pacific Northwest.  Well-wishers sent e-mails, and I gush on the anniversary page.  I am so proud our baby is growing up!

 

Regional Garden Gurus

Years ago, I wrote a column about gardening in the maritime NW for a large, multi-topic web site.  At the time, little was being said about our climate in many of the gardening resource books, and online most web sites were a collection of links to other sites with very limited information. Back then, the search engines were cumbersome and sometimes frightening. Trying to wade through tens of thousands of web pages to find what was needed, was daunting. All this was the inspiration needed to create a content-rich web site--Rainy Side Gardeners--which is coming up on its 10-year anniversary in April 2008.

Just recently, I was invited to join an internet group called Regional Garden Gurus.  Our web site, Rainy Side Gardeners, fit the criteria for being a site that functions to help each other garden better in the Pacific Northwest region.  I feel honored that RSG was considered part of this remarkable group of regional gardeners.

Susan Harris of Sustainable Gardening and the blog, Garden Rant, headed up this fantastic project, which echoes what I’ve felt since the mid ‘90s.  One web site can’t have the “be all, end all” say on all things gardening. Even gurus feel they are not the “end all, be all” expert for their region; included on the guru site are links to other web sites and blogs that have specific information for their region.  More gurus will be joining the team as we become aware of their content rich web sites that are dedicated to a region.

“Regional gurus cover gardening for their region - with articles, videos and podcasts on their own site, links to other great sources, or a combination thereof. All gurus are committed to providing high-quality, environmentally responsible online gardening information for their regions.  Beyond that, there's been no attempt to reach agreement on the details of gardening.  In other words, gurus speak for themselves, not for the group.”

For information about any region or guru, contact him or her directly.  For information about Regional Garden Gurus, email Susan.