Composting for the Lazy Gardener October 29, 2007

I’ve been sheet composting since before I knew what that meant. Basically it’s just composting right in your beds, which at this time of year means sweeping up all the dropped leaves from the trees and raking them around the base of the plants. Sometimes there are apples in there, or cones, or whole plants that were pulled out.

The only rules are no diseased foliage (so I never use rose foliage or branches) and no weeds. Many weeds can set seed even after they were pulled out of the ground; better to just toss those or compost them in the traditional way.

You can compost kitchen scraps this way as well, but I usually bury those slightly for aesthetic reasons.

Yesterday I put the leaves from the purple ornamental plum around some newly transplanted Euphorbia. Their blue foliage with the burgundy and yellow leaves underneath looks great, and I avoided spending $100 on mulch for the beds. Come spring, the soil will be loamy and shot through with mycelium from the fungi doing their work. The plants will have had relatively warm feet all winter, so losses are less than if they were uncovered.

The key to keeping your garden attractive while sheet composting is to keep your edges clean and sharp and keep the compost in place. You can turn the soil a bit to hold lightweight leaves, or keep all the material raked in the beds until it starts to break down and form a mat over the soil. That takes about 2 weeks with a little rainfall (or the hose).

All winter long, as I pick up debris around the yard, I toss it into the beds. Smaller pieces break down faster, and the plants won’t be vying for nitrogen because they’re mostly dormant.

In the city I didn’t have room for a compost bin, and that’s how I came to sheet composting. I have room now, but I really like the way the beds look with the seasonal detritus used as mulch.  At the LA Arboretum there’s an enormous Ginkgo that sheds seemingly acres of bright yellow leaves.  It would be a travesty to pick them up, they’re lovely spread over the blue Senecio and herbs around the tree.

Gardens Illustrated October 28, 2007

I’ve made the rather dubiously delightful discovery of Gardens Illustrated. It’s $8.15 an issue, a mere $84 a year. Ouch!

But it is so worth it. First, if you live in the PNW, the UK has a similar climate so the plants and ideas translate well. Second, it’s a BBC publication and is very well done. Third, they don’t use pruners; they use secateurs. Irresistible.

These bees are Buddhists October 14, 2007

This is the little garden out at our research farm where the honeybees have one half of the 10 acres and the horticulture department and organic farmers have the other.

The hives are out of sight, but do you see the all the birdhouses hanging up in the tree? Bumblebee nests.

The hanging bells are CO2 cannisters cut in half and painted gold. There is a Thai Buddhist symbol of the elephant and the monkey with honeycomb hanging in the center. Just behind, there’s a drop off to a small tributary of the Willamette River.

My club was out there with the master gardeners planting a water wise garden. While we were having tea during a break, we were standing around the hives.

You have to believe me: these are the calmest bees in the world. Several landed on my sweater, and I petted them. And they were like, “Okay”.

Then we went back to work, and here’s part of the garden coming together. You can see a good amount of the farm in this view. Did I mention it was foggy?

The plants in this garden are several sedum varieties, penstemon, rosemary, agastache, one tiny juniper, cistus, ceanothus, a dwarf native iris, helianthemum, and coreopsis.

As I write this, I am wondering if the deer, who ran by that hoop house in the distance maybe 2 minutes after I took this photo, came and did a little mowing last night. Beasts.

These guys provided the background music.

And I have nice things to say about this Shantung Maple. Lovely.

That’s what I’m talking about October 14, 2007

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NIMG Challenge: Not in my Garden September 22, 2007

This is a meme from Kim over at A Study in Contrasts; what things do you like in a garden but wouldn’t have in your own?

Here are the “rules”: Think about 5 (or 10, or 3, or however many come to mind) things that you really like but would never put into your own yard. Make a post that explains each thing and also tells why, much as you like each one, it will never appear in your garden.

• Koi ponds. The raccoons and miscellaneous raptors would have a field day.

• Cordyline. Okay, I don’t really like them in anyone’s gardens.

• I really like rose arbors and pergolas, particularly with the climbing rose Cecile Brunner, but sitting underneath them – isn’t there always a bistro table with a tea pot and crustless sandwiches underneath? – is just creepy. Things drop out of the roses and down your shirt, make tiny webs in your tea strainer, buzz you just as you’re dropping off to sleep. Yes I love insects, but I don’t want them in my mouth or down my pants.

• Need I even mention or explain: undignified statuary.

• Cottage gardens. They can be beautifully executed, but not by gardeners such as myself. One day I’ll tell you about the time I installed a butterfly friendly cottage garden for a client and the first generation butterfly larvae mowed it to the ground in a weekend.

• Prunus laurocerasus. I love that it draws bees and sometimes, it’s even slightly attractive. Usually, it’s redundant, neglected, and fugly.

• Kniphofia. Now, normally I am a friend to plants that hail from South Africa. Torch Lily looks like Beeker from the Muppets to me, and I can’t fathom the appeal of its slap-dash goofiness.

• Vinca. Love it! Don’t want to chase it.

• Windchimes. Sometimes people will choose just the right chime for their yard: the style matches their home and landscape, the tone complements the whole feel of their garden. I had a windchine too, but every time it tolled I cringed, waiting for the neighbors to yell at me. I grew up in tight city quarters where windchimes started feuds and were subject to vandalism. I can’t quite enjoy them.

• Lawn. Other people do it well and I want to shed my shoes and go scooting across their temples of turf. At home, I could care less about the grass, and sadly, it shows.

• Annuals. I don’t know why exactly; they seem disposable or too temporary to throw money at year after year. I’d rather collect perennials.

• Yellow foliage or varigated green and yellow foliage. It screams chlorosis to me, even when I know better.

•  Perfection.  Ever since I got involved in entomology, I’ve lost interest in arthropod genocide.   I certainly appreciate pristine roses, I just don’t grow any that could be described that way.

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Goodness. I have a few garden rules.

Rubenesque Landscapes September 15, 2007

The first is somewhat obviously if skillfully Photoshopped, but it’s still interesting.