The sedges that looked moribund only one month ago have decided to grow and even spread a bit. Hopefully they’ll be giving good, weed-choking cover by summer.
Sedge meadow expansion – update
Winter garden
After several days of weather around 40° F but no rain, the garden has dried out. The bottom of the rain garden once again is just tufts of Deschampsia grass and the standing water is but a memory.
We had a nice frost, probably around 27-28° although the thermometer is under the eaves where it indicates a higher temperature than the back of the garden: 32° F.
Part of creating a sustainable garden involves choosing plants that work in your climate. Other than some plants whose hardiness is being tested (Grevillea ‘Coastal Gem’, Leucodendron, Cordyline ‘Festival Grass’), all of the plants have no problem with a light or even a moderate frost. Plants that survive frost without problems don’t need to be replanted, wrapped in plastic with Christmas tree lights or otherwise coddled.
Sedge meadow expansion
The local nursery was completely out of Carex praegracilis this year, so we decided to divide our existing meadow and plant plugs. Since this was done just at the beginning of the rainy season, the plants needed no irrigation. After frosts and several inches of rain, the plants could look better. Time will tell if the division and plugging process was successful, and it looks like not all the plants will survive. Maybe the divisions were too small, but in any case the plants were sending out runners vigorously at planting time and the survivors will hopefully colonize the new space by summer (if all goes according to plan).
Wet year!
These plants have been either in standing water or totally saturated soil since the second or third big storm. So far, they’re thriving – since they’re adapted to being seasonally wet. There are some experimental Camassia bulbs in this area, too – a plant that supposedly thrives in swampy conditions in spring. So far, no sign of life from them.
Rain garden update
Remember the rain garden post?
(Click here to see the garden after planting during the wet season)
As soon as the weather warmed up, the plants started growing. Being occasionally submerged did not seem to bother them much – in fact, they seemed to enjoy the experience.
As you can see, there’s little resemblance to that mud hole. The lupines started flowering in May, followed by the tufted hair grass, then the paprika yarrow, then the daylillies. Some dwarf asters should finish off the flowering season in fall.
Wildflower patch update
Last year, we sowed assorted native California wildflower seeds in a non-irrigated area. We had Chinese Houses, California Poppy, Farewell to Spring, Baby Blue-Eyes, Tidy Tips and other flowers make an appearance. After the plants died we cut them down with hedge shears and shook the seeds over the soil as best we could (we didn’t use a weed whip because we didn’t want to whack the seeds out of the area).
This year, we’re getting a lot of grasses, with a lot of foxtails. These had been removed the previous year, but apparently there is quite a weed seed bank in the soil. Wildflower diversity is down, but there are some nice clumps of California poppy which apparently went dormant during the dry season. There are a few Farewell to Spring plants coming up, but no sign of the Chinese Houses, Tidy Tips or Baby Blue Eyes. Perhaps they are still there, hidden among the grasses. Where no wildflowers are evident, we pull the grasses and place them in a dry spot so they don’t produce seed. Later, they’ll be chopped up and used as a fine mulch.
Other non-native plants have given mixed results. Sparaxis bulbs did come back, but Anemone and Ranunculus (other than a weedy annual species) have not survived the extended dry period, although they are supposed to be adapted to these conditions.
Lupine was part of the original seed mix, but apparently it was not a frost hardy species. It does germinate with the first rains, but is killed off by the first frosts. There are other native lupine species that we can introduce next fall, perhaps along with some California native bulbs such as Brodaiea and (if we’re ambitious) Calochortus.
Commissioning a design
Each landscape designer is unique. Perhaps it’s helpful to compare them to artists.
Some landscape designers work to develop a unique style, then tend to design in that style until they are ready to move on to something new. You could compare these designers to artists like Picasso, Brach, Miro, Klee, Rodin, Henry Moore, Monet, Norman Rockwell or Toulouse-Lautrec. Their work done during a certain period is easily recognizable.
Others are more like illustrators, adapting their style to fit the project. Many great illustrators enjoy the challenge of working in different media and different styles to achieve set goals. Nonetheless, they do tend to favor certain styles and typically dislike copying other artists’ or illustrators’ work, preferring instead to create something original.
Hiring a landscape architect is similar to commissioning an artist. If you hire say, Picasso, you probably expect to get something resembling his other work, perhaps with some of your input concerning the size of the piece, the subject or the theme. If you’re hiring an illustrator, you were probably impressed with his or her work, have looked at examples in a portfolio, and have an idea of what style you’d like for your oeuvre d’art.
This is why it’s a very good idea to look at a designer’s body of work, then talk to them about what you’d like to accomplish. Just because they never built a certain type of design does not mean they are not interested in taking things in a new direction. They may even have proposed something similar as a concept, but that project took a different direction.
Bodacious Bamboos! (and a palm)
We’re getting things together for our designer garden at the San Francisco Flower and Garden show coming up in March. One of our main themes is edible plants – but low maintenance and water conserving varieties.
We’ll be working with Instant Jungle Nursery in Cotati for both bamboos and a variety of palm that has very tasty fruit. The palm’s fruit taste sort of like Mandarin oranges, only with a large seed in the center.
Many bamboos have delicious shoots – forget those pale, tasteless things you get in cans or appear on your plate in an Asian restaurant. As far as we know, they’ll grow with gray water from your washing machine for irrigation. They also provide shade, usable canes and grow quickly – so they suck a lot of carbon out of the atmosphere.
The drawback is that they can be quite invasive, so running types need to be contained with root barriers of some kind. Not only that, but you’ll need to occasionally walk the perimeter to make sure the plants aren’t escaping.
Despite this requirement, bamboos can provide a beautiful screen in a narrow area. The canes should be thinned every year to keep the groves looking airy and light – and to let the new canes develop nicely.
If you’re going to be eating the shoots, they can be blanched with straw so that they stay white.
Some new plants for testing
Our back yard plant testing area will have some new inhabitants as soon as it dries out enough for us to do some earthwork. For now, the plants are sitting in their pots, waiting.
Scroll down to see what’s going in the ground next.
Senecio mandraliscae
This is a daisy. Although it doesn’t look much like one, it’s in the same family as your average marguerite. This is a very popular drought tolerant ground cover used in Southern California and the Bay Area. Supposedly, it can survive in Sacramento as well. We’ll see.