It is time to pull up your sleeves and drop to your knees.  The deadly popweed has sprouted and it’s gaining power.  This is not the time for delayed gratification.  Pull it up now.  Believe me, it’ll be worth it tenfold.  Because if you wait, the pods will ripen and even the slightest touch will cause the seed pods to POP! all over the yard.  You never know who could trigger the pods.  Perhaps a gusty wind,  a cat on mouse patrol or those trickster racoons. If you wait for it to ripen, you’ll have even more to pull next year.   Don’t take walk in the sunshine, don’t hop on the bike for fun.  Get down on your knees and pull, pull, pull.

Speaking of trellises, it’s not too late to plant sweet peas.  Go directly to the garden store and pick up the intoxicating April in Paris sweet pea.  Soak in water for a few hours and pop them in the ground.

Early on we purchased two refrigerators so we could force bulbs and hostas into bloom in February.  Some plants must have a period of cold before they can be coaxed into sprouting in warmth.  Turns out we couldn’t fool a single plant. It’s not always the thought that counts.

The photo you see has crushed glass with fire coming through it.  A Katy McFadden statue is casting a reflection in a small water feature.  You can barely make out a trellis shaped like a trees amongst the plants.

This year, for the first time since we began Gregg and Ellis Landscape Designs, we are not installing a garden in any show.  But Carolyn will spend some time at the Better Living Show in the Assoc. of Professional Landscape Designer’s garden.  Come see the show.  It’s the best show around for sustainability ideas and products.

Create Privacy in your garden

I wanted to implement an idea I’d had for sometime of a circular wall that started out high and tapered down to sitting height.   My garden is long and narrow, so it was a perfect place to create a garden room  to create a destination and a feeling of seclusion without claustrophobia.  The wall begins at six feet and tapers down to two feet near the garden entrance.  It’s a focal point, a conversation piece, and it delights me every day I see it from my office.

Do you believe that an evergreen garden means no maintenance because you don’t have to rake leaves? Guess again little grasshopper. The most interesting and easiest gardens are ones that have a variety of evergreen and deciduous.  If the plants are spaced correctly and layered with tall plants in the back and short plants in the front (exceptions are permitted) then the leaves and needles can fall and remain to be composted right there in the bed.  The lower plants in front skirt the mulch you may not want to see.  It’s the plant’s way of protecting and feeding itself.

We have clients who request evergreen gardens and we have learned not to drop our jaw nor furrow a brow.

*Conifers drop their needles, drip sap or scatter cones.  The Dwarf White Pine begs to be preened of its old brown needles every spring.  Some conifers decorate the neighborhood with yellow pollen.

*Evergreen grasses look so much better if the old blades are combed out yearly.

*Evergreen ferns need annual hair cuts.

*Broadleaf evergreens drop their leaves, but just not all at once.

When your bed is planted you’re still not finished.  Covering the ground with compost will help keep the weeds down and will keep the soil healthier. However, if you want  low maintenace in this new bed there’s another step.   If you had subscribed to the newspaper a few months ago, you’d have a big enough collection to lay full overlapped sections on the ground and then cover them with compost.  The paper keeps the weeds from growing through until the plants have time to establish and fill in.  But if you didn’t plan ahead with the paper subscription, don’t fret.  I’ve used the heavy paper painters use to cover a floor and it works pretty well.

A little known study that’ll save your back and get your plants to grow faster.

You have the plant, you’ve dug the hole and you’re ready to bury it.  Hold the phone.  Don’t add compost to the hole.  According to studies, most shrubs and trees adapt sooner and grow faster when planted in native soil (the soil that is there).   Adding compost to the hole acts as a washtub by holding water.  Just plop the plant in the hole.

If your soil is hardpan or heavy clay and you want to make your life easier in the long run, hire strapping young people to amend the entire bed.  Joy Creek Nursery adds 1/10 minus and compost to their beds to help with drainage in hard clay soil. (joycreeknursery.com)

You might also consider compost tea applications.  It’s full of good microorganisms.  ”Microorganisms, such as bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and nematodes, give soil its structure, water holding capacity, and the ability to get nutrients to the plants. This essential web of life in the soil is damaged when it is tilled, compacted or moved. Compost tea restores soil ecology by replacing these missing microorganisms.”  Willamette Organics is the company we recommend for Portland, Vancouver and Salem areas.  www.willametteorganics.com/compostteaapplications.html

Enjoy your seed catalogs and hot chocolates.