What looks good now in Vancouver? pt 2

As I mentioned before, there are not many flowers blooming now in Vancouver, so we have to think of other ways to make the garden interesting.  Here are two trees, suitable for a residential garden, that have interesting bark.  

This first photograph shows an Acer griseum, or Paper Bark Maple.  A. griseum has a beautiful, rich brown, peeling bark.  The warmth of the bark colour contrasts well with our cold grey days.  The way the bark peels gives an extra interesting texture to the garden.

The leaves of the A. griseum are atypical for a maple tree, and they produce a wonderful autumn colour, before dropping to unveil the bark for the winter.

The Stewartia pseudocamellia, or Japanese Stewartia, also has a colourful bark for winter interest.  It, too, is suitable for a residential garden.  The S. pseudocamellia bark peels in patches, resembling camouflage like colouring.

In summer, white flowers appear that resemble the flowers of a Camellia, hence the species name, "pseudocamellia."  

What looks good now in Vancouver? pt 1

Gardens are not only for flowers, but we need to think of complementary shades of green, contrasting textures of foliage, and different shapes of leaves.  Not many plants flower in winter, but many plants are evergreen or have some other interesting quality to feature in a winter garden.

Arum italicum makes a lovely ground cover for winter.  The shiny, elongated heart shaped leaves are highlighted with white veining.  Other Arum species do not have the decorative leaves.  

Come summer, the leaves die down and give way to long stalks holding spires of orange berries.

What's blooming now in Vancouver? pt 2

Hellebores are a wonderful winter flowering shade plant.  Things to look for in a Hellebore are the subtle shades and tones of the flower, the number of petals, and how much the flower nods.  

Hellebores come in shades from pure white to deep purple.  Between these two extreme colours are flowers in shades of pink, and/or  with green, yellow and pink tinges.

If the flower nods fully, so it faces the ground, the flower will not be fully appreciated unless it is planted in an elevated spot, like on a terrace above a retaining wall.  If you are to plant Hellebores at foot level, why not choose a variety with flowers that point up?

Hellebores bloom in winter, but their palmate leaves are usually evergreen in Vancouver.  Sometimes the leaves have contrasting vein colours, making them an interesting addition to the summer shade garden.

Not only do Hellebores bloom in the shade, but they also like growing in root bound soil under large trees.

Phoenix Perennials in Richmond has the largest selection of Hellebores in Metro Vancouver.  Here is a link to their Hellebore catalogue:  

http://www.phoenixperennials.com/HelleboreHurrahCatalogue2013.pdf  

The catalogue also has a botany lesson on Hellebores, and directions to Phoenix Perennials.

What's blooming now in Vancouver? pt 1

Spring is officially here so I thought I would post some photographs of plants blooming in a Vancouver garden at the start of spring.

Oemleria cerasiformis flowers

Oemleria cerasiformis

Oemleria cerasiformis berries

The first three photos show Oemleria cerasiformis, or Indian Plum, a Vancouver native deciduous shrub.  Oemleria are one of the first blooming plants of the year.  This shrub is an understorey shrub.  Being an understorey shrub means it likes to grow under taller trees, which in turn means it does not like to be exposed to full sun.  Masses of Oemleria grow wild along 4th Ave, by Jericho Park.  The pretty white flowers become plum shaped berries.

Sarcococca hookeriana var. humilis

The fourth photo shows Sarcococca hookeriana var. humilis, or Dwarf Sweet Box,  behind a Heuchera.  Sarcococca are low, evergreen shrubs with tiny white, but heavily scented flowers.  Sarcococca hookeriana var. humilis, Sarcococca confusa and Sarcococca ruscifolia are all varieties of the same genus plant.  S. hookeriana var. humilis is smaller and tidier than the other two varieties so I prefer this one.  

All Sarcococca grow in shade to part shade, and their roots sucker.  Their leaves are glossy dark green and lance shaped.   These shrubs are not remarkable enough to be a specimen plant, but form an attractive background to other plants.  They are also useful fillers for dark corners.  Don't let them dry out.

Sarcococca flowers are insignificant, but strongly scented in February/March.  For this reason, Sarcococca are a lovely addition to a garden in Vancouver come the bleak, grey, rainy days of February and March.  Place them somewhere along the path most used in winter.  Their scent easily travels 10 feet, and is a pleasant surprise in the winter.

Be careful when using horse manure in the garden

Recently I attended an informative day of talks, hosted by Bartlett Trees.  One of the speakers discussed the issue of using horse manure in gardens.  He had noticed a lot of plant death and decay at one of his sites, and discovered the gardeners had been composting horse manure from the barns, and adding this compost to the gardens.  The horses being raised were very rare breeds, and injected with a lot of antibiotics.  Antibiotics kill off bacteria, an essential component in healthy gardens.

Because horse manure seems a natural product, many gardeners assume it is organic.  What they do not realize is how many chemicals are injected into the average horse.    

In an organic food course, the instructor recommended going to horse stable neighbourhoods to scoop horse manure off the street for food beds.  When I questioned the chemical possibilities in horse manure, another student googled my query and announced his findings:  horses are only injected with antibiotics once a year, in the spring.  The conclusion was, as long as we avoided getting horse manure within a few weeks of this injection period, the horse manure was organic.

At the time I took this course, I also worked on a horse farm.  I noticed that all of the horse manure was loaded into a truck and driven off the property.  I discussed horse manure chemical components with the owners of the horse farm.  They did not want the horse manure in their gardens because their thoroughbred horses could be injected with antibiotics as often as every six weeks.

These are two examples relating specifically to thoroughbred horses.  I do not know if regular horses receive the same kind of chemical care.  My point is, do not assume horse manure is organic.  Get horse manure from a reliable source.  Ask the horses' owners, if you can, what goes into the horses, because that is what will come out of the horses.

Vancouver rain and soil pH

Vancouver's soil is naturally acidic because of the amount of rain that falls.  

Rain is made of water, which is made of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom (H2O).  When the rain falls to earth, it breaks apart into H+ and HO-.  Now the soil has more free H atoms which makes it more acidic.  

The "H" is pH is for hydrogen.  The "p" has a variety of possible explanations, including power or potential.  

The more free H+ atoms in the soil, the lower the number due to a negative logarithmic equation.  

This part can be confusing, but remember rain = more H+ in soil = high acidity = low pH.

Phosphorous and Hypoxic Zones

This photograph shows the border of a hypoxic zone, or dead zone, in the Gulf of Mexico.  Hypoxic zones are areas of the ocean where all ocean life has been killed off by excess phosphorous and nitrogen.  The excess P and N in the ocean comes from fertilizer run off.

When people use fertilizer that is not absorbed by plants, the excess runs off into our water table and creeks, streams, rivers, etc.  All of these eventually run into our oceans.  If the water running into the oceans has excess nutrients, this creates an algae bloom.  The algae bloom interrupts the normal balance of the ocean by creating an opaque cover over parts of the ocean.

When the algae uses up the nutrients in the water, the algae dies and falls to the ocean floor.  The excess algae decay process uses any oxygen left in that area of the ocean, leaving none for the other life in the ocean.  In turn, this creates a dead portion of the ocean, or a Hypoxic Zone.

Vancouver's soils always have enough phosphorous

We have brought many soil samples into the lab from our Vancouver area properties.  We have never received a recommendation to add phosphorous to the soil, yet phosphorous is one of the big three in the NPK fertilizer formula:  nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium.  Why do we have ample phosphorous in Vancouver?

Phosphorous breaks into water insoluble compounds in the soil.  Typical chemical fertilizers require water to break down the fertilizer for the plant to feed from the nutrients.  If the phosphorous is water insoluble, then the plants cannot feed off the chemical phosphorous, designed to be used with water.  

This does not mean there is no phosphorous in the soil.  This means the plants cannot take it up, and then show signs of phosphorous deficiency.  The usual response?  Add more phosphorous.  Add to this Vancouver's excessive rainfall, and the result is soil high in phosphorous.

Organic forms of phosphorous are not bound in water-insoluble compounds, and plants can feed from them.

Chaefer Beetle = Redesign

Truthfully, we Cultivated Gardeners love the Chaefer Beetle.  We find homeowners are tired of fighting the Chaefer Beetle and call us for help.  We turn the problem into the solution.

What do you do if your lawn is decimated by the effects of Chaefer Beetle larvae?  Here are two options:

1)  If you really need a lawn, then renovate your lawn and learn how to care for the grass so it grows deep roots and is no longer victim to Chaefer Beetle Buffett.

2)  If you don't need a lawn, remove the lawn and plant a beautiful garden.  This is what we like to do.  We have posted some of our garden designs on Houzz.com houzz.com/pro/ecolisa/.   

Many of these designs are a direct result of Chaefer Beetle related damage.  Once their lawn has been decimated, people reassess why they have a lawn, and if a garden would be more suitable.

From the view of maintenance, a properly designed and installed garden is less maintenance than lawn.  If the garden is not properly designed and/or installed, it will be more maintenance than a lawn.

If you are not sure how to design and install successfully, feel free to call us for help.  It is what we do.  www.thecultivatedgardeners.com.

Life of a Chaefer Beetle

Today I removed part of a lawn, and found many Chaefer Beetle larvae under the lawn.  In Vancouver, the Chaefer Beetle is currently about 1/2" in diameter.  Like most beetle larvae, the Chaefer Beetle larvae is creamy white with a black head.  

The lawn that I dug up had strong roots, so the Chaefer Beetle larvae were safe from crows and raccoons.

The Chafer Beetle likes laying eggs in the dense root of lawns.  The eggs are in the lawn, and when they hatch, the larvae feed on the roots of the grass.  When they mature, the Chaefer Beetles fly into the air, get jiggy with each other, and then fly back down to the ground to lay eggs.

Last year in Vancouver, I counted three cycles of Chaefer Beetle life between spring and autumn.  I counted the cycles by counting how many times I saw lawns dug up by crows and raccoons.  An observational analysis more than a scientific study.

Chaefer Beetles in Vancouver

Once again, crows and raccoons are dining on delicious Chaefer Beetle larvae.  These larvae are living under lawns.  The crows and raccoons dig up lawns to get to the larvae.

Why are some lawns affected and not others?  The lawn has to be easy to dig.  Crows only use their beaks, and raccoons their paws.   I have dug up lawns with deep roots, and the Chaefer Beetle larvae are under the roots, but they are safe from crows and raccoons.

Lawns that are easy to dig have shallow roots.  A lawn should not have shallow roots.  A lawn gets shallow roots from being cut too short, and not getting watered effectively.  Generally, the roots of a lawn are as long as the blades of grass.  So if the lawn is only 1" high, chances are, the roots are only 1" deep.

If a lawn is watered at short intervals, the water cannot penetrate very deeply into the soil.  If the water is not penetrating into the soil, the grass roots come to the surface looking for moisture, and again, this leads to shallow roots.

You have probably heard this before:  raise the mower blade so the lawnmower is cutting the lawn at least 2" high.  When the grass is growing quickly in the spring, 2" is a good height.  As the grass growing slows down when the weather gets hotter, lawns can be 2.5-3.0" high.

Time to Design

For anyone thinking this is the year to give the garden an overhaul:  now is the time to begin.  

Good garden design begins with a thorough analysis of the garden.  This includes soil analyses, sun/shade audits, privacy/screening issues, wind and microclimate analyses. The designer should also take inventory of the existing garden for healthy plants to retain.

The owner of the garden needs to be collecting ideas for her/his new garden. You can look around your neighbourhood for plants, arbours, fences, and other attractive features that might complement the architecture of your residence.  Alternately, gather some beautiful garden picture books and spend some quiet time reading and dreaming.

Think about how you would like to use your garden:  entertaining, playing, reading, maybe gardening.  How many people will gather in your garden?  How much time do you spend in your garden?  How much time do you want to spend in your garden?

And, of course, the owner of the garden needs to consider a budget for renovations.  A good  designer can create a design to be installed at once, or over a few seasons.  The important part is to have a cohesive design to follow.

Naturally, this is what we do at The Cultivated Gardeners, so feel free to contact us info@thecultivatedgardeners.com.

Spring Lawn Maintenance

If it is March, it must be time to start top dressing lawns with Transform's Lawn Conditioner.  We use this instead of aerating, liming and fertilizing lawns with chemical fertilizers.  

Aerating may be productive in dry climates, but aerating in Vancouver during the spring does not make any sense.  Powered aerators are large, extremely heavy pieces of equipment.  The aerating tines are attached to a great big roller.  A weight is placed in the roller to ensure the roller is forced down, embedding the tines deeply into a lawn.  As the roller rolls, the tines roll over the lawn.  

This system works perfectly on nice, dry lawns.  As the tines are rolled out of the lawn, the small cylindrical plugs of turf fall out of the tines, leaving the tines empty for the next go round.  Great idea!

However, there are no nice, dry lawns in Vancouver in the spring.  On average, Vancouver receives 75 cm, or 2.5 feet, of rain from November to February.  

When someone rolls an aerator over a lawn in March in Vancouver, after the first rotation, the tines are filled with muddy turf.  Filled tines mean that all subsequent rotations of the roller are simply pushing the turf aside to make a dent.  Few plugs fall out of the tines, so the lawn is not being aerated, but compacted.  With all the water already in the soil from 75 cm of rain falling, the last thing a lawn needs is more compaction.

What Transform's Lawn Conditioner does is give life to the soil in which the lawn is planted.  The Lawn Conditioner is filled with healthy microbes and nutrients.  Add this as a top dressing to a lawn, and the soil comes alive.  When soil is alive, it attracts the under the earth life, like worms, that in turn aerate the soil.

If you still feel the need to aerate in Vancouver, do it in September when the ground is dry.  Add some compost as a top dressing, and your lawn will be set for the winter.

We buy our Transform Products (http://www.transformcompost.com) through Greenway at Marine Way and Greenall in Burnaby (sales@greenwaylandscape.ca).