Plant Talk

Beans on a Pole

I recently visited an astounding feat of a vegetable garden. This over-two-acre French potager is overflowing with flowers, vegetables and fruit, laid out in a complicated, historical elliptical design. More to come on this truly gorgeous and abundantly productive garden in Pacific Northwest magazine, but in the meantime, I'm comforted by how easy vegetable gardening can be every time I harvest beans in my garden.

I did plant several rows of bush beans, but over in a corner in a half-barrel planter, I wanted some height and had a few scarlet runner bean seeds left over. So I stuck a few in around the base of a tall pole, and have been harvesting beans for more than a month. So, while we might aspire to multi-acre French potagers, it's possible to grow enough vegetables for dinner on a much smaller scale...

Seeing is Forgetting....

I always think that art, architecture and interior design books and magazines can teach us more about gardening than most things written with gardeners in mind.

 One of my great frustrations when I worked at the University of Washington was the many experts who knew so much about plants, yet so little. They studied plants; they rarely smelled, felt, appreciated or nurtured them. This whole idea of the experiential versus the theoretical/conceptual is at the heart of a fabulous book I'm reading called "Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees: Over Thirty Years of Conversations with Robert Irwin." (by Lawrence Weschler, University of California Press, 2008).  Isn't that title in itself a masterful rebuke of taxonomy?

The book is worth reading just for the chapter ("When Fountainheads Collide") on how Irwin won the commission for the garden at the Getty, and how he pulled it off. Most of all I love how he defines modernism as not being any particular style, but rather a way of engaging the world.....

Here's one of my favorite photos of the controversial garden Irwin designed for the Getty Museum; the story of how he went about it (beginning with cutting up plant books and rearranging the photos into collages) is fascinating....

Wild Landscape

Yesterday we walked along the high bluff at Ebey's Landing, near Coupeville in the middle of Whidbey Island. When we started out about 9 a.m., fog swirled around us, cloaking our view of the water in pearly mist. As we hiked, the sun broke through in patches, revealing bits of blue water, ships, and slowly, the mountains to the west and checkerboard of farmland to the east.

Ebey's Landing is the country's first historical reserve, and consists of thousands of acres of coastline and working farmland. It must be one of the most gorgeous places on earth, for you can see miles out across the water to the snowy Olympic mountain range, or back toward fertile farmland and historic buildings that look much as they did over a hundred years ago. Rich brown dirt and golden fields compete with views of  lagoon, freighters and mountain peaks, as you loop along a high bluff and then back along the beach.

This is an unusual prairie ecosystem, sheltered by the Olympic rain shadow, and so dry I've seen cactus growing along the bluffs. The pines are contorted by the wind, and Oregon grape, salal and wildflowers grow thickly along the bluff trail. Yesterday the rose hips glowed, the snowberries sparkled in the rising mist, and dead white canes stuck up through them in a composition worthy of Andy Goldsworthy:

 

More Color Musings

Have you noticed how the light has changed in the last few days? It's as if the sudden slant of the sun reveals how the earth is tipping towards autumn. The light has a new luminosity, especially in the mornings and evenings. But even at noon, when the sun is highest, it's lost some of its intensity.  Which changes the color of everything in the garden - no wonder we like the more intense golds, yellows and oranges in autumns, for they make up for the lack of warmth from the sun.

So I've been thinking about color, how the blues are softer now, and how color contrasts fade a bit as the light itself takes on a blue tint. And then I came on the scene below, where a leggy shoot of 'Sun Gold' cherry tomatoes wound its way past a pine tree to peek through the slats of an adirondack chair painted nearly the same shade as its coloring-up little fruits. It reminded me of how an artist gardener once told me that she simply picks the colors she loves and then everything goes together. I didn't paint the adirondack chair to match the hue of 'Sun Gold' tomatoes, but there it is; they found each other.

Not Your Grandma's Bedding Out...

I drove up to Vancouver B.C. last weekend to pick up my husband after he rode his bike up there in the RSVP event. I took Bridget, our rambunctious Wheaten terrier, who was welcomed and made over everywhere we went. The staff at the Sylvia Hotel gave her biscuits, even after she had an impromptu play date in the lobby with a pair of glamorous Saluki hounds.

I had dinner with Tom Hobbs and Brent Beattie, before a tour of their cool new urban condo - stay tuned for a story and photos of their fresh new aesthetic in Seattle Times' Pacific Northwest magazine.

I try not to be envious about how civilized Canada is - they are so far ahead of us, and not just in how dogs are welcome nearly everywhere.  They have gun control, efficient public transportation and equitable, affordable health care, as well as flowers everywhere.  How about this updated take on bedding out in the West End? Notice how beautifully these plantings are maintained in a very busy public park.

Fall Vegetables?

Sorry to inject reality, but as Labor Day approaches it's time to be thinking about autumn planting.  If your cilanto and broccoli bolted like mine did in that July heat (let alone summer water bills) cool season crops sound like a fine idea....

For those of us sans greenhouses or row covers, what to plant for fall food crops can be puzzling.  I'll be giving suggestions over the next couple of weeks so you can get your fall seeds ordered, or better yet, give yourself an earlier harvest by tracking down starts.

First, care for the soil. If you're re-planting a bed in which you've grown flowers or vegetables all summer, refresh and enrich the soil by digging in compost and a balanced, organic fertilizer.

Consider planting kale, which is nutritious, stands up well to winter weather, and its crinkly leaves are pretty in the garden.  Romaine lettuce is another nutritious green, and it does better in cooler temperatures than many of the more tender mesclun-type lettuces. And it's not too late to try a second crop of broccoli for a late autumn harvest.

And speaking of autumn harvests - have you ever seen pumpkins ripening so soon? I'm already picking them ...

Photos courtesy of Log House Plants, who are busy shipping autumn vegetable starts to nurseries. Stay tune for more cool-season veg selections...and here's proof of early pumpkin ripening going on in my Langley garden..

Color Crazy

I just reviewed California artist and garden designer Keeyla Meadows's new book on color for the Seattle Times (it'll run in Pacific's fall home design issue on October 11 - yes, I really do have that long a lead time...).

The lively, lovely exuberance of "Fearless Color Gardens: The Creative Gardener’s Guide to Jumping Off the Color Wheel”, to be published later this autumn by Timber Press, inspired the flower arrangement below. The vase is "Carrot Top" by Johanna Nitzke Marquis, and the mix of maroon, orange and pink (agastache, crocosmia, sweet peas, Astrantia 'Hadspen's blood') is so....well....so Keeyla, who seeks inspiration from flowers' own fearless color combinations.

Public Stumpery Debut

Stumperies may be an acquired taste, as much historic and fantastical as they are visual. Yet they're the next new, new thing in gardening, pulled back from their Victorian roots and revived by Prince Charles, who in 1980 installed a garden of sweet chestnut stumps, ferns, and woodland plants at Highgrove, his country estate. 

Maybe because of our shady gardens, our love of nature, and/or our plentiful conifers, the Northwest is a hotbed of stumperies. Stay tuned for a story I'm writing for the Seattle Times about  Pat and Walt Riehl's magnificent, magical stumpery  on their Vashon Island property they've created with the help of British fern expert Martin Richard.

And on September 20, a huge new stumpery debuts at the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden. Designed and planted by the Hardy Fern Foundation, the new stumpery covers a half acre, with 130 tree stumps and logs. Recycled from construction sites, these stumps and their wild root forms are set like art objects into a mature conifer forest. More than 700 ferns, including Victorian cultivars as well as natives, are massed around the stumps. Fern experts will be on hand at the opening to answer your questions about this fresh take on an old garden oddity. The dedication is at 2 p.m., the opening runs from 1-4, and the Rhododendron Species garden is in Federal Way at 2625 S. 336th Street on the Weyerhaeuser campus.

Photo courtesy of Richie Steffen:

August Update...

We have not much more than a month until the autumn equinox (Sept. 22 this year), and my garden is seriously flagging. Parts are overgrown, the broccolli and cilantro long since bolted; everything would have benefited from more trimming and editing than I've provided in this hot, dry summer.

But there are signs of hope - the raspberries are coming on deliciously, my dwarf blueberries and ever-bearing strawberries continue to produce. Apples and pumpkins are coloring up, a third sowing of lettuce is kicking in, hydrangeas are plumped up, and the agastache is luring hordes of feisty hummingbirds. Here's a selective look at what's happening out there on a mid-August afternoon:

A slug-riddled ligularia just coming into bloom next to a mop-head hydrangea- how come slugs are so huge and plentiful in such a droughty summer, anyway?

Pumpkins turning orange two months before Halloween...

Sweet peas persist alongside a mystery dahlia I found at a farmers' market here on Whidbey.

Echinacea 'Sunset' and orange hummingbird mint (Agastache aurantiaca 'Just Peachy')

I've bought artichokes to eat at farmers' markets, and left mine in the garden to develop purple fuzz. This is an Italian purple artichoke, growing here with Rudbeckia 'goldsturm'

Q&A: Feed Troughs, Ground Covers & Poppies

 Question: I noticed (from your photos) that you use horse watering tanks for vegetable growing. Please comment on their efficiency or point me to info on the subject. Was going to have wooden planters made but would like to know about the tanks as an alternative worth pursuing.
Thanks,  C. Gay McVey

Answer: My garden is mostly raised beds, including round feed troughs, each four feet in diameter. I love the look of the feed troughs (they also come in a slimmer, bullet shape). They must be the least expensive large planter possible, their metal sides heat soil up earlier in the spring, and if you drill enough holes in the bottom so that they drain freely it appears they're indestructible. To locate feed troughs, see www.polocenter.com/health/feeduswa.htm for a city-by-city list of feed and livestock stores in Washington state.

Here's a photo of the feed troughs just after they were installed, and the first year they were planted:

Question: I Need some advice on where to purchase ground cover and what you would recommend. This would be in-between steeping stones/pavers. Look forward to your advice.

Thank you,

Noel Ramos

Answer: What will work best depends on your taste in plants, your soil, sun/shade..You'll want groundcovers that can take some foot traffic. Buy enough to plant them close together so that they fill in quickly. Until then, weed and water regularly.  There's a bunch of tough groundcovers marketed as "Stepables" - check out the web page for ideas, and then shop one of our larger nurseries for a good selection.

Question: Dear Valerie,

My great-grandmother grew the full, tall, pink, bread-seed poppies back in the late 1800's.  The seed has been passed on through the generations.  Each year I hold my breath that I haven't killed off the line.  My late mother planted her seeds from the previous year around Washington's birthday in February.  I tried that but found if I planted them in the backyard they'd grow in the front yard (I suspect from seeds in my compost) .  Either one heck of a root system or they're taunting me.  I suspect the latter.  I just read a suggestion of planting in the Fall for zone 7 here in Seattle.  Would appreciate your advice on  1) storing the seed, 2) when to scatter, and 3) how do you handle mulch/wood chips?  I like to use mulch to control the weeds but, since the seeds grow so shallow I worry about smothering.  Could I mulch first and then scatter, or would they do better in plain soil.  Thank you so much for your great articles and any poppy advice you can offer.  Shelley Butchart

P.S.  Apparently marrying a man with the last name of "Butchart" does not make me a gardener.  It worked for the woman in Victoria, but for me, not so much.

Answer: Avoid the wood chips when it comes to poppies, and sow them directly into the soil. Either spring or fall is fine, but I'd wait until later than February. I sow poppy seeds in late March when the soil has warmed up a bit, and again in early October.