It’s a Marshmallow world in the winter…

 

Happy 2017! We have had quite the winter weather over the last couple of weeks. The snow has really stuck around with the freezing temperatures which makes for some beautiful garden pictures like above – the weeping willow in my garden at home.

A coral bark maple covered in snow…and ice!

Unfortunately , the last snow storm did some serious damage to our cedar hedge. This is what I woke up to…

That was some pretty heavy wet snow – so there is not much I could do about it. Multi stemmed hedges like cedar don’t stand up too well to snowfalls like this. Part of the problem is that I didn’t prune the whole hedge last year. If you look at the picture , you can see there is less damage to the hedge on the left side of the picture. This is the section I did prune late last summer but I ran out of steam to finish off the rest and I paid the price. Proper, regular pruning can keep your hedge stronger. By pruning the hedge appropriately, you can keep the bottom of your hedge wider then the top – so that it is tapered as it gets taller. This helps to keep the snow from splitting your hedge in half. Although my hedge did bounce back a bit once the snow came off, I will still have to prune that area of the hedge hard – probably 2-3 feet lower in early spring. This should help it bounce back to its original shape. Then I will have to prune it again later in the year to maintain a better shape to ensure this doesn’t happen next winter.

If you have a pond with fish, it is always important to have a pump running that will keep oxygenating the water during the winter. Also, if it gets cold enough to freeze completely , you must keep an opening in the ice to allow for gas exchange from any decomposing material in the pond. This can be done easily with a small aerator with aeration discs.

As you can see in the above picture, it got a lot colder! My two openings (from aeration discs) actually froze over completely. Never smash ice on a pond with fish – the sound-waves through the water can actually damage or kill your fish. It is much safer and less disruptive to pour some boiling water over the openings to melt the ice. This is what I did just before taking this picture.

And finally , ice on your pond can be beneficial to some animals….

My cat enjoyed being able to stroll out to the middle of the pond and drink water from the openings in the ice! Silly cat.

Even though this weather adds a unique beauty to the landscape, I have had enough of it. Is it spring soon?! I read this quote today that I thought was pretty funny…

“I think its time for old man winter to get Mother Nature drunk, and have a little fun making spring…”

Enjoy your garden…!

#winter #gardening #pond #hedge #snow

 

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Planting Tips and Fall plant picks

It is officially fall now, the temperatures have cooled down and our steady west coast rain is back. Our long drought seems like a distant memory now…except if you are noticing your cedar hedge is slowly dying off!!

Cedars were hit hard with our long dry period this spring and summer. I have seen lots of new cedars that were planted in the spring that just couldn’t make it through the summer with water restrictions. Even mature, established cedars have struggled.

It seems to be the year of replacing cedars! There is not much to be done but to start over. There are a few instances where I have seen newer cedars that have died that were not planted that well, so this does not help them when the stress of a drought hits them. Improper planting can already put your new hedge at risk.

Here are a few planting tips to make sure you are helping your new cedars or any plant for that matter:

1. Proper planting depth – Always make sure you are planting at the appropriate depth. Measure root balls as you dig. Place the cedar in the hole – check the depth. Your root ball should be level with the surrounding ground. Don’t plant too high  AND don’t plant too deep. High root balls dry out faster and buried trunks will rot and die.
2. Proper spacing – Make sure you are giving your new hedge the right amount of space to grow. If plants are planted too close together , they will compete for nutrients and crowd each other out in no time.
3. Amend the soil – Make sure that you are adding some compost and/or fresh soil to the planting holes. Mix it in with the existing soil and place the root ball in the hole. Back fill with new and existing soil.
4. Add bone meal for good root development.
5. Water – Make sure you soak the whole root ball before fully covering with soil. Let the water sit and drain away. Then finish back-filling around the root ball with soil. Water again once you have finished planting and set up a specific watering schedule. Write it down so you don’t forget. Try to stick to it. Plants that have taller trees around them will not get as much water from rain , so need to be watered by hand more often. Always check soil moisture by just putting you fingers into the soil. Get to know your soil, and water accordingly.
6. Mulching – Add a 2 inch layer of mulch around your new plants after planting. Composted bark mulch is a good option. Don’t bury the trunk but have a nice layer to assist in keeping the soil from drying out. This can really help during dry periods.

…..                                ….                                ….                         ….

Fall is also a great time for planting. Why not think about adding some new plants that can add some fall interest to your garden? Why do spring and summer gardens get all the focus? Why do autumn and winter gardens seem to be more of an afterthought?

Sometimes people feel that fall is the time to “shut down” the garden. Put all the tools away, clean up and say goodbye to the season. Then they don’t look out the window until the bulbs start in the spring….How sad!! There is an abundance of interest in the garden at this time of year that can extend the season into December!

It is a trans-formative time in the garden with beautiful foliage colours, berries and textures. We are lucky on the west coast to have mostly mild falls and winters. But even gardeners in cooler climates can extend the season as well.

A garden isn’t just interesting because of “flowers”. Don’t get me wrong – blooms are beautiful and are a dynamic part of any garden. Although there are some flowering perennials that can extend the season into the fall , we really need to look at plants that have more then just “flowers”. Fall should be a time to explode your garden with striking fall foliage, beautiful berries and fiery fruit, showy seed heads and bodacious bark!

The trick is to look for perennials , shrubs and trees that offer multi-season interest. Flower, form and foliage – this is a good recipe to follow to extend the interest into fall and winter. Plants that hold this triple threat in their arsenal will be sure to extend the time you can enjoy your garden –  Here are a few of my favourites :

• Trees – Coral bark maple ; Paperbark maple; Dogwoods

  

Paperbark maple – Bark

Paperbark maple – fall colour

• Shrubs- Summersweet (Clethra); Berberis; Smokebush( cotinus); Burning Bush; Hydrangeas; Ninebark(physocarpus); Fothergilla; Viburnum; Callicarpa (beauty berry); contoneaster

  

Hydrangea Limelight and anenome                           Fothergilla – fall colour

Fothergilla – spring flowers

Viburnum ‘Brandywine’                                           Beauty berry and sedum

Contaneaster

• Perennials- Echinacea; Fall aster; Black eyed susan (rudbeckia); Sedum; Solidago (goldenrod); Russian sage

Sedum autumn joy                                                           Fall aster

• Ornamental grasses – Miscanthus; Little Bluestem; Japanese Blood grass; Carex evergold; Molina

Miscanthus                                                  Little Bluestem, Rudbeckia, sedum

Japanese Blood grass, carex evergold

Enjoy playing with plants to bring some 4 season interest to your garden. Have fun and get outside!