Sustainable Gardening Blog

Remember all the cheerful articles I’ve written about becoming a D.C. Master Gardener?  I wrote excitedly about the classes, then missing everybody when the classes are over, about starting to create an organization of Master Gardeners, and then changing our name to DC Urban Gardeners, independent of the city’s Cooperative Extension Service at the Univ. of D.C.  But finally, we started working on Projects, including the news blog those stories are on, and our website.

Well, the time to be coy about what’s really going on is over.  (Only readers of our blog saw the clues.) Several of us, after trying to correct a really awful situation from within, have gone to the top.  We’ve written to the City Council, the Deputy Mayor for Education, and the acting president of the university.  The encouraging elements here are the new mayor and an evolving City Council who are focusing on the university, holding hearings, asking for input and apparently willing to see heads roll.  So at the urging of a staffer at the Council, we’ve submitted testimony for their oversight hearings.  I’ve copied my testimony below the "Continue reading" at the end of this article.

I’ve gotta say it’s weird, and not in a good way, for hands-in-dirt volunteer gardeners to find themselves in a role we basically hate - the whistleblower.  But because we’re just volunteers we have nothing to lose - at least we don’t THINK they can hurt us for speaking up.  Funds for good urban projects are limited, dammit, and we’re just trying to correct this total waste of taxpayer money.  Actually, it’s worse than that because in this case city employees are working against the mission they’re tasked to complete.

Now there’s nothing left to be done, except wait to see if anybody gives a damn - anybody who can do something about it.

Read the rest of this entry »

Cherry laurels are extremely popular with landscape
designers as evergreen foundation shrubs and hedges, but
they’re less well known to the
public because they’re not showy.  They don’t exactly scream "buy
me" at the nursery.

The ‘Otto Luyken’ and ‘Schip’ laurels are the favorites, both of
which I use in my garden - they’re used to hide both the foundation of the house and the under-deck view. And the taller species functions well as an evergreen screening hedge
along my side property line.  But don’t miss the pruning ideas below.

In the U.S. they’re often referred to as "English laurels;" in England, not surprisingly, just "cherry laurels."  They’re indigenous to Eastern
Europe and Asia Minor.

DETAILS

• All varieties do well in full sun or partial shade, and
  ‘Otto Luyken’ even tolerates deep shade.
• White blooms appear mid-spring
• Size? Take your pick.
  • The species (photo right) grows fast (up to 2′ per year) to 20 feet tall, if
    left unpruned.
  • ‘Otto Luyken’ grows to 3-4 feet tall and 6-8 feet wide.  It’s shown in the
    top photo.
  • ‘Schipkaensis’ or ‘Schip’ (photo below) grows to 4-5 feet tall and 5-8 feet
    wide.
• Sources say they need good drainage,  but doesn’t almost every plant?
• Hardy to Zone 6.

CARE

• One less-than-helpful source tells us to "water regularly". In my
  experiencethey’re quite drought-tolerant, once established in the garden
  (after at least the first season).
• To prune for smaller size, cut the tallest stems back to varying heights,
  but always just above another branch (don’t leave stumps). OR remove the tallest
  one-third of the stems all the way to
  the ground or close to it every year.

• Left unpruned, cherry laurels can become so thick and densely branched that
  light and air are restricted and disease and pest infestations are encouraged. 
  So keep them more open and healthy by removing some of the interior branches,
  especially ones growing toward the center.
• Don’t prune by sheering around the edges to a perfect but unnatural
  shape - this will lead to the same dead interior problems described above
  (disease, pests).

Readers, if you’ve grown these, do what’s been your experience with them?

There’s no
groundcover known to humankind that’s as successful as liriope at preventing
erosion on even the steepest hillsides, at surviving wet or bone dry conditions,
and doing all that in full sun or deep shade.  You can yank it roughly out of
the ground and cram it back into the ground and it won’t complain.

Best of all for budget gardeners who need to cover ground, it’ll spread and
fill out quite quickly. Just divide the clumps you bought and they’ll
soon be ready to be divided again and before you know it - no bare ground will
be showing, and weeds don’t stand a chance in the thick mass of sheer liriope.

THE LIRIOPE THAT SPREADS - ONLY FOR CERTAIN SPOTS!

That said, the spreading type of liriope that I’ve just described will, given
some direct sunlight, continue to spread and smother everything in its path
that’s not substantially larger than it - like a tree.  Yes, Liriope
spicata spreads SO aggressively by runners, it’ll go below cement and
come back up on the other side. In the photo on the
right is an example of where spreading liriope should never be planted
- in a mixed border with other small plants - and it’ll be quite a chore to
remove it without hurting the plants around it.  Small gardening error
there.

However, there ARE places for spreading liriope and an example is shown in
the top photo - all by itself
in a contained area, like the right-of-way between
the street and the sidewalk.  Another might be a steep, shady embankment where
there’s room to remove each year’s unwanted spread without damaging any nearby
plants.  Or anywhere in full shade.

THE WELL-BEHAVED LIRIOPE

Liriope muscari is the "clumping" kind that does not spread
by runners and basically stays where you put it.  It blooms purple, not white
like spicata, but it shares all the good qualities of the spreading kind -
incredible toughness and adaptability - without the invasive behavior.  And
there’s an especially attractive green-and-white variegated variety of this
plant, which brightens up any shadey spot.

But budget gardeners, the bad news about clumping liriope is that you’ll have
to buy many more of them to accomplish the same coverage you’d get
quickly and cheaply with the spreaders.   And clumpers usually aren’t available
free from your neighbors, as spreaders are.  So it’s easy to understand why so
many homeowners use clumpers where they shouldn’t, even after being warned.

THE DILEMMA POSED BY SPREADING GROUNDCOVERS

This one plant epitomizes the dilemma of anyone in need of groundcover for a
large area: if a plant fills

in quickly, it usually will also spread where
you don’t want it to go.  And certainly the word "invasive" is a flag
for anyone.  So here are some good follow-up questions to ask:

• In what situation does it spread so aggressively?  In the case of spreading
  liriope, it’s only a problem when it gets direct sunlight.  I’ve seen it growing
  in the shade for years, not spreading at all. 

• And how hard is it to remove the unwanted growth? If it’s a matter of a few
  shallow-rooted seedlings, removing them might be a easy enough.  But plants like
  Liriope spicata that spread by long, tough runners are actually much harder to
  remove than turfgrass, which everyone agrees is hard work. So you’re warned.

DETAILS

• Can take sun or shade,
  soggy or dry conditions. 
• L. spicata blooms white in
  summer; L. muscari blooms purple.
• Hardy to Zones 6-9.

CARE

• Sheer back in late winter
  (although in full shade and there’s usually no need because the foliage looks
  fine even after the winter).
• Easily divided using a
  cheap steak knife.
• It’s not just extremely drought-tolerant but also moisture-tolerant - an
  amazing feat by a plant.

Photos from top.  A good place for spreading liriope is in the right-of-way.  Next, a crowded perennial bed is NOT the right place.  But bottom, in the shade beneath a deck it’s well behaved and one of very few things that will grow there.

Now it’s right here in the Archives and I’d love some help with:

• Additions, corrections to my article about Composting. I’ve noticed on local listservs that people can’t stop asking questions about compost, no matter how often they’re answered.  So we’re trying to get it right and park it on some websites for reference.
• In the On The Blogs section I’ve included some newsy or on-topic posts from the Rant and my own blog but please - if you have one, send it along so it can be added it to the discussion.  And you’d better believe I added Michele’s wonderful post about rules for beginners - with its 38 excellent comments - to my Getting Started page. 

And I welcome any other suggestions you might have.  I’ve decided to publish the newsletter at the leisurely pace of once a month, with no particular date of publication.  Staying loose, ya know.

[Yes, I’ve also posted this on GardenRant.  Guilty as charged.]

Okay, now’s the time for gardeners in temperate climates to get creative with the term "bloom".  Doesn’t it really mean looking its best?  Showing off its color?  Yeah, I thought so.  So no problem; there’s plenty to show off in mid-November.

First, here’s why it’s best to grow big-leaf Hydrangeas where they can be their
natural size and require no pruning.  Why remove these gorgeous blooms right after blooming, as required, when they look this good for SO long?

On the right you see the foliage and berries of Viburnum nudum ‘Winterthur," a terrific plant for small gardens.

More fun with foliage from the lovely Japanese maple ‘Green Cascade’ on the left, or how about the serviceberry on the right?


Now we do have to look harder to find perennials blooming, but in the photo below left these Euphorbia amygdaloides blooms haven’t changed since they first appeared in June.  And what’s more, the foliage is evergreen.

And finally, below right, Amsonia hubrichtii is still eye-popping, lush and gorgeous against a backdrop of Nandina.

Now you KNOW I love New England asters.  I feature them  prominently in photos showing off my garden.  I tout them as native plants that require no fussing at all, even in periods of drought.  But this year’s superdrought taught me to ask one more questions about a plant’s (supposed) tolerance for drought.  To wit:  Will it not only survive but actually look good?

See, after devoting a huge chunk of prime garden real estate to asters all season long and waiting, waiting, waiting for the big pay-off, this is what I got - a scattering of blossoms in a sea of diseased-looking foliage.  My hort friends tell me the drought is the cause, so I have a decision to make:  either water them more regularly get rid of them altogether.  Or, at the very least, devote less space to asters and finding some mid-summer bloomers to include in this prime spot instead.  You know how gardeners love an excuse to acquire more plants?  I’m looking through catalogs already.

Bottom photo: what I expected them to look like.

Oberlin did it again - this time being awarded the top spot by Sierra Magazine.  Again just ahead of Harvard, exactly where they’ve always wanted to be.  Congrats again, guys.

I’ve sung the praises of this super-sustainable shrub, the beautybush or Kolkwitzia - as a prime nesting place for birds.  As a shrub that arrived via UPS looking pitiful but hit the ground running - or growing.  As a fast grower that never needs supplemental watering, which is saying quite a lot in these days of record drought.  I even defended it against Michael Dirr’s dissing: "dull foliage," "little to excite even a passionate gardener."

But this report isn’t about the plant but about where I had it growing - wedged in between the garage, a large Miscanthus grass, a full-size cherry laurel and a fast-growing Arborvitae ‘Green Giant’ - and you can take the word "giant" as a giant tip-off. 

In the next photo you see it tied up and pruned back enough to not interfere with its neighbors, constrained to act like some scrawny rhododendron, not the huge, sprawling, 8×8 mound of lushness it wants to be.

NEW HOME
So as you see in the final photo, I took the seemingly drastic but harmless step of moving the shrub to a large open area.  Granted it doesn’t look like much yet - because it’s been hacked back to a shadow of its former self, not to mention of its potential self. 

Next spring I’ll report on whether this beauty lives up to its name, despite its inability to excite the likes of Michael Dirr.  Actually, Dirr concedes the beautybushes are easy to grow and may have a place in the shrub border, but that he’s seen too many free-standing examples in need of help.  If by that he means they need a good pruning - I agree!  Vigorous shrubs like beautybush need renewal pruning every year, which simply means removing the oldest 1/3 of the stems back to the ground.  Given that 15 minutes of maintenance every year, this shrub will, I promise, deserve a stand-alone spot in the garden, especially from a distance (because Dirr’s right - the foliage isn’t spectacular).  And with this beautybush now standing quite alone at the back of my neighbor’s very large backyard, we’ll soon see who’s right. 

See how gardeners, facing the on-coming bleakness of winter, keep their eye on the prize?  Spring, of course!