http://www.rainyside.com/forum/ This is an XML content feed of; Pacific Northwest Garden Forum : Last 10 Posts Sat, 21 Nov 2009 02:20:56 +0000 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:41:12 +0000 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Web Wiz Forums 8.05 30 www.rainyside.com/forum//RSS_topic_feed.asp http://www.rainyside.com/forum//forum_posts.asp?TID=4937&PID=31921#31921 Author: blueberry1946
Subject: I killed my Butterfly Bushes
Posted: Nov-20-2009 at 6:41pm

I think a little more tolerence could be applied here. There are many plants that become noxious weeds when they are moved to another environment. I have had butterfly bushes in my yards for many years. thoughtful pruning and cutting the seed heads of and allow them to mulch at the base of the mother plant keeps them controlled to one area. It is a very attractive, fragrant, butterfly attracting tall shrub. As with people all plants deserve thier place on earth.]]> Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:41:12 +0000 http://www.rainyside.com/forum//forum_posts.asp?TID=4937&PID=31921#31921 http://www.rainyside.com/forum//forum_posts.asp?TID=4991&PID=31917#31917 Author: HarleyLady
Subject: Mixed raspberry planting advice
Posted: Nov-20-2009 at 8:30am

Thanks Gary, the solution to all my angst:

"The best of all worlds is to plant a summer fruiting variety along with your everbearing one"

So, it appears I can just cut all canes to the ground now (except new shoots) and will just sacrifice a small spring harvest from the everbearing but still have berries for summer and into fall. Losing a small spring harvest seems worth the trade-off of the extra work involved otherwise in either moving the plants or having to do two prunings after I identify which plants are which. ]]> Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:30:00 +0000 http://www.rainyside.com/forum//forum_posts.asp?TID=4991&PID=31917#31917 http://www.rainyside.com/forum//forum_posts.asp?TID=4991&PID=31916#31916 Author: gary
Subject: Mixed raspberry planting advice
Posted: Nov-20-2009 at 4:10am

Sheila,

In his Sea Times column yesterday, Cisco Morris recommends foregoing the spring harvest on the everbearing berries. This simplifies the pruning to just the fall. You can read it at:

"Maintain Everbearing Raspberries"

This seems to me that you cut ALL old canes each fall. Your Tulameen already has new canes in the fall and the everbearing plants will grow them next season for your fall harvest.

That also seems there is no need to move any plants on a small planting like yours.]]> Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:10:38 +0000 http://www.rainyside.com/forum//forum_posts.asp?TID=4991&PID=31916#31916 http://www.rainyside.com/forum//forum_posts.asp?TID=4985&PID=31915#31915 Author: Joy C
Subject: Ground cover
Posted: Nov-19-2009 at 8:46am

Yes, the discription and pictures fit, I also had to snicker at the "hirsuta" as in hairy beastie! Yes, the little white flowers are cute, but soon it becomes a hairy beast. So this winter it's "I spy-you die, before you get hirsute!" The only thing wrong with winter is that you have to wait so long for spring to come.
I looked in Territorial catalogue, and they have seed for Fragaria vesca. That is tempting! Thank you all for you comments!

Edited by Joy C - Nov-19-2009 at 8:54am]]> Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:46:05 +0000 http://www.rainyside.com/forum//forum_posts.asp?TID=4985&PID=31915#31915 http://www.rainyside.com/forum//forum_posts.asp?TID=4932&PID=31914#31914 Author: greenmann
Subject: Suggestions for getting rid of mature lawn?
Posted: Nov-18-2009 at 12:26pm

You might want to find out if you can build raised beds too. YOu can put the cardboard under the beds, then fill with good soil designed for raising veggies, rather than having to deal with trying to make what you have work. Plus, raised beds just generally work better in our climate for vegetables. There are a number of reasons for this, which you can read in the section on veggies, but it also would make removing these later relatively simple, if labor intensive.

And yes, grass is easy to replace later.]]> Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:26:20 +0000 http://www.rainyside.com/forum//forum_posts.asp?TID=4932&PID=31914#31914 http://www.rainyside.com/forum//forum_posts.asp?TID=4945&PID=31913#31913 Author: greenmann
Subject: Garden Bed and Compost bin
Posted: Nov-18-2009 at 12:19pm

On your raised beds; if this is for veggies, you may want to get your soil tested. The results of that will tell you if you need to add nutrients and what kinds, and also may tell you if the soil has the right structure to do well with most veggies. Basically, if you can't easily shove a trowel down to the hilt, you may have a more compact soil than veggies generally prefer. If it is really full of weeds, and the soil impoverished, you may well be best off taking the top six to twelve inches or so of soil off the top and replacing with new.

Composting is one of those things that you can either go the easy way, or make as complicated as you might like, lol. Most of us just pile what we have when we have it, trying not to get too much of the brown or green at once, but otherwise just piling it on and letting it do its thing. If you want to be really fast with the compost, then be more careful of your ratios etc, but generally it will work just fine if you simply pile what you have when you have it. Now, if you bought one of those nifty compost tumblers, lol... follow the directions.

On weeds to add to your compost- seeds should generally be avoided, UNLESS you are hot composting, which is a persnickity and often very labor intensive process. Hot composting is the term used for composting in such a way as to activate the biological processes of decomposition to the point that the baceria literally heat up the compost. If it gets hot enough, it will kill the weed seeds. To do this, you need to get the right bacterial cultures in your compost (which usually happens on its own, but you can get cultures from other people doing this), get the right ratio of brown and green fillers, and turn your compost regularly on a schedule set by weather, what you added, and how fast things are decomposing. It is a complex process, and one that I personally do NOT put faith in to actually kill the weed seeds. My alternative is to put anything I am not sure I want to compost myself in the yard waste bins and let the company who does that deal with those seeds. They have to sterilize by law, so that works better than my lazy composting. I also put things like buttercups and dandelion roots, nightshade and other weeds that will regenerate in the compost, in the yard waste bins. It's not worth the trouble to have these weeds regenerating in my compost.

Adding "brown" matter to your compost is the easiest. If you have a paper shredder in your house, just use that to shred whatever waste paper you have lying around and add that. You may or may not want to add glossy color printed stuff like magazines (the glossiness comes from clay, and not all modern inks are soy based...) You can also stockpile leaves (which all on their own make some of the best soil additive- in fact, before peat was mined commercially for potting mixes, this is what is referred to as "leaf mould" in the old books on making soil). Shredded bark, so long as it isn't fresh ground, also works. Nowadays you can get coffee grounds at Starbucks, which also works really well, though it is very acidic so keep that in mind if you are planning on using your compost on plants that like a sweeter or more nuetral soil. Just remember, those ratios are by WEIGHT, not by volume, when you are dealing with something compact and heavy like the coffee grounds.]]> Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:19:39 +0000 http://www.rainyside.com/forum//forum_posts.asp?TID=4945&PID=31913#31913 http://www.rainyside.com/forum//forum_posts.asp?TID=4987&PID=31912#31912 Author: greenmann
Subject: Sugar palm?
Posted: Nov-18-2009 at 11:52am

I'll third that advice. Our neighbors have one towering over the fence that has been there for as long as I can remember. It looked rather silly covered in snow, but wasn't overly affected by it. And I agree, the cleanup that you husband did is standard issue for these palms. It was the cold that killed it, not the pruning.

It would be interesting to know how old the palm was, if it WAS a sugar palm. People do try them because they can take out milder winters, but we have had enough harder winters over the last few years it would be interesting to know how cold it was able to survive to. Portland also has a few warmer pockets, from what I understand where things like this do better. You may well be in one of those pockets. ]]> Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:52:24 +0000 http://www.rainyside.com/forum//forum_posts.asp?TID=4987&PID=31912#31912 http://www.rainyside.com/forum//forum_posts.asp?TID=4986&PID=31911#31911 Author: greenmann
Subject: I need shade - Fast!
Posted: Nov-18-2009 at 11:43am

Albizzia crenata is the species i was thinking of. At least here in Seattle, I haven't seen any indication that it is weedy, but it IS a legume, and many of them are. The various locusts can really be pests that way, and Laburnum is horrible about that. So, dunno. Unlike the locusts, these don't sucker at all, so you could use it is a temporary fix to give quick shade, and if it becomes a problem, realize that you may have to take it out and let other trees do its job.

One plus with the Albizzia is that some seem to be hummingbird magnets. That in itself is worth the risk to me, lol. Well, assuming you like its habit and it fits your overall design.
]]> Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:43:16 +0000 http://www.rainyside.com/forum//forum_posts.asp?TID=4986&PID=31911#31911 http://www.rainyside.com/forum//forum_posts.asp?TID=4985&PID=31910#31910 Author: greenmann
Subject: Ground cover
Posted: Nov-18-2009 at 11:19am

I believe what you have is Cardamine hirsuta, aka popweed, popcorn flower, or just that damn thing, lol. Check these pics out and see if it looks like your weed; Cardamine hirsuta

This is one of those plants that if you try and run it through the keys in Hitchcock's Flora of the Pacific Northwest you get to a native plant, C. oligosperma. That is a plant of wetlands, and though not all that uncommon, not at all weedy (and not bad looking in its own right, if you like small little white flowers, lol.)Because I ran it through the keys and thought it was native, I recommended a client once leave it in their garden. I've been very careful not to make that mistake again, lol.

Although you get it year round, and it can flower year round, I kind of think of this as one of the "winter weeds", one of the few that is persistent enough and active enough in the winter to make this time of year one of the times to most actively persue it. And since it CAN flower this time of year, and will set seed whenever it is warm enough, its a good idea to remember that and grab it when you see it.

But back to the strawbs... I agree that most of the hybrid culinary strawbs just don't spread as well to make a good weed suppressing groundcover. Some of the newer ones are actually bred for that trait. That and the fact that many of them will get a little taller than you might like (though that is, I admit, a subtle distinction), and I would use one or both of the natives. Not to say that you couldn't mix and match all of the above, but remember that these are closely enough related that the hybrids may cross at least with the F. vesca. Your mileage may vary of course.

Now if you can find seed or even a plant of it, there is a native clover that might work well- Trifolium wormskjoldii. It looks like a smaller version of the more typical clover, grows in moist riparian edges with things like speedwell (Veronica americana), silverweed (Potentilla anserina) and on the coast, Fragaria chiloensis (all of which would make a nice low groundcovering community for you if you want a mix, with whichever of the native strawbs you want to use.) Natives used the long tuberous roots of this clover more or less like spaghetti apparently. It's a pretty thing that likes sun and moisture, and hence is loosing habitat to development and noxious weeds, so is becoming less and less common in the wild. Plus there is some indication that some of the populations were in effect farmed or managed by native tribes to keep the natural beds clear of trees and other competition. Difficult to find, not necessarily easy to grow, but might be really cool mixed with the strawbs if you are into that kind of thing.

Edited by greenmann - Nov-18-2009 at 11:36am]]> Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:19:08 +0000 http://www.rainyside.com/forum//forum_posts.asp?TID=4985&PID=31910#31910 http://www.rainyside.com/forum//forum_posts.asp?TID=4985&PID=31909#31909 Author: Fern
Subject: Ground cover
Posted: Nov-18-2009 at 10:11am

Clover would be an ok one too, but not temporary. I think the idea of native strawberry is good, or one of the other ground cover type strawberries. Regular strawberries like Rainer wouldn't spread enough to compete with the ground cover types. You will have to weed out the grass and other things till the ground cover gets thick, really nothing grows faster then grass.
For now, you could spread a few layers of newspaper or cardboard down, anchoring it with some rocks or something.
Pop (aka shot) weed is the worst weed in my garden, and even after many years of diligent weeding it still makes an appearance. ]]> Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:11:07 +0000 http://www.rainyside.com/forum//forum_posts.asp?TID=4985&PID=31909#31909