The Coastal Gardener - February, 2008
A fresh start for spring
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Last month I cleaned the garden from one end to another, pulling weeds and removing old, spent plants. I was helped along by a big winter storm that made some editing decisions for me, including several old acacias split open in the strong winds. The winter cleanup renews the garden and makes room for new plants.
Followed by the dogs, that take their own interest in my efforts, with a few birds rooting around under the berry-laden cotoneasters on a warm clear afternoon, I am able to reconnect with each plant in the garden. First all of the salvias are trimmed down. Salvia leucantha, the popular wooly-bloomed purple sage, need to be cut to their bases exposing new shoots while shrubby types like Salvia clevelandii or Salvia chamaedryoides have only spent blooms and any dead stems removed. Other perennials like coreopsis and Shasta daisies are also tidied down the their bases.
Roses demand the most careful attention. I used to cut my roses very hard to force strong new growth. But as the winters have become drier, I have been much less severe in my pruning. Roses store energy in their green canes, but in the dry conditions of my ridge top garden they have to struggle a bit to recover from heavy pruning. This can stress the plants and lessen quality and length of the bloom display. I work to improve their shape, removing old or twiggy canes in favor of young strong green canes. The cut is always made just above an outward facing bud, to direct new growth away from the center of the shrub. Then I add a good dose of organic rose food that is washed in deeply with February rains. Another dose will be added in 3 weeks.
As I work through each flowerbed I look for old, tired plants in need of replacement. Accumulations of dry woody stems inside a shrub not only look unsightly, but also add significantly to their fire fuel volume. The old acacias I mentioned earlier were laden with old stems, and had leaned over into the pear and apricot trees along the orchard path. Now gone, the resulting open space allows room for new low plants with a vista down to the orchard gate.
Of course, weeds will be easier to deal with on sunny February days while they are small than April when they are very tall. The best way to keep them away is with thick mulch, which also improves the soil by holding moisture and adding organic matter. Mulches are particularly key for southern hemisphere plants like protea that send their highly efficient root system into the organic layer to draw out the nutrients they need.
All over the garden plants are coming to into bloom. Aloes of various types have been sending up red candles of blooms since December. But the main show comes from daffodils. These bulbs work best tucked under trees and high shrubs or into beds of groundcover. Noteworthy is the mid-season trumpet daffodil ‘Las Vegas’. It sports large blooms with a corolla of cream petals surrounding the buttercup yellow trumpet. ‘Las Vegas’ has strong stems that hold up well in weather for such a large flower, ideal for cutting. The daffodil’s color is echoed in the next bed by the deeper yellow blooms of Grevillea ‘Golden Lyre’, a cultivar I found at Australian Plants Nursery near Ojai. Dark, olive green leaves contrast with the abundant quill-like flower clusters. Later, Narcissus ‘Sir Winston Churchill’ and ‘Geranium’ will make a fragrant show. ‘Geranium’ has many inch wide blooms clustered on each stem with creamy petals around an orange eye. Hard to find, I add new bulbs to the group under my olive tree any time I see them listed in bulb catalogs.
All in all the cleanup not only gives the garden a tidy look but allows me to see each plant individually and appreciate it’s unique attributes and beauty. It also allows me the time to see where new plants can fit in to create the combinations that make the garden a success.
Dave Egbert
