Trimming the English Laurel

Posted on September 19, 2012 by Chrystal

Tomorrow is garden-waste removal day so I spent a chunk of my afternoon trying to tame the English Laurel hedge. I have a love/hate relationship with this particular entity, although by the end of today it was balanced towards the “hate” end of the spectrum.

English Laurel is extremely robust (love!), the bright green leaves look great 12 months of the year (love!), the wood is soft so it can be trimmed easily (love!), it grows very fast (love/hate) and the hedge is endlessly forgiving, no matter how badly  you trim it (lovex2!). I usually try to trim the vertical branches so that they don’t go over seven feet, and I cut all  horizontal branches so that they form a consistent wall of green.

Things get challenging because the laurel is backed by  a rock retaining wall and a cedar hedge (hate!). The wall  holds up our neighbors lawn, which is about a meter and a half above ours. Not only do I have to trim all the cedar branches which hang over the laurel, but I have to pull out all of the morning glory (hate!) and try to cut the salmonberry bushes (hate!) which grow from their side.

At the very front of our  yard, things are the worst. The laurel is really thick and overgrown and in one place, the laurel hasn’t been trimmed properly and has grown into trees. Every year I do a lot of cutting in this area and as a result, there are many bare trunks and branches all between knee and hip height, hidden beneath the foliage. So when I lean into the hedge to cut something just out of reach, the bare branches poke into me like spears.

So today I tried to cut the salmonberry bushes off at their roots, and I ended up leaning deep into the hedge, balanced against all the points of wood. Well, I ended up having my second “help-I’ve-fallen-and-I-can’t-get-up” gardening moment of 2012, when I lost my balance and fell deep into, and under, the laurel. Far below the leaf cover, the hedge is actually a maze of bare branches, and visibility is excellent. I could see the rock wall for several meters in both directions, and while I was down there I cut as many salmonberry bushes as I could. Getting up was a huge challenge as I had to try to get footing on uneven ground while trying to squeeze out, but I managed.

Later this week I want to cut at least one of the laurel trees, preferably from the street side.

Other things:

  • Summer isn’t over yet, and a few of the shrubs and trees are definitely drying out. This evening I watered all the plants in the back and tomorrow I am going to water the ones in the front.
  • The spinach and the pac choi are thriving with this cooler weather and are producing a big baby greens salad every second day. All the winter lettuce is up, and I have been harvesting that as baby lettuce.
  • The aphids are taking over the kale. I am worried that I am going to get the kale apocalypse again like I did last year, when walked out the back door and was hit by a horrible rotting smell.  It was the kale being eaten alive by aphids. I had to pull it all up and throw it away. For now, while the infestation is still relatively minor, I have been soaking the kale leaves in dilute soap and water, and most of the aphids die and float away and we just eat the rest (no, none of my family members ever reads this blog). One website said that marigolds attract the hoverfly, which eats aphids.
  • I pulled out all of the bolero carrots; they were enormous. Some of them had those black bruises, probably from carrot root fly. I just made carrot soup with all the bolero carrots and will pull up the rest of the carrots and the parsnips in the next week or so.
    One website suggested sowing carrots with leeks to reduce the risk of infestation.
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Mole holes

Posted on September 18, 2012 by Chrystal

This cat has an important office job, and is far too busy to catch moles.

Early in the season a mole moved into our yard and started to burrow under – and in – one of my garden boxes. I left cat hair near the mole holes in the hopes that the smell of our fearsome cat would scare the moles off. Of course, expecting Miss Kitty to actually catch any of the moles is simply too much to ask of a dignified cat like her.

For awhile the moles were gone, and then they came back, this time near the raspberries. Again, more cat hair and again they went into hiding. Now they seem to have taken over my entire front yard, including the boulevard. Ugh. When they were hidden in the back, I could pretend that they didn’t exist (“mole problem? no….I don’t think so…..”). Now they are in the front, the whole neighborhood can see we have a problem. A big problem.

I have been reading up on ways to eradicate them and have learned several things:

  1. When moles seem to “disappear” it can mean that the pregnant mole mama has gone deep underground to gestate and give birth a new litter. Four is the usual number. Eventually she will re-emerge with all her progeny – and your garden will experience a “mole explosion”.
  2. Moles taste terrible so other animals don’t like to eat them.
  3. Poisons don’t work well. Traps are recommended, but that means killing the moles, which I don’t want to do.
  4. Those hideous rainbow windmills you see in people’s yards are actually a mole-repelling strategy – the windmills send vibrations into the ground which drive the moles away.

Since we are generally not “yard-crap” people (with the sentimental exception of Gimli, the garden gnome), adding a bright row of stupid windmills on the boulevard is not an option. However, one of my animal-expert neighbors recommended the following product which I just ordered: Sweeney’s 9012 Mole and Gopher Twin Pack Sonic Spikes. According to the product description, the product emits a sonic pulse that is highly irritating to moles and gophers. This sonic pulse penetrates the soil every 30 seconds, and can treat up to 15,000 square feet.

I have going to give my garden-waste bin sharing neighbors each a sonic spike as am early Christmas gift, to prevent the moles from moving into their yards. Delivery date is October 1: I only have to tolerate the moles for another two weeks!!!

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Shirley Double Mix (I need a better camera)

Posted on September 15, 2012 by Chrystal

Shirley double mix poppies.

Most of my gardening focus is on (1) growing vegetables; (2) pruning hedges, tress and shrubs; and (3) trying to get some one else to mow, trim or weed. A distant tertiary priority is (4) filling up the space not occupied by vegetables, hedges or grass. That is where flowers come in.

One of the seed packets that I ordered from West Coast Seeds contained “Shirley Double mix” which is described in the catalogue as

P. rhoeas
Translucent red, pink and white blooms come in singles and doubles. Height is dependant on the soil quality but Shirley Double Mix generally grows to heights of 30cm (12″) to 120cm (4ft). 

That description doesn’t do the flowers justice. Although they only ended up blooming in one area, this was right in front of deck, so they were much admired. There are about six different poppies in this blend, and they are all tall and gorgeous. My photo simply doesn’t do the flowers justice.

I am collecting seeds from these poppies (along with seeds from the white cosmos) and am going to plant the entire bed with those two varieties next year. I anticipate that this will require constant deadheading, but it is well worth the effort.

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Cyclamen

Posted on September 13, 2012 by Chrystal
Image

Cyclamen!

I have blogged about cyclamen before, but I can’t help myself. LOVE THEM. They show up unexpectedly after everything else is almost finished blooming, lighting up an area of the garden that is kind of dry and boring. One of my gardening books (Gardening in the Pacific North West  by Carol Hall and Norman Hall) describes them as mostly mid-pink, but also pale pink, dark pink and white, so the white ones that have recently appeared are not an anomaly.

The book also stated the most fabulous thing of all: No maintenance. They thrive in partial shade, and require dry summers and wet winters.  Perfect.

Now all I need is a decent camera so that I can photograph them.

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Albinos?

Posted on September 5, 2012 by Chrystal

White strawberries

White California poppies

Albino plants. In a previous post I mentioned that I have albino strawberries and white California poppies that grow along side their pigmented sisters.  Today I noticed two white cyclamen, which I have never seen before. I tried to take a photo of them, but like many white flowers photographed with a crappy cellphone camera, they seem to glow and none of the definition and details are visible. Sort of like UFO photos from the 70s…

White cyclamens (terrible photo – sorry!)

Weeding: my favorite fall activity. Now that fall is in the air and the temperature isn’t a gigilion degrees, I have been trying to make up for lost time and remove all the weeds and other things that have been growing like crazy. I have finally removed all the old raspberry canes and tied up the new ones (a task that took upwards of six hours overall) and am now starting my annual assault against the lauryl hedge, which I am again conducting to coincide with yard waste pickup day.

Daylilies are planted. The other productive thing that I finally did, was plant the daylilies from my good friend Mrs. G. She gave me four varieties – one mystery one, Sammy Russel (delicate red), Pittance (yellow) and Minstrel Boy (dark red). I have planted them in a sunny spot behind the tiger lilies in the front

White Gentian (not an albino)

yard.

Other fall activities. The other important thing on my list is to mulch the side yard, mulch the “short” raspberries, remove the sprouts  underneath the hazelnut, pull ivy, keep cutting off dead things and try to decide what to do about all the overgrown shrubs in the back, which are interfering with the sun.

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Bee Envy

Posted on August 31, 2012 by Chrystal

By nature, I am not a jealous person. At all. Ever. Except I often have feelings of profound envy when I visit my friend “Ms. W”. She has two things that I actively covet: her kitchen and her backyard bee hive.

#1: The perfect kitchen. Her kitchen is maximally functional, with a gas stove, lots of counter space, amazing storage and good lighting. I know I must be a super-annoying guest because every time I visit I run my hands over her counters like I have OCD, and always open the drawers because (a) the drawer handles aren’t sticky, (2) I like to admire the custom inserts, (3) her kitchen drawers don’t scrape when they open, and (4) are not full of breadcrumbs, elastics, bits of leaves and other detritus swept there by people who don’t like to clean up. Light reflects off all the clean and uncluttered surfaces. The sink isn’t full of dirty dishes and empty plastic containers. I don’t stick to the floor (okay, she has dogs to clean up spills). Sigh…..okay back to reality.

#2: A bee hive. This year Ms. W hosted a bee hive from a company called 3b honeybee. Earlier in the  year, they placed a large hive in a quiet corner of her  yard, and the bees have been working hard all summer making honey. Interestingly, the bees always come and go using the same route, which the W’s have named “the bee highway”. I didn’t actually run my hands over the outside of the hive or open any of the drawers, but I admired the hive when I was there earlier this week, and I hope to host one next summer.

Check out the 3bhoneybee website for more information: http://www.3bhoneybee.ca.

PS: I e-mailed the 3Bhoneybee guys, and they have added me on their list for next year! Yay!!!!

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Feels like fall

Posted on August 26, 2012 by Chrystal

Today I worked in the raspberries, cutting back the old canes and tying up the new ones. The raspberry supports have been great and I might add a few more clotheslines (lower and higher) to support the shorter and taller canes. I completed two rows, and have about six more to do.

The new plants I added this year didn’t get enough water or light, and as a result the black raspberry plant died and the yellow raspberry plant didn’t produce berries. The other bush (was it red berries?) is no where to be found, so probably died earlier. There are some spaces at the back of the patch, but unless someone invents “shade berries”, those spaces are going to stay empty.

So, this fall I am going to do what I did last year, and add lots of compost and manure to the patches, maybe add some fertilizer and more bark mulch (weeds have been low due to the mulch and the lack of light). I am rolling up the soaker hoses and putting them away for now, but am going to use them again next spring.

One last thing I need to do is to trim all the hedges around the berries and cut the branches hanging over the raspberries, blocking the light. Must add that to the “to do” list…

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Filet beans and potatoes

Posted on August 25, 2012 by Chrystal

A slightly out-of-focus photo of the 2012 potato harvest.

I met my good friend, Mrs. G, at the UBC Farmers Market this morning. She recently gave me some day lilies from her step-father’s garden and have intended to blog about how happy I was about this, but as I have been procrastinating on splitting my lilies and planting hers, I have also been procrastinating on the blog.

Anyway, the UBC Farmers Market had the world-famous “nicoise” beans, but which they called “Filet” beans. When I googled that term I found out that they are also called “haricots verts” and that several varieties of beans can be planted to produce these tiny, flavourful beans. Here is a good blog post that discusses filet bean species and how to grow them: http://www.vegetablegardener.com/item/5627/how-to-grow-fine-tender-filet-beans.  Something to add on the list for next year.

In other news, my Assistants have returned from camp and are eager to earn extra money by doing yard work. One of the guys dug up all the potatoes; this year the total yield (shown above) is only about a fifth of what was harvested last year. I mentioned in an earlier post that the potato plant leaves had a lot of holes. Although the potatoes look fine, they do have a rougher and more scaly skin than last year, so I wonder if they were afflicted by some pest or virus that I wasn’t aware of. Next year I am trying a different (and possibly more robust) variety of potatoes.

Tomorrow: raspberry canes.

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Planting: a mixture of magic and science

Posted on August 23, 2012 by Chrystal

Planting day! This morning I had an inspiring conversation with an experienced gardener who suggested that now is the time to plant fall lettuce and spinach. I checked the lunar phase calendar, and indeed today (August 23) was a most auspicious day for planting.

Spinach: seeds with specific pH requirements. According to the instructions on the spinach seed pack, spinach is a heavy feeder and “requires rich soil and a fairly neutral pH of 6.2 – 6.9 (lime if necessary).” The packet also suggests organic fertilizer. So after pulling out all the dead basil and lettuce from the beds, I added compost, fertilizer and some manure and dug it all under. Sadly, I didn’t have any lime. Using my little  hand-held number (shown above), it would appear that my soil is completely neutral (pH 7.0). Actually, at a few points the display flicked to 7.4 or 7.6 and once even to 8.3, but then went back to 7.0. I am not sure that is even significant.

Me: a customer with specific product requirements. Since the nursery was all out of lime (maybe everyone else is planting spinach?) I asked the garden guys what else I could use instead to alter the pH of the soil, explaining the specific pH requirements of my spinach seeds. The owner said “That’s way too much information. I don’t think the spinach will even notice the pH“.  I laughed. The Man said that I should have responded with “But surely you are aware that pH is a logarithmic scale, and a pH of 6.0 is ten times more acidic than a pH of 7.0?”  (I know. I know. Science humor).

Winter planting. So at the end of the day, I planted three rows of spinach (alternating tyee and space varieties) at the end of bed 3, west of the kale. I sowed pac choi at the end of bed 2 (taiwan on the south end and ching chiang on the north), then sowed a big band of mesclun mix beside that.  Finally I planted eight very short rows of  red sails, speckled butterhead, rouge d’hiver and freckles lettuce, also in bed 2.

Next week is a big gardening week. Not only do the potatoes need to be harvested, but the raspberry canes need to be tamed and the lilies need to be split and replanted. My good friend Mrs. G just brought me four varieties of day lilies from her dad’s garden, so I want to find a good place to plant them. Finally, I need to transplant some wild strawberry plants to bring to a friend on the Island.

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Niçoise green beans

Posted on August 21, 2012 by Chrystal

Last summer I saw small bags of thin, perfect green beans at Trout Lake.  I picked up a bag to fondle the beans, then put it down again abruptly when I found out the price was $7.00, which was about twice what I expected to pay. Of course, I couldn’t just put the beans down quietly and leave, I had to scream “WHAAAAA!!!” and wave my hands beside my head (yeah, jazz hands. I know. Bad dramatic gesture).

“These are niiiiiiiii-çoiiiiiiiiiii-sssssssse beans” the vendor hissed, emphasizing each and every syllll-laaa-ble.

“Is that a specific kind of bean species?” I asked. I was curious, because to me they looked just like immature bush beans, the type that are too small to pick. Obviously, I should have stretched my syllables out more when I spoke, because he didn’t seem to hear and instead turned his attention to a more deserving customer.

This year I was going to see if I could produce my own “niiii-çoiiiii-ssse beans” by picking my bush beans early. We are growing “jade” bush beans, which are great producers and never seem to get tough like pole beans. The beans started producing full-sized beans about two weeks ago, and since that time we have been picking a large bowl about every three days. Right now the beans are at a peak  productivity, and so later today I am going to blanch and freeze a few bags of the full-sized beans for the winter/fall. Then I am going to go out and turn my attention to the smaller ones to see if I can pick some  niiii-çoiiiii-ssse beans for dinner.

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