Late-Autumn Garden Chores

Posted on by jeanmariemorelli.com

Late autumn usually brings the most precipitation to Port Townsend and the eastern part of the Olympic Peninsula. Atmospheric rivers dump rain. Strong winds blow and fallen leaves swirl. The sun is low in the sky.

The winter vegetable garden is producing, but most growth happened before the fall equinox. Garden beds covered with hoops and floating row covers will be protected from frosts. Fresh salad greens, kale, Swiss chard, and leeks  can be harvested throughout the winter. Monitor vegetables for slugs and cut worms. The wet weather favors slugs and snails. Get them now and there will be less generations come spring. Also cut worms are a problem and can be found during routine weeding.

Fruit Trees

Keep the base of young trees free of tall grass. Better yet, place mulch around the trunks. Winter is the time when voles chew bark and roots. If you have a serious vole problem wrap the trunks with hardware cloth to prevent the rodents from gnawing the bark. Some gardeners even use pea gravel as a mulch to discourage voles.

Late winter is a better time for pruning apple and pear trees, ornamentals and raspberries. The reason not to prune now is because we could have a warm, sunny spell in January that could encourage plants to grow—only to be blasted by a deep cold in early February. Better to wait until mid- February for most pruning. Because wet weather promotes bacterial and other diseases, many gardeners prune plums and cherries after flowering during a sunny spell.

This is a good time for large garden projects that warm the body. Pushing wheelbarrows of manure, woodchips, and  making large compost piles. Building planter boxes and retaining walls. Cutting down dead trees or cutting up branches for firewood or hauling them to the yard-waste facility. If you live in the woods, think about a larger tree-free area around the home as future fire-prevention.

Going within

And then there are times to slow down, take walks and notice the birds. Different birds are here for the season. Watch for Pacific wren, red-breasted nut hatch, northern flicker, pine siskin, golden-crown kinglet and spotted towhee.

Winter is a good time to dream about the garden. A garden mentor once said that the garden is forgiving—we can always try again next year. It’s a time to think about rearranging perennial beds and planting more drought tolerant flowers. Or perhaps it is time to think about  simplifying a high maintenance garden. For some gardeners seed catalogs arrive in January and planning the edible gardens begin. Now you can think about how you can extend the season or create a garden sanctuary.

Gardening for the Birds

Posted on by jeanmariemorelli.com

Winter is a time to step back and evaluate the garden; to appreciate how much it has grown since last year and to analyze how we can improve it. One approach is considering it from a bird’s perspective. Gardens that favor birds provide food, water, cover and a safe place to nest.

Water for drinking and bathing is essential. Place it adjacent to shrubby habitat to provide refuge from predators. Shallow moving water with a place to perch is best, but a bird bath that has clean water is also valuable.

If the shrubs have berries, so much the better. Also, evergreen shrubs provide an excellent place to roost at night. Evergreen foliage provides screening from predators and insulation from winter’s cold. Above is Ebbings Silverberry, Elaeagnus x ebbingei in bloom. Hummingbirds were feeding here mid-November and new flowers keep opening. Below is Strawberry Tree, Arbutus unedo and Pacific Wax Myrtle, featured in an earlier post.

Arbutus undo

Feeding the birds

Bird feeders come to mind first and many people are committed to providing bid seed and suet. Some birds change their diet according to the season. Perennial seed-heads offer another option. Native plants have evolved with the local bird populations. In addition, perennials can be selected for architecturally interesting seed-heads. Plants in the mint family including sages, Salvia; anise hyssop, Agastache and Jerusalem sage, Phlomis. Sunflower family flowers like Joe-Pye weed, Echinacea, black-eyed Susan, Rudbeckia hirta and artichoke are attractive to birds.

Many cat owners recognize that a cat can kill up to eleven birds a year. A ‘Catio’, or cat patio is an outdoor enclosed space that protects cats from eagles and hawks and prevents cats from killing birds. Many homeowners have found ways to integrate this structure into their landscape. One of my favorite catios is that of my friends Kathleen and Pete. They constructed their catio around an existing blueberry patch, thus excluding birds from berries and cats from birds!

Watching birds is a relaxing and invigorating hobby for gardeners. People start off with bird feeders and it opens up an entire world. When David Sibley, author of The Sibley Guide to Birds, was asked why he enjoyed watching birds, he responded:

One of the most enduring attractions for me is that it gives me a chance to learn about an entire system (the natural world) by simply watching and getting to know the birds. When I can name a bird that I see, or notice subtle differences in appearance or behavior, that information gives me access to a store of knowledge about the species’ habits and preferences. I know where its travels might have taken it, what type of food it’s looking for, if it’s likely to be alone or part of a flock. In short, I know that bird and have a sense of how it fits in the world around it.

Check out The Courage of Birds: The Often Surprising Ways They Survive Winter, a new book by the birding team Pete Dunne and David Sibley.

Consider gifting a gardener/birder an online course covering everything about gardening for birds:

Cornell Lab Bird Academy

Planter boxes in the vegetable garden

Posted on by jeanmariemorelli.com

Planter boxes in the vegetable garden offer many options. The first advantage we think of with tall boxes is the ease of gardening. Low planter boxes define the garden beds from paths and make upkeep easier. The boxes can be the solution to poor soil with either too much clay or sand. They offer good drainage and warm up earlier in the spring. The main reason why I am considering planter boxes is the addition of a barrier at the bottom of the box to exclude moles, and other ground dwelling mammals. Raised beds can be made of metal or concrete retaining wall blocks. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. Here we will look at wood construction.

Construction

Use 2 x 6 Doug fir as it is less expensive than cedar. It should last 5 to 10 years, especially if you can protect the wood with linseed oil or other non-toxic preservative. Boxes longer than 8 feet might bow outward, so brace the box with another board across the center. 4-ft-wide is an ideal width because the bed can be reached from both sides.

A 12-inch-high box will be adequate for most vegetables. The extra height in the photo above is for the gardener’s ease. A board across the top makes a comfortable seat for planting and weeding. Line the bottom with hardware cloth. Although ½ inch 19 gauge is stronger, ¼ inch mesh is more secure, preventing voles from entering. 6- or 8- inch-boxes are deep enough for most vegetables, especially if you don’t need to exclude rodents and moles. Root crops require at least 12 inches.

A 24-inch-deep planter box will require 2 ½ yards to fill. Filling each box with premium planting soil could become costly. The planter box should be filled with a combination of native soil and compost, or native soil and purchased mix that may be bought in bulk or in bags. Plain soil will probably get too compacted if it is heavy clay. If the boxes are replacing existing vegetable garden beds previously enriched with compost,  that soil will be excellent for the top 8 to 12 inches. The base could be filled with branches or other rough matter trail mix, rotted straw and leaves. It will settle as it decomposes. Each year add a couple of inches of compost to the top of the beds as the soil settles.

Pest Control

By enclosing the planting box, we can avoid rodent problems. Place hardware cloth below the boxes and attach them to the sides. This preventive measure may seem like overkill, but if you have been competing with small mammals in the garden you will recognize its value!

Moles are highly unusual; they spend their lives burrowing through the soil their with enlarged paws. I once saw a video of a mole underground—it looked like it was swimming! Their eyes and ears are very small to avoid getting clogged with soil. Moles are drawn to earthworms and insects that thrive in soil enriched with organic matter. They tunnel under garden beds. These tunnels can be a problem for all vegetable roots and especially root crops. Roots left dangling in a tunnel dry out. Washington State Fish and Wildlife describe these mammals and their behavior.

Then tunnels become passageways for voles or meadow mice. These rodents do chew on vegetable roots. Even rats can travel in the burrow and eat vegetables. Voles reproduce exponentially. Although hawks and snakes are tackling the problem in my garden, the vegetation provides too much cover for voles. Their population seemsto be growing. I have decided to build planter boxes next spring. Permanent beds make it easier to install the plastic hardware involved in drip irrigation and constructing hooped cloches with plastic, floating row covers, or bird-netting. All the additional hardware makes the garden feel less earthy to me. But I need to look at the garden in a new light, perhaps as a outdoor organic horticultural lab. Eventually it will soften.

I am no expert on construction. The above photos are from Peggy and Thomas Stanlick’s garden built by Isaiah Marlow.

For more information on how to build your own planter boxes see the following:

YouTube 7 Beginner Raised Bed Mistakes to Avoid

YouTube How to Make a Simple & Cheap Raised Bed

Colorado State University Raised Bed Construction