Designing a Native Hedgerow for the Quimper Peninsula

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Before we begin, let’s distinguish between a hedge and a hedgerow. A hedge is typically made of one type of plant, often evergreen. Hedges are sheared to control the size and to form a dense green wall. This requires annual maintenance. (Lately in Port Townsend many hedges are browsed by deer, leaving the lower branches without foliage, and exposing the garden within. Homeowners  wishing to re-establish the visual screen place temporary fencing to restrict access and allow the foliage to regrow.)

Although hedges are useful in tight spaces, most plants are healthier when allowed to grow loosely allowing air and light within. Hedgerows are more diverse including several species and allowing for a mixture of plant types. The biodiversity encourages more birds and pollinators. Also, hedgerows may be several shrubs deep, with small trees on the outer perimeter.

Overview: Points to consider when designing a hedgerow

Dream big and then check in with yourself about how much you can accomplish, including the initial expenses and labor and then the ongoing upkeep. It may be better to plant a 30-foot section and determine how the plants are responding rather than plant the entire 150-foot hedgerow. 

The more you prep the site before planting the easier it will be to maintain. 

Determine how much competition from pests (deer, voles, invasive plants) and how much loss you  are willing to accept. Plan accordingly.

What to plant

I would strongly suggest using natives for the hedgerow’s backbone and adding plants from similar climates around the world as counterpoint. A combination of native and nonnative plants can offer a variety of fruits and seeds for birds. By using a combination of deciduous and evergreen plants you provide habitat for more creatures and seasonal variation, but for a dense visual screen year-round, plant all evergreens. One thing to keep in mind is a hedgerow of only one species can be more vulnerable to extremes of climate or to disease. One solution could be to form a tall row of one species and then a second row of mixed species.

Below is a photo of a mixed plant screen including non-native Darwin’s barberry with Oregon grape in the foreground. Behind them are deciduous shrubs and immediately in front are perennial flowers. Across the path is a mowing strip and salal backed with more deciduous natives.

Trees in the hedgerow

Do you want to include trees in your hedgerow? If a windbreak is the goal, determine which direct the wind comes from. Our winter storms usually blow in from the south, wrapping around the east side of the Olympic Peninsula. In early spring when fruit trees are starting to bud, and cool-season vegetable starts are in the ground those winds can be a problem. If you need the windbreak on the south property line, consider planting trees farther apart than their mature size. The trees will slow the wind without making a wall of shade. By interspersing the hedgerow with smaller multi-trunk trees and large shrubs, sufficient sunlight will come through.

On my southern property line bitter cherry, Prunus emarginata volunteered and became established, threatening to shade out the orchard. Now every five years I have someone go through with a power hedge trimmer to lower the line of trees. (It was only after a number of years trying to control bitter cherry that I realized it spreads by rhizomes. In fact, these underground stems and roots can spread up to fifty feet from a tree and form dense thickets!)

Plant trees on the north side of the property to avoid shading surrounding gardens. Also, the coldest winter winds on the Quimper Peninsula occur when the polar vortex wobbles. A dip or a trough in the jetstream occurs and frigid air plunges south. In our case, the cold air pours down from the Fraser River Valley. Although this phenomena is not an annual event, it may become more common in time.

Potential native trees could include: shore pine, Pinus contorta var. contorta; serviceberry, Amelanchier alnifolia; Scouler’s willow, Salix scouleriana; and Garry Oak, Quercus garryana.

Patterned groups or natural mix within hedgerow

Most hedgerows are primarily functional, but if an attractive feature along a stretch of driveway is desired, consider planting several of one kind of shrub, say western mock orange, Philadelphus lewisii, interspersed with several Ceanothus thyrsifolrus” Victoria’, both drought tolerant. Or plant several Goumi, Eleagnus multiflora with beach rose, Rosa rugosa. While neither is native they provide fruit for birds and people.

Deciduous Rosa rugosa forms a 15 foot stretch along the road

To create a more wild hedgerow, plant a mixed group of native shrubs like Nootka rose, snowberry, seviceberry, and mock-orange. Consider how long our deciduous native shrubs are without foliage and you will might want to add some evergreen shrubs, such as Pacific wax myrtle and Oregon grape.

Deciduous natives and one ornamental evergreen; Cotoneaster lacteus.

Native deciduous shrubs with an ornamental evergreen Cotoneaster.

Hedgerow of native deciduous Shrubs

Create a plant list that grow well with your soil and light conditions. Note how large they well get within a desire time frame. Are you planning for the next three years or for decades from now? Most designs are based on plants at 8 to 10 years. One thing to keep in mind is…

More elaborate designs

I sometimes like to include ecological succession in my designs. By this I mean planting fast growing woody and herbaceous perennials, perhaps nitrogen-fixing ones like tree lupine, Lupinus arboreus, that fill the space quickly and flower abundantly but then die out as the shrubs and trees fill in. Other potential plants include tree mallow, Lavatera trimestris; Lemon Queen perennial sunflower, Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’; and Joe-Pye-weed, Eutrochium purpureum.

Shorter, pollinator-friendly additions could include California poppy, yarrow, and asters. Many herbs like rosemary and sage could be planted along the sunny edges. One important limiting factor is how much competition these perennials will have with the existing vegetation you are planting into.

Designing on paper or on the ground

Once you have a list of plants you like (See the post—) that work well with your site, design on paper or directly on the ground. How ambitious is your hedgerow design? Do you imagine planting hedgerows around the entire site? I always advise starting small and building on successes. The design can be created at once but the installation depends on a number of factors. What are your constraints? Maintenance: How will you keep down competing vegetation? Water: How will you water during the first couple of summers? Deer browsing: Fence an entire planting or individual plants? Finances: bare root seedlings or larger nursery-grown potted plants? (John Barr, a gardener extraordinaire, used to say that buying a 5-gal shrub means you are paying someone else to tend to the plant for a number of years.)

Pick out two to three kinds of native deciduous shrubs, two or three kinds of native evergreen shrubs, and one or two non-natives. Do you want to stagger plants in several rows?

Some people work better directly on the ground; it is difficult for them to imagine the hedgerow on paper. For these people, measure on site with tape measure or pace out the distances. Mark out two or three rows and then place a large rock or garden pot to indicate each plant. See the post: Hedgerow Plants for Jefferson County, available February 2026.

Road right-of-way and power lines

Many property lines end some distance from the adjacent road and are bordered by county property known as right-of-way (ROW) . Also there may be ROW between you and your neighbor that could be vacated. Learn more about it here. If you want to plant near power lines it is best to stick with shrubs. Trees growing more than 15-feet-tall should be kept away from power poles and lines. Refer to Jefferson PUD guidelines and look at the picture brochure from Puget Sound Energy.

Hedgerows: an introduction

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What is a Hedgerow?

A hedgerow has been described as a long, narrow forest. Or a boundary, a green fence, an enclosure for livestock, or a bio-diverse habitat between paddocks. A cultivated transition from one zone to another. The lines people have drawn across the landscape. The term itself comes from the British Isles where thickets along fields are treasured as natural habitat and historic significance. They even have their own preservation society!

Some of the hedgerows I planted in the late ‘80s are 35 years old now and I have made mistakes. The upkeep of hedgerows that are fifty-to-one-hundred years old gives me pause. Imagine a culture where a hedgerow is a respected part of the landscape—where they are planted with future generations in mind.

Robert Macfarlane wrote Landmarks, a book of terms for the cultivated and wild landscape. Although it is about the British Isles, it stirs the imagination about a language for a sense of place. By capturing these terms from an agrarian time before they are completely lost, he provides a glimpse of how people have known their land.

There is a page devoted to old terms used for hedgerows. ‘Smeuse’ refers to the gap at the base of a hedge created by the regular passage of small mammals. ‘Buckhead’ is a term for cutting the entire hedge within two-three feet of the ground and ‘bullfinch’ is a hedge that is allowed to grow tall without any ‘laying’ a horticultural technique of pruning and bending the woody thicket to keep it dense.

When I bought my property, it was enclosed with old cedar posts and barbed wire. It had been logged over and was kept mowed or perhaps grazed by a few head of cattle. Any existing hedgerow vegetation was simply where the tractor mower couldn’t get close to the fence.

My goal in planting hedgerows was to create more privacy. I had just arrived from owning a farm in the Ozarks where we planted saplings to create a riparian corridor along a creek that tended to flood. Planting trees and shrubs seemed a natural part of caring for land. We had not heard of permaculture or agroforestry, we had wanted to plant trees for preventing erosion, and future fence posts, and habitat for wildlife.

Spirea douglasii

If you are thinking of planting a hedgerow, ask yourself some questions and try to answer the best you can. What are your goals and how much time and energy are you willing to devote to the project? If you have big dreams and only little resources, phasing the project over several years will be more satisfying. If you want the hedgerow to perform too many functions, you might over burden the design.

All over Jefferson County we see volunteer hedgerows that sprang up along the edges of fields. Nobody planted them, and they are thriving habitat for pollinators, birds, and small mammals.

Trees volunteer along fence lines where mowers can't control them.
Bitter Cherry, Prunus emarginata

Let’s assume your primary goal is privacy, then you can create screening or a visual barrier. By selecting mostly native plants, the hedgerow can also be pollinator-friendly, drought tolerant (once established), and provide bird habitat. If on the other hand, you want to plant hedgerows on a working farm where they will perform functions such as livestock-proof, green fences, or restore and protect degraded streams, you might want to look at the Thurston County Cooperative Extension’s  Hedgerow Toolkit.

Next see: Designing a Native Hedgerow


Cultivating Agave for Mezcal

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Some types of agave reproduce asexally, making cultivation easier and more uniform. Either small hijuelos (sons) form vegetatively at the base of a mature plant, or bulbils form instead of flowers and seeds. (This latter formation also occurs in many garden plants including garlic and chives.)

Other species are used in traditional mezcal production, but are difficult to grow. Traditionally they have been collected from the wild, but as the demand for mezcal keeps increasing, wild populations are shrinking, and growers are attempting to cultivate other species.

Tobala agave

Tobalá Agave potatorum, is one I particularly enjoy. The flavor is full-bodied, a complex of notes hinting at floral and spicy. The Tobalá plant is much smaller than Espadín:, requiring up to to eight piñas to equal one of the latter. Combine that with the fact that Tobala rarely produces bublils or pups, so it must be grown from seed. Luis Mendez in Solga Vega Oaxaca is now cultivating the plants to preserve the wild population from over-harvest. A nursery in Santa Catarina Minas is also selling seedlings.

In January 2020 I helped pot up Tobalá plants for Tony Raab at Casa Raab, San Pablo Etla, Oaxaca.

One of Tony’s workers, Rodregio.

Tobala seedlings

AMMA published this diagram of agave anatomy.

In my search for information on sustainable maguey preservation and cultivation, I came across this post Mescalistas: Can wild agave be successfully grown? In the future I hope to visit more maguey plantations.

Gardening for the Birds

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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

October Garden Chores

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We know it’s autumn when the leaves start turning color. Here a Pin Oak brightens the landscape. It’s time to harvest winter squash and pumpkins, but if your squash isn’t quite ready, perhaps it will have time to continue ripening.

In Port Townsend, our typical first killing frost arrives by the end of November. If autumn temperatures drop slowly over time, plants get acclimated. The high concentration of sugars acts as ‘antifreeze’ in the protoplasm and this is what gives kale and other crops a sweeter flavor after the first frost. But if warm weather prevails until a sudden hard frost hits, then plants are not prepared. Sometimes in November the temperature can suddenly drop twenty degrees! Next month pay attention to the weather forecast and be ready to use floating row covers on crops and newly planted broad-leaf evergreen ornamentals. Forecasts for the next three to six months seem to be leaning toward La Niña but one forecaster described it as “a weak event”. NOAA posted this

Garden Chores

  • Leaves: Rake and compost, or save for mulch.
  • Lawns: Over-seed existing ones with white clover, yarrow, English daisy and other flowering plants for pollinators.
  • Mulch: shrubs and garden beds for winter protection and weed suppression. The increased organic matter will eventually feed the soil ecosystem. (This repeat from last month reinforces how important it is!)
  • Plant garlic: 2” deep in well-drained soil. Space cloves 5 inches apart with the tip up. Mulch with straw. Prevent disease by rotating crop every 3-5 years. Certified disease free garlic or saving your own is best.
  • Fruit Trees: Rake and remove any diseased dried leaves, rotten- and mummy-fruits to prevent disease.
  • Apple tree pests: Examine fruits for coddling moth larvae damage. The Hortsense link offers preventative measures for next year.
Tinker and apprentice Brianna at Abundant Life Seed Foundation in 2001. Upper Salmon River squash

Winter squash can be slow to fully mature. One way to encourage this is to remove all small and new squash in September. This allows all the energy to go to the larger, more mature squash. The signs that a squash is mature include a bright yellow spot where the squash touched the ground, the stem becomes brown and corky-textured. Also, as the squash skin toughens up, it becoming duller, and even a bit waxy. It may difficult to make an indentation with your fingernail. These contribute to a good storage crop.

Tinker loved growing the Lower Salmon River winter squash. This variety of Cucurbita maxima is one of the few heritage crops from the PNW, and is known from the Salmon River area of Idaho. It has a distinctive flavor and texture. Seeds are available from Adaptive Seeds.

If you want to taste Lower Salmon River, Midori Farm grows it and the Food Co-op has some now. It takes about 90 days to mature. It can withstand a couple of light frosts although the first one will probably kill the foliage. For Cucurbita maxima aficionados, check out this Johnny’s Seeds critique of flavor and yield for varieties.

After the fall equinox, plant growth slows. We have not had frost yet in early October 20224, so crops are still growing well. Plants are able to sense cold temperatures and respond by producing carbohydrates. In vegetable crops, the high concentration of sugars acts as ‘antifreeze’ in the protoplasm and this is what gives kale and other brassicas a sweeter flavor after the first frost. For more on winter gardens see the OSU Extension Publication

September Garden Chores

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The fall equinox is approaching quickly. The weather is changing. Autumn offers opportunities to plant and transplant; the soil retains warmth longer than the air can—a perfect combination for encouraging root growth. With cooler temperatures and short day length, plant growth slows. The roots have a chance to get established without the additional stress of transpiration or pumping water through plant and out the leaf surfaces.

Autumn is a great time to make compost piles with debris from the vegetable garden, perennial plants and deciduous leaves. Some people prefer to leave the dead foliage and seed heads for spring removal allowing insects and birds food and habitat overwinter. Try it, but note that adding garden clean-up to normal spring chores might overwhelm some gardeners.

Edibles

Fruit trees: Most tree fruits are ripe when they come off easily by lifting and twisting the fruit. Take care not to break off the short branch with buds known as a fruit spur. Cut open an apple —ripe seeds are brown. Pears are picked when they are still hard, before they are fully ripe. They soften from the inside out. Asparagus: Let the fronds remain and turn yellow. Cut them back to the ground after a hard frost. If you have an excess of produce, try making sauerkraut or kraut-chi.

Soil Fertility

Soil Samples: Every couple of years it is worthwhile to take a soil sample and get it tested. Although Jefferson Conservation District no longer handles soil testing, they do lend a tool for extracting clean samples and lab suggestions including A&L. I’ve had good luck with Peaceful Valley Farm Supply.

Compost: Build compost piles in bins or free-standing rectangles. All the autumn decaying foliage from the veggie garden, perennials, and deciduous leaves. Add a source of Nitrogen: manure; powdered fish or bloodmeal; or urine.

Mulch shrubs and garden beds for winter protection and weed suppression. The increased organic matter that will eventually feed the soil ecosystem.

Cover-cropping: After removing spent vegetables, rake the soil, add seeds of clover,  field peas, oats, rye, vetch, or fava beans. More information from WSU All seed available at Chimacum Corner.

Pests

Yellow jackets

Recognize yellow jackets and their underground nests. In the autumn listen for buzzing if there are more than two yellow jackets in a location, step back and search the ground for more. Yellow jackets can sting repeatedly. By contrast, bees avoid stinging because it is lethal, it rips out their stinger. Learn to distinguish them.

Spring Bulbs

Plant bulbs and corms now for spring bloom. The earliest bloomers are the small bulbs: snowdrops, crocus, chionodoxa, Siberian squill and winter aconite. Select bulbs that are firm with no signs of injury or mold. If one bulb is lightweight compared to  others, discard it. Plant with root side down and pointy end up. Plant at depth three time the length. Small bulbs often are earliest. See Royal Horticulture Society for more information.

Grain Amaranth

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Abundant Life Seed Foundation Gardens 1999

Tinker was involved with Abundant Life Seed Garden from its inception in the 1980’s until 2001. She and John Gilardi were garden managers in the latter years. In the above photo, Tinker and an apprentice named Nicole are stripping the flower heads of dried amaranth to remove the seeds. Next steps include winnowing and screening. Later amaranth was one of the crops Tinker experimented with in the dryland farm project.

 Amaranth’s importance is twofold—its super nutritious and easy to grow.

Unlike grains, the seeds of amaranth contain all the necessary amino acids. The protein content is 16 percent, more than rice or wheat. Like quinoa, this offers complete protein for vegans. Amaranth is considered a pseudograin (only plants in the grass or Poaceae family are considered true grains)

Grain Amaranth comes from one of three species. All are white-seeded whereas the leafy greens amaranth tend to have black seeds and may become weedy.

A. cruentus, Purple Amaranth: Day-length neutral and most widely adapted. Typically white-seeded from Mexico, this is made into “Alegria”, the popped seeds mixed with molasses pressed into a small cake or bar.

A. hypochondriacus, Prince’s-feather is day-length sensitive. I know little about this species.

A. caudatus , Love Lies Bleeding is native Peru. Sometimes called Inca wheat, it is an important staple in the Andes.

While young foliage can be confused with weedy amaranth, (A.hybridus, A. viridis, A. retroflexus. A. spinosus.) grain amaranth has apical panicles, or seed heads forming only at the top. Grain amaranth can withstand drought conditions because their roots can grow several feet deep.

Early strains of A. cruentus were cultivated as far back as the time of the first maize in Oaxaca. The Jardin Etnobotanico de Oaxaca includes a section of early cultivated food crops. I was lucky to volunteer in the garden during the winter of 2019 and had the privilege to work with Roberto Chavez Rendon. Here he is with an early strain of Amaranthus cruentus.

Open-pollinated grain amaranth species can be variable. Many selected strains have full heads laden with seeds. Seed breeders are selecting for shorter plants that don’t shatter. University breeders are developing F-1 hybrids for food production.

Although claims vary, Amaranthus cruentus and A. hypochondriacus were cultivated before 1,000 BC in Mexico. Grain amaranth was an important food source from the Aztecs until European missionaries put a stop to eating or using amaranth in ritual. It is again popular and is best known as “Algeria” , the popped seeds mixed with molasses and pressed into a small cake or bar. An NGO in the Etla Valley of Oaxaca, Puente a la Salud promotes food sovereignty with a focus on grain amaranth not only for cakes but to add as an ingredient in many dishes ground into flour; boiled and used as a thickener in soups; toasted and popped as a cereal. They encourage farmers to grow the crop and teach communities how to make appropriate tech ovens and poppers for cottage industries with amaranth.

Amaranthus cruenthus. Farmer demonstrating harvesting with sickle.

Amaranth has the potential to be an important crop as we move into greater climate change. It is drought-, heat- and pest-tolerant. The nutty flavor can add more nutrients to oatmeal or ground into gluten-fee flour. Try growing this beautiful plant in the edible landscape, or in rows for production. Available from Adaptive Seeds, Bountiful Gardens and Johnny’s selected Seeds.

Rabbits in the garden

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Eastern Cottontail photo from Wikimedia

The Eastern cotton-tail rabbit was introduced to Washington in the 1930’s as a game animal for hunters. These introduced rabbits thrive in close proximity to people. As habitat generalists, they adapt to different available plant food and benefit from brushy coverage. Although the state’s mapping shows the introduced rabbits widespread in Kitsap County and Whidby Island, Jefferson county rabbit population is not on the map! The population has recently boomed in Seattle.

The bunnies never bothered my vegetables while I had Black Labs. These dogs have a great sense of smell and can easily track the cottontails. My property is fenced with hog wire with openings large enough for rabbits but not their common predators such as coyotes and bobcats. However, the common garter snake that are abundant on my property probably consume baby rabbits in the nest and barred owls might catch young ones.

I became acutely aware of rabbits when a neighbor’s domestic bunny started living at my place and even chewed through the plastic deer fencing to get in the vegetable garden. As cute as it was I wanted to keep it out. I felt like the mean farmer in the Beatrix Potter stories. The neighbor and his children came over several times and were successful catching the wayward pet.

Rabbit damage is obvious, it looks like someone went through with garden clippers making sharp-angle cuts. The rabbits bite young stems, buds and flowers. By comparison, deer tear away stems, leaving a jagged edge because they don’t have upper front teeth.

Cottontails are most active dawn and dusk. In spring I noticed vegetable seedlings neatly nipped off. Lucky for me I always have a couple of red clover volunteers on the edge of beds and in the paths. While the rabbits certainly prefer clover to vegetables, I share enough of my garden with the voles and the birds, that I was determined to prevent another creature from entering. I bought some rabbit repellent called Liquid Fence that was effective but requires monthly applications.

After watching several YouTube videos, I decided rabbit fencing would protect the lower two feet of the deer fencing. So I hired someone to work with me and we installed the fencing where the rabbits were entering from the west. I also had already placed landscape fabric there to prevent grass and weeds from growing underneath the deer fence. One foot of chickenwire on the ground will prevent rabbits from burrowing under the fence. That was effective for several months and now I have noticed a rabbit in the garden at dawn. On to fortifying the deer fence on the north and south sides! For more information on fencing and general cottontail behavior, see the state Fish and Wildlife site

3 ft Chicken wire with 1 inch openings, 3 ft metal stakes, landscape pins and zip ties

Hairy Manzanita

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Arctostaphylos columbiana

This native manzanita is uncommon on the Quimper Peninsula , but I have seen it growing wild on Cape George Road and close to Kala Point. The above photos are of a shrub that Willy Smothers grew at his place on Marrowstone Island. Recently Janet Welch pruned it to highlight the beautiful peeling bark.

The tiny ‘apple-like’ fruits are eaten by birds, small mammals and patient gardeners. It grows in the coastal scrub community and its range is from Sonoma County, California to Vancouver Island. Along with shore pines, manzanita can grow on and stabilize sand dunes. Native specimens can also be found in the understory of open coniferous forests in the Cascades. The critical factor is gravelly soil. The peeling bark is an attractive feature that it shares with its cousin Madrone. However, it is more closely related to our native groundcover kinnikinnick, Arctostaphylos uva-ursi. In fact a hybrid called Arctostaphylos x media is cross between the two.

Care for Manzanita

Manzanita rewards the patient gardener. Select a site with full sun and excellent drainage. It is best to start with plants in one-gallon containers. Water weekly until new growth appears and then taper off. One way to avoid crown rot is to plant it a little bit higher than the existing grade and mulch with woodchips. Don’t mulch with compost. Use drip irrigation because overhead water will encourage fungal disease. Keep it on the lean-side and avoid adding soil amendments. Once established it is completely drought tolerant.

Here is another manzanita, a hybrid, (probably Arctostaphylos x media) used in the landscape of Kathleen Turaski and Peter Hornsby This drought-tolerant garden includes Ceanothus and red hot poker, Kniphofia. They hope to remove the deer fencing once the plants are mature. But realistically, they may need to keep the fence in place—even if deer don’t browse a plant to death, they often step on and break branches of nearby plants.

Oregon State University, Horticulture Dept has many more photos, including pictures of the flowers and fruits. A great new native plant nursery opened in Kingston. Salish Trees Nursery carries hairy manzanita. Their knowledgeable staff will be a great help. Far Reaches Nursery has a superb variety of Arctostaphylos densiflora—Howard Mc Minn.

This hybrid Manzanita is an excellent drought tolerant choice
Manzanita flowering in April

Weeds and our perspective

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When I would help Tinker in her garden, often she dug up dandelion plants as if they were precious. The roasted roots made a delicious tea that she savored. Imagine if the plants we detested somehow changed in our mind to become useful resources. So much in life is how we frame something. If we look at a weed and notice a couple insect pollinators insects sipping the nectar, maybe the ‘weed’ isn’t so bad. That doesn’t mean we have to keep the plant. I have had weeds that I once hated and then learned to accept them, even as I removed them.

Dandelion, Taraxacum officinale

Gardeners who take the time to identify the plant can be more effective. Knowing a plant lets you determine the best way to control it. Sometimes a weed can be an indicator of environmental conditions: the soil is wet or heavy, or it is very acidic. Some tough weeds will die out if the roots don’t get nutrients from foliage. This requires diligence—regular weed-eating. Small, less-hardy weeds will die from deep mulch that smothers small plants and suppresses weed seeds. Proper ID is key to control.

Weed Identification

Botanical identification begins with a plant’s flower. We can’t rely on the foliage because weeds are by their nature adaptable and have a lot of variety. Vegetative characteristics are malleable. Here’s a short digression: years ago I managed the UCSC agroecology program greenhouse and was responsible for transplanting seedlings. In wood flats full of vegetables or flowers that required pricking out, there would be a number of weed seedlings from the compost. The young weeds could look almost identical to the some of the crops—so much so, that a number of the apprentices I supervised would pot up the weed seedlings! So identify your weed when it is flowering and then start to recognize the plant in all its stages, from young seedling to flowerings going to seed.

I’m old-school and like books. My favorite book for weed identification is Weeds of the West, University of Wyoming Press. Our cooperative Extension had it for sale decades ago. Now it can be downloaded for free from the website or used books can be found online. 900 color photos include the weed at young stages.

Online resources include Hortsense from Washington State University, with 90 fact sheets listed by alphabetical order. University of California, Davis has a useful online weed identification key

Weed Ecology

Many weeds are species that have adapted to colonize disturbed sites, such as landslides; after a wildfire has burned off vegetation; along roadsides; or at building sites where excavators have exposed mineral soil. Alan Chadwick, the famous gardener who developed the French-Intensive-Biodynamic method, always said nature abhors a vacuum. That’s why in my garden I sprinkle around borage, red clover, phacelia, or calendula. By regularly weeding out unwanted plants, I have mostly replaced the disturbed areas with annual flowers that are easy to pull and have many benefits. There’s not much room for weeds.

Borage, Borago officinalis

Weeding Techniques

Start weeding early spring, when the ground is still moist and the plants are young. Weed annual gardens regularly. Use lots of mulch around perennials and woody plants. Since weed seeds can remain dormant for decades, it’s important not to let weeds good to seed.

Certain perennial weeds can become one’s nemesis, for example horsetail, bindweed, Canada thistle . If you do nothing else, make sure to cut flower heads before they go to seed, bag them and send to the dump. The county noxious weed board doesn’t want what the state includes as noxious plants in our yard waste. If you cut the flower or seed heads and bag them, then the rest of the material is yard waste and can go to the compost facility. Thick mulch prevents seeds from sprouting. Everyday weeds can go into yard-waste. I have a big pile of plant debris that I will not use as compost, but will let it rot in place. In it I include weeds that have gone to seed but are not listed as noxious.

At one time I added woody plant material to this pile, but now wild roses, native blackberries and branches from hedges and ornamental shrubs go to yard waste. I don’t want excess fuel for potential wild fires.

If you are still using herbicide on weeds in pavement cracks or gravel, please consider a vinegar solution. Horticultural vinegar—at 35% strength is a lot stronger than kitchen vinegar—5% sold at grocery stores, so take more precautions! Wear gloves, glasses and long clothing. Although flame torches are used in agriculture to control weeds ( by boiling the sap, not turning foliage black), when I called our fire dept about using them for weeds in cracks I was informed that we had two wildfires in the county start that way!

For woody plants or deep-rooted perennials, such as Scotch broom, Himalayan blackberry, and poison hemlock, a weed wrench can be used to yank out the entire plant. The county weed board has wrenches they loan out.

A lot of weeds are my friends. I make flower bouquets, or add them to salads. Others are a haven for pollinators. Some are good sources of carbon for my compost piles.