The Sweetness of Sweetgrass

Posted on May 13, 2024 by Ann Lovejoy
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Sweetgrass bound for a Tribal prairie restoration

Taking Care

As temperatures are climbing towards normal, I’m planting out seedlings and starts and already noticing signs of drought and weather whiplash in both plants and soil. Given the NOAA prediction of another hot, dry summer, it’s definitely going to be a season when taking care of plants will be more important than ever. In calmer years, it was a delight to pay close attention to my dear plants, noting their changes like a doting mother studying the progress of beloved children. Every change from sprout to shoot, from bud to blossom, from bee fodder to seed pod, felt like a marvelous pageant, offering a totally enthralling array of life stages. In years when family turmoil felt overwhelming, I found relief in the sturdy resilience of perennials, which often throve or at least survived without needing a lot of attention. As time went on and life became more complicated, I came to deeply appreciate plants that made benign neglect rewarding.

Annuals, on the other hand, are far less forgiving, because they can’t afford to be; with just one shot at success, any check in their development, whether from wild weather or non-benign neglect, can be fatal. If they don’t die outright, they may linger on, frail and dwindling, like the Victorian women who took to their beds and turned their faces to the wall yet lingered, unable to move on. Interestingly, it’s actually quite hard to die of disappointment when the body strongly wants to live. Plants also want to live and do their best with what they have, but it’s a rugged plant indeed (probably a weed or at least oregano) that can truly thrive under adverse conditions. Yes, there are lovely desert and plains plants that enjoy hot, dry spots but few of them can tolerate our western winters (though that may be changing). In any case, I’m going to be observing and taking notes on plant performances this year so I can make more informed decisions next time around.

The Fragrance of Sweetgrass

One decision that definitely paid off was to try more prairie plants, which are more used to seasonal temperature extremes than many favorite ornamentals. Among the happiest has been sweetgrass, Heirochloe odorata. Sometimes called vanilla grass for its lovely fragrance, this sturdy prairie dweller has been used for millennia in braids, baskets and smudges said to attract beneficent spirits. It certainly raises my spirits as whenever I handle it, that gentle aroma makes me smile. I’ve been handling it a lot lately as I’v learned that it likes to be divided and may dwindle if left alone too long. Robin Wall Kimmerer says that sweetgrass has become domesticated, much like corn and beans, and without human help, it isn’t able to survive long in the wild. Last year I planted ten little starts and thanks to a kind garden neighbor who watered when I was unable, they throve and spread into a large happy tangle of roots and shoots. I planned to offer some sweetgrass starts to neighboring Tribal basketmakers and weavers and artisans but wasn’t able to connect with them so just kept potting up the wandering shoots anyway as we made room in the pea patch bed for kale and peas and garlic.

Recently I discovered a new destination for them when I visited the brand new library/museum of the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe. This is a gorgeous, stunning, hand built building, beautifully combining exceptional design, craftsmanship and artistry. The collection is fantastic and beautifully displayed, the workmanship is extraordinary, and every detail is amazing: even the rug is a topographic map of the Jamestown S’Klallam territory. After a fascinating tour, hearing the history and meaning of many spectacular Tribal totems, we spent some time in the art gallery, where I learned that the Tribe is working on restoring part of the native prairie. Over 97% of the native prairie has been lost to development, and bringing back this invaluable habitat is a major project for the Tribe. Since sweetgrass used to be common in such places, my offer of sweetgrass starts was accepted with excitement and enthusiasm. I came home determined to pot up as many more start as possible, which turns out to be good, since that very day I learned that our neighboring Tribe is also interested in having as many starts as I can offer. Fortunately this willing plant is still spreading happily and I’m hoping to have 100 starts to share by this fall. Onward, right?
Some of the remarkable Jamestown S’Klallam totems

 

Posted in Annual Color, Climate Change, Easy Care Perennials, Garden Design, Garden Prep, Health & Wellbeing, Plant Diversity, Plant Partnerships, Planting & Transplanting, Seedling Swaps, Sustainable Gardening, Sustainable Living | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

The Land of Opportunity

Posted on May 6, 2024 by Ann Lovejoy
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The winter of woe followed by the spring of hope

Garden Renewal, Again

A few weeks ago, I finally mustered up the energy to clear away the dead from the gardens at home and around town. Some losses were not so surprising; five consecutive days and nights below freezing was just too much for plants that had been stressed by erratic temperatures, wild weather highs and lows, and too many drought years. Cabbage palms and New Zealand flax are mushy goners all over the place, even where reflected heat from streets and sidewalks offered a little temperature boost. Some rosemaries (mostly the prostrate ones like Irene and Huntingdon Carpet) and some lavenders (mostly the less-hardy Spanish types) turned into pallid grey ghosts, stemless and brittle. Those weren’t surprises, really, as they do get killed in extreme years, but dead mature horehound plants were a shock. I’ve never seen that before and I’m surprised because the Marrubiums are supposedly hardy from USDA Zones 3-10. Given the mostly dry winter, they certainly weren’t too wet, but apparently the blasting cold wind did them in. Oh well. Now that the dear departed are actually cleared away, the fed and mulched beds have become the Land Of Opportunity, ready for refreshment.

Even more surprising losses were the hardy fuchsias, some many years old, which proved to be not so hardy after all. A few are showing a brave new shoot or two, but most are toast. One thing I’ve learned is that planting fuchsias a little deeper than usual gives them a definite protective edge. In recent years, I’ve been planting them more like tomatoes, 4-6 inches deeper than they were growing in the pot, and those plants came through the winter better than those planted as they presented in the pot. However, when transplanting from 4-inch pots, this isn’t possible, as they would be mainly underground (probably not helpful). Resetting them might work once they develop some sturdy stem growth so I’ll experiment with some new plants this year. My local hummingbirds are used to visiting the garden for those long lasting flowers and I don’t want them to lost the habit, so I’ll certainly be planting more.

Sorting Out The Survivors

There were pitifully few survivors in the unheated sunporch, and I finally made myself carry away the dead to the compost bin. After a busy morning of dumping out pots of shriveled and freeze dried former beauties, I found only a handful of living plants. These were a large aloe, in a somewhat protected lower shelf position; a young tea camellia (now surrounded by frilly volunteer poppies); a jasmine (which initially looked completely dead but has finally started to produce healthy new stems); and a single begonia, which finally pushed out a few healthy looking leaves. The most vigorous is an Abutilon which has already strted blooming in bright defiance of the hard winter now past. I had a lovely collection of begonias, including some species and wonderful angel wings grown from cuttings. Oh well. This too is now a little Land Of Opportunity, right? And what’s more fun than choosing new plants? I’m already tucking in some clove-scented stock, which scents the whole house on sunny days, surrounded by fluffy little pansies, violas and a few sweet violets, and there’s plenty of room for more!

It’s a bit puzzling to know what to plant as replacements, indoors and out, though some tough shrubs and perennials offer ideas. During the freeze, the huge, pleated leaves of Fatsia japonica collapsed and drooped into sorry swags, looking like losers, but within a few weeks they were back in shape, glossy and sturdy. Most rhododendrons are blooming beautifully, as are dogwoods and camellias, Ceanothus and lilacs, Oregon grapes and salmonberry, Indian plum and barberries, kerria and spireas. Most euonymous look great, but a few got frost nipped (especially those used as danglers in containers). All the prairie perennials look happy to be here, as do the catmints and yarrows, perennial poppies and penstemons, native coral bells and Vancouveria, Tiarella and Tellima. Hardy herbs from oregano to feverfew, and sages to fennels are back and happy, as are the many mints (of course). Hardy annuals are also popping up joyfully, from calendulas and Clarkia to forget-me-nots and poppies, all ready to take full advantage of temporary gaps in the Land of Opportunity. Onward, right?

Posted in Annual Color, Care & Feeding, Climate Change, composting, Easy Care Perennials, Garden Design, Garden Prep, Hardy Herbs, Health & Wellbeing, Houseplants, Native Plants, Plant Diversity, Planting & Transplanting, Sustainable Gardening, Sustainable Living | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Lawns In Bloom

Posted on April 30, 2024 by Ann Lovejoy
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Little flowers transform lawns into pollinator happy places

Helping Lawns Become Meadows

Every spring I get questions about how to keep lawns free from weeds and/or moss (or sometimes both). Personally, I’d much rather keep lawns free from turf grass. Frequent mowing and fertilizing are both boring and wasteful of resources (not to mention polluting), so why not start transitioning that useless lawn into a lively meadow? It’s so exciting to watch the transformation from inhospitable dead zones where nothing blooms into flowery places where bees and birds and all sorts of critters are welcome and nourished. To get started, why not join the No Mow May movement? A subsidiary of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation (aka butterfly people), Bee City USA is a nonprofit with lofty goals for pollinator preservation. In recent years, Bee City USA has been encouraging people to observe the month of May as a No Mow time, allowing common lawn flora like tiny daisies and dandelions to bloom freely, helping early pollinators get off to a strong start.

From English estates to American McMansions, lush green lawns have long been a symbol of wealth; clearly anyone with the wherewithal to devote acreage and lots of labor to expanses of turf with no practical purpose has cash to burn. In suburbs and exurbs, having a mown and weed free lawn plays more to cultural conventions about good citizenship. Anyone whose lawn is weedy is clearly a lazy slob, or possibly even a subversive radical. No joke: even given our knowledge of the importance of pollinators and the dangers of lawn chemicals, there continue to be lawsuits about the right to maintain a lawn and garden according to one’s own taste. Those who cultivate vegetables in the front yard or plant floral tapestry lawns instead of unsullied turf can be sued and sadly, often successfully. No matter the root cause, the effects of lawn addiction are genuinely disastrous and this ecologically costly affectation needs reevaluation and redemption.

Setting Lawns Free

When every day reveals some fresh horror about earthly devastation caused by human activities, it’s easy to numb out or fall into depression. However, it’s heartening to discover that all of us can make changes that can have positive and far reaching effects. Lawns are a great place to start, since some 40 million acres in the US alone are currently lost to lawns. If every year some part of that was allowed to become ornamental borders, native plant groves, or pollinator meadows, the vast turf wasteland could return to its original role of nurturing pollinators and many other living things. To get started, simply refrain from mowing turf through the merry month of May. If there are already flowering plants in place, let them be. If the turf is destitute of flora, make a plan for introducing early bloomers (and late ones too of course).

The main gain of the no-mow movement is access to early spring blooms for pollinators, but not mowing in May also promotes the proliferation of spring bulbs. To insert bulbs into lawns, cut a three-sided flap of turf, peel it back and insert patches of snow crocus, snowdrops, daffodils, etc. Potted but bloomed out bulbs move best ‘in the green’, when the foliage is still present; if that foliage is allowed to fade naturally, it will funnel nutrients back into the bulbs, ensuring fresh flowers next season. Started off this way, early bloomers like camas, anemones, aconites and more can spread surprisingly fast into sheets of early color and nearly all will go dormant by late May. As the lawn recedes and your meadow expands, these pockets of bulbs will have a head start on colonizing, which will continue indefinitely, since pollinator meadows only get mown once a year in late January or early February to keep true weeds like blackberries at bay.

Pollen Season Is For Pollinators

As someone who struggles with burning eyes, sneezing and feeling woolly headed when pollen is shed, I am extremely grateful to all the local pollinators. Were they not hard at work, gathering up as much pollen as possible for use and storage, the effects of high pollen counts would be even worse. One great reason to plant pollinator patches is to support them in their pollen removal efforts. Every grain of pollen transferred or collected by a bee, a bug, a butterfly, a bird, a bat, is one less allergen for susceptible humans to deal with, especially since high pollen counts are becoming more common each year (thanks largely to climate change stresses). If converting a large lawn seems daunting, just take on one strip or patch at a time. Cut turf into pieces and stack them with green sides together to encourage quick composting in place. Now cover the exposed soil with a few inches of compost and a layer of wood chips (not bark!). Dig only the holes you need for plants, and scatter seeds of wildflowers and native perennials.

If you aren’t familiar with native perennials, check out a few regional native plant ID books from the library and take them into the garden with you. Since few references show images of seedlings, take pictures of those that appear and record them for a few weeks until they develop enough true leaves to identify them more easily. As you get to know the actual weeds from the wild things, you can leave native volunteers in place or edit them if need be (not every fir sapling chooses the best place to grow!). In sunny areas, sow native annuals such as Clarkia, California poppies, and columbines, Baby Blue Eyes and lupines. Learn to recognize them as younglings and they will create colorful carpets for you and your friendly local pollinators. Onward, right?

https://www.americanmeadows.com/wildflower-seeds/pacific-northwest/pacific-northwest-wildflower-seed-mix

 

Posted in Annual Color, Birds In The Garden, Butterfly Gardens, Care & Feeding, Climate Change, composting, Easy Care Perennials, Garden Design, Health & Wellbeing, Native Plants, Plant Diversity, Pollination Gardens, Pollinators, Sustainable Gardening, Sustainable Living | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments

Stretch Or Kvetch

Posted on April 24, 2024 by Ann Lovejoy
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Avoid unnecessary tidiness; let petals make magical, fragrant pathways

Gardening Without Pain (Or Less Anyway)

It’s finally spring and all week I’ve visited with groaning friends who can’t stand up straight, can’t turn their heads, can’t bend without yelping or don’t dare sit in a deep soft chair. I too am feeling somewhat incapacitated by painful hands and a cranky hip. What dreadful disorder lies behind all these physical woes? Sadly, the culprit is the garden, or to be more precise, the gardeners. Though advancing age could conceivably play a tiny part in this scenario, I was smugly pleased to notice that some of the complainers were far younger than I (though admittedly none were under 40. Hmmm.) I gladly shared arnica gel and cannabis muscle soothing cream as well as hopefully not-too-smug reminders about stretching BEFORE gardening as well as after.

If I am smug (I probably am), perhaps it’s partly because I have deliberately moderated my gardening techniques quite a bit over time, as arthritis and variously damaged thises and thats have cramped my original style. Also, sad but true, I am not as strong as I was a decade or two ago, nor as sure-footed on ladders or when climbing up in trees. Though I still garden often, it hasn’t regularly been a daily activity for me for some years now, largely due to family obligations that kept me inside more than out. Thus, at 72, I am finally learning to honor my own pace, balancing lifetime skills with changing abilities. I have never been fond of accepting limitations so this is not really a whole lot of fun. However, accepting reality turns out to be a whole lot less painful than denying it. Sigh.

Gardening As Tai Chi

One of the greatest aids to limitation acceptance has been my sporadic practice of tai chi. For over ten years, I practiced tai chi for hours every day, and though that practice dwindled with various life changes, I’ve been blessed to maintain a better sense of balance and better core strength even after some thirty years of very occasional practice. By now, though my mind remembers very little, my body still moves into the proper positions with very little prompting. Back straight, butt tucked under, knees relaxed, feet shoulder width apart and firmly planted. Even if I only go through the first few moves of the 108 I used to know, my movements become more fluid and feel more comfortable and confident almost immediately. I’m reminded of the research that shows that active imagining of favorite sports can do the body almost as much good as actually doing whatever it is. Yay! To put that into action is even better, so it’s well worth learning some of the basics, especially that opening stance.

A Supple Spine Promotes Athletic Gardening

Since a virus left me with premanant vertigo five years ago, I’m often appreciative of just how much that basic tai chi stance helps with balance. A few simple tai chi practice drills can also make quite a daily difference. Walking attentively, shifting weight through the feet, dropping the center of balance, keeping the lower back open, all work to restore at least some suppleness to stiffening backs and knees. This is extremely helpful as I age, and whenever I bend and stoop and kneel and crouch or roll about on the soggy ground, or find myself leaning over backwards or turning almost upside down to fit a saw or pruner into a tight tangle of branches, I am deeply grateful for all those stretching and balancing exercises.

For gardeners, the most important tai chi concept may be that of the straight and elongated spine. Sitting (which most of us do far too much of) compacts the spine and causes a lot of lower back issues. Standing around (usually withour weight mainly on one foot) isn’t much better, but tai chi offers a magic move: the Pelvic Tilt, a little forward tuck of the tailbone that involves the abs and core muscles. This small adjustment shifts one’s weight downward to the lower belly, dividing it evenly between both feet and making one’s stance a lot more stable.

Simple Warm-Ups For Safer Pruning

Every year, many unfortunate accidents occur because armed and dangerous people attempt to work with sharp tools. Pruning becomes both safer and far easier when we are internally grounded, our weight held low in the belly instead of high in the chest (or worse, up the head). We can then stand securely on one foot with our saw-bearing, outstretched arm counterbalanced by an uplifted back leg rather than a flailing foot. Similarly, planting is far easier if we adopt what an older gardener friend always called the Third World Squat; a fairly straight-backed position that allows amazing freedom of arm and hand movement. In my mind’s eye, this evokes National Geographic images of folks-around-the-fire and people doing repetitive field work all over the world.

If post-gardening soreness has plagued you in the past, there are some excellent ways to avoid it in the future. For starters, to keep heavy gardening chores pleasant and invigorating, don’t try to make up for a winter of neglect in a weekend from hell. Do just a bit at a time, and stop as soon as your body begins to complain. Eliminate unnecessary chores that are more about tidiness (aka control over nature) than about creating a healthy habitat for plants, pollinators and people. Even more importantly, create a new habit: always start any gardening session, heavy or light, by warming up your neck, shoulders, arms, and hands. The whole routine takes just a few minutes so there is really no excuse for not doing these very simple, body-saving stretches. Right?

Heads Should Roll

When my neck gets stiff, I remind myself that heads are supposed to move flexibly. To get there, do 10 neck rotations, avoiding the backward position: Drop your right ear toward the right shoulder, letting the shoulder slope away earthward. Roll your chin to your chest, then repeat to the left. Return your chin to your chest between each side, but don’t roll your head backward, which can strain the neck muscles and trigger vertigo. Next, circle both shoulders 10 times, forwards and backwards. Raise your arms and rotate them at shoulder height 10 times in each direction. Next, with your arms at your sides, lightly clench your hands and circle your wrists 10 times forwards and backwards, then squeeze and release your hands 10 times. Shake out your hands lightly; they should tingle just a bit.

To loosen the waist, do 10 hip circles forwards and backwards (pretend you are using a hula hoop successfully, something I have never managed). Stand on one leg and shake out the other leg for a few seconds, the repeat on the other side. Now jump almost-but-not-quite off the ground on both feet together 10 times, VERY slightly jarring your head (this is part of the Eight Pieces of brocade Qi Gong series). Now with feet shoulder width apart and shoulders relaxed, shake out your arms and hands again for 5 seconds. After all that, you should feel brisk and warm, with all joints loosened up and ready for action. If you feel sore after working, do the hula hoop rotation again, then add a few pelvic tilts, gently rocking the spine forward and backward. If your back still feels tight, lie down on a yoga mat or rug and press the small of your back to the floor, holding through five full breaths before releasing. Do that gently a few times and then take a few minutes to reverse the blood flow to your legs by lying on your back against a wall with your feet up, heels pointing toward the ceiling, and your legs supported by the wall. Onward!

Posted in Care & Feeding, Garden Prep, Health & Wellbeing, Pruning, Safer Pruning, Sustainable Gardening, Sustainable Living | Tagged , , | 4 Comments