Hip Chick Digs

Another term of tromping around in the rain for my Plants class has passed, and sadly so. The Plants sequence in my landscape architecture program lasts three terms, which is a total of nine months, and it is really fantastic - my favorite class by far. Rain or shine, (mostly rain) we walk all around Eugene looking at different trees, shrubs and ground covers. We learn their botanical names, common names, growing preferences, and identifying characteristics. My orange, rubber boots have definitely gotten some wear this year.

This term we focused on evergreens and paid close attention to early-flowering plants. This post will focus on those early-flowering plants that give us hints that winter’s end approaches. Some you may know, and see everywhere, but some deserve more attention. I’ll break it up into two posts because there are quite a few to share!

Chinese Witchhazel (Hamamelis mollis) is a winter-blooming shrub with a lovely, contorted shape and fragrant blossoms. The delicate blossoms are an orange-yellow with a scarlet center. There are a few cultivars out there that play around with the blossom color. Tends to bloom in January here in the Willamette Valley.

Japanese Camellia (Camellia japonica) is a favorite flowering shrub for many people, although not me personally. I think the plant tends to be overused and I guess it’s just too overt for me. That said, it blooms early in late-January and carries the reddish-pink blossoms for a long time. It is an evergreen shrub with thick, glossy, dark green leaves.

Red Twig Dogwood (Cornus stolonifera) is not early flowering, but should be considered to liven up the winter garden with it’s bright red twigs. This large shrub has a lot going for it: spring flowers, red fall color, a native to this area. It does well in a range of soils, including heavy clay. You sometimes see it used in rain gardens and swales. There is a yellow-twig cultivar out there too.

Forsythia (Forsythia sp) is a loud, extroverted sign that spring is knocking on winter’s door. It blooms really early, in late-January or early February and is a bit overused. It leafs out into a somewhat uninteresting shrub that some people prune into a hedge. I prefer to see it left gangely and graceful, as shown here. The bright, mustard-yellow blooms were all over Germany on a roadtrip I took a few years back and the children hung little plastic Easter eggs off them. It was pretty cute.

Red Flowering Currant (Ribes sanguineum) is a much-appreciated native here in the Willamette Valley. It does produce small, edible berries in the summer. It is also an early-blooming shrub with chains of pink flowers that cover the shrub before leaves appear. This year it was blooming as early as the first week or two of February. I have seen some white cultivars out there too and they can look nice in a mixed planting. It is also tolerant of heavy, clay soils.

The last shrub I’ll write about in this post is more like a small tree in shape, but it fits in nicely to the garden. It is the Star Magnolia (Magnolia stellata) which opens up in late-February and can be seen blooming around town now. This small tree does tend to be over used, but I still love it! It’s white blooms are incredibly fragrant and the branches have a light, slightly-contorted shape. You will see me around town with my nose shoved in these, inhaling the promise of Spring.

Hopefully this gives you some ideas for plants to fix “holes” you noticed in the garden this year. A great garden space always has something going on with evergreen structure in the winter and blooms throughout the year. Look for a continuation of this post soon with even more early-flowering plants.

My final review for the term is tomorrow - woohoo! My project this term was designing an area in the Lents neighborhood of Portland and converting it into an urban agricultural park for the local residents. I think it turned out well, but we will see what the feedback is in a few short hours.

On that note, I am going to opt for sleep instead writing a “real” post tonight. Expect a couple from me later this week though that talk about my school project, what flowers are blooming in these late winter months, and maybe some news about starting seeds!

There are a handful of grapevines growing out at the Urban Farm and it’s pruning season! Some of them they let ramble, while others they focus on maintaining for good quality fruit. We went to work on the maintained vines and I learned a lot.

Last year I attempted to prune my two grape vines and wasn’t really sure I did it right. With a gardening book in hand and raindrops plunking down, I tried to visual how the illustration in the book related to the gangely vines in front of me. With Tom by my side this year, I learned a lot more about how to prune grapes on the farm.

Tom uses the spur method, rather than the cane method. More specifically, he uses a four arm Kniffen system of spur pruning. It is fairly simple when explained properly (which I hope I can do).

You want the grape vine to have a central “trunk” and four vines coming off of it - two on either side of the trunk. You want to use the strongest, best vines for those four main side branches. You can mark them with a tag in the summer if you realize one branch in particular produced really tasty grapes. Or you can keep using the same four branches every year if they look healthy and perform well. The finished pruning is pictured here.

You cut off any stray shoots coming out of the “trunk”. Marking the four main side branches with colored tape may be a good idea to keep yourself from accidentally snipping off your prized side branches.

You then determine how long you want the grape to reach out. You can cut it way back if you have multiple grapes planted within a few feet of each other, to keep good air circulation and prevent them from becoming too intertwined. You can also let them grow out several feet on either side if you want to cover a fence or something. Be aware that grape experts think the quality can go down though if the side branches get too long, but I think they are talking about ten feet on either side.

We left these side branches about 4′ long on either side of the “trunk”. You then work your way along each of those four side branches and trim down the off-shoots. We can call the off-shoots from these four main side branches “sub shoots” or something. You snip those sub shoots down so just two buds remain on them. Here is a picture of sub-shoots with two buds on them.

You end up doing a LOT of trimming - much more than I thought. You will have the main “trunk” vine, two main side branches on the left and two on the right, and smaller sub-shoots coming off of those side branches that have been trimmed down to just a few inches that hold two buds. You can even decide to fully cut off certain sub-shoots, if they are growing too close to other sub-shoots or look damaged. I am including a sketch to help explain what things should look like.

Grapes can grow significantly over just one season, so these guys will be really full and grow longer branches come summertime. We were leftover with a large pile of grapevines that one could either dip in rooting hormone to try to propagate, or just reuse the bendable vines in a garden project outside.

I am feeling the rush of gardening season as the soil becomes workable again! The Urban Farm has a nice head start on the season inside their greenhouse, which houses some of our latest seed starts and lovely greens that are already reaching maturity.

Most of the larger vegetables in the ground are lettuce varieties: red butterleaf, romaine, green leaf, etc. The arugula is getting huge already. As the temperatures get hotter through the Spring, the greens will eventually give way for tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and other heat-loving plants. Careful crop rotation throughout the season is a smart way to maximize the variety of vegetables you can grow out back.

Red and green spinach leaves are looking really lush along the perimeter of the greenhouse. I am not sure if there is a taste difference between the two varieties, but I am looking forward to some experimentation.

We had a gorgeous, sunny weekend a few days ago and the greenhouse was incredibly comfortable to putz around in. It was warm and humid, reminding my of what summer feels like. I have secret plans to take a nap in there sometime soon and just enjoy being surrounded by my little green friends again. After experiencing what a difference a greenhouse can make in all-season gardening, I can’t wait to build a mini version in the future.

There are a few rule-of-thumb planting dates among the gardening community that we enjoy repeating every year. One is to sow your peas on President’s Day. Another is to plant potatoes on St. Patrick’s Day. These are general rules though which will not apply to you if you happen to live in sunny southern California or frigid Canada. To properly time your planting, it really depends on your hardiness zone and first/last frost dates.

What is a first and last frost date, you ask? The first frost date signifies the end of winter, in a sense. Typically the ground will not freeze past this average date. The last frost date signifies the beginning of winter. The weather at this date will become too cold for most vegetables and will likely kill of those last tomatoes.

Knowing these dates will help you understand when different vegetables want to be planted. Some like to be in the ground when it’s still really cold. Others will need to be sown or transplanted after all danger of frost has passed. Find the average first/last frost dates for your location at the Old Farmer’s Almanac.

What does a hardiness zone mean? A hardiness zone tells you what plants will thrive and what plants will struggle in your location, based on climate factors. Zones reflect how severe the temperature changes are, how cold winter is or how hot summer will be. There are a couple sources for zone information: the USDA and Sunset. Sunset can sometimes be more accurate, as they often take into account microclimates in the area. Talking to your local nursery is another option to find out from locals what zone you fit into.

Let’s take Portland for an example. We have a pretty long growing season because our last average frost date is April 3rd and first is November 7th. That gives us roughly seven months to grow things outside of freezing temperatures. Our zone though is six, which means it doesn’t get really hot here. Growing things that need hot heat will most likely not do well here.

When it comes to planting vegetables, consider both your frost dates and zones. If Portland doesn’t get super hot, you might want to help heat-loving plants like tomatoes, peppers and melons. Consider growing them in black containers that will absorb heat. Pick fast-ripening varieties that require fewer hot days to mature. Another option is to cover your crops with plastic to raise the temperature level for your plants. You can do this to start vegetables outside sooner than they would otherwise prefer, or do this in the summer to get heat-loving vegetables extra warm.

I love referring locals in the Pacific Northwest to the vegetables calendar produced by Portland Nursery. They will tell you the best method to grow vegetables - either seeding indoor or direct sowing - and they tell you in what month to plant them. Easy-peasy.

If you live outside the NW, check out this great Excel spreadsheet from You Grow Girl. You enter in your first and last frost dates and the Excel form calculates when exactly you need to start seeding. Happy planting!