Care for your garden
The basic rule for plant selection, “Right Plant, Right Place,” is good advice, but it’s only an abstract idea.
Today, we examine a real garden application of this advice. Our purpose is to focus on the steps be considered in selecting plants for specific place. We do not reveal the final plant choices, because (a) this process is ongoing, and (b) your garden decisions should reflect your own criteria and preferences.
Cultivation conditions
Begin by describing where the plants will be installed, taking into account climate, dimensions, sun exposure, soil quality and drainage.
In today’s case study, the planting bed to be developed is in the so-called Mediterranean (i.e., summer-dry) climate that Monterey Bay area gardeners enjoy.
The bed is 2 feet wide and 14 feet long, located between a driveway and a 6 foot high painted wood wall.
The bed has limited sun exposure: the wall faces north, and a garage stands east of the bed. As a result, the bed receives mostly indirect sunlight, with a short mid-day period of direct exposure.
Soil nutritional quality and texture, although not tested, seems quite good and, given bed’s slight slope, drainage is satisfactory.
This location is fine for plants that would grow well under limited sun exposure.
This bed is served by a drip irrigation line, so needed moisture could be provided, assuming plant-specific settings for irrigation duration and frequency.
Landscape design
This narrow bed constrains the selection process to smaller plants. While plants could expand beyond the bed’s dimensions, they should not encroach significantly on the driveway, which is reserved for vehicle parking and passenger movement. They also should not grow against the wall, which would distort their natural form.
The gardener could control plant width through regular pruning, but that approach would require a maintenance commitment and negate the “right place, right place” model.
Plant height, another aspect of landscape design, relates to the 6 feet high wall behind the bed.
A shade-loving columnar plant that grows to just 2 feet wide and 6 feet high would work well in this situation, but none come to mind.
For a deeper bed, plant selection could include two or three layers, with taller plants in back, and shorter plants in front. For this limited space, the background might be a vining plant that grows to no more than 6 feet in height, with smaller plants in the foreground.
We have limited options, because vining plants that grow well in shade are typically quite large. Sunset’s Western Garden Book has a this very short list of shade-tolerant vines for the Monterey Bay area climate:
Creeping Fig (Ficus pumila): Evergreen, vigorous growth to 15 feet or more.
Five-leaf Akebia (Akebia quinata): Deciduous, grows to 15-30 feet high.
Virginia Creeper, Boston Ivy (Parthenocissus): Deciduous, big, vigorous vine to 30-50 feet high.
Winter Creeper (Euonymus fortune): Evergreen, some cultivars grow 3-6 feet high.
The Winter Creeper ‘Emerald Gaiety’ is the only suitable selection for this bed. The online notes describe a height of 5 feet, a 6 foot spread, variegated foliage and insignificant flowers. The challenge would be to find a source for two of these plants, with lower plants in the foreground.
An alternative design would be limited to only plants that are no more than 24 inches wide at maturity. Given this breadth, the 14 feet long bed could accommodate seven plants.
This design would leave a blank, 6 foot high wood wall as the backdrop for the plants. This display could be made more attractive by mounting garden art on the wall.
As it happens, I have three blue ceramic birds, each about 15 inches across, that could decorate the surface of this wall. These birds, an impulse purchase of several years past, have rested (roosted?) in my garage, waiting for a good use. They qualify more as craft than art, but they are suitable for outdoor use, and, importantly, available!
Gardener’s choice
Plant selection always should reflect the gardener’s preference, which is based on a many well-founded personal opinions.
In this case, I will select plants other than those that had been in this bed recently, or that are in a nearby bed currently.
This bed’s recent occupants were Winter Daphne (D. odora ‘Aureomarginata’), a good plant that is notorious for its unpredictable short life. They were performing poorly so I removed them in the course of preparing for a house-painting project. I would like something different.
The nearby is a collection of Fuchsias of various sizes. They are doing well in this exposure, and smaller varieties would fit well in this bed, but I would like something different.
From my perspective, plants with attractive blossoms and fragrance would earn high points.
Because my garden is oriented to Mediterranean region plants, plant selection for this particular bed will favor natives of those regions. There are many options to consider. The Winter Creeper, listed above, is of Asian origin, so it would be an anomaly in this garden.
This is work in progress. It could be unavoidable to select plants that will require regular pruning to keep them within boundaries. I will report on the eventual selections in a future column.
Advance your gardening knowledge
Here are upcoming webinars for gardeners:
Fine Gardening Magazine will present “Seed-Starting Tips and Techniques,” at 7 p.m. Feb. 18. Carol Collins and Niki Jabbour share what they’ve learned from their decades of seed-starting experience. They will cover the basics and delve into more advanced topics such as timing and stratification. Build your gardening skills and enjoy the satisfying feeling of growing plants from scratch with this fun, fast-paced webinar. To register for this free event, go to finegardening.com and click on “Webinars.” For a selection of recorded garden presentations, click on “Videos.”
Lee Valley offers a brief, timely and info-packed video, “How to Start Seeds Indoors.” To check it out, browse to tinyurl.com/ynedg6a6.
California Garden & Landscape History Society will present “Shaping Landscape Architecture in the Early 20th Century: Race, Gender, and Difference,” at 6 p.m. Feb. 17. The presenter will be Landscape Historian Thaïsa Way. For more information on this fee-based event, visit https://ift.tt/3rowTra.
Cactus & Succulent Society of America will present “The Amazing North of Patagonia: A virtual journey through the province of Neuquén,” at 10 a.m. Saturday. The presenter will be plant collector Elisabeth Sarnes. “The province of Neuquén is Patagonia’s smallest and northernmost province in Argentina. It is not only the Patagonia of lakes and the steppe of dinosaurs. Neuquén is also the Patagonia of volcanoes and it is the country of the Mapuche people. The variety of cacti is greater here than in the rest of Patagonia. The talk will give a portrait of the cacti of this region–and the genus Austrocactus will take the lead. You will see the great scenery, beautiful endemic flowers, and some of the animals too, Get surprised by the beauty of the smallest Patagonian province!” For info and to register for this free event, visit https://ift.tt/39QP0Qw.
Enrich your gardening days
At this time of the year, “real gardening” including starting seeds indoors, in preparation for the last day of frost, after which seedlings can be moved into the garden. Growing plants from seed is an inexpensive form of gardening pleasure, offering a vast array of plant options and a way to garden while social distancing.
A recent article recommended four perennials to start from seed in northern California:
Strawberry Foxglove (Digitalis × mertonensis).
Coral Aloe (Aloe striata).
Honey Bush (Melianthus major).
California White Sage (Salvia apiana).
These are fine choices, but there are many more possibilities. For inspiration, visit your local garden center’s seed rack and seed-starting supplies or browse the internet for mail-order resources.
Tom Karwin is past president of Friends of the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum, Monterey Bay Area Cactus & Succulent Society, and Monterey Bay Iris Society, and a Lifetime UC Master Gardener (Certified 1999–2009). He is now a board member and garden coach for the Santa Cruz Hostel Society. To view daily photos from his garden, https://ift.tt/3ga01xS. To search an archive of previous On Gardening columns, visit http://ongardening.com.
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February 05, 2021 at 06:08AM
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Tom Karwin, On Gardening | Right plant, right place - Santa Cruz Sentinel
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