Cultivating My Inner Tree

I’ve decided to remove “my other blog” link for this site. It isn’t because I don’t want to share these articles. It’s because I’m inviting some others to guest blog at gardenhelp. I have a few professionals on board who are interested in sharing their knowledge with the gardening community. Since I have no way (right now) to break out their posts from mine, I don’t feel comfortable having this site slurp everything over.

Now, if I hear from a lot of you that you follow these gardening posts regularly here, I’ll work (harder) on finding a way to make it work. But given it’s spring, I can barely get to a yoga class for being exhausted from gardening with clients all day long, it may be a while before this can happen.

I’ll add gardenhelp.org back to my regular sidebar blogroll on this site. Please feel free to drop by anytime to read and to ask questions. Forthcoming posts in the next few weeks will cover topics like:
“Why the peach tree had to go”
“Nori the Moss Lady — why & when Moss makes sense as a lawn”
“Shotweed — a cool season annual to remove now!”
“Installing a concrete paver patio — one client’s journey”
“Finishing a boulder seating wall and flagstone patio”
“What’s in the vegie garden this year?”
“One potato; New Potato”
“Front Garden planting plan”
“May Flowers”

…the order, the topics and the frequency may be different, but there’s your teaser.

Oh, and yes, I haven’t been to yoga since the Wednesday restorative. I had hoped to go this morning, but my hands are tired and I have several hands-on sessions next week, so they’re getting a break. I may do a hands-free practice on my own later today. I figure carrying heavy pots, moving trees, and moving boulders yesterday counts for some kind of exercise…right?!

Yesterday I spent most of the morning running to wholesale nurseries for clients. Yes, I hold a retail plant license. Many of my clients have limited time. Some are working moms. Others are world-travelling executives. Some just don’t drive. You get the picture. They might love trips to the retail nursery, but sometimes it just makes sense for them to have me deliver plants to their door.

Tomorrow I’m coaching a client on putting new plants into her garden. Rather than spend hours and hours shopping with me, she decided to have me buy the plants for her and bring them to our session. This is a great service for her, and its loads of fun for me. As a plant geek, I adore a chance to visit the nurseries and hand-select the best plant options to fit each clients needs — from budget to privacy to anything else.

 After I was finished with my client shopping, I took a few minutes to walk thru the nursery to see what fabulous new plants were in stock. And, I was thrilled to find two trees that I’ve been wanting.

One is an Azara microphylla, which is a broadleaf evergreen with tiny, shiny dark green leaves. It grows fairly vertically, becoming wider with age. In the spring it has tiny yellow flower that are very fragrant, especially on warmer days. In the past I just haven’t found ones large enough for my needs. They aren’t super fast grower, so usually my suppliers only have them at about 2-3′ tall, max. My score was a 7′ tall one with beautiful tree-like form. It was a bit beyond the budget of zero I’d planned to spend, but I knew the opportunity to find a nice one at this size wouldn’t be around for long, so I grabbed it up. (See, if you send me to shop for you, you’ll have the benefit of someone who knows a “must-have” buy!)

The second score is a Clerodendrum trichotomum or Harlequin Glorybower. This sweet little tree/large shrub offers beautiful pinkish white flowers with abundant jasmine-esque fragrance in late summer, followed/overlapped by shiny metalic pink and purple fruit. It is a charming tree when doing its thing, but it is fairly ugly when dormant. It will go in a blended border to help hide its uglier side. I’ll share a photo of this beauty later.

I know it’s taken me a lot of words in part I of this piece on moving trees to get to actually sharing a tree moving experience, but I do think it’s important to discuss why we might move a tree and the variety of caveots associated with tree placement and relocation. Sure, every situation will have a different set of rules applied to it, and I freely admit that I haven’t, and couldn’t possibly, address every tree and every scenario. However, here’s the steps a client and I took in late winter to move a small Stewartia that had been planted in the “wrong” location.

The Stewartia in question had actually been located into a garden bed, away from the house. In many scenarios, it was actually just fine where it was. However, my client needed (wanted) to put in a patio to make their garden more usable. And, the Stewartia was sited in the middle of the best spot for this patio. So, together, we decided to move it this winter before it leafed out but after the chance of a big freeze would limit its ability to root rapidly into its new location. (As I write this, I laugh, thinking of the freezing rain we had last night. Just enough frozen stuff to make me a little bit nervous.) My client had decided it was worth trying to save the tree rather than just cut it down and dispose of it.

To get ready for the job, we evaluated the tree, deciding which side would be the new “front” as it was going from a circular bed to a bed that would give a focal, “front” view to the tree. Then, we dug the new hole for the tree. We wanted the new location ready for the tree as soon as we got it out of the ground. We estimating how much rootball would come with the tree, based on how much rooting area we thought we could handle, and dug the new hole accordingly. To help ensure the heavy new tree wouldn’t sink when planted, we lightly tamped down the base of the new hole and made it quite wide. Then we went back to the tree to begin the process of moving it.

First, we made sure we had the right tools. These included several sharp shovels, several hori-hori knives, a large tarp, several ground shears and a ground saw. The hori-hori knives were to allow us hand digging; you could use your favorite hand tool/trowel if you prefer. The ground shears and saw are tools that I specifically only use underground. Once tools come in contact with soil, they tend to dull up pretty fast. I tend to use my older tools for these tasks, but I keep them sharp! Before we began digging, we cleaned and sterilized all the tools. We used a flame torch on some of the shovels and liquid lysol on all of the hand tools.

Then we began our work. We had a team of four. Three of us did most of the digging. The fourth came in to help with the final part of moving.

Two of the team used sharp shovels to begin digging a perimeter around the base of the tree. My rule of thumb on moving a tree is to “dig as big a root ball as you think you’ll be able to move”. Yes, that’s vague. If you’ve never moved a tree before, you might want to do it with a professional the first time! Once the main perimeter cuts were made with the shovels, we got in with hand tools and began a merry-go-round working our way around the perimeter. As one person dug, another would follow with sharp shears and saws to clean cut any large roots. Remember: the small “hairy roots” in the first 18″ of the soil are the feeder roots. You want a lot of these. The bigger roots are mostly scaffolding roots, which hold up the tree and give it stability and nutrient storage. Clean cuts on these are very important.

As we worked our way around and around the tree, it became apparent that the tree hadn’t been planted well in the first place. I wasn’t surprised. Based on the age of the tree, it should have been much larger than it was. When we found the original wire tree basket still attached to the tree roots, which had kinked around the metal, I knew this was part of the reason the tree’s growth was stunted. As well, nearly all of the scaffolding roots were growing on one side (the north side) the tree. So, we did what we could to remove the dangerous metal pieces as we dug.

Eventually, we had a good depth around the perimeter of the tree. Now, we had to cut it from the bottom. I knew we wouldn’t have much to deal with in scaffolding roots since they seemed to run more laterally than downward in this tree’s case. Gently, one of our team tipped the tree sideways as another cut the bottom of the tree.

Once the tree was seperated from the ground, we gently tipped the tree to one side and slipped a large tarp under it. We tipped the tree the opposite way and pulled the tarp through. Yes, easier said than done, but it is do-able with patience.

Then, with four people working on the tree, we pulled, tugged and pushed to get the tree on the tarp out of the hole. Again, easier said than done, but it is doable. And, again, don’t tug by the trunk or limbs of the tree.

With the tree out of the hole, we could now see the root ball in its entirety. One team member returned to the new location hole and dug some more to accomodate our large rootball. As he did this, I evaluated all the roots and corrected any torn ones by cutting them cleanly.

Then, we worked together to spin the tree, on the tarp, so we could drag it to the new hole and easily drop it into place. Yes, you’re right, “easier said than done”. But we did it. We took care not to smack each other with limbs. We laughed. One of us gave the “1-2-3-heave!” count, and away we went. Soon we had the tree in its new home.

We planted the tree in, taking care to bury it only as deep as it was planted originally. And, we put a hose on the new planting on a slow drip to water it in. (My client continued to do this for a few days to help supplement the light rains and give the tree a chance to root in well.) As the water ran, I trimmed out broken branches only. We’ll let the tree decide which limbs it wants to release this spring. There’s no need to try to trim it to match the top to the trimmed roots on the bottom. Also, we trimmed branches off a large tree beside this tree’s location. Eventually this larger tree will be removed as it is in the wrong place, but for now it is staying as we watch and see how the Stewartia takes root.

When we moved the Stewartia, its buds were beginning to swell, but they hadn’t opened. Much of the energy a deciduous tree uses to open spring buds is stored in the stem near the bud. So, the root system doesn’t get tapped much for this process. This is why sometimes a plant will bud out in spring only to die right after. Its stems had energy, but its roots did not in this case. (Again, I’m generalizing here.) Once the bud opens, the leaf begins photosynthesizing, feeding the plant. So far, several weeks later, the buds have opened and the tree seems to be doing well. My client and I look forward to seeing how the tree progresses into the spring. When the ground gets warmer, I’ll probably recommend a mycorhizzae application. For now, I just hope the ground doesn’t freeze!

Oh, and the patio space is filling in nicely. It has been excavated, and the crushed base material will be laid in this weekend.

Any questions?!

Quite often my clients struggle with inherited gardens that include desirable plants that are just in the wrong location. What was once a small shrub near a foundation may have grown into a small tree that now encroaches on windows and building sidings becoming access paths for rats to rooftops. A random tree may be growing in the middle a lawn where its bark is suceptible to the wrath of the lawnmower. Really the list goes on. So the question becomes what to do about these issues?

In some cases inappropriate pruning has been the solution. More than once I’ve visited a new client with overgrown trees near foundations. Rather than know they have the power to move the tree to a new location, the client (or the client’s mow-blow-go gardener) whacks away at the tree trying to “make it smaller”. This, as any of my clients who have taken pruning lessons knows, results in more problems than solutions. Random whacking removes one limb, replacing it with countless others that are weaker than the original. It doesn’t solve the problem. The rats can still use the ladder. The roots of the tree can continue to hump against the foundation. Surrounding walkways continue to heave. Siding continues to be compromised. Again, what should be done?

Ideally, in the first place, the garden designer should have selected an appropriate plant for an appropriate place. Too often longterm plant growth (along with exposure requirements and more) are ignored by designers (or installers). Since we’re looking at situations where the problem is already in place, the ideal solution is to move the wrong plant to the right place.

Moving a tree can be a daunting task. They’re heavy. They’re alive. They’re fragile. Still, they’re movable. In some cases moving a tree means removing it altogether. If it’s been damaged significantly it may require more renovation work than you’re likely to perform. As well, it may never recover from past damage. If it is in a location where hardscape makes it impossible to remove the rootball, then realistically it won’t survive transplanting. However, if the tree is in decent shape and you have the right tools for the job, moving it to a new location is possible. Don’t have a new location for it yourself? Consider donating it on craigslist or to a local park instead. Remember, this is a living being that contributes to the overall well-being of the planet!

In some cases a tree is just too big to move by hand. But, if access is available, there are tree services that can safely and effectively move your tree for you. Companies like Washington-state-based Big Tree Supply specialize in supplying and moving big trees.

In other cases trees can be moved by hand using the right tools, enough people and doing it at the right time of year. In most cases the right time of year means moving a tree in winter, but late enough in the winter that the ground isn’t frozen. Deciduous trees are dormant this time of year. Evergreens are photosynthesizing, but their growth is significantly curtailed in winter. Yes, finding the balance between moving a plant while it is dormant but while the ground is not frozen can be tenuous. But it is possible. Too, it is possible to move trees after they break bud in spring, but it is harder on the plant.

If a tree is a late winter/early spring bloomer, finding the right time to transplant has another obstacle to overcome — flower buds. Flowering takes an enormous amount of energy from a plant. Too, it uses many of the same nutrients that the plant uses to maintain overall health and to establish new root growth. So, it may behoove you to move a late winter blooming tree, like a star magnolia, right after flowering but before the spring growth surge begins. If the tree is forming fruit, consider knocking them off to encourage the plant to focus its growth underground.

Now that you’ve read a variety of caveots around transplanting your tree, you must be anxious to actually find out how to make the move. Well, tune in soon for part two: Garden Coach on Moving a Dormant Stewartia Tree. I promise, it’s coming soon!

Last summer my husband and I built a small water feature in a decorative container for our back patio. It was the first one either of us had constructed, and it was a great learning experience. About a month after it was built, my mom came to visit and fell in love with the bamboo spigot idea. She and I shopped together for alternative ideas for her space, and she came to love the deer scarer (also known as a deer chaser or ‘shishi odoshi’) style of bamboo waterfeature. And, this style really made sense for her woodland setting in Virginia.

(Aside: Mom doesn’t have deer in her garden, which is kind of surprising given where she lives. And, I’m not sure if these chasers would really scare a deer away given how tame they often become in residential settings. Still, I imagine the first few times a deer encountered a ‘chaser’ they’d bolt. We did have fun watching the squirrels come to investigate, lose track of what they were investigating and then flip out when the spigot clunked!)

While Mom was visiting last summer, we didn’t purchase the fixtures for her Shishi odoshi. I meant to go back and get one to send her for Christmas, but by the time I got around to it, the nursery was out of stock for the season. Fortunately, I was able to order an even nicer one that arrived before my visit to her house a few weeks ago.

While I was visiting, she and I set out to install the waterfeature. She had some old pond liner under her deck that she’d saved after tearing out a nasty, swampy pond that came with her house. Fortunately, there was a large enough section of liner without holes that we were able to recycle it for our purposes.

Mom had originally thought to put the spigot feature in an area of her garden that blends into her neighbor’s somewhat romantic setting. The whimsical gazebo backdrop didn’t feel quite right to me. So, I suggested she consider the opposite side of the house, outside her painting studio. Turns out she liked the idea. Her plan to site it near the gazebo really stemmed from the fact that her outdoor plug is on that side of the house and she’d gotten used to having a beautiful bird bath in the space I suggested for the new waterfeature. When I explained that we could easily get electricity to the location and that the birdbath made more sense tied with the gazebo while the spigot made more sense in a wilder setting, she was sold. So, we went to it!

The first thing we had to do was dig out a pond space where we would place the spigot and recirculating pump. Fortunately, amid a winter with not much rain, we tackled this job on a sunny morning after a long drenching rain. So, digging wasn’t too bad. Her soil is very rocky and filled with lots of true clay.

Here in Seattle so many people believe they have clay when what they really have is compacted soil. True clay is hard to dig and is incredibly slippery. So, we had our work cut out for us. As we washed rocks and prepped the site we did quite a bit of damage to the soil structure in the garden bed surrounding the scarer. I did my best to limit the damage and move plants before working in their area. Still, it will be interesting to see what doesn’t fare particularly well after our installation. Fortunately, it was fairly early in the season when we did the work, so our hope is that the plants will have the energy to withstand the compaction and that the rains will continue to come and improve the drainage and aeration before the full spring surge.

While I was digging out the space, Mom began gathering larger, decorative stones from around her garden. As I dug out rocks, I set them aside to re-use in the waterfeature. Together we trimmed up the pond liner using scissors, despite my begging that she find a box cutter to use instead. Still, we managed to get a piece that fit our space. We washed it well,  lined the hole, set the spigot in place and filled the liner after holding it down with some stones. And, it worked!

To be honest, we did spend several hours the next day fine tuning everything. For instance, we’d put the pieces together wrong in the first place. Sleeping on the problem of it not knocking correctly helped us see the problem and fix it quickly the next day. As well, I realized I wanted a bigger splash pool, so we pulled out the rocks and did some additional digging. Fortunately, we hadn’t done a final cut on the liner, which we’d cut oversize the day before, so we had wiggle room to make the splash zone larger. And then I did the final cut, using a box cutter, which was such a better tool for the job than the scissors we used the day before. Once again: use the right tool, and life will be easier!

As we closed in on finishing our installation during our second day, my nephew showed up to help us. He prowled through the woods and creek to find more interesting stones, moss and branches to create a dry stream heading downhill from the spigot and pool. He found a mossy old log that he used to hide the electrical cord. Plus, he helped me uncover plants hidden under piles of leaves in the wilder parts of Mom’s garden, which we added alongside the dry stream he created with us. We added native ferns and wild ginger, knowing that hydrangea, hosta, toad lily, and dogwoods would soon surround our new addition to the garden. I had hoped to take Mom shopping for a dwarf Japanese Maple to add to the mix, but we ran out of time. Maybe next time!

Now my Mom has a beautiful waterfeature in her garden bed to provide inspiration as she paints. The birds, squirrels and chipmunks have a new water source near the bird feeders — and this water moves! Unfortunately, my nephew got a bad case of poison oak after I left, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he contracted it helping us. Perhaps he’ll find some solace as he suffers knowing that his pain will always be rewarded when he visits the beautiful stream he helped create.

Getting to work with my young nephew and my young-at-heart mom was a real joy. Both of them are enthusiastic about the outdoors. Both are inspired and inspiring artists. Together we built something lasting, something that will bring joy to the birds and other wildlife that visit the garden, something that they will be able to share and develop for years to come. I learned from each of them, as I do from all of my clients, how to be a better gardener and a better garden mentor.

The last week has been really busy for my garden coaching business. I’ve been all over the greater Seattle area, working hand-in-hand with clients to help them prepare their gardens for the active growing season. I’m returning to see many clients who started working with me last fall, and the progress in each of their gardens is quite measurable. Most have been working on garden renovation projects over the winter. A few highlights of client progress include:

• Removing a few plants that were overgrown and becoming overcrowded; this provided more light and air to the remaining plants.
• Cleaning out Japanese Maples to remove dead and to renovate old stump cuts
• Weeding, weeding and more weeding
• Improving soil by digging out weeds, rocks and then adding in composted materials like steer manure or mixed woody compost materials
• Thinking and watching — planning for what to do next
• Building raised planters and trellises on which berries and vegetables will grow this year

Those are just a few things that clients are doing. The great joy I get in seeing their progress is compounded when they tell me how excited they’ve been in anticipation of my return. So, yes, I love my job! Knowing that I’m empowering people and that the advice I’ve given them is encouraging them to do more and to feel good about it, well that gives me a charge. And, seeing that my clients are doing much, Much, MUCH better gardening work after spending time with me tells me I must be doing something right. So, if these clients are doing so well following their first session with me, why do I go back in the Spring?

Well, there’s the confirmation and affirmation that I provide. I review their work and help them understand next steps toward improving their work. Often they’re ready by the second or third lesson to begin expanding their pruning. Once they get the basics down, I can start teaching them how to break the basic rules in order to really manipulate the garden. In spring, we’re ready to talk fertilizers. Gardens are showing their weedy nature, so its time for weed ID lessons. Its time to plan vegetable gardens (are your snow peas planted yet?!). And, its time to look at spots that didn’t survive the winter or maybe are just ready for a bit more TLC.

As I work with each client, I customize the session based on the work they’ve achieved, the work the garden needs, and the time available to us. This week I did a lot of hydrangea pruning lessons. After I demonstrate the technique, I set the client to work on the remaining plants. And, I can’t just sit still. As they make their way through the plants themselves, I sit on my hands answering questions (often with questions of my own) until the client is clipping away with confidence. And, sitting on my hands often means I’m tackling the next shrub in line for a lesson, perhaps a tangled morass of Garrya or a ramshackle rhodie building my way to the next lesson and the next step for the client.

A few outstanding items that I find myself reiterating again & again. So listen up! This is important stuff!

• Use good quality tools. Cheap ones don’t pay off in the long run. Pay a little more to get a better saw or a better set of shears. Your hands, shoulders, checkbook and plants will thank you in the long run!
• Take care of your tools! Sterilize them so you don’t pass disease from limb to limb or from plant to plant. Keep them clean and sharp. If they’re nicked or dull, you may injure yourself or plants!
• Don’t over do it. One small injury can set you back weeks and weeks. Set small, realistic goals. When you complete them, think twice before taking on another large task. Make sure you leave the garden happier at the end of the day than you started at the beginning.

So, next week is the first week I have set a schedule for specific articles, once a week, to be added to this site. While on vacation, I realized that I hadn’t been adding as much targeted, specific information on this site as I had originally planned. My scheduled articles are pretty well mapped out until June. However, I enjoy your specific requests and would be happy to provide articles based on reader requests.

Yesterday I returned to Seattle from Virginia. I’d spent two weeks visiting family after speaking at the Maymont Garden Show. During that time, I was amazed by the flip-flopping weather. We went from 75 one morning to frozen ground by evening. We went from clear blue skies one morning to wind and rain that made it feel like we were driving under ocean waves. And, I watched spring begin to appear. Bare branches gave way to yellow forsythia, red maple, white pear and pink plum blossoms. Ground broke open as new green shoots appeared, hellebores blossomed and daffodils unfurled. As I watched these daily changes, I knew Seattle would be bursting at the seams with color given the spring awakening I enjoyed in Virginia.

After being awake for nearly 21 hours, sleeping only about 4 before that long stint of wakefulness, I enjoyed walking Shiloh with Bob in the “spring forward” evening last night. Our neighborhood was bursting with color. Everything from white to pink showered over the Pieris shrubs. Candytuft covered rockeries in white spring snow. Pink plums were fluffing in the breeze. And all manner of bulb were popping up. Spring and winter camellias were in full bloom. Hellebores were stunning. My daphne (and others like it) were filling the air with their distinctive fragrance. Manzanita blossom buds were swelling. Flowering winter currant pink clusters are drooping open. Bergenia pink appeared out of nowhere. Rhodie buds are swelling and Azaleas are filled with blossoms. Winter bloomers like witch hazel and garrya are forming fruit as flowers fade. Corylopsis and Corylus are showing off yellow flowering chains. Pussy willows are pollenating fuzz everywhere. Viburnum buds are swelling with a bit of pink that will bring forth even more brilliant fragrance soon. And, all of this appeared in just two short weeks.

Of course the nasties are also starting to rear their ugly heads. Fields of shotweed are in full bloom. Dandelions are arrayed in fresh green growth with brilliant yellow blossoms. Dock seedlings are growing rapidly. And, I’m sure other issues I haven’t quite seen are short behind these.

As I write this, I think of the things that are next up to be done in my own garden. The weeds need to be managed, epimedium and sword fern old growth needs removing before new growth emerges, last ornamental grasses need trimming down, twig dogwoods need a final trimming, and it’s time to do a few perennial divisions.

A gardener’s garden is never done!

Worked for a few hours with Bob on our overgrown parking strip. In two hours I was able to clear out about a 25 sq foot area. It doesn’t sound like much, but it was hard work. I was able to salvage, divide and replant Euphorbia, Carex and Sedum. There’s more to do, but that will come another day.

 Anna dropped by and “helped” for a little while, too.

Workout:

• Type: Other
• Date: 02/17/2008
• Time: 16:30:00
• Total Time: 2:00:00.00

For the past several years I have participated with the Northwest Flower and Garden Show as a volunteer, an attendee, and as an award-winning show garden designer. This year I’m looking forward to attending the show and volunteering once again.

The construction of the show begins at the Seattle Convention Center on Saturday, February 16th. By mid-day Tuesday, February 19th the show gardens will be completed and the judges will assess the results. On the evening of February 19th, the show floors open for the annual Arboretum Foundation fundraising gala event. This is a wonderful way to see the show gardens up close — with a glass of wine and fabulous catered meal in hand. Plus, it’s less crowded, fancier, and a great way to raise money for the Seattle Arboretum foundation. Yes, I’ll be there!

Bright and early on Wednesday the 20th I’ll be on the show floor “hosting” the WSNLA show garden for a few hours. Because I am a member of WSNLA, this is a garden that I try to help with each year.

Anyone who loves gardening or just loves looking at magnificent gardens will benefit from this show. Buy tickets early to save on entry costs.

And, if you’d like to learn more about the show, visit the show Flora blog where I’ve contributed some posts and have been interviewed by their regular writer for some of her other forthcoming articles.

Regularly I contribute gardening articles for publication on WSNLA.org and KPLU.org websites. This month the topic is gardening for year-round color. Read more about adding year-round interest to your garden here. In this article I’ve shared everything from observing gardener behavior and those behavior’s garden results to how to add specific colors and fragrances to the garden. Enjoy!