Cultivating My Inner Tree

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!