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Sequencing Garden Construction to Avoid Conflict

What to do with all that creative garden energy while you wait for fall to plant?  Get the rest of the landscape ready!  Plants should be the finishing touch on a garden to protect them from damage during other gardening projects.

Once you’ve completed your garden master plan, decide whether you want to tackle the whole garden or divide it into smaller projects to be completed individually.  Which ever approach you take, there may still be infrastructure projects that should be done first to avoid conflict later on.  The key concept:  Don’t paint yourself into a corner!

At the top of the list is grading your site to ensure drainage away from your house and other structures.  Water is the enemy of buildings.  Take the time now to evaluate and correct any problems you have with drainage.  At the least, make sure that all earth and paving slopes away from your house for a minimum of 5′.  If you have dampness or puddling near or under your house or smell mold or mildew during wet seasons, you may need to install drainage structures such as drain inlets/piping or french drains to carry water away from your house.

Consider where you may need to use heavy equipment and make sure that your current phase of construction doesn’t block access routes.

Placing Boulders with a Loader

If you are adding an automatic irrigation system, electric lighting, or gas for a barbecue, consider the needs of the entire garden and where your piping or wiring will need to go. Trench and install piping or sleeves (larger diameter piping through which the actual  pipes can be run) in areas that will be constructed during your current phase to service future phases.  If  piping or sleeves must run through paved areas, make sure it is installed well below grade to allow for excavations for base rock, sand, and paving materials.

Do you want to replace your lawn with drought tolerant native plants?  Summer is the time to let the sun do the work of killing your lawn using a technique researched by UC Davis called Solarizing.

Once your infrastructure projects are finished, you can start adding the fun stuff.  Construct your hardscapes such as paving, decks, walls, shade structures, boulders, etc., now.  Keep referring to your master plan; sequence construction to avoid future conflicts.  For example, if you want a pergola over your stone patio, get footings and post bases in before you pave.

Install Pergola and Fencing Footings Before Paving

After construction is complete, prepare your soil for planting.  Loosen compaction caused by construction.  If you are planting edibles or ‘traditional’ landscape plants (i.e., not natives), amend the soil as necessary.

And, finally, when fall arrives, you are ready to install your plants.  They’ll put their energy into root development and reward you with vigorous growth and vitality next spring.

Urging Restraint

Winter is finally releasing its strangle-hold on the landscape, buds are bursting, the hillsides are glowing chartreuse, and I really feel like digging holes in my garden.  Which is fine, if I want to plant things that like to be watered.  Fruits, veggies, ‘normal’ landscape plants, stream-bank

Coffee berry is a Butte County native that can tolerate some summer water

plants, shade lovers . . . these guys all enjoy being released from the confines of their containers into real dirt when spring is springing.  I’ll water them during planting and keep doing so as they need it through spring, summer, and fall until the rains begin.

 

But . . . and I hate to say this because I don’t want to convey anything but complete enthusiasm for native gardening . . .  I’m trying not to plant super drought tolerant California native plants now. Excellent dryland plants such as Ceanothus, White Manzanita, Foothill Penstemon, and Canyon Live Oak deserve to be in the garden, but will reward you with their best vitality if you wait until fall to plant them.

Here’s why.  The natives that grow on hot, dry sites have evolved to thrive in our summers without supplemental water.  To do this, they require well developed root systems.  Their root systems do not like to be watered in the summers; the most drought tolerant species are actually prone to dying if they receive summer water.  So, the best way to ensure their health is to water them well at planting and then leave them alone.  No water, no fertilizer.

If I try to plant super drought tolerant natives now, with summer just around the corner, chances are much lower that they will be able to grow enough roots to allow them to survive unwatered until the rains come.  If I just can’t help myself and irrigate them, they might survive.

Foothill penstemon will do best without summer water

Or,  the combination of water and warm soil may cause them to develop  fungal root disease.

 

I’d prefer to wait until fall to plant these beauties.  If I get them in the ground in October or November, before the rains start in earnest, they will have all winter and spring to grow those essential roots.  By next summer, they’ll be ready for drought.  If it’s a dry spring, I’ll water them before the weather starts heating up to help them establish  and ‘charge’ the soil.  But, once it gets hot, I’ll turn the water off .  And the success rate will be much higher than it would have been if I’d given in to the temptation to plant right now, in this beautiful spring weather.  The beauty and satisfaction of using the most appropriate plants for our environment is worth waiting for the right planting time.

Plants should be the last thing to go into a landscape, whether they are our wonderful drought tolerant natives or not.  Next post, I’ll share ideas on sequencing the installation of a new landscape.

 

The Beauty of a Master Plan

A page of planning is worth a book of re-doing.  Or something like that.  A garden is a long term investment that takes years to realize it’s potential.  Taking the time to create a master plan before planting the first tree will save time, labor, and money and result in a more cohesive, beautiful, functional, and easily maintained garden.  A master plan does not lock you into a rigid design but rather helps keep the big picture clear.

A master plan can be as simple a diagram, drawn to scale, that shows the location, size, and relationship between the various elements that you want in your garden.  Kind of like the floor plan for a home design.  It may indicate the overall concept of the garden and indicate material selections such as stone, fencing, and plant types to create the desired look.

To create a master plan, first consider how the space will be used.  Who and how many will use it on a regular basis?  For special events?  What will they be doing?  When?  What are the most pleasant parts of the existing garden?  The least?  This information will help you understand the types of amenities that may be useful, how big different areas should be, and whether protection from the elements may be needed.  ‘Hardscape’ elements like decks, patios, pools, shade structures are the bones of the plan.  All other elements attach and relate to them, and embellish them.  They cost more effort and money to install so it’s critical to make sure they are built to meet long term needs.

Once you understand how the garden is to be used, think about how you would like it to look and feel.  Beauty is a judgment call and a garden is very personal.   Take photos of garden elements that you like and peruse garden books and magazines to help clarify your tastes.

And then, there is reality.  What is your budget?  Who will be doing the construction?  What is the time line for construction?  Who will be doing the maintenance and how much time do they want to spent doing it?  Nuts and bolts questions like these will help you select appropriate materials and amenities.

With this thought process and information, you are ready to start drawing up a master plan that will guide you from start to completion of your personal garden.  Have fun!

Incredible Edibles

When designing with edible plants, my goal is to create a beautiful garden that doesn’t look like a ‘vegetable patch.’  I use edible plants in the same ways that I use ‘regular’ garden plants.  By incorporating a mix of edible trees, shrubs, and groundcovers I can create a sequence of spaces and frame hardscape areas like patios, pavilions, decks, meditation nooks.

I rely on deciduous and evergreen perennial edibles that live for years or decades.  Many deciduous fruit and nut trees thrive in the North Valley.  They can provide the shade, screening, blossoms, and fall colors of typical deciduous landscape trees such as magnolias with the added bonus of fresh fruit.   Evergreen trees such as citrus and olives provide year-round green, fragrant blossoms, and, of course, fruit.

Edible perennials, including persimmon, daylilies, herbs, roses, and strawberries, enhance this courtyard

Edibles that serve as shrubs include evergreen types such as bamboo (roots are edible), tall rosemaries, and dwarf citrus and deciduous types such as blueberries, rhubarb, and roses (the petals

make a lovely addition to salads!).  I use shrubs to define spaces within a garden, provide screening, and as a backdrop for art.

Herbs like creeping rosemaries, thyme, oregano, and chamomile and perennials such as daylilies and strawberries can be used as groundcovers in place of standard plants like ivy or junipers to soften the edges of walkways, spill over walls, help suppress weeds, cool ground temperatures, and prevent erosion.

By using perennial plants in the place of traditional landscape plants, I can create a garden that looks good all year and functions on many levels with places to relax, play, and entertain.  It can even include a vegetable patch!  But it won’t remind you of a farm.

Part of the fun is being able to graze on your home grown delicacies as you wander through your personal Eden.

The Difference Between Native Grasses and the Brown Stuff

When  I’m raving about the beauty of native landscapes, I’m not talking about the vast expanses of  brown grass that dominate our hills and valleys.   Nope.   That weedy stuff is NOT native.  Its a mix of exotic invasive plants, mostly annual grasses with some notable perennials mixed in.  The Spanish missionaries brought the first invaders over and the assault has continued since.   We’re left with a such a pervasively different look that many people think that our ‘Golden State’ nickname refers to the brown.

What used to be there?   Tall perennial bunch grasses that stayed green all summer interspersed with smaller flowering plants that combined to make a spring display so spectacular, John Muir stopped dead in his tracks when he first saw it.   Many of our spring flowers still bloom, but the grasses are mostly gone from the wild.  Fortunately, there are nurseries that offer many of the native grasses from seed or in containers so that we can enjoy them in our gardens.  Floral Native Nursery in Chico is an excellent source.

What do the native grasses offer in the garden?  They retain a soft green blush through the summer, thrive on minimal care,  and support beneficial wildlife.  Their upright habits give them a structural quality that plays well with more amorphously shaped plants and ground covers.

Deer Grass (Muhlenbergia rigens). Courtesy Gerhard Bock.

One beauty, Deer grass (Muhlenbergia rigens) naturally occurs in oak savannas and near seeps throughout much of Butte County.  It forms a 2-3′ tall by 4-5′ wide clump of softly arching grass blades with 4-5′ tall flower spikes (inflorescence) in the summer and fall.  Looks great when back lit by afternoon sun.  Deer Grass is easy to grow in full sun to part shade.  If you treat it right – plant it in the fall, little to no summer water, no fertilizer, don’t mess with it much – it will live for a decade or two.

 

So, How Much Did It Cost?

With Eve’s Garden Design, one of my goal’s is to bring beautiful, sustainable gardens to regular people.   A garden really can be installed by hand without calling in the big machines; it can be maintained by people without a degree in horticulture, and it can require minimal care so that it is a joy, not a burden to its humans.  And, a garden can be affordable.

My dad’s garden is a bit of a demonstration garden.   I used ‘best practices’ in constructing it to minimize future maintenance requirements and so that I would be able to tell people how much it costs to do it right.  We kept every receipt for the materials used.

This garden cost less than $1,000 for all materials. By next summer, it will be beautifully filled in.

The total cost?  $943, including sales tax.

That includes plastic sheeting for solarizing, parts to convert his spray irrigation system to drip, landscape fabric (weed barrier), plants (and I did over-plant in my enthusiasm for creating a lush looking demo garden), mulch, and sand for under the pavers (the pavers were free, salvaged from the demolition of another project).  It doesn’t include hiring laborers because we did all the work ourselves.  That’s my 78 year old dad (two prosthetic knees), my very strong brother for one day, and me.  It took approximately 40 people hours to install everything, working at a reasonable, not frenetic, pace.

And, there are many ways to cut the cost far below what we paid for my dad’s garden.  A sustainable garden is an investment in your future and in the future of your neighborhood and your planet.  It will enrich your life and doesn’t have to hurt your bank account.