Outdoor Watering Tools

Even though the winter and spring have been wet, we still have to think about the coming summer months and keeping everything watered. No one wants to waste water and most garden centers have a bunch of watering tools to help you get the water to where the plant needs it. Our friends from Dramm sent us a bunch of their wonderful products to demonstrate. First of all, you need a good hose. A lot of the hoses you will find on the market are pretty flimsy. This is one place where you get what you pay for. A good hose will not kink or leak and it should last more than one year of normal wear and tear. Next a soaker hose is a good idea. This will get the water to the root zone of your favorite plants and since it slowly drips water you won’t lose much to evaporation. Next we looked at spray nozzles. The one from Dramm had different settings so you could adjust the flow to the type of watering you were doing; a light mist to a ‘jet’ stream, and all you do is twist the knob on the front. Timers are also a good idea; there are battery operated ones and some that work on a spring system. The spring type are good if you are going to be around the house and just want the water to run for a certain time. The battery ones can be set to turn your water on and off for weeks if you plan to be on vacation.

Finally we talked about tools for getting water to those hard to reach places. Dramm had a watering wand with a shutoff valve. This is great for hanging baskets! Remember that hanging baskets can dry out much faster than your other containers so keep an eye on them and when you water them, give them a good soaking! Check your local independent garden center for more tools and ideas. If you would like more tips for watering check with the Regional Water Providers Consortium. If you would like to see how these great tools are made check out our Facebook page for some shots from our recent tour of the factory in Wisconsin.

Deer Resistant Plants

Bambi is cute, except when he is munching on your tasty garden plants. We stopped by Portland Nursery (503-231-5050) on Stark in Portland and talked to Sara to learn about deer resistant plants and other ways for thwarting Bambi’s advances. First of all, when we say ‘deer resistant’ we are not talking about ‘deer proof’. For the most part, if a deer is hungry he will eat anything, even plants that taste terrible to him. Sara talked about some of the plants that are considered deer resistant. The plants were grouped into 3 categories. Some were texture plants, some were taste plants and some were fragrance plants. The texture plants were ones with rough leaves, spikes or thorns. These included Mahonia, barberry and juniper. They are tough to chew and so the deer avoid them. The taste plants were foxglove, euphorbia, and rhododendrons. These taste awful or are poisonous and so they stay away from those too. The fragrance plants are ones that the deer can’t stand the smell and those included rosemary, lavender and sage.

Sara also recommended that you use a deterrent spray to help chase them away. These sprays usually have a combination of natural ingredients like cloves, garlic and pepper to make even tasty plants yucky. You should look for ‘putrescent (rotten) eggs’ or wolf urine on the label. Both of those odors are known to chase the deer away. You can also try the Scarecrow sprinkler. This is a sprinkler that turns on when it senses something in your garden and gives it a squirt of water to scare it away.

If you like deer and want them to come to your garden create a place for them to forage and that might help save some of your plants, but remember once you invite them in it is hard to ask them to leave. For more deer resistant plants and other ideas you can stop by Portland Nursery or check out their website, http://www.portlandnursery.com/docs/birds-deer-bees/deer-resistant.pdf, for a handout.

Inviting Vines Clematis Tour

Did you know that we have one of the best clematis collections in the world right here in our backyard? The Rogerson Clematis Collection at Luscher Farm in Lake Oswego is the result of a lifetime of work of Brewster Rogerson. He is not a gardener; he just loves clematis as a plant. After years of collecting plants he decided to donate them to the Pacific Northwest Clematis Society and the beginnings of the collection were formed. A few years ago the collection found a new home at Luscher Farm and that is where we found curator Linda Beutler. Linda joined us in the garden to talk about common clematis problems you will find in your home garden. The problem that a lot of people experience is the death of one branch of their otherwise healthy clematis. Some people might think that this is clematis wilt which is a big problem if your plant has it. The only thing is that clematis wilt will affect the whole plant and normally local gardeners will see only one or two dying stems. This is caused by slugs! The slug will attack the new bark on the lower part of the plant and they scrape off the outside bark. If they get all the way around the stem it will ‘girdle’ the stem and cause that stem to die. Another problem is moles… even though they are only going for worms and grubs in the ground they can expose the roots to air and that may cause your plants to wilt. If the soil around your plant is pushed up it could be the sign of a mole. All Linda does is step on it to push the soil down and back into contact with the roots.

Now we took a walk up to see the new changes around the garden. Last year they were looking for a grant to help with the garden paths and to make it more ADA compliant. They got the grant and the garden is looking spectacular! The pathways lead you around the different garden beds with each one a different theme. There is a bed with clematis that are suggested for the beginning gardener. This bed features plants found on a ‘beginners’ list on the International Clematis Societies website. Another bed features rare plants from a Polish hybridizer. Right now everything looks fantastic. A great time to see the garden is this weekend as part of the Inviting Vines tour. The tour which also features 5 private gardens in Southwest Portland, is a fundraiser for the garden and helps pay for the continued maintenance of this local treasure. The Tour is happening this Saturday the 25th from 10am to 4pm. You can get your tickets at the display garden at Luscher Farm or from a list of garden centers on their website, including Dennis 7 Dees in Lake Oswego, Portland Nursery on Stark and Garden Fever among others. Check out the Collections website for more information.

Jan’s May Tips

It is May and there are lots of chores in the garden right now. We joined Jan McNeilan in her garden for the tips of the month and found her next to one of her rhododendrons. The plant was done blooming and Jan was deadheading, or removing, the old blooms from the plant. This is mainly to just clean up the plant. She was leaving the small green shoots at the base of the old bloom untouched. This is the new growth for next year. If she wanted to keep the plant the same size she would just remove those new shoots and it would stay pretty much the same size. Now is a good time to do any pruning, since the plants set blooms between now and August. We also talked about her new gardening gloves. These new gloves are for her arthritis and relieve her pain by applying pressure on her hands. It was a good reminder that, even with aches and pains, we can all still get out and garden. She found her gloves at a local pharmacy. We then took a look at a brand new hanging basket that she had purchased. This is a lovely basket that used a chain type hanger. The problem, since it is a chain you need a stool or ladder to hang it, something that is a problem for the shorter Jan. Always think about your containers when you purchase them. Are they difficult to hang, heavy to lift, etc?

Now we moved into the greenhouse. Here we checked out the trays of seedlings that Jan and her husband had planted. First of all she didn’t use expensive planters for her seed starting; it was just a box full of soil. One was full of veggie seedlings, because the seed packets had gotten wet, and the other was full of marigold plants. These marigolds are from the seed heads from last years plants. Normally seeds don’t always stay true to the original variety, but in the case of these types of flower seeds it doesn’t matter. Jan will get tons of blooms from these seeds and it won’t matter if they have the same bloom color as last year. We also talked about home remedies for garden problems. Jan had received a booklet espousing the benefits of vinegar as a weed control. The problem with vinegar is that you can do more damage with it if you are not careful than you could with an organic commercial product. A lot of these home remedies have never been tested in a research facility and just pouring it on the soil can damage it or even sterilize it killing the good along with the bad. Jan mentioned nicotine as a good example of a substance to avoid. There is a guide to various levels of toxicity located in the Pacific Northwest Insect Control Handbook (http://pnwhandbooks.org/insect). Make sure that whatever you use in your garden is safe as well as effective. For more information on garden tips and safe gardening practices, check out the OSU Extension website (http://extension.oregonstate.edu/).

Urban Forager

If you are working up a hunger pulling weeds in the garden, you may not have to look very far to get a snack! We met with Becky Lerner, author of the new book ‘Dandelion Hunter’. This book is about foraging for useful and edible plants. Becky met up with us on Alberta Street in NE Portland where she did a lot of research for her book. We started near the street where we found a yucca plant. This plant is very useful in lots of ways. The blooms are edible, the leaves were used as needles and the roots became a soap when harvested. Next we wandered down an alleyway and found a bunch of plants that we didn’t know you could eat. The first plant was lemon balm which is a member of the mint family. You can cook with it or make tea out of it. It is used as an anti-anxiety, anti-viral medicine, which is great if you have a cold. This can be paired with the California poppy. The poppy has been used for a long time as a gentle sedative and was actually given to children in years past. Another plant we passed in the alley was a Sow Thistle. This plant is one of the better tasting greens in the wild. It can be used in salads or just eaten right off the plant. The real surprise was the ‘money plant’ we found. It is an annual that can be grown from seed or found at your local nursery. Becky called it a mustard and she was right. The new seed pods taste just like Chinese mustard.
Of course, there are tips and hints to follow when you go out to forage. Tip number one, know what you are doing! Don’t just eat the plant. Make absolutely sure that you know the plant and what parts are safe to eat or harvest. Never guess!!! You can learn about plants if you take a plant walk with an expert. Becky has her walks listed on her website www.Firstway.com, or you can buy a good book. Another important tip, make sure that the area looks clean. Areas near roads will have remnants of road dirt and residue from car exhaust. Also make sure that the area has not been sprayed with any herbicides or pesticides. You can also get a copy of Becky’s book, Dandelion Hunter at www.rebeccalerner.com. And to think, all that work pulling weeds in the garden and I could have been eating!

Adelman Peony Gardens

It is Memorial Day weekend and that means the peonies are blooming. These easy and worry free plants are great in the garden and the best place to see them is Adelman Peony Gardens (503-393-6185) near Brooks. We visited a couple of years ago when they first planted their display garden and now that garden is looking fantastic! The plants are a little bit ahead in their bloom cycle but that just means that you will see varieties that are normally done blooming by this time of year. Carol Adelman showed us around the garden and told us about other interests about these great plants other than their blooms. We talked about the different types of foliage that will create interest in your garden long after the blooms are gone. There are large glossy leafed varieties and very fine textured varieties to choose from. Also, don’t forget about the seed heads. Once the blooms are gone the seed heads can be striking against the backdrop of the summer foliage. If you don’t want to have the seed heads Carol showed us how you can cut them off by just going down to the top of the next leaf set and cut the stem off above that to give the plants a cleaner look. There are so many different varieties that it can be hard to choose the right one for your garden. That is why this is the best time to stop by and see the blooms. Adelman’s is open through June 15th form 9am to 6pm everyday. Stop by and walk the display garden, check out the cut flower display and take one home for your garden. They also have events happening every weekend. Check out their website for details.

Grilled Short Ribs

You have spent all spring getting your garden ready for summer, now it is time to set up the grill, have a cold drink and relax. Memorial Day is here and to get us ready to grill we dropped by to see Jerry Yost from Gartner’s Meats (503-252-7801). Everyone seems to grill hamburgers and hotdogs during the summer. Jerry showed us how easy it is to impress people by trying something different, Grilled Marinated Short-ribs. These ribs are the most popular item that Gartner’s sells during the summer holidays. In less than 10 minutes you can have a real mouth-watering treat, and a great start to the summer grilling season! Not only do they have a great selection of meats for the grill, you can also fill the rest of your dinner table with goodies. They have a wide selection of side salads, bread, twice baked potatoes and even marinade-to-go so you can prepare your own special recipe. If you are looking to kick off the summer right, think about a stop at Gartner’s first!

Travel Packing