Saturday, September 29, 2007
Here comes the rain -- but dryness lingers
Libba Wolfe
Libba Wolfe's column appears twice monthly in Extra.
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I'm thinking of a new line of work: rainmaker. I've written about drought twice in the past few years. Both times as the stories were going to press, long dry spells were broken by lovely long rains.
The rain we got two weeks ago refreshed the plants and the gardeners. But I was digging this week, and the ground is still powder dry. Our problems are not over yet. Choices we make in the remaining months of this growing season and early next spring will help our plants deal with the damage they've sustained and the possibility of more harsh weather.
Last time I passed on advice from Bruce Feldberg at Salem's Riverside Nursery about the importance of enriching soil with organic matter. He had more ideas for long-term drought strategies.
Mulching is a great way to protect soil from the drying effects of heat and from cold dry winter winds. It also helps with water and soil runoff on steep banks. The garden books always say it prevents weeds. That has not been my experience but maybe it cuts down on their spread.
Mulch is turning into a fashion item -- it comes in colors now. Choose what you like -- hardwood chips, pine bark nuggets, pine needles, fall leaves, grass clippings, shredded newspaper. Two or three inches every two years is plenty. You can't lose with organic mulch -- it neatens up the border, helps water retention and gradually decomposes to feed the soil.
The third strategy involves the choices we make at the nurseries and plant stands. It's silly to drool over garden magazine pictures of misty lush borders in the rainy Northwest. All my shopping lists this fall are going to start with the reminder "103 degrees and no rain for five weeks." It could happen again next summer.
Feldberg says the right plant in the right place is the key to success. We can still have colorful, interesting gardens by paying attention to what we plant.
He's already working on a special collection of plants for next spring that will thrive during a hot dry summer. Until then, there are plenty of great choices for fall planting.
Prairie plants -- black-eyed Susans, coneflowers, and grasses -- love it hot. In fact, Feldberg says the ornamental grasses are looking better this year than ever before. They aren't so overgrown and floppy as they get after a wet summer.
At Riverside Nursery, Feldberg grows his sedums in a blazing hot spot outside the reach of his irrigation system. Pots of Autumn Joy in white, shades of pink and burgundy were just coming into bloom. Why not big patches of that where the hose won't reach?
Commercial growers are responding to hot dry summers with more widely available succulents. There are interesting ground covers and showy upright perennials. The rock garden of succulents I started in March got watered once in August, and it's plugging along just fine. I'm a believer.
The two old dogwoods in the back yard haven't fared so well. Whatever else is the matter with them, the drought hasn't helped. Feldberg says some of the new hybrids, Stellar Pink and two white varieties, Celestial and Aurora, are more disease resistant and vigorous.
Several things in my yard have thrived even though I wasn't as consistent about watering as I should have been. I'll be adding more euphorbia for sure. It's a South African native that never even got the droops in August. There are many new varieties, heights and colors.
Mexican sage (an annual), caryopteris and perennial Homestead verbena are other reliable bloomers in hot weather. My old-fashioned pink Clara Curtis chrysanthemum is covered in buds, and it never got watered. Feldberg recommended ice plant, artemisia and lavender. He likes Munstead and Hidcote lavenders. I've had better luck with Provence and Grosso.
Besides knowing your plants' limits you need to know your own. Are you really going to drag the hose all over the yard in August? I wasn't thinking when I planted a row of hydrangeas along the back fence. Sure, it's shady. But it's very dry, and it's as far as you can get from a faucet in my yard.
From now on, anything that "likes wet feet" is going near the kitchen door where it will be easy to water.
The long-range weather forecast is not calling for a wet fall. And it sounds like we have more heat on the way. We'll just have to garden smart -- improve the soil, mulch and read those plant tags.
TO DO: Take a walk around the Community Arboretum at Virginia Western. It's full of great garden ideas and interesting plants. Don't miss America's Anniversary Garden in the arboretum. It just won first place in the Higher Education Division of the statewide garden competition.
