The winter is a good time to examine your garden in order to view its structure.  The structure or ‘bones’ of the garden are important to keep in mind when planning changes or additions to your garden.  This is the time of year when you can easily see if you have it or if you don’t.

The structures of the garden are the architectural elements such as trees, hedges, evergreen shrubs, walks, fountains, arbors, benches, and art.  During the winter if you look at your yard and it just looks dead…you should probably add some structure.  Or perhaps there are just a few bare spots in the garden and you may only need to make a couple of tweaks.  Often people think a garden needs to be formal; full of evergreen hedges and intersecting walks to accomplish this.  Indeed that is one way to do it but it is certainly possible to create structure without it being formal.  Curved walkway, informal masses of plants or texture, even color can be used to structure space.

The addition of art into your landscape might be a good start especially for those bare spots.  Here are some ideas to inspire you then let your imagination take over.

   Arlene

Judging by the number of plants flowering around the city Spring is well underway and so on a recent weekend we opened the hiking season on a trail near North Bend.  The woods were wet and dripping but the native harbingers of Spring were out and growing in the wet mucky swampy areas near the trail were the bright yellow flowers of the native Skunk Cabbage (Lysichiton americanus).

Western skunk cabbage is one of the only local member of the lily family and grows from a long rhizome or root.  It has large green leaves up to 20” long and over ten inches wide.  During winter as it comes into bloom it burns so much food that it emits heat and can melt the snow as it grows.  The flower is a yellow erect column surrounded by a bright yellow spathe or modified leaf.  It is called Skunk cabbage due to the rancid smell it emits.  The smell attracts pollinators, flies and beetles which think they have found carrion.  As they move from flower to flower they carry pollen on their abdomens and pollinate the flowers.

Skunk cabbage berries are a food source for ground squirrels and bears.  Fresh from hibernation the bears eat them for their laxative effects.  Indigenous people used the leaves to line berry baskets or to wrap salmon for cooking.  They would eat the plants in times of famine but the plant contains a form of calcium with crystals that can cause irritation and burning sensations in the tongue and mouth.

To us however they are just bright splash of color, an almost tropical blaze that helps us escape the grayness of Winter and prepare for the coming Summer.

baxter

Planning

If you are buying bare-root trees, look for ones with large root systems in relation to top growth. It is not necessary to purchase a very large tree to get a quality plant.

Planting

Dig, divide, and replant crowded summer and fall flowering perennials like Agapanthus, Garden Phlox, Astilbe, Aster, Bleeding Heart, Coral Bells, Daylilies, and Shasta Daisies. Perennials perform best in well-drained soil with plenty of humus. Astilbe, Hosta, and Bleeding Heart bloom in the shade.

Plant spring-flowering annuals such as Forget-me-nots, Dianthus, Englich Daisy, Sweet William, and Viola.

Set out nursery plants of warm-season edibles.

Wait until the end of the month to set out frost tender plants.

Repot house plants that have grown too large for their containers. Cut back leggy plants to encourage compact growth. Root cuttings in moist media to increase your supply of plants.

Bluebells are good for naturalizing in the same manner as Daffodils but prefer a shadier location and will bloom even where they get no direct sun.

Accurate information on the longevity of flower seeds is hard to find. Based on limited observations, the following should be considered as short-life (one year) seeds: Aster, Candytuft, Columbine, Ornamental Onion, Phlox, Salvia, Strawflower, and Vinca. Some common flower seeds viable for more than one year if stored properly are Alyssum, Calendula, Centaurea, Coreopsis, Cosmos, Marigold, Nasturtium, Petunia, Salpiglosis, Scabiosa, Schizanthus, Sweet Pea, Verbena, Viola and Zinnia.

Maintenance

Fertilize plants that are starting to grow actively like annual flowers, berries, citrus, roses and established trees and shrubs with a balanced fertilizer like 15-15-15 or a 5-5-5.

Early spring is the right time for two special turf treatments, if needed: vertical cutting or thinning to remove thatch and aeration or coring to reduce soil compaction.

Wait until later in the month to fertilize lawns.

  Michal