Showing posts with label gardening with jennifer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gardening with jennifer. Show all posts

Gardening with Jennifer: January’s Bounty - The Joy of Seed Catalogs

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Updated and corrected 1-21-2013 9:16pm

Seed Packets from a Local Seed Farms
Photo by Jennifer Rotermund

By Jennifer Rotermund

The world did not end in 2012, but our frosty, dreary January gardens look like they didn’t get that memo. How does a gardener survive until Spring?! Answer: by taking advantage of indoor plant sales at local nurseries and drooling over seed catalogs! Any seasoned gardener knows that there is always something to look forward to after all of the holiday hubbub passes - oh, the joy of Seed Catalogs! What possibilities! So much inspiration placed in front of our eyes, captured in small sunny brightly-colored photographs of every flower and vegetable you can image. Who knew that Winter’s grey skies had already dulled our memory of Summer’s vibrant colors. This is the beauty of the seed catalog.

But there are so many. “Ugh, the seed catalogs have begun to arrive,” a friend recently sighed. As if these catalogs arrived and sorted themselves neatly into two boxes, one sitting on each of her shoulders, weighing her down. Don’t let that happen to you! Gardening is not a burden - it’s a joy! - and therefore garden planning is best enjoyed as a Winter indulgence, a time to let your imagination run wild and bring inspiration back into your life! If it’s anything less than that, I question whether gardening is for you. Save yourself from overwhelm by being picky about which catalogs you receive and from which farms or nurseries you purchase.


Lettuce Seed I Grew and Harvested
Photo courtesy Jennifer Rotermund

My first criterion is that the company grows organic, non-GMO (genetically modified) seed or plants. Monsanto and its subsidiaries are the source of most GMO (genetically modified organisms) or GE (genetically engineered) seeds and plants. These companies maintain that their products provide for a more sustainable planet, but there is an increasing body of evidence to the contrary. The Institute for Responsible Technology provides a thorough explanation. You can even take it a step further and look for companies that offer “open-pollinated” and “heirloom” seeds. Monsanto is steadily buying up the legal rights to many of our favorite garden-variety seeds (like Burpee’s Big Boy tomato) and selling them through their seed-selling company, Seminis, These seeds are either modified to be sterile (i.e. they won’t produce viable seeds you can save) or if you do save the seeds, Monsanto can slap you with a lawsuit - and they are actively doing this. Buying open-pollinated, heirloom seeds will ensure not only high quality, healthy seed, but seeds you have the freedom to save and grow year after year.

Nigella (Love In A Mist) Wildflower Seed I Grew and Harvested
Photo courtesy Jennifer Rotermund

My other criterion involves what I call the “small-local factor.” I don’t like the idea that the seeds I buy were grown on a industrial mega-farm, mass-processed through a giant seed packaging factory, and then sold in a big box store that pays our friends and neighbors who work there something barely over minimum wage. Our gardens are intimate spaces and our food directly correlates to our health - neither of which can be qualitatively sustained by a big corporation. And, in a world increasingly driven by gadgets supplying us with instant access to the world, I find great comfort in being on a first name basis with the person who grows my food - or at least knowing the name of their family farm. I can see the passion in their eyes when they tell me about the product they grew, and that’s where I wish to put my money. Whenever possible, I seek out a small seed-producing farm or seed-selling business. Likewise, when the seeds or plants you buy are grown in your region, they’re much more likely to succeed in your garden. Like any local, they understand the culture and know what to expect!

The following are a few of my favorite companies


From the Northwest:



Some Great Non-Local Companies and Organizations to know about are:



Happy Garden Planning!

Jennifer Rotermund is the owner of Gaiaceous Gardens (an urban farming and wildlife gardening business with a teaching garden/urban farm and certified wildlife habitat / sanctuary located in Shoreline). She is certified by the National Wildlife Federation as a Habitat Steward and is a Docent at the Kruckeberg Botanic Garden.


Read more...

Gardening with Jennifer 2012 NW Flower & Garden Show: A Floral Symphony

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Photo by Loren Alexanian

By Jennifer Rotermund

Whether you prefer the graceful pace of classical music or if modern rock is the way you roll, this year’s Northwest Flower and Garden Show’s “Floral Symphony” theme has something for you. 

Photo by Loren Alexanian

Although the show gardens seem to cover all possible settings, urban to rural, ornamental to edible, international to native northwest, big budget glamorous to cost-effective sustainable, they’ve all turned up the volume on that singularly intoxicating hallmark experience we northwest gardeners appreciate at our February Flower and Garden Show -- Spring flowers! 

Photo by Loren Alexanian

As you take them all in, you may find your pace to be more andante than allegro. Of course, if your cravings lean more toward the hands-on portion of the multi-sensory orchestral experience that is this year’s show, don’t forget that there are booths and classrooms in all directions selling more garden tools, books, accessories or art and teaching more classes on every aspect of gardening than you can image ever existed. Not to be outdone, this year’s Northwest Flower and Garden Show is a true lollapalooza performance.

Photo by Loren Alexanian


Show hours are Wednesday through Saturday (Feb. 8 -11), 9am to 8pm; Sunday (Feb. 12), 9am to 6pm.
More information on the display gardens, seminar offerings, exhibitors and attractions for the entire family. Founded in 1989, the Northwest Flower and Garden Show is produced by Northwest-based, family owned O'Loughlin Trade Shows.


Jennifer Rotermund is the owner of Gaiaceous Gardens, an urban farming and wildlife gardening business with a teaching garden/urban farm and certified wildlife habitat/ sanctuary located in Shoreline. She is certified by the National Wildlife Federation as a Habitat Steward and is a Docent with the Kruckeberg Garden.



Read more...

Gardening with Jennifer: Snow and Ice in the garden

Friday, January 20, 2012

By Jennifer Rotermund

Spiraea weighted down by the heavy snow.
Photo by Jennifer Rotermund

Winters in the Pacific North West are unpredictable and present a special set of circumstances in our gardens. January around here can be wild and windy, snowy and icy or as mild as June (which is also a reflection of June in the PNW). But since we’re not as likely to deal with a lot of snow and ice - at least in the Puget Sound region - and therefore are taken by surprise when it actually happens, here are a few things to know about the impact of snow and ice on the garden.

Perennial flower stems left up to provide bird food during the winter.
Photo by Jennifer Rotermund

Snow provides insulation at the base of plants where frost damage can be the most detrimental. Unless a heavy snow fall is in danger of bending and breaking branches that aren’t likely to restore themselves during the subsequent growing season, snow may be left to fall and sit where it wishes. Consider it to be part of the beauty of the winter garden.

Yucca in snow.
Photo by Tom Bewley

Frost is more problematic - and potentially lethal - to our plants, especially in the absence of snow. The freezing of the roots of a plant and the surrounding soil can kill a plant, rather than the freezing of its stems and branches. This is where a nice mulch of leaves or compost on the soil creates that “warm blanket” effect. Plant cultivars finding their way into our local nurseries from warmer climates, such as California and the Mediterranean, are the exception to this and are also vulnerable to lethal die-back when their branches alone are exposed to a hard, prolonged freeze. These precious plants will benefit from the protection of an old bed sheet or row-cover cloth when temperatures fall below freezing.

Rainbow Chard cultivated by a local farm to withstand our weather.
Photo by Jennifer Rotermund

Water, in fact, once frozen in the soil, is no longer available for up-take by the roots of a plant. A prolonged frost can literally cause plants to die of drought in the middle of winter.

It was warm before the ice and snow
Photo by Lee Lageschulte

Finally, outdoor potted plants are extremely vulnerable to frost. Consider containers of soil and plants to be their own little micro-environment. Separated from the soil of the garden bed, potted plants don’t benefit from the naturally occurring heat of the earth itself. Likewise, a thin layer of plastic or ceramic (the walls of the container) does not insulate soil from frost. When temperatures drop, frost is likely to penetrate any side of a container exposed to the ambient air. If you can’t bring containerized plants indoors, cluster them together close to your house (clusters decrease the exposed surface area and your house gives off heat), water them well (before temperatures fall below freezing) and, if possible, cover them with a cloth at night.


Stewartia tree decorated by the snow
Photo by Jennifer Rotermund
Winter is also a great time to make plans for new additions to the garden in the Spring. Remember, native plants have adapted to our crazy weather patterns and need the least protection. For the greatest success with the least amount of work, I always start with native plants.


Jennifer Rotermund is the owner of Gaiaceous Gardens (an urban farming & wildlife gardening business with a teaching garden/urban farm and certified wildlife habitat/ sanctuary located in Shoreline). She is certified by the National Wildlife Federation as a Habitat Steward and is a Docent with the Kruckeberg Garden.

Previous Gardening with Jennifer articles can be found by clicking the link in the left column of the ShorelineAreaNews.

Read more...

Gardening with Jennifer: Duck Tales, conclusion

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Concluding the story of duckings lost down a storm drain, a frantic mother duck, and helpful neighbors (did you miss part one?)

By Jennifer Rotermund

Mallards in the garden
A quick series of events unfolded over the next ten minutes. Unified in a single purpose, this strange man who approached me on the street and I worked together to exhaust every option we could think of for rescuing the chicks on our own. Other neighbors began appearing to offer their suggestions, someone affixed a large colander to a broomstick with duct tape in an attempt to scoop up the ducklings, and the female Mallard stood by us, quacking occasionally as she patiently watched us all work.

Grabbing his cell phone when it became quickly apparent that we needed more assistance, the man who approached me plunged through a series of phone calls that began with calling 911 (before I could stop him), involved a repeated and harried description of the situation (in which he kept using the word "chicklettes" in place of "ducklings") and finally ended with Animal Control responding faster than I've ever seen the SPD respond when called upon (...but we won't go there right now). 

Thank you Animal Control! 

Neighbors scattered, I went back to my gardening work and, checking in every so often, I noticed that Animal Control (two men in official uniforms with a truck containing all the proper tools for such a rescue) spent at least two hours carefully coaxing out to safety every last duckling and planning the location of their safe re-release at a large, nearby body of water.

The entire event was as humbling as it was comical and brought to view the plight of the wildlife that daily attempts to navigate their way along our streets and sidewalks, our gardens and greenbelts, scavenging for food, dodging cars and attempting to protect their young from disasters at every turn.

A wildlife friendly garden
from WOWTA tour
Almost every day, in my job, I have a conversation with someone about making their garden more "wildlife friendly" and obtaining certification for it as a wildlife sanctuary. Some times people ask me, "What's the point?" or "What benefit does it provide me to do that?" 

I'm always very polite to these people as I talk up the entertainment and education value of attracting a diversity of wildlife to their yard before I go on to extoll the praises of how low-maintenance a wildlife sanctuary can be. 

If they're still listening at that point, its then that I dive into the deeper, richer conversation about the "bigger picture" - building green corridors for wildlife through cities and neighborhoods as well as the difference it can make to provide reliable food, water and shelter for local (all too often invisible) wildlife.

I've written many times about the basic ingredients of a wildlife-friendly garden. Christine Southwick, board member for the Puget Sound Bird Observatory and regular contributor to the Shoreline Area News also writes about these requirements in her column “For the Birds. The information is readily available and easy to initiate - Food, Water, Shelter, and a Place to Raise Young. A wealth of resources are available about this topic through the WA Department of Fish and Wildlife and the National Wildlife Federation. This is part of the very reason why Shoreline holds an annual "Where Our Wild Things Are" Backyard Habitat Tour.

From the WOWTA Tour
The thing to keep in mind is that a garden that invites and cares for wildlife is not a "perfect" garden - in the traditional sense - but is instead a deeply satisfying garden because it takes care of you, the environment and the wildlife (rather than you laboring or paying someone to labor non-stop over it). 
What I observe, but so rarely am able to talk about, is that despite (or perhaps because of) our fast paced, high tech lifestyles that seem bent on removing us from our contact with the natural world, that we yearn for more contact with nature and each other. 
I believe that we haven't yet forgotten that core connection between ourselves and all other forms of life on this planet. And I believe that many of us, because of that innate connection, when confronted with a particular situation, would care enough about wildlife to approach a complete stranger and ask for help.

Jennifer Rotermund is the owner of Gaiaceous Gardens (an urban farming and wildlife gardening business with a teaching garden/urban farm and certified wildlife habitat/ sanctuary located in Shoreline). She is certified by the National Wildlife Federation as a Habitat Steward and is a Docent with the Krukeberg Garden.


Read more...

Gardening with Jennifer: Part 1: Duck Tales

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Duck Tales, or The Dangers Faced by Urban Wildlife and How They Bring People Together
By Jennifer Rotermund

I'm a professional gardener and an NPR geek. If I happen to be working alone on a client's property, I typically use my ipod to keep me company, tuned to the local NPR station. It was on one of these days that I was passing my time pulling English Ivy by listening to a panel discussion on Animal Rights. I was fascinated by one panelist's definition of the term "sentient being" - an animal that has a Central Nervous System and can experience pain and suffering. Working through the garden, I mused over the obvious connections this term drew between us humans and most animals we commonly think of around the world. This connection has particular meaning and depth for me because my business focuses on creating gardens that bring people and wildlife into a closer relationship with one another - I create backyard wildlife habitats.

I was deep in thought about all things related to animal rights, wildlife gardening, and sentient beings when I was suddenly aware that a man had approached me from down the street, on the sidewalk. Noticing immediately that my deep thoughts coupled with the continued conversation being piped through my ipod's ear buds had completely drowned out something this man had just said to me, I turned his way, shut off my ipod and had the following interaction:

Me: What was that? (for some reason, this is the thing I automatically say when I've missed what some one has said to me. I can't explain and I can't change it.)

Man on the Sidewalk: (cautiously standing about 20 feet from me) Have you seen any baby ducks around?

(...an awkward silence passes between us...)

Me: Um, no (as I looked around me on the sidewalk just to make sure I hadn't suddenly gained an entourage of ducklings).

(...another awkward silence passes as this man and I continue to look at each other...)

Me: Did you lose some baby ducks? (given Seattle's eclectic urban farming culture, I knew this was real possibility and I needed to ask.)

This man went on to tell me that there was a very distressed female duck a little further down the road from him waddling around in circles, quacking loudly and repeatedly in front of his house. Whether it was the part-bird-part-person image featured on the logo on the side of my truck or if it was just simply the fact that I was the only other person around, it was clear that this man was hoping I could do something about this distressed duck situation. As I turned and began walking in the direction that this man's out-stretched arm and pointer finger indicated, I saw the female Mallard duck in question turn several quick circles and sit down on a storm drain grate as if it were her nest and I instantly knew the source of her distress - or at least I hoped I was wrong about what I suspected. 

I carefully approached the duck - who looked directly up at me and quacked repeatedly as if trying desperately to communicate something (personification, I know, but you weren't there) - then looked past her, through the grate, down about 5 feet into the remaining cesspool of collected street run-off and saw eight little, fuzzy yellow lumps swimming frantically in tiny circles and peeping wildly.

(to be continued)

Jennifer Rotermund is the owner of Gaiaceous Gardens (an urban farming & wildlife gardening business with a teaching garden/urban farm and certified wildlife habitat/ sanctuary located in Shoreline). She is certified by the National Wildlife Federation as a Habitat Steward and is a Docent with the Krukeberg Garden.

Read more...

Gardening with Jennifer: The Great Northwest: An August Place to Be Outdoors...and in your Garden

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

An example of moss as a ground cover
Photo by Jennifer Rotermund
By Jennifer Rotermund

August is the month that we Northwesterners live for.

August makes the weather we put up with the rest of the year worth while and allows us to join ranks with the rest of the nation’s participation in a season they call Summer (remember that word?). Given our abundance of of parks, forest land, mountains, lakes and beaches, August is also the month that many of us flee the climate-controlled comfort of our homes to spend time outdoors - not just the BBQ in the backyard kind of outdoors, but the take a ferry boat to an island, hike up to a mountain glacier, sea kayak in open ocean waters kind of outdoors. August is the month that our photos on Facebook and Flicker impress our friends around the world; we live for it! And why shouldn’t we? Our Summers are regrettably short, and unless you ski, snowshoe or just really enjoy camping in the rain, you have to soak up Summer in the Northwest while it lasts.

Ferns and Vanilla Leaf Plant
Photo by Jennifer Rotermund
But sometimes all of this going and doing has me want to stay home - not going anywhere or doing anything - and instead, enjoy being in my own garden. Since I’m so crazy about plants, its times like these stay-at-home reflective moments that I fantasize about living in the forest. Caught up in one of those Bambi meets Alice in Wonderland moments, I picture myself walking out my back door, greeting birds landing on my shoulder to say hello while I sit in a grove of wise, old-growth trees sharing with me the insights they’ve gathered over hundreds of years of life. And just as I’m about to burst out into song - because in these fairy tale moments, I have a perfect singing voice - that guy down the street who owns the Harley Davidson goes thundering past my house. The sound I had been imagining was a nearby river, full and raging, is back to simply being the traffic on I-5 a few blocks away...and just like that I’m back in the city. There’s no getting around the urban environment in which most of us live, but we can bring some of that forest life to us. We can re-create the fantasy that we experience in August, when we disappear into the surrounding woods (even if only in our mind’s-eye) in our backyard.

Typically, when I hike, my destination is something a little more unusual or grand than what I experience in my daily life. I hike almost up to the glaciers on Mt Rainier to observe the alpine wildflowers in a high meadow at nearly 8,000 feet of elevation or I emerge after a couple dozen switch-backs at a lake nestled near a mountain peak in the north cascades that is still surrounded by ice and snow in mid-August. I love these unusual experiences. But I recently became enamored with this idea of returning my backyard to urban forest, of attempting to re-create some part of the landscape that once existed on my property before my house and I arrived. (No small goals here. Crazy? Perhaps...). So rather than heading up into the mountains, lately I’ve been hiking in the nearby lowland forests, just beyond the suburbs encroaching on the foothills, observing mother nature’s landscape design work and learning from her.

Devil's Club, Sword Fern, and Indian Plum
Photo by Jennifer Rotermund
Here are a few things I’ve observed:

1. Moss is our friend. Many of you who know me will not be surprised by this statement. In fact, it has been a longstanding fact that I am the wrong person to complain to about moss growing almost anywhere in the northwest. Birds use it as nesting material, its a wonderful moisture-retaining layer of organic material that keeps the soil alive and lush, it keeps weeds down, is soft to walk on and comes in a wide range of beautiful shades of green (none of which clash with each other).

2. The forest is full of beautiful food-producing plant life: To all of you wanna-be urban farmer types stuck with partly or mostly shaded garden beds, I say revolutionize your concept of farming and grow native plant edibles that thrive in shade. Thimbleberry (Rubus parviflorus), Salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis), Evergreen Huckleberry (Vaccinium ovatum), Red Huckleberry (Vaccinium parvifolium), Oregon Grape (Mahonia spp.) flowers and berries, Wild Ginger (Asarum caudatum) root, are just a few examples (there are also some highly poisonous plants in our forests and prairies, such as Poison Hemlock and Death Camas so consult with a plant expert before you go foraging edibles, plants or seeds). Also, when you see these native edible plants, don’t go pulling entire plants out of the forests and natural areas where you find them. That’s a frowned upon, in many cases illegal, and your chances of successfully transplanting these plants diminish when you rip them out of their natural environments. Instead, harvest some berries on the trail then go find a good native plant nursery and purchase whole plants from them.

A "brush pile" in the forest created by a wind storm.
Photo by Jennifer Rotermund
3. Native plant gardens can be varied and beautiful: I don’t mean to exclude the wide variety of amazing ornamental, exotic plants that thrive in our gardens which are native to England, Japan, South Africa, or some mountainous region of South America. They’re wonderful and lovely, but so are our local forest plants. And, our local native plants are accustomed to our never ending rains, our strange November and February deep-freezes and our August droughts. There’s no need to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on the exotics, when the natives are more cost effective and hardy. Far too often our experience of native plant gardens in urban settings involves a few scrubby stands of Oregon Grape in a sea of diseased Kinnikinnick ground cover. Its no wonder that most of us turn to exotics! But native plant design in the garden can be so much more exciting than that.

4. Re-creating a forest environment automatically creates wildlife habitat: This may seem completely obvious, but as an urban dweller interested in wildlife gardening, if your only exposure to the concepts of how to attract birds, bees and butterflies to your backyard come from what you’ve read in educational materials from the National Wildlife Federation or the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, you may not realize that those suggestions (such as building a simple a brush pile from sticks) come from naturally occurring situations in the forest (such as fallen tree branches and nurse logs).

A forest landscape
Photo by Jennifer Rotermund
I have, over the years in life, adopted the Buddhist principle of following the path of least resistance. It’s less stressful and tends to work well naturally. More than anything, this is the reason why I intend to bring the forest back to my urban yard. It wants to be wild. And with a little planning, it won’t be wild with dandelions. Would you like this for your garden too? In Shoreline, we’re particularly fortunate to have several businesses that cater to this specific idea. Don Norman of Go Natives Nursery  supplies a wide variety of native plants and work in close partnership with native plant grower Nancy Moore of Obelisk Garden Design, who also provides native plant garden design services. My business, Gaiaceous Gardens  provides installation and maintenance services for these gardens. Let’s work together to bring the native forests and wildlife habitat back to our own yards. Everything we need is already right here.

Jennifer Rotermund is the owner of Gaiaceous Gardens (an urban farming and wildlife gardening business with a teaching garden/urban farm and certified wildlife habitat located in Shoreline). She is certified by the National Wildlife Federation as a Habitat Steward and is a Docent with the Kruckeberg Garden.



Read more...

Gardening with Jennifer - Wildlife In The Garden: The Unsung Heroes, Part 1 - Moles

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

by Jennifer Rotermund

If you’re into wildlife gardening like I am, your garden probably includes an array of native plants that produce berries for the birds, a combination of native and non-native plants that produce flowers for a variety of bees, and you probably even have a plant or two that produce flowers specifically attractive to Hummingbirds. 

There’s at least one bird bath type contraption (or water feature) and any number and shape of bird feeders hanging from tree branches or mounted on posts or stuck to a window positioned just right for you to observe as closely as possible.

Birds - bees - bats - dragonflies - tree frogs
If it's the birds you especially love to have around, you’ve more than likely hung at least one bird house - purchased at the local specialty store, made of untreated wood, and without a landing peg, thank you very much! If bees are your thing, and you’re not already a backyard beekeeper, I’m guessing you’ve studied up on those cute little solitary Mason Bees and know when to clean out their tubes or the box they call home, when to refrigerate them and for how long, and you know just which kind of predatory wasp larvae feeds on them - and are saddened each time that happens. You love bats? There’s a rocket box near the roof line of your house, I’m sure! Lately, I’ve been fantasizing about a small pond in my back yard to keep dragonfly larvae and perhaps (if I’m lucky) encourage some nearby Pacific Treefrog to, well, stay nearby.

Then there’s the category of critters that get a bum rap because they’re known more for the destruction they cause or the havoc they wreak, rather than the benefit they provide. 

Townsend's Mole. Photo by Jerry Kirkhart.
Moles stand out for me as dominating this category. I’ve always thought moles were cute, and before I was a homeowner, I never gave them a second thought. Afterall, who has to worry about mole-hill mounds popping up through a lawn or garden bed when they’re renting a second story apartment? It was when they started to make their presence known in my own front yard that I began to take notice and was interested in becoming better acquainted with this new little neighbor of mine. 

Knowing how infamously difficult it is to rid one’s yard of moles, I set out to see if there was anything beneficial about them - plus I’ve found that its much easier to explain away my neglect to the neighbors, as long as I have an intelligent-sounding justification. 

So I was particularly interested when, at a conference on sustainable lawn care I recently attended, one of the leading local lawn care company owners ended his presentation by saying, “And then there’s the issue of moles. You won’t get rid of them, no matter what you do. So, you might as well get used to them. After all, if you have moles, it means you have good soil!”

It was that last sentence that stuck with me because it occurred to me that the connection between moles and good soil works in two ways: 1) moles are drawn in by (among other things living in the soil) earthworms! Therefore, the presence of moles means you have good life in your soil, which is very beneficial for the health of your plants, and 2) as moles tunnel through the ground, they aerate the soil, pulling organic material down and pushing important minerals up towards the surface and within reach of our plants. Happily, most moles are only interested in worms and insects - not our plants - and are continually mobile (especially in the Spring when male moles are eagerly seeking a mate). If you leave them alone (I simply rake out the unsightly little mole-hills), they’re more likely to move right on through from your yard, to your neighbor’s yard and right on down the street.

The bigger problem is not the moles themselves, but the fact that the tunnels they dig provide direct access for the critters that will eat garden plants - voles, mice, rats, and pocket gophers. But, herein lies the beauty of wildlife gardening! I could throw my hands in the air exasperated by the fact that garden-ownership means I’ll be forever chasing down, trapping, and actively ridding my yard of pests, thanks to the moles, or I could could thank the moles for the beautiful tilling work they do for my soil and for the extra food they bring in for the larger predators who are integral to the health of wildlife in our urban areas. Yes, I have moles in my yard - and I’ve seen an occasional rat or two in my backyard - but the other day, I also witnessed a Falcon (one of several natural predators of moles and other little, furry creatures in our yards) land in my apple tree about 30 feet from the kitchen window through which I watched it scour the ground for live food. 

Perhaps I’m a lazy gardener because I tend to let life be as it wants to be around my yard, but I prefer to think of myself as a gardener working to restore the balance of nature to an area where we humans have worked so hard in the past to suppress it. As far as I’m concerned, the moles are a more than welcome addition to my yard!

Jennifer Rotermund is the owner of Gaiaceous Gardens (an urban farming & wildlife gardening business with a teaching garden/urban farm and certified wildlife habitat located in Shoreline) and is certified by the National Wildlife Federation as a Habitat Steward.

Read more...

Gardening with Jennifer: Winter Gardening - A Great Time to Create a Wildlife Habitat

Monday, January 10, 2011

Photo by Jennifer Rotermund
by Jennifer Rotermund

The winters in Upstate NY, where I grew up, were bitter cold and the landscape - consisting mostly of deciduous trees - often looked quite barren. My parents, being nature-lovers themselves, purposely chose a house in a very wooded suburb in which to raise their family and then looked for ways to invite wildlife as close to the house as possible.

We had every type of bird feeder that my Dad could find and enjoyed watching and identifying every type of bird that could visit a backyard in the New England area. We fed Chickadees and Chipmunks out of our hands. We watched in awe as Deer, Fox and even an occasional flock of Wild Turkeys walked through our backyard. Squirrels worked tirelessly to find a way to our feeders, my Dad always one step ahead of them. To me, it was heaven.

But what I wouldn’t realize until years later, when I was all grown up and a home-owner myself, is that all that wildlife in the backyard provided not only hours of education and entertainment, but it made winter feel less desolate.

Photo by Jennifer Rotermund
As much as I love Autumn for all its vibrant color, I lament watching all of my favorite plants die back for the winter and disappear. I take great comfort, though, in looking out my window on a cold day in January and seeing the yard alive with activity. Chickadees compete with Finches at my feeders, Flickers follow small flocks of Bushtits to the suet. A Towhee will fly in to join the Juncos hopping around my garden beds, and I’m temporarily transfixed. Even the mischievous Squirrels and occasional flocks of Starlings seem to provide comfort to me on the darkest and coldest winter days.

These insights only serve to remind me of the importance of providing habitat for the wildlife that has some how managed to adapt to our urban and suburban areas. A Chickadee’s metabolism is so fast that, in freezing temperatures, it can freeze to death overnight without adequate food in the evening - the same is true of many small birds. Urbanization removes many of their natural food sources, but as urban dwellers, we can make amends.

I fell in love with the National Wildlife Federation’s (NWF) Backyard Wildlife Habitat program (secure.nwf.org/gardenforwildlife/page1.cfm) the moment I learned about it almost 4 years ago, when I bought my home in Shoreline. In Washington State, we benefit even further from a partnership between the NWF, The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the Woodland Park Zoo and Aquarium Alliance which offers a special “Triple Certification” when you certify your yard as a wildlife habitat.

As a residential gardener, I’m continually amazed at how many people already maintain wildlife habitats in their yard and don’t even know it - I suspect it is that same pull so many of us feel to connect with nature and life. So why not make it official and certify? It is so rewarding.

Photo by Jennifer Rotermund
According to the NWF, this is what’s required to certify a wildlife habitat:
  • Food - Any plants that provide nectar, pollen or seeds and any kind of bird or hummingbird feeders.
  • Water- Just like people, wildlife needs a source of water to drink and to bathe. A water source could be as simple as a shallow bird bath or as elaborate as a pond.
  • Shelter- Birds and other wildlife need a place to hide from predators. Shrubs and trees provide camouflage and refuge in a hurry.
  • Place to raise their young - All wildlife needs a place out of the elements to birth or hatch young and raise them to independence. Trees and shrubs, rock and brush piles or simply a bird house can provide this.
January is a great time to dream fantastic gardening dreams and draw up detailed gardening plans. Why not start with a wildlife habitat? You can start right now - it is never too late. You’ll have a more enjoyable winter garden, and it’ll make a big difference in the lives of a lot of important little critters.

Jennifer Rotermund is the owner of Gaiaceous Gardens (an edible landscaping business with a teaching garden/urban farm and certified wildlife habitat located in Shoreline) and a Habitat Steward.

Read more...

Gardening With Jennifer: Autumn Leaves: Nuisance or Gold Mine?

Sunday, November 28, 2010

By Jennifer Rotermund

Now that we’ve all survived what appears to be the new annual tradition of a couple inches of snow followed by a hard freeze for the Thanksgiving Holiday, I’m reminded of our love-hate relationship with leaves. 

Every year, as I lament the dwindling days of Summer, I’m comforted by the thought of the changing Autumn leaves in all their splendor. The Vine Maples go first, quickly followed by all the others in their genus, with beautiful displays of orange and red, the Raywood Flame Ashes and the Sweet Gum trees seem to redefine the definition of purple into something that would put most Plum trees to shame, and the stately Ginkgo (if you’re a tree lover, like I am, then you probably know of a Ginkgo in your neighborhood and make it a point to admire it on a regular basis) with its sturdy horizontal branches seems to come alive in the Autumn with a display of bright yellow that can only be compared with the sun. 

And if all of that beauty is not enough, these incredibly tinted leaves then fall to the ground temporarily turning our sidewalks, lawns, parks, and favorite wooded trails into a kaleidoscope of luminosity at our feet. What’s not to love!

Ah, but as the weeks pass, and Halloween comes and goes, we’re gradually reminded that this brilliant display served a greater purpose beyond our own delight. The shorter days, the cooler temperatures are sending clear signals to all our beloved trees that its time once again to rein in their activity for the season. The process of photosynthesis slows as energy is pulled back down into the roots, and we face the fact that those luminescent leaf colors are simply the inevitable and wondrous result of leaf senescence. In no time at all the very same leaves we revered are reduced to lumps of dull brown plant matter littering our public spaces and clogging up our gutters. So, out come the rakes and leaf blowers! 

Luckily, we live in a city with a wonderful system that recycles our yard waste into compost, so if all you do is send your leaves through that system, its really ok. But why buy back (in the form of Cedar Grove Compost) what you’re paying to have hauled away? Most leaves break down into a wonderful compost that your garden soil (and beneficial micro-organisms) will reward you for next Spring.

There are just a few tips to keep in mind when thinking about your leaves:

1. Remove leaves from around storm drains - this sounds simple enough, but every year our city experiences flooding on neighborhood streets and intersections caused by leaves clogging the drains. I’ve always made it a point to monitor the storm drains immediately around wherever I’m living for leaf accumulation. Five or ten quick minutes spent raking leaves away from a drain can avoid big headaches later. 

2. Rake up Broadleaf Evergreen leaves - broadleaf evergreen plants, such as Rhododendrons, Azaleas, Camellias, Evergreen Magnolias, etc., have thick waxy leaves that are designed to for “staying power” and don’t break down readily into mulch. If they drop their leaves, I recommend raking them up and sending them on through the city’s yard waste system. I include Oak leaves in this category as well. Even though the Oak tree is deciduous, it dislikes competition and produces a chemical through its leaves that slows the decomposition process. This keeps the leaves around longer and smothers plants underneath.

3. Always rake up the leaves of fruit trees - fruit trees stand in a class of their own and need good hygiene to be maintained in order to avoid (or at least minimize) the pests and diseases they tend to accumulate in the Northwest. Fruit tree leaves left to mulch on the ground around that tree provide a nice winter home for pests or bacteria specific to it. Additionally, fruit trees suffering from any fungal problems - as is common in our Northwest climate - can be continuously re-infected by the fungal spores left to rot on the ground or in the backyard compost. I prefer to send my apple tree leaves through to the city’s yard waste system each fall.

4. Watch out for leaf accumulation on shade INTOLERANT shrubs - you know those shrubs that thrive so much on sun that they shade out their own inner branches? Be it a Nest Spruce or a Ceanothus, you know if you  have a sun-needy shrub or small tree. Make sure to clean leaves off these plants regularly or else you end up with large, unsightly dead patches all over them. I include lawn (and any other sun-loving ground cover) in this category. I would rake deciduous leaves off the lawn and either directly onto the garden bed or into a composting system.

5. Chop up large leaves into smaller pieces - most deciduous leaves make great composting material - especially when they’re fairly small in size. In general, the smaller the leaf, the greater the surface area, and the quicker the decomposition process. If you are graced with a Big Leaf Maple tree on or near your property, and would like to make use of the incredible volume of resulting biomass each Autumn, run the lawn mower over the leaves first, then spread them directly over your garden beds.

Autumn leaf color may be the highlight of the season for us, but once they fall to the ground, those leaves serve a critical role in a nutrient cycle that has cared for the health of the soil and plants we enjoy since before our time on this earth. With a little assistance, that process can continue well beyond our time. I think its the least we can do as a gesture of gratitude in exchange for this annual display of light and color, don’t you?
    
Jennifer Rotermund is the Lead Gardener for Garden of Weedin’ (a local pesticide-free garden maintenance company), owner of Gaiaceous Gardens (an edible landscaping business with a teaching garden/urban farm and certified wildlife habitat located in Shoreline) and a Habitat Steward.

Photos by Jennifer Rotermund

Read more...

Gardening with Jennifer: Transplanting

Sunday, October 24, 2010


This is the second gardening article from Jennifer Rotermund, who will be a regular contributor to the ShorelineAreaNews.

by Jennifer Rotermund with input from Emily-Robin Pierce
Photos by Jennifer Rotermund

As with life, a garden is always a work in progress. Sometimes, even our best laid plans can benefit from a change or a little updating. Our gardens are often an extension of ourselves, an expression of our current interests or style - both of which have a habit of changing and evolving throughout our lifetime. Perhaps you’ve changed your mind about a design or a “theme” of a particular part of the garden (I once had the grandiose idea of creating a native alpine meadow garden in my front yard then realized my property’s full sun exposure, and the fact that I live at about the 500 foot elevation level rather than 7,000, lent itself a little better to growing vegetables instead - who knew!). Maybe a tree was taken down on or next to your property and what was once a shade garden is suddenly and literally seeing the light of day. Or sometimes, you just wake up one morning, look out a window into the backyard and decide that the Rhododendron you planted on one side of the yard would be a better fit on the other side - oh, hind-sight, if only we could inject you directly into our eyes, we’d never need glasses again.

Luckily for us, these amazing life forms we call plants are quite forgiving of our whims and will tolerate the trauma of a transplant - as long as we follow a few basic rules. (Note: these rules apply especially to small trees, shrubs and perennials that the average person can move on their own. For large trees and shrubs, call in the help of a professional to help and advise you in person) 

1. Transplant ONLY in the Spring or Fall - its a traumatic experience for a plant to be moved from a spot where its been growing comfortably for a while to a new spot, even if that new spot has been lovingly prepared or may even be a better spot for that plant in the long run. Even a plant coming directly out of a restrictive nursery pot experiences some stress when its pulled from that environment and placed in your garden. A lot of water and cool, cloudy weather conditions go a long way to ease that stress. Transplanting during our Northwest Spring and Fall seasons (with their moderate temperatures and frequent precipitation) will give you the best chance at success. If you’d like to test that theory, try transplanting on a hot day in the summer...I’ve lost many plants that way!

2. Disturbing the root system is good for the plant and is often necessary - ok, I know it is scary to deal with the root system of a plant; we’re talking about its critically important life-center here. But if you’re going to move a plant, you’re going to disturb its root system. If done correctly, your plant will thank you for the disruption. As an added myth-busting bonus, cutting a root stimulates it to grow! For established perennials, shrubs and small trees, cutting the roots at between 6 inches and 2 feet out from the trunk or main stalk of the plant will ensure you have a root ball you can move with ease. Use a sharp pair of hand-pruners that you’ve clean and sterilized with alcohol (our hand pruners often carry and transmit a lot of plant diseases). For plants coming out of a container, break-up and loosen the root ball until the roots are pointing roughly out and away from the plant - it is not natural for roots to be formed into the shape of the container in which they’ve been sitting. Prune away any roots that have permanently taken the shape of the container and are growing in a circular pattern around the root ball. If allowed to continue growing, these roots will eventually “girdle” the root ball, restricting its overall ability to function and will prematurely kill the plant.

3. Dig a planting hole that is only as deep as the height of the root ball, but roughly twice as wide - believe it or not, most plant roots grow horizontally, not vertically. So now that you’ve gone through the trouble of freeing the plant from its previous location, give its roots a healthy jumpstart in its new home. When placing the plant in the new planting hole, make sure that its horizontally directed roots can lie down flat, straight and fully extended. If you have to curve or bend the roots to get them to fit in the hole, that hole is not wide enough.

4. Install a woody-stemmed plant with its root flare even with the surrounding surface soil level - the root flare is the part of the trunk or main stem of a woody-stemmed plant that literally flares out into the top of the root ball. That root flare must be at the soil surface level (not below) for the plant to thrive in the future. Only the root ball itself should be below ground and touching the soil. (For some pictures of root flares and how they look when they’re planted properly as opposed to being buried, run a Google image search of “root flare”)

5. Soil amendments are usually not needed - unless you have pure sand or pure clay, or live on top of a large rock, your soil is probably just fine for growing most plants. Especially when moving a plant from one location in your yard to another, that plant will be happiest in the type of soil - your soil - to which its already grown accustomed. Additionally, water will only flow freely through uniform soil mediums. In other words, any soil amendments you choose to add, need to be mixed thoroughly with your existing soil until the two are combined uniformly. Any soil “layers” created by throwing soil amendment into the planting hole on top of existing soil can redirect water flow in the future away from your plant’s roots. Any potting soil around the roots of a potted plant from the nursery should be removed and discarded. Potting soil around the roots of a plant you’ve placed in the ground can become hydro-phobic and and repel water completely. Your plant needs to adjust to the soil in its new location; placing it directly into that soil alone will help it adjust more efficiently.

These tips should give you a good foundation for success with transplanting or installing plants in your yard, but as with everything, there is a lot more information available. Likewise, transplanting or installing a plant might inspire you tackle other new projects in your garden. For further information or to expand on the information I covered in this article, I recommend the book, The Informed Gardener by local author, professor and horticulturalist Linda Chalker-Scott. It is easy to read and understand, is a treasure-trove of practical gardening information, and is written with our Northwest region in mind.

Jennifer Rotermund is the Lead Gardener for Garden of Weedin’ (a local pesticide-free garden maintenance company), owner of Gaiaceous Gardens (an edible landscaping business with a teaching garden/urban farm and certified wildlife habitat located in Shoreline) and a Habitat Steward.

Emily-Robin Pierce is a local horticulturalist and a gardener with Garden of Weedin’

Also by Jennifer: Xeriscaping

Read more...
ShorelineAreaNews.com
Facebook: Shoreline Area News
Twitter: @ShorelineArea
Daily Email edition (don't forget to respond to the Follow.it email)

  © Blogger template The Professional Template II by Ourblogtemplates.com 2009

Back to TOP