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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 2, 2005)
sepiembei 2.2QQS - jUSt QUt, 3 S ummertime B lues September is a good time to re-evaluate your garden This issue we welcome a new columnist, Dirty Dan. We know that among our readers there are many a green thumb, and to that end we are happy to bring you Dan. He worked for a local retail nursery for five years and now works for himself as a free-lance gardener. He also works for a wholesale nursery. He answers any and all your gardening questions and concerns. Drop him a note at dirtydthegardener@yahoo.com. lease let me introduce myself. My name is Dan, hut you might as well get to know me as Dirty D. That’s the way I am most all of the time: dirty. Dirt under my fingernails, mud on my shoes, mind in the gutter and dust on my pants. I am one of those people who really likes to garden. I work with plants. In my spare time I play with them, and sometimes I even dream porch. It gives me a chance to re-evaluate my garden. It also puts the pile of plants in their nursery pots right in front of me. (Much love to my boyfriend, who puts up with them.) This is the time of year I start thinking about killing or giving away plants in my yard to make way for the new ones. So far I’ve grown tired of the Ceanothus “Dark Star,” a Rosa glauca, some boring old Euphorbias, a Rosemary and some crowd ed out Kniphofias. They bore me now, and they aren’t planted in cement! My relationship with plants is what boyfriends are to some of my friends. At first it’s hot and heavy, and you can’t get enough of it, and then the romance fades or dies altogether. I’ve never been one of those people who feels bad about killing plants or just giving up on them and start ing over. The spaces where I’m thinking of tearing plants out are already overplanted. 1 have been considering a Manzanita. I can’t resist the smtxith red bark and evergreen leaves on this 5- to 6-foot-tall sun-loving, drought-tolerant beauty. It will be absolutely fabulous next to my front door with its craggy stems reaching over the stairs. Much better than that self-seeding nightmare whore of a Euphorbia that lived there for the past three years. Of course there are a few Hebes, those little shrubs I’m always a sucker for. Hebes come in all shapes and sizes, but the one I’m most excited about is called Hebe Pink Elephant. With the first sign of cold weather, its normally gray and cream var Euphorbias (top) are vigorous self-seeders—not always a good thing—and the Hebe Pink Elephant will start to iegated leaves turn all bright pink and brighten as the days get shorter and colder. orange. I know as the winter takes away almost all of the flowers in my garden, any about them, too. Now 1 get to write about it and bits of colored foliage are a welcomed sight. hopefully answer some of your questions. After the lazy days of summer, September is the month that I start working in my garden o get things started I called up some people again in earnest. There are many a sun-scorched leaf to snip and plenty of plants that didn’t do who call me all the time to ask me garden ing questions. They offered some gcxxl ones: quite what 1 was hoping to pull out or move. There are also the plants that, sad to say, didn’t When do I cut something back? What’s a make it through the summer given my tough gtxxJ flowering plant for shade? Does anything love approach to watering. bloom at this time of year? And my personal I look at gardening as something that is never favorite: How can you tell how big something is finished. Sometimes I’m happy to say that a going to get before you take it home with you? plant died, leaving rixim for something new, and I hope you all will write me some questions other times I am frantic to find the same plant to about your gardens. This issue, though, I’m ignoring the questions, and I think it best to sit replace its dead brethren. Your new foliage is waiting for you at the back and consider the end of summer in the Hardy Plant Stxriety of Oregon’s fall sale Sept. 10 garden. and 11 at the Hillsboro Fairgrounds. Don’t miss ou know that feeling you get about being out on this; your garden will regret it. See you there! I’ll be the dirty one. JH outside on that first warm spring day, sink ing your shovel into the dirt? It feels gcxxl. For more info on the HARDY PLANT SOCIETY OF To be honest, this time of year I feel the exact OREOON, go to www.hardyplancsociety.org. opposite. 1 don’t want to go anywhere near my shovel; the ground is hard, and it is usually too To reach DlRTY D an , e-mail damn hot. At this time of year I’d much rather dirtydthegardener@yahi x>.am. put a sprinkler out and sit on a chair on my back Say goodbye to wrinkles, crow's-feet, dark circles, age spots, acne and acne scars, fine lines and unwanted hair. (503) 597-1226 • 11900 SW Greenburg Road, Tigard T Y Financial Group, LLC ♦ Retirement ♦ Life Insurance ♦ College Planning ♦ Long - Term Care * Sustainable Investing Greg Look 3550 Liberh Rd.SJ™ Salem, OR 97302 503-566.7266 ext. 114 grcg(« ' wfgadvisors.com oreid Walker 3529 NE Broadway?™ Portland, OR 97232 503.445.9390 ext. 101 floreid(a) wfgadvisors.com 2 Call one of us today for more information! ww. wfgadvisors.com
