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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
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