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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 5, 2011)
f 34 AUGUST 5, 20)1 A recent walkabout in our garden revealed an ongoing refrain, coming from my mouth to a visiting friend: “I didn’t plant this.” “We didn’t plant these.” “O h yes, they’re pretty, but we’ve never planted them!” Hearing my own words, I realized that as much as I plan or meticulously plant coordinated vignettes, our garden—and most of the gardens I love—are big, blousy concoctions of old-fashioned perennials and self-seeding biannuals and annuals. Think drifts of love-in-a-mist, stands of foxgloves dotting a country garden and you have both my garden and the gardens in which I love to find myself. A garden by chance? A garden as gifted by birds and a breeze? Both of these, yes, but it’s taken me a while to understand and see how the self-seeders play with my carefully con structed perennials and shrubs. Self-seeders in a Portland area garden are easy to grow: Those three words are core to their exis tence. Easy to grow means tough, too: They have to be in order to make it on their own, because self-seeders aren’t deliberately planted by human hands but instead follow a life cycle of germina tion, growth, survival and seeding again with lit- tle-to-no help from me. For those of us “lazy gardeners,” doesn’t this sound ideal? But it also means you can’t pull them out when they’re still young and tiny, nor can you deadhead them, thus preventing them from producing seeds and re generating for the next season. It takes a little different of a mind-set, but once you get the hang of it, and are able to distinguish weeds from seeds, you’ll be in the zone. voices WWW.JUSTOUT.COM them emerge every year is like visiting with the friends who gave them to me. S e e d By D esig n Self-seeding plants in a Portland area garden: the sassy An area of our front garden is filled in among the plants with love-in-a-mist. This airy fringe leaved plant has cornflower blue blossoms, fol lowed by tiny balloon seed pods. I have never once planted it, but it showed up thanks to birds or a breeze who brought its seed from a neigh boring garden. It seeds in rich soil between pe rennials such as dahlia, lavender and euphorbia, and along the front walk in areas I’ve struggled to get other plants to grow. Early in spring I see the sprouts everywhere, but once they reach about an inch, I am able to identify them for what they are— versus weeds I don’t want. This is key to growing self-seeders: The big, blousy look of a self-seeded cottage garden can easily morph into a giant weed patch if you don’t carefully pull the weeds from the seeds. It may take a few sea sons, but keep an eye open to identify them and your comfort and confidence in encouraging self-seeders will grow right along with your pop pies, upright verbena and love-in-a-mist. A few things not to do when encouraging a self-seeded garden include heavy hoeing or soil turning in spring or the use of weed killer or seed germination preventer. Doing these things kills the weeds, but it also kills any seeds of the a Cerinthe is a « star of the self- ) seeded garden. Breadseed poppy Papaver somniferum Columbine Aquilegia Feverfew Tanacetum parthenium Forget-me-not Myosotis Foxglove Digitalis Honeywort Cerinthe majorpurpurascens Jupiter’s Beard Centranthus ruber Love-in-a-m ist Nigella damascena Nasturtium Upright verbena Verbena bonariensis Viola plants you want to nurture. And no deadhead ing or seed pod removal toward the end of their Tales from Facebook: life cycle. This seed production ensures they’ll return to your garden in the coming year, so I asked readers on the Sassy Gardener Face- you’ll need a little patience and tolerance in let book page what self-seeders they grew, and the ting them set seed. Here’s a hint, though: You response I didn’t expect to get was tomatoes. A can always shake the seeds of a favorite self homegrown compost spread throughout the seeder in areas o f the garden you’d like to en garden also spread tomato seeds— tomato courage its growth in next season. plants everywhere! Thanks to Grace, Jacquelyn, Self-seeding gardens are full of gifts. A visi Jean and Sylvia for sharing their love of self- tor to my garden often leaves with a poppy seed seeding plants. You can join the conversation pod in the fall or, if visiting in the spring, a box at facebook.com/sassygardener. JK of freshly dug prolific self-seeders such as ver bena. We are always rich with plants in the L e A nn L ocher is an OSU Extension Master self-seeding garden and it’s fun to share the Gardener and grows all kinds ofplants, including wealth. In fact, it’s mçst likely how the majority weeds, in her North Portland garden. She’s really of self-seeders in our garden began, and seeing hoping this summer turns out some ripe tomatoes. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 i^ L ik e Just and Out Every Thursday, all summer loud, we have a party, a barbecue, and one-on-one advice from gardening experts! You’re invited! SUPPLIES The Sassy Gardener Oil • DAY O LD CHICKS • POULTRY SUPPLIES • facebook local sustainable • ORGANIC FEED • GARDENING SUPPLIES • • ORGANIC FERTILIZERS • BEDDING PLANTS • • HARDWARE • FENCING • PLUMBING • beautiful M ake someone gay. Send'em a bouquet! % V*. T w mf botanica: I FLORAL DESIGN 503 . 358.4687 www.BotanicaFloralPDX.com « CISTUS NURSERY 22711 NWGILUHAN RD SALIVIE ISLAND, OR 97231 503.621.2233 www.cistus.com open daily 10am to 5pm
