November Seed Library News

 Happy November, Gardeners!

Guess what I harvested from the library garden? Milkweed Seeds! Fall is an excellent time to sow the seeds for next year's Monarchs. Check out the Seed Library cabinet to pick some up for your garden.

Recap: Alternative Ground Covers

What is groundcover? OSU defines it as a low-growing perennial that often provide excellent coverage on slopes, aid in erosion control, and provide interesting foliage or flowers.

Many of us are looking to move away from traditional lawns and reclaim that space for other opportunities. Some of us want to better support our local wildlife, others may find it is no longer sustainable maintaining turf grass with the cost of water and labor. Master Gardener, Kris LaMar, walked us through some alternatives and some key questions to consider before taking action.

If you are interested in the bullet point list of recommended plants Kris left for us, let me know and I can email it to you. In the meantime, here are the online resources that she provided:

Resources

• Ecolawns - OSU has been doing extensive research on turf grass that is more ecofriendly.
• Fire-Resistant Ground Covers - as wildfires become more common OSU has put together a plant list and profile to help homeowners with fire-resistant landscaping
• PNW Native Groundcovers - a list with pictures that has been put together by WSU.

Trees!

I recently was given some tree seeds to add to our collection. I have been asked before if I would offer seeds for trees and I have not had any donated until now! Next time you are in, you may be tickled to find seeds for 3 different conifer trees: Ponderosa Pine, Shore Pine, and Giant Sequoia! And I harvested some Vine Maple seeds from our very own Vine Maple at the library! In honor of our new drawer (small as it may be) I decided to look into library resources on propagating trees.

Growing Trees from Seed: A Practical Guide to Growing Native Trees, Vines, and Shrubs by Henry Kock

Propagation of Pacific Northwest Native Plants by Robin Rose, Caryn E.C. Chachulski, and Diane L. Hasse

What I've Been Reading: To Speak for the Trees: My Life's Journey from Ancient Celtic Wisdom to a Healing Vision of the Forest by Diana Beresford-Kroeger

In this memoir, Diana talks about her early life in Ireland and having the opportunity to learn about her culture's ancient wisdom with nature. The Druid civilization's very language is rooted in the names of trees as each letter represents an important tree. Diana had to learn about Ireland's history of trees through that language since their ancient forests are all gone due to clear cutting.

This book made me fall deeper in love with trees and introduced me to the Mother Tree, the tree that takes care of the younger trees living in her shadow.

I feel pretty fortunate that Oregon is home to some amazing ancient forests, and this book helps me not take that for granted. If you are interested in hiking any of Oregon's ancient forests, I found this hiking guide in the library: Oregon's Ancient Forests by Chandra LeGue

What I've Been Reading: Listen to the Language of the Trees by Tera Kelley

A lovely children's book that tells the story of how trees communicate and goes into the science of it at the end. I especially love the depiction of the Mother Tree.

Upcoming Events

Tips & Tricks: Critters In The Garden: Moles, Voles, Gophers, Deer, and Rabbits The Sandy Garden Club will present tips and tricks to help with critters in the garden. When: Wednesday, Nov 6th from 9:30 am - 11 am Where: The Sandy Grange (34705 SE Kelso Rd, Sandy) Bee City, USA Action Group Meeting Want to get involved with the pollinator conservation efforts in Sandy? Join us at the Community and Senior Center to talk about various pollinators and what outreach activities we can plan for in the winter!  When: Wednesday, Nov 6th from 5:30 pm to 6:30 pm Where: Sandy Community & Senior Center (38348 Pioneer Blvd, Sandy)