Happy November, Gardeners!
This last summer, when we had the master gardeners out to speak on gardening for pollinators, one of the presenters inspired me with the idea of having crocuses in my lawn! I already have a few under my maple tree, but I decided that I wanted to look into it more and I thought I would share some of the videos, articles, and retailers I found along the way.
Additionally, now is the time to sow certain flower seeds! Adaptive Seeds out of Sweet Home, Oregon, has suggested the following flower seeds to sow in the fall for the spring (everything in bold is currently available in the seed library):
Annuals
- Bachelor's Buttons
- Calendula
- Coreopsis
- Nigella
- Poppies
- Snapdragons
- Sweet Peas
Perennials
- Blanket Flower
- Columbine
- Coneflower
- Rudbeckia
- True Hyssop
Crocus Lawn Resources
- Video: How to Grow a Crocus Lawn -- Autumn Bulb Growing Tips for Winter Flowers
- Portland Monthly: Lawn Crocus
- Supplier: Dutch Bulbs*
- Supplier: Van Engelen Inc.*
* I have not personally used these sites; they were mentioned through multiple sources, including the Portland Monthly article, and I wanted to share.
Upcoming Events
Restoring Healthy Habitats in the Clackamas Watershed presented by Dakota Hufford
Dakota is an entomologist with a heavy focus on community outreach, youth programming, and science education. She is passionate about issues surrounding equity in access to natural spaces and environmental education, and she has been living in Clackamas County since 2007. When not at work, she can be found with her animals (of which there are many), hiking with her husband and daughter, or hunting for bugs.
This lecture is free to the public.
When: Monday, November 10, 7 - 8pm
Where: Milwaukie Center (5440 SE Kellogg Creek Dr. Milwaukie, OR 97222)
The Mini Habitat Grant Kits from the Clackamas Soil and Water Conservation District for Sandy residents are still available to apply for! The new deadline is December 15th. Click on the image below to be taken to the application page.
Leave the Leaves with Rick!
Every year for many years running my wife and I, usually sometime in February when the crocuses start to poke up to remind us that the holidays are receding rapidly in the rearview mirror, reluctantly remove the Christmas tree decorations, which these days consist almost exclusively of too many colorful fake birds, take the tree off its stand, which we later haul back up the shaky aluminum ladder into the attic accompanied by the boxes of decorations tucked in tight for another year along with the Santa hand towels from the guest bathroom and the punny “Baking Christmas Bright” kitchen apron I enjoy wearing because the cartoon reindeer on the front annoys the dog, and drag the bare and at this point quite inflexible and crunchy tree like a murder victim into the backyard and stash it in an unassuming corner of the yard, leaving a thick trail through the house of spent needles that our long-suffering vacuum cleaner inevitably chokes on while screaming in disapproval and threatening to catch fire, and over the next several months or even years, any time our disapproving friends or neighbors admonish us about it, we’d jokingly explain that the tree carcass was not in fact an eyesore but in fact important “habitat.”
Turns out, we were not wrong.
At least not according to the post “Leave the Leaves” from the Xerces Society:
One of the most valuable things you can do to support pollinators and other invertebrates is to provide them with the shelter they need to survive the winter. Thankfully, that’s pretty easy; all you need to do is do less yard work.
Leaves, brush piles, fallen logs, plant stems, and flower heads might not be growing anymore, but they aren’t trash — they are natural homes for wildlife!
Leaves provide vital insulation for critters that hide in the soil, and stems and branches provide nesting sites for others, like native bees. Xerces points out that leaving the leaves and keeping it messy doesn’t mean you can’t do any cleanup, and they provide tips for a thoughtful autumn tidying while being mindful of all the beneficial insects that depend on the cover provided by all those leaves and other plant material. Here’s a brief overview, but I recommend reading their entire post:
- Leave the leaves, and avoid shredding them (let the critters do that for you).
- Turn those fallen branches and logs into a brush pile habitat.
- Leave the soil (and sleeping bees) undisturbed.
- Wait until spring is underway to trim stems and clean up.
Bonus Xerces Society Leave the Leaves podcast: https://xerces.org/bug-banter/
Winter is Coming
With winter around the corner, I also have been looking at some of the books LINCC has on the shelves. There are a ton of options for books that have beautiful winter landscape design, but I found that the ones I was most interested in were those that talked about extending your harvesting season.
Winter Gardening in the Maritime Northwest by Binda Colebrook
This book seems to be updated almost every 10 years, but the 2012 version still has some great information dedicated to our general area. The author provides even more resources in the appendices, including seed companies and a year-long plant guide. The first on the Seed Company List is Adaptive Seeds, and they mention The Big Willamette Winter Gardening Chart.
Backyard Winter Gardening by Caleb Warnock
This book raises some interesting points on why it’s a good idea to grow your own produce, even in the winter. The author has chapters on easy winter gardening, cold frames for winter harvests, as well as all-natural hot beds. He then moves into chapters that tackle specific veggies.
The Winter Garden by Naomi Slade
Not only does this book have some wonderful photographs, but I was especially interested in the sections about bulbs. Of course, considering I just told you about how I want to add crocuses to my lawn space, now I want to add snowdrops underneath my trees. Of course there is a section able vegetable gardening, and some gorgeous examples of cloches being used.
For further reading on bulbs, visit the OSU Extension Service article “Planting Spring-Blooming Bulbs in Fall for Years of Low-Maintenance Color.”
What I've Been Reading Children's Edition:
Mushroom Rain by Laura K. Zimmermann
Through lyrical text, this book explores the characteristics of mushrooms. Not only did I enjoy it, but the title of the book is not only meant to be cute but also to point out that mushrooms help create rain! To find out how and why, you should check out this book and/or the DVD read along that is also available through LINCC.
Wintergarden by Janet Fox
A sweet picture book about growing a winter garden indoors.
"She plants the seeds,
teeny tiny
seeds like freckles,
seeds like eyelashes,
seeds like the wings of bees."
As always, thank you for being here,
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