Friday, May 16, 2014

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Not What One Would Think

(This post is lengthy but important so please take time to read it all the way through.)

I am pretty sure that the average person has a pre-conceived idea of what a Master Gardener is.  Perhaps you think they are people who know the names of 99% of the plants in a garden, people who know what soil Ph is by looking at it, people who have answers to every disease or pest problem in your garden, and people who have truly lovely yards.  Well, you are wrong, wrong, wrong.  Yes a very few Master Gardeners can fit into this mold above, but most are really environmentalists with a tendency to like learning about science and a lot like you in other ways.  Their lives are busy and they get distracted and they make mistakes in their yards.  But, having written that, I admit that I got a little anal before having 12 Master Gareners come to look at my yard for an evaluation on whether it was Bay Wise ... good planting decisions to improve water quality for our rivers and bays.

Wanted colleagues to see my yard in the spring when things are blooming and weeds have not taken over.

I am the type of gardener that just lets stuff grow when and where it likes after I plant it.  This is the Master Gardener hodge podge bed.  I almost lost all of this dianthus to moles but soaked the bed with a mixture of cod liver oil and soap and that seemed to discourage them this year.

Master Gardener yards can range from floral displays to woodland hollows, to a simple lawn and vegetable garden.  They do view yard work as therapy and prefer that to watching TV.  They do have a love of eating fruits and vegetables and tend to be purists if these are not freshly picked.  They do tend to avoid planting exotics that can be invasives.  You will not find a butterfly bush (Buddleia) in a Master Gardener's yard.  Yes, we love butterflies.  But this bush is somewhat invasive (in 8 states), does not provide any food for the larva of butterflies and other beneficial insects although it does provide nectar.  Therefore, why not plant something that allows butterfly babies to grow? I will not ask you to dig up your butterfly bush, but please do not plant more when there are other shrubs that are good for butterflies.  (It is a controversial plant but I tend to agree with this lady.)

I had to wait sometime before I would allow Master Gardeners to judge my garden as to whether it would pass the Bay Wise test.  The test is really easy to pass, but I did not want them to see the mistakes I had made.  I dug up my butterfly bush, my black bamboo (it was lovely for 4 years before it started to take off), and all of the Miscanthus (a tall grass that looks very lovely but is also invasive and is not eaten by deer and seeds are not eaten by birds.)  Some nurseries will tell you they sell a non-invasive version of this grass...yeah, they tend to say that about a LOT of plants.  They also sell or sold thousands of ornamental pear trees for subdivisions and road sides that were supposed to be sterile and they can be found growing extensively along the edges of roads and highways in the mid-Atlantic.  (We do have a native Miscanthus but no one sells it.)


In the photo above was the last invasive I had yet to remove (red arrow).  It is isolated but still spread seeds in the cracks which I have to pull.  It is Catmint Walker's Low.  Yes it is related to the mint family and that is why it is an invasive.  It spreads by seeds and runners.  It has the most beautiful blue fringey flowers each summer  and gets to stay one more year until I can find something that is the same color, shape and bloom time.

If you research you can find nurseries that sell native plants and can tell you where they grow best.  Yes, SOME natives are as invasive as some non-natives, but you can feel less guilty and know that there are natural predators.


Above two photos show my ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolias).  This one is a cultivar as it is lime green and tends to be smaller than the 8 feet high version.  It is native, tolerates a huge range of soils and moisture levels, and blooms in May, and makes a lovely hedge or single mounding plant when trimmed.  Called ninebark because the bark exfoliates.  NOTE not everything in my yard is native.



I was judged on whether I encouraged wildlife.  I have bird houses, piles of broken branches, bird baths, and hummingbird feeders and lots of downed trees as food for everything under the sun.  We do not (actually in my area ... another post...CANNOT) bring down dying or dead trees (example is second photo below).  In the photo immediately above the right arrow is pointing to my butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) related to the milkweed.  I thought the winter had killed this native.  It is hard to grow from seed, but I will keep trying.  It is one of the few plants that the larva of Queen and Monarch butterflies eat.  Butterflies and humming birds love it.



Above photos are NOT the ugly.  The compost container which hubby waters and shovels monthly from side to side makes the best compost for top dressing of our gardens in the fall.  We have a jar in the kitchen for all scraps except animal products that go into this area along with shredded leaves and grass that we add later in the summer.  Right now all grass is mowed with a mulching blade and returned to the lawn.  Yes, it makes for messy walking and grass clippings in the house, but it is much healthier for the lawn.  Beyond that is a pile of weedy roots that we hope to cook through out the summer.  And then in the far end is the weeds that need to be burned and cannot go into the compost pile.  I learned from this recent yard visit that timing for burning weeds has to be carefully done.  If the pile has been sitting a while and it is spring you should avoid a burn because you will kill a lot of insects!  (And of course you have to check for those silly wrens.)  The photo above the compost pile is a holding bed where I dump the extra iris (an other stuff) until I can find them a home.  We also hang on to most of the wood that falls into the yard for winter fires.

Now to the ugly.


I do plant about 6 to 8 roses in my garden.  But these are really the bad children of the garden.  They require too much fertilizer that can run off onto the storm water, they require applications for fungus and pests, which can kill important pollinators and insects and they require lots of water.  Master Gardeners do grow roses (one in my group just bought 30 new plants to replace his winter kill.)   But we have to be aware that they are not the most environmental part of your yard.  I am using a systemic fertilizer/pesticide applied three times a year at the base of each plant to avoid sprays that are soooo dangerous to everything and to keep the toxins as local as possible.  Fungicides (and pesticides) are killing our honeybees and many other pollinators and larva...PLEASE BE CAREFUL with them.  Hubby is going to a colloidal spray (clay) for our fruit trees this year to avoid toxic applications.


We were evaluated on how we watered our plants, how we treated our lawn, whether we had native plants, whether we planned for wildlife, our use of chemicals and how we controlled stormwater runoff.  We were not evaluated on flowers and landscaping.  And we passed!!  I got a "Demonstration" sign which is one level up from a Bay Wise sign.  No, it will not stay in this bed as it looks odd, but this is where we took the photo.  The sign cannot go out to the end of our long driveway as I understand some idiots steal them!  So I will move it to the beginning of the beds and hope people notice and ask about it!  (And yes I am a bit anal as all the pottery is color coordinated with the house.)

23 comments:

  1. Lovely, lovely, lovely.

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  2. Beautiful gardens! I agree with you about the Butterfly Bush. There are so many alternatives to this and if my daughter had not given them to me as a gift, I would not have them in my gardens.

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  3. Beautiful and looks picture perfect to this one. Homes in younger years looked like this.
    Now I live
    just naturally by the woods.
    Still yearn
    for more groomed surroundings
    but cannot do it anymore.
    This is what happens
    when you grow old :)
    If I win the lottery will have a gardener, maid, cook and driver :)

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  4. Because you are my friend and because you said, "(This post is lengthy but important so please take time to read it all the way through.)" rest assured that I did. Not being a gardener, much less anything close to a Master gardener, I didn't understand a lot but I did enjoy the beautiful photos and I certainly understood your triumph at the end. Bravo! Magnifico! WooHoo! Congrats!

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  5. Wow! you should take this seriously, which is a rather good thing. Therefore, you may never look at what passes for a garden in my place.

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  6. Great photos. Congratulations on passing. My daughter became a master gardener when she lived in Georgia. She is good with plants I will say now that she's back in Oregon. My DIL was starting the classes but I haven't heard if she stayed with it. I will have to ask. She also has an interesting garden full of things to eat as well as pretty.

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  7. Congrats. Your yard is lovely, what a refreshing place to live, all your loving work shines through.

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  8. Your garden is so beautiful and lush; clearly you have worked hard & have the knowledge to pull it off. I'm an awful gardener, plus we have so much shade in our yard (and dogs and deer)that it's a challenge to grow anything other than rhodies.

    Roses are so high maintenance! It is good to know that there is a consciousness surrounding their cultivation. Beautiful, though.

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  9. What a beautiful garden! Congratulations on all the work and thought that go into creating and maintaining this space. You must be most proud.

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  10. Bravo. I just learned a lot and enjoyed it. Thank you. I'm glad you lowered your self to be my blogging friend as we moved in her to avoid yard work. LOL I'm honored to know you.

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  11. Congratulations!!!

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  12. Fascinating. You have done an amazing job! You are lucky in that there are so many natives you can encourage in your garden.
    I know two master gardeners. They are both as you describe: very environmentally conscious, interested in science, etc. Neither of them lives in a place where "natural gardening" works. One is here in Hawaii. Native species of plants and animals long ago lost the contest to introduced species; the other lives in a place where plants need to be watered to thrive. I suppose in the latter case, a woman who gardens on three acres in Bend, Oregon, she could simply have decided to plant natives and let them alone, but she loves flowers, especially, and wants to encourage the bees.
    My Hawaiian friend has taken a one-acre plot of lava and turned it into a mini-paradise. This involved "ripping" a lava bed, leveling it and crushing it, bringing in tons of soil and mulch, digging a well, and planting a large number of trees and plants. She never uses pesticides, which around here means giving up on certain crops, such as tomatoes. Her husband now grows large crops of coffee!
    So, the kind of land you get, location and climate mean that master gardeners do all kinds of innovative things to make the land "work."
    One goal master gardeners and others here have is to make the Big Island of Hawaii independent of outside food supplies, quite doable. As it is now, we import around 85% of our food.

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  13. I have a friend who blogs at Central Virginia Organic Gardener. Reading this post puts you up there with her! I'm impressed with your dedication and knowledge. I've learned a few things here that I actually may be able to retain. :)
    Your yard/gardens are beautiful.
    And congratulations on the hard work that earned you the award! (I don't have the post in view, but I remember that it was a step above the Bay Wise award.)

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  14. Oh so very lovely! What a noble accomplishment!

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  15. Yours is a beautiful garden. I always admire people who can make things grow. You deserve all the credit you receive for this masterpiece.

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  16. Congratulations on well deserved recognition. Just one question - how on earth do you find time to blog?

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  17. Congratulations! That is well deserved recognition!

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  18. We garden intensively but try to adhere to many of these environmental principals. This is an important post, just as you said.

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  19. Well done, it looks beautiful. My parents have a beautiful garden and home, unfortunately their passion didn't rub off on me!

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  20. Thank you for visiting my blog! I think your gardens are amazing! I know how much work goes into those results! I haven't planted my veggies yet...the weather hasn't calmed down enough...tornados one day, snow the next! So I'm excited to get my beds in final shape and though I will not achieve your level, I will enjoy the ride anyway! Have a great weekend!

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  21. Good post. I don't plant things that can't survive without additional care, or are not natives.
    Now struggling with mom's over grown garden of all the bad seeds...bamboo, buddleia, scotch broom and on and on...

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  22. You are wonderful with all the green and growing things. Yes, we nurture viri here....not at all with enthusiasm. I truly thought this was just asthma, but I am the fool who hugged a fellow worker and brought the bug home.

    I love your flowers. :)

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  23. Oh my goodness! I am so impressed with not just the beauty of your garden, but your knowledge. I would love you have you for my neighbor!

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