Ethical gardening

I like the hardy, local plants idea. I'm not much of a gardener, though I love the idea, and when faced with a perfectly lovely (though quite shady) plot of soil at my old house, I put a hardy local wildflower mix in. It worked out really well, and would have worked much better if I'd been better about weeding. (i.e., more black-eyed susans and poppies and less nightshade and creeping charlie...)

At any rate, while I should have done a better job of weeding, in practice I did practically nothing -- no watering -- and it worked quite well.

(This house has a lovely and high-maintenance garden that I'm going to have to figure out/ change. So reading with interest.)

The term for drought resistant gardens is xeriscape. If you type "native plants Oregon xeriscape" into a search engine you should find a nice selection. I always think of Oregon as having a fantastic gardening climate, sorry to hear about the drought conditions.

I have a box of wildflower seeds that call for a sunny location -- but my sunny location surrounds my rose beds and I'm not sure that I want to hide the bushes. Perhaps in the back corner....

Oregon typically has wonderful gardening conditions -- I'm not much of a gardener but even I have been able to grow just about anything here. Throw seeds on the ground and they grow!

I will look up "xeriscape", Green Witch. Thank you!

Thanks, Green Witch! I found some great stuff for Ohio, reading that now.

One thing that it reminded me of is that lavender doesn't require much water -- the only "real" plants I put in at my old house were three varieties of lavender, and they thrived. Did great, smelled wonderful. (Plotting where to put 'em here...)

Anyway, they might be on the expensive side but could be great as a centerpiece for the sunny plot.

Oh, just saw the rose bushes thing. Maybe a specific low floral ground cover. I'm still on the Ohio page, I bet you have a lot more options, but something like this sounds promising: Cerastium tomentosum, Snow-in-Summer.

The white stuff:



Maybe that's too bouquet-from-the-grocery-store, but seems like there are a lot of similar options.

Oooh, Green Witch, thanks for that lead, now I'm plotting up a storm (as it snows outside -- sigh.)

Mulch does wonders:

http://www.spring-green.com/tc0695.htm

http://www.arhomeandgarden.org/landscape/HomeLandscaping/Irrigation/Default.asp

http://www.pennsylvaniapride.com/default.aspx?pageid=20

Now I know a better way to recyle all those pine needles than putting them out for the yard debris guy!

Thanks Noddy!

Last fall I laid down a really thick layer of pine needles over the path I dug to kill off the grass in the area and it worked like a charm.

The xeriscape sites I've found mostly deal with the desert areas of Oregon. We have so many different climates here! A lot of the sites suggest looking at what grows along the side of the road and planting what you see there.

Just about everywhere there's shade you see ferns growning. Would ferns be a good thing to plant in my shade area?

Lavender is another thing they suggest. I have seeds for lavender because I planned to plant it along the path border!

Ferns work well in the dry, shaded area of my little faux-woodlot.

Xeriscaping's definitely the way to go. It was the subject of the first Abuzz thread I started. I haven't watered my front or back yards for 3.5 summers now. Some things wilt briefly, but either recover or don't belong in the yard.

Wandering around nearby state parks is a good way to get a sense of what will handle the local growing conditions.



<lawns must die!>

So far I've got lavender, wildflowers and ferns - that's a pretty good start!

I'm not ready to give up my lawn but really there are only about two weeks out of the year that watering is even necessary. This year could be different and if the lawn dies off so be it.

I'm sure we'll have rationing so I'm just trying to get a jump start on it so I don't spend a bunch of money and watch it all wither away.

They're saying the threat of forest fire this year is going to be huge. With so many of our guardsmen away in Iraq it's shaping up to look pretty grim this summer.

I'm surprised it was suggested that you plant what you see around roadsides, most of those plants tend to be weedy invasives, rarely native.

If you want to get rid of or eliminate much of your lawn I suggest you get a copy of "Front Yard Gardens: Growing More Than Grass" by Liz Primeau. Amazon probably has used copies.

Another good book for general garden design is:
"Your House, Your Garden: A Foolproof Approach to Garden Design" by Gordon Hayward

Another good book that has a nice chaper on getting rid of lawn is "Noah's Garden" by Sara Stein - she was a gardener in the Northeast, but the overall information applies everywhere.

Careful when choosing ferns - there are ferns for dry shade but the majority want moist shade - and they are not interchangable.

I find most people can turn about 50% of there existing lawn into meadow (even a small one). Think outside the current shape of the property and bed lines. Dont think in terms of squares, but rather curves. Meadows look best when there is a path mowed thru them and they are punctuated by vertical accents like a birdhouse on a post.

All new plants need extra water the first year, but a well designed and established garden should be able to go without any extra watering, except during unusual drought periods.

I actually try and stay out of this forum since this is what I do for a living. Help! I'm talking about gardening and I just can't stop...

Oh it's good good stuff!!

This house came with a garden that's pretty far outside of my ideal (though it's purty) -- I spent way too much time outside watering, just trying to keep the plants from dying, last year. (Moved in mid-July, this yard was extensively and expensively tended to by professional gardeners.) I really want the kind you're talking about (no extra watering except during drought) both for philosophical and laziness reasons. Hate to waste water if I can help it.

two words
"SILK FLOWERS"

heh!

Green Witch, thank you so much for sharing your professional expertise!

I do want to keep a pretty big yard space - I have a four year old who needs lots of room to run. But I did take a cue from my neighbor's yard that they have set up with "pavillions" around the perimiter of the yard with a smaller lawn in the middle. I'll be turning about 35% of my yard from lawn to other.

I'll look for that "foolproof" book because, truth be told, I'm a little foolish!

What about eatable herbs. Many of the mediterranean type herbs (oregano, thyme, rosemary, etc) are used to growing in very dry, rocky soil and require little watering. They like some sun but will do alright in partial shade. You could treat them as annuals and put in other things next year of plant some perennial herbs and they'll be there for years. There are lots of pretty thymes. Chives handle drought well but might get strong if they get too dry.

Xeriscaping
There IS a difference between Native Plant gardening and Water-Wise Landscaping or "Xeriscaping". If you want to go all native, then I'm sure your local parks or natural resources department would have good plants. As for those roadside "foreign" species... we have a lot of those in Utah as well. HOWEVER, the fact that they are thriving here is a good indication that the plant is adapted to your climate. Be sure to make sure the plant is legit, however, and not on some noxious weed list.

Check out this website I made for work:

Edit [Moderator]: Link removed

I would emphasize gardening with native AND adapted species in order to increase your plant palate! A lot of these plants will work very well in Oregon, and will probably not require much if any supplemental irrigation!

Molly