Winter Pruning

Posted on January 12, 2011 by Ann Lovejoy
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After The Snow, It’s Pruning Time

The recent snowfall was indeed heavy and wet, and the accompanying wind brought down many branches, large and small. Using my trusty bamboo pole, I was able to knock a lot of snow off my smaller trees, but our home is surrounded by tall Douglas firs, red cedars, and bigleaf maples, all of which shed upper limbs that were far above my reach.

Even among the smaller trees, my effort were not entirely successful, since I gave up and went to bed at 10:00 pm. During the night, the snow fell quite heavily, erasing the work I had done earlier in the evening. The worst casualty was an elderly Japanese maple between the front entry and the driveway. It has lovely little leaves and a delicate tracery of branches that had not been thinned in years when we moved in.

Finding Hidden Form

Over the years, I have been slowly reshaping this maple, removing tangles of cluttered twiggy growth to reveal the beautiful curving branches. Lacy foliage easily gets muddled looking in dense layers of twiggy growth, so I thin and shape the outer branches carefully to accentuate the natural V shapes within the branching structure.

By working slowly, never removing more than about 10-15% of the tree in a calendar year, I avoided triggering a heavy crop of suckers and water sprouts. I began by deadwooding (see below), then removed several branches that grew over the garage roof. This is never a good idea, since moist shade creates great moss habitat and leaf litter clogs the gutters. Branches that touch buildings are also excellent bridges for ants, spiders and other critters you may not want in your home.

Once the main framework of the tree was established, I pruned lightly each year, carefully raising the skirts that blocked the entryway and hid the tree’s lovely bones. I often prune after a heavy rain, when the wet foliage bends the drooping branches low. That’s when I can tell which branches are most apt to hit somebody in the face; those are the first to go.

Simple Winter Pruning

Though the slack tide of the year is not suitable for planting, it’s a fine time for certain kinds of pruning. This may be a good time to mention that proper pruning is not about size control. The point of proper pruning is to enhance a plant’s health and natural beauty. Really.

Pruning starts with removing dead wood, a peaceful and meditative winter activity. Deadwooding involves the careful removal of all dead branches or twigs. Dead limbs look grey instead of brown or green. If you scrape off a little bark with your thumbnail, there is no lively flush of green under the outer bark.

Dead branches often snap so easily that twiggy plants (like Japanese maples) can be finger-pruned without needing a blade at all. For bigger branches, cut each dead branch cleanly just above the gentle swelling or natural collar of each limb, leaving no stubs. To avoid tearing the bark (a great entry point for diseases), undercut the bottom of each branch shallowly before completing your cut from the top.

Pruning Shrubs: Open The Core To Light and Air

In my yard, several shrubs were broken by large branches falling from nearby trees last night. To clean up a damaged shrub, again begin by removing all deadwood. Many deciduous shrubs are clumping or thicketing in habit. These can be cut back hard in late winter to renew them from the base or sheared more lightly to remove seedheads and twiggy growth. With such shrubs, pruning helps open the plants’ core to light and air, promoting healthy new growth.

Prune shrubs with a tree-like shape, such as witch hazels, camellias, and some azaleas and rhododendrons, as if they were indeed a tree, emphasizing the natural branching form. This requires judicious thinning of crowded branches rather than random whacking. After deadwooding, eliminate any branches that rub on or cross another. Take off the weaker or uglier of each pair, removing the whole branch with a straight cut just above the branch collar on the main trunk or mother branch.

Damaged or broken branches can be removed in the same way: Undercut first, then make flush cuts just above the branch collar. Never leave stubs above the collar; these are classic entry points for rot and disease and ugly to boot.

Eliminate Water Shoots And Hangers

Next, clean up the branches by removing any water shoots. These are pretty easy to spot, since they stick straight up from the mother branch, rather than curving off gracefully to either side. Left alone, they become thick and strong but distort and disfigure the natural shape of the tree or treelike shrub.

Also remove any hangers, the often-curving branches that come directly off the bottom of a branch. Leave the small branches and twigs that come off the sides of mother branches unless they cross or rub another as discussed above.

Before removing lower branches that may be in the way, try this simple clean-up method, which may be all you need to do. Freed of deadwood and excess shoots, the lowest branches rise up, lifting the tree’s skirts considerably.

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Keeping The Garden Safe From Snow

Posted on January 9, 2011 by Ann Lovejoy
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Here Comes The Snow

Ready for snow? Weather pundits are calling for a big fall of snow, coming this week to the Pacific Northwest. Nobody can say yet whether it will hit hardest in Portland, Seattle, or Bellingham, but estimates of how much we’ll get range from six to twelve inches in each area. The past decade has brought us more “hundred-year” weather events than I can recall offhand. If this winter continues harsh, what can we do about it? Depending on the kind of garden you have, not much or quite a lot.

Let Snow Work For You

The good news is that snow is an excellent insulator, protecting plant roots from deep freezes and sudden temperature fluctuations. To protect half-hardy perennials and newly transplanted trees and shrubs, heap dried leaves, shredded paper, or straw generously over their planting area. The snow will turn this into a snug night nursery for your plants,

Do the same for newly planted beds of any kind, mounding the airy material more thickly over tender or vulnerable plants. Place a bamboo cane or a similar marker near the crown of each plant so you can quickly remove the fluffy blankets when thaws arrive.  (Leaving excess mulch in place can create a great environment for molds and mildews.)

If you mostly grow vegetables, annuals, and a few perennials, you won’t need to make any special preparations at all. The usual winter mulch blanket of 3-4 inches of compost will suffice. Here, too, snow will insulate the ground, keeping roots from deep freeze damage.

Jousting With Snowload

If you grow a lot of hardy shrubs, keep a few long bamboo poles around. If we should get a deep, wet snow, use the poles to knock snow off your shrubs to prevent splitting and cracking. That way, you don’t need to wade into the borders, compacting the wet soil and possibly damaging plants hidden by snow. It’s really quite fun to watch the groaning branches spread their wings and fly upward as they shed their snowy load.

Do this every day or even every few hours if the snow burden is heavy, or cause it to be done by younger persons, who often enjoy the drama and chaos of flying snow. Bamboo poles are also useful for pushing snow off cloth or plastic greenhouse roof covers.

Jumping and Thumping

It is easiest to get snow off greenhouses from inside the structure. With pole in hand,  move slowly down the aisle, jumping up high enough to poke the sagging cloth, which usually causes a great crashing cascade of snow to tumble down. Thus, it is also wise to remove any pots or container plants that might be in the path of the falling snow load before starting the jumping and thumping.

The same suggestion applies to any containers or plants located under the dripline of your house or any outbuildings. When snow thaws, it slides down in massive chunks and lands right on top of whatever lies below. Move anything movable and protect the immovable if possible. (You can use deck furniture–sturdy tables and chairs–to protect vulnerable shrubs.)

Take Sensible Precautions, Please!

If your greenhouse is large, start your snow removal project from the outside, for safety’s sake. Last time we got a sudden dump of snow, many greenhouses collapsed under the extra weight. I know one grower whose life was saved by a pair of mittens; as he paused to put them before opening the greenhouse door, the entire structure came roaring down. Yikes!

Protecting Tender Trees

Young and recently transplanted trees are very vulnerable to breakage when we get a heavy, wet snowfall. A few gentle whacks with your bamboo pole should dislodge the snow before it gets dangerously dense. Should ice start to form on branches, a sharp crack of the pole can often break the icy coating before it thickens.

If you grow upright conifers like slim junipers which tend to splay out in snow, buy some pea or bird netting. Give each vulnerable conifer a girdle, lacing the netting together with twine. It doesn’t need to be a compression test, but make the wrapping tight enough that it won’t fall off. When snow comes, those floppy branches won’t be pushed outward, spoiling their shape and strength.

How To Hire A Qualified Arborist

If developers or neighbors have recently cleared the woods around your property, it’s a good idea to call a well trained arborist in to evaluate the damage. Where trees have been removed, changing wind patterns can make formerly safe trees less secure. Be wary, however, of any arborist who wants to top or over-trim your trees. Topping is NEVER the right choice for the tree. It’s better to remove a tree completely than to top it. Better yet is to carefully thin trees that have recently been left exposed to more wind than usual.

A good arborist will thoughtfully remove a few branches in a balanced pattern that allows wind through without damaging the integrity of the tree. A good arborist will never remove more than 25% of live tree branches at one time. A good arborist will never suggest topping a tree or taking down a healthy tree “just in case”.

Where do you find such a paragon? Plant Amnesty in Seattle offers a free referral service for homeowners seeking arborists and pruners. They are also seeking arborists and pruners to refer, so if you have great recommendations, call them. If you had a bad experience with professional pruners or tree trimmers, they’d like to know that too. They’d love to hear from you either way.

Plant Amnesty Arborist Referral Service:
206) 783-9813 and leave leave a voice mail explaining:
* your name and location (city or town)
* phone numbers (day, work, cell)
* email
Find out more by visiting the website at: www.plantamnesty.org

Posted in Garden Prep, Pruning, Soil, Sustainable Gardening, Winterizing | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Reveling In Winter Squash and Kale

Posted on January 4, 2011 by Ann Lovejoy
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A Week of Lovely Lethargy

Over Christmas, I came down with what proved to be pneumonia (my Mom was just getting over the same complaint). For perhaps the first time in my life, I am finding lolling about to be soul satisfying in a way I could hardly have imagined during my busier years. Despite the joy of getting my new stove installed, I have not even cooked in a week, something that has never happened since I became an adult.

An Internet-free Interlude

On Boxing Day, a fairly brief power outage fried our modem and wireless arrangement. Qwest took five days to send a replacement, which proved to be defective. Another is on the way, and we are hoping to be back on line early in the New Year. In order to post this, I will drive with my laptop to the public library, joining the usual throng of folks huddled in their cars in the parking lot, all companionably jacking the net together.

An Ongoing Squash and Kale Relationship

During the years when my boys were both away at college, one of my favorite meals was winter squash and spinach. Not mixed, mind you: just a nice bowl of hot pureed winter squash, with a little sea salt and some pepper, followed by steamed spinach, maybe with a little lemon juice along with the salt and pepper. For whatever reason, this was my winter soul food, simple, sustaining dishes I craved day after day.

For variety, I might stir some orange peel and fresh juice into the squash, with a dash of chili powder or Tabasco. When I found Black Tuscan kale in the market (not as common then as now), I traded the spinach for shredded kale, quickly sauteed with chopped Kalamata olives, garlic and onions or maybe some fennel seed, feta cheese, and sun-dried tomatoes.

More Manly Food For a Manly Man

When I remarried, I of course changed many of my solitary ways, including my daily diet. My dear Bud was a generation older than I, a meat-and-potatoes man who didn’t think he’d been fed unless there was a recognizable lump of MEAT somewhere on the plate, and whose favorite meal turned out to be a feast of frozen food, including (I think) Swanson’s Fried Chicken, Tater Tots, and Mrs. Somebody’s cherry pie. Whoa.

On the other hand, Bud loved to bake bread and was interested in learning how to enjoy different kinds of food (thank goodness!). He was fascinated by the way I cook, which is more intuitive and experimental than by whatever rules one is supposed to follow, and was (almost) always delighted in the result.

For many years, I wrote a weekly food column for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, inventing intriguing new recipes on a frequent basis. While still working (he was the chief engineer at Seattle’s public television station), Bud reveled in showing off the contents of his lunch box, which might hold a slice of Torta Rustica or poached salmon with kale and cranberries. He did say, fairly often, that he had eaten more kale since he met me than in his entire previous lifetime.

The Kale And Squash Segue

Imagine my intense delight when I was brought a bowl of hot noodles tossed with a succulent sauce of winter squash and kale. The sauce was made by my younger son, who sauteed onions and garlic (of course) with shredded Black Tuscan kale and lots of basil (one of his minor addictions). He added pureed butternut squash, some tomato sauce, and some sharp cheddar (probably quite a lot) to his mixture before tossing it with hot pasta. Yum!

He couldn’t remember exactly what he did, so here is my version, which uses a different cheese, added at a different time, and different seasonings (OK, so I embroidered a bit). Also, instead of pureeing the squash, I kept it in bits–you could try it both ways and see which you prefer–please do let me know!

Pasta with Winter Squash and Kale

1 tablespoon virgin olive oil
1 large white or yellow onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 teaspoon dried pepperoncini or any hot pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
2 cups chopped Butternut or any winter squash (frozen works fine)
4 cups fire roasted tomatoes with juice, chopped
4 cups shredded Black Tuscan kale
1 tablespoon capers
1/4 cup pecorino or asiago cheese, coarsely grated

In a wide, shallow pan, cook oil and onion over medium high heat until barely soft (3-5 minutes). Add garlic, dried pepper flakes, salt, basil and thyme and cook for 10 minutes (onions will be lightly caramelized). Add squash, stirring to coat with oil and cook, stirring several times, until lightly browned (4-6 minutes). Add chopped tomatoes and juice, bring to a simmer and cook, covered, until squash is tender (8-10 minutes). Add kale and capers, cover pan and cook until kale is barely tender but still bright in color (4-5 minutes). Serve over hot pasta or rice, garnished with cheese. Serves 4-6.

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Winter Garden Chores

Posted on December 21, 2010 by Ann Lovejoy
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Things To Do Right Now, If You Want To…

When the weather is wild, it really is not very tempting to wander out into the garden, much less do anything. However, after a cold windy start, winter has turned mild again. On warm-ish days, the soft rain feels like a benison, pattering gently on fallen leaves and stirring up earthy scents that whisper already of spring.

Please do not let me hear any complaints from gardeners about rain. Our pure and abundant winter rain is what keeps the Northwest green and lush. Without ample winter rain, our gardens, parks, and woodlands would look very different. That said, few of us, however hardy and grateful, really enjoy working out of doors in drenching downpours.

Thus, the wise will confine winter garden pottering to these soft days when the going is still fairly good. Weeds are always with us, and there is not bad time to go after them. To keep weeds from filling empty spots, pile beds high with newsprint, shredded paper or pieces of cardboard. Top that layer with shredded or small, fine-textured leaves. Flaked straw also works fine, as do dried grass clippings.

Safe Paper?

A reader wants to know how to tell which colored newsprint is safe to use in edible garden beds. In general, the dull, multicolored pages of ads and funnies are printed with garden-safe, soy-based inks (that’s what most newspapers use today). The glossy inserts, with brighter colors and shiny paper, are the ones to avoid, since they may possibly be printed with toxic, metal-based inks.

Cleaning Tools

If you haven’t already done so, rinse, drain and coil up all your hoses. Though durable, hoses last longer when stored dry and out of direct sun and in a frost-free environment such as the garage. To keep them from being crushed or accidentally cut, coil hoses neatly on hooks or hangers in an out-of-the-way spot.

While you’re at it, rinse off shovels and rakes as well and hang them up out of the way. If you don’t already have plenty of them, this is a good time to add long rows of tool hangers along a garage or carport wall. Keep a bucket of clean sand mixed with linseed or canola oil by the door and shove each tool blade in this mixture several times to remove mud and grime. (It’s also great for cleaning hand tools.)

Shake or rinse off dirty tarps and let them dry completely, under cover if possible, before folding them up for winter storage to avoid or at least minimize molds and mildews. Turn buckets, containers, and pots upside-down so they won’t fill up with water and crack in the next deep freeze. Planted pots won’t be damaged even in a hard freeze, but be sure to empty any water jars that don’t have drainage holes. I put mine on their sides, filling the jars with gazing balls and glass garden ornaments for a bit of winter sparkle.

Clean Funky Gloves And Boots

Hand wash your gardening gloves, then turn them inside out and pin them on a line to dry. After a few days, turn them right-side-out again and they will dry completely. To refresh them, shake a little baking soda in each finger and thumb. This will remove any lingering odors and keep your fingers fresher as well next time you wear them.

Wash off mud boots, Wellies, or muck shoes inside and out, folding down the tops of tall boots so the inside can air out thoroughly. Stuff the toes with newspaper to help them dry, changing out the paper daily until all dampness is gone. Here, too, baking soda is an excellent refresher, removing odors and stains (to some extent, anyway). This same trick works beautifully on teenaged boys’ shoes, which can get astonishingly rank.

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