Tips and Skills to Maintain Your Landscape

1. You can do it yourself! Tips and Skills to Maintain Your Landscape

2. Diana Wisen WSU-Skagit County Master Gardener

3. Assessment • Why are you here? • Tell something about your place • What do you want to learn how to do?

4. What will be covered • A bit about climate and weather • Soil conditions • Pruning basics • How to transplant • How to select the right plant for the right place • Proper planting and plant care • Pest management • Good tools make the tasks easier

5. Climate, Weather , Zones • What climate zone do you live in? • Difference between Dept of Agriculture and Sunset zones • How is our climate different from other parts of the USA in same zone? • Weather is the day to day conditions. • Precipitation • Heat units and temperature

6. What Plants Need • Water-precipitation • Soil or growing medium • Light • Air • Nutrients • Warmth- • Space • No competition • No pests • Reproductive mode

7. Soil Conditions • Good soil is made of mineral particles (dirt) water and air, and only less than 5% of organic matter (OM) Too much of anything is not good • Compacted soil has less air and water. • Good drainage is important for most plants.

8. How can I improve my soil? • Soil pH- ratio of Hydrogen ions • 1-10 Acid to alkaline, 7 neutral (pure water) • PNW soils tend to be acidic. Good for most vegetables and plants 6-6.5 • Very difficult to ‘change’ the soil • Deal with what you have. • Mulch with organic matter • Fertility- get a soil test done • No till is better

9. Assess Your Yard • What do you like about your yard? • When are you there? • Why garden? • What cannot be changed ? • If you had the resources, what would you like to change? • What can you do? • Point and Pay

10. Gardening Tasks- which are you? Do you like to plant? Move plants around? Do you like to groom and deadhead? Do you like to weed? Do you like to mow? Do you like to prune? Do you like to walk around your garden? Flowers, foliage & fragrance or vegetables?

11. Right Plant, Right Place • Plants continue to grow. Not limited to what plant tag suggests. • Many native plants are not suitable for home landscapes- too big or spreading • Know what the plant’s needs are: • - soil, drainage, aspect, fertility ,water space. hardiness, growth habit

12. Dwarf conifers – what does that mean? • Various definitions in the industry. • Some get large • Four categories of size. • Do your homework!

13. How to transplant a shrub • Best to do it when it’s dormant • Root prune it the spring before you move it. • Let it develop new root zone closer to the trunk. • Dig hole 3 times diameter of root ball and only as deep at the root ball • Plant a little higher than the top of root ball as it will settle. Spread out all the roots. Cut off damaged or girdling roots. Add back the original soil (do not amend it) • Water in to settle the roots. Do not stomp on them. Mulch with arborist chips • Do not cut off or prune back any of the canopy. Plant needs all the leaves it can get to do photosynthesis • Stake lightly only if needed and remove staking after 12 months or less. • Water regularly the first season or two

14. Planting a new shrub or tree • Buy only a healthy plant • Check the roots before you purchase • Know ahead of time how big it will eventually get and what it’s growth habit is • What is its purpose in your yard?

15. Girdling roots

16. How to plant • When you get it home, water it well, place in the shade. Check for healthy roots, • Dig a hole 3 times the size of the root ball and no deeper. Loosen the soil surrounding the hole. • Remove all of the container, burlap, wire, or carton. If in soil ( not nursery mix) wash off the soil and check the roots. • Make a small mound in the center of the planting hole. Set plant on top of it, root crown level with the surrounding ground and spread out the roots in all directions. Gently refill the hole with native soil. Do not add fertilizer to the hole • Water gently to settle the soil. Do not stomp on it. • Mulch with 2-3 inches of arborist chips. • Don’t stake shrubs. Trees may not need staking unless tall or in windy area. Stake lightly and removed within one year.

17. Pruning Basics • Do you have to prune? • Maybe not! • Dead, diseased, damaged, dysfunctional • You can take those out anytime

18. Take it out

19. Should have pruned last summer

20. Kinds of Pruning • Why prune any plant? • A plant want to get as big as it is genetically programmed to be • A plant’s response to pruning is to grow, • Hormones in the plant • Time of year can make a difference • “The time to prune is when the shears are sharp”

21. Types of pruning cuts • Clean cuts at the branch collar for all kinds • Heading- use rarely in mature shrubs and trees • Pinching is a kind of heading cut • Thinning- the best kind • Reduction- temporary • Radical reduction- 1/3 at the most • Shearing • Deadheading is a kind of pruning

22. Diagram of good & bad cuts • 1-stubb too long • 2-too steep • 3-too close • 4-just right

23. Before and after • What to cut out

24. Before and after • Thinning cuts on a shrub • More light and air • Start underneath

25. Yes and No-no What to do and what not to do

26. Shovel pruningTime to say goodbye • There comes a time to permanently get rid of a plant. • Too big • Too messy • Too many • I don’t like it • Thorny, boring, ugly, poisonous, invasive • How? Shovel , chain saw, herbicide

27. Successful gardening • 1. Be observant. Really look at your garden on a regular basis. Appreciate & enjoy what you have • 2. Supply your plants’ needs. • They are successful to the degree that they’re met • Liebling’s Law- Organism growth is governed by the element present in the minimum • 3. Understand IPM and PHC • Integrated pest management • Plant Health Care • 4. Learn to tolerate some damage • 5. Accept change or make change happen • 6. There is always next year

28. Plant Health • Healthy plants withstand pests better. • Biodiversity encourages a healthier garden • Healthy soil is key beginning point—mycorrhizal fungi • Fertility needs differ • Permanent plantings with trees and shrubs don’t need regular fertilizing beyond an organic mulch, perhaps yearly • Annuals, containers, vegetable gardens need regular fertilizing during their growing season. Plants need nitrogen to grow. Some P and K and some micro-nutrients. Most are present in sufficient amounts in regular PNW soils except N • Commercial agriculture is different.

29. Pest Management • What are your pests?

30. Pest Management What is a pest? Could be part of a healthy food chain What pests do you have? Worst? What can you tolerate? How to manage pests. Four ways: Biological Mechanical Environmental Chemical- organic or in-organic Disease Triangle can help you with all pests

31. Can you eradicate all pests? • Is that a good idea? • List some pests and let’s evaluate their pestiness

32. Disease Triangle • Pest or Pathogen • Host (food) • Environment • Damage where circles overlap

33. Good Tools Make it More Fun • Good tools make the task easier and therefore more fun. • Tools should fit you and the job. • What’s your favorite tool? • Sharp pruners, loppers, shovels and hoes make all the difference in the world • Samples of good pruning shears • Try them on for size.

34. How to Sharpen your tools • Sharp pruners, loppers, shovels, hoes, etc. make the tasks much easier. • Keep them sharp. Don’t wait until the end of the season. Do it now. • Use your tools as intended • Follow the same bevel. Do not sharpen the non-beveled edge. • Demonstration

35. How to clean and store your tools • Tools are an investment. Used correctly and maintained, they will last longer. • Wipe off dirt • Bucket of sand w/ old motor oil • Wipe handle • Store dry • Hanging them or other ways • Brightly colored tape or paint

36. Where to get advice and help • Ask a Master Gardener- WSU Extension Clinic, events, booths, talks, plant sales Gardening in Western Washington: gardening.wsu.edu WSU Hortsense: hortsense.cahnrs.wsu.edu WSU Extension Publications:pubs.wsu.edu bulletins on every subject.

37. Visit gardens • Skagit MG Discovery Garden west of Mount Vernon, Highway 536 • Snohomish MG garden in Marysville • Bellevue Botanical Garden • U of W Washington Arboretum • Bloedel Reserve- Bainbridge • Heronswood-Kitsap County • Local garden tours • Local nurseries

38. Extension bulletins and websites • Extension bulletins are available online and you can download most for free. • There is a catalogue for WSU • Other Agriculture Universities- “edu.” • OMRI • Noxious weeds • Use Edu. Sites. Not all information online is good or correct. Myths abound • Most products have contact information on label

39. Q & A • What questions do you have?

40. Plant What Makes You Happy • It’s Your Yard