All posts by Eileen

Ethnobotanical Landscape at Cascade Lakes Welcoming Center

Native and Ethnobotanical Landscape at Cascade Lakes Visitor Center, UFSF Bend, Oregon

Cascade Lakes Visitor Center, UFSF Bend, Oregon

The landscaping features locally native grasses, perennials, shrubs, and trees.  They were selected for mitigation and interpretive purposes.  While native plants are found throughout the visitor center grounds, you can view the Ethno Botanical garden where interpretative signs identify specific plants and how they were used by early people for food, medicine, and ceremonies.  Along either side of the entry walk you will see rain gardens full of native perennials blooming from spring through summer.  Visitors will notice how the earth is contoured to direct rainwater and snow melt from the roof and hard surfaces to the rain garden which will provide supplemental water for these plants. As you wander further through the landscape, interpretive signs explain some of the geological features you will see along the Cascade Lakes Highway.  The interpretive theme “Journey of Water” describes how glacial ice carved the land, how lava dams created lakes, and how springs feed into the Deschutes River. The use of native plants accomplishes several sustainable objectives:  1) maintaining as much of the existing forest as possible preserves the ecology of the forest and limits the amount of mitigation needed; 2) planting only native species reduces the need for irrigation as little to no supplemental irrigation will be required once the plants are established; and 3) native plants do not need fertilizers and special soils which reduces electricity, water, and transportation demands. To read more about this project go to:

Cascade Lakes Welcome Station Unveiled

Attract Customers With A Supporting Commercial Landscape Design

Best Of Houzz 2015 Award

Eileen D. Obermiller, Principal Landscape Architect at  Dappled Earth –designs to nurture life!  Receives Best Of Houzz 2015 Award

Over 25 Million Monthly Unique Users Rated Top-Rated Home Building,  Remodeling and Design Professionals in the United States and Around the World  Bend, Oregon January 19, 2015 –Eileen D. Obermiller, Principal Landscape Architect of Dappled Earth –designs to nurture life! has been awarded “Best Of Houzz” for Customer Satisfaction by Houzz, the leading platform for home remodeling and design. This Landscape Architecture firm was chosen by the more than 25 million monthly unique users that comprise the Houzz community from among more than 500,000 active home building, remodeling and design industry professionals.  The Best Of Houzz award is given in two categories: Design and Customer Satisfaction. Design award winners’ work was the most popular among the more than 25 million monthly users on Houzz, known as “Houzzers.” Customer Satisfaction honors are determined by a variety of factors, including the number and quality of client reviews a professional received in 2014. Winners will receive a “Best Of Houzz 2015” badge on their profiles, helping Houzz users around the world who discover and love a professional’s work to learn even more about that business’ popularity and satisfaction rating among their peers in the Houzz community.    “Dappled Earth”  evokes an image of the patterns we place on the earth.  Consider a dappled shade pattern that moves across the ground through the day.  Never static. The pattern moves and changes; darkens and lightens.  Now consider the patterns we place on the earth when we build homes, communities, and make alterations as simple as planting trees. These patterns too are not stagnant.  They change and evolve with our values and our whims.  As a educated and experienced landscape architects we design nurturing landscape for our families, our communities, and our planet.  Move with us beyond sustainability and into landscapes that nurture life.”  “Houzz provides homeowners with a 360 degree view of home building, remodeling and design industry professionals, empowering them to engage the right people and products for their project,” said Liza Hausman, vice president of industry marketing for Houzz. “We’re delighted to recognize Eileen D. Obermiller, Landscape Architect among our “Best Of” professionals as judged by our community of homeowners and design enthusiasts who are actively remodeling and decorating their homes.”  Follow Dappled Earth on Houzz http://www.houzz.com/pro/eileen-obermiller/dappled-earth-llc or at DappledEarth.com  About Eileen D. Obermiller, RLA #381 Eileen has been a licensed landscape architect since 1997, working in central and eastern Oregon since 1993. She has designed memory gardens, parks, streetscapes, residential & commercial properties, garden structures such as arbor and pergolas, water features and more. She specializes in properties east of the Cascade Mountain range.   Services Provided Dappled Earth provides landscape and site design services for residential, commercial, resort, community, park, and government properties. Design services include on your property consultation, concept plans, full landscape design plans, and management.  Areas Served Central Oregon and areas east of the Cascade Mountain Range.  About Houzz Houzz is the leading platform for home remodeling and design, providing people with everything they need to improve their homes from start to finish – online or from a mobile device. From decorating a room to building a custom home, Houzz connects millions of homeowners, home design enthusiasts and home improvement professionals across the country and around the world. With the largest residential design database in the world and a vibrant community powered by social tools, Houzz is the easiest way for people to find inspiration, get advice, buy products and hire the professionals they need to help turn their ideas into reality. Headquartered in Palo Alto, CA, Houzz also has international offices in London, Berlin and Sydney. For more information, visit www.houzz.com

Attract Customers With A Supporting Commercial Landscape Design

Eileen D. Obermiller, Principal Landscape Architect at Dappled Earth –designs to nurture life! Receives Best Of Houzz 2015 Award

Eileen D. Obermiller,

Principal Landscape Architect at
Dappled Earth –designs to nurture life!
Receives Best Of Houzz 2015 Award

Over 25 Million Monthly Unique Users Rated Top-Rated Home Building,
Remodeling and Design Professionals in the United States and Around the World

Bend, Oregon January 19, 2015 –Eileen D. Obermiller, Principal Landscape Architect of Dappled Earth –designs to nurture life! has been awarded “Best Of Houzz” for Customer Satisfaction by Houzz, the leading platform for home remodeling and design. This Landscape Architecture firm was chosen by the more than 25 million monthly unique users that comprise the Houzz community from among more than 500,000 active home building, remodeling and design industry professionals.

The Best Of Houzz award is given in two categories: Design and Customer Satisfaction. Design award winners’ work was the most popular among the more than 25 million monthly users on Houzz, known as “Houzzers.” Customer Satisfaction honors are determined by a variety of factors, including the number and quality of client reviews a professional received in 2014. Winners will receive a “Best Of Houzz 2015” badge on their profiles, helping Houzz users around the world who discover and love a professional’s work to learn even more about that business’ popularity and satisfaction rating among their peers in the Houzz community.

“Dappled Earth” evokes an image of the patterns we place on the earth. Consider a dappled shade pattern that moves across the ground through the day. Never static. The pattern moves and changes; darkens and lightens. Now consider the patterns we place on the earth when we build homes, communities, and make alterations as simple as planting trees. These patterns too are not stagnant. They change and evolve with our values and our whims. As a educated and experienced landscape architects we design nurturing landscape for our families, our communities, and our planet. Move with us beyond sustainability and into landscapes that nurture life.”

“Houzz provides homeowners with a 360 degree view of home building, remodeling and design industry professionals, empowering them to engage the right people and products for their project,” said Liza Hausman, vice president of industry marketing for Houzz. “We’re delighted to recognize Eileen D. Obermiller, Landscape Architect among our “Best Of” professionals as judged by our community of homeowners and design enthusiasts who are actively remodeling and decorating their homes.”

Follow Dappled Earth on Houzz http://www.houzz.com/pro/eileen-obermiller/dappled-earth-llc or at DappledEarth.com

About Eileen D. Obermiller, RLA #381
Eileen has been a licensed landscape architect since 1997, working in central and eastern Oregon since 1993. She has designed memory gardens, parks, streetscapes, residential & commercial properties, garden structures such as arbor and pergolas, water features and more. She specializes in properties east of the Cascade Mountain range.

Services Provided
Dappled Earth provides landscape and site design services for residential, commercial, resort, community, park, and government properties. Design services include on your property consultation, concept plans, full landscape design plans, and management.

Areas Served
Central Oregon and areas east of the Cascade Mountain Range.

About Houzz
Houzz is the leading platform for home remodeling and design, providing people with everything they need to improve their homes from start to finish – online or from a mobile device. From decorating a room to building a custom home, Houzz connects millions of homeowners, home design enthusiasts and home improvement professionals across the country and around the world. With the largest residential design database in the world and a vibrant community powered by social tools, Houzz is the easiest way for people to find inspiration, get advice, buy products and hire the professionals they need to help turn their ideas into reality. Headquartered in Palo Alto, CA, Houzz also has international offices in London, Berlin and Sydney. For more information, visit www.houzz.com

The Value of a Custom Landscape Plan

Building a Home? Plan your landscape master plan before your home is built.

People often don’t think of the landscape until their home construction is completed.  Sadly, this is a mistake beset with missed opportunities.  It is best to develop a master plan for your homesite before your home is built.  This way you can look at the possible views from inside your home if you position it in different ways on your property.  You can consider better ways to layout the driveway and walks.  And, very importantly, you can avoid creating unintended, awkward outdoor spaces that are created by placing the home without outdoor considerations.  Even in a subdivision situation, you have options.

How to work with your building contractor to get the landscape you want.

If you’ve hired a building contractor you may have already committed to a landscape budget. However, if the contractor has not provided a landscape plan or you don’t like what he has shown you, you can develop your own plan.  We’ll work with you to develop your custom plan, making it perfect for your family.  (For more on our services look to the left column for options.) Once completed,you can show the contractor your plan and discuss what your landscape budget will cover.  It will likely cover only a portion of your master plan since the builder’s budget typically is focused only on the street front view. However, what it does cover will installed per your plan eliminating the need to remove or retrofit decks, irrigation, plantings, and lawn. Removal is costly and retrofitting typically, well, looks like retrofitting.  Also, during this phase of construction we can set up the irrigation and lighting so that they can be added on to as you install your master plan.

The following is a  short list of the items we have removed or couldn’t remove that could have been avoided by having a master plan before the home was completed.

Irrigation Valve Boxes.  We have found these installed by the front entrance of the home as visible as the front door, in the middle of the only place a needed path could go; along side the entrance walk.  It only takes a little fore thought and these highly visible locations could have been avoided.  To move them after they are installed is expensive.

Big plants in small spaces.  If a planting bed is 4′ wide do not plant a plant that will be 8′ wide when it is mature. This appears to be common sense, but it happens often.  The costs incurred here include purchase and planting of the first plant; removal of the plant and planting it in an appropriate location; and stress to the plant.

Big plants in inappropriate locations.  Last  year we removed a plant that when mature would be 8′ tall and wide.  It was placed in front of a gate along the side yard. While a gate can be 3′ wide, the side yard was only 8′ wide.  The installed plant left no room for a walk or gate.  The costs incurred here include purchase and planting of the first plant; removal of the plant and planting it in an appropriate location; and stress to the plant.

The typical subdivision concrete pad for a back yard patio.  More often than not these pads are too small and often at an awkward elevation for easy use from the the access door.  A custom master plan would have avoided this problem by illustrating the dimensions, layout, and elevation wanted for the patio.  The cost to remove the pad runs $1,000.00 and up.  The cost to install the desired functional patio in pavers run from $7.00 a square foot up.

 

Your Landscape Team

Landscape Architects and Landscape Contractors Combine Skills for Successful Landscapes

Landscape architects and landscape contractors have different skills, training, and licensing.

These different skills allow landscape architects and landscape contractors to work together to create beautiful, thriving landscapes.  Basically, the landscape architect designs the landscape drawing it on a plan and the landscape contractor installs that plan. Landscape Architects are highly trained in designing with the land  and environmental functions.  Landscape contractors are trained in installation of patios, decks, plants, walls, and water features. Each profession has separate and specific legal educational and testing requirements.

 A Landscape Architect is licensed to offer residential, commercial, and public  design services.  

These services may include: planting plans, grading plans, site planning, environmental restoration, park design, design of private estates, parking lot layout, street planting and plaza designs, and more.  A Landscape Architect will be skilled, experienced, and knowledgeable of a variety of government and private regulations including state, county, city, and Homeowner Associations requirements.  A landscape architect will design a custom plan to meet your requirements and the regulating agency requirements.  Landscape architects offer services from an initial consultation through the construction phase, and sometimes assist in finding a competent maintenance service.

Landscape contractors are licensed to install landscape elements including plants, landscape related structures, walkways, patios, pergolas, irrigation systems, and similar items.   A landscape contractor will have experience and knowledge of a variety of building codes regulating landscape and related electric and plumbing requirements. They typically subcontract licensed electricians and plumbers as needed to install a project

A Landscape Architect license is required to design and manage any public projects in the state of Oregon.  These projects include parks, all government properties, schools, highway right-of-way landscaping and more. A Landscape Contractor license is required to install  any public projects in the state of Oregon.

Always hire a licensed professional for a quality project and to protect your property.

 

 

How Valuable Are Landscapes?

Landscape Investments Grow While Other Investments Wear Out!

With a custom design  your landscape investment will grow with the plants.

An initial investment in your landscape will actually grow over time as the plants mature. Your home’s roof will need to replaced, but your trees and shrubs will mature into beautiful specimens that complement your home and lifestyle.   And, of course, a well designed landscape adds immediate value to your property.

With a custom design, plants are selected to grow in a specific location and serve a specific purpose.   You can enjoy your custom landscape every day in a way you cannot enjoy a Certificate of Deposit or money market account.

Call us to design a custom landscape that you can enjoy every day while your investment grows.

 

Quality Designs Will Enhance Your Life

Get it all in your landscape!

Get it all in your landscape!

Landscapes can offer significantly more than just lawn and plants and bark mulch.  When well designed, they offer comfortable outdoor living supporting your family’s life style.  They offer us refuge from the sun, wind, rain, heat, and cold through the year.  A well designed landscape supports the many functions that you want to occur on your property. So how do we get it all? By considering everything that we want to do, store, and produce in our landscape before we start planting.

Now is a great time to think about how you and your family spend time outside.  Consider where you are sitting in the hot afternoon of the summer or its cool mornings. Are you comfortable here or are you squeezing into a small area and shading your eyes? Is there room for your children and pets? Is it dusty? Do you need support items such as a paving? A beautiful plant composition to regard while it shades your porch?  Your responses will be the beginning of determining what you want in your landscape. Repeat this exercise at various times through the year noting where it is comfortable or what is needed to make it a more comfortable space.

Consider also the active areas.  Do your children have a comfortable and safe place to play?  Are your pets provided for? Would you like to c cook, dine, dance, or play games? Make a list of all of the activities you would like to have. Next make a list of all of the support items needed for those activities.  Don’t forget storage for toys, furniture cushions, and tools.

Finally, we can think about plants.  Plants can provide us shade, food, color, texture, sound, flowers, habitat, and stunning winter silhouettes. Our choice of plants will determine how much maintenance will be required.

Now that you have outlined all of the things you want in your landscape start developing a plan.

Make a scale drawing of your property. Locate the elements you want in places most appropriate for them given your criteria.  Then start connecting the elements with pathways.  Notice that as you layout paths, you are creating planting spaces.  Move the paths away from structures to provide adequate planting space for the featured tree or vegetable garden you want.  Adjust path alignments as you select plants for your landscape.  Keep massaging your plans until you get the landscape that works for you.

As an example, one of my clients wanted a patio on the side yard away from her home in a specific location so that she could enjoy the mountain views without being completely visible by her neighbors.  She wanted her guests to arrive at the patio through the front while she would arrive via the kitchen and garage. Additionally, she wanted to entertain, water plants, and hang clothes in bare feet.  Once we established each of her uses, we began to connect them with a variety of paths.  The paths were adjusted to create useful planter spaces.  One section of the path moved further out from the house to provide for her favorite shrubs while another section of the path was swooped out and through a wildflower garden directing view to a series of treasured garden features.  Path surfaces were selected that would be comfortable on bare feet.

So you can see how landscapes are so much more than just plants.  Thoughtful consideration of each of the elements you want in your landscape can result in an enjoyable and beautiful environment. If you would like help designing your landscape, Dappled Earth offers landscape classes, consultation, or full design packages. Contact Eileen@DappledEarth.comfor more details.  Enjoy summer!

First printed in Central Oregon Family News August 2010

Quality Designs Will Enhance Your Life

Create outdoor lounging areas for your enjoyment through the year!

Create outdoor lounging areas for your enjoyment through the year!

 Last issue I talked about how to create an enjoyable and beautiful environment incorporating the spaces and features that your family wants.  Today, I’d like to discuss ideas to make your patio and deck spaces more comfortable through the year.

Sun angles and wind patterns change seasonally and daily.  We can take advantage of these changes to create very pleasant spaces to enjoy most of the year.  For example, one hot day in August, I spent the day working in my gardens.  Ten a.m. found me in the upstairs west deck hammock which was wonderfully cool with a light breeze.  Noon found me lunching on the north side of our home under the deck patio, a shaded area at least 8 degrees cooler than any sunny location at that time of day and a few degrees cooler than other shady location.   By 4 p.m. I was under the pergola in another hammock swinging in its shade deepened by the adjacent peach trees. It was a hot day.  There was no next place.  We ended up pulling over a table and dining and relaxing until near 9 p.m. It was delightful.

You too can create several spaces on your property that will be very comfortable in all  seasons.  A good location for a spring and fall morning patio would be a sunny area on the east side of the house with a darker paver surface.  The early morning sun will heat the side of the home and the darker pavers will absorb heat creating a pleasant area when it might otherwise be too cold to sit outside. Don’t plant any trees or add a pergola or other shade structure that would shade this area if you want to use this area in the spring and fall when it is still cold out.  This is also a good place to get out of our west winds during most of the year.

The south side of your home is a great place for winter days. Keep full sun access and use darker cement or pavers to collect and hold in the sun’s heat.  Our winter winds vary quite a bit, but it seems that most of the time I want to be outside in the winter, I am looking for protection from the west winds. Locating a wind block to the west would accomplish this.  A wind block will generally protect an area twice the distance away from the block as is the height of the block.  Therefore, a grove of trees 20 feet tall would protect an area 40 feet out from the base of the tree on the downwind or leeward side of the tree.  Sometimes the wind eddy will drop debris on the leeward side of the wind block so it may be useful to plant a shorter row of trees on the windward side of the block, or allow some planter space for dust to settle before it reaches your seating areas.

Our summers can be quite hot and require significant shade.  Light breezes are welcome.  You can develop lounging areas almost anywhere as long as you provide adequate shade.  To enhance the cool feeling, add some moving water.  A small fountain or water feature will make you feel cooler  than an area without one. Inexpensive misters are now available that help lower temperatures in their immediate location without soaking your guests.  Depending on your site, you may or may not need to temper the wind.

These are just a few ideas on how to work with sun and wind to extend the time you enjoy outdoors.  You can see photographs of great landscapes and learn other useful information by visiting Dappled Earth on Facebook.

Vegetable Garden Tips

An Introduction to Vegetable Gardening in Central Oregon

 

An Introduction to Vegetable Gardening in Central Oregon

Mid May’s forecast predicted highs in the mid 60s and lows in the upper 30s and lower 40s. Not freezing. Yes.  So, out I went to plant a mix of wildflower seeds.  Compost was spread, weeds were pulled, bumps and lumps smoothed, rocks were ignored, and seeds were scattered and raked into the warmed soil. The irrigation was set for germination, and the partly cloudy days and showers made for an ideal growing environment. Alas, two days into my happy anticipation awaiting little seedlings to pop up, the weekend forecast predicted temperatures at and below freezing! Augh! Central Oregon.  As I am writing this article in mid May, I won’t know if they survived the cold temperatures for awhile yet.  I’ll let you know.

Frost can happen any day of the year here. And it does. We’ve experienced snow and hail in the first week of July on several occasions.  In fact, I have replanted tomatoes, cucumbers, and pumpkins the first week of July after a killing frost more than once. Frost any day of the year is by far our biggest challenge to gardening in Central Oregon.  Our other challenges are poor soils, dry winters, drying winds, and deer and other herbivores.  The latter group of challenges is easier to work with.  We can create better soil with compost, water plants when they need it, and protect plants from drying winds and herbivores. Frost on any day of the year is a bigger challenge.  We can watch the forecast and cover tender vegetables with row covers or blankets. We can plant cold tolerant varieties of vegetables and winter crops that aren’t bothered by an occasional freeze.  Or we can plant in cold frames and green houses.

My tomato strategy is to by the biggest tomato plants I can and plant them in walls of water. I leave the walls of water on through fall, but open them up in the heat of the summer so that they do not cook the plants.  I also buy a variety of tomatoes and always the varieties with the least number of days to ripe fruit.  I plant at least one cherry tomato as they tend to ripen faster than the standard sized tomatoes.  Some years we have a long beautiful summer and lots of tomatoes.  Other years we do not.

If you are new to vegetable gardening, start with cold season plants such as lettuce, chard, peas, arugula, beets, broccoli, cauliflower, and kale.  Last year’s kale lived through -20 degrees in December and started growing happily again by early February. We were eating it in salads and soups by mid March. Kale gets sweeter with frost.

In mid April, I planted lettuce, chard, peas, arugula, kale, cilantro, and beets. They are all coming up and look healthy even thought they have experienced temperatures in the mid 20s.  So don’t get discouraged.  There is nothing like fresh vegetables from your garden.  Gardening is fun, children and adults love it, and there are always successes. For additional expert advice on gardening and landscaping go to http://extension.oregonstate.edu/ and click on gardening in the left column.

Originally printed in Central Oregon Family News, June 2010   http://www.cofamilynews.com/

Native Plants Central Oregon

Planting with Native Plants in Oregon’s High Desert

Planting with native plants

Posted on April 30, 2008 by Eileen

People have really caught onto the benefits and beauty of gardening with native plants.  Many of my clients are asking for “carefree” “low water use” native plants in their landscapes.  Others are looking to reclaim disturbed or exotic plantings with native trees, shrubs, forbs, and grasses.  And what is more exciting is that people really appreciate the beauty of the high desert.  They want these plants closer to their homes, not simply at the outer edges of their gardens as they have in the past. The high desert is a stunning environment.

buckwheat

So how would you like to garden with native plants? There are several ways you can enjoy the beauty and ease of native plants in your garden.   You can mimic the more traditional lush plantings by selecting native trees, shrubs, and perennials, then complimenting them with low water lawn grasses.  In this scenario, you would plant the plants closer together so that their foliage will touch at mature size.  Keep lawn, paths, and planting bed edges manicured.  Mulching will help to refine the look.  Or, you can plant native plants in a looser, more open manner mimicking our natural environment, its plant patterns and densities.  This natural style allows for some soil and plant debris to be visible.  You can also simply replace some of your exotic plants or fill in gaps with native plants for a mixed style garden.  Just be sure to match water requirements and sun exposure.

1 font plants web penstemonYou can get started by finding some photographs of gardens you like.  Your photographs will reflect your style.  If you want a truly natural environment, take a photograph of an area you especially like on your next hike.  Once you’ve collected your photographs, examine each for elements that you can apply to your property.  Do a simple concept sketch of your property drawing the footprint of your home, existing paths, patios, and planting beds, as well as the new paths, patios, planting beds, and other desired elements that you would like to add. Consider which areas on your concept plan that you would like to look like your garden photographs.  Determine the sun exposure of those areas and write notes like “full sun” or “shade” on you concept plan.  Next consider which native plants could replace those in the photographs.  Do you want to replace a tea rose in the photograph with a native rose, or a native currant shrub?  You can continue to go through your concept plan and photographs selecting native plants that will grow well in the areas on your plan.  Select native plants that will offer similar qualities as the plants in your photographs.  Before you know it you’ll have a native plant list to take with you to the nursery.

TPark_1785_071510

At the nursery be sure to ask how much water the plant is currently receiving. Nursery plants are often watered every day and will need to be watered every day in your garden until they are settled in from the move.   Then continue watering as you would any garden plant for the first few years.  The nursery plants have grown their foliage mass based on a steady supply of water and if you back it off now, you will have plant die back. Water your native perennials at regular garden levels for the first  year, and then you can drop it to twice a month.  Water trees and shrubs at regular garden levels for the first 2 to 3 years, then deeply once or twice a month depending on the species.  Don’t forget to water all of your garden plants every 3-6 weeks in the winter when the ground will take the water. You will notice a big difference in the spring if you water in this manner. Your plants will be healthier and look better than if they were left alone.  The exceptions to this watering method are the really dry plants like sagebrush and Oregon sunshine.  Many of the dry natives do not need any supplemental water.  They will only need a little water at first to settle them in.

I like to water my native perennials and grasses once or twice a month through the growing season to prolong their blooms and green color.  Many natives will go dormant toward the late summer if they do not receive supplemental irrigation. You can decide whether to prolong their season with irrigation or not.  It really depends on whether you want a lusher garden or strictly dry native garden.

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Also, ask the nursery people where the plant came from.  If the plant came from a wetter or higher elevation than where you are going to plant it, you may need to baby it for awhile.  Select plants that were grown in an environment similar to your garden.  They will have an easier transition and will be better adapted to those conditions.

When planting native plants do add compost and for pants that like dry rocky soils, add gravely soil too.   Most natives won’t need fertilizer, but add some mycorrhizae fungi in the planting hole.  Mycorrhizae fungus is a beneficial fungus that infects a plant’s roots and increases its ability to take up nutrients.  Try to get it to touch the plant’s roots.

pink flower 2

I find it very satisfying to plant with natives. They are easy to plant, adapt well, and are nicely suited to our environment both physically and visually. But, I do wish the rabbits and deer didn’t feel the same way.  It seems the rabbits love a new plant as much as we do and will eat it to the ground repeatedly until is gone. Funny though, they don’t eat the exact same plant species that has been there a few years.  My theory is that the new plant is very tender and tasty without any dried or rough parts.  Particularly grasses.  Once a plant winters over, they don’t seem to have the same attraction.  My new strategy is to cage the plant the first year and spray it with pepper.  Hopefully this will deter the rabbits and deer long enough for the plant to get established.

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I hope you enjoy gardening with native plants as much as I do.  To help you get started, I’ve developed what I consider a comprehensive native plant list for our area. You can find in on my blog.  It will continue to evolve with more comments and guidance as I learn more.  Be well and enjoy the dirt!