The National Firewise Communities Program is designed to encourage solutions to protect people and property from the risk of wildfire before a fire starts. Firewise focuses on planning, landscaping, construction and home maintenance. Financial grants are offered to residents making landscaping or structural improvements to their properties, which can increase the survivability of their home in the event of a wildfire. The list of firewise plants includes many of the plants we have at the nursery. If you apply for a firewise grant and receive one you may obtain many of the plants for your new landscape here at Pleasant Hill Nursery. Some of the plants on the list we carry include; hosta, daylily, iris, salal, vine maple, ponderosa pine, flowering currant, garden carnation, big leaf maple flowering dogwood and many others. Contact www.firewise.org for more information. Even if you don’t receive a grant there is much good information on ways to improve your property to protect against wildfires including the one we can help you with which is selecting the right plants for your firewise landscape.
A month or so ago I went hiking to a beautiful waterfall not far from where we live. Besides the stunning waterfalls every plant, every rock, every piece of moss looked perfectly composed, creating a landscape nearly impossible to recreate. How is it that we work so hard in our gardens to create great beauty and out in the untouched world it is splendid without a finger being lifted? I notice that in my rural setting where I live, I am busy around my home toiling away to make a garden I find satisfying and then with a brief walk up the trail into the woods I find perfection, tranquility and rest in the natural landscape around me.
Three weeks ago I fractured a couple of metatarsals in my foot. I like to move around on my own and this brought me to a screeching halt. We pruned most of our large apple trees on our farm before the breakage, but had yet to pick up the branches and haul them into the brush pile in the woods. That is usually my job. My husband piled them up in three piles on the lawn and I discovered they made a great spot for the birds to hang out in, between the lilac and the bird feeder by the window. I found this highly entertaining in my non active state. As I can not garden for a few weeks more, I’ve had to go on the premise that messy may not be so bad. Leaves fall from the trees and provide natural mulch for the tree. If you don’t like this look get some mulch, blended mint compost is my favorite, and sprinkle an inch or so over the leaves. This will give a neat appearance without loosing the layer of leafy organic material. Many plants like spiraea, forsythia, and philadelphus, get pruned into a blob by some gardeners, yet when left to their own devices will grow into a lovely fountain shaped plant. These same plants if overgrown can be cut to the ground and they will start up again. I often cut the ‘goldmound’ spiraea to the ground in July and it pops back up with its brilliant color and looks great all winter. You can also miss a year in your pruning and do no permanent damage. I did not get around to my favorite apple tree so I’ll let it go until August or next year. It’s okay because I love the color, deep maroon, of the upright shoots and they will be twice the size next year and good for projects. Patience is what one learns when one can’t do what is normally easy.
Weather totally makes or breaks my day, at least to begin with. When I get up and see a morning star, I know it is clear and not raining. This is good for me, a gardener and horticulturalist at a nursery. So of course I wish upon this star for many things and one of them being that it will be a nice day. For someone from the Great Pacific Northwest this doesn’t mean seventy and sunny but more like fifty and slightly overcast, yet with blue sky and the sun appearing now and then. This is perfect outdoor working/gardening weather, not too hot to get sweaty and sunny enough so you can see what you are doing and stay cheerful. Today is a day like that, morning star, wish, lovely pink sunrise that the gas station girl and I concurred was a good sign (in spite of “pink sky in morning sailors take warning”), nice drive to the nursery and now blue sky full of many colors and kinds of clouds. There is a slight breeze blowing and all this fresh air that has been coming in lately has an invigorating quality to it as well. I suppose all this could change in an instant but for now it puts me in a great mood, improves the my thoughts and thus my work (which I love) and if this happens for some or all of the folks today don’t you think the world will be just a bit better for it?
The weather, what we talk about around here, is crisp, clear, sunny, blue skies and downright cold. I don't know why but it making me a little cranky and maybe it is not the weather but the frozen pipe I have going to the washing machine and just the general concern about plants, animals and all of us in this cold weather. On my way to work I was thinking about what could bring me out of this funk, no need to get crotchety at this glorious time of year. I looked up and saw the hill, Mount Pisgah, with a lovely pink glow. I could not meditate something this great no matter how long I sat. Ahh, I can arrive with a little better cheer.
PHN Growers Blog
