I enjoyed getting away from the nursery last month to plant native plants in the Upper Bear Creek Natural Area with Water Tenders.  Twenty of us planted almost 150 trees and shrubs (Western White Pine, Douglas Fir, Nootka Rose, Snowberry, Sitka Spruce and Sword Fern).  It was hard work!  

 I spend most of my time in the nursery, working hard to coax plants to grow in rather artificial conditions. Their pots are too hot in the summer and too wet in the winter; their roots are separated from the biological interactions that occur in nature between fungi and the roots of companion plants; they have to depend on unreliable me to provide needed nutrients.  They don’t all survive Tadpole Haven Boot Camp.  So it’s gratifying to give them a proper home.

 Last Saturday seven or eight of us finished mulching in the natural area, which is just downstream of the nursery.  I brought some native Woodland Strawberries (Fragaria vesca) and three of us took time to plant them into the freshly spread mulch.  My knees were wet and my hands were cold by the time we finished, but I didn’t mind. I was thinking ahead; I’m hoping to find a nice patch of tasty berries along about June!

 It’s hard to think about summer when we are headed into the darkest time of year, but it helps to get outside and plant.  Imagine the rewarding feeling when you see evidence that the new plants are pulling nutrients from the soil and putting on new growth (especially rewarding when you can taste the evidence!).

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Oficially Autumn.  Cottonwood (Populus trichocarpa) leaves clatter down, each leaf disproportionately loud.  After the recent rains, Chanterelle mushrooms popped up along the driveway like storm-scattered gold coins.  The Douglas Squirrels have been busy for weeks cutting down cones and stuffing themselves with the seeds.  They seem unimpressed by the dramatically scarred Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) that was struck by lightning a couple weeks ago.  They are busy collecting its cones, skittering around in the Cascade Oregon Grape (Mahonia nervosa) at its base.  Our healthy slug population is making love by the light of the harvest moon and laying pearly eggs–so sweet!  L  Many of the Pacific Chorus Frog tadpoles have metamorphosed out of the kiddy pools and hopped into the woods for the winter.

This is a good time to plant; cooler weather means new plants need less water and TLC to get a good start.  Shrubs and trees are flying out of the nursery, many headed for city parks and Snoqualmie Valley farm hedgerows.  Get your piece of the action!

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Last Thursday’s thunderstorm threw some thrills at Tadpole Haven.  But I had no idea until I drove in the following morning and noticed strips of bark strewn on the driveway.  “Hmm, what’s that from?” I briefly wondered through my morning stupor.  I’d been up late, watching Mother Nature’s light show from my front porch.  “Maybe a bear tore up a log…?”  I promptly forgot about it until I walked over that way later and WOW! I saw the tree!  Either an extremely tall bear tore into it (no, dumb idea) or the big Douglas Fir* had been hit by lightning!  A four-inch wide strip of bark was peeled off the 70-year-old tree, virtually from top to bottom (130’+).  The electricity slammed into the ground at the base of the tree, stripping the bark all the way into the dirt, digging a hole and unearthing an ancient TreeTop Apple Juice can (metal!) that my brother had probably littered there in 1967 (I never littered;  I was good).  Pretty Darn Cool!

See a couple of pictures on our Facebook page, or better yet, come take a look when you visit the nursery. Grow your own thrills!**

 *Pseudotsuga menziesii, for inquiring minds

**Kidding!

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Rain!

The nursery plants are heaving a collective sigh of relief:

“Aaaahhh!  No substitute for pure, fine, generous rain!  Especially when our roots are hostage inside a hot black container and the people who are responsible for our unwilling domestication are not noticing our suffering!  But in spite of neglect and the indignity of captivity, we have survived another summer in Tadpole Haven Gulag.  And – Dang! – we look GOOD (well, most of us).”

“The fact is, us natives are MADE to handle the long dry spells we have every summer (though it is a challenge when our roots are hampered by being in a pot).  Free us from our captivity and we’ll really show what we’re made of.  But remember, we each have our niche where we thrive!”

Well, maybe I’m hearing things, but that’s what the plants are saying to me (it’s been a quiet summer — I must be short on human contact).  And though I didn’t like being accused of neglect, I agree with them that they look good, mostly.

It’s a little early for fall color and falling leaves, and right now some of our most dapper prisoners denizens are several evergreen shrubs and groundcovers that thrive in some of the driest conditions known to western Washington gardeners:  the parched, sometimes dark, shade of tall evergreen trees.  We’ve got four especially beautiful natives that thrive where others perish:  Evergreen Huckleberry (Vaccinium ovatum), Cascade Oregon Grape, (Mahonia nervosa), Sword Fern (Polystichum munitum) and Salal (Gaultheria
shallon).  This foursome is an adaptable set, able to handle variety of conditions.  It’s nice to have these evergreens as part of a landscape:  they look good all winter, and provide a good contrast with  the changing hues of native wildflowers and deciduous trees and shrubs.  I got some of these internees residents to pose for a group hug:   

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I hope you are enjoying your summer.  Summertime brings the blooms of Showy Fleabane (Erigeron speciosus).  Penstemons (Penstemon serrulatus) in the garden are also in full bloom and the bumblebees love them! 

Summertime is also when weeds, pests and diseases catch up with some of the nursery’s plants.  At Tadpole Haven, we are in the business of healing a damaged environment.  It doesn’t make sense to grow native plants (which will be planted as agents of ecological healing) in a way that CAUSES damage.  Most nurseries use chemical fertilizers, hormones and pesticides, which enables them to produce beautiful-looking plants quickly and efficiently.  This is standard practice, but I hope the “green” industry begins to re-think this.  Things happen more slowly at Tadpole Haven where we use organic solutions.

 We weed the nursery plants and beds by hand (no herbicides), which is time-consuming, as any good gardener knows! Plants in containers are in an artificial state, which often makes them vulnerable to pests or fungal diseases. When we run into some kind of pest problem, we find ways of changing the way we care for them; perhaps we’ve given them too much water or maybe they need a different location within the nursery. We don’t rely on herbicides, fungicides and other pesticides. We look at most “diseases” and “pests” as part of the environment and try to give them few chances to get out of balance. But a few spots or nibbles? Not usually treated as a big deal, but as a message from the plants. This organic approach results in birds, amphibians and insects using our nursery as habitat!  And it’s a healthy place to work, too!

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In our yard, bees and butterflies love the colorful bright pink flowers of Henderson’s Checkermallow (Sidalcea hendersonii).  Also called Marsh Hollyhock, it blooms all summer.  The foliage is glossy green and its leaves have two different shapes; the stem leaves are more divided than the scalloped, rounded basal leaves.

Henderson’s Checkermallow is rather rare in the wild (it is on the “Watch” list of the Washington Natural Heritage Program), growing close to the ocean and Puget Sound from southern BC south to southern Oregon.  In nature, it usually grows in wet areas like tidal marshes and wet meadows, though can occur in drier locations.  It is EASY to grow in the garden in full sun to light shade and often seeds itself.  I have one growing in very well-drained soil and it is doing well, though maybe won’t get as big as it might – 4-5’ – in a wetter place.

Go play outside!

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May Day is almost upon us, and the nursery is MUCH calmer than last year.  I’ve heard no rumors of a Moss-in this year.  I guess all the plants are feeling appreciated – it IS Native Plant Appreciation Week!  

Tadpole Haven’s plants get plenty of appreciation right here from all the little creatures that make Tadpole Haven home.  In the last week or so, Lisa and I have found a couple of Rough-skinned Newts and a Long-toed Salamander hiding among the plant pots.  Our nursery provides a good home for native critters.  It is hospitable partly because we don’t use toxic chemicals or “hot” chemical fertilizers on our plants.  These amphibians appreciate the fact that most of the plants sit on a bed of wood chips that is ever in the process of breaking down, enriching the soil and providing “habitat” for fungi, worms, beetles and other small invertebrates (many of which the salamanders and newts eat for lunch!).

 The Pacific Chorus Frog eggs have hatched, and the tiny tadpoles are visible along the edges of their kiddy pools.  The Mason Bees are becoming more active, laying eggs in their house and stashing nectar and pollen with the eggs for the larvae to eat.  They gather nectar and pollen from the nursery plants and native plants around the adjacent fields and woods.

 This morning I opened up the greenhouse and discovered that a hummingbird had spent the night.  It must have come in yesterday afternoon seeking nectar from the Great Camas (Cammassia leichtlinii), which is in beautiful full bloom, and the Upland Larkspur (Delphinium nuttallii), which has started to flower.

 And other birds are appreciating the native plant habitat in and around the nursery.  I am always seeing Juncoes flitting along low to the ground, in among the nursery pots.  And the Varied Thrushes have been serenading all day long from the big Douglas Firs (Pseudotsuga menziesii) and Western Hemlocks (Tsuga heterophylla).

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Check out these links: Tadpole Haven in The Herald AND Ciscoe comes to Tadpole Haven!

Lots of excitement at Tadpole Haven in the last couple weeks!  First, we were featured in the Home and Garden section of the Everett Herald (March 21).  Then, last week, the producer for KING-TV’s “Gardening with Ciscoe” called and asked if they could shoot portions of an upcoming episode at Tadpole Haven!  The next day! 

After the arrangements were made, I hung up and told my co-worker Lisa about our upcoming brush with fame.  She screamed (she denies it, but I swear she did) which is probably what knocked me to the greenhouse floor in a fetal position with my hands over my head.  We struggled to pull ourselves together and decide what to clean up first.

The “shoot” was fun and interesting to watch.  Thank goodness they didn’t interview me.  Hosts Ciscoe Morris and Meeghan Black, Producer Anne and Cameraman Tom were all very friendly and Ciscoe even let ME interview him afterwards (my son Erik came equipped to record this event for posterity).  They admired the ready-to-hatch frog eggs in the kiddy pool, and Ciscoe gave a plug for our new coolest plant, Scouler’s Corydalis (Corydalis scouleri).

Tadpole Haven will be featured on “Gardening with Ciscoe” THIS Saturday, April 6 and Saturday, April 20, 10 a.m. on King 5.  It replays on Saturday 1:30 p.m. on Kong 6/16 and Sunday 11:30 a.m. on NWCN.

Want to know more about our new coolest plant?  Scouler’s Corydalis is a big gorgeous perennial closely related to Bleeding Heart (Dicentra formosa).  It has delicate ferny blue-green foliage and 4-6” pink towers of flowers.  Happiest in bright shade and moist soil, it will grow to over three feet tall, and spreads via underground rhizomes.  So give it some space of its own where it won’t overwhelm neighboring perennials.  The Scouler’s Corydalis in our front yard attracted a large White-Lined Sphinx Moth to its flowers one evening, a beautiful glimpse at one of nature’s partnerships.

Enough of moth-and-flower love; I’ve got a date with some brussel sprouts.  Ooh-la-la!

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Home sick today, feeling weak and useless. It was even difficult to cut up  macaroni ‘n cheese. Perhaps I wouldn’t feel so lousy if I were in better physical shape. I’m still recovering from breaking my leg on New Year’s (sledding—it was fun!), so I’ve had a couple months of limited physical activity. I really am weak — so not as resilient as I should be.

 “Resilience” is a new buzzword. Everyone from doomsday “preppers” to those in the “Transition” movement to ecologists like to use that word. Are we buffered enough against shocks, whether natural, economic or climatic?

 Preppers advocate being ready for economic shocks and along with the Transition folks, encourage people to learn basic, common-sense skills like canning and gardening. And natures resilience can also be improved  by repairing some of the human damage.

The blustery weather this morning made me think about climate change. Oh brother, this is really hurting my head. How resilient is the natural world to challenges, whether natural our human-caused? I’m afraid that human abuse of ecosystems has reduced nature’s ability to bounce back. Just one teensy example before I reach for the Tylenol: the chytrid fungus is killing frogs. Their populations are already damaged due to habitat loss. Do they have enough resilience to absorb losses from disease?

We are part of the ecosystem.  Planting native plants – building resilience — is one simple common-sense way to help buffer our local ecosystems.

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Have you been noticing all the birds returning?  And soon our native bees will  emerge.  Hummingbirds will be coming through on their annual pilgrimage north. Is your garden ready with native plants ready to bloom right when their nectar is needed?  What a coincidence! 

The flowers have made a deal with their long term friends, the bees and hummingbirds:  “I’ll give you my delish, nutrish nectar if you’ll help me get a date with that flower over there; here just carry some of this magic dust with you…”

Whether you call it love or sordid botanical scheming, we can all join in the FUN!  Just make sure your yard is full of native plants, ready for action. You can even host native bees!  And tell your neighbors not to call the vice squad—nobody’s getting hurt here.

Some early bloomers that need the hummingirds and bees:  Cascade Oregon Grape (Mahonia nervosa), Tall Oregon Grape (Mahonia aquifolium), Red-Flowering Currant (Ribes sanguineum), Indian Plum (Oemleria cerasiformis), Salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis).

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