June 16, 2021, the vine war

Bleeding heart

Such beautiful weather we are having, we even got a little rain two days ago. This is what June is supposed to be like.  Mild but sunny, cool nights and days just warm enough you can be outside for a while without dehydrating. I want to hit the pause button.

Blooming in the garden this week are the evening primrose and the clustered bellflower. I love the blue and yellow combination.  I have a number of roses in bloom, and daylilies are beginning to bloom. Clematis are in bloom. Weigela and the ninebark are in bloom. Poppies are still blooming. Maltese cross and valerian are making a nice red and white combination.

The veggie garden is doing great.  You know it’s been a hot spring when you will have green peppers to eat by the end of June.  I wish it was tomatoes, I have lots of little green ones, but I doubt they’ll be ripe by the end of June.

For those of you who have piles of dead cicadas piling up in your yard, be grateful. It seems that the little buggers make great fertilizer, having good amounts of nitrogen in those ugly bodies. Scientists say to spread them out in your garden and on the lawn to utilize the free fertilizer.

My war with vines

I have been battling vines. All kinds of vines, trumpet vine, wisteria, hopniss, Virginia creeper, bittersweet and wild grape. Hopniss (Indian bean) is a rarer native vine but at my house I am ready to eradicate it. It has once again invaded my clematis on the east side of the house and it is so hard to determine which vine is which, they have similar leaves.  The clematis is blooming, but you can hardly see it.

Hopniss has also crept around my little water feature and wrapped itself around plants there.  I have to sit and patiently unwind and snip it from things like my cannas and even the umbrella plant sitting in the water.

Hopniss vine

In my front beds trumpet vine, wild grape and Virginia creeper have been growing like crazy and trying to smother things. Trumpet vine even climbs the side of the house with its sticky little pads. The bittersweet climbs up the cedar trees into the canopy, making the shade denser. I often can’t pull it free and just have to snip it somewhere near the ground and let it die.

Out at the edge of the yard the wisteria is blooming. But the monster wisteria by the barn once again isn’t blooming. Since it’s been here (2010) I have seen exactly 1 flower on it. Yet it is trying to overtake the barn and the flowerbed in front of it and the garden 50 feet to the east of it. It dives underground and secretly moves to new locations to pop up.  It sneaks along the garden fence and up the mulberry tree.

Oh, and another vine that can become invasive- akebia- chocolate vine.  I have about 50 feet of it along my vegetable garden fence and it would spread over the garden if I didn’t keep the paths mowed. But since it has pretty flowers and sometimes fruit, I tolerate it better than other vines.

And then there’s the trumpet vine out by the road which went underground and came up 30 feet away inside a hydrangea. I was trying to clip it all out and ran into another interloper-stinging nettles.  I brushed the inside of my arm on the nettles and spent a whole evening in pain. I hate that stuff. If I could eradicate it from the world, I would.  I don’t want to hear one pious word about its wonderful medicinal qualities.

One of the trumpet vines

Stinging nettles causes a painful rash when its tiny needles filled with 5 different poisons hits your skin.  I can’t believe some people actually do this to themselves on purpose, supposedly to ease arthritis pain. You could do the same thing by slamming your thumb in the door and distracting yourself from thinking about your knee pain.  I have had painful arthritis for many, many years and it has never felt better after enduring the pain of an accidental brush with stinging nettles.

To get the tiny needles out you have to apply tape repeatedly to your skin and yank it off. Then you apply anything you can think of to stop the pain. A day later it has usually gone if you got the tiny needles out. Stinging nettles also has a very generous amount of pollen that causes bad allergy symptoms when it’s in bloom. Destroy the stuff.

Ok, got that off my chest. And I did actually plant some new vines this spring, so I don’t hate all vines. I planted a new clematis and some moonflower vines and ‘Heavenly Blue’ morning glories. All the morning glories I had left around here have reverted to the wild purple color. I may regret that morning glory planting since they will probably return in quantity next year.

 

That cute, raised flower bed around the tree? Don’t do it.

Coming home from town the other day I saw some people out in their yard busily building a ring of blocks around the base of a big tree. I didn’t know the people and these days you do not stop and offer any advice to strangers. But here’s the problem. If they fill that ring with soil so they can plant flowers under the tree, they will probably kill the tree.  It won’t die quickly; it may take a year or two. And some trees manage to survive, although they won’t be as healthy as before the ring was made.

The level at which a tree is growing in the ground is called the grade. You should never raise the grade around a tree more than about three inches.  That is, you should never put more than 3 inches of anything, including mulch, on the soil around a tree. 

Trees have established a network of fine roots right under the soil surface to soak up moisture and take in oxygen.  They may also have put down large roots for anchoring themselves right at the surface, depending on the tree species. When you suddenly add depth to the soil surface you disrupt the system of roots the tree has put in place, and you may kill it.

Soil and mulch touching the trunk of the tree can also start rot there. Disease enters where rotting opens wounds. Insects and critters can also hide in soil or mulch around the tree trunk and cause damage.

Many people find they can’t grow much under a tree because of surface roots. That’s what nature intended. The tree’s roots don’t want to compete with other plants for water and nutrients. Some trees are worse than others, with many surface roots, including large ones, and dense shade too. If you like the tree, you will just need to co-exist with it. Let it be bare under there.

If you are planting a new tree do some research on whether it forms surface roots. Sometimes surface roots develop on trees where the soil is compacted at a deeper level or where there is a high-water table. In these cases, the tree has worked out a system that’s good for it, if you like the tree you need to accept it.

Raised rings around trees, even small trees, so you can plant things there are not a good idea for tree health. But you can plant under a tree, just plant into the existing soil. You can add a couple inches of compost or mulch around your plants. One layer of border brick or wood edging is ok to define the area. But don’t build a ring or box higher than 3 inches.

Many plants will grow in shade and those plants have adapted to dealing with tree roots in many cases. (There is a list of shade plants below this article). Grass doesn’t always grow under dense tree shade, and you should quit trying to force it to grow there, but some form of groundcover probably will.

Just don't do this

When you do plant or mulch under a tree, try to keep soil or mulch from touching the trunk. When you water the plants under a tree, try not to water the tree trunk. Excessive moisture can cause rotting. If a landscaper or spouse leaves a big volcano mound of mulch around a tree, rake it away from the trunk and spread it out.

I know some people will point out raised beds around trees that have been there for years, and the tree has survived. Some trees will adjust, but you won’t know for a couple of years whether yours will be one that can adjust. Many people also don’t realize that tree decline can be traced to the raised bed around the tree trunk they installed several years ago.

Often smaller trees in city parking lots and along streets have flower beds around the trunk. These beds were probably added before the tree was planted, and the tree was planted in them, which is a difference.

So do your big old shade tree a favor and don’t add a flower bed around its ankles.

 

Plants for shade

Shade gardeners used to have to settle for a few selections of common plants, but those days are gone. The number of plants for shade on the market is truly amazing and anyone should be able to find good selections for the shade garden.

What’s considered shade varies of course. Some trees have denser canopies and allow little light to reach beneath them. If you want plants to grow under them, you may have to thin the canopy a bit. Dappled shade, the shade from the north side of a building, and partial shade where plants may get sun for a few hours, will support the widest range of plants.

Gardeners with shade should be aware that while there are many plants that bloom in shade most shade plants are chosen for their foliage color or texture rather than flowers. If you want lots of flowers there are some annual plants that will do well in shade that can be used among the perennials. Spring and fall flowering bulbs can be used under trees that drop their leaves, and the area gets more sunlight at some times of the year.

Plants with silver, white or gold foliage light up shady areas and add visual depth.  But don’t overdo the use of these plants. They lose some of their power if there is no contrast.  Plants with red and purple foliage may fade into the background in the shade. Just as when planning a bed in the sun, a variety of sizes, shapes, colors and textures provides visual interest.

Japanese spikenard or Aralia

 

Make sure to keep your shade garden watered, the canopies of large trees often prevent rain from reaching plants beneath them. Some species have adapted to this, but others, like astilbe, will not grow well in dry shade.

Perennial plants for shade include, Aralia, Arisaema, arums, aruncus (goatsbeard), astilbe, bleeding heart, bergenia, bloodroot, brunnera, some types of campanula, Canadian ginger, cimicifuga, columbine, corydalis, digitalis, Epimedium, ferns, Helleborus, heuchera, heucherella, hosta, Japanese aralia, Japanese forest grass, lily of the valley, ligularia, liriope, mayapples, tiarella, tricyrtis (toad lilies), trillium, trout lilies, violets and violas.

Good shade ground covers include ajuga, Mazus reptans, pachysandra, sweet woodruff, wintergreen, and vinca.

Astilbe

Some vines for shade include some akebias, Confederate jasmine, (Trachelospermum), dutchman’s pipe, (Aristolochia), parthenocissus, and porcelain vine, (Ampelopsis). And trumpet vine and Virginia creeper will grow in shade, although think twice before planting these aggressive spreaders.

Trees and shrubs for partial and light shade include azaleas, beautybush, many boxwoods, camellias, many dogwoods, filberts, firs, (Abies species), hazelnuts, hornbeam, horse chestnut, many hydrangeas, Japanese maples, kalmia, (mountain laurel), ligonberry, some magnolias, paw paw, redbuds, rhododendrons, yews, and some viburnums.

Annual plants and bulbs for shady areas include abutilon, begonias (tuberous and wax), caladium, calla, crocus, coleus, fuchsia, impatiens, muscari, narcissus, and snowdrops. Many other spring bulbs can bloom under deciduous trees such as daffodils and hyacinths because they finish blooming before the trees leaf out.

House plants and other tropical plants can be used in the shade during frost free months to lend an exotic touch. Norfolk pines, peace lilies, split leaf philodendrons, spider plants, and many others do great in shade.

Your shady areas can be gorgeous and contain a wide variety of plants if you take a little time to carefully chose plants. You may find your shade garden becomes your favorite place.

 

 

In our methodical American life, we still recognize some magic in summer. Most persons at least resign themselves to being decently happy in June. They accept June. They complement its weather. They complain of the earlier months as cold, and so spend them in the city; and they complain of the later months as hot, and so refrigerate themselves on some barren sea-coast. God offers us yearly a necklace of twelve pearls; most men choose the fairest, label it June, and cast the rest away.

-Thomas Wentworth Higginson

 

 

Kim Willis

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