IN THE GARDEN

By Doreen Trudel

Many of our gardens suffered during the cold wet spring storms. Some of the damage was minor, a few broken branches or blackened tips on early growth but some young trees and shrubs appear to have whole sections that have died.

If your woody plants have some bare branches take a pocket knife and peel back a small piece of bark. If the cambium layer under the bark is green then the tissue is alive and the branch may still sprout leaves if not this year than possibly next.

It is worth waiting to see but if the tissue under the bark is brown the limb is dead and you might as well remove it. Hopefully the new growth on the rest of the plant will help fill in the shape. One of the Japanese maples I planted last fall lost all of the branches which stuck out above the surrounding shrubs. It has luscious new growth from its base so now I have a multi-trunked shrub.

The worst storm damage occurred to those gardens fronting the shore. Many plants can survive salt spray, sandy soil and winds but few can withstand their roots being soaked in salt water.

There have been many discussions about which plants survived and which ones were lost but it seems that almost every tree or shrub that stood in salt water for several hours died.

A garden does not have to be on the ocean front to be affected by salt-spray, sandy soil and wind. These same conditions can affect gardens several hundred yards from the shore.

Most garden plants are not designed to cope with excessive amounts of salt including salt spray off the ocean. Salt deposited on the leaf surface by the wind can burn plant tissue. Some leaves are less susceptible to salt damage because of their leaf characteristics so look for plants with hard smooth surfaced leaves, succulent or glossy leaves or leaves with tiny hairs. The hairs keep the salt away from the leaf surface and the hardened, glossy and succulent leaves are better able to withstand salt burns.

The extremely sandy soil sometimes found in the seaside garden is not able to hold water or nutrients necessary for long term plant development.

Unless you are prepared to bring in large quantities of top soil to replace the sand in seaside garden beds it is best to choose drought tolerant plants that thrive in dry, well drained soil which have shown to survive the seaside environment.

The wind at the shore carries the salt into the garden but even sustained inland winds create problems for plants. A recent study found that even a 15 mph wind will inhibit the growth of marigolds and reduce the size of their blooms by 50 percent. The University of Nebraska research demonstrated that a windbreak such as snow fencing or shade cloth mounted on stakes provides adequate protection from the wind. The windbreak could also be staggered rows of deciduous and evergreen trees and shrubs. All of these examples act as a better windbreak than a solid wall.

In my research I could not find any commonly used garden plants that will withstand continued salt water flooding but I have included a list of excellent candidates for the ocean front garden. If your garden is prone to flooding or repeated wave action perhaps the solution is a moveable garden, planting in containers which can be moved to higher, drier ground at summer’s end.

This doesn’t mean you are limited to small pots. I have seen some large citrus trees in containers rolled into the greenhouse to protect them from winter cold. Your only limitation is your ability to move the container. Grasses grow well in pots and make an excellent display either in a grouping of various grasses or scattered among other plants in a bed.
The heat of summer is not the best time to plant so the heavy work in the garden is over allowing you to find a shady spot to sit and enjoy the view. Maintenance is the key word for July. Monitor water needs and signs of disease and pest problems.

This would be a good time to get a book on garden insects and familiarize yourself with both the pests and the beneficial insects. The majority of the insects we encounter in the garden are beneficial usually because they eat the bad guys. I will warn you that insect identification is difficult. The best approach is to first note which insects you have in your garden. Capture examples of the most prevalent ones and find them in the book remembering that insects look different at various stages in their development.If you are not sure if an insect is eating the plant on which you found it simply put the insect and some leaves in a jar with air holes and set it aside for a few hours to overnight. If the leaf is chewed you know the insect is guilty.

The garden club is meeting July 1 at 9:30 a.m. in the community center and the Point Roberts Garden Tour will take place on Sunday, July 16. Tickets can be purchased at Bloomer’s Nursery and Nielson’s Building Center. Some of our local master gardeners will man a question and answer table at one of the gardens so stop and say hello and bring along a challenging question.

Plants for a Seaside Garden
Trees: Populus alba (white poplar), Ulmus parvifolia (Chinese elm), Ilex aquifolium (English holly), Acer platanoides (Norway maple), Fraxinus excelsior (European ash), Eucalyptus, Ficus rubiginosa (rustyleaf fig), pines,
Shrubs: Arbutus unedo (strawberry tree), Calothamnus (net bush), Carissa Cistus (rockrose), Escallonia, Euonymus japonica , Gaultheria shallon (salal), Genista spartium (this variety is not an invasive species), Cytisus, Pittosporum, Rosmarinus officinalis (rosemary), Rosa rugosa, Leptospermum (tea tree), Juniperus (juniper), Laurus nobilis (sweet bay), Hebe, Hakea, Berberis, Rhus copallina (dwarf sumac), Potentilla, Holodiscus discolor (ocean spray),Cotoneaster, Lonicera nitida (boxleaf honeysuckle)
Ground covers and vines: Arctostaphylos uva-ursi (kinnikinnick), Baccharis pilularis (dwarf coyote brush), Ceanothus gloriosus, Delosperma (ice plant), Juniperus conferta (shore juniper), Osteospermum fruticosum (trailing African daisy), Tecomaria capensis (cape honeysuckle)
Perennials: Centaurea cyanus (cornflower), Cerastium tomentosum (snow-in-summer), Eriogonum (wild buckwheat), Felicia amelloides (blue marguerite), Phormium (new Zealand flax), Santolina chamaecyparissus (lavender cotton), Limonium (statice), Euryops, Armeria (common thrift), Liriope, Gypsophila paniculata (baby’s breath)