Winter trees

As fall turns towards winter, trees drop their leaves and reveal their bones.  Their wooden skeletons please my eye, showing secrets only recently hidden from view.  Behind the leafy curtain are buds and bark with life and texture, painted with drab and vibrant ochres, rusts, umbers, tans, greens, grays.  Seeds and fruits still cling stubbornly, deaf to the call to disperse and drop.  Nests large and small are revealed, works of engineering and optimism tucked and suspended and piled amongst the branches. 

Alas, the enchantment is at times broken, when under the lifted veil is blunt evidence of pruning misdeads.  In place of full healthy branches are stubs and tears and hacks.  Little of their original nature remains in these mangled trees.  Sadly, trees all the time are blindly chopped by chain saws and impatience, victims of paid and unpaid laborers who follow confusing and bad instructions. 

Trees share with us their unique gifts: shade, nourishment, beauty, longevity.  When trees are hacked by Uncle Joe with a chain saw and good intentions, well, hopefully lesson learned and the next year the damaged tree receives either a proper pruning or a merciful conversion to mulch and firewood.  When some Acme Whackme entrepeneur is paid for plant butchery — growl! — that gets me into a boil.  People who make money this way are thieves and should not be in business. 

It takes practice to become good at pruning, and mistakes will be made, even by the well trained and informed.  But there are some rules to follow that will get you on a good start. 

• A good rule to start with:  Work with the tree (plant).  The less you fight how the tree wants to grow, the less work you will have.  You can not control it, only guide and direct it.  Every cut has a consequence. 

• Another good rule: Use good-quality hand tools.  If you have a chainsaw, use it sparingly and carefully — it is way too easy to cut too much, or in the wrong place.

One more rule:  Study, be patient.  There are good books and advice, and good professionals to work with.  You can’t reattach a branch once you have cut it off.

Well, enough for now.  Thanks for reading.

Hairy Cats-ear (Hypochaeris radicata) vs THE LAWN

A year later, no Hypochaeris

 I am not big on keeping a highly manicured lawn.  By summer, the only reason a lawn calls for mowing, (at least by my standards) is the presence of hairy cat-ear, (Hypochaeris radicata).  No cat-ear, no mowing.  July vacation plans last year pushed me into action.  Could I eliminate it and would it be worth the effort?  It seemed like doing so would be a good idea -- provided I could do it poison free. 

Hypochaeris (aka Hairy Cat-Ear) in summer bloom

Here is a report of that successful effort, preceded by a description of the rascal.
This plant has earned many names, including flatweed and false dandelion.  By my unimaginative eye its leaves do not seem very cat like, but hairy cats-ear has stuck and I will use it here.

In the spring when the lawn explodes with vigor, rosettes of sturdy cats-ear leaves pockmark the terrain -- flat green craters in an otherwise cooperative blend of grasses and mosses and other more civilized weeds.  Hugging the ground and able to escape the whirring mower blades, by June it begins to dominate casual lawnscapes.  With summer drought, green craters turn to green saucers on a now brown background, and from these green saucers push up wirey flower-stems.  Dozen upon dozen of small yellow flowers are instantly followed by charmless tufts of seeds ready to scatter on the wind like a bad rumor.

Healthy and happy Hypochaeris (for now)

Individually the plant is almost attractive with its wavy semi-glossy leaves and small bright yellow flowers; aside from the fuzzy prickliness of the leaves it is quite edible.  This plant flourishes with deficiency and neglect.  Curiously, it exudes plant chemicals that inhibit growth under its leaves, and it even discourages its own kind from cuddling too close; you never find Hypochaeris wall-to-wall. Whatever its (limited) private charms, in its typical display, a massed lawn takeover, it is unquestionably ugly.

Severed at the root, (no divots)

Defiant Hypochaeris in a scalped, moss-killed lawn

So early spring and vacation deadline looming, I began my assault, determined to get all the defiant Hypochaeris out of our lawn.  For years I have used “Grandpa’s Weeder” a weed popper unchanged in design for a hundred years.  As a tool it is effective but somewhat slow, requiring constant clearing of the weeding teeth, and leaves some unattractive divots. There had to be a better way.  After some tests, I settled on this: I plopped down onto the lawn with an asparagus knife (a curved serrated knife) and I cut each weed off just below the crown.  I made no effort to grub, just cut, cut, cut fast as I could, sometimes from my knees, sometimes from my posterior.  No divots, leave the taproot, and see what happens.

Over several weeks I cut probably over a thousand plants, one or two hours at a time, (and listened to a mix of recordings as I went).  By vacation time all the cats-ear had been cut out, with only some bald patches where The Weed had been!

Grass and moss thickly coexisting

While confident that this fix would last at least until fall, I was unsure of my long-term results.  What happened exceeded my wildest hopes.  Over the past year the hundreds of bald patches have become a mixed carpet of grasses and mosses and forbs in a pleasant disorder.  Almost no cat-ear has returned — a few small patches requiring attention — and, I remain on vigilant watch.  I don't worry about moss (it is green after all) or other forbs.  My lawn grows thick and mixed and healthy, and maybe 3 inches tall.  This green sward needs a few cuttings spring and fall, and from time to time I edge the lawn before it invades the flower beds.  This summer the lawn looked excellent.  Success!

Glen

My Garden Business

May 2014

Hello -

Slightly Wild Garden Service is based in Olympia WA, owned and operated by Glen Buschmann.

I specialize in:
• Restoring gardens gone awry.
• Introducing diversity into existing gardens so as to improve habitat for wildlife.
• Developing native shrub and perennial flower gardens.
• Skilled and discrete pruning;
      When finished your trees and shrubs will be more balanced and less cluttered.
      If you prefer stubs and torn bark call someone else.

I teach workshops on these topics as well on native pollinators, weed identification, and seed saving.
I can lead programs suitable for ages elementary through adult, depending upon the lead time.

I am NOT a lawn service, but do provide maintenance in some gardens with shrub and flower beds.
I do not create architectural scale drawings, although I can make sketches with some details.

I take on special projects as time allows such as:
    stone garden paths and patios
    small arbor and fence projects
    mushroom beds
    irrigation repair
    miscellaneous odd repairs.

I will post some photos of my work over the coming months.

I am a licensed business in the state: #601-043-817, with many years of experience.  I stand by my work, but am not bonded, meaning I do not take on projects that could result in big liabilities.

If you are wondering why you haven't heard of me, I spent most of the past ten years working in a different field (education) before recently returning to this field that I deeply enjoy and understand.

Thank You,

Glen Buschmann

gbwestoly@gmail.com
[360-352-9009]
PO Box 11464
Olympia, WA  98508

P.S.
My wife, her sister, and I have a blog on wildlife and the natural world - mostly in Thurston County but also in other parts of Washington State at Bees, Birds, and Butterflies.  Check us out.