Planting a meadow and native bushes

Snow! - in early December

This is a catch up post, one last update from the year. Remember my solarization project? I'm not sure we had the best summer for it this year, 2015 would have been better as it was much hotter. Nonetheless, I proceeded with removing the plastic in mid-September then waited a few weeks to see what would grow, and used very selective application of Roundup on a few weeds that tried to grow. There weren't very many weeds, more in the back corner than the front section, but there was some grass trying to grow which is concerning.

At the end of September, I spread a very thin layer of mulch and planted a mix of native wildflowers and grasses in the front section. Carefully, so as to not disturb the soil underneath and stir up seeds that may not have been killed by solarization. I did the same in the back corner in early October, after I planted the shore pines (more about that below). Both areas had seeds sprouting almost immediately, which may be good or may be bad if they don't survive the winter.

Front section, after planting

Along the edges of the front section, I planted a few native bulbs:

• brodiaea coronaria
• camassia leichtlinii
• camassia quamash

I also planted a wildflower only seed mix in a small section of the middle, over the non-native bulbs that are already there. This area didn't have plastic on it this summer, but it had cardboard for a couple of months. I suspect that won't be enough to kill the grass and weeds, but I didn't want to do anything more that might kill the bulbs.

Then I went native plant shopping in early October and picked up a bunch of plants. I planted native bushes around the bottom edge of the front meadow and across the middle. I'm trying to soften the green wall of arborvitae, and connect with the flowering currant on the south end of the hillside.

• 2 vaccinium ovatum, evergreen huckleberry
• 2 oemleria cerasiformis, Indian plum or osoberry
• 1 holodiscus discolor, oceanspray
• 3 spiraea densiflora, subalpine spirea
• 3 symphoricarpos albus, snowberry
• 2 vaccinum parvifolium, red huckleberry
• 1 rhododendron occidentale, western azalea

Native bushes, early October

More native bushes, early October

Looking north from the middle, early October

In the back corner, I planted two pinus contora (shore pine). They are too close to some of the hazelnuts, but I'll move those once I figure out where I want them.

After planting the shore pines

And, on the bottom edge of the sunny hillside, where they will blend into the meadow:

• 3 festeca roemeri, Roemer's fescue
• 3 viola adunca, early-blue violet

I already had a few camassia and blue eyed grass at the bottom of the hillside too. I need more plants there, but that'll wait until spring.

Now the waiting game! I'm definitely worried about how many weeds will be in the meadow, since I can see shotweed growing now plus California poppies spread from the hillside above, but need to wait and see what happens in the spring. The only chore still to do in the winter is haul more mulch to put around the bushes. But the area has certainly changed a lot since last spring!

May 26 vs. December 30

Back corner, today

Looking north from the back corner, today

Progress on the hillside, part 2

Great camas

At this rate, I may end up with my whole backyard covered in cardboard. I finished covering the sunny half of the hillside and then just this week decided to cover the strip at the bottom too. The cardboard should mostly kill the grass in a couple of months and then I can dig out the old landscape fabric that's buried under here.

Feb. 21 and April 19

In my last update, I mentioned that I had planted aquilegia and transplanted wild strawberries next to where the raspberries would go. I've added a few more wild strawberries, dug up from other areas, and planted the raspberries. The bottom three are Autumn Britten and the top three are Caroline, both everbearing so I should have a few berries by late summer.

Raspberry

First aquilegia flower

I also put in four steps, they're dug into the hillside and stabilized with sand, but not as solid as a staircase would be. I think they'll be stable, but it's an experiment so I won't be upset if they need modification. I planted kinnikinnick between them, and will eventually add wild strawberries on that side - after the cardboard comes up.

Kinnikinnick, steps, raspberries, aquilegia and wild strawberries

Then I went to a plant sale and found native plants that I've been researching. The bottom of the hill is very soggy in the spring but dry and hot in the summer, so I want to try to grow a native meadow. This is blue eyed grass (Sisyrinchium idahoensis), common camas (Camassia quamash, 'Blue Melody'), great camas (Camassia leichtlinii) and thrift (Armeria maritima). The thrift will be moved further up the hill later. If I can find golden eyed grass, shooting star, taper tip onion, and hairbell, I'll plant them too and probably some type of sedge. 

Meadow plants

The crocosmia are starting to come up in between the raspberries, but something has been eating them. I bought two plants too so I can see what to look for, I was worried that I would accidentally pull them up when I'm weeding out grass shoots. That's my excuse anyway!

Crocosmia

Out of the scope of this project, but I'll mention it anyway: on the shady side of this hill, I planted two bleeding hearts and two mountain huckleberries. These are the native blue huckleberries and native bleeding hearts that some people call invasive, but I hope they will spread a lot. Eventually I want to dig out the weeds that have grown on this half of the hillside and fill it with native shade groundcover plants - under the flowering currant, Oregon grape and hazelnuts. That may be a project for next year, but I couldn't resist a few plants now.

Mountain huckleberry on top, another on bottom and bleeding hearts in the back