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 in the back corner, plus prepping for a meadow

Back corner now

I haven't given an update on the back corner since March because my plan for the year was to simply work on eradicating the knotweed and I didn't expect to have much else to show.

Well, the knotweed is still a struggle but I think I'm making progress. I chopped and pulled it all spring and summer and started digging some of the roots out this month. I won't know until spring how much of it is left; there is more outside the fence in the alley, which I'm not sure is even on our property but if we don't control it there it'll spread back into our yard.

Everything other than the knotweed is under control though. In the spring, I planted six hazelnut bushes about four feet back from the fence, and out of the way of the main knotweed problem.

Four of the hazelnuts

Then I got ambitious and decided to work on the whole bottom section of the yard, which is this back corner and the rest of the flat area to the north (below the sunny hillside). This was all grass and weeds. I really dislike the arborvitae that are along the whole fence line, but they do screen out the alley and the houses below it, and they're so big that I'd feel bad about killing them now. So I'm planning how to put in other plants to soften the monotonous wall of green.

The whole area, solarization in progress

I've been looking at mainly native plants, a mix of trees, bushes, and a meadow. I did a lot of reading about solarization and decided to try that for two large sections where I want to plant the meadow. The theory is that clear plastic will kill all of the grass and weeds and will also heat the soil enough to kill the seeds. The hardest part about planting a native meadow is keeping all of the seeds that are already in the soil from outgrowing the new seeds. The plastic is supposed to be able to get hot enough to kill the seeds - but that depends on enough hot sunny days. You use clear plastic, not black, because the soil will get hotter under it.

I started the solarization in early June, just before a couple of 90 degree days, so that was looking good. And then the weather turner cooler and cloudy, which I really enjoyed but wasn't helping the solarization. Finally we got some hot weather in late July and August, so I'm hoping it was enough.

Looking north from the middle

Now I need to remove the plastic, kill any vegetation that is coming back to life - there is a little, a sign that it might not have been hot enough - spread a thin layer of very fine mulch, and then plant meadow seeds. I have a meadow seed mix from a local company so I'm ready to plant.

I already planted a  native crab apple (malus fusca), a vine maple (acer circinatum) and a thimbleberry (rubus parviflorus) in the spring. I've been keeping an eye out for plant sales that have some native plants, got a couple of evergreen huckleberry last week. The Washington Native Plant Society has their fall sale in early October and I think I'll be able to get the rest of the bushes that I want there.

Looking north from the back corner

For the back corner, I already planted the hazelnuts and crab apple and plan to plant shore pines, just have to decide if I can fit two or three. I want three but have to convince myself that there's actually room. They can be planted fairly close together especially since I don't want them to ever get too big but I do want them to eventually cover most of this corner. I will plant meadow seeds in the part of the corner that is covered by plastic, but knowing that it'll become shady as soon as the trees start to grow and then I'll transition to other plants.

The middle, which is currently covered in cardboard, has all of my non-native bulbs underneath and I really liked those this spring so I'm not digging them up. I'll try to plant native flower seeds over the top, but not sure if the cardboard will have killed enough of the grass and weeds to allow that to work. If not, I'll end up with grass and weeds again, but I can deal with that next summer.

Update: I didn't take pictures yet, but I did remove the plastic this week, sprayed Roundup on a few stubborn weeds that were growing under it - mainly near the edges - and now waiting to plant seeds.