Holy Manzanita!

Matt and I have been on a mission to find regionally-local manzanitas to introduce in our garden.  Manzanitas are the taller relatives of kinnickinnick (in fact, they're the same genus).  Bees and hummingbirds love 'em.  Like kinnickinnick, manzanitas are evergreen and have a fairly large range, occurring from southern British Columbia through Mexico.

We were looking for two species, Arctostaphylos columbiana (hairy manzanita) and Arctostaphylos canescens (hoary manzanita).   As it turns out, finding particular species of manzanita can be challenging, as this genus has a tendency toward hybridization, including between "manzanitas" and "kinnickinnick".  Short of wild-harvesting plants, the best we could do was acquire a few manzanitas that do well in our region.

Photo of  mature Manzanita x 'Austin Griffiths' from Las Pilitas Nursery website.

During a recent visit* to Echo Valley Natives in Oregon City, Matt and I picked up a wild-collected manzanita.  Again, due to the wide-variation in the genus related to hybridization, we're not entirely sure what type this is.  It's now living above our retaining wall in the front.

Last weekend we took our first trip to Cistus Nursery on Sauvie Island.  For reasons I don't completely understand it's still the slow season there for retail, so there wasn't much to see.  However, that didn't stop us from spending ages deciding on three manzanitas to bring home.

Our Austin Griffiths is loaded with blooms- hurray!

Manzanita flowers might look familiar to blueberry growers.  Vaccinium (blueberries/huckleberries) and Arctostaphylos are both in the Ericaceae family.

Arctostaphylos x 'Austin Griffiths' is a hybrid described as having "glossy green leaves and dark maroon-brown bark, forming an attractive backdrop for a large cluster of soft pink flowers.  The blooms appear in early winter, providing a valuable nectar source for hummingbirds and bees.  Over time, this upright manzanita can reach a height of up to 10 feet and width of 4-6 ft."

Welcome to your new home, little guy.

And we got two itty bitty Arctostaphylos myrtifolia to flank the steps leading up to the front door.  It's hard to tell from the photo, but they have adorable teardrop flowers and bristly stems.  Upon researching this species, A. myrtifolia appears to be a federally listed "threatened species" and is endemic to the Sierra Nevada foothills (so not quite native- oops.)  We were looking for a manzanita that wouldn't grow more than four feet and this fit the bill according to the folks at the nursery.

Love those little flowers.

*Echo Valley Natives turned out to be the only place I could find Euonymus occidentalis, or Western Wahoo.  For some reason this wonderfully showy native plant is almost impossible to find in nurseries around here.  We brought home two.  They're gorgeous in the fall, especially.  I'll take photos of ours at some point.

The return of the Meadowfoam

You may remember my love of Douglas Meadowfoam and how excited I was to realize it self-seeded in the pot in which I planted it last spring.

One month ago the Meadowfoam looked like this:

Now, it's blooming and lovely!

This week we're going to be doing some major sheet mulching.  In the background you can see the cardboard, which forms the base layer of mulch.  Got to get those weeds under control!

If last year is any indication, we'll have an ever-increasing cover of Meadowfoam.  This is good.  Now I just have to do some research to see if I can find a plant to install in the same spot to start growing as the Meadowfoam's season comes to an end.  Native or edible suggestions?

Update:  Just look at the meadowfoam now!

Urbanite in the Garden

Once upon a time (2010) my sloping front yard was just that- a yard.  There were two sad plants among a sea of grass.   Matt and I decide we wanted to put in a retaining wall, minimizing the grass and maximizing our planting capacity, and adding a little curb appeal.

Not wanting to use environmentally-destructive and expensive stone, I began searching for urbanite inspiration on the internets.  "Urbanite" facetiously refers to reused slabs of concrete that usually come from sidewalks or driveways. These are a couple of walls I found and liked.

Photo from http://apld.posterous.com/urbanite-in-the-jungle

Photo from http://hastingsplayground.blogspot.com

My stone mason friend, Wyatt, graciously worked within our budget to create a piece of art that will only improve with age.  Plants like kinnickinnick and coastal strawberries will cascade down the wall, while ferns and other natives will peak out from pockets in the wall, and plants of varying heights will grow above and below the wall.  You may need to don your 5-years-in-the-future glasses to appreciate the planning here.

Some day soon, the space at the base of the wall will be filled with gravel or river rock and native grasses.

Wyatt also created lovely steps and a walkway leading up to the front door, allowing guests to avoid squeezing by the car in the driveway.  Our mailman left a note, thanking us for his new walkway.  Like the wall, the path was created by expertly joining together slabs of concrete and filling the spaces with rocks found throughout our garden.

You'll notice the beginnings of sheet mulching efforts in the front.

To many, this free material may not be as sophisticated as stone, but I love the juxtaposition of the various materials represented in this project, from the moss-covered blocks to the slabs allowing a cross-section view of the concrete ingredients, to the natural river rock.

Here you can see several opportunities for pocket plantings.

I will be seeding the spaces between the pavers with a "stepable" ground cover to achieve a look similar to this:

We have a few more urbanite projects happening in our garden.  And you, lucky readers, will learn all about them in upcoming posts. Have you seen urbanite used in interesting ways?