Grow Your Own Food
Attention seed-savers and gardeners: Lane County’s 4th Annual Spring Propagation Fair is coming up. It will take place in the Lane Community College Cafeteria (main campus) 11 am to 3 pm Saturday, March 23. Continue reading
Outdoors: Page 30
Take Your Temperature
Planting vegetables before May
Until this year, a month-by-month portion of Eugene Weekly’s annual vegetable planting guide began in May. In a way, that’s logical — May is about when our heavier valley soils become workable. These days, however, with many people building raised beds and all-season gardening becoming ever more popular, lots of gardeners know that the planting year can start a lot earlier. Continue reading
EW’s Planting Guide 2013
Asparagus Cultivation: Plant 1- or 2-year-old crowns during March, spacing them 12 inches apart in trenches 8 inches deep. Hold off on harvesting spears during the first year for stronger plants the following year. Soil/Sun: Loose, rich, well-drained soil with a high pH. Full sun to partial shade. Suggested Varieties: Mary Washington, Jersey Giant, Jersey Knight Purple Passion. Arugula Cultivation: Sow March through June, and in fall. Suggested Varieties: Sylvetta; Roquette Continue reading
Winter at Silver Falls
Waterfalls and icicles abound
Silver Falls State Park is Oregon’s largest state park, with more than 9,000 acres to explore. The early American history of the area included private ownership of South Falls. The owner pushed old cars into the canyon and charged 10 cents to see the falls. Thankfully that insane use of such a fantastic area has ended. Early logging removed much of the massive trees that once surrounded the incredible falls in the area. American activity around Silver Falls in the early years of settlement was based primarily on exploitation. Continue reading
It’s About Time – February 2013
Why do mosses and lichens fall out of the trees in winter? Close to the end of every year, clumps of moss and lichen appear around almost every oak and maple tree in town. These are the branch species, different from terrestrial mosses and lichens. It is most prominent in parks where the lawn hasn’t been mowed since late fall. For years I attributed the lichen rain to wind storms, but that never struck me as the whole story. A comment in the Mount Pisgah Arboretum newsletter by its caretaker made a light go on in my head. Continue reading
Are We Getting Warmer?
Planting for a disrupted climate
The numbers are in, says The New York Times: 2012 was the hottest year ever recorded in the contiguous U.S. 2012 also turned out to be the second-worst on record for climate extremes, amassing 11 weather disasters that exceeded $1 billion in costs, including tornadoes, freak storms, floods and catastrophic drought. Globally, the decade from 2000 to 2010 was the warmest on record. Nobody who is under 28 has lived through a month of global temperatures that fell below the 20th century average, because the last such month was February 1985. Welcome to a warmer world. Continue reading
The Backwoods Blaxican
Guess Who’s Coming to Deer Camp?
The passing of another Feliz Navidad and the arrival of a new year have brought about a time of reflection in the backwoods. Overall, an off-season has set in, leaving the rod-and-rifle crowd time to celebrate successes and mull over mistakes. Continue reading
It’s About Time – January 2013
Migration is the word for this month. The ponds and reservoirs in the valley are teeming with winter residents. Nothing makes having nice binoculars pay off more than feasting the eyes on the intricate patterns of a male green winged teal, shovelhead or bufflehead. I never get over the flash of amazement at how quickly a bufflehead can spin over and disappear under the water on a dive. Similarly startling is a cormorant suddenly coming up like a submarine periscope breaking a glassy surface. Continue reading
Ornamental Natives
Some of the best native plants for our climate
Studies show that native plants attract a wider variety of pollinating insects than standard garden ornamentals do, and pollinators need all the help they can get these days. That’s just one more reason to include native plants in your landscape. This top 10 list of showy, well-behaved native shrubs reaches a bit beyond the boundaries of the Willamette Valley, but all will tolerate conventional garden conditions, including summer irrigation. Vine maple (Acer circinatum) Continue reading
Licorice Fern
It's About Time - December 2012
They’re baaack! The mosquito ferns have reappeared in the ponds on the east side of Delta Highway. They have been inconspicuous for three years, a normal population fluctuation. We recognize them by the dark, reddish-brown surface mat on the ponds. Duckweed stays green all winter but the mosquito ferns get color in the fall. That they are still reddish brown and not shocking purple tells us that by the beginning of December we still haven’t had a hard freeze. Continue reading