Mothers’ Day Spring Boutique – May 5, 2012

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Saturday – May 5 -  Scroll below for full flyer — I can’t wait!   This is shaping up to be one fine event, and I am thrilled to be a part of this celebration, which benefits Friends of Tulare County Animals and is being held at just one of the prettiest gardens in Tulare County.

Gift ideas for the Moms in your life (including yourself!?) from Quercus:

Gift Certificates – consultation/design/plants.

California Native Plants for sale, including the awesomely pink Canyon Delight Coral Bells, many types of Ceanothus , Cleveland Sage, California Fescue ornamental Grass, Soap Root, Yerba Mansa and more. Yes, you can still plant CA Native Plants this month…ask me how!

Giant Sequoia wood containers filled with CA Native Plants (one of these will be going home to a raffle winner!) Including a very limited supply planted with one of our own local native bulbs, “Pretty Face.” You can not find these from any other source. Click here for more of this story.

Plus, I’ll bring plant order forms and books and plant lists from several CA Native Plant growers. Submit your plant order and deposit Saturday and I’ll donate 5% of the total to the Friends of Tulare County Animals/SPCA to benefit stray and neglected animals in our area. And I guess we have a few.

Scroll below for the full flyer with the list of vendors. There will be food. Did I mention the flowers? Bring your camera!

See you there!

 

 

 

Twitt

An Exiting Day in the Nursery!

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Soap Root (Chlorogalum pomeridianum) in deep one gallon "tree pots"

Howdy,

It’s been a brilliant spring so far, with some interesting projects in the works, a few (not enough!) wildflower walks, and meeting some wonderful new friends.

Today I’ve been catching up on transplanting, or “potting up” as it is sometimes called. Both for the farm (tomato and pepper seedlings) and for Quercus, moving plants into bigger containers.

I discovered a great surprise while transplanting soap root seedlings from 4″ pots into deep one gallons. These local (Tule watershed) native bulb species were planted in 2007 from seeds collected at a few private ranches. I have been diligently putting the empty trays out in the winter for the rains, supplementing water as needed, keeping the emerging tiny foliage from being overrun by weeds, then moving the flats into dry shade during the summer so they won’t rot.This spring…a surprise!

A tiny bud of Pretty Face (Triteleia ixioides) peeks out.

I had read it takes a native bulb 4 years from seed to bloom, and so it is.

Soap Root bud just forming.

 

I’ll post more pictures as the flowers open. What a lovely Easter gift!

Peyton

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Spring Planting?

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over the front gate

Happy Monday or apres la deluge…

Need Spring Plants? Let me do the driving so you don’t have to! Read more below…

Well, finally some rain, eh? And snow and hail and local flooding. Welcome spring?!

Although the days are expected to be warmer through the week, avoid soil compaction by delaying planting or working soil for a few days after the rain at least. Exactly when it is “safe” to dig depends on your soil, the greater the silt, the longer you should wait. Read my column in this Saturday’s (March 24) Porterville Recorder newspaper for more on soils and CA native plants.

Spring Plant Orders:

Current/Past Clients: Convert your plant list from your design or consult package into a plant order and send a deposit of 50% of the price total. Some plant prices have risen (mostly due to transportation costs), but I will confirm the order, including any price changes, before filling it. If you need any assistance creating or filling out an order, contact me! I’m happy to help.

For deliveries on/around April 7: Order deadline is March 21.

Second Order Deadline: March 28, for deliveries/pick up beginning April 14.

(If neither work for you contact me and we’ll work something out!)

I’ve received a few inquiries about my plant list and prices. Since Quercus is primarily a desgin/consultation business, I do not keep a large inventory of plants on hand for sale to the public. This may change, but for now I rely on a kind of 50/50 proposition. If a custom plant list is for you, consider becoming a client!  If you prefer to browse a list, pretty much any CA native plant available through large growers such as El Nativo or Cornflower or large growers/retail nurseries like Tree of Life, Intermountain, Theodore Payne and Las Pilatas I can acquire for you. I try to keep a small list online under availability, but I can only bring to public sales what I can fit in the pick up truck, so I try to bring what has been requested or sold at previous sales. Prices for all my plants are comparable to all other retail nurseries and depend on size, difficulty in obtaining or growing and condition at time of sale. Thanks so much for inquiring; perhaps some day Quercus will include a seasonal nursery so you can all browse and enjoy and impulse-buy to your heart’s content!

Delivery fee may apply for all on-site deliveries. 

Two events this week: March 23 at The Center in Springville. (I’ll be wearing the Auntie hat) and March 24 at Luis’ Nursery in Visalia. Click Here for more details on both.

 

Have a great week,

Peyton

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Spring!

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How’s your winter been?
I’ll “confess,” although that’s not really the right word, that my winter has been challenging. Lots of big plans that didn’t quite work out, at least the way I intended. Translation: the lessons never end! One of those important lessons has been the realization and need to acknowledge the life lines I’ve been thrown all winter. Lovely, wonderful clients, thoughtful words and deeds, real, material support and help. How fortunate I am!

But I did get a ton of projects done this winter, both small (creating the farm blog, dividing the Iris, passing the nursery license inspection) and big (increasing propagation of local species, selling my first seed-grown local Soap Root, remodeling the office, increasing Garden maintenance services).

What will spring bring?
Gas prices make travel harder, but still I want to get out and explore more. A recent stop-over at Theodore Payne Foundation was terribly inspiring and rejuvenating; recent new friends met at the Small Farm Conference was perspective-stretching; the Bush Lupin that keeps blooming in my yard tells me I need to climb those hills out back and see what else is going on “out there.”

Plant orders, new designs, more workshops, and more opportunities to help anyone who wants to improve their gardens and create a unique, Californian, beautiful and sustainable place that improves the lives of all who experience it, whether they know anything about plants or not. That’s a small job, isn’t it?

Peyton

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See you at Saturday’s Market!

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Howdy,

Full newsletter next week, but in the meantime hope to see you Saturday:

Springville Ranch Market Place
“First Saturdays’
Saturday, March 3
9 a.m. – noon

CA Native Plants for sale – including some spectacular CA Lilac and Manzanitas from Theodore Payne Foundation, plus Sages,std Coffeeberry and more.

Opportunities to talk about your upcoming garden project and see if a design or consultation might help. Quercus accepts Visa/MC!

Fresh veggies from our little farm, Auntie’s Home Grown. Visit www.auntieshomegrownfarm.wordpress.com to see the weekly produce list!

Citrus Tasting

and lots more!

Springville Ranch – The White Barn
Hwy 190 and Balch Park Rd
Springville
We are outside in the sun or in the barn if it rains, so come on out. Plenty of free parking.
*note: the market is open from 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. Quercus and Auntie’s Home Grown farm will be there until noon.

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Almost Spring?

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Here in the Southern Sierra signs of imminent Spring are everywhere. Ceanothus are budding, and a few of them, like the ones at the Springville Native Plant park, are beginning to bloom. Heuchera and Hummingbird Sage also are sending out or opening flowers. Manzanita have been blooming for almost a month now.

Is summer around the corner?

Okay, sorry about that.

But we don’t know yet whether this will be a long, cool, rainy spring or a short dry warm one or a combination.

Your established native plants will adjust and manage. Pretty much like many of us. Roll with it, adapt, no worries…

What I’m thinking this means for those of us who garden with CA native plants is:

We should try to plant early, in case it gets hot fast.

We should make sure we are mulching our beds, not leaving bare dirt, to save water and moderate soil temperatures this summer.

We should make sure our irrigation systems are working as efficiently as possible, that means lawn sprinklers too. If we don’t have an automatic system, we should think about how we will keep our plants hydrated when we go on vacation.

We should avoid fertilizing our native plants. This is always true, but especially when we don’t necessarily want to force a lot of tender foliage that will need to be supported (watered) all year.

What’s on your mind? What have you observed in your own garden?

Look forward to talking to you/meeting you soon. Check out the newsletter for where I’ll be this month. Connect via Twitter and facebook to add to the conversations. It would be great too if you could “Like” the Quercus page on facebook.

Thanks for being part of my world!

Peyton

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Winter is a season for planning the Spring Garden

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It happens every spring: as the weather warms and the largest floral display of the year begins in nature and in our gardens, we feel the great pull to be part of the exuberance.

Winter Design Special

Trips are made to the garden centers. Plants bought, singly or en masse. Plants are planted, or not. (How many plants do we still have in their pots from the Autumn flurry? Perhaps we even have some plants from last spring?)  Perennials miss-planted are not terribly difficult to move next year. Trees and  shrubs can be a greater challenge and can make for safety or logistics mistakes. How many of us have come across that shrub that blocks the sidewalk unless it is pruned constantly, or that healthy and gorgeous shade tree that needs to be cut down because it is threatening a structure? Some gardeners are blessed with an innate sense of design, and a happen-chance method of populating the garden turns out well. For the rest of us….

That is why, winter is such a great season to plan. We have time, yet, to consider what we are trying to acheive in our garden, where we might have gone wrong in the past or, if this is a new garden, what functions must the garden fulfill and, perhaps more importantly, what feeling do we want to evoke? Do we even know the architecture of our house in order to blend our garden with it? Do we know what plants will work, what our soil type is, how to have four-season interest? And what is interesting, anyway, besides flowers?

Hopefully, this has given you the inspiration and some thinking points to consider now, before the spring headiness takes over, and all you can do is buy and plant, or move things around randomly. I’ve been there, I know. It is far better to plan now in the cool headedness of winter.

If you need help with all of this, go on to read here about a Winter Design Special I’m offering through Feb. 29, 2012.

Thanks for reading,

Peyton

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Winter Begins

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I hope you are enjoying the Holiday Season in whatever way you celebrate it (or don’t). Today, the first day of winter, makes me think of:

Cold – the lowest temperatures yet are expected tonight and tomorrow night. But once the sun comes over the hill, it has been warming up nicely, allowing plenty of comfortable working in and enjoying the out of doors. Wreaths, swags and other decorations have been made from plant materials from the garden and I am cooking and baking up a storm from the garden/farm bounty. What a great time of year!

Rain? -The dry weather means I’ve had to turn the irrigation back on several times for scheduled soakings at several gardens. Even though the temperatures are cool or cold, the air has been dry and transpiration continues in even pretty low air and soil temperatures, so the moisture must be replenished. No rain means I can be lazier about leaving tools outside but, still and all, we could use a good storm, couldn’t we?

New Plants – I hope you have had a fun Autumn planting some new and interesting California native plants, sprucing up the garden with a different variety or making some much needed improvements in structure and bad view screening. As we head further into winter, we plant fewer plants and let the garden rest a bit. Spreading mulch, pruning, monitoring irrigation are the tasks of the seasons.

Observation – There is still plenty of activity out there and subtle changes. The Sages, Manzanitas, Ceanothus and other spring-blooming shrubs will be forming buds. Cool season grasses, bulbs, lupins, and a few early wildflowers are starting to emerge (hope they won’t wither in this winter dryness). Hungry birds will be searching for any available berries from Coffeeberry, Snowberry, Redberry and Poison Oak (mostly leafless stalks now) and from grasses and perennials. Bundle up and take a walk. Avoid the Poison Oak, which is mostly leafless stalks now and more difficult to recognize unless you are aware. Observation is always a good thing to do in gardens and in the wild, but in winter it seems especially appropriate, as if this season more than others requests and rewards looking, listening, sitting on a log or bench and being present in the world of plants and all that relies on them for life.

Have a great winter!

Peyton

Winter in the Garden - 2011

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Hello world!

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Howdy!

As the weather turns colder, planting winds up for the season and the work in the garden lessens. While the emphasis is on the Holidays, if you are planning a spring garden renovation or new landscape, WINTER is the time to begin the design process. Feel free to email at info@quercuslandscapedesign or visit me at our public events to talk about your project and see how a design or professional consultation can help make your job go smoothly and give you the dream garden you are hoping for.

Click on the “News & Events” link on the left for a list of where you can still pick up a few CA native and other great plants for your yard or for gift giving. Gift Certificates also available!

Click on “Newsletter” link to read about December in the Native Plant Garden

Click on “Availability” to see a list of plants available for purchase.

 

Peyton
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