When to Plant in Central Oregon?

Today, it is a normal mid February day, sunny, but cold. The daffodils are up about 3-4 inches, and the primroses are blooming in spite of losing all their leaves to browsing deer. Early perennials are starting to show a few tiny leaves at the base of the dead sticks that will need to be cut back soon. Forsythia and Lilac buds are swelling and showing promise of things to come.
The local Costco store and garden centers are already stocking bare root plants and summer bulbs. I am not even tempted because in my yard the ground about an inch down is still frozen. It will be a few weeks before the ground is soft enough to plant shrubs or trees.
Back in 2005 we had an unusually balmy February. My husband had the pond dug out and used the extra fill dirt to create a base for a new patio between the house and the shop. The new flowerbed space that was created on the edge of the pavers got my gardening juices flowing! Wisely knowing that it was far too early to plant I held off until March when the stores were again bursting with shrubs and perennials. I was beguiled by all that I saw and purchased flowering quince, forsythia, lilacs and rose bushes. Two days after planting, it started to snow. It snowed for at least a week and the little bushes were covered. It stayed cold for another six weeks! The plants survived, but never seemed to thrive after that.
My best advice after years of struggle with the issue of when to plant in Central Oregon is to wait until April or May for bare root or potted shrubs. Wait, and I mean WAIT, until the END OF MAY to plant any hardy perennials and wait until JUNE to plant annuals outside. You can get by earlier with Pansies, but I refuse to grow them even though I really like them because they are irresistible to deer and I choose not to afford them a lovely salad. If you live near the river, in Redmond 15 miles to the north, or in what we call the Banana Belt on the north side of Pilot Butte, then you can sometimes get away with planting a bit earlier. Once your soil thaws and stays thawed, you can plant shrubs. Check with your local experts when choosing perennials, shrubs and trees. The folks at my favorite nurseries, Solar City Gardens and Landsystems, are a wealth of knowledge. If you live in a different area, do the same. Your local nurseries that have been in the area for over 10 plus years should be able to tell you what will do well and when to plant.
September is my favorite month to plant. We are located on the South East side of Bend on a windy hill. The weather going into fall is much more predictable than the weather in the early part of the year. Plants have more time to settle in for the upcoming winter without the huge swings in temperature typical to March through May and the irrigation system will still be on for another month. Most years, the irrigation canals provide water until October15th and we can continue to irrigate until the end of the month. The other reasoning behind this time of year is that the garden is usually in need of some late summer clean up at the end of most of the plants blooming season, and what a great time to re-evaluate what worked that summer and what did not. The daylilies that clashed with the poppies that should be moved, and so forth. The added bonus of working outside in beautiful weather is also a huge plus.

The Secret Spring

In Central Oregon, when Spring actually happens it's usually a surprise. We never really know what March through June will bring us. In most parts of the country, Spring happens in March through May and then the balmy days of summer follow. Here, it could snow or freeze at any time between February and June and you never know exactly when to do what. I have heard it said that peas must be planted no later then St. Patricks Day. Well, some years we have a foot of snow on St. Patricks Day. I have also experienced a February when the weather was almost balmy, in the mid 50's and things started to sprout all over the yard! Of course, they were covered with snow again in March and April. I think of Spring here as the Secret Season. It sneaks up on you, and sometimes you have a wonderful one and other years it seems as if Winter lasts until you jump into Summer. The Spring of 2008 was one of those missing Springs. We had cold, dreary, snowy weather until June. The daffodils came up late and would be beautiful one day, then covered with snow the next. Most of them had to be harvested and brought in for snow removal and placed in a vase in order to enjoy. Finally, mid May when most areas of the country were well past daffodils and tulips, we had them all blooming at once! We left to go on a much needed vacation trip to Whidby Island in Washington for a week. While we were gone, Central Oregon experienced 5 days of unseasonal heat from May 15 through May 19. Temperatures ranged from 84 to 97 degrees during the day and 39-48 degrees at night. By the time we came home, it was back to normal, with 60 degree days and 28-30 degree nights. Every single spring flower in the yard was fried. Daffodils and tulips are great at taking freezing temperatures with very little damage, but get over 80 and they fry in a day. This does not happen very often, but when it does, make sure you are aware of drastic temperature changes so you can bring your floral booty into the house to enjoy for a longer period.

Gardening on the Wild Side

I longed for some spring color the first year we lived in the shop, so I purchased some pansies and planted a pot of them by the front door. That night was the first night of a fight that I was to have until the present day with my friends the deer. Up until that point I had always gardened in town. I knew that we were building our house in deer country because my husband had happily informed me that we were at the northern edge of their annual migration route. The very next morning, I awoke to a shock. The deer had not only eaten every pansy, but had ripped the plants right out of the dirt and let them fall to the ground all around the pot. From then on, it was war. As an already frustrated gardener, l was not about to let the deer take away the little bit of garden I could have. I also discovered that deer eat onions, daylilies, sunflowers, tulips, holly hocks, and just about every type of plant that I was used to having in a garden. Gardening in Central Oregon is already a challenge due to the short growing season and unpredictable weather, but fighting the deer became a new and interesting factor. The second surprise came when I found that something in the field was eating the roots of the daylilies. I planted some daylily seeds that I had saved from my original plants. I was excited to grow possible new seedling varieties and was unhappy to see my little seedlings flop over one day. I pulled them up to find that something had eaten all the roots. My husband informed me that this was a Colombian Ground Squirrel. They eat roots, seeds and insects.
I began to research and ask lots of questions at my favorite nurserys and found that there are deer resistant plants. I downloaded the list from the Oregon Extension Service and used it as a guide. The link: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/deschutes/sites/default/files/Deer_Resistant_Plants_EC.pdf

I think the deer in my neck of the woods are more adventuresome than the average deer because many of the "resistant" plants get eaten. We do several things now that seem to have some success, but the best thing to do is not what most people want to hear. There are many lovely plants that will grow in Central Oregon, but if you also have deer, and you want to live peacefully with them and not continually fight them, then plant things that they absolutely will not eat. This way, you eliminate the heartache of walking out in your garden on a lovely summer morning to find sticks and twigs instead of flowers and foliage.
Over the years I have heard much in the way of advice, but most of them amount to putting odd smelly things like Irish Spring soap on your plants or marking your territory. These sometimes work, but not always. You can always put up a tall fence, but the garden space we have does not lend itself to that sort of look and we wanted to get the most out of our borrowed landscape.

The list, put out by the OSU extension service, is a good guide to start with. The High Country Gardens catalog also lists many deer resistant plants with new ones being added yearly. Check my links for their catalog.

I have experienced success with several annuals, shrubs and perennials that are lovely in the landscape, bloom or look good all summer and seem to be avoided by deer.

Annuals:
Marigolds
Annual Saliva
Annual Lavender

Perennials:
Agastache, Hyssop, all forms, also known as Hummingbird Mint
Alchemilla mollis (Lady's mantle)
Babys Breath
Bleeding Heart
Blue Flax
Nepeta (Catmint)
Coreopsis.
Daffodils and all Narcissus
Gaillardia (Blanket Flower)
Lamium (Dead Nettle)
Lavender, all varieties that are hardy to this area
Lemon Balm
Mint. Be careful with this one, all mints are very invasive.
Oregano (many culinary and ornamental varieties)
Oriental Poppy
Peony
Pervoskia atriplicifolia (Russian Sage)
Potentilla
Purple Coneflower
Rhubarb
Rudbeckia or Black Eyed Susan
Rose Campion
Salvia (garden and ornamental Sage)
Shasta Daisy
Tanacetum or Tansy and Feverfew
Threadleaf Coreopsis
Thyme, all culinary and ornamental varieties
Yarrow, once blooming. Deer will eat the early growth so cover it with a wire cage.


Of the shrubs, I have good experience with Forsythia, Barberry, Rabbitbrush, Juniper and Oregon Grape.

I still have a few old favorites that we spray Bobex or Liquid Fence on weekly. The instructions say to spray less, but with irrigation and other factors, weekly is best.

Lilacs, the OSU guide says, are resistant, but the early leaves and buds in the spring get eaten if we do not spray them.
I love daylilies, and the deer only seem interested in the buds. They do not seem to bother the green leaves or the open flowers but they do chomp the buds before they bloom.
Asiatic Lilies and Oriental Hybrid lilies, also are eaten in bud.
Iris is another one that the deer will not eat the leaves, but once they bud and bloom, they must be sprayed.

Garden Limbo

What does an avid gardener do while waiting to garden? Good question. I had 18 months in a mobile home park and then another 18 months living in a shop building on our property before the house was livable. Even then, the future garden area was a pile of rubble and had to be filled with dirt and landscaped before I could plant anything. Gardeners do funny things when spring is in the air and they can not purchase plants and work in the garden. We buy gardening books and magazines and read. We make lists, we plan, and we visit other peoples gardens.

After the drainfield and septic tank were installed on the property I had acres of bare dirt just aching for some seeds. I fenced off a small plot and planted perennial seeds. A friend came by with a packet of Shasta Daisy seeds and scattered them as a gift in what we started calling "The Compound" behind the septic tank. Those same Shasta Daisies planted in 2000 are now still blooming in my yard. I have also shared many clumps of them over the years with other gardening friends! I had a second square of land out in the field that I planted with rose campion, oriental poppies, daylilies, onions and daffodils. Sounds really odd, but I used up the seeds and bulbs that I had on hand in order to get a start on the future garden. I kept reading, planning and dreaming of the day that I could finally move the baby plants and create a lovely garden!

Leaving a Garden

I truly dislike moving, but it is not for the reasons you may think. I do not have a problem with packing and moving, although hard work, It is not an emotional thing. I do have a very hard time leaving my garden!. The plants are my friends and I hate to leave them to the mercies of the unknown. In 1998 we purchased land to build on and needed to sell our house to facilitate the deal. Once the house we had lived in for 14 years sold, we had just two weeks to pack, move and find a place to live.
Looking for temporary housing did not seem as important to me as what to do with all the shrubs and perennials I wanted to keep. I had gorgeous daylilies that I had purchased years before and nurtured into large clumps that I wanted to take with me. I had a beautiful pink Gene Boerner florabunda rose bush that had grown to 4 feet and had wonderful pink blooms on it all summer long. I had a forsythia that was the clock my husband used to tell him when it was time to fish at Mann Lake. (He knew that as soon as it bloomed, it would be time to go fishing). We simply ran out of time to do more then pot up a few select daylilies and the rest had to be left. The young single guy that purchased our home assured me that his sister knew all about plants and that anything I left would be well cared for.
If I had known then what I know now I would have taken my rosebush and all my carefully nurtured little lilac bushes with me! Several years after we left the area, a friend and her young daughter were out for a walk in the neighborhood, and upon passing my old house the daughter exclaimed, "Mommy, what happened to Hollis' yard?" Her mom had to gently tell her, "Well, honey, Hollis does not live here any more!" The rose had been ripped out, the shrubs left to die and weeds ran rampant over the formerly groomed berms. The aspen trees were left to sucker at will and what had been a well thought out but small front yard had become weed paradise. I rarely find myself going past my old house but for years if I had to go by I would look the other way.
I have a better plan for the next move. When it comes time to leave my current garden, I will call all my gardening friends and let them take what they want. They will take very good care of the plants and when I am ready to start a new garden, a source to provide the plants I know and love.

Central Oregon Micro Climates

There are many microclimates in the Central Oregon area and even though the Sunset Western Garden Book is a wonderful source of information for zone 1, it cannot really go into the detail of what can grow where in this area. It really depends on where you live, what your elevation is, also how windy it is and what side of a hill you live on or even how close to the river you are. The wind is a constant where we live now, but in the subdivision we lived for the first 14 years of my gardening life, we were in the banana belt of Bend as I have heard it called. On the north side of pilot butte our house was protected from the winds from the south and also received a great deal of sunshine all year round. I was able to grow Rosemary in the front yard for years that I could never grow outside to the southeast where we are now. We had daffodils in February! I am lucky to get daffodils in April now. I grew dahlias in my front yard for years without lifting them! I tried dahlias here and failed miserably.
The very best thing to do when you move to an area in Central Oregon is to see what your neighbors are growing. If they have been in their home at least 10 years, all the failures would have died and the successes would still be alive. If your neighbor is older, and they have a vegetable patch outside that they work every year, then you must be in the banana belt region. If you live in an area where all you see is pine trees and brush, then you know you are truly in a challenging area. It is not impossible to garden here, but you have to learn that just because something looks nice and is sold at Fred Meyer or Home Depot it does not mean that it will grow here.
I see so many people purchasing things at garden centers that I know will not even last one spring cold snap and I wonder how long they have lived here. I see people buying tulip bulbs in the fall and hope they live in town in a fenced yard to keep the deer from eating them. Not only do we have climate issues, but also critters that love to eat what you planted. That topic will be addressed in a later post.
I have found that one of the best places to get plants that will grow here is Solar City Gardens out on the Old Bend Redmond Highway. They over winter many of their plants right there at the nursery and will let you know what can grow in most areas. Landsystems Nursery is also a business that has been in Bend for over 40 years and a huge resource for landscape plants and advice. Landsystems has a compost mulch that is wonderful to put on your perennials and shrubs.

Even though a plant can grow somewhere in Central Oregon does not mean it can grow in your yard. Look around, talk to your neighbors and also talk with the local landscapers before you invest in a landscape of plants that will not survive the unique microclimate you live in. Those near the river can get away with plants that those in Deschutes River Woods can never attempt.
The bottom line when someone asks me what will grow here is, where do you live? What area of your land do you want to plant? Things can be different depending on what side of the house your garden is on! Do you have full sun all year? Or full shade? I have a front yard now that is in full shade most of the time. I can grow shade plants there that would not survive if I put them 10 feet to the north. Every piece of land has a microclimate that is also created by the house and the landscape around the house. Being aware of how much sun or shade or wind you get at different times of the year makes a huge difference in your plant choices. The search can be as rewarding as the results.

Transition from Green to Brown.

Central Oregon is NOT GREEN!
When we first moved to Bend in 1981 from Washington, It was almost like culture shock.
In Olympia Washington where I grew up, green was GREEN! Dark or light, deep or pale, it was all green. Central Oregon is not truly green, but shades of tan, brown, and a dusty blue green. Every season brings out nuances of the tones, but the lack of the green I was used to made me think that this place was dirty brown all the time! It took several years to acclimate, and once I did I began to notice that it was really not all brown, but many shades of earth, tan, brown and many different greens.
My husband had lived in Central Oregon as a child and did not understand my homesickness for the GREEN that I missed in Washington. He had only lived in Washington for a few years and all he could see there was the gray skies and the rain! After living most of his life in Sunny Central Oregon, the gray rainy days were depressing to him.
Yes, compared to Western Washington where I grew up, Central Oregon is very different. The sky is brighter, the rain is lighter, the land is much dryer, but now, 30 years later, I no longer want to go back to the wet, damp, mossy, rainy land to live! There is so much beauty here that I had to learn to see! At first, after living in a cocoon of green trees all my life, coming to a place with miles upon miles of visibility was almost frightening. Now, I love the fact that we can see the mountains almost anywhere we go. Just driving from Bend to Redmond is a visual experience! Gardening, on the other hand, has some challenges. Watch for future posts on my garden experience with my friend and yours, the DEER.

The first day

Hi, my wonderful daughter just showed me how to create a BLOG. This blog is dedicated to gardening in Central Oregon and other favorite and fun things from the area where I live! Hope you enjoy the journey!