Hügelkultur in Eagle Rock

An adventure in landscaping with an emphasis on native flora, water conservation, and all things Hügelkultur.

[lisagardens]

It’s been a year since I posted! In the fall, I spent many days digging up the Matilija poppy, an amazing invasive CA native that was threatening to take over the roses. I dug up pounds and pounds of it (sorry, no pix), and then, in November, transplanted two of the Little Fruit Trees to where the monster poppy had been (and still is, no doubt, since there’s no way to get all of it). For 4 months, I had no idea if those two little trees had survived the transplant, but just this week, the Red Baron burst into bloom. So all is not lost! In February, I pulled a lot of wood out of a Hügel, flattening it somewhat, and placed it around the flattened hill as a border, then planted four blueberry bushes on it. I put ollas (buried unglazed pottery that releases moisture slowly) next to each bush, since they need consistent moisture. Most recently, I got a Jasminun polyanthem (pink jasmine) and planted it in a half barrel where it will send its sweet scent through my open bedroom windows. The succulent bed is growing in nicely.

[lisagardens]

Little fruit trees continue to grow. Next week on the summer solstice I will prune the enthusiastic new growth on the nectarine and the peach. This will both shape the trees and work to keep them small, as a lot of the plant’s energy is currently in the leaves and branches. The drooping tree in the center is a weeping Santa Rosa plum and does not need pruning. Its natural habit is to form an 8-10 foot green haystack, I’m told. Right now it’s about 5-6 feet. The shaggy thing growing against the green shed wall is a Giant Burmese Honeysuckle.

[lisagardens]

Meanwhile, it’s Spring! 

[lisagardens]

This is the raccoon (and skunk) repellant that I settled on. A motion-activated sprinkler that shoots a sudden spray of water when a critter triggers it. Or when the wind triggers it, or a bird, or me, or.... So, it’s not perfect and they still dig holes, but it seems they’re more circumspect about it. Or maybe it’s my imagination. Anyway, makes me feel like I’m doing something about it!

[lisagardens]

Caught one! This video appears to show a raccoon curiously inspecting the Arlo security camera I set up to see who the marauders might be... The image is fuzzy, but if you pause it and then move the cursor to the very beginning, it appears to show the animal’s back (lower left corner of frame) with a barely perceptible ringed tail off to the right of it. Then a second later you see the ear and whiskers loom up as it gets close to the camera. (I don’t know where the green color comes from, Tumblr added it...) So what with the ringed tail, I’m pretty sure it’s a raccoon. Now... what to do about it? 

[lisagardens]

My latest project has been to plant a “little fruit tree” orchard. The concept of the little fruit tree comes via Ann Ralph of Berkeley (see her excellent book called “Grow a Little Fruit Tree”), and it’s basically that you keep the trees small by pruning, so that they can be grown in a smaller space, and so that you can reach all the fruit! Makes so much sense. It’s hard to see these little trees against the mulch but there are two apple trees (both low chill varieties: Anna and Dorsett Gold) up against the fence, a weeping Santa Rosa plum in the center (largest tree), a Snow Queen nectarine, and a Red Baron Peach. Oh, and the little kumquat tree, planted last spring, which is bearing delicious kumquats. The apples will grow in an informal espalier to save even more space. 

[lisagardens]

Something is digging holes in the Hügels, and in the mulch generally. This has been going on for some months but it seems especially intense this winter and early spring. It takes place at night, so it isn’t ground squirrels (we do have a family of them living under the shed, but they are diurnal and apparently don’t dig except to create their living space). And these holes are not domiciles; they are shallow holes, from a few inches to 6 or 8 inches deep and between 2 and 4 inches wide. There is no evidence that these creatures are eating plant roots, but roots do get exposed by their digging, and the soil is disturbed, which can’t be good for the delicate soil food web! I have not seen any animals in the yard besides the ground squirrels, but the evidence suggests skunks or raccoons, which dig to find tasty bugs and grubs to eat. 

[lisagardens]

In February, we had some huge old Junipers (planted in the 60s?) removed from the bed in the front of the house. This left space to put some of the many potted succulents we had been collecting into the ground. The stump of an old Ginkgo tree, cut down years ago, was still in the ground, and rather than having the roots removed, I made a small Hügel out of it, just adding dirt and rocks and planting (bottom photo). I made another small hill (not a Hügel, since there was no wood inside) using more rocks. The rocks were collected by the original owners of the house, who brought them back from family camping trips. Such wonderful variety! I also put in some companion plants, including Lomandra, Woolly Bush (a shaggy Australian shrub), and Leucadendron.

[lisagardens]

11/26/18: Planted a bunch of things today: A western redbud (Cercis occidentalis), leafless now (top photo, at the base of the Hügel with the Palo Verde); a Ceanothus ‘Concha’, an Astragalus, plus several Salvias and an Epilobium (not really all that visible in bottom photo), as well as Sisyrinchiums and Erigeron (with rocks in center of circle, bottom photo). Also spread wildflower seeds, and put chairs and a little table on the new patio (middle photo).

[lisagardens]

And again, just because it’s gorgeous, this photo of the Datura wrightii, aka Sacred Datura aka Jimsonweed, just as its blooms are about to unfurl. 10/29/18. It’s right next to the Palo Verde, whose leaves you can see in the upper left corner. Two of my all-time favorite plants!

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And just because I adore this plant (a Palo Verde ‘Desert Museum’), and it has grown so beautifully since I planted it in May, here it is in late afternoon light. Taken 9/19/18.

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11/25/18: I made FOUR attempts at laying the circular flagstone patio over the last month. Laying stone is definitely an art, and though I read plenty of advice and watched plenty of videos, it still was a learn-as-you-go experience! The bottom photo shows the first round, late October, where I spaced the stones far apart and filled in between with sand. You can see the beautiful colors of the stones better in this photo. Then I re-layed them two more times, tweaking my technique, and didn’t take pix. The other photos show how it looks now, finally finished just before Thanksgiving. The stones are much closer together and I used dirt to fill the gaps, as I plan to try to grow something (creeping thyme?) between the pavers. The most important thing I learned was: DO NOT lay it all out in 2 dimensions and think you can make it flat and stable later. This becomes an exercise in frustration, as the stones themselves are various thicknesses, and once you get a stone level and seeming to agree with one of its neighbors, it usually turns out to be unhappy with the other neighbors around it, or it just won’t “sit pretty” (stable, level). Instead, level each stone, and make sure it is steady (not rock-able) before putting the next stone down. Doing it this way resulted in a less consistent overall design, as I had just enough stones, and by the time I got to closing the circle, I had used up all my big stones and had only small ones left. But it’s much more flat and stable, which is after all the sine qua non, n’est-ce pas? So glad this is done! Now to plant!

[lisagardens]

10/24: I tamped down the dirt I’d added with a hand tamper, and started bringing in sand. I had had 2 cubic yards of sand delivered, which equaled an astonishing 6000 pounds of sand. On a single day, I moved ALL OF IT!! One 150-pound wheelbarrow at a time. Here it is almost all filled in. Yes, I used a much thicker layer of sand than is usual. That was because I had dug out 8-10″ initially, to remove the Bermuda grass roots, and then used that dirt (minus the roots, which I killed by leaving the dirt spread out in the sun all summer), elsewhere. So I filled in with sand.

[lisagardens]

10/22: I finally got going on what to do with the giant circle (aka “doughnut”) I’d created. I went to La Cañada Rustic Stone and talked to the people there, and realized I didn’t need gravel, just sand to stabilize the pavers I was planning. But I still didn’t know if I were going to use big concrete circles (see photo from PInterest [I think]—I really like these big disks!), or something more natural. But at LCRS I saw this beautiful purple-orange-brown stone (middle photo) and decided that was what I wanted. While thinking about putting down sand, I realized that the cardboard, which had been working to suppress Bermuda grass growth, was going to get in the way and, besides, had already done its job, so I removed it (bottom photo). Then added some dirt back (minus the Bermuda grass it had been dug up with...

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From 9/7 to 9/11, a new Hügel starts to take shape in a neglected bed near the compost pile. I removed an old rose that was struggling along (and, to my surprise, even though it was just transplanted, it is thriving in its new spot!) as well as the Brugmansia (which was very happy where it was), and covered the remaining Bermuda grass with cardboard. Though I had great big half-rotted fig logs, I ended up putting fresher, smaller branches at the bottom, because they would take longer to decompose. Then leafpost, dirt, compost, more dirt, WATER, more compost, more dirt etc. These photos show the early stages (last photo is the “before” photo). I later capped the sprinkler heads you see.

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I basically took the rest of July and all of August off from any gardening other than watering because it was just too hot. Meanwhile the Albizia, which continues to grow prodigiously, flowered happily. It loves the heat! (Photo from 9/7.)

[lisagardens]

A later manifestation of the extreme heat was that our Eureka lemon tree dropped all of its fruits prematurely. They were brown and juice-less inside.