Dry summer

It's been a dry summer. Just trying to keep things alive. Wax Myrtle and Escalonia seem happy without much water.

Wax Myrtle

Seem to be doing pretty well. New growth is showing.

I saw some old ones around town and they have pretty bark.

Rock City

Four yards of 1.5" river rock delivered today.

My son and I finished the creek bed.

And had enough left over to fill the ditch by the curb.

Updated Plan

I made some changes to the plan to reflect what is actually happening.

The creek bed became shorter and has a tributary from the front yard. Behind the garage, I planted a bunch of Myrtlewood since I had free saplings and really love the species. Eventually they'll get too big and need to be thinned but they grow slow and are beautiful. Along the creek bed, I planted a bunch of ornamental grasses. I tried several different species and will have to see what I like best since I've never used them before. I moved the evergreen huckleberry along the driveway after I found a volunteer of the same and also to give them more shade.  I'm thinking about a planting bed behind the house. Might try some nasturium, strawberry tree, and hebe shrubs.  I'm going to bring in 4 cubic yards of 1.5" river rock for the creek bed and for the front curb and ditch.  Then I can plunk down rosemary and grasses unless I think of something better.

Evergreen huckleberry hedge

I added 3 more Evergreen huckleberry to the volunteer already there and plenty of Salal behind that. Both seem to like growing under the shore pine.

Creek Bed - decoration

I added some boulders, drift wood, and ornamental grasses.

Also, Found a place that sells river rocks - Knife River Materials at 60688, Highway 101, Coos Bay, OR

Garden Paths

Made a path in the front yard and another in the back yard with a bridge.

Creek Bed - Digging

Digging the creek bed.

Side channel and some turns at the top.

Split channel at the bottom.

Creek Bed - Start

Currently water pools on the west side of the house.

With a little help, water naturally drains to a depression in the back yard.  I want to dig a sinuous channel that looks like a creek bed.  Here is the path I laid out with some sticks.

Escallonia hedge

I'm using a beautiful pink flowered non-native from Peru called Escallonia along the driveway.  It's a very popular garden plant in my neighborhood and on the Oregon coast.

I used 3.5 foot spacing which should be about right.

And then added some bark.

Wax Myrtle windbreak

Wax Myrtle (Myrica californica) is the native shrub I'm using as a windbreak in the northwest corner.  It is a nitrogen fixer, growing in poor soils like the sand I have. I could have used more shore pine but I think this looks better. I'm hoping that 6 foot spacing is about right to block the wind that gets through the shore pine behind it.

Native Plants

I try to use native plants when possible for the following reasons:

1) Native plants are adapted to local conditions
Native plants are part of a local plant community that is able to survive local conditions (temperatures, rain, wind, soils, insects) without any help. So if we put them in the garden they are low maintenance and reduce pesticide, fertilizer, and water use.

2) Native plants give a sense of place
Native plants make the garden resonate to what is special about the local climate, geology, and ecology. Why not celebrate that and invite the wildlife into the yard.

Hopefully, I can re-create some of the patterns I see in nature when I garden by using local materials -- plants, rocks, and wood -- to provide shade, windbreaks, and beauty.

The flip side to native plants is exotics that have become invasive.  When you see trees strangled in ivy or gorse choking out everything else on a hillside, you realize that bringing in new plants to the local ecology can have unintended consequences.

I think well behaved non-natives are fine. We just have to be careful and avoid the invasive ones if possible.  Because once they come in, it's hard to get rid of them.

Good advice

After talking to a long time coastal gardener, I got some good advice.

• Wind
• Add lots of organic matter to keep plants from drying out due to desiccation by wind and sandy soil which won't retain water.
• Keep the shore pine, at least for now, to use as a windbreak. Summer northwest wind is the worst. (I'm thinking Wax Myrtle is also an effective windbreak and pretty too!)

• Plants
• Pick smaller specimens as they transplant better and be sure to water through the first summer or two at a minimum.
• Evergreen Huck, Twinberry, Wax Myrtle, Coyote bush and Blue blossom all will survive in the wind.
• Escalonia should be fine in the wind but your hedge will look weird as Twinberry losses it leaves in the winter. (i'll only use Escalonia for the hedge)
• Kniphofia is invasive (i'll avoid that)
• Thimbleberry will want more shade (i'll move it under the trees)
• Hookers willow needs more water so unless you have standing water somewhere at least in the winter I wouldn't advise it. (i'll double down on Wax Myrtle as a windbreak instead)
• The grasses I picked are either short lived or spreaders. (I need to look for natives like Deschampsia cespitosa and Leymus mollis)

• Mimic nature
• go for a hike at a place like Cape Blanco and see what puts up with that wind.

Initial Plan

Here is my initial plan created using Sweet Home 3D. I'm using a dry creek bed, paths towards the jetty and ocean view, and mostly native plants that can handle the wind and salty air. Notice the small fenced area in front of the cabin for the dogs. I'll plant shade tolerant fescue grass in there.

Creek Bed - Inspiration

A dry creek bed is something I'd like to put in the landscape design. It needs to look natural, with different sized rocks, turns, and varied width.

Local Weather

Weather Underground reports the following for 2015. Notice the temperature is mild and rarely hits freezing. Winds above 30mph are common and gusts can reach 70mph. 

Garden Location

I recently finished building a cabin in Bandon, and now I have a clean slate for gardening.

The cabin is located a few blocks from the Pacific ocean which drives the local climate.

Notice the yellow flowered shrub. That is gorse, a spiny shrub that has burned down Bandon twice.