Don’t have a water feature?
Boy, are you missing out on a wondrous world of aquatic plants and fish.
Floating clovers and water hawthornes with banana-shaped leaves and black irises that grow in a pond.
Rick Perry of Falling Water Designs in Monroe enlightened me. Northwest gardeners have hundreds to choose from, and most water perennials need to be divided after a season or two.
He has been creating water features since before there was a water garden industry. His company will have a booth at Sorticulture this weekend. Swing by with your water-gardening questions.
Most of his clients come in wanting a pond and a waterfall. If what you really want is a focal point and you’d rather skip the fish, consider a “pondless” or free-standing water feature. These also are a good option if you don’t have the natural elevation for a waterfall. He suggested a ceramic pot with water flowing over the sides or a basalt column with the core drilled away. He said they’ve recently started taking huge boulders, cutting them in half, polishing the surface and plumbing them so water wells up in the center and spills over the surface.
A few things to keep in mind if you do want fish. Koi require a deeper pond than goldfish, at least 3 feet deep for koi and 18 inches for goldfish. To keep the raccoons out, the sides of the pond must be vertical. Koi ponds are usually kept “naked,” meaning no plants, so you can see all those expensive fish.
Perry said koi also will root up most potted aquatic plants. Koi and any other fish over 6 inches in length require additional filtration that will add to the cost of the pond.
Lots of rain, lots of slugs
Forget the salt — it wrecks your soil.
I don’t use old school slug bait or kill products such as Corey’s or Deadline, which can be poisonous to pets.
Beer or other malted beverages poured in a container work. It’s not the alcohol but the fermented smell that attracts. Slugs crawl in and drown. The downside is rain dilutes the beer.
A roll of copper tape attached to the edges of a raised bed also works.
Limiting the places slugs hide, such as under containers, helps. So does hand picking.
Products that contain iron phosphate are another less-toxic option. A researcher at Oregon State University found that products such as Sluggo and Escar-go are safer and just as effective as the more toxic ones. These lure the slugs in with tasty bait and then give them a deadly case of indigestion. The iron phosphate products are safe to sprinkle around everything, including vegetables. The downside: You have to keep sprinkling, and the stuff isn’t cheap.
The OSU researcher notes that since more than 90 percent of the slugs are underground at any time, total eradication is impossible.
Fruit tree care
Greg Giuliani, a Woodinville home orchardist, shared some tips on thinning tree fruit, an important chore. Not thinning can stress the tree and lead to piddly fruit. Don’t go by the calendar; wait until your apples are nickel-sized, he said.
Keep the largest, healthiest apple in a cluster and pinch off the rest. Make sure to dispose of the fruit; leaving fruit on the ground can spread disease.
The first year a tree is planted all fruit should be removed so the plant can put its energy toward establishing roots. It’s better to take off too much fruit than stress the tree, he said.
Reporter Debra Smith: 425-339-3197 or dsmith@heraldnet.com. Visit her blog at www.heraldnet.com.
Aquatic plants
A few of Rick Perry’s favorite aquatic plants
Variegated cattail
Water Hawthorne, the one with the fragrant white flowers and banana-shaped leaves
Floating clover, looks like four-leaf clovers floating on the surface
Houtttuynia cordata chameleon, a super cool upright that has orange, red, yellow and green variegated leaves and a cute white flower that smells like lemongrass
Black gamecock iris, a very dark purple-almost black iris that can grow in the pond
Arc-en-Ciel, a hardy water lily with light pink flowers and leaves splashed with raspberry, pink and red splotches
Fire opal, a medium pink water lily that is very fragrant
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