I just came from the Master Gardeners Sustainable Gardening lecture series in south Everett, which today featured celebrity gardener and local goofball Ciscoe Morris, whose talk was titled, “Goin’ to Pot.”
Though Ciscoe set free many of his patented “Oh, la, las,” drawings pleased giggles from some and nervous sighs from others, he also distributed several serious nuggets wisdom.
- If your New Zealand flax (also known as phormium) looks horrible right now, and, let’s face it, it probably does, you can spruce it up by cutting off nasty foliage or you can cut it to the ground and it will likely come back. How? Ciscoe hasn’t tried it, but said he’s heard that poultry shears are the bee’s knees for such tedious and necessary work. If you’ve tried pruning flax, you know regular garden tools and even scissors just won’t do.
- Got earwigs? Create a plastic-bottle slug trap. Instead of putting slugbait inside, add “one glop” of canned tuna fish catfood and it will be goodbye-earwing time.
- When you need a centerpiece plant for a container confined to deep shade, add a mahonia, also known as Oregon grape, such as Charity. It will bloom all winter and feed starving hummingbirds. When you want a splash of color for your shade container, look for wildly fetching tuberous begonias.
What are doing in the garden this weekend?
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