Winter In November

I have no good reason for abandoning this blog for seven months. I guess it makes me the typical blogger. Yes, it has been a busy summer/early fall, but mostly I just forgot to blog. Now with a bit of spare time, a new computer, and my son to help me remember how to get back into the blog page, I make a vow to blog more regularly. The dozens of people who don't read this are expecting better!

It was a stupendous summer for weather. I'm happy to say I got to be outside a lot to soak up sun and Vitamin D this year. The hot weather made for a few watering challenges, as it can do. We lucky west coasters don't need to worry much about water, and consequently don't think about it even when it isn't falling from the sky. Folks go away in the summer and if the irrigation system isn't quite adequate, or is non-existent, there will be plant death! Our crew spent a good bit of time this August just watering. Then September came and we were back in near flood conditions. By October rain was falling so hard at times that our sewer system got overloaded and small rivers were running down the streets over our ankles. Is the weather changing and getting more extreme? I'd say so.

Yes, and winter came on quite early, with possibly the earliest snow + cold snap that I can remember. All weather dates are loosely but effectively etched into ones memory banks when one works outside. About 5 years ago we got an early to mid-December snow that was the definite end of gardening season. I can remember the snow coming on about 2:00 as our crew desperately tried to get the last of the leaves up and I have a phone photo somewhere of nice, straight lines of green cut through a blanket of white as we attempted a final lawn cut for a client. Usually we manage to finish putting all our gardens to bed, albeit somewhat frantically, when winter hits early. But November 19!?! That might be a new record for the start of winter in Vancouver. We have at least three weeks of work still to do. Luckily we have now entered into a brief phase of thawing and melting that will allow the gardening season to (hopefully) come to its proper end. However those folks wanting new lawns to replace the ones the chafer beetle-eating crows have killed will now have to wait until spring. Let's hope it's another early one!

If you are worried about the forecast of an extreme winter and its effect on your plants, there are a few things you can do to minimize the damage. If you have tender plants in pots, move the pots into the basement or at least the garage. Any semi-tropicals such as bananas or palms can be tied up and wrapped in burlap. A bale of straw is a great thing to protect tender perennials. If you have trees prone to snow damage such as evergreen magnolia (magnolia grandiflora), tying them up really helps. Some of these are just too big or wide for this to be possible. If you are able to shake off snow as it is falling, this will also help a lot. Mounding earth, leaves or early snow around the bases of your roses will protect them from the coldest weather. Just don't forget to uncover the graft of the rose when spring comes. If snow falls first and a really cold spell is predicted, shovel the snow onto your garden beds to help insulate the ground. Remember that frozen wet ground and roots are better than frozen dry roots. Build a fire, eat cookies, buy a hot tub (invite me over) and brace yourself!

Further into the Native Forest

You too can bring native plants into your home gardens. Many nurseries stock native plants so I would never advise plucking them from their habitat, but sometimes you find young native plants starting out life in all the wrong places. I have a lovely vine maple (acer circinatum) that needed rescuing as a small sapling growing right in the middle of a popular trail. It is now my prized 20' tall beauty, providing much needed privacy from my big-box and too-close East Vancouver neighbours. Speaking of acer circinatum, the new foliage is just opening up now is shades of electric green when the sunlight hits it in forests near you. Beautiful understory trees to watch out for.

Vine maple - Acer circinatum

Huckleberries are another favourite native plant leafing out right now. They are a little trickier to bring into your home garden since they only grow on the decompsing wood of other fallen trees - nurse logs - usually fir. This makes them extra special in my book, The red huckleberries are a treat to eat as well, slightly tart but delicious. Being such a tiny berry, it's very rewarding to find a loaded bush in July and take some time to eat your fill. I have never been patient enough to collect adequate huckleberries to make jam, though some people do.

Native Red Huckleberry - Vaccinium parvifolium

A more commercially available huckleberry is the black berry from the evergreen huckleberry shrub, Vaccinium ovatum. Not as prolific in the berry department, it is otherwise a very handsome native shrub, well worth planting, with the added bonus of being handsome all year long.

Evergreen Huckleberry - Vaccinium Ovatum

To completely shift gears and enter into a political discussion, what do you all think about the HST (Harmonized Sales Tax) we're supposed to be getting this July in BC? In the landscaping world, I think it's going to be devastating. Currently, landscapers pay PST (7%) and GST (5%) on products, but we don't charge out PST, so it is absorbed into the cost of goods only. GST gets charged on both goods and services. Our labour is subject only to GST right now. HST will blend the two taxes and be charged on everything. Since we are primarily a service-based industry, our cost is going up 7%. Our hourly rate effectively goes up almost $3!! Is anyone else worried about this? There is a lot of rhetoric from the current BC Liberal government regarding how this tax will be beneficial for the province but I really can't see it. Consumers are going to be paying a lot more money for anything service-oriented and the government gets the extra tax. They have already taken all the lottery money that used to fund non-profit organizations, cut health care, the arts and education and are currently selling our natural resources to anyone with enough money to buy them. Sorry about the rant, but it really is becoming annoying. Another old provincial politician, Bill Vander Zalm, who wasn't much better when he was in power, has started a campaign to fight the HST and he tells us it can be fought. Perhaps politicians CAN redeem themselves. If you feel the same way I do, why not visit the Fight the HST site to get involved at http://fighthst.com/ ?

Thanks for reading.
Liz

Native Spring in Abundance

I will get around to talking about fabulous ornamental shrubs, trees and perennials we grow here in Vancouver, but right now, the native plants are really shining. It's truly spring in abundance in the forests right now, while in the garden, mid-season tulips are at their peak, lilacs are bursting open, mock orange fragrance is filling the air, rose buds are fat and current and daffodil blooms are fading away. When the sun shines it's glorious and when it rains, as it's just starting to do right at this minute, well, at least it still smells like spring out there. The rain brings all our wonderful plants, so we suck it up. And wait for sun.

On my forest dog walk this week, I immersed myself in one of my all time favourite fragrances, that of the new leaves of the balsam poplar 'Balm of Gilead' opening. It's pervasive where the tree grows but you might not recognize where it comes from because there is no flower associated with the fragrance. The leaf buds and young leaves are resinous, sticky, and it is from here emanates the smell. If you walk the seawall by Jericho Beach or the trails of Seymour Mountain this time of year, you will be familiar with this smell. On my scent-o-meter, it rates an 8 out of 10. Ahhh. I am fond of plucking a young branch and keeping it in my car to offset the dog smell. It's heaven. Don't worry, the trees are like weeds here, so they won't miss a small branch! And you can find actual skin balms made from the oil, though rare. Look for the yellowish green leaves covering large deciduous trees this time of year and take a sniff.

Balsam Poplar 'Balm of Gilead' (Populus balsamifera)

Another favourite year round plant, native to BC, is our Western Sword Fern. What a fabulous plant. The new fronds are unfurling at this time of year and they are architecturally brilliant, covered in fuzzy gold hairs. The mature fronds are full, upright and statuesque. You need never prune them unless you feel a need to clear off the dying leaves that neatly layer themselves around the bottom of the plant. The tolerate our wet weather and even survive our recent drought-like summers. It is one of the plants I use most in west coast style landscaping these days. What a winner.

Fronds opening of Western Sword Fern (Polystichum munitum)

More later. Spring is too mind-boggling to try and lay it all out at once. I'd better pace myself.

The Case for a Living Wage

I need to tread carefully on this issue because there are myriad cut rate "landscaping" companies out there giving our profession a cheap, if not bad, name. As a homeowner it must be tempting to compare landscaping/gardening/lawn cutting companies based on price. However, there is really so much more landscaping clients should be thinking about. It's not as simple as comparing price if the lower priced company has no experience, faulty machinery, no liability insurance, no worker's compensation insurance, under the table employees and at the end of the year they go out of business because they haven't made enough money.

The hourly rate for gardening/landscaping services includes not only the employees' wages, but also 18% labour burden (the EI, CPP, provincial and federal taxes, worker's compensation insurance, 4% holiday pay) and it also should include statuatory holiday pay, some compensation for sick time and if you are lucky, some contribution to a medical insurance plan (though this is rare in the industry. If you need a root canal you are on your own!). Aside from the cost of labour, the hourly wage also includes vehicle expenses (huge in our industry) including lease or loan payments, fuel, insurance, maintenance on all vehicles and small tools, rent for office and tool storage space, accounting costs, insurance costs, office supplies, a computer and internet charges, cel phones, advertising and down time for employees, for example when the tools need maintenance, plants or hardware needs to be purchased or when they are travelling between job sites. Finally, a company is supposed to make a profit, though that is usually the last thing landscapers think of once the sun is shining, the grass and weeds are growing and everyone is working full out at whatever their quoted hourly rate may be.

If you look at how overhead and employee expenses fit in to the hourly wage, you can see it's a tight fit for the cheap rate companies. Caveat: I've recently done a workshop on costing and estimating, so these numbers are fresh in my head, and apply to my company. Other companies may have different costs to factor into their hourly rates, but I think it's safe to say that these numbers represent an average for a small Vancouver-based company, running two small crews, and may not consider all possible expenses.

Costs per day: $1042.40

4 employees wages: $547.50
Labour burden 18%: 98.55
Office/Rent/Computer: 25.70
Vehicles/tools: 151.00
Insurance/Permits: 55.65
Other Labour/sick/down 164.00

If you divide the cost per day by 30 (7.5 hours x 4 employees) -- 1042.40 /30 = $34.75

Consider the landscaping company who charges a $25/hour labour rate. Something isn't being looked after there if hourly costs to run the company are approximately $35/hour. It's likely the wages are extremely low, they employees young and inexperienced, they are probably paying their employees under the table to avoid taxes or they are sacrificing insurance, vehicle upkeep and tool quality. More likely, they are stealing tools to avoid that cost altogether. Tool theft is rampant in our industry. As the standards of running a business go down, so does the work being done. I think it's something any homeowner looking to hire a landscaping company should think about before choosing the lowest price.

On a more upbeat note, I was noticing the western native bleeding heart, dicentra formosa, is blooming away in forests and native gardens around Vancouver. It is a delicate beauty, with exotic looking blooms that really do look like bleeding hearts.

Native Western Bleeding Heart (Dicentra formosa)

March is the Time for Lawns... If You Must

False Lily-of-the-Valley (Maianthemum dilatum)
Now Blooming in a forest near you.

Gardening work started early this year in Vancouver; we were full time back to work February 1 instead of easing into it part time. When spring comes early, the early tasks all seem to need doing at the same time. Perhaps going away in January was a mistake this year? The fruit trees usually get pruned at a leisurely pace in February; it's usually a couple weeks work at best and pleasant because of that. In the city we try to get the fruit trees sprayed at least once with a dormant oil/lime/sulphur combination that gets at the overwintering pests without being nasty to the environment. One needs a sunny day in February before the flower buds open for this so it's always pleasant being out on a sunny day in February, climbing and pruning fruit trees. Could we have a nicer job? But this year, we had to race to get the trees sprayed and pruned before the blossoms opened, and then the lawns and weeds started growing too! So all of a sudden it was spring lawn care, first garden weed and fruit trees all at the same time.

Lawns are a beast that we seem to have grown attached to in Vancouver that actually require quite a bit of care to keep healthy without chemicals (and we don't like chemicals, do we?). I have heard that of all the plants in existence in the world, grass is the newest (I think horsetail may be one of the oldest, which doesn't surprise me. I have clients with prehistoric horsetail, I am sure of it). We get a lot of rain in Vancouver, so in shady spots, growing grass can be a challenge, where moss is the indigenous ground over. People go to great lengths to maintain that expanse of green lawn, including spring aerating, mowing weekly to within a centimetre of its life (whether it needs it or not), twice annual applications of lime (to combat our naturally acidic soil), chemical fertilizer, moss killer, broadleaf weed killer (legally applied only by licensed professionals now), replacing lawn torn up by crows and raccoons, application of nematodes to combat the European Chafer Beetle now rampant in our city and regular edging and trimming. Yikes. It's a wonder anything lives. We have a different approach to lawns and I am pleased my clients respect and favour this. The first question of any new client is usually "Can we do away with some or all of this lawn?". It is a growing trend for residents to replace lawn areas with other ground cover that can take some foot traffic. There are a lot of options out there that bloom, smell nice, don't need mowing and chemical warfare, and won't have chafer beetles. If someone really wants to keep a lawn, our prescribed spring treatment involves aerating, power raking out the moss and physically removing it, top dressing the lawn with rich sandy compost soil and seeding new grass in bare spots. We weed by hand (sometimes accepting weeds) and cut the lawn less frequently and leave it longer to promote health. This year, we will also be spraying nematodes on those lawns affected by the chafer beetle in July. Next year I'll ask the question again "Can we do away with some or all of this lawn?".

We're eliminating lawn slowly but surely. More flower beds or vegetable gardens anyone?

The Abundance of the Season

I experienced a mean based primarily on the bounty of early spring on BC's West Coast this year - in February! - and I need to share. We are lucky to live in the Pacific Northwest where it does rain a lot of the time but the rain spurs the growth. We don't ever experience extreme heat or cold, even in the depths of summer and winter, but out ocean-infused, temperate climate means that we have almost year round gardening. And almost year round food production. My amazing meal took place on Hornby Island, a gulf island between BC's mainland and Vancouver Island and a place close to my heart. If Vancouver is a year round food and gardening centre, Hornby Island is Mecca.

I thought to escape the hordes of tourists by taking a week at Hornby Island during the recent Winter Olympics. As it turns out, even small islanders were into the Olympics, a large TV brought into the community hall, nightly sports screenings and a two week liquor license. So I was never far from the action. Meanwhile, it was bursting out spring so friends and I went forth to forage and gather for dinner. Appetizer: stinging nettle soup. Main course: breaded oysters from the beach 100 metres from our house accompanied by latkes with potatoes stored from my neighbour's farm (Savoie Farm). Pretty amazing and what a powerful feeling. I urge you all to try to eat locally and experience what that feels like. If you need a little motivation you can start by reading Barbara Kingsolver's lovely book, "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle". All round wow.

Stinging Nettle - Urtica Dioica

It's now April and it's rainy and a bit miserable. But it hasn't dampened the growth of the nettle, the garlic, the broccoli rabe, the overwintering kale, the young seedlings poking their heads out of the ground. April is the time of year when the rest of Canada catches up to us, horticulturally, but February is when we realize we can actually exist from the land. Cool.

Thanks for reading.
Liz

Earliest Salmonberry Blossom Ever!

No one will be surprised to learn that this was the earliest spring I have ever witnessed in my 30 years in Vancouver. It was great for Olympic tourists, great for visitors from any other part of Canada and fabulous for early spring blooms. I have always wanted to keep a plant diary that compares gardens from year to year and season to season but have never done so until now. But one thing I always take mental note of is when the salmonberry blossoms start to open. Salmonberry is a native fruit, mild, juicy and delicious, whose blossoms indicate that spring is definitely in the air. This year was the earliest I've ever seen - February 6. This bodes well for future berries of 2010!

First blossom of rubus spectabilis in 2010 - the earliest ever, seen at Pacific Spirit Park, 6 February 2010.

Here's hoping this blog will not only help me track the bloom times of favourite plants and seasonal changes, but aid me in my lifelong desire to write. Plants, writing, perhaps a bit of cooking thrown in there - what's not to like? I know I will succeed because my 22 year old technically adept daughter is helping me along the way - thanks Alex. More to follow.

Thanks for reading.

Liz