On Looking Back

Once in a while I look back in amazement at things I have done both wrong and right.

Recently I was looking for the name of a type of grass I wanted to donate to the Master Gardener Plant Sale earlier this month. The sale organizers like to have all the plants labeled so we all know what we are selling. Not an unreasonable request. Except I hadn’t a clue what the grass was called because I had bought it at a previous MG sale and it was on the “No Name/Haven’t a Clue” table. I liked it because it was unusual and a pretty color of green and orange.

So not even knowing where to start, I went to my bookshelf and pulled out all my books on grasses. I spent almost an hour looking through the photos to try to find one that was even close to my grass. No luck. So then I went to my garden journals, thinking to myself, “I should have started here!” Then I tried to remember how long I had had the grass and came up with a time frame of possibilities.

I have divided my journals into years first, and then months, so I was pretty sure where I could find the details. And then – as I so often do when gardening – I got distracted. And this is where the “doing something right” comes in. Since we moved to Oregon, I have kept a garden journal and in it I have included not only the chores and when I did them, but the names of plants I bought, where I bought them, when I bought them and how much I paid. And the weather is in there, too, especially when it was extreme like the 9” of snow in February of 2014. So when I was looking through the journals, I found a pretty good record of everything I have done. Except details about my grass, which wasn’t listed anywhere. Doing something wrong.

It was from browsing through my journals that I realized how many plants I have purchased over the last 14 years and how few of them have really thrived. In fact, I was more surprised that I have any garden at all – let alone how pretty things are this year - with all the duds I have tried. The Japanese maples are doing well, but I lost three over the years so not all were happy. The ones that are still here are now between seven and ten years old and are the backbones of the perennial beds. Most of my hosta are also doing well, but I have lost several of those as well. I am guessing they were in too much sun and just were burned out. Some hosta do better in part sun than others and I have learned my lesson about placement.

I have no idea what happened to all the dahlias I have planted since moving to Barview, but my guess is that once I stopped digging them up every fall, they rotted in the wet winters. I took advice from someone local who has beautiful dahlias each year and she told me it would be okay if I didn’t dig them every year. All it took was that rare winter where the temps dipped and stayed below freezing and then the rains came. Not to be deterred, this year I have purchased a couple more dahlia tubers and I will dig them up in late September once they are done blooming. Another lesson learned.

I have also used my journal to make notes about plants I wanted to try. In some cases, I did find them for sale and put them in to experiment with. Successes with some, not with others. And I also discovered that my tastes changed and some of those on my “Most Wanted” list are no longer on my radar. Forgot all about them.

My point is that a garden journal can be a wealth of information but only if you record your thoughts and deeds on a regular basis. And then take the time to review those thoughts before making other changes in your garden. I try to write something in my journal each week and I include photos both before and after I do something unusual. Pictures are still worth a thousand words sometimes.

Did I ever find the name of my grass? Yes, it was a Libertia, but I only discovered that after discussing it with several other Master Gardeners while setting up for the sale. Turns out it was not sedge, but instead in the iris family. I wouldn’t have thought of looking there as mine had never bloomed. But it joined some other Libertia in the iris section and they all sold. I immediately went home and wrote the name in my journal.

Hopefully I will remember where to look for that name when I next divide that plant for the sale.