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Bayview Garden Resources

Deer Resistant Shrubs and Trees

 

No plant is truly “Deer Proof.”

A deer’s diet can differ widely depending on location, season, and your local deer population.

Something that proves unappetizing in late summer may be tasty in early spring when tender new growth is abundant. Fawns are curious and will try anything! If presented with a new planting in their usual browsing habitat, even mature deer will give it a taste test. Also beware of the rutting season! Bucks will rub small caliper trees to activate their scent gland between their antlers to apply a pheromone to mark their territory. Protect trunks of young trees in October and November. Despite these variables there are some plants which are more reliably deer resistant than others. Below is a list of plants that we have compiled based on our collective experience living and gardening on Whidbey Island. Please let us know your experiences so we can improve gardening on Whidbey!

Conifers:

INCENSE CEDAR Calocedrus decurrens

JAPANESE CEDAR Cryptomeria japonica

TRUE CEDAR Cedrus spp.

WESTERN REDCEDAR Thuja plicata

CYPRESS Cupressus spp.

BALD CYPRESS Taxodium distichum

FALSE CYPRESS Chamaecyparis spp.

SIBERIAN CYPRESS Microbiota decussata

DOUGLAS FIR Pseudotsuga menziesii

TRUE FIR Abies spp.

JUNIPERS Juniperus spp.

PINE Pinus spp.

MONKEY PUZZLE TREE Araucaria araucana

COAST REDWOOD Sequoia sempervirens

DAWN REDWOOD Metasequoia glyptostroboides

GIANT SEQUOIA Sequoiadendron giganteum

SPRUCE Picea spp.

PLUM YEW Cephalotaxus spp.

broadleaf Trees:

BAY LAUREL, BAY LEAF Laurus nobilis      

BIRCHES Betula spp.

BLACK LOCUST Robinia spp.

FLOWERING CHERRY Prunus spp.*

DOGWOOD Cornus spp. *

DOVE TREE Davidia involucrata

FRINGETREE Chionanthus virginicus

GINGKO Gingko biloba

GOLDEN CHAIN TREE Laburnum vossii

HORNBEAM Carpinus spp.                                      

PERSIAN IRONWOOD Parrotia persica

JAPANESE MAPLE Acer palmatum *

KATSURA TREE Cercidiphyllum japonica

RED MAPLE Acer rubrum

VINE MAPLE Acer circinatum *

MAGNOLIA Magnolia spp.

MIMOSA Albizia julibrissin

OLIVE Olea europaea    

OAK Quercus spp.       

FLOWERING PLUM Prunus spp.*

REDBUD Cercis spp.

SERVICEBERRY Amalanchier spp.

SEVEN SON’S FLOWERING TREE, AUTUMN LILAC Heptacodium micinoides

JAPANESE SNOWBELL, FRAGRANT SNOWBELL Styrax spp.

SOURWOOD Oxydendrum arboretum

STEWARTIA Stewartia spp.*  

SWEET GUM Liquidamber styraciflua

JAPANESE STEWARTIA Stewartia pseudocamellia

TULIP TREE Liriodendron

WALNUT Juglans spp.

BLACK WALNUT Juglans nigra

broadleaf evergreen shrubs:

ABELIA Abelia spp

CLUMPING BAMBOO Bambusa spp

DARWIN BARBERRY Berberis darwinii

BOXWOOD Buxus spp

CALIFORNIA LILAC Ceanothus spp

MEXICAN ORANGE Choisya ternata

ROCK ROSE Cistus spp

COTONEASTER Cotoneaster spp

DAPHNE Daphne spp

MOUNTAIN PEPPER Drimys lanceolata

SILVERBERRY Elaeagnus spp

HEATH, HEATHER Erica spp

ESCALLONIA Escallonia spp

EUONYMOUS Euonymous spp

CLUMPING BAMBOO Fargesia spp

SALAL Gaultheria shallon

GREVILLEA Grevillea spp

HEBE Hebe spp

HOLLY Ilex spp

MOUNTAIN LAUREL Kalmia latifolia

LEUCOTHOE Leucothoe spp

BOX HONEYSUCKLE Lonicera nitida

PRIVET HONEYSUCKLE Lonicera pileata

OREGON GRAPE, HYBRID MAHONIA Mahonia spp

PACIFIC WAX MYRTLE Myrica (Morella) californica

HEAVENLY or SACRED BAMBOO Nandina spp

OSMANTHUS, TEA OLIVE Osmanthus spp

RUNNING BAMBOO Phyllostachys spp

PIERIS, JAPANESE ANDROMEDA Pieris spp

MINT BUSH Prostanthera spp

ROSEMARY Rosmarinus officinalis

RHODODENDRON Rhododendron spp

SWEETBOX Sarcococca spp

SKIMMIA Skimmia japonica

EVERGREEN HUCKLEBERRY Vaccinium ovatum

DAVID’S VIBURNUM Viburnum davidii

DECIDUOUS SHRUBS

BARBERRY Berberis spp

BUTTERFLY BUSH Buddleia spp

BEAUTYBERRY Callicarpa various

SWEETSHRUB Calycanthus spp

BLUEBEARD Caryopteris spp

HAZELNUT, FILBERT Corylus avellena

SMOKE TREE Cotinus spp

DEUTZIA Deutzia spp

FORSYTHIA Forsythia spp

WITCHHAZEL Hammamelis spp

OCEAN SPRAY Holodiscus discolor

PEE-GEE HYDRANGEA Hydrangea paniculata

SWEETSPIRE Itea ssp

JAPANESE ROSE Kerria japonica

BEAUTYBUSH Kolkwitzia amabilis

CRAPE MYRTLE Lagerstroemia

MOCK ORANGE Philadelphus spp

CINQUEFOIL Potentilla spp

FLOWERING CURRANT Ribes spp

RUGOSA ROSE Rosa rugosa

ELDERBERRY Sambucus spp

SPIREA Spirea spp

SNOWBERRY, CORALBERRY Symphoricarpos spp

LILAC Syringa spp

CHASTE TREE Vitex agnus-castus

WEIGELIA Weigela spp

* Occasional light browse has been observed on these plants

 

Potato Planting Instructions

 
 

How to grow potatoes on Whidbey Island

The mild winter and cool summers of Whidbey Island create ideal growing conditions for all kinds of potatoes. They are and ideal nutritional food, high in vitamin C, potassium, and protein.

  • When choosing your potatoes, choose only certified virus and disease-free seed. All of Bayview Garden potatoes are organic and naturally grown, which is the best option to cultivate your own potatoes. You can also grow potatoes from your own stock.

  • Store seed over the winter in the cool dark place to prevent sprouting. Make sure they do not shrivel and dry up.

  • Seeds should be no smaller than a golf ball. Cut large seeds up, leaving two or three eyes a piece.

  • Avoid planting seeds during a wettest time of the year.

  • Potatoes prefer a loose well-drained soil, high in organic matter, nitrogen, and potassium. A slightly acidic soil with a pH of 6.0 to 6.5 is ideal.

  • Prepare the soil by digging deep and removing rocks and debris. Cultivate the soil deeply and break up clay particles.

  • Apply aged manure or ready compost and incorporate well into the soil. Form trenches by digging about 12 inches wide by 6 inches deep. Then add a little aged manure or ready compost to the bottom of the trenches to aid fertility.

  • In addition to an all-purpose organic fertilizer, you can add the following if the soil is especially nutritionally deficient:

    • Bone meal: high phosphorus

    • Greensand: Potassium, an essential nutrient for potatoes

    • Kelp meal: additional potassium and trace minerals

    • Or just use a good all-purpose organic fertilizer, adding extra greensand.

      Incorporate these evenly throughout the soil.

  • Place seed potatoes approximately 10 to 12 inches apart in the rows and cover with 4 to 6

    inches of soil-compost mix. Water thoroughly after planting.

  • Irrigate when soil feels dry a few inches below the surface. Do not let plants go bone dry especially when tubers are forming during the second month. Once flowering begins, you can ease back on the water. You may like to apply a fresh emulsion, nitrogen source, after plant emergence and before flowering.

  • As the plants grow, they require hilling with extra soil. Begin hilling when plants are only 4 inches high but leave the top half of the plant exposed. Hill the plants two or three times as they grow. This provides extra room for the tubers to grow.

  • As potato plants yellow and die, they are ready to harvest. Dig up a few to gauge their size and continue digging if necessary. Is easy to damage a few potatoes with a fork during harvesting. Use these first and store the others in a cool, dark dry location.

  • Pests and diseases only thrive on weak plants. Keep plants healthy by

    • Removing weed competetion.

    • Avoiding overwatering or overly moist conditions, which can cause potato disease, such as scab. Drip or flood irrigation is preferable to overhead watering.

    • Hand removing leaf-eating beetles or applying an organic spray.

    • Growing plants nearby that provide protection to natural predators. Members of the daisy and carrot families are great options.

    • Plant crops in a different area each season to avoid soil disease problems.

 

Our recommendations for amendments to help grow potatoes on Whidbey Island are:

 

EB Stone All-Purpose Plant Food

EB Stone Bone Meal

EB Stone Planting Compost

EB Stone Soil Booster

EB Stone Tomato & Vegetable Food

Espoma Greensand

 

Pollinator Friendly Plants

 

here at Bayview Garden we are always celebrating our pollinators and the plants that support them.

In 2017, the U.S. Senate unanimously approved this week as a necessary step in creating awareness of the urgent issue of declining pollinator populations. Pollinators, which include bees, wasps, butterflies, moths, beetles, flies, hummingbirds and bats, all assist with plant reproduction by helping to move pollen within or between flowers. Thus, pollinators play a crucial role in supporting biodiversity and the food production we rely upon for survival.  We can bring plants into our gardens that are not only beautiful but help support our pollinating friends.  Here are some great perennial and shrub suggestions to bring some pollination love into your garden:    

  • Anise Hyssop – Agastache

  • Aster

  • Bee Balm - Monarda

  • Catmint – Nepeta

  • Coneflower – Echinacea and Rudbeckia

  • Crocosmia

  • Escallonia

  • Fuchsia

  • Goldenrod – Solidago

  • Lavender – Lavendula

  • Penstemon

  • Salvia

  • Sedum

  • Verbena – Vervain

  • Wild Lilac - Ceanothus

  • Yarrow – Achillea

 
 

Dormant Spray Instructions

 

Thanksgiving, Christmas and Valentine’s Day are good markers to remind us to do something nice for our fruit & flowering trees, grape vines, berries, roses, and lilacs. Dormant Spray is a great option to help protect your plants year round.

The Pacific Northwest with its mild, damp conditions is a wonderful place to garden. It is also the fungus capitol of the universe. These fungal spores over-winter in the crooks and fissures of bark and twigs, manifesting during the growing season as troublesome diseases. Dormant sprays are compounds that assist us in controlling fungal diseases and many insect infestations, and are used during the winter season while the plant is in its dormant phase. (The plant is dormant, not the spray!)

There are two main categories of dormant sprays. Both common dormant spray materials are acceptable by organic certification standards. Although approved by the EPA for organic use, copper sprays and dormant oils can be irritating to skin and eyes. Wear long sleeves, gloves and goggles when spraying, and avoid the windy days. As boring and tedious as it may be, always read the label and follow the directions. Under certain conditions, plants may be damaged by using a concentration that is too strong.

Fixed Copper – (copper sulphate)

There are several varieties of copper fungicides available on the market. The liquid form is a bit easier to use but is not quite as effective as the wettable powder forms. This copper is a powder that needs to be mixed with water and agitated while spraying as it tends to settle out of solution. Shake it good. Newer copper materials are more effective than the old mixtures, known as Bordeaux sprays.

Dormant oils – (insecticides)

These are special petroleum distillates to which plants have a tolerance. Dormant oil acts as a non-toxic smothering agent on over-wintering insect eggs and insects such as aphids, leaf rollers, scale, mites, pear psylla, and white flies. It is also showing some effectiveness in destroying tent caterpillar egg sacs. Dormant oil, which is used to control insects, increases the effectiveness of the copper or lime-sulphur fungicides by helping them to adhere to the branches more easily. It is good to use both the oil and the fungicide together. The lime-sulphur can be purchased with the oil already added and is the most convenient to use.

Dormant spraying is the most cost effective method of disease and insect control. It is essentially a sanitizing process performed when the plants are resting. Prevention is the key to success. The spray is applied to the bare limbs and twigs of the plant, thoroughly wetting down the bark, covering all sides until it drips. The first spray, when done in late autumn or early winter is like putting a raincoat on the plant. Fungal spores blow around in the wind all winter in the maritime northwest. This spray applies a protective coating, which prevents these spores from getting a toe-hold in the bark of the tree or shrub.

The second spray, done around Christmas time is an added bonus, but if you are going to skip a spray, this is the one to skip.

In the event only one spray can be applied, this should be the Valentine’s Day or late winter/early spring spray. This is the spray that will control apple scab, which can be a serious pest on apples, crabapples and pears. This is known as a delayed dormant spray.

Delayed dormant sprays are applied from the "green tip" stage to the "half-inch green" bud growth phase. When the leaf buds are just beginning to emerge and the plant is just starting to come out of dormancy is the time to do this spray. This is by far the most effective time to wipe out the apple scab spores and many newly emerging insects that have just pounced on the fresh green buds. Timing is critical as sprays applied after this can injure the young leaves. It’s important for the spray to dry on the plant. If it rains within 24 hours of spraying...yup, that’s right, you need to get out there and do it again. So watch the weather report and wait for just the right timing.

No method of insect and disease control can substitute for good cultural practices in gardening. Healthy plants have their own mechanisms for fending off pests. Don’t forget about healthy soil, appropriate fertilization, adequate water, proper location, correct pruning, debris clean-up, and an appreciation for the alluring wonder and beauty of growing things.

Enjoy!

 

 Air Plant Care

 

About Air Plants

Air plants (Tillandsia spp.) are epiphytes, which means they grow attached to trees and shrubs in their native habitat and receive their water and nutrients from the nitrogen rich rainfall. There are hundreds of species and varieties of air plants. The varieties with silver foliage tend to be the most drought tolerant while the greener types may dry out faster and need more frequent watering.  Most species produce attractive, tubular shaped flowers of various colors.

Air plants seem almost magical the way they can grow in the air without roots and soil. Many varieties look like exotic sea creatures or lifeforms from alien planets. They are fascinating little plants and with minimal care, are easy to grow. 

Air Plant Care

When you understand what they need, air plants are easy to care for. They require water, light, and the right temperatures, just like any other houseplant. You know an air plant is happy when it sends out flowers. When it is finished flowering, snip off the spent bloom and your air plant will continue to grow and produce more flowers. 

Watering 

Air plants have just a few, small aerial roots that are used to attach the plant to the branch where it is growing. Water your air plants about once a week by placing them in a sink or bowl with room temperature water and soak them, completely submerged, for about 15 minutes to a half hour. When they are done soaking, take them out of the water, shake off the excess droplets and 

lay them on a towel. After they drain, they are ready to put back into their designated spot. It's also good to mist them every few days to keep them fresh, especially when the air is dry indoors as it tends to be in winter. Your air plants will look somewhat dull and unhappy when they need water. We want to replicate their native habitats from the Southern United States, Mexico, Central and South America, where they get what they need from high humidity and plentiful rainfall. 

Light 

In nature, air plant species generally like to grow up in the sheltered, shady canopy of trees. They will do best if you can put them in a brightly lit spot out of direct sunlight. 

Temperature 

Air plants love warm tropical and semi-tropical weather. Protect your plants from anything colder than 45 degrees as they will die if they get too cold. If you live in Zone 9 or warmer, you can grow an air plant outdoors all year if you keep it from getting too wet during the winter.

Decorating 

Air plants look great all on their own or in groups where you can display several varieties together. You can place them in terrariums, hang them in a glass globe, attach them to driftwood or magnets with fine fishing line or hot glue, etc. Tillandsia species also pair well on a branch with orchids as they enjoy the same warm, humid conditions. 

Enjoy your air plants!


 

 Bare Root Planting Instructions

 

  • Dig a shallow, wide planting hole.

  • Mix the native soil with Planting Compost at a ratio of up to 50/50.

  • Add a good starter fertilizer to the soil mix. We recommend EB Stone Starter fertilizer at the ratio stated on the bag.

  • Spread the roots evenly in the hole, then backfill with your soil mix.

  • The first roots should be just slightly below the surface of the soil.

  • Be sure not to bury the graft!

  • Water it in well to settle all the soil around the roots.

  • Trees should be staked and may need protection from deer, rabbits, and field mice.

  • Water newly planted trees and shrubs as needed the first year.