Wednesday, February 27, 2019

Wednesday Vignette; that was then, this is now...

Yesterday I took you on a visit to McMenamins Kalama Harbor Lodge and shared photos of a large Agave (and its pups) planted out in front of the lodge, along the Columbia river. Since those photos were taken last October—and we've had some real winter weather over the last few weeks—I stopped last weekend on our way back from Seattle to have a look...

Yay! It's being protected from the elements with a coat of needles. I've not seen this particular method used before, but I bet it's great at staying in place with the winds that whip through. According to Ryan, the McMenamins gardener for this location, the lowest temperature so far here has been 23F, and I assume they've gotten some snow too. Fingers crossed the worst is behind us and this beauty will live to enjoy the sun and warmer temperatures.

Weather Diary, Feb 26: Hi 40, Low 27/ Precip trace

Wednesday Vignettes are hosted by Anna at Flutter & Hum. All material © 2009-2019 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

13 comments:

  1. Thanks for this look at how they protected it, after my comment yesterday. Agave americana was one of the first Agaves I planted out here, along with Agave ovatifolia. I didn't do anything to protect either of them (I was a novice then) and they both succumbed and turned to complete mush. Do you do anything to protect your A. americana?

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    1. It's in a container now, since I removed it from the front garden before the Sunset photo-shoot. The poor thing is a mess with pups popping out all over the place. Do you need an Agave americana?

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  2. Nice that it has a winter coat for protection and, like you, I hope it lives on to enjoy summer.

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  3. I've used pine needles and branches as a very effective mulch.

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  4. There aren't many uses for pine needles. I leave them in place till spring to protect from soil erosion and leaching. Removing them from the agave will be more tricky.

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  5. Oh, I really like that shagg-spike combo! But you'd need a set of long tweezers to get all those needles out of there when spring comes. Noticed that my hellstrip ovatifolia took a beating this winter. The bottom leaves have gotten all mushy... I should have made use of all those infernal magnolia leaves to protect it. But, it was such a warm winter, I just didn't even think it would like a little protection! My bad, I guess...

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    1. I can't imagine what a lot of unpleasant work removing them is going to be. Mushy sounds like more of an issue with wet than cold. Sorry it's gone a little soft.

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  6. The pine needle removal job might not be bad if the gardener can get an air compressor out there (such as a portable one). My husband gets total credit for this trick. He has an air compressor in the garage, with a super long tube and nozzle that blows a narrow jet of air. (I believe they call it a blow gun.) My yuccas are within 50 feet of the garage, and the hose reached fine. Coolest hack EVER.
    Thanks for sharing your return-trip update on Ryan's maintenance trick!

    (To your reader who doesn't have uses for pine needles--send them my way! I have SO many uses! I can't get enough of them.)

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