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AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) – Fruit, vegetables and herbs will soon be planted at Capitol Park near Maine’s State House, under a new state law.

The law that went into effect last week directs the state to plant edible landscaping in the Augusta park.

Democratic Rep. Craig Hickman of Winthrop was the bill’s sponsor.

Hickman says in a statement that the landscaping will be paid for through private and public funds and will be added as the money becomes available.

The Paris Farmer’s Union is donating seeds and Hickman’s farm fields in Winthrop will provide edible perennials.

Hickman hopes the edible landscaping will raise awareness for the local food movement, encourage others to plant their own food gardens and educate children that visit the State House.

Landscaping is expected to begin next spring.

 

(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

KALAMAZOO, MI – Construction isn’t scheduled to begin on Kalamazoo Valley
Community College’s new Healthy Living Campus until spring of next year. But the first
classes could start rolling out as soon as the first quarter of 2014, said
Marilyn Schlack, president of KVCC.

The green-shaded area are the parcels donated by Bronson Methodist Hospital for a new Healthy Living campus being developed by Kalamazoo Valley Community College. The hospital is in orange.Map courtesy of KVCC

“We see ourselves having a great opportunity to start doing
something around the vision of the new campus,” said Schlack. “In 2014, we will start rolling things out and
showing how they’re connected to what we’re trying to do.”

Among the early offerings: Classes on hoophouse growing,
which can extend the growing season in colder climates, and a food safety
technician program that KVCC is currently developing with the city of Battle
Creek, Schlack said.

While the campus is being built, these courses would be
offered at KVCC’s other campuses, as well as at Bronson Healthcare,
which is one of the partners in the new venture, along with Kalamazoo Community
Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, Schlack said.

The food services technician program would be designed to
meet the increased regulatory demands of the Food Safety Modernization Act of
2011, which was passed after a series of outbreaks of food-borne illnesses in
the 2000s. It aims to shift the emphasis on food regulation from responding to
contamination to preventing it.

“The idea is to not only create entrepreneurs, but create
technicians that can work for the big companies – the Meijers and the Ciscos
and the big farms,” said Schlack. “You have small farmers that can’t afford to
have a food safety technician, but they could share that cost. We think there’s
going to be a job market that’s not being met at this time.”

The KVCC Board of Trustees approved the new venture in May and the new $42 million downtown campus was announced in July. Bronson Healthcare donated 13.3 acres of land to the project located within the Edison Neighborhood.

The partners have said they will not seek millages or bonds to finance the
project. The three will be putting up the money themselves, as well as seeking
national, state and private gifts and grants. Construction of the new campus is expected to begin in spring 2014.

In fact, KVCC was one of just five public universities or
community colleges whose capital outlay planning requests were approved this year. Gov. Rick Snyder approved its capital outlay
request of $6 million toward the Healthy Living Campus as part of Public Act
102. The request still would need separate legislative approval for a
construction authorization before KVCC received the money from the state.

The genesis for the Healthy Living Campus came several years
earlier, Schlack said, when the community college was trying to figure out how
to expand into an underserved area and “help people that didn’t have access to
nutritional food not only understand it but have access and then learn that it
could be prepared in a way that they would find appealing.

“The more we talked and the more we learned about what was
going on, we said, ‘Here’s an opportunity to do something a little differently,’ ” she said.

Schlack and other KVCC officials worked with Rick Foster, director
of the Institute for Greening Michigan at Michigan State University. They made
several exploratory visits to Detroit to see the work being done there with
urban farming and community gardens and how it might be translated to Kalamazoo.

Three facilities are
planned. KVCC will develop one for food production and
distribution, a second for nursing, allied health and culinary programs,
and the third will be a new psychiatric clinic for Kalamazoo Community Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. 

The link between food and physical and mental health has
only become more apparent in recent years, Schlack said.

“There’s two parts on it: It’s not just food. It’s the opportunity
to work,” Schlack said, citing programs in Amsterdam and Cleveland. “You give
that person value again. When you have value, you’re more interested in taking
care of yourself.”

Schlack also cited universities such as Tulane in Louisiana,
which mandated that its medical students take a nutritional course at a culinary
school, and the Harvard School of Public Health, which is collaborating with
the Culinary Institute of America.

“I’m thinking to myself: This is where it is,” Schlack said.

Schlack also said she hopes to be able to include area elementary
schools in the new venture.

“Studies have shown that children really get excited about
what they grow. That’s why we see this new campus as an educational
destination: How food is processed, how it’s grown,” Schlack said.

In a healthier version of Willy Wonka’s garden paradise, all
the landscaping at the new campus will be centered around food.

“All the landscaping, our intention is, is going to be
food-related – for birds and people,” Schlack said. “Instead of just having
bushes, you’ll have blueberry bushes. Instead of just having trees, you’ll have
apple trees.”

That way, children who might not ever have occasion to visit
a farm can see how food is grown.

“I find that exciting. I have people ask me: You’re an
educational institution: Is this really going to be educational? Absolutely. This
is all about education,” Schlack said.

The community college also is taking a collaborative
approach in the initial development stages — asking everyone from local chefs and Southwest
Michigan growers and food processors to church groups to provide input on the
project.

“We’re inviting in different groups to talk about what the
vision is and how we can help them,” Schlack said.

“One, we see the synergies of working together – not overlapping,
leveraging what we have, and being able to serve, especially some of the smaller,
emerging farm efforts to be successful and get their foods to market and have a
market,” she said.

Earlier in September, KVCC also met with the state
Department of Agriculture, which suggested that the area could use a
distribution link to help bridge the gap between small entrepreneurs and their potential
markets. It’s possible the community college may be able to provide that link
via the new campus, Schlack said.

“One of the things they’re recommending is that the county
or the city think about having an incubator, an innovation center for people
who work in the Can-Do Kitchen,” she said. “They need an interim space to get
their products to market … We’re talking about how can we work together to
make that happen and complement what’s happening on the new campus.”

“My real hope is that
we have people who will stay in our community, become young entrepreneurs. My
hope is that we will touch people who live in areas that can only go to a fast,
convenience center and a get a bottle of pop and chips instead of a fresh apple
— that we find ways of distribution. My hope is that we become a prototype for
other communities to emulate,” said Schlack. “And my hope is that we spur a kind of
economic development that really demonstrates that healthy living and foods and
working together can make a difference in a community.”

This green manure was drill-seeded so that the entire field benefits from soil protection, increased organic matter and a bonus of nitrogen. (SHNS photo courtesy Maureen Gilmer)

These beautiful purple flowers are from a strain of hairy vetch under analysis by the USDA for improved green manure varieties. (SHNS photo courtesy Maureen Gilmer)

Long before the advent of synthetic plant foods, farmers had only two ways to make their fields more fertile. One method was to spread manure from livestock, which proved a labor-intensive method that dates back to the dawn of agriculture. The other option, known as “green manure,” doesn’t use real manure at all, but provides even better results.

Early on, farmers learned that their crops grew better where clover was present. Science later explained this phenomenon as nitrogen fixation, which is prevalent among all members of the pea family, particularly a group known as legumes. With these crops, nitrogen is not obtained from the soil like with other plants. Instead, these species draw atmospheric nitrogen into their leaves and send it down into the roots where it moves out into the surrounding soil.

Somebody got the bright idea of sowing clover all over a crop field in the fall so it could build up nitrogen over the winter months. By spring, these plants were rich with nitrogen throughout their stems and roots. When the time came to start the new garden, the cover crop was tilled into the ground so it decomposed, thereby infusing the soil with fresh organic matter and a bonus dose of nitrogen. This practice caught on and became known as “green manure.”

Today, sowing green-manure cover crops in the fall is a big part of organic gardening for the same reason it was practiced before commercial fertilizers. It works better for larger gardens where a tiller is used. The power of a tiller or rotovator is needed to chop the plants up as it turns the ground.

Green manure is an excellent way to improve soil on a larger site. Consecutive years of green-manuring have helped turn very poor soils into rich ground. It’s a super problem-solver where gardens are being created in heavy clay because, for example, the deep rooting of green-manure plants helps open up dense subsoils.

Those with newly built homes on infertile earth, on cut and fill sites, and on former forest ground, will find the ground lacking in nutrients. To make it suitable for vegetable crops and landscaping in the future, plant a cover crop this fall.

A great resource for learning all the benefits of green manure is GreenCoverSeed.com. This Nebraska-based website is focused on organic-market gardeners. It details some of the most common legumes, such as hairy vetch and crimson clover. Each plant has an extensive fact sheet.

Above all, the company offers seed for the amazing “Nitro radish” (Raphanus sativus), which produces such a deep fat root that it’s ideal for opening up superheavy clays. This is an alternative to what farmers call “deep tillage” for the enhanced drainage done with tractors and specialty implements.

Planting Nitro radish directly into the remnants of this year’s crops achieves similar results without disturbing the soil in a process called “bio-drilling.” The main root can reach 20 inches long, and its smaller taproot goes down 6 feet. Residues of this plant are well-known to release many nutrients, adding as much as 100 pounds of nitrogen per acre in the spring.

As your garden fizzles in these shorter days of fall, consider sowing an experimental crop on your garden ground. It’s the lazy gardener’s path to fertility. Green manures don’t let your ground lie fallow all winter, but enrich it.

Maureen Gilmer is an author, horticulturist and landscape designer. Learn more at www.MoPlants.com. Contact her at mogilmer@yahoo.com or P.O. Box 891, Morongo Valley, CA 92256.

October 13, 2013

Fall Festival to benefit future teaching gardens site

Mark Friedel

Staff Writer
The Claremore Daily Progress

Sun Oct 13, 2013, 07:15 AM CDT

CLAREMORE —

The fall festival is free to the public and will include local eats, area vendors, a pumpkin patch, face painting, square dancers, pet costume contest, raffles, door prizes, wiener dog races, balloon animals and a dunk tank featuring Sheriff Scott Walton and Rogers County Commissioner Dan DeLozier. MGARC members will be on hand to present canning and food, tree planting, and Do it Yourself Irrigation demonstrations.

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Wise, however, can’t work in the gardens like she used to, and she’s concerned about the grounds she has cherished for so many years. One of the gardens was created in honor of her daughter, Amy.

The gardens are at risk, she said, as Four Seasons hospice doesn’t have funds for a landscaper. Donations and volunteers are necessary to keep the gardens as beautiful as Wise built them up to be.

There is “tons of mulching” to be done, she said. There’s also trimming and weeding. Monetary gifts are “desperately needed,” she added.

“There has to be a leader,” Wise said.

The gardens are dependent on donations and volunteer hours to keep them vibrant, and Wise has been the cog in that machine. Before she started working at the gardens, they weren’t nearly as colorful, Four Seasons CEO Chris Comeaux said.

“There were just grass and dirt in a lot of cases,” he said.

The scenery has been transformed in the last 11 years, and the gardens play a large role in what Four Seasons is trying to accomplish at the Elizabeth House, Comeaux said. The hospice is trying to create an atmosphere to comfort families and clients during one of the toughest moments in their lives.

Wise could be seen daily working in the gardens with her white lab coat on. Clients and their family members would watch from the windows as she breathed life into the gardens. Often people would come out and give her donations. Those donations would sometimes be $50 or even $100.

“They would walk out and watch me work,” Wise said.

Clients weren’t the only ones looking out for her. Comeaux and other hospice employees loved having Wise there on a daily basis. Wise, with her garden tools and a smile, was a welcome sight, Comeaux said.

“It’s kind of like one of those moments when you know everything in life is okay,” he said about driving up and seeing her in the gardens.

Wise’s father took her to a flower show when she was 17. She spent days with her grandmother, who instilled in her a love of landscaping.

“I’d make a beeline to her shed and get an old mower out,” Wise said.

She spent decades learning the craft of vibrant landscaping. In 2010, her home at Lake Pointe Landing earned the Residential Landscaping Award from the city of Hendersonville.

“She has a gift,” Comeaux said. “When Ardy gardens, it’s her passion. It’s who she is.”

To donate or volunteer at Four Seasons Hospice and the Elizabeth House, visit www.fourseasonscfl.org or call 828-692-6178.

Reach Millwood at 828-694-7881 or at joey.millwood@blueridgenow.com.

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AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Fruit, vegetables and herbs will soon be planted at Capitol Park near Maine’s State House, under a new state law.

The law that went into effect last week directs the state to plant edible landscaping in the Augusta park.

Democratic Rep. Craig Hickman of Winthrop was the bill’s sponsor.

Hickman says in a statement that the landscaping will be paid for through private and public funds and will be added as the money becomes available.

The Paris Farmer’s Union is donating seeds and Hickman’s farm fields in Winthrop will provide edible perennials.

Hickman hopes the edible landscaping will raise awareness for the local food movement, encourage others to plant their own food gardens and educate children that visit the State House.

Landscaping is expected to begin next spring.

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There is also a herb garden on the third floor Discovery Terrace, where fruit and vegetables will be grown next year, but it is the colourful explosion of rich red flowering sedums on the seventh floor terrace that is a really magnificent sight at the moment.

Red hot pokers, shimmering grasses and the contrasting foliage of blue-green curry plants (Helichrysum) and bright green cranesbill leaves add to the interest as you meander along the gravel paths admiring the fabulous views over Britain’s second city.

There are still a few everlasting wallflowers providing a little colour, but even when winter sets in the garden will still look good thanks to the hard landscaping, which includes artfully arranged wooden seating that has a slightly sculpted look.

And come the spring the borders will be brought to life with flowering bulbs.

The fact that the two roof terraces were created by volunteers, led by television gardener Alys Fowler, is even more impressive.

Volunteers will continue to maintain the gardens, and many of these have been sponsored by Birmingham Library for a training scheme at the University of Birmingham’s Winterbourne House and Garden.

Once you have had a look round the roof terraces, make sure you take a tour around the space age interior.

On a blustery October morning, Daisy Mah methodically tended the WPA Rock Garden at Land Park, just like she’s done almost every day for 25 years. Ignoring the wind, she transplanted sages and trimmed back barberry bushes. She checked on recent additions and noted where there might be room for more.

As part of her regular fall routine, Mah tweaked the stone beds and moved plants to where they could be seen at their best. Never mind that the clock is ticking on her career with the Sacramento’s parks department. Mah keeps planting for the future.

“My last day is Halloween,” said Mah, who turned 60 this year. “I’m trying not to be too big of a pain in the neck.”

But Mah has a long list of things she wants to do during her last official month as the rock garden’s keeper.

“When I started in 1988, it was mostly ivy and bare beds,” she said. “It was originally designed for annuals so there would be lots of color. By the time I got here, it wasn’t colorful at all.”

Mah asked her Land Park supervisors if she could make some improvements in the rock garden, constructed as a beautification project by the Depression-era Works Progress Administration. “They said, ‘Do whatever you want to do – but there’s no budget.’ ”

So Mah decided to improvise. For the garden’s makeover, she relied on perennials, succulents and California natives that needed less water and maintenance than more traditional city landscaping. She rescued agaves that had been dumped in the street. She grew cannas from discarded rhizomes. She planted all sorts of seeds, gathered from other gardens.

“My parents came for China,” she said. “I grew up with very little. I learned when I was very young how to propagate plants and collect seed. That came in handy.”

Now, the WPA Rock Garden is a horticultural gem. Terraced on one acre between the amphitheater and Fairy Tale Town in Land Park, the garden boasts thousands of perennials, bulbs, shrubs and trees, almost all propagated and planted by Mah.

“It’s one of a kind,” said Sacramento parks supervisor Tiger Badhan. “There’s not another garden like it anywhere.”

On this fall morning, the rock garden buzzes with activity as Mah quietly keeps to her tasks. “We have so much wildlife in the garden,” she said. “Birds, butterflies, bees, lizards. I hear toads now. That’s pretty exciting.”

Every garden bed brings back memories for Mah. Green- and white-flowering perennials fill a long thin bed next to the parking lot. Succulents spill over terraces at the back of the garden overlooking the amphitheater. Native plants cover a nearby hillside.

“I call this my Brownie bed,” she said of a cluster of California natives. “A Brownie troop came out to help me plant it. That blue oak was only a few inches tall.”

That tree now tops 25 feet.

Something is always in bloom. On this autumn day, lipstick-red California fuchsias and pristine Japanese anemones vie for attention. Red-hot pokers catch the sun. Needlegrass and other graceful grasses flutter in the wind.

“Native grasses are beneficial for bees,” Mah said. “It’s a good protein source. I’m really into wildlife these days and growing things for them. This is their oasis.”

Mah, a parks department worker for nearly 35 years, announced her impending retirement more than a year ago. She worried that the garden would be abandoned after she left.

Her call for help brought out several volunteers who have embraced the garden and a chance to learn about perennials from a master.

“The volunteers rescued me,” Mah said. “The last five years, it’s become more and more difficult to work in the garden. We’ve had so many cutbacks (in the city’s parks department). We used to have 30 to 40 people working in Land Park. Now, we have five people for the whole park.”

The heavy workload took its toll on Mah, but she never forgot her garden. Every weekday at 6 a.m., she would be out there, tending to its needs.

“I’ll work as hard as I can until it’s over,” she said of her career. “I have no set plans. My husband and I want to travel, but I know I’ll want to garden.”

Mah’s co-workers are still getting used to the idea of Land Park without Daisy.

“Daisy is kind of excited, but I’m sad,” said Badhan, who has known her for more than 30 years. “She really, really knows what she’s doing in that garden. She’s very dedicated, very knowledgeable and she really cares about this garden.”

Badhan marvels at Mah’s dedication. She rarely took a sick day, even when battling major illness.

“She never takes time off,” he said. “Saturdays, Sundays – she comes out to the garden to work on her own time. She’s still helping with other projects, too.”

Plans have not been finalized on how the garden will be maintained after Mah’s retirement. She’s hopeful that her position will be filled by another plant person who loves perennials.

“I’m kind of nervous,” Badhan said. “I’m not going to find anyone like Daisy. I’m hoping she’ll come back to help us.”

---

Call The Bee’s Debbie Arrington, (916) 321-1075. Follow her on Twitter @debarrington.

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Sam Lawther is the first person to win the PG’s Great Garden Contest twice.

It’s not because his garden is wonderful, though it is. And it’s not because we changed the rule that prohibits first-place winners from entering again. It’s because Mr. Lawther’s garden is totally and absolutely brand-new.

It’s a new garden, new house, new property about 15 miles from the old one, new everything EXCEPT the plants and his faithful dog Draco.

Look closely at the pictures: Almost everything you see was put in less than a year ago. And we aren’t talking perennials and small shrubs here, we are talking about some significant specimens. How he managed this is a story in itself.

When the home he was renting and gardening in Plum was foreclosed on, he was forced into an unplanned move. He and his girlfriend, Kim Lynam, now his wife, found another property to buy, but at the last minute that deal fell through. Driving around one day, they spied this property in Fawn. The house, built in 1936 on a 11/2-acre lot next to a cemetery, needed a lot of work. The elderly owner had moved into a nursing home, and her nephew was attempting to clean the place out. The home was full of a lifetime’s worth of possessions and the property had been used as a dump.

“It was just a big stretch of land,” Mr. Lawther says.

Once he had bought it, the land became the new home for his Garden of Misfit Plants, also known as Buffalo Gardens.

“During the summer Olympics last year, we moved Buffalo Gardens 14 miles up river,” he wrote in his entry essay. “Every shrub, plant, bulb, rock and leaf was brought to our new place. We moved the garden during the hottest part of the summer, on the hottest year ever. Luckily, it began raining 24 hours before we began the move and would continue for the next two weeks.

“Five exhausted people, 15 days, 44 dump truck loads, 1,232+ miles — $560 in gas. Moving one sacred garden: Priceless.”

The order of things was dictated by what they could dig up and load into the truck immediately. In addition to the plants, they rebuilt the Native American structures Mr. Lawther had at the old Buffalo Gardens, including a sweat lodge, medicine wheel, tepees and other items.

A little background on Mr. Lawther: He works for Pivik Landscaping and had constructed his former garden from rejected plants gathered from landscape jobs. With the help of his co-workers and the blessing of his boss, he created a quirky garden from all kinds of discarded plants and other items. When he was forced to move, it didn’t occur to him to walk away from the landscape he had created.

The result of his labors is his current garden. When judges from the Post-Gazette and Pittsburgh Botanic Garden, the contest’s sponsors, received his entry in the large garden category, fall/year-round gardens, we all wanted to see what he had come up with this time. It didn’t disappoint.

Although he says the order the plants came from his old home ended up dictating placement at the new garden, it is interesting how it has turned into a cohesive whole. With discarded stone and pavers, he’s constructed walkways and installed garden “rooms.” The sweat lodge is made of wood and vines and the medicine wheel of stones placed in a circle. An old clawfoot tub he dug up on the property has been fashioned into a fountain, and the 1950s built-in swimming pool has been turned into a pond and fountain. Because the pool, which has largely been left untended, now teams with frogs, salamanders and other fauna, Mr. Lawther has not wanted to empty it and convert it into a real water garden. He’s figuring out how he can do that without harming the eco-system that has developed there.

Statues abound, and salvaged mirrors hang throughout the gardens, reflecting sunlight and adding whimsy. In one area, he has formed a large elephant out of grapevines removed from a landscaping cleanup job. Mr. Lawther is a genius at reusing discarded items.

Plants of all kinds are included in the garden — hostas, arborvitae, ornamental grasses and various shrubs and trees. He also grows the four herbs sacred to most tribes — sweetgrass, tobacco, cedar and sage — for use in his religious ceremonies. He has several vegetable gardens, too.

Although they live in the country, they have not had problems with deer so far. That’s because Draco, a large grizzled mixed-breed dog, is never far from his master’s side.

Mr. Lawther is quick to praise friends Rob Rucker, Tim Nuckles and Chris Gasior for stepping up and helping him during his move. And he says his new wife spent many hours watering the new transplants. His sister’s family, the Stifflers, also donated time and effort to the new garden.

“And of course, I want to thank Larry Pivik of Pivik Landscape for letting me borrow a skid loader and a dump truck for 16 days.”

Mr. Lawther embraced his Native American heritage several years ago when he was working on an independent movie project. His mother had Lakota and Cherokee ancestors.

“When the movie was in its early stages, Kim and I went to see the White Buffalo for the film. We were invited to participate in an Inipi ceremony,” he said.

Inside the sweat lodge, Mr. Lawther said he experienced the spirits of the sacred white buffalo and the spotted eagle, protector of the white buffalo.

“I had a vision that has taken five years for me to completely understand. I felt reborn somehow, closer to my own soul than ever before, and closer to the creator. The vision was about love, giving, learning, family.”

The garden is an extension of his beliefs. He has dedicated his new garden to his mother, Theresa J. Lawther, who died recently. “She was our lodge mother. She loved to sit in the garden and enjoy the surroundings,” he says.

Mr. Lawther hosts an Inipi ceremony once a month. He is full of plans for the new garden and has another passion. A cancer survivor, he has decided to sell some of the plants he collects and donate the money to children battling the disease. He has set up a website, www.plantsforlittlepatients.org, to accept donations and to announce plant drives/sales and other events beginning in the spring.

While he hadn’t planned to move Buffalo Gardens, it has all turned out for the good, he says. Winning the Great Gardens Contest again is just icing on the cake.

I DON’T KNOW about you, but I have a north-facing house on the edge of a redwood forest with one-third of the yard getting sun exposure for about five to six hours each day.

You may have a similar situation — either because you live in a forested area or have shade trees in your yard or just have an area of your garden that’s under an eave or large deck. If what to plant in shady areas has you perplexed, you are not alone. Fortunately, there are options.

The soil under trees benefits from fallen leaves, which provide good mulch and compostable material. Dense leaf coverage, however, limits the amount of water that falls to the ground, which can cause thirsty tree roots to out-compete many plants for nutrients and water.

One type of “plant community,” as defined by StopWaste.org, is called redwood forest. According to the group’s website, “Redwoods are adapted to snag moisture from the summer fog with their leaves, which adds to precipitation and soil moisture. A distinctive group of understory species is adapted to the deep shade of the redwood groves.”

Shady garden areas also can exist because of how a house is situated in relation to the sun’s path or because a large tree blocks or greatly reduces the amount of sun exposure on a portion of your garden.

Whatever your situation, there are plants that can still thrive in these seemingly challenging conditions.

My garden’s dry shade condition is more of a combination of woodland shade site (redwood forest plant community) and reduced sun exposure because of the orientation of my house and garden in relation to the sun’s path. I’ve experimented with various plants and some have worked well, such as native western columbine, Iris of all sorts and a surprisingly sturdy Helleborus, part of the Ranunculaceae family.

For a fence that I’d like to be vine-covered, Clematis proved tempting for the deer but it’s still hanging on, although a bit shabby. Next, I’m going to try the California Dutchman’s pipe to see how it covers the fence and stands up to the deer.

I plan to add more shrubs into my landscape too, since I have huge redwoods. Some nice medium-sized shrubs — such as western azalea that come in many lovely colors, coffee berry with fruits the birds enjoy and Ceonothus, “Ray Hartman,” known for its lavender flowers — could work well.

It should be no surprise that several ferns have been successful in my shaded environment. The western five-fingered fern and western sword fern are just a couple of them. While I appreciate the texture of the ferns, I’m always on the hunt

for more color and variety. This year, I’m going to add some coral bells for their delicate red flowers and scarlet coyote mint for its unique low-to-the-ground shape and bright scarlet trumpet-shaped flowers. I’ll also introduce a few perennials, such as native yarrow and hummingbird sage, for a mixture of textures, shape and color. As a final hurrah, maybe I’ll mix in a few splashy Kaffir Lily, feathery native coastal wood fern and California Fescue.

When planting, there are several things to keep in mind:

• Dig very carefully so you don’t damage root systems of nearby mature trees.

• Dig a hole about three times the size of the root ball’s diameter so the plant’s new roots can have extra room to spread.

• Add good organic compost to the top layer of your infill soil so your new plants have healthy nutrients to get themselves established.

• Water your plants in well initially. Once plants become established, you should water less often but more deeply to encourage deeper root growth that will increase its drought tolerance.

When getting started, take time to consult reference books such as “California Native Plants for the Garden” by Carol Bornstein and David Fross (280 pages, Cachuma Press, $29.95) and websites such as the Bay-Friendly Landscaping and Gardening Coalition (bayfriendlycoalition.org) and Marin Master Gardeners (marinmg.org) for plant options and suggestions.

Whatever your shade condition, be brave, do a bit of research and add some plants to enhance your garden rather than lamenting the lack of sun. Embrace the adage “grow where you are planted” and work with what you have. You may be surprised at how beautiful and low maintenance shade gardens can be.

The University of California Marin Master Gardeners are sponsored by UC Cooperative Extension. For questions about gardening, plant pests or diseases, call 473-4204 from 9 a.m. to noon, and 1 to 4 p.m. weekdays, or bring in samples or pictures to 1682 Novato Blvd., Suite 150B, Novato.

if you go

What: “The Shady Business of Gardening without a Lot of Sun”
When: 7 p.m. Oct. 14
Where: Corte Madera Recreation Center, 498 Tamalpais Drive, Corte Madera
Admission: $5
Information: 473-4204