Hack and Slash

It's pruning time in the coastal native garden. After summer/fall dormancy, it's time to prepare for a flush of winter growth.  In other areas of my life I strive for calm gentleness, but I relish wading into the thickets for some satisfying hacking and slashing.  In a measured way, for a cause.  I appreciate a well-pruned garden.

This Bush Marigold (Tagetes lemmonii, adaptable non-CA southwest native) is off the schedule.  It got hacked to the ground in August, and provides needed November color. Bush Marigold needs regular hard pruning or it gets leggy and ugly.

I have had my rant about bad pruning (or lack thereof) in a previous post.  I like to snip on a regular basis, but I was away from the garden for nine weeks, so could not snip.  Not much grew in the hot early fall anyway: most of the plants were dormant or near.

Toyon, Coyote Bush and Bay Laurel screen the kitchen nook from the street. (Yes! Took almost three years.)  They need no pruning now, not having been overwatered in summer. (Photo from kitchen.)

In the backyard where the garden has received only the odd rain and a few brief brief beer waterings since May, pruning is little work.  First, deadhead the sages.  Their dried flower stalks are austerely beautiful to the lover of natives, if not to the HOA vigilantes.  But these stalks are weathered and grey by fall, and the bushes need to be trimmed back to allow new growth to be shapely and well supported.  For White Sage this can look pretty extreme: eight-foot flower stalks lopped almost to the ground; all that remain are little florets of silver leaves at the base of the former tower.

This pruned White Sage looks scraggly.  It will fill in.

A few judicious snips for the Manzanitas: 'Howard McMinn' can take random chopping but a 'Paradise' Manzanita dropped dead last winter after I trimmed a wayward stem. For these delicate fellows, I am careful to sanitize my clippers by dipping them in a jar of rubbing alcohol.  I also apologize, and pray.  Can't hurt, right?  Yes, I planted things too close. And I want them to be shapely.  Don't prune (also delicate) California Lilacs (Ceanothus) now; you'll lose blooms.

'Paradise' Manzanita is worth fussing over. These flower-like leaf rosettes will show up after the winter rains.

The dwarf Coyote Bush ('Pigeon Point') needs trimming about twice a year despite the lack of water; I planted these bulletproof pools of green more densely than needed.  But a pair of shears makes quick work.  Likewise the non-native variegated Mockorange (Pittosporum tobira), a great low-water background plant.  Lemonadeberry gets a light clipping.  Southwest native Bush Marigolds got coppiced (trimmed down to a few inches from the ground) in summer and are ready to bloom now.  I've coppiced one twice a year for almost twenty years.

The overgrown section.

In front, I deadhead the buckwheats, trim the coyote, and get ready for the Great Hacking.  Part of the front garden gets considerable overspray, seepage, and probably underground flow, from the overwatered Association lawn just across the sidewalk.  California Sagebrush, Southwest native Baby Sage (Salvia microphylla) and Lilac Verbena grow like crazy, and have to be cut way back at least semiannually or they'd block the windows.  For this I pull out the power hedge cutter.  Looks naked, but within a month it will appear dignified.

After the hedge trimmers.

I find it much easier to prune a rampant grower than to try to revive an invalid plant.  Many plants have no middle ground.  Coyote, Sagebrush, Coffeeberry, and Lilac Verbena can be pruned to your heart's content, and at almost any time of year.  Frequent need for trimming suggests you are overwatering... How much pruning will I do in the spring?  It depends on how much rain we get.  Stay tuned.

Want to know about pruning individual plants?  Here are some guides.

From Las Pilitas: http://www.laspilitas.com/garden/howto/pruning.htm  Short version: trim everything in late summer, with a few exceptions.

Care and Maintenance of Southern California Native Plant Gardens by Bart O'Brien, Betsey Landis, and Ellen Mackey is the most detailed guide. This book is out of print, and very pricey on Amazon, but can still be found at some gardens and bookstores.

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