Getting back to firmer ground
For a gardener, rain is a good thing. But too much of anything often is not, and after weeks of rain, with some torrential downpours, gardens are soggier than they have been in years. This caused some poorly rooted trees to topple, and some at-risk areas really suffered.
But most valley bottom and hillside gardens are better off than they were. These recent rains may not have ended the drought (it’s said we’ll need three years like this), but they sure quenched the thirst of trees and shrubs.
It’s a good idea to stay out of garden beds until they have a chance to dry, though that shouldn’t take more than a few sunny, dry days like the ones we’ve had this week. Tim Barr at the large education garden of the Western Municipal Water District in Riverside says crews are still cleaning up after the rains, but that all the work is being done from the paved paths, with no stepping into the beds.
The good news: They may not need to irrigate these water-wise plants until April. Hopefully homeowners have also temporarily turned off their irrigation systems.
If you must walk into a garden right after a rain, put down boards that distribute your weight. Walking on a too-wet soil compacts it and turns clay into soil cement. At the beginning of each rainy season, I always pick up a few scrap squares of 3/4-inch plywood just for this purpose, in case I must walk into a bed to prune or weed.
Informal dirt paths often become quite compacted and are lower than the surrounding garden beds. This is not a bad thing because it helps keep water from puddling around the base of plants, which can bring on disease. It does make for muddy feet if you need to pick a little lettuce for dinner. One quick fix is to cover paths with shredded bark. Rains can wash bark away, but shredded bark tends to stay put. Don’t use ground or pebble bark for paths.
Make a note of where you saw lingering puddles. When the soil is not so muddy, you might want to regrade parts of the garden with a sturdy steel rake or a hoe, filling the low spots so they shed water better during the next downpour. Just be sure not to bury the base of plants.
In some gardens, the rain came down fast and hard enough that some soil washed away. That was generally not topsoil; it’s only the very fine surface soil -- the stuff that becomes dust in summer. After the soil dries a little, simply rough it up with a steel rake or cultivator, being careful not to dig too deeply lest you tear out shallow roots. Roughing up the surface will let more oxygen into the soil and make it easier for the next rain to soak in.
Puddles that form around the base of plants indicate a problem. It usually means you planted something level with the ground, and now the soil has settled. Plants can drown, just like animals, when water collects or soils become saturated. Roots need oxygen, and water excludes it.
Next time plant higher, so the root ball is an inch out of the ground. Then water can’t collect around crowns, even after settling.
Native plants are particularly sensitive, but less so in winter. Holly Wagner at the Theodore Payne Foundation for native plants in Sun Valley says that all this rain will not harm natives in the garden because “the weather’s cool and most plants are nearly dormant right now.” In fact, this is a really good time to plant natives, she says.
Because business has been down due to rain, most nurseries are full of bare-root roses and deciduous fruit trees, and this is another planting opportunity for this gap between storms.
“Most of the soils in Southern California drain pretty fast, and after a few days you can plant,” says Frank Burkard of Burkard Nursery in Pasadena. He’s already planted a few big Japanese maples in his own garden, which is a “clayish loam.”
“As long as water doesn’t seep into the hole as you dig, it’s OK. It’s easy digging too,” he adds. “I normally need a pickax in my backyard.”
Not only is it easier to dig in a moist soil, it’s better to plant in, since a dry soil actually sucks moisture from the newly planted root ball.
