Soil

A New Favorite Plant

/ Wmarkhall / 3 Comments

Yep, I have a new favorite plant.

Ever since the Butte Fire destroyed our community a few years ago we have been looking for ways to make our home more fire safe. Our area in the California foothills is prone to wildfires and when one gets going they can be difficult to stop. When they can’t be stopped quickly they become what is known as a campaign fire. In these fires, firefighters go out ahead of the fire and make plans as to which homes they are going to defend and which ones they are not going to defend.

Fire triage form

In a wildfire, homes are often triaged, with firefighters deciding which homes have the best chance of being saved.

There are never enough resources to defend them all, so firefighters pick the homes they are most likely to be successful in defending. If a home is surrounded by trees and shrubbery- wildfire fuels- they are likely to label your home as ‘Do Not Defend.’  Folks who get these labels often do not know it, as their house likely burned down. What you want is to get a ‘triage card that encourages crews to defend your home. When the fire approaches these homes, the firefighters take a stand and defend the home. We are more focused than ever to get a good triage rating.

Picture of Artemisia

Artemisia provides attractive foliage, repels deer, and adds lots of organic matter to the soil.

So this spring I am removing all the plant material that lies within 10 feet of the house. The shredded cedar bark ground cover will be removed and replaced with some variety of rock. Stuff that won’t burn. I have been digging up these plants and transplanting them to other areas. I remember planting these landscape specimens fifteen or so years ago. It was a lot of work. The soil was compacted clay. The new plants were in one-gallon containers, so the holes I had to dig weren’t very big, but that ground was hard!  But going to dig the by now much larger plants out I was pleasantly surprised. The artemisia came out very easily. The soil was rich and dark, full of worms and organic matter. I had added nothing to the soil here over the years. All of that organic matter that the plant was thriving in had come from the plant itself! It was like magic! I need to figure out a way to move that soil somewhere else before I cover it up with rocks!

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This rich soil was compacted clay several years ago when I planted artemisia in it.

We started planting artemisia when our kids were in 4H and my youngest son was raising angora goats. I had read that artemisia, or wormwood as it is also known, was good for keeping goat intestinal parasites at bay. I planted some near the goat barn and quickly learned that the goats did not like to eat artemisia. It was like giving kids medicine. Wait, it WAS giving kids medicine! (See what I did there?) The goats didn’t eat it, but we kept the plants around as a nice filler.

Now it is my favorite plant. (Full disclosure: I adopt a new ‘favorite plant’ nearly weekly.) I planted the artemisia in a hedgerow along the vegetable garden, along with some heavenly bamboo and buddleia. The hedgerow will serve as a home for insects, birds, and lizards, act an a windbreak and repel deer. And the artemisia will work to add all kinds of organic material to the soil over time. My new favorite plant.

Working on the soil

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When we purchased this land over thirty years ago we bought three acres of yellow starthistle (yst).  The only places not covered with it was the house, the pump house, and the paved portions of the driveway. The yst was five and six feet tall in places, and super thick. This was the result of over 100 years of abuse of the land. First, it was the gold mining. Our land is in the Mother Lode region of the Sierra Foothills in California. The gold rush that began in 1849 happened right here. A gold-bearing creek borders one side of our land. That creek was heavily dredged and the leftover rock was just dumped on the land. There were also a number of hard rock mines in the area and the tailings had to go somewhere, so it went right here, on the land. Next came the loggers, and then came the overgrazing cattle. Finally came the developers, who bulldozed everything to try and make it all look good, with building sites and paved roads. That is a lot of abuse, and it isn’t going to heal overnight.

We tried a number of strategies to deal with the yst. We disked it all under. It looked good for a few months, but come spring the yst came back. We tried mowing it, but that just made shorter yellow starthistle. We tried digging it out. But digging anything out of heavy clay soil with very little organic matter in the summer is much easier said than done. We tried Roundup. I know. It was a terrible idea, and it didn’t work either. We couldn’t afford to buy that much Roundup, and it didn’t work all that well anyway. Our neighbors released some special wasps that lay their eggs in the flower, preventing the plant from going to seed. That put a dent in the problem. But it was a very small dent. Not enough to really make a difference.

We heard about a program being run by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) that sounded promising.  If your land had dense enough yst, and your land was close to BLM land, they would provide a special spray that only attacks yst. They would give it to you for free. We called them, and someone from the County Agriculture office came out. Sure enough, we had dense enough yst and we are close enough to BLM land to qualify. At the appropriate time, the man came back with the chemical. About a half of a pint worth for our three acres. It was potent stuff.

I hated the idea of spraying, but we were really desperate. Fortunately, the spray worked.  Not 100%, but enough that I was able to go around the property and dig out the few plants that I found each spring. I have been doing that for about ten years now, and the difference is remarkable.

But removing the yellow starthistle doesn’t mean we have healthy soil. The soil is really good in our gardens, but everywhere else it is still heavy clay with very little organic matter.  So this winter I have been bringing in pickup truck loads of wood chips. I have probably brought in 15 truckloads in the last few months. I have been spreading it under our fruit trees, just beyond the drip line. I can already see a big difference in the soil under the first trees to get the chips. The soil has gone from red clay to black humus. It was just that easy.

But I have been thinking that bringing in wood chips is not really a sustainable approach. It is hard work, and while I can do it now, will I still be able to, say, twenty years from now? Thirty years from now? At some point, it will be just too hard. Also, while I have plenty of available wood chips now, if just a handful of neighbors decide this is a good thing, these chips will be very difficult to come by. And I really do not think I can grow enough trees to chip up to cover the land. That idea seems silly to me- grow trees just to chip them up.

yellow star thistle and pine trees

The yellow starthistle is not growing under the pine trees.

Today while I was moving chips around I happened to glance over to my neighbor’s property. Several years ago the previous owner had planted several pine trees along our fence line. At the time I was upset because his trees were throwing shade on my tomatoes. Now the trees provide pine needle mulch for some blueberries.  Today I noticed that under those same trees is the only place on his property that is not covered with yellow starthistle! It is remarkable. There is no work being done in that area to combat the weeds, but the only thing on the ground is pine needles! It occurred to me that I do not have to worry about spreading wood chips forever. I just need to do it long enough to heal the soil, and then the land will take care of itself.