More garden pretties

Posted on May 27, 2014 by Merridee

This spring has been fantastic! Here are some more lovely yard pix.

The first strawberry harvest of the year. Came from the 5 plants that a co-worker pawned off on me. And then they multiplied and are baring sweet bounty!

I don’t like roses but these still make me smile. And I almost have the black spot under control! Such high maintenance!

All of the herb bed plants are doing great but it seems like everything is purple. So I threw in some red verbena to mix things up a little.

More purple in the basket but there is a red verbena that came up from seed so the whole thing will be very striking soon.

I was so disappointed about my lewisia last year — I got them from a magazine cause they looked so cute and it said they were a hardy fast-growing border. They did squat. Was thrill today to see one finally bloomed!

I am sucker for gerber daisies and I got a killer deal on this one. The yellow and the purple are so cute!

Mom gave me this last year and it didn’t bloom, so I was really happy to see it do its thing. And it smells really nice. The rest of this bed is a mess but claradendren cheers everything up.

Stepping it up

Posted on May 17, 2014 by Merridee

When I bought the house there were some issues in the back yard with retaining walls. I patched up the one on the south and handled the southwest corner with the raised retaining wall bed that I built last year. The wildflowers I planted in it last year were a lot of fun, except when they fell over. This years I’m going in a more meditated direction, so it is still a work in progress.

Fixtures are doing fine but I need to move some things around that came up from seed and then fill the holes.

My friend Bob gave me a redwood sapling that he got in California last year. Happy that it is hanging in there!

I told mom I wanted ferns. I do but not really for this bed. May be a temp home or maybe not — I like and they like it there!

But back to my wall woes. North of the retaining wall bed there is a section of old wall that fell down. I decided that it would be fun to build some steps and pillars to the back area along the fence. The first part of the project happened when the old fence fell down. I took some of the old board and cardboard and covered the weeds along the fence.

This has been covered since early March — 2 months isn’t really long enough to kill some things but it was a good start. Black pots hold honeysuckle that have been very patient and getting a real home.

Weeds on their way to dead, I need to deal with the horrible yucca. As a rule, I don’t like plants the hurt me (hence my dislike of roses.) But digging these out proved more of a challenge than expected! Huge roots masses — I guess that is how they live in the desert — store up as much moisture as they can in their big fleshy roots.

The shovel that I inherited from Grandpa Doman (so it is at least 15 years old) met its match against the yucca. One more reason to dislike yucca

Yucca out (or so I thought — I kept running into big chunks that I thought were concrete but were just more roots), time to get building. I knew that I would have some challenges since I was building on a not super level old retaining wall stones. But I figured it would be fine.

Ready to rock and roll. Guy loading the cinderblocks for me was worried that my truck wasn’t up to the task. I laughed!

It was just like my job — just make all of the blocks fit.

Steps and pillars done. Weed clothe and mulch laid. pots planted with honeysuckle, snap dragons and verbena. Green pots to blend in with neighbors weeds.

There are some gaps and both pillar lean toward the front. I may pull some it apart and see if I can fix it but things should settle a little bit. I do want to get some urn-type pots for on top of the pillars but Lowe’s didn’t have any I liked that I was willing to splurge on. All and all I’m pleased and definitely better than it was.

Getting better every day!

Posted on May 14, 2014 by Merridee

This Spring has been a good mix of rain and crazy hot. We have already had a few 80+ degree days and on Wednesday it was over 90. But last week we got buckets of rain and there is more on the way for this weekend. So lots of sun and rain means that the yard is looking fabulous! It is particularly astonishing to remember that all of my flower beds are only a year old and haven’t had time to look mature — It was at least the third or fourth year at the Rex before things starting looking this great.

Under the window gets better every day! The lupin! And then there are all these little surprises every where. Awesome!

I moved the iris from in front of the patio and door to where they would get more sun and I could use their height.

Pink geranium, dusty miller and feverfew making the front corner cute

The transplanted iris are doing great but a big surprise is the foxglove. I didn’t know what they were so told Mom to pull them. She said wait — so glad I did!

All of the moving around and transplants are taking hold. Splash of color with added bedding plants

Poppies and lupin. Poppies add a great splash of color that is dominated by purples.

Back of the house bed still looks pretty sparse but considering it is weeks old, nice start. Only 2 deaths so far — daily lily and some rubeckia.

The best part is that even as some of the first lupin are starting to fade, I can tell that there is a ton of stuff getting close to doing their thing. I have weeks of color and cute ahead — may even last the rest of the summer.

Weekend update

Posted on May 6, 2014 by Merridee

Feels like every time I turn around something else amazingly cute is happening in the yard. I managed to get all of the plants that Mom gave me finally in and have been thrilled with how great things look.

The lupin are beginning to bloom. I can’t believe how big they got. Looks like the iris are going to bloom this year too — surprise considering the hacking I did to them!

The bed under the front window is being fantastic! The hostas are a recent addition from Mom. Aphids gave the lupin a ravaging but I think they are gone. Gets better every day!

With the hyacinth and tulips done, I moved the calendula around and moved some asters.

Columbine have always been one of my favorite flowers. There was a meadow in Colorado, where if you hit it at the exact right time was a blanket of blue columbine — so wonderful! This white one has been a real treat this year.

I was hoping to rip the satellite pole out but it was too expensive. So I made lemonade out of it. Should be a good spot for cooler veggies. Found that bench for free on the side of the road!

April flowers

Posted on April 30, 2014 by Merridee

When Mom and Dad came down to help with the fence, Mom spent most of her time cleaning the weeds and dead stuff out of particularly the front flower bed while I worked with Dad. She did an amazing job!

The crocus were finished but the hyacinth have been so lovely and fragrant! Whole pile of cute! Plum tree had just finished blooming too.

My early favorite this year was the pulamnaria! But everything else was doing great too!

I sent Mom a wish-list of stuff that she could bring me if she need to divide anything. She delivered big time! Most of this will go in the new back of the house bed but some will be in the front too! Awesome!

This is my first tulip bloom of the season — and it is orange (well, peach)! It bloomed on the day Mom and Dad went home.

TULIPS!

Remember all of those tulips I planted? They looked awesome!

The tulips look amazing! Wish I could have gotten a photo that really captured how cute and cheerful they are but none of them really turned out.

This is one of the better shots — all of the cheerful along the front patio.

The south driveway bed was about a week behind the rest of the yard and photographed better. So cute!

Luckily, Mom and Dad were here to see the tail-end of the tulips. They said that when they were driving home the crews in La Conner were out in the fields deadheading all of the commercial bulbs. I got to enjoy mine for a few more days before they got the chop too. Think I will probably put more in this fall — More cute for me!

Longing for less lawn

Posted on April 10, 2014 by Merridee

With the fence in and folks gone, I had the rest of my vacation week to fill up with projects. Good thing that is never a problem for me. As soon as my parents left on Wednesday I began digging.

I don’t hate mowing but I don’t love it either. I especially don’t like mowing areas with slopes, etc. I was also wearing a path in the grass along the back of the house to watch Lily while she uses Charles’ yard as a bathroom. So next task on the 3-year yard master plan is in put in a bed along the back of the house.

Day one I managed to get about half of the bed dug out.

All dug out. Then I put in a border of river rock along the back of the house. Lily approved.

I piled all of the sod with the old pickets. This area is turning into my trash heap. Need to get serious about this project!

Final part of the project was to put in the concrete pavers. 17 bags of 50 lbs concrete. I had very selective memory on how not fun these can be to make!

Done and looks awesome! This vacation was insanely productive! but ready to go back to work to I can sit down for a while!

A stand-up job

Posted on April 3, 2014 by Merridee

February was a crazy month weather-wise. First there was snowmageden and then we had a few days of some serious wind. Turns out my janky, rotting, mostly gone fence on the north-side of the yard wasn’t up to battle and toppled.

Fence lost the battle with the wind.

Neighbor Charles’ little outhouse was collateral damage. Once I got the fence panel off of it, we stood it back up and it was only a little worse for wear.

I wanted to do the grown-up thing and actually pay someone to come and build me a new fence. I mean, it is only 35 feet on a basically level area and then square it off with the back of the house with a gate. How expensive could that be?! Turns out — a lot more that I thought. I got 4 estimates — ranging from $1200 to almost $3000. Whoa folks, the cheapest is my yard budget for the whole year and then some.

I piled the panels up in a corner that is someday going to become a flower bed so I don’t care about the grass. Then I spent a very rainy day off breaking down the panels and stacking the wood. It was very therapeutic!

Thankfully, my parents wanted to come the rescue! When we were in Phoenix, I was complaining about the cost and my dad insisted that this was a job for him. So a month later, when I had so vacation time slated, they came down.

They got here on Sunday night and we started planning and scheming, then early to bed. They got up crazy early (which for me is any time before 11) and started digging out the old posts while they waiting for me to get my butt out of bed — which I did around 9. Over breakfast Dad came up with our shopping list and plan to get the stubborn posts out (and repurpose the holes for the new posts, since it turns out my dirt is insanely hard clay.) Hardware store and then Dad and I spent the afternoon setting the new posts while Mom weeded my flower beds (Thanks Mom!). Lily did a great job supervising everyone, barking at people walking by and napping under Charles’ tree. Dad and Lily really hit it off and it was fun to watch them play — kind of weird cause Lily usually doesn’t like men (it took months and a lot of treat bribes for her to like Charles!) Posts in and not much else to do, off to the hardware store again to get the pickets!

Tuesday, with the posts set, we did the rest of the framing. We decided to rent a compressor to use with the airgun (and nails) Dad brought, cause turns out I’m not super handy with a hammer! We turned the picket installation into a family affair with Mom and I doing the spacing and Dad running the gun. We were done in only a few hours! And it looks great.

This is the finished product. Basically 2 days of hard work. Looks great!

Gun returned and all of us showered and sleepy, we went to Derek and Bridget’s for dinner. Then home and bed. Dad forgot the tool he needed for the gate, so they are planning to come down for a quick trip in a few weeks to install that. With nothing left to do, they left before noon on Wednesday. It was an awesome little trip . I have the best parents!

ADDED 4/22.

As planned, Mom and Dad came down for a super quick trip to do the gate. They got here around 1 on Monday, and after a quick lunch, we started working. We already had the lumber, so Dad started building the doors while Mom and I weeded the herb bed. Because the opening was about 70 inches, we decided to do two doors that would open fence door-style instead of one big door, which would have been too heavy. Great decision — looks great. Door frames were built and hung and we were done for the day. We ate some food and then I took them out for ice cream. In bed early (I slept on the couch as the air mattress was too much bother for one night.)

Tuesday, we had breakfast and then hung the pickets. Whole project done and cleaned up by 11. They scurried to get out the door to beat traffic in Seattle. Really fast trip but lovely to have them here again! Oh, by the way, the whole project, INCLUDING feeding my parents was less than $600 — half of the cheapest estimate (and I have a pile of pickets to return, cause turns out math is still hard!)

Gate view from the street

Gate from backyard

Gate open. We had to move the board that edged the mulch but without measuring (or really thinking about it), it was the prefect length to square off the bed.

I love the french door-style! Our spacing was really perfect on the post — there is just enough room for the picket between the post and the side of the house.

Dad takes a picture of our handy work to brag to his friends (apparently they were all sad he didn’t have pix.)

Tuesday morning breakfast

The Thaw

Posted on February 16, 2014 by Merridee

Still a little shell-shocked from the snow storm and with the melting came a muddy mess. Then suddenly, Spring is on its way! It felt like almost overnight my whole yard was ready to wake up and get growing.

Hellebore are blooming and the daffodils burst out of the ground and grew 4 inches in a matter of days! And the pulmonaria are setting out new growth!

Things are growing again!

If I had more time in my life, I would be getting a seriously itchy green thumb! Eager for spring but there are a few things I need to get off of my docket first.

Snowmageden

Posted on February 10, 2014 by Merridee

THE SNOWPOCALYPSE IS HERE!

In the 11 years I have lived in the Northwest, there has been a few snow storms. Most are basically a non-event. But the snow and ice storm of 2003 was awful. A December storm brought several inches of snow but then we had freezing rain and the snow had an inch of ice covering it. I lived 2 blocks away from work and ended up helping cover for people who just couldn’t make it in. Another storm in 2008 brought snow a few days before Christmas. That started out fun with Karaoke at the Abli and walking home in the blizzard was truly a lot of fun and one of my favorite Portland and Rex Hamilton memories. However the next few days of taking the bus to work was miserable — standing in the freezing waiting for buses and the Max. This winter, we had a small storm mid-December and that was my first time driving my truck in the snow. Took it slow and things were fine. Thinking that would be it for snow for the year, I didn’t bother to get anything to put weight in the back of the truck. Stupid!

Already 5″ of snow on Thursday night

But this is one of the worst storms I can ever remember! Even when I lived in Colorado. And it is even worse because Portland and Vancouver don’t have the tools to deal with it. It started on Thursday morning, catching most people off guard and resulting in horrific traffic problems (dozens of accidents and a 30-car pileup where a man was killed). By the time I left work Thursday night, the roads were basically empty of cars but it was still slick and scary. There was 5″ on the back patio table. But Lily and I had fun shoveling the sidewalk.

Friday, the snow had stopped for my drive in and the plows had been working all night, so not too terrible. And I filled the back of the truck with what ever I could find to add some weight — big flower pots and a few cinderblocks. But the snow started again Friday afternoon. That drive home was also a nail-bitter but I took the time to stop at a 7-11 to get some supplies. I am ready to hunker down and wait it out.

Snow on Saturday morning. About double from Thursday night.

Saturday, I didn’t have to work (sad for those who do — especially Marsha, who was suppose to be on vacation but decided to postpone it and then switched with me Tuesday for Saturday so I could work on our software upgrade — sorry Marsha!). Snowing hard all day and the inches are mounting.

The snow and cold didn’t seem to bother Lily. But once she was done with her business, she wasn’t very interested in being outside anymore. “Come on Mom. The couch is waiting!”

Then around 4:30, the heavy snow changed to sleet and freezing rain. Everything is getting covered in a layer of ice. I had been very feebly considering going to a birthday party but that sealed the deal on staying put. I don’t know what is about being forced to stay in, but I always feel the need to bake. I had some leftover cookie ingredients — a.k. white chocolate chips, coconut — from my Christmas-time baking adventures, so cookie time! Spent the rest of Saturday night curled up watching movies and worrying about how people at work would get home — All public transportation was canceled and there was a half-inch of ice over the snow on the roads.

White chocolate chip, coconut cookies. I didn’t have any regular white sugar (I know, super weird), so I used raw sugar. Gave them a nice molasses note. Yum! If only I wasn’t out of milk. Sad.

Sunday, the rain and snow had stopped and things were starting to melt. Big icicles hanging from the eves and trees. Lily quickly decided she did not like walking on the ice-covered snow and dropping through the crust. After a progress report from people at work — one stayed at a hotel, one sleep in the lady’s lounge at work and the rest braved it, but everyone was safe and drama free — I foraged through the freezer for food to cook for dinner. Bratwurst with caramelized onions and tomatoes over pasta didn’t turn out too bad but I wished I had ground the caraway seeds instead of keeping them whole. Oh, well. Not bad for punt. By late Sunday night the big thaw was officially on but I stayed curled up and watched season 4 of Downton Abbey. Looks like I survived the storm.

That said, there is a reason I don’t live in Colorado anymore — Snow, I loath you!

Christmas trees of a different kind

Posted on January 8, 2014 by Merridee

A few days before Christmas I was getting ready for work when someone knocked on my door (and Lily went wild barking). Thinking it would be UPS delivering the crock pot I bought myself as a Christmas present, I was surprised when I opened the door and there was a long skinny package bag there. On opening it I remembered that several months ago I had given a donation to the Arbor Day Foundation and they would send me 10 trees. Well here they were — not 10 but 12 little twigs that were suppose to be trees. The biggest was about 28″ tall and the shortest maybe 8″. 3 Eastern Redbuds, 4 White Flowering Dogwood, 3 Goldenraintree, and 2 Crapemyrtle. Here is a gardening challenge — getting these little sticks to someday become a flowery forest.

I didn’t have time to deal with them then, so I stuck the bunch is a vase of water and proceeded to slog through the next 2 weeks of work. On my second day off after the work marathon (first day was spend entirely in bed being ULTRA lazy), I had to come up with a solution for what to do with all of these twigs.

A bucket of baby trees — but what to do with them?

I found places for 3 of them (dogwood in the front berm, crapemyrtle south of the driveway and goldenraintree in the herb garden southwest corner) but I want the rest to go in beds I haven’t dug yet — along the back fence and near the back of the house. So I had to stick them some where and the only bare patch I could think of was the garden.

Most of my new little trees will have to live in the garden until I can come up better plan.

That will do for now.

And that crock pot I was expecting. It came the following day. Here is the first thing I cooked in it —

First crock pot adventure. Louisiana-style short ribs with spicy cole slaw. YUM!

short ribs with spicy cole slaw. Pretty yum! I think I am going to like this new toy but I am going to rename it the slow torture device — it makes the whole house smell AMAZING while the food is cooking!

The Overall[s] Adventure

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