Category Archives: Yard

Spring Staging

Posted on by

The storm at the end of September put a full stop on summer. Week before it was hot sultry summer; the week after the air had that crisp autumn bite. Suddenly it was foggy in the mornings burning off to golden afternoons and darn right cold nights. Like I said, the yard was starting to wind down for the year. Especially the garden. The tomatoes all split and the bean vines turned soggy. Time to rip out the garden. And try a winter garden for the first time. So after working 10 days in a row, I finally had a weekend (no one to blame but myself since I AM the person who does the scheduling now.)

Garden gone

Everything got ripped out except the carrots (which have been long, big and delicious), arugula, late august planted peas and radishes.

I threw in some brussels sprouts, leeks, onions, a winter lettuces, just to see. However, the next morning I discovered that bare dirt equals neighborhood cat litter box — Lily was in heaven. So not sure if anything is going to grow or I will be just smelling cat-poop breath this winter.

After sorting the garden, I wanted to get some bulbs in. So last spring, I toured the awesome tulip fields up by Mom and Dad’s and the master plan was to order some bulbs from those farms and have the folks bring them down. But the timing and my vacation lazy foiled that plan. Plus I was nervous about the squirrel epidemic we seem to have going on in this neighborhood. Seriously, there are about a bazillion of them — much to Lily’s delight. She has biffed it on the garden beds and fences numerous times trying to get one. Thankfully she gracefully pretends it didn’t happen and jauntily returns to smile at me. She really isn’t serious about catching them, she enjoys the chase. But the nasty little rodents can be mayhem on bulbs. And, swear on my soul, the more I spend on bulbs the more likely they are to find them delicious! So instead of the fancy Skaggit County tulips, I went the Fred Meyer route. But what I lack in pedigree, I am making up for in volume! So I planted a 152 bulbs in the front yard this weekend (and destroyed my bulb digger in the process). If the squirrels don’t eat them all, I should have a colorful spring.

Bulbs

60 tulip, 60 crocus, 24 hyacinth, 8 paperwhites. There are already some daphs under the window and grape hyacinth by the drive way, otherwise those would have been included in the mix.

Feeling Tropical

Posted on by

I have never been much a fruit person. True, I am super whorey for blueberries and figs (hence the 2 fig trees and 4 blueberry bushes I promptly planted in the yard) and I like cherries and plums (again, note my fruit tree choices). The best thing about the Pacific Northwest is the berries and I used to go buy mixed berry flats at the farmers market and gobble them up until bad things happened to my bum (totally worth it!) But apples, oranges get a shrug from me. Apricots and peaches are hairy and kiwi fuzz makes my tongue itch. Pineapple is fine but I don’t go out of my way or ever think about buying it, even when it is pre-cut. Basically, at pot-lucks, buffets, the fruit tray gets a pass from me.

But last spring when I was scouring Portland Nursery for fun plants to buy, I did throw in a pineapple sage, mostly because the plant looked exceptionally healthy and it was kind of different. I brought it home and planted it and basically forgot about it. I only remembered it when I was ripping out the endless clover and accidentally pulled up a branch with a bunch on roots on the end and wondered what it was — it smelled crazy good. I rooted around for the tag and discovered that this lush, huge plant was that pineapple sage. So this was back in August, and we all remember August (or we are trying not to). Since then I occasionally thought I should do something fun with the aromatic delight —  put it in mango salsa for fish tacos or have a party and make majitos. But I don’t usually do majitos and mangos are really the most annoying fruit (except for maybe pomegranates — and there you have to deal with the seeds and even then, they aren’t proportionally delicious.) Even so, the plant was now on my radar and I am very pleased with it.

Then suddenly last week, when everything else in the yard is making its ways toward being finished for the year, this sage decided it was getting ready to bloom. And then it did — in red! It has sprays of little red trumpet flowers all over it and has been attracting hummingbirds and my smiles!

Pineapple sage in bloom

Not the best picture, but the pineapple sage really does look striking with asters.

Well, This Blows

Posted on by

So I mentioned I am on vacation and that it has been crazy stormy. Things finally dried out enough today for me to go and assess the damage for real. I know that there was flooding and power outages all of over town at the beginning of the week. And Lily and I had tromped our way through some puddles, leaves and downed tree limbs on her walks. And I knew that some of my flowers had not faired well but today I took a full inventory. The good news is that nothing permeant was damaged, the bad was a lot of floppy flowers. But the really big sad was my very cheerful sunflowers. They were all laying on the ground, sad, broken and soggy. (Too depressing to even take a photo of.) But I salvaged what I could and brought the smaller blooms inside.

Cut flowers

A few sunflowers, cosmos, asters and feverfew.

For someone who likes to grow flowers, I know that my next career won’t be florist — I am shit at arranging flowers. Always looks like a hot mess.

Behind the retaining wall and the cosmos was my other big tragedy center. They had basically all flopped.

floppy cosmos

All the cosmos and some most of the bachelor buttons and asters fell over with no hope of propping them up again. I chopped some of the worse ones but tried to coax most of them back into looking decent. Also the yard waste bin was full.

The asters in the front south side bed and herb bed also fell over. I left the front bed but did a little trim on the herb bed because we couldn’t walk down the path.

Asters fall over

I eventually tried to prop these up but didn’t chop. A frost will be here soon enough and then I’ll cut them back for real. Also seriously bummed out that the davidii at the far right of the this bed suddenly up and died on me. Others are doing great.

Symbolism in Sunflowers

Posted on by

There is no way to get around that the last 2 months have been incredibly stressful. The only reason I have any sanity left is forcing myself to de-stress by ripping things up in the yard and sweet, sweet Lily. Her nagging me to get out of bed or take her for walks, listening to all of my rantings and giving me snuggles and kisses has kept me reasonably human.

But there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I finally hired someone to fill our open position and vacation season has tapered down. I know I’m not out of the woods yet – still have to train new guy and there are still challenges, lumps and bumps that are not resolved and all of my projects and plans are still out there — but it has to start getting easier soon. That is my logic when looking at the improbable sunflowers. As mentioned, I threw a pack of seeds in the ground that Eric Murray got last year as part of a wedding invitation. The seeds were all busted up and not remotely promising, yet they grew — a lot. Now they are over 8 feet tall and lovely. And they will bloom any day now. I love sunflowers. Their cheerfulness forces me to smile. So I am smiling, knowing that brighter days are on their way.

Sunflowers

They are 8 feet tall and ready to bloom and making me cheerful. Not to mention Lily, basking in the sun.

Flower Vignettes

Posted on by

In all the years that I been gardening, I have always spent a lot of quality time wandering around my yard, observing and checking on the status of all of my “little guys.”  And I always notice who is getting ready to bloom, who is getting chewed on, and all of the minor details that only a true gardeners really can be aware of. But lately,  the wandering has been more extreme — getting home from work and rehashing my day, upcoming projects/conversations and trying to get my thoughts organized while also checking on the poises. And depending on how recently I have managed to deadhead and weed, I’m either giddy or groaning. When I am giddy, it is sometimes the overall impression that is striking — the riot of color and texture — but sometimes it is one little spot that I am particularly taken with. I have started calling them vignettes. It could be the combination of colors (orange with purple, yellow and pink, blue and red, etc.), or a few blooms that came together in a particularly fetching way. Whatever the reason, it makes me smile. And sometimes I try and take a picture and then I remember my photography skills leave a lot to be desired — I should work on that.

mallow

Mallow, callengula, bachelor buttons behind the retaining wall.

dalia

A dailia I randomly bought last year and came up in a pot, next to asters, marigolds and parsley

bachelor buttons

Bachelor buttons, callengula and chamomile in the herb bed

natsturiums

nasturiums amid the basils, lemon balm, feverfew

mallow and cosmos

mallow, cosmos and bachelor buttons behind the retaining wall

Another Side Project

Posted on by

I actually finished this project a few weeks ago, but I have been so crazy busy and distracted I didn’t take pictures so I could blog about it. My very good friend and Editorial Page Editor John Laird is retiring so The Columbian needed to fill his position. The Sports Editor Greg Jayne ended up getting promoted to the job and then my boss Micah Rice was promoted to Sports Editor. That left the copy desk without a fearless leader. So as assistant news editor, it made sense for me to try for it. And I got it. I am now, or will be at the end of this month when everyone shifts around, the News Editor at The Columbian. So far it is being really stressful and one of the first things on my to-do list is to fill our vacant position. I am excited for the challenge but also nervous. So we’ll see. The next few months are going to be insane!

Anyway, this project was pretty easy to throw together — just laid down some more of that leftover mulch that I removed when redoing the front patio and artfully arrange some of my pots. Planted a few extra things in said pots and done. But I love how it looks. And it is a good place to have some of my more heat-sensitive herbs — parsley, cilantro, sorrel — so they don’t bolt as fast.

herb garden bed

Looks super cute. On the other side of the walk, the blueberries are doing great. And the chamomile and callengula are filling out. I also threw some sunflower seeds that Eric Murray got in a wedding invitation last year in the ground and was surprised, not only that they came up, but that they are doing great.

And now that things are looking so cute back here, I have been trying to take time to enjoy it. So after a long weekend of weeding, I fired up the grill and cooked dinner.

grilling

A rib-eye steak and zucchini from the garden

Dinner

Steak, grilled zucchini and a arugula, blueberry and corn salad. (arugula and some of the blueberries are from my garden.) Holy crap it was delicious!

And as an added bonus, here is one of my more-awesome day lilies, that I snap a pic of today.

orange lily

Super cute orange day lily. Have I mentioned that I love orange?

4th of July Tomato Gauge

Posted on by

When I lived at the Rex Hamilton with brother Derek, we always had a 4th of July party. They were super fun and crazy, hanging out in the  yard with friends. An inadvertent consequence was I always managed to snap a photo of how the garden was doing. So it became something of a tradition to see where the tomatoes were on the Fourth.

4th of july garden

Things are chugging along but not as great as I hoped, considering new soil and all.

Tomatoes look kind of lame compared to former years — One year they were at the top of a 6-foot fence. The radishes bolted before they were really ready to eat. Same with the arugula. Peppers and squash are doing ok. Beets hardly came up. Peas are basically done. The only thing doing really well is the beans.

Behind the retaining wall

Things back here are going gang-busters! Tons of cosmos, callengula, mallow. Plus morning glory on my garden gate. So cute!

The Lovely Spring

Posted on by

The weather over the last few weeks has been fantastic! Lots of sun, some nice rain and generally the kind of conditions that make living in the Pacific Northwest awesome!

With all of the foundational work done and initial plants in the ground and going about their happy little business, I didn’t have a ton to do other than supervise and fill in a few holes when I stumbled across a good deal on something I thought would be cute.

plum tree

The shasta daisies and yarrow surround the pulm tree at the front of the side yard bed

side front bed

Lots of color and cute

front porch

Poppies, feverfew and snap dragons along the front porch

Monarda

Monarda, yarrow, day lilies, and poppies

basils

The basils and fennel are doing well

more monarda

I discovered that monarda is one of my new favorites. This pink one in the herb bed is so cute with the lavender and salvia.

Glad things are looking so cute and going so well. It is becoming a lovely little retreat, which is good because things at work are about to get super crazy!

Stewing Over the Herb Garden

Posted on by

When I came up with my master plan for the herb garden, I wanted everything in that bed to be either edible (but not vegetables) or flowers that had a medicinal uses — basically not just another flower garden. I was hoping to plant all kinds of herby things that I had never grown before. Part of my inspiration for this was from one of my former tenants — Kaitlyn, who was really into herbs and making tinctures, etc. When we lived together she was volunteering at a farm garden and was always bringing home stuff I had never heard of. So I thought it would cool to start growing some of these things too.

Off to the happiest place in the world — Portland Nursery — I went with a shopping list of the fun I wanted to get. Of course they had all of the basics — basil (6 kinds), sage (4 kinds), oregano, thyme, blueberries (4 kinds!), strawberries, lavender, mondara, etc. But I wanted new things too. However when I started browsing around, they didn’t really have anything that I would consider special. Sad. So I came home and started planting away, including all of the herby things I had brought with me.

herb garden start

I plopped my bounty in the ground but things looked pretty bare.

herb garden 2

The blueberries are between the long walk and the patio, with chamomile and callengula. Transplanted a chive, but still not enough to fill things out. So the compromises began, starting with a trellis of morning glory that can up from seed.

lily in the dirt

I moved some lilies from a pot and put in some more monarda and Hyssop (from Kaitlyn). The pots will have herbs that are notorious for getting overgrown — lemon balm, oregano, mints.

After planting everything I had on hand, I was frustrated and didn’t want to run all over town finding plants that fit the plan. So it has kind of become a free-for-all.  But it is finally looking less sparse. I think this will be a work in progress bed and I will move the plants out to other places when I find things that are more inline with the original goal.

herb garden first planting

It will do for now. Doesn’t look terrible and I know that things will grow.