The Lovely Spring

Posted on June 28, 2013 by Merridee

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.

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

Lots of color and cute

Poppies, feverfew and snap dragons along the front porch

Monarda, yarrow, day lilies, and poppies

The basils and fennel are doing well

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 June 11, 2013 by Merridee

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Magical Nasturtiums

Posted on June 6, 2013 by Merridee

At the Columbian, we have a guy that has been writing a weather column for years. He is all kinds of folksy and readers love him. But after 10 years of editing his stuff, we know, A.) he is a pretty awful writer, and B.) he has his favorite whimsical topics for each time of the year — Frog-stranglers, wholly-footed caterpillars, etc. And he knows that spring is finally here when his magical nasturtiums make an appearance. Basically he inspires lots of groans and inside jokes, but this year I kind of felt like he had a point.

I am so pleased at how great the front yard was looking, especially considering it was only a few weeks old! And I am happy to report I had a just a handful of causalities among my transplants — The only notable one being the little tree I got from the Columbian’s landscaping that I snapped the tap-root on but was hoping would pull through anyway.

Magical nasturtiums by the front porch with ajuga and english daisies.

The little guy is down by the plum tree, joining the yarrow and alyssum that I planted from seed. So cute

Siberian iris from Mom, dianthus and some other treasures, including the periwinkle I got from friend Dave Kern.

The north corner of the porch is framed by siberian iris and wintered over snap dragons. I love the purple and yellow.

Steps in the Right Direction

Posted on June 3, 2013 by Merridee

Part of my love of English gardens includes quant paths for strolling through all of the flowers. And in my mind, paths should be flagstone. I did several little flagstone paths at the other house — some turned out great, others not some much, and one I redid like 4 times and still wasn’t crazy about it. So I know all of the hard work and drama involved in flagstone paths. One major thing that had changed since the last time I made one, however, was the price of the stones. At the old house, stone were, on average, $3-$5. So some of those projects got kind of spendy. But a trip to Home Depot and Lowes showed that for whatever reason, flagstone had gotten crazy expensive! $9 a stone. So considering I had to cover 29 feet in a straightish line, flagstones was now way out of my price-range.

Digging around on Pinterest, I found what looked like a good solution — Flagstone shaped concrete. Basically you buy a mold that is the shaped like flagstone pieces and dump mixed concrete into it. My first adventure with concrete was a nightmare but after using it to patch a wall in the basement, I have gotten pretty good at dealing with it. (Sometimes it makes me sad that I have developed certain skills.) Anyway, the mold was $25 and bags of dry cement are $2.50, so this route was definitely within my budget. What could possibly go wrong?

Turns out, nothing! The hardest part of this project was hauling the bags of concrete out of the truck (hardware store guys put them in there for me — thanks again guys!) Then just dump the cement in the wheelbarrow, use the hose for the water, mix mix mix, scope out the wet cement into the mold, smooth, move to next mold. I had 2 molds so by the time second one was filled, the first mold was ready to be moved down the line. Whole process was crazy quick!

This project was crazy easy — mix concrete, pour into mold (seen leaning against house) smooth out and move to the next one.

This is about 20 feet long and only took me about 2 1/2 hours to make. I love how it looks!

Once again bad at math — I under calculated the number of concrete bags I would need to do the last few feet. No worries, easy to mop up after work one evening.

I am so excited about how good it looks — can totally imagine lovely green things growing in the cracks.

Growth Update

Posted on May 22, 2013 by Merridee

It is the last day of my May vacation and wanted to do a quick update on everything I got done: Ceiling fan, moved 6 yards of dirt, planted the garden and behind the retaining wall (wildflower seeds, asters and morning glory on my garden gate), rototilled herb garden bed and set a few stepping-stones. Not too shabby for 10 days off. And then nature has been doing her work too. Things in the front yard are coming in nicely:

Iris, snapdragon, geranium, etc. all looking great.

All kinds of fun happening here, including lupine, iris, brunerra, columbine, yarrow, corral bells, hydrangea, hostas, etc.

The beech tree took forever to leaf out compared to some other trees but totally worth it. So handsome!

Oats and Beans and Barley Grow

Posted on May 19, 2013 by Merridee

OK, so I’m not growing oats or barley, however, I am growing beans. But I always sing that Raffy song in my head whenever I plant a garden. We used to listen to Raffy as a family when we were on road trips and it reminds me of happy family times and of home with veggies from my mom’s garden and makes me believe that by singing that song, my garden will be as prosperous as my mom’s always was. Hopefully with this lovely new soil, I’ll have bumper crops this year!

I followed my original plan. Hoping for a great bounty.

The count: 5 tomatoes, 6 peppers, radishes, 2 eggplant, carrots, zucchini, yellow summer squash, patty pans, acorn squash, delicata squash, peas, green beans, arugula, 2 kinds of mix lettuces, 2 kinds of beets.

A Dirty, Dirty Job

Posted on May 18, 2013 by Merridee

I have already proven that math confounds me (see my retaining wall post). And measurements are just as bad. As a page designer for the last 17 years, I have picas and points, even on a scalable screen, mastered. Inches can be iffy but in print I am close. In the real world it gets ugly. Anything bigger than an inch — feet, yards, meters, miles, kilometers — I am useless. That said, I NEED dirt. And a lot of it. After attempting to top off behind the retaining wall with a few bags of soil from the hardware store proved I have no idea what a yard looks like, I knew that it was more than I wanted to buy in individual plastic bags. So to the Internet I went. First to a yard calculator and then to a dirt company who would deliver. They came Friday morning.

6 yards! The picture does not do it justice — it was literally above my waist and took up most of the driveway. Holy hell, that is A LOT of dirt.

So out came the wheel barrow and for the next 3 days nothing but sholving and dumping — first into the garden boxes and then behind the retaining wall. Because this was happening on a lovely Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I got to meet a lot of my new neighbors out for a walk and enjoying the beautiful day. Lily made a ton of new friends and got a lot of exercise following me back and forth from the front yard to the back and out again. Neighbor Charles (who I really like and who Lily LOVES to bark at) made it a point of coming out and making sassy comments ever few hours — Thanks for that Charles!

But I triumphed!

3 days later. And some seriously sore muscles, I had moved it all.

And now ready for the fun part … planting.

Full and ready for planting

Another blank canvass ready for some fun!

The Push and Pull

Posted on May 11, 2013 by Merridee

The waiting is over and the black death has been removed to see the swath of brown. I am ready to rototill my new herb garden bed.

The plastic did its work and now time to rototill. A little digging confirmed that this was not a job to do by hand.

I had the utilities come out and mark where the lines were. Nothing scarier than hitting the gas line with a rototiller — fortunately they are much deeper than I am planning on going.

Lily really likes sitting on the dead grass — maybe it is extra warm or something.

Lines marked, I headed to Home Depot and rented a rototiller. I have never done this before and it took some time to figure out how to not rip my arms off. But once I got the knack of it, it went pretty fast. Neighbor Charles redeemed himself for all of his snarky comments while I was moving dirt by helping me get the rototiller in and out of the back of the truck.

All done. I had to throw down some blocks to get across the muddy pit. Lily was particularly unhappy about tramping through the mud. I liked the stones so much, I decided to set them deeper and keep them.

One Cool Cookie

Posted on May 11, 2013 by Merridee

We have had a lovely spring — keeping in mind that it is Oregon and rain happens — usually a lot. But is has been nice enough that yard is flourishing and the house has gotten rather warm a few times (thanks to new, non-drafty windows!). So my dad owned a heating and air conditioning business for more than 35 years and I am kind of a baby when it comes to temperature control. This house does have air conditioning but it feels too early to turn it on (and I am cheap.) But one of the virtues I learned about in the old house, where there was no A/C, was ceiling fans. Almost every room had one and I even installed one in the dinning room there. So I knew I could do it again. And bonus this time was that the ceilings here aren’t 12-feet high.

So I spent the first day of my vacation on a ladder doing this.

The before — I LOATH boob lights! How can anyone think that looks good.

Looks pretty snazzy. And it took a fraction of the time that it did at the other house. Experience is a blessed thing! Also note the new art arrangements. So much cleaner. Oh, and the TV is probably new in this photo too. I am sort of fancy sometimes.

Signing Bonues

Posted on May 8, 2013 by Merridee

When I moved into this house, as I have mentioned, there was basically no landscaping to speak of. That is, except 3 roses, some iris, the tropical lily thing, a yuca (why anyone would ever in Portland!) and some basic annuals along the front porch. Most of the annuals died in the frost last fall except for some snap dragons, which wintered-over and are doing great. Score! The yuca is doing its thing and hasn’t made me angry enough to rip out. But the real surprise has been the roses and the iris.

I know most people adore roses, but I find them too high-maintenance and fiddley to be worth it. And I don’t like plants that can stab me. However, after a good pruning these are all doing great and already have blooms. The one at the back of the house is particularly lovely.

A lovely surprise

Like roses, Iris don’t really do much for me. This is especially surprising considering I have a great aunt or second cousin or something that actually bred iris and named a variety after me — DeAnna’s Daughter. I assume it was named for me since I did meet her when I was 12 or something and I am the only one of my mother’s daughters that cares a fig about gardening. Long after she named the plant after me (:-?) and I was taking care of my parent’s house in Loveland, Colo., she called looking for my mom and we chatted for over an hour. She called back several times and I found her to be a delightful, if overly chatty woman. Sadly, I don’t think I know of anyone who has a DeAnna’s Daughter iris and I have no idea what it looks like. Second cousin/great aunt has since died and her business was liquidated. Google has failed me. Sad.

Not sad is the showy display of the iris in my new front yard.

Lovely iris in the front yard