Archive: Second Quarter 2009
Our hot spell ended with a bang this week-literally. We had quite a group of thunderstorms over the Portland/Vancouver region for several hours that blew down trees while the rain hammered our gardens. The good news is that our corn is now 8" high! We planted the beans and squash a week ago when the corn was 4" high. Mother Nature is watering for us again, which frees some time.
My garden helper, Shawn, poured a
foundation for the front step last week. He's out of town this week, so more
will happen next weekend. In the meantime, our crop circle is doing well.
I'm hunting for a good source of certified noxious weed seed free straw in
our area to use as mulch during the hottest months. While hunting on-line
for a resource near me, I discovered some information about Reed Canarygrass
- the foreign kind - that may be in the wetland area of our property. I'll
have to find out whether we have the native variety or not. Yikes - who knew
there is yet one more scary thing in the ravine?
Veggies are growing rapidly. I've removed the Kozy Coats from many of the tomatoes and placed them around smaller eggplant and peppers. It looks a bit lopsided, ornamentally speaking. We've had problems with the spinach because it gets a lot of sun (when the sun peeks out from the clouds). However, everything else seems happy. Some lettuces are harvestable. I need to plant some more that is as bolt-resistant as possible to get through summer. We love our fresh lettuce!
You can see the terra cotta pot in the background (just in front of the copper & bamboo arbor and lavender walk).
Computer problems prevent me from posting this until next week (unless I upload it to my laptop and take it to a free WiFi site. Perhaps Starbucks by Esther Short Park?).
The corn is coming up and is about 1" for some of the seeds. I suspect the others will be along shortly. When the corn is 4" high, we will plant our squash and beans. Since the predicted weather is supposed to be warm and dry for the next week, 4" will come along quickly.
This week I developed a design for the pebble mosaic stair treads. I picked up some geodes (5) to incorporate into the design.
Planting annuals
and potted plants like crazy. I planted some Canna 'Tropicana' along the
driveway to replace the Phormiums that have been limping along. I'm
impatient sometimes. A new lacy, Ipomea 'Illusion Emerald Lace' from Proven
Winners found a home in a pot with a chartreuse Carex (name escapes me) and
a terrific orange Phygelius. In my large Italian terra cotta pot I
planted Calibrachoa 'Superbells Yellow Chiffon, Nierembergia 'Augusta Blue
Skies', Canna 'Bengal Tiger', Dahlia 'Taxi Driver', Ipomea 'Illusion
Midnight Lace' and a cute little Coleus 'Tiny Toes'. Plants should explode
with color as the week warms up. Of course, the hose will become an
extension of my hand...
Not much has happened since we planted starts and seeds. The weather has been cool so far. But the spinach and lettuces have loved it!
With the crop circle completed, we planted starts and seeds this past weekend. I still have seedlings of tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers to plant, but they need another set of leaves before transplanting. This Sunday is going to be the hottest day of the year (so far), according to the weatherman. Last weekend while planting a hot pepper & tomato plant, I noticed that with the 'Kozies" around them, the pepper already set 2 peppers and the tomato has a flower on it. It hasn't been very warm, so it seems the Kozies are earning their keep.
I have a "guy Saturday" this
summer. Shawn is a gardener's prayer - answered. After helping to complete
the crop circle, he dug in this past week to begin the new steps from the
bridge down to the crop circle. The steps will be as wide as the bridge,
risers and edges in Camas basalt with pebble mosaic treads. I'm thinking
about the pebble design. I'll use the same colors as the large pebble mosaic
in the garden (to relate them and bring unity to the garden). However, the
design will be simpler, allowing the large mosaic to remain as the primary
focal point.
The completed crop circle now has the following planted: tomatoes, hot pepper, onions, leeks, cauliflower, Napa cabbage, kohlrabi, kale, carrots, spinach, Swiss chard, lettuce, and red cabbage. We also planted corn in 6 black pots in the parking area (photos soon). When it is 4" high, we will plant the beans and squash that will be the "3 sisters" planting. Additional plants in black pots are potatoes, a Meyer lemon tree, cantaloupe, beets, and cucumber.
The new steps are just in front of where I stood to take the crop circle photo above.
We had hoped to complete the crop circle last weekend, but Mother Nature was not very cooperative on Saturday. We received a boatload of rain. It's still raining today. Saturday and Sunday are expected to be sunny - from weathermen's' lips to God's ears. I'm about to add to my collection of Kozy Coats (the red objects surrounding tomatoes and a pepper in the photograph to the right). They will make sure that our normal spring of wet and cold will allow warm weather plants to survive until the weather warms up (July 5 - a local joke).
The dirt we dug from the crop
circle area is now sitting in a large heap - affectionately known as the
'earth wall'. I was shocked to see a deer inspecting it early one morning.
We don't see deer in our garden very often (because, due to fortuitous
geographic reasons, they usually don't travel too nearby and don't realize
we even exist-pssst-don't tell them). I walked the garden to see if the doe
had hit any of the deer favorites (hosta, heuchera, dogwood at this time of
year). Apparently I caught her before she had breakfast.
Near completion with just a few bottles to tweak into place and the addition of more soil. Plants are at the ready for transplanting this coming weekend. Woo-hoo!! Gardens are a place of hope and anticipation - great things to renew one's spirit.
The 'dear' deer that I
chased away trying to photograph it.
It has been weeks since my last blog. It is hard even now to write. My son and daughter-in-law were expecting a baby. On Easter, the labor began. By the next day I learned that our little Gabriella was still-born - a cord accident - 1 in every 115 births. One of the most tragic events of my life. The day after the funeral, I was home and threw myself into my garden. The magic of a garden sometimes shows itself in unexpected ways. Gardens and nature are healers of the best sort. They heal hearts, minds, and bodies. Later this summer, when I am ready, I will create a miniature rock garden with miniature conifers and other tiny plants. It will be Gabriella Grigoryevna Dillingham's Garden. And she is welcome to visit anytime.
With a new helper
every Saturday now, the crop circle is nearly complete. All of the grass is
removed and new composted soil is being wheelbarrowed into place. The mix I
am using with our clay soil, which is actually pretty decent topsoil, is 75%
excellent compost and 25% quarter-ten gravel. The gravel is very tiny, but
it helps improve the drainage of the soil. So does the compost, which also
helps lighten the soil, while it enriches it. Rather than rototill it, the
existing soil will be poked with a fork and slightly lifted, but not turned.
This will minimize the amount of new weed seed exposed to the light. With
the new compost (about 3-4 inches or more) in place, the compost will work
its way into the soil over time. Without a rototiller, no hardpan at the
length of the rototiller's tines will be created, either. That's a good
thing, as Martha would say.
Progress continues on the crop circle. All of the outer circle is now divided by dwarf boxwood. The inner circles will be lines of upturned, recycled wine bottles. This past weekend all of the grass was removed and bottles began to go into their permanent locations. Next week I'll show you the final photos.
The promise of warmer, drier weather this weekend has me pouring over a mass of seeds I purchased recently. Since it is a rainy day, it's a good day to plan what to plant in my crop circle. I have crop rotation techniques in mind, as well as corralling plant families in the same area. I've segregated the beans, corn, and squash together (with some nasturtium) and potatoes in their separate bin. These are in the hottest area of the garden at the car park zone. Raspberries have their little area that gets nearly full sun, near the espaliered pears. The peas are in a raised bed that get morning sun and filtered sun in the afternoon. Strawberries and blueberries are sequestered in 2 other raised beds, with a fig, 2 pole apples, and a cardoon as neighbors. I threw in some spinach starts, radish, & mizuna seed beneath the espalier pears. My crop circle (located in a different part of the garden) will focus on other plants and has 8 zones. I love that my edibles are mixed in with my ornamental garden, and will look just as attractive. Why not? Plus they will have the added benefit of being near flowering plants that will attract pollinators and beneficial insects.
Here's the makeup
of the 8 zones of veggies including the plant family names:
Zone 1 (Solanaceae & Lamiaceae)
tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, basil
Zone 2 (Apiaceae, Liliaceae, Brassicaceae)
carrots, onion, radish
Zone 3 (Brassicaceae, Asteraceae)
kale, cauliflower, kohlrabi, radicchio
Zone 4 (Apiaceae, Amaranthaceae)
celery, parsnips, spinach)
Zone 5 (Amaranthaceae)
swiss chard
Zone 6 (Asteraceae)
lettuce
Zone 7 (Brassicaceae)
cabbage
Zone 8 (Amaranthaceae)
spinach
I did some research to find out which plant families play nice together -
which is why I'm showing the names. At the center of the crop circle is a
dwarf fig tree. I'll plant some small flowers that attract beneficial
insects at the base of the fig.
Here's my crop circle with the zone numbers. Zones 2, 7, and 8 get a little bit of shade later in the day. Zone 6 gets a little shade in the morning. The remaining zones get nearly full sun. The 4 dark patches are stepping stone places. I'm creating the pattern with up-turned & recycled wine bottles.
Progress on placing
wine bottles and digging out the lawn. Sort of looks like a wino ran amuck,
huh? A hearty THANK YOU to my wine-drinking friends.
I just had a very busy week finishing 3 chapters of my book and the introduction. Whew! On to the last 3 and finishing photos and index.
In the meantime, we had a number of rain-free days. Enough to do more work on the crop circle. I visited a local restaurant owned by a friend of mine. They gave me nearly 80 wine bottles. I've started digging out lawn-a very thankless task. But I will thank myself after I see my own vegetables. I purchased a 32-gallon black garbage can to grow potatoes in (rather than sacrifice my big terra cotta pot). Now I'll have to decide what to grow in the terra cotta pot. Perhaps a combination of edibles and ornamentals?
Today I dashed out (between showers) and planted some lovely red-orange California poppies and some red shirley poppies. I also divided a grass and pruned my Cornus 'Midwinter Fire' back hard. If you don't do that, you lose the gorgeous new color that new growth exhibits. It is also how the plant got its name.
Spring snuck into town last week-barely noticed except for day-light savings time plus a few buds and blooms. It was warm enough late in the day to be pretty comfortable out there, but still not too warm to be tiring. Perfect gardening weather, I say. Most people don't like this cold, wet weather for gardening, but it is the perfect time for transplanting if the soil is not muddy. That said, I think I moved at least 20 plants this week. God should have put wheels on plants. It'd be so much more convenient.
My large terra cotta
pot last June. I loved the big Phormium in the pot BUT it did not
make it through this winter, sadly. I think I'll have to throw in some
nasturtiums this year. I can add their flowers to salads. Yum.
This is the California poppy I planted today. I put them around my chopped
Phormiums (in the ground), just in case they don't do much this year.
They have large roots, since they've been in place for about 9-10 years,
Let's hope they don't take all summer to get big enough to do their job.
Otherwise, they will be replaced with something else.
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