The Birds of the Air

Today my yard is flush with fledgling birds. I feel a kinship with their parents, each with a squawking baby to feed. Often there is only one parent (I can only assume it's the mother) with two or three little ones following behind, each with their mouths open demanding their next meal. "Feed me! Feed me!," they say with gusto.

And then I inspected my freshly planted garden, and sure enough, they had already snacked on my bean sprouts. I growled as I tried to salvage the few with roots, carefully poking them back into the dirt.

Obviously, I'm just an instrument of God for their survival. Doing my part to feed the starling population. Begrudgingly.

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Matthew 6:26-27

How Does My Garden Grow?

I showed you one picture of my garden yesterday as a bit of a teaser, so here's the rest! Feel free to click to enlarge the pictures, some of the plants are hard to see otherwise.

Here's the one I showed yesterday, my strawberry patch is in the foreground with lettuce planted between the plants. Behind them are my huge spinach plants, a few pepper plants, some marigolds, and if you look closely you'll see my little lavender plant wedged between a lettuce and a spinach. I'm planning to move the lavender plants to another part of my yard very soon.



Here's what my strawberry/lettuce patch looks like up close:



And this is the other half of that bed. In the back row from left to right we have bok choy, spinach, lavender. The row in front of it is 1 pepper plant and some green onions. And in front of that there's marigolds and 3 more pepper plants.



Ok, this picture is kind of confusing... We put up vertical elements before we left on vacation. And thank goodness we did because obviously the peas and tomatoes REALLY needed it! But this is not the best picture of the vertical elements (which we built out of steal water pipe and wire netting in case anyone is interested). They seem to get all jumbled up visually with the chain link fence behind it.



Here's a better picture of the peas, man they really took off!



Up close you can see that I've got a HUGE nasturtium plant. Behind them there are actually some lettuces that you can't actually see. Next to the lettuce, chives and parsley. Next to the nasturtiums are lavender and on the other side carrots. Then in the front row are marigolds, nothing, zinnias, and carrots.



Next to the peas are my tomato plants. From left to right they are Early Girl, Heirloom, Yellow Pear, and Sweet 100 (a cherry tomato).



In front of the tomatoes I have chives, cilantro, green onions, thyme, 1 lonely overgrown spinach headed for the compost, beet greens, basil (which is hiding behind the huge nasturtium), carrots, walla walla onions, and the nasturtium.



Half of this bed is green and wax beans, the other half is thyme, dill, walla walla onions, lavender, a pepper plant, basil, parsley, nasturtiums and green onions which I grew from the root end of ones that came from the grocery store! They're WAY healthier and more advanced than the ones I planted from seed! I don't think I'll ever try growing green onions from seed again.



Half of this bed is corn, I planted 2 different varieties and I need to get out there and replant in the spots that didn't grow.



Here's a close up of the other half. Back row is cucumbers, I'm hoping to train them to grow up the vertical element. In front of them is a row of sweet peppers. In front of that (L to R) are carrots, LETTUCE!, and parsley. Front row is marigolds, carrots, and radishes.



And that's my garden! I'm planning to split up the nasturtiums and plant some of them somewhere else so they aren't taking over the whole world. And of course we'll be eating a lot of salad this week! I got some cucumbers, tomatoes and blue cheese from the store so go along with all the lettuce we have. I also have quite a bit of weeding to do around the beds, but thankfully no weeds IN the beds! :)

How Does My Garden Grow? Part II

So I showed you my veggie/herb garden on Tuesday, and now it's time for the rest of my yard. In some respects, the rest of the yard is even more exciting for me! Why? Well the story of our yard in a nutshell is that we built our house back in 2005, and in 2006 we had the basic landscaping done by professionals. Really, this was the only way it was going to happen for us. We needed someone to come in with big machines to do the basic grading and we needed a retaining wall to be built. And let's not forget, where I live used to actually be IN the Columbia River thousands of years ago or something, so you basically only have to dig a few inches into the ground before you hit gigantic boulders that easily weigh 50-500 lbs. apiece. When we built our house they created this HUGE mound of boulders on the one side of our property just to dig the foundation. And then when they did the landscaping they found more. All in all they took away 4 dump truck loads full of boulders, and yes, the rocks you see in the following pictures all came from our yard. And that was after I put an ad on craigslist advertising FREE boulders to anyone who wanted to come and get them. I think five people showed up, and only 3 of them actually took anything away because once people saw them they realized they were completely unequipped to haul them off.

Once the big work was done, and our financial resources were spent, we didn't have anything left to buy plants (except for a few really cool trees that our landscaper found for us). And then Hub's dad passed away, and we learned we were expecting a slush fund but that we couldn't expect to receive it any time soon due to his dad never writing a will. (Word to the wise, have a will.) So although we knew money was coming, we didn't know when. So no plants.

Then 5 months after all that occurred, we found out we were expecting twins. And I was pretty sick and unable to take care of plants anyway. They were born in June, 2007. And my life has been a whirlwind of diapers and boo boos ever since.

So finally this year I proclaimed THIS IS THE YEAR!! I WILL HAVE PLANTS!!! Because let's face it, after 3 years of having such beautiful beds and the "bones" of my yard sitting right in front of me and being able to do absolutely nothing about it I had developed ideas. LOTS of ideas! And they are just CRYING to get out into reality!

Everything that I am about to show you is a work in progress. Some of these beds are still BARE, and might be for a while. I only have so much time and energy to do things between nap and bedtime.

So this is my perennial bed. It is located directly outside my living room window in the back yard. Hubs has given me "free reign" for this area, which means I do whatever I want here. So far I have a selection of native and non-native plants that should come back each year. I tried to get things that would bloom at different times of the year, so some things don't look like much now but they will be later on.

(As always, click to enlarge if you wish.)



And here are some close ups of things that are currently blooming in that bed.

Not sure what this is, but it's cute and sweet.



Below are coral bells.



Columbine.



If I'm remembering right this is salvia.



This is facing the garden area and the back fence. That perennial bed is behind me when I took this. And those are my brand new lovely lovely coral bark maple trees! I love them SO much already and they're not even in the ground yet. Oh, and there's Rocky too. Turd wouldn't get outta the picture!

I LOVE the red bark on these trees, which means there will be color out there ALL year long! If you live in the PDX area and would like to also get the very best price in town on these trees and more then you should call Dick Alm of Alm Nursery. He'll hook you up. 503-618-0383. CALL HIM TODAY! He's a wholesale nursery grower and right now he's open to the general public but he generally only sells to landscapers and retail. If you need some trees, get over there before the end of this month or it'll be too late.









Moving on, here's a little part of the yard where I actually have plants. Three red hot pokers and some succulents. The pokers got wind whipped last week and haven't looked happy since. But I have hopes that they'll perk up.



Hopefully this will give you some perspective, and also includes my 2 blueberry bushes that I haven't planted yet. I'm pretty sure they're gonna go right where you see them here. Gotta put something in front of those boxes in the ground. And on the other side of the stairs, another tree from Dick's. Seriously, CALL HIM!



And on the other side of the pathway a new pink lace leaf hydrangea and a ground cover called brass buttons.



Which is in this bed on the north side of the house. The other plants there are helibores which need very little sun. This bed is actually where I first started getting ideas for my yard. I'm also planning to put different varieties of ferns in this bed. Which will hopefully counter balance the fact that I planted the helibores crooked.



Don't know what a helibore is? Well, we're all in luck because although I wasn't expecting to see any blooms this year I actually do have one that's blooming. Each one of mine is a different color. They come in a huge variety of shapes and colors and I think they're totally gorgeous!





Across from that bed is our large brick patio, the retaining wall, and our water feature. We've been trying to grow scotch moss around the water feature pretty much since 2006. It was one of the very first things I planted knowing it would take a while to spread and look the way I want it to. So here's how it looks now.



And here's the retaining wall. In the bed on top of it I'm thinking about a combo of 3-5 rose bushes, some lavender, maybe peonies, and decorative grasses. If you look closely you can kind of see something green in that corner bed by the water feature.



It's my new baby lilac tree! I got it for $2 at a garden club fund raising plant sale. It's nothing fancy yet, but someday it'll have nice pretty lavender blossoms!



So that's my back yard. Now we're headed in to the front.

This is the bed that leads to the back gate. Since I took this picture I planted my coolio dwarf clamatis at the base of that tree. It's a ground cover rather than a vine, which I think is awesome! And it'll have spring blooms. I also have some lily bulbs in that same bed which are summer bloomers. So I'm hoping there will be lots of interesting stuff going on in that lower bed. On the upper part? I'm not 100% sure. Heather? ummm... more decorative grasses? An azalea? What do you think?

(PS: That's the first of our 4 super gnarled stinted trees that our landscaper found at a nursery in Bend, OR. Apparently they're really old trees that grew up in the mountains and therefore won't get very big. I think they're really cool looking!)



On the other side of that path we have... nothing. And I have no ideas for this spot. At all.



In front of that spot we have this cool tree.



And next to that tree we have this one. And yup, that's our front door. My mom has some cool native irises that I'm planning to plant along the front walkway. Other than that I don't have any other plans.



And on the other side of the walkway is this little bed. So far I have some dwarf bearded irises planted there. I'm thinkin' that might be all that this bed needs. Except maybe a ground cover of some sort? And yes, that is hunks of moss you see scattered willy nilly on the pathway! A robin family has decided to build their nest on that pillar there. It's officially spring!



This is another tree from Dick's! I don't think we're gonna plant it right where it's sitting though, it's just propped up against the rocks so it won't fall over. The point of planting this tree will be to somewhat disguise that ugly utility box out front.



See that line of orange flags? Those are there so that people won't park on our yard. It's been a problem. Anyway, I'm planning to plant some sort of dwarf shrubbery along there, preferably one with white blooms and year round seasonal interest. Anyone have a recommendation? I'm all ears! In between said bushes I'll plant the tulips that I ordered which will be delivered this fall. They'll be so pretty next spring!



And this is the last and final bed. So far there's just rocks, lots of rocks. A smoke tree (which in a way memorializes my grandma), and 1 blooming succulent. I want all the other plants in this bed to be drought resistant, hearty, sun loving, plants, plus they also have to be able to survive our spring/fall deluge of rain. I anticipate this bed to be the most neglected part of my yard and it is not fed by our sprinkler system. I kind of see it looking sort of like a field of wildflowers or even more like a mountain hillside. Not sure if that makes since but that's the best description of what I have in my mind. Something flowery that goes with our stunted pine trees.



The flowering succulent.



And the smoke tree. I'm SO glad it survived the winter. I planted it just days before that awful snow storm we had. If you don't know what a smoke tree is you should google it. They're very cool trees that get these "blooms" in the summer that look like smoke. And oh yeah, Dick has these too if you're interested. He has everything. Call him.



PS: Dick doesn't even know I have a blog, but if you do call him tell him I sent ya!

So that's it! That's my yard! Like I said, it's a work in progress. But it feels good to actually make progress after years of doing nothing. :)

How Does My Garden Grow?

It's been a while since I've showed you my garden, and since one person actually asked me about it I thought I should share my progress.

WARNING: I am not a master gardener! In fact, this is my very first garden EVER! So please do not feel the need to follow in my footsteps in any fashion because I may be completely wrong. The only thing I really do know how to do is read a book and do what it says. I'm pretty good at following instructions... and that's about it.

(Feel free to click on the pictures to ENLARGE! Some of the little things coming up are pretty tiny.)

So this is my little raised bed garden. It actually has a lot more green in it now because since I took these pictures on Sunday I've also planted my starts that I seeded in the house back in February. They'll make an appearance in a few minutes.



These are my snap peas. I planted 2 squares of them, plus 2 more of snow peas. One of my next tasks is to build vertical supports for my peas, tomatoes, and cucumbers. I'm hoping to do that next weekend, we'll see.



I tried to do nasturtiums in the house back in Feb. too, but they ended up too gangly due to not enough light. So I decided to just throw some seeds in the ground and TA DA! I now have nasturtiums. I don't think I'll try starting them in the house next year. There's actually a 4th one in this square, it's leaves are just a different color.



So The Book says that you should always have nasturtiums and marigolds in your garden because they have natural pest deterrent properties. But it also suggested planting other flowers as well just for fun and to enhance the beauty of your garden. So I picked up a few other flower seed packets at the store. One of them was zinnias. I only see 2 coming up so far, so we'll see. :)



And what's a garden without carrots??? So of course I planted a bunch of them. Get it? A bunch! Ha! I crack myself up...



And I planted 2 side-by-side squares of cilantro. We LOVE cilantro in this house so I wanted to make sure I'd have enough. :)



And then there's my radishes! Aren't they lovely!



My romaine is just starting to come up. I was kinda hoping it would come in faster, but I'll take what I can get. :)



And here's my lovely tomatoes & chives. As you can see I bought 4 tomato plants, and they're all different varieties. One is an heirloom, one is Early Girl, one is Sweet 100 (a cherry tomato), and the last and final one is a yellow pear shaped variety!



And it wouldn't be a garden at my house without some lavender! I bought 3 tiny little lavender starts, all different varieties, all culinary. I thought I'd let them get a good start in my garden, and then I'll probably move them to another spot in my yard once they get bigger. Here they'll get more attention.



Next to the lavender, 2 squares of spinach. I love to put raw spinach in my "green smoothies" every day for lunch and those boxes of organic spinach can get super expensive super fast.



And here's one you might have to click to enlarge! I decided to plant some bok choy. Ain't they cute?!



I also planted some herbs (although I'm sure you gathered that already based on the chives and lavender). Here's my little start of dill.



And here's my varigated thyme. I also have another more traditional thyme planted, but isn't this one pretty?! You'll also notice the edge of my mesculin square, I forgot to take a picture of them. They're also coming in nicely.



And here are some of the things that are now also planted in my little square foot garden. Ignore the stuff in the box... I know, it's hard to (and yes, that is a dwarf climatis! Cool, huh?!). See those strawberry plants? Those are now in my garden. I dedicated an entire 4x4 foot spot to strawberries. The lady who sold them to me said they are 'Evangeline' strawberries. They are not ever-bearing, but she said she gets a bountiful harvest from hers each year, so hopefully there will be enough to make some jam with them or some killer shortcake.



These are what's left of my February starts. From left to right you'll see bell peppers, marigolds, and parsley. The parsley looks pretty sad and pathetic, I don't think I'll start them in the house next year. Especially since the squares where I planted parsley seed ARE coming up. The bell peppers are long and skinny, but I've read other places that if you bury part of the stem that new roots will form along the stalk, so that's exactly what I did when I transferred them to the garden. The marigolds are probably the healthiest of the three. They're actually already forming buds, so I'm sure they'll be fine.



More pathetic parsley.



Depending on how the harvest goes (and if my peppers produce anything at all) I'm thinking I'll just buy starts of these plants next year rather than try to do my own in the house. I just don't have the setup for it and they don't get enough light and heat. Plus they take up a LOT of space on my kitchen counter! lol Just wait, come next February I'll be getting out the soil pellets and lights again trying to make a go of it!

So that's my garden! But stay tuned! I'm planning to share the progress on the rest of my yard on Thursday, and it's possibly even MORE exciting!