Air, Work, and Plants :)

With 90 degree temps recently, and with three 100 degree days on the horizon, I thought it was finally time to break down and put my air conditioner in the studio.
It took a couple hours this morning to kludge it into place, but its stable and will do its job efficiently - if perhaps a little ghetto.
Totally worth it.
Also worth it? Making milkshakes for dinner with friends!

Without sounding too much like I'm complaining about bruises when its raining gold nuggets - with the recent success I've been having at the market I realized that I have not had a day off since the last weekend of June. That makes roughly thirty days of at least 5 hours of work a day, and many 8-10 hour days. And with the heat we are having, I'm just kinda feeling a bit tired O_o
But, work goes on! I refuse to let sales go by when the iron is hot as they say!

I thought, as usual, I would post some more garden pics while I'm here.
Enjoy.


New Stonecrop Matrona, in front of Agastache - the peachy orange flowers behind it that smell like mint... you can't smell it?

Ornamental Pepper plant 'Purple Flash'

Mountain Fire Pieris - the new growth begins as a bright red, in the spring it has little creamy yellow bell flowers.

This is a Dahlia actually! Doesn't look like one, but its a hybrid perenial, and has multiple color blossoms in one plant! You can just barely make out another flower starting to bloom behind the peachy one that will be a fuchsia purple. Amazing what meddling in genetics can do.

Purple Coneflower Echinacea with Bee. There are so many bees in my garden, its great. And so many varieties of bee! Mostly they love the Wallflower pictured below this pic, and the Salvia around the garden. It's so great to see bees and butterflies and hummingbirds around. It's sad ever since I drained the pond (too scummy) that there have been less birds. Or the birds come around, land on the edge of the pond, and just kinda wonder where the water went.
Sorry birds! I promise to fix it soon! Just kinda busy right now... :(

African Daisy (only annual I planted) with Wallflower

Agapanthis! Yay! Came back from near death this winter. Such a pretty color to accentuate almost anything I put next to it. I'm so proud of it. Live Strong and Rock on Agi'

Garden Pics

I've been way too busy (for thankfully good reasons: stellar sales at market, and social endeavors in free time) to get in the garden much over the last four weeks. But it's holding out on it's own for now.
I haven't taken great pictures of it for awhile, but I thought I would post some anyway. Just as filler. :)

Camelot Foxglove being healthy:

Mahonia Repens (Creeping Barberry aka Oregon Grape) - it has little yellow cupped flowers in the spring and these little berries in the summer. They are actually edible. I'm waiting for them to turn ripe, but supposedly they will have a very sour taste that is best mixed with other fruits in a jelly. It will produce only enough this season to have a sample taste.
Hollywood Plums, getting bigger. I don't know how long I have to wait now.

I've kept portions of the grass long, and it has turned a crisp dry tan (as grasses do and I love). It provides great habitat for all kinds of little creatures which makes me happy. In the center of this picture is a little blue dragonfly.
Another creature who lives in tall grasses:
This picture shows the first portion of the garden I planted when I moved in. It is not the best organized and I will probably this fall start to rearrange and even split some plants to fill out other areas. But it makes me happy to have a more or less maturing area of the garden.
The orange red flowers are Lucifer Crocosmia, the little yellows dots of flowers are Moonbeam Coreopsis, less noticeable but still there is a Salvia, the Agapanthis I thought froze, some Purple Coneflower Echinacea, and more.
I have a Vintage Wine Echinacea I'm still waiting to bloom.
All be well.

Flagstone Laid; more work still ahead

Thought I'd show what the flagstone looks like all laid out!
I still need to work on bordering it in, retaining that 10 inch level difference on the side, figure out whether I will border the pond with the same flagstone, build a bench out of some of the flagstone left... stuff.
But I'm happy with the result so far.


And a couple bonus pics just cause:

Asiatic Lily bursting

And a Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly that's been hanging around a lot lately. (probably not same one, or maybe so, no idea really)
He's on my Bowless Wallflower, which is the only thing she/he cares for.

Mental RollerCoaster over Moths

So someone just recently told me that all the little red shiny pupae that I find and save in my garden while I'm digging around are Cutworms, well cutworm pupae.
When I was given a name and told they were devastating and a pest and plague I was stricken. I'd saved at least twenty of these things, very cautiously and graciously - only to find that they are evil.
So I was hurt for the day, really, like I was harboring satan in my garden.
And as I thought had been the case, all the little green and brown caterpillars I had also been saving were the larval form of the red shiny pupae. I was under no illusions that the caterpillars I had were "good" to have around. I mean, yeah, they gotta eat, and their going to like to eat my garden. I figured, there's enough to go around, go ahead. You'll be butterflies and enhance beauty in the world.
Then I found out that they don't just like to eat plants daintily and around the edges, saving some for others or for later, or to allow the plant to live, no, they like to chop it at the base or eat all the new growth to the ground.
This explains much death in my garden.

But I also found out that we are nearing the end of the larval season (caterpillar) and many more will be pupae soon (the little red shiny things) which don't do much but wiggle in the ground, meaning they will be nothing but brown moths soon. So nothing to sweat over, at least for the rest of this season.
Of course all the moths will then be propagating and laying eggs in my garden for next year....

Shit, well WTF, I survived. The garden is surviving. Maybe casualties, but not a plague. Maybe they are "evil" in some eyes, and I understand that completely. But it is life, and if nothing else, having a garden is bringing me closer to this intimate understanding that I have always naturally had, that life is life, and it all has a place. I can't cut my lawn or prune my plants or kill hardly anything because it's just doing what its supposed to.

Moral of the story: I got caught up in the "evil" labels that people were putting out there without taken my own experience into consideration. I can live with evil. I may not save it the with such grace anymore, but I can live with it.

PS - this whole issue becomes hazy when you start taking into consideration non-native species, or species that truly are extremely destructive like japanese pine beetles and star thistle and zebra mussles. But then again... thats just what I've been told.

oh and dandelions, no room in my garden for those pushy bastards.

More Roses

Here are some other colors I'm lucky enough to own.



I might try to move some of the rose bushes, because there are so many colors all in one space competing for sun.
But something in the back of my head tells me its not a good idea to try and move well established rose bushes.

The yellows were not the first out of the gate, but they are by far the most numerous at the moment. But I really like these new orange rimmed cream ones.

Love to all!

New Flowers

Aquilagia Winky:

Camelot Foxglove:
Asiatic Lily plus Spirea:
And much to my astonishment - BABY PLUMS!! (i did not expect my plum tree to come to fruition so quickly):

First Roses of the Season

The bushes are blooming and there are loads of buds that will probably burst open very soon.
I will now be making my friends uncomfortable by bringing them roses when I hang out with them, making them wonder exactly where I believe our relationship stands.
There are three other colors besides these three I believe. Bright yellow, orange with kinda painted red and pink, and dark red.
The pink has almost no scent, the red has very little scent, and the lavender has one of the best scents I've ever smelled in a rose.

Windows that don't blow!

So I got the upstairs windows replaced this week.
Third biggest single expense of my life, but its a relief.
The old ones were aluminum and sweat badly, meaning so poor at energy conservation that in the winter time, it had condensation so bad that i had ice built up all along the bottom of the window. Like inch thick ice. Inside the house. Messed up.
So the new ones are awesome, but not in a way that translates in a photo, just in their clarity, smooth operation, and energy conservation.

Anyway, I will tell you the part I will always remember about the install process. A family operation did the install, the team leader/father has been doing it for thirty years, has long hippie gray/blond hair, and seriously three teeth in his mouth. He was pretty funny unintentionally but knew what the hell he was doing. But the best part was when he would call to his wife for some tool that he needed fetched.
Each window took a whole tube of silicon caulk to seal it on the inside and outside, which means they went through ten - twelve tubes of caulk.
Whenever he ran out, he would lean out the window and just yell "Jerrie! I need caulk! JERRIE! I SAID I NEED CAULK!"
Now if you don't know why this is funny just say it aloud once. Go ahead. You know the "L" is silent right?
Get it now?
I challenge you to yell it aloud in your neighborhood hanging out your window at 9 in the morning.
The first time made me laugh, the second a chuckle again, and the third I was cringing a bit.
Anyway here are some pics even if it doesn't show much.

Also here is a new plant in the garden: Chatahochie Phlox
And the first blooming of a Maiden's Blush Lilac I planted last year. Smells divine!
That's funny, I just realized I also have Helena's Blush Euphorbia. I wouldn't be surprised if I had another blush of some kind in the garden!

a little bit different

went a lot bolder than my usual style.
nothing ground breaking or exceptional. but its different for me, and I had fun with it.
maybe the best part is having a feeling of general completion in one evening rather than half a year.

also here is the weeping cherry further along in its blooming. it won't last very long :(

Holy shit a snail! and other stories

I found a snail in my garden today! A full one inch bodied Snail! Have you ever seen one in real life? Like crossing the street or under a leaf or anything? I thought they just existed in childish humor about being slow, or in European fairy tails. But there it was, under my garden growth, and when I cleared the leaves out of the way, there were two caterpillars with it! This is like a live version of Alice in Wonderland! I wanted to ask them where the hooka was! Incredible.


If you can't tell I'm rather enamoured by my garden and the things I find there. The simplest things amaze me like a schoolchild. Like putting seeds in the ground and having them sprout! I mean how does that even happen!? These seeds are TINY! Where does this life, this energy come from?
I even stopped to ponder the snails shell and how it was made. I mean, okay sure, I've seen snails and clams and they don't have the "awesome-ness" of like a whale shark or pink dolphin (click the links). But it amazes me just as much to ask where that shell came from. How did this creature begin to form it and how?
At least its something to think about while digging.


I thought I would also show what some of my yard looks like. And I do mean yard, as in, the part that isn't my "garden". And yet it is. Because as some of you may or may not know - I don't mow my yard. This does not create an overgrown jungle surrounding my house... or, well okay it kinda does, but not in the way you think.
The grass doesn't grow too tall really, I assume because I haven't "trained" it to grow and grow and grow by mowing. Also the moss and other creeping weeds keep it in check. There are a number of things I call "weeds" in my yard. Honestly I almost call anything that I didn't plant there myself a weed. But the dandelions are the only ones I pull out with a vengeance. Many of the others are quite pretty and make my yard more interesting.
My pokeberry emerged as a part of this "wildification" of my yard. And that was a great seasonal experience I might have mentioned to some. Also these great tiny white flowers are poking out of everywhere, along with a vining of purplish heads. Here I'll show you:

I've kinda only stumbled into this whole "re-wilding" landscape thing, as in, I just never bought a mower. (I looked into getting a push one but found out to my dismay that you need to mow more often because they only work on short stubly grass) But honestly its so obvious that its exactly what my yard would be like. I actually would like as little lawn as possible. I have a picture of a part of my garden I use as inspiration towards developing an ultimate theme in the yard. Its just stones and moss and plants.
As for a last hooray to a long post - my weeping cherry is finally blooming!! YEA!

Healthy destruction.

You all might find it surprising to hear that I've kinda found myself feeling a bit angry some days this week. I'm not entirely sure why, and its not an emotion I'm too familiar with, but I've already found an excellent way to deal with it.
I go out and weed!
I get to rip at stuff with sharp steel tools and my bare hands (or, okay, gloved really).
Destruction, only beneficial. Win Win!
It might be the only thing I have found that I don't have a large sense of guilt about killing.
Good thing there is a lot of it.
And thats the only time you'll hear me say such a good thing about my weeds!

Secondary anger blow off is Unreal Tournament 3.
I'm proud to say I have been ranked 1,863 out of 400,000+ players online, although that stat changes after every game.
I have no idea what my weed killing rank is, but I'm willing to bet there is no single dandelion that can best me. Perhaps in a large group if I were being flanked...

Spring Renewal

Getting to be spring round here in Portland! Not that we've seen temps much above fifty, and actually I'm still waking up to a thin layer of ice on the pond... but still! Life is pushing its way forward in my garden.
Not all the plants I put in the ground last year have shown their new skins, and I'm afraid I've had a fair share of casualties (damn you winter apocalypse 2008!), but I have hopes for some of those still hidden in the ground.
My Agapanthis is most probably RIP, but there are slight signs of bright green among the dead ET like white mess.
I am most displeased about my jasmine not looking so hot and am fervently awaiting signs of renewal.
I'm also a little confused as to why my Honeysuckle is down for the count. I believe in its strength and hope for a late round come back.
But I just saw little spears coming from my Crocosmia mounds, and subtle whispers are coming from my Weeping Cherry that it might actually bloom (i wasn't sure it would).
YAY for the power of nature!