A Yard Makeover

Some blooms on the lilac bush in my back yard.

Suburban Garden:

Spring is here! After a long winter break from our blog we are ready to come back and write about our garden happenings as well as other projects! We are excited about this gardening season and the new hope it brings!

A view of our new raised bed garden.

My (Trista's) yard project started out with a big attitude change and a different outlook on the work. I decided to think about how I could get the yard looking nice little by little instead of being overwhelmed by the project. In years past I have just put flowers in pots and tended just a little to the flower beds and rest of the yard. However, this year I wanted to work hard on all aspects of the yard to make it be the best it could be. I realized I already had so many nice plants, trees and shrubs and with those assets I could build such a nice garden over time. This "baby step" approach to doing a little bit every day has really helped!

After consulting with my Mom we came up with a much better raised garden design for our backyard. Then, my sweet husband Paul built it for me! Last year we had three separate cinder block raised beds. One contained rhubarb and strawberries, another blueberry bushes and another held a pumpkin plant and the sweet potatoes that never amounted to anything.

One of the raspberry bushes that I planted.

My Mom came up with a nice plan that went along the lines of our deck and integrated the rhubarb/strawberry bed with the blueberry bed farther away. Now we have one integrated fruit and vegetable garden. It looks great! And, best of all we were able to reuse all of our existing cinder blocks. We just added concrete blocks on top to stop weeds and grass from growing through. Also, we are in the process of putting in a pea gravel "moat" around the garden so it is easier to mow along the side and we avoid having to weed or use a string trimmer in those areas. It looks so wonderful and a part of our landscape! Also, for the extra space in the garden I decided to add herbs and raspberry plants. The herbs I planted include lavender, rosemary, boxwood basil, oregano, thyme, tarragon and parsley. I also want to plant some sage. Later on in the season I'll plant tomatoes, large leaf basil and various lettuces. I'm very excited about my suburban garden this year!

Adam in the garden near a boxwood basil plant.

Along with the raised bed garden makeover I decided to re-edge the lawn. This involved a week or two of heavy labor. I hand dug the edge again creating a nice border and much neater flower beds. Thanks to the wonderful edging tool that our neighbor Betty let me borrow along with a new square shovel that we bought I was able to dig out the edge and it turned out very nicely. It is amazing what a difference it makes! Adam had fun filling up his wagon with the extra sod, dirt and weeds and hauling them off! Every day I would do a bit of edging or weeding as Adam played in the yard. This sure paid off!

Another view of our raised bed garden.

We had a large pile of topsoil delivered as well as a large pile of mulch. We used the topsoil to fill in the garden. My husband Paul helped with this project too. He took many, many loads of dirt back in a wheelbarrow to the garden. Unfortunately one evening while he was shoveling up some dirt to put in the wheelbarrow he got a nail stuck in his shoe and foot! It must have been in the dirt pile somewhere! It was a very scary moment when he asked me to get some vice grips to try to get the nail out of his shoe! I was so scared that the nail went far into his foot! Luckily he was able to get the nail out and it had only gone in about 1/4 inch or so. Even so, he had a lot of pain and swelling for quite a while in that foot! Quite a gardening accident!! He is doing much better now and I am so thankful!!

The side yard that I finally landscaped with annuals and perennials.

Thanks to my Aunt Janet who has a lovely, large perennial flower garden at her house I was able to get a lot of new plants for my flower beds and also finally landscape our side yard which I had attempted to do halfheartedly in the past. My Aunt Janet gave me many lovely plants including a hydrangea bush, lilies of the valley, black eyed susan daisies, solomon's seal, water irises and many more! They look lovely in the side yard and in the main yard in my flowering borders mixed with trees and shrubs.

A view of our back yard.

So, with help from many others and lots of hard work our yard is really looking pretty this year and I hope it will produce a lot of fruit, veggies and herbs to enjoy in salads throughout the summer!

Country Garden:

The country garden ready to be tilled.

My Mom and Dad have been working really hard in their garden as well. We'll be heading out there later this week to take a look at all of their work and see how things are progressing. In the meantime I'll let you know what I've seen so far and what is coming next.

The chickens are enjoying their new area.

The chickens have been moved to a different fenced off area with lots of grass and a nice tree to stand under for shade. They sure seem to like to congregate there. Earlier this spring they also spent a long time in the garden cleaning out the weeds and "fertilizing" the soil! What a great job- thanks ladies!!

A patch of rhubarb.

My parents have completely and thoroughly weeded the garden including removing a lot of blackberry vines from around the rose bushes and blueberry bushes which will help a great deal! Then, my Dad was finally able to do a nice job of tilling the garden this year. It was ready to plant potatoes a few days ago and they were able to plant 3 large rows! Also, their peas have been planted. Their boysenberries and raspberries look very healthy as well.

They have planted many new fruit tress in their orchard including apples, plums and cherries. The trees are coming along quite nicely.

Adam near some blackberries that will be full of berries this summer.

I will have a more detailed report coming later on in the week when we visit "the farm" as my 2 1/2 year old son Adam likes to call it!

Weather:

A quick note on our weather:

Although it is sunny right now as I write this on May 10, 2011 it has been a pretty cold and wet spring and this was confirmed by the report sent to me by my Mom- Serena in the NOAA report. It says:

"The Northwest was much cooler than normal during April. Washington State (second coolest, five degrees F below their long-term average), Oregon (fifth coolest) and Idaho (10th coolest) were all much cooler than normal."

And later on in the report it states:

"Temperatures during the February-April period, when averaged across the nation, were near the 20th century average. However, the Northwest was cooler than normal, while the South and East coasts were above- to much-above normal."

So, our weather here in Oregon was quite cold this spring!

Hopefully it will warm up soon and we will be able to plant our warmer weather plants such as tomatoes and basil on time for them to grow to maturity by harvest time.

Here's to hope and hard work!

We Finally See the Light!

Country Garden Report:

Yesterday, June 8, 2010 we were finally able to plant a large number of our tomato starts out in the garden! We have had a day or two of dry, sunnier and warmer weather this past week which we are so grateful for! We ended up planting 44 of our all purpose tomatoes with many more specialty varieties left to plant in the next few days. Luckily according to the forecast we are supposed to have some sunny and dry weather coming up this weekend and beyond.

This Friday we'll take advantage and try to plant the rest of our tomatoes and peppers. We really need to plant most everything in the next two weeks in order to give the plants time enough to mature and bear fruits and vegetables in time for harvest in the late summer and early fall. It is fortunate that both I (Trista) and Serena are on vacation from teaching classes this week and next so we'll have extra time to get some gardening done.


All of our potato plants have come up and look very healthy! That is great news as we hope for a lot of potatoes to use in winter dishes. The organic russet potato plant is pictured above. Most of the plants look the same but the purple potato plants have a slight purple tinge to the leaves.


In other garden news our peas are now blooming as are our boysenberries (pictured above). Also, there are berries setting on our raspberry bushes.


Also, tiny baby grapes (in the above photo) are forming on the grape vines and the heirloom roses (used for rose hip tea) are blooming like crazy! Things are starting to shape up quite nicely after our very cold and rainy spring!



In fact, in the NOAA weather report for May, Oregon was among the coldest of all of the contiguous states for the entire month. We didn't have record rainfalls, although it shows the northwest was well above normal. You may also be interested to see how your own region's information. See link for maps below from NOAA:

http://tinyurl.com/26ta9dv

Suburban Garden Report:


The big news in my suburban garden this week was that there were a few ripe strawberries on the bushes in my raised bed garden! It was certainly exciting to see these and as soon as I pointed them out to Adam he quickly devoured every last one! (Pictured below)


In other news the rhubarb continues to grow. It has done really well in the wet weather and the second plant that hadn't been doing as well is now growing much bigger and getting healthier. I may even be able to harvest enough for a pie towards the end of the month! (Pictured below).




Happy gardening to you all this week!

April Showers Bring May Showers

As you could see if you checked out the April NOAA precipitation and temperature information from a couple of our blogs past, our Pacific Northwest region was cooler and wetter than normal. If the past week – and upcoming week’s forecast – is any guide, May will not be far behind.

Although it is definitely soggy outside, the green beauty and lush native landscape of our area is on full display. The wild flags are in bloom now, and the native dogwoods have just finished. False Solomon’s Seal has spread throughout the woodland behind the house, along with wild ginger. Snowberry and wild roses are setting buds. Sword ferns have unfurled their new fronds, and the combinations of native trees, bushes, and flowers along the pathways look as if an artist combined them there. The tree frogs that abound have stopped their mating chorus, and the spring-fed pond below our house is full of their eggs.

Newts (like the one pictured above) have been sighted around the house too; and likely have their egg cases mixed in with frog eggs in the pond. And, our chamomile- pictured above-is blooming nicely and ready for harvest to make tea! Spring, even with its more than usually wild and wet weather, is definitely here!

Spring is in the garden, too. In the garden, we see bunches of microscopic grapes, and the raspberries are setting. Our boysenberries are just beginning to bloom, too.

For further seed planting, though, we will wait. We have heard tales of over-eager gardeners in our area planting and then replanting, as their first seeds rotted in the ground from all the rainfall. It’s not a problem for the plants we set out earlier –the damp and cool weather seems to suit them. So, the brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli are just fine, as are the onions. The peas have not yet bloomed, but are growing nicely.

It’s okay, though, as our growing season is long enough to accommodate a later planting. We often don’t plant anything until mid-June, but still have a good and plentiful harvest. This year we thought we’d try to get several plantings in for several of the vegetables, but if the rain doesn’t permit, it doesn’t. Spring weather can be iffy in the northwest.

Progress of a Weaving Sort

Since our weather has made it difficult to garden, I (Serena) decided to work on a weaving project I have had in mind for some time now. I had some white silk thread given to me by a weaving friend, Hilda Minnickel, several years ago. Hilda wasn’t interested in using the silk herself, but picked it up at a garage sale for a dollar, thinking that I might like it. The silk is very fine, and has frequent slubs and uneven lengths in it which should give character to a simple weave structure. The color is a creamy white, with the sheen characteristic of silk. At the time Hilda gave it to me, I couldn’t think of how I could use it, although I knew I would some day. Since successfully completing a hand-woven upholstery project recently, I realized the silk would be perfect for some rather formal seating I have from my husband’s family. The loveseat has a carved wooden back and curved arms with an upholstered seat. The slipper chair is small with slender legs. It has an upholstered back, and its upholstered seat ends in a pleated ruffle. I would like to use this furniture together in a guest bedroom. These pieces should be worth the time and trouble to make the fabric and upholster since they are antiques, thus more looked at than used; so the work should last.

Although the silk is fine, the upholstery projects are small; so I think I can manage to weave enough. I am going to make a warp of dark red silk stripes in a creamy white background, with creamy white silk weft. A simple satin weave should show off the character and sheen of the threads.

The first task was to wind the eight skeins of fine white silk onto spools. The person who sold them at the garage sale had tried to wind off the silk into balls, but as the three small balls attest, it was tough going. The spools work much better. Even so, it took several hours to wind the silk, spread over several days. The red silk is already wound on a cone, so no preparation was necessary for that. Now it is time to make the warp.

Because of summer activities, the project will go slowly, but there’s no rush. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Quick Suburban Garden Report:

As you can see my (Trista's) strawberries have grown tremendously! There are many berries formed on the plants, all we need is a little sunshine to ripen them but it has been in short supply lately!

Both of my rhubarb plants have been growing very well with all of the rain as well. I hope to harvest a bit of rhubarb combined with rhubarb I get from the farmer's market this weekend in order to make some pies next week. I'll post about that later!

Last but not least, my mint that I have planted in a pot is going crazy! I have two varieties in this pot pictured above as well as some "volunteer mint" in another corner of the garden. I'll have to dream up a tasty recipe for this sometime as well!

Have a great week!

Potatoes and . . .

A week of interesting happenings ended with us finally being able to prepare the garden for potatoes and get them planted. The beginning of the week was really last Friday evening, after we posted our first blog post. We had planted three new fruit trees first thing that morning - a Green Gage plum, and two apples - Macintosh and Granny Smith. When putting the chickens in the chicken house, we decided to take a walk to see the rest of the orchard, and it was a good thing we did. A deer had decided to lunch on the Granny! We quickly surrounded each new tree with some fencing, so at least they are okay, but we don't have the fencing completely secure yet. More on that later.


We had a colder than average week, but at least it didn't freeze. We like to check NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency) for weather information, and discovered that they had other information for gardeners. One we really appreciated was their recommendations for fertilizer to protect our environment all the way from here to coral reefs. Chicken poop is at the top of their list! Humus is right behind! That seemed so funny, yet so nice, to know how our little chicken/egg/poop producers can help to save the planet.

In order to diversify, we planted four kinds of potatoes. If we're planning to eat all this good stuff, after all, who wants to eat the same old thing all the time? Monocultures are for industrial farmers, and we want to stay away from that as far as we can get. We hand-dug the bed because the soil is still pretty damp. Trista's son Adam even had fun getting in on the act with his little trowel! There was a nice breeze, so while we had lunch the soil had a chance to dry out a little, and we could get on with planting. We checked the recommendations from our local university, which suggested planting them 4 to 6 inches deep and about 1 foot apart in the row, with three feet between rows. Okay, we're all set.

All Blue potatoes went in first. We chose them because they aren't just pretty, they are supposed to have a higher vitamin and mineral content. We might as well be healthy along with all this diversity, right? Next we planted All Red. I think we might have a patriotic theme going here. The remaining potatoes we planted are the familiar Yukon Golds and last in was German Butterball.

We are harvesting rhubarb and chives right now. Permanent plantings are sure nice this time of year. The rhubarb will go into a pie, and the chives are going to have a starring role in some of Trista's lovely bread. Recipes will be coming soon!