Who is the moron driving through my garden?!?!

So, the other day, I came home to find that somebody drove through part of my garden. I would like to think that nobody saw my reaction and how I wasn't able to contain myself, but if anybody did, oh well.

I'm not sure who it was or how it happened but I do know that the person that did it knew it was happening. They managed to drive over large rocks at an angle to crush three of my spirea and four of my Rainier strawberries. It was really upsetting.

I have since created a border of obstacles to prevent this from happening again. I have placed a LARGE cottage stone at each end of the damaged patch and inserted very tall bamboo stakes to be visible to any driver. As far as I can tell, nobody is going to be able to destroy my garden again.

When it comes to healing my poor, damaged plants, that is taking some time. I have trimmed back the broken branches of my spirea and tied them up, trying to get the branches to graft themselves back into the trunk of the bush. They don't seem to be taking this well, so we'll see what happens after another week or two.

My strawberries took a beating too. They were just getting to the point where the fruit was going from green to pink. The leaves were beautiful and reaching for the sky...and now they are smashed. I will say though, after trimming back all of the damaged bits, they are making a steady recovery. Hopefully the berries will be even sweeter due to the tribulations they've faced.

Yippee!! Things are growing!

It is amazing what just a bit of direct sunlight will do for plants and seeds. I can't hardly believe the drastic improvement in my garden over the last week. It's almost like a different place.

I feel like the best way to describe the amazing changes and how happy my garden looks is just to post the pictures. So here they go:

Mullien--it is thriving and amazing in the sunlight

Strawberries--all three varieties have berries...and they're changing color

Squash and Zucchinis--the leaves are reaching for the sun and there are blossoms

Green and Wax Beans--they pushed up the soil and are growing, what seems like inches, everyday.

Radishes--they have hit the point that I need to thin them out or they are all going to look weird like pink carrots

Lavender--it is sprouting and growing into an amazing bush

Out of garden space? Build some!!

My next door neighbor is brilliant! We all know how small my garden space is, but imagine having even less! That's what my backdoor neighbors have to face. It's amazing what they've done though. Around their patio, they've made a small vegetable garden and then at the entrance to their walkway, they've made raised beds from horse water troughs. The most inspiring addition was the built in planter boxes.

Removing a few cottage stones, they were able to create a perfect, sunny void that could be filled in with soil. A front to hold the dirt was constructed and wedged between the cottage stones, and a little protection was placed at the base of the fence behind to make sure the wood didn't rot. Add some soil, some bean trellises and some beans, and you've got yourself a vertical garden.

This amazing and simple construction job was all to inspiring for me... I had to follow their lead and build my own beds. I'll be honest, I got a little out of control. In total, I built up 6 new beds. This displaced a few cottage stones that I now need to find a use for. I'm thinking that I can put them together in my patio area to plant some sort of shady vine or shade flowers. I'll keep you posted!

Here comes that rainy-day feelin' again...

This is killing me. Seattle is just a pit of rain right now. That's wonderful for all of the evergreens and laurels and water gardens, but my newly planted seeds and vegetables are just not happy.

The tomatoes are just kinda sittin' there, waiting for some sun. The pimentos are praying for a warm day to let their little fruits grow and ripen. The curry is wondering if it was planted by mistake. The beans have poked through the soil, but they haven't decided if it's worth their while to set up camp. The butternut squash, it has decided that if the sun shows its face it will get comfortable, and you can see it in the way its leaves are spreading and pointing out their direction. It's the same situation for the zucchinis.

The radishes could care less though. They are growing like they don't know any better. Both types that I planted are flourishing. The English lavender has really taken to the soil too. It perked up right away and its branches have really gotten strong.

The other little bit of farming that I've started is in little pots. I've started, from seeds, broccoli and Brussels sprouts, basil, lavender, flax, sage and catnip. The brocs and sprouts have officially germinated and are doing what they should: growing and making ready to be transplanted. The other seeds are still sleeping, hopefully they will come to life soon.

So, all in all, we need some sun. The poor plants need some encouragement and I don't want to be discouraged in my first agro attempt myself.

My vegetables are in!

This has been so exciting. I've been so busy that I haven't even been blogging about what I've been doing.

So, it started with taking out the grass and then tilling the soil and then planting my seeds and starts and then waiting.... I'm bad at waiting and just had to be active in my garden, so I decided to add some structure around my new addition. I built up the vegetable beds a bit more and then had to re-work my brick. What I came up with is a great garden space that I can work in without smashing down the soil.

First, I dug out the borders of each of the berms to be able to lay my brick. Digging about three inches down was perfect for laying my bricks. I also layered rocks under the bricks to provide a bit of drainage and hopefully prevent puddling on rainy days (I pray I don't find out if this works until the fall). Once in place, I rubbed soil into all of the crevices in the brick border and then rinsed them, giving them an established look and helping them settle into place. I think it looks pretty amazing for being constructed of recycled material in a very small space.

The next step in adding some more form to my vegetable garden: stepping stones and plant labels.

My urban farm

I am so excited. I put in a vegetable garden! It's very thrilling for me because I didn't think that I'd ever get to have one. I have a very small yard, so putting one in was a big decision. It required removing the only little bit of grass that I had. I'm okay with that though because grass, when it's as small of an area as this was, is a waste of space sometimes. Also, since my house is the front of our little pod, I'm going to have to make this new plot of dirt look good all year round, so it's an extra challenge.

To start, I had to remove my grass, which could only be described as the crapiest crapfest of crap ever. It was this horrible layer of sod that set like cement on top of the hardest soil on earth. Once I was able to pull away the mesh/clay/grass crap, I had the pleasure of busting up the wretched mixture of dirt, concrete chunks, rocks and roots that lay beneath. After three hours of tilling the soil and turning over the hard clay, I was able to mix in enough compost/potting soil that the ground now looks like a garden. It's beautiful and smells like...dirt.

Once the back-breaking toil was completed, it was time for the planning and planting. I had to think hard about what sort of vegetables I would actually use if I had them available. It came down to peppers, tomatoes and little squash types. Those and some herbs...oh and green beans...oh, and radishes...and... I must be stopped.

The next steps are under way. These include a bean structure, stepping stones and borders. I'll post pictures soon!

Thank you Mom!! I love my ferns!!

This Mother's Day weekend we visited my mom up in Bellingham, WA. It's a great place with even less sunshine than Seattle, but somehow or another, she's managed to make an incredible garden that grows like...a weed.

She has everything in her garden and she's happy to share it. As we walked through, she was like "Ooh, do you want that? or this?" I'd be a fool to say no to free plants! I left with two great plants that I don't know what in the world they are and then three tufts of painted ferns. I can't tell you how excited I was for the ferns, but they were the trickiest bit.

Ferns typically grow in the shade, deep in the forest where it's cool and dim...not out in the open. True, living in Seattle is like living in the shade, but that's more of an emotional truth than a reality. To ferns, sitting out in the open in Seattle is feels like being planted in the desert. My solution: find the shadiest part of my garden and strategically plant taller vegetation around it to create a canopy.
To do this, I transplanted some of the millions of hostas from the abandoned neighbor-yard and an enormous columbine from behind the shed. Those, mixed with the tall mystery plant from my mom, made a great environment for my new ferns. Hopefully the nearby euphorbia and rhododendron will provide some shelter as well.

I started this new section of my garden in an unusual spot, right between my cottage stone wall and fence. I had to be careful when setting this up as I don't want my fence to rot. Lining the area with rocks and sticks, I created a great drainage system. The slats in the fence help too. On top of this, I added soil and formed small canals around the cottage stone to help standing water move. At the end of the bed a built a small rock wall to hold up the soil as well as allow the necessary drainage. I think it looks pretty amazing myself, but then I'm prone to enjoy my projects more than others.

I can't wait to see how my new ferns take off! I think they will do pretty well assuming that I have provided enough shade. Wish us luck!

A sustainable artist: Cindy Mangutz

This weekend is Mother's Day. We spent a great day with my mom and then came over to Port Townsend to visit Chris's mom. It was really fun to hang out with the fam, spend some time in the sun and the go mingle with the locals in downtown Port Townsend. Right off of the main drag, Water Street, there was an arts and crafts fair going on. All sorts of stuff going on from jewelery makers to oil painters working live in front of you.

One of the artisans we came across was Cindy Mangutz. As it turns out, she was Chris' neighbor growing up. I've got to say, she is the most welcoming and amazing person to talk to. You're thinking, "what in the world does this have to do with anything?" Well I'll tell ya: Cindy and her husband Steve create sustainable art. In her own right, Cindy is an incredible artist with a huge expanse of work. Today, I saw a different side. She and her husband take art, function, sustainability and horticulture and blend it all together to make some incredibly unusual pieces.

Using wood coming from their property, they've created some amazing things. What caught my eye the most were two chairs. One was a beautiful maple chair, meant for the indoors, that was perfectly crafted and begged to be sat in. The other was a chair with a flowering seat. Thin cedar branches woven through the structure, this piece of furniture was also home to a living bouquet. The chair was structurally sound and visually appealing, but meant for the garden. I was jealous that another visitor made the purchase before we could, but we'll see what the future holds...

Desertscape shout out: a what-what for my CA and AZ peeps!

I just wanted to throw some encouraging words out there to my ladies in the hot lands to the south.

Kelly, don't go pulling weeds in the hot sun when there is raging bees' nest in the yard next to you. That sounds a bit daunting and dangerous. I would recommend spending some time as the sun goes down when the bees are inactive. I also, and don't laugh, recommend approaching the area near the bees with a tennis racket. It sounds cruel, but it is your best defense against the stinging neighbors. Also, in some areas, you can reach out to your local authorities if the neighbors' bee problem poses danger.

In the mean time, http://www.abolishpestcontrol.com/ would be a great recommendation to give to your neighbors. It's like a private sector animal control.... Just a thought.

Melissa, I have high hopes that you're bird of paradise is still alive and doing better. I haven't seen any update from you. Don't be discouraged if your plant isn't doing better. I'm sure that if what you've done so far hasn't helped, talking with it daily will. That's all it takes sometimes: communing with your plants. I know that it sounds cheesy or dumb, but it works.

Best of luck to you folks who have to brave the extreme heat. Know that I'm jealous of you. Ooh, and if you get a wild hair to plant something on my behalf, please, make it a bougainvillea!!

Sprucing up the address: a little mosaic goes a long way

When we first moved into our house, our address numbers were boring, plain and excessively standard. They also weren't the best quality: spray painted wood. I decided that it's time to fix this and move the eye-catchingness of the garden up the house. How will I do such a thing?

I have created mosaic house numbers. I think they are looking pretty amazing. They are flashy, one-of-a-kind and hopefully pretty durable.

I started with blank wooden tiles. I drew out the numbers on them and then tried a few different color combinations. I decided on solid colors around white numbers. The numbers really pop! From there, I started to lay out the broken glass to fill in the space. In fear of making a big mistake, I laid each of the designs first before adhering them to the wood. Once I was certain of what I wanted, I used an amazing tacky glue to hold them fast. It wasn't messy and it cured very quickly.

Today, I am drilling holes to hang the new tiles and then staining their edges and grouting them. I'll post another blog about that once it's completed. I really enjoyed putting these mosaics together. It was an exercise in patience and a stretch in creativity. Glass is really a lot of fun to work with and once this project is completed, I've got another in mind.

Bulbs are put to bed...

So, I had a bustling weekend. There was lots to do in real life and tons to do in the garden. My tulips had finished blooming a few weeks ago and their remaining foliage was finally turning yellow. If you recall, that was the key indicator I was waiting for. So how did it go?? It went.

I'd read a few different account of people pulling their bulbs simply by grabbing the stalks and yanking them up out of the soil. I tried that with one individual plant...and failed. The thing is, because I waited as long as I did to uproot the bulbs, they had time to multiply and build on themselves. This is great because it will increase the number of blooms next year, but this is tough because I ended up tilling most of the beds. I was really careful to not disturb the summer bulbs that were in the same bed, but well...yeah, they got disturbed a bit. I got the soil all back in place and added some nice new mix into it to liven it back up. Hopefully, my summer bulbs will be happy with me.

As for all of the many tulips I pulled, they are being safely stored on my patio, out of sunlight, but where rain can fall on them. All of research that I did mentioned either soil or sawdust to put them in, but I am trying something different. I wove some stalks and foliage together to form a nice nest for the bulbs. I sprinkled soil in with them too for good luck. I think this is going to be a success.

Now that this is done, it's time to focus on the summer. It sure isn't sunny and warm in Seattle right now, so it's tough to find inspiration, but I'm going to make something great!

Farmers Market Madness!!

I just had to make sure that everyone knew, the Columbia City Farmers' Market reopens today!!! What does this mean? It means lots of organic, local produce and the whole community coming out of their caves for some fun.

Check it out: http://www.rainiervalleypost.com/?p=21707

The market always starts a little slow but by early summer, it's all the rage in South Seattle. One of my favorite items is an amazing garlic sauce. Hopefully, I'll be able to create my own version from the garlic I'm growing in my garden. Another gem is the chev. From a local farm, it's the most incredibly fresh chev I've ever munched. I prefer the herbed version, but any is amazing.

I may have to work on some sort of booth myself for the farmers' market. What could it be??

Some encouraging words from our sponsor...or just me

If you recall, I was moaning about the euphorbia that I'd transplanted because I uprooted it incorrectly. Remember that? Yeah, well anyways, it's doing amazingly! I'd cut back the really tall stems that had flowered and died after the transplant and now, the new growth is incredible. The stalks are strong, the leaves are healthy and I can tell that it's happy to be in its new bed.

The other plant that I'm so excited about is my climbing hydrangea. It's a silly thing, and it's just my impatience showing through, but I've been waiting for it to do anything besides be the same height with the same leaves for a year. Today, I'm proud to say that it's got flowers and has already grown about 4" inches this spring. We've had so few nice days that it's off to a slow start, but I can tell that it's got big plans for the summer.

In my posting about trying to get all agro up on this, I'd mentioned transplanting some strawberries. I didn't talk about the fear that I had of bringing in some Northwesterns in and how they react. Well, it's been unexpected. At first, they looked really sad and smashed and some of their leaves turned orange...but there was a miracle! They grew new leaves faster than I've seen any other plant and now they've got some of the most incredible blossoms. I can't wait to harvest!

The last of my encouraging words relate to a forsaken ground cover that I hand my hands on, ready to pull because it looked moldy and weak. Well, it is thriving, blooming and spreading. Snow in Summer is what I almost pulled. I'm so glad that I didn't because it brings a really bright punch to a dark corner by the fence. I'm hoping the Snow spreads and fills in around the maple tree growing above it, but I'm not counting my chickens before they're hatched.

Takin' over the neighborhood

So, remember how I'd talked about the garden next door and the lady who'd moved out? Well, I've decided to take on her abandoned garden as my own. I can't let the poor plants be taken over by the joint forces of weeds and pine needles.

Yesterday, I spent my afternoon doing prep work to bring Golda's rockery back to its original, amazing state of beauty. I didn't realize what I was getting myself into at first, but then once I started pulling up grass and carrot sized dandelion roots, I saw how intense the road ahead would be.

Towering above the rockery, are about 6 large fir and pine trees. This means needles...everywhere, and thick layers of them. I went through a little internal debate as to whether or not it was worth my while to remove them and expose the rock terraces. I decided to go for it and am glad that I did. I uncovered so many struggling plants: lilies, an artichoke, honey suckle and more sickly tulip and daffodils than you can imagine. Hopefully exposing all of them to light is going to inspire them to grow and bloom. I don't expect the bulbs to produce flowers at this point, but maybe, just maybe they'll make something next year (a miracle w/o pollination this year).

The one plant that I am the most hopeful about...peonies. They were able to make it up out of the needles, but they look really unhappy. Perfectly placed with the perfect amount of shade and sunlight, I think that I'm going to see some amazing flowers by the end of the summer. Watch for the pictures to start rolling in! In the mean time, I'm trying to come up with a great way to allow the poppies to take over the sidewalk's edge, but it's really difficult to thin out the grass from them. Any suggestions?

I have a lot more work to do. I have two more levels of terrace to complete as well as have of the street level strip and the terraced walkway. Anybody up for joining in on the fun?

Earth Day Inspiration

Yesterday was Earth Day. That means that everybody was supposed to be a little more conscious of their surrounding world and that they are supposed to start a new chapter in their life in regards to how they impact the planet.

For me, this meant running. It's free, it's in the open, you get to see the scenery without any barrier (like a car window) and there is fresh air rushing past my face. I enjoyed my run so much that I am going to make the effort to do this three days each week...in place of the electricity-wasting exercise equipment.


Besides the exercise factor of running, I really enjoyed being out and about in my neighborhood, not just in my yard. There are so many trees and gardens in bloom right now that as I run, it kind of feels like I'm trekking through an impressionist painting. You know how impressionism can be quite blurry, but you know what it is and you know that it's beautiful? That is what I see when I run. I don't think that my brain can process images at the lightning speed that I move (very slow lightning).

Anyways, my Earth Day running experience was really inspiring and encouraging. I hope I can keep this up. I'll let you know how it goes.


PS: I know that this isn't related to sprucing up your garden or home, but it's about self improvement too.

Repurposing the chimney

With so much remodeling and new construction replacing old, people are throwing out all kinds of amazing things. If you watch craigslist, you'll no doubt see in the "free" area listing after listing for old bricks and concrete blocks. Often the old bricks still have small chunks of mortar on them and the blocks are cracked or broken. You know how the old adage goes: one man's junk is another man's treasure.

I've taken advantage of this situation and been able to create some wonderful structures and organization in my small space. By lining my beds with borders of old brick, I've been able to add some visual interest as well as separate my ground cover from individual plants.

Where this is most useful and most evident is in my wildflower bed. I built up the soil a bit before laying the bricks in a "b" shaped pattern which gave the illusion of a slightly raised bed. Once built, I scattered wild flower seeds and let them do their thing. I told myself, I said "Self, if you see something growing outside of that patch, you know you can pull it because it's not supposed to be there" and that's just what I've done. I sound weird, but having this clear border has allowed me to keep the surrounding area weed-free without the fear of pulling something that I'd planted the prior year.

I've also been able to use the brick bordering technique to keep my ground covers under control. I've currently got some Northwestern strawberries mixed between two mysterious flowering rugs and all three groups are staying contained. It looks great how they just spill onto the brick. I can't wait to see them fill their designated areas.

The last thing that I've used the old brick for has been to edge off my small plot of lawn. Grass is one of those things in life that you can fight with and think that you're winning, but then it'll turn around and show you who's boss. I would love for the middle of my lawn to be perfect and beautiful, but the grass prefers to spread outward and be extra super green at the edge of the garden...where it then thinks that it has eminent domain. I solved that problem though and the hostile grass is now tamed. I dug a shallow, narrow ditch around the yard and laid brick in it. It has made a difficult border for the grass to cross and has had the bonus feature of keeping the soil in my garden berms from eroding into the yard. I love multi-functional design!

All in all, brick and blocks can have their place anywhere. Next time you see somebody getting rid of some, take 'em, see how they can improve your space, and keep them from being put in a landfill.

Shock the monkey, not the plant

I love having a positive outlook on life and everything that I do. My garden is right up there; it makes me happy and I get to see the results of my hard work. I'll be honest though, there is something that gets me down.

Transplanting often times shocks plants and they look very sad and often dying for a few days or even a few weeks. There are a couple of ways to prevent this though.

1.) When digging up and moving:

The root or root ball is where the nutrients and water are going to be pulled into most plants. When you're digging up that bush or flower, be sure to know how wide around it you should be entering the soil.

For example: I was gifted a euphorbia from my neighbor who is putting in a vegetable garden where her flowers all were. The plants around the base were pretty dense, so I tried to get as close to where I imagined the root ball stopping as possible. As luck would have it, I trimmed the roots a tad bit too much. I transplanted it to my garden to the perfect spot, watered it well, made sure it was secure, and then watched the leaves and flowers slump, whither and fall of the stalks. Not awesome. Some out of season pruning, a little extra rich soil added to the base and some love and attention have turned it around. There is new growth and the euphorbia is coming back to life slowly, but surely.

2.) When re potting:

If you've ever lived in a house and then moved into an apartment, it's tough to adjust, right? Well, it's the same concept for plants. While there are some plants out there that like to be root-bound, most that you'll be moving from pot to pot or ground to pot do better with a little more room to grow. Also, some plants do better with soggy soil and some need it to be more dry, so take than into account.

For example: I had an unfortunate accident with some potted violets that were struggling. A windstorm happened and knocked the smallest of the pots off the ledge and it shattered in the driveway. While this sucked, I took the sad little violet and put it in a larger pot...and watched it take off. The new pot didn't drain as quickly and it had room for growth. Today, it's a crazy li'l violet and is rockin' the suburbs!

3.) When separating from a bunch:

Take a few minutes to do a little research about the plant that you're getting ready to thin out. Some plants love to be separated and thrive with the stimulation. Others show shock, just like euphorbia did. If you can find out a little about the roots of the plant you're going to work with, you may be able to work a little magic and it'll never know that anything happened.

For example: The iris is a great flower because of how well it does in both sun and shade (an really acidic soil). Its rhizomes (think ginger root) are right at the surface and spread horizontally, which makes it really easy to see where to pull up the plant from. You can look at a bunch, see where the narrowest part is, see how deep the off-shooting smaller roots go, and then successfully break it away from the rest of the pack. This is the case with the traditional Purple Iris, but other varieties may be a little more, shall we say, mysterious below the soil. Anyways, once you've been able to separate some irises from the bunch, it's pretty easy to dig a small ditch just deep enough to fit the small roots and the rhizome, and then cover them with soil and pack it down. Keep them good and moist for a few days and they should do just swimmingly. If your irises do shock, just trim back the spear-like leaves and in no time you'll see fresh ones shooting up from between the old ones.

I hope this is helpful. I've had some amazing luck and made some horrible mistakes, so I hope that you can learn from what I've already done.

Dresser Refinishing: mission style accomplised

If you recall from my 04-14-10 posting, I had salvaged an old dresser. This weekend, I was able to complete its restoration (for the most part). I had stripped away the old finish last week, so this weekend's tasks were fun and easy.

Sunday morning, we took a trip to the local hardware hangout to pick out the stain. I'd been waffling about the color for a while. With no help from my readers (remember how I'd asked for suggestions? Yeah, thanks for nothin' folks) I was totally tossed up. I was thinking that a really bright red stain would be great, but then, at the last minute, I decided on honeycomb. It seemed like an amazing, warm orange...not flesh. As luck would have it, it is the same color as my skin after a halfway sunny day: not quite tan, but not pale. That color alone would've been too underwhelming to use on the whole dresser, so I got bold.

I broke out a piece of old wood from the garage and tested two other colored stains against the honeycomb. Sanibel lost. Mustard won. That's right, mustard. I've gotta say, it turned out amazingly. I'd done quite a bit of research into traditional colors within Mission and Hacienda style homes and furniture, and amarillo was the only one that really stood out to me. Magenta was a popular theme too...but not in my world.

I'd mentioned in my last posting about the great old wooden knobs that came on the dresser. It was my intention that I'd sand them down and stain them some incredible color. Yeah, epic fail...or epic "I am too impatient" syndrome. Anyways, I decided to not refinish the knobs and bought some beautiful stainless, beaded knobs. They look amazing, fit perfectly into the Mexican style I was shooting for, and actually compliment some stainless drawer pulls that I'd installed on another piece in the room. All in all, I'm quite happy with the results.

There is only one more step in completing this project: felting the drawers. I'll tell you about that when I get to it, but I think it'll be a few weeks still.

Some tropical advise...half research, half experience

So I got a question from one of my readers in Arizona today. She is worried about her Bird of Paradise (BOP). The problem she's facing is that it seems to be healthy, but it will not produce a flower. Sounds odd, but then hey, did y'all read my sob story turned happy ending concerning my irises? I have done a bit of research and combined it with my own knowledge/experience and have a potential solution...we'll see how it works!
The question:

I don't always have the best luck. Can you help me with my tropical bird of paradise? It will not produce a flower.

Here's my response for Mel in Arizona:

Ooh, that's a tough one. So, here's my idea. BOPs like half sun and half shade. They usually have a really spider-like root ball (depends on the species), so be careful when doing this:

The day before you transplant from the pot, water the BOP really well. Soak it. The next day, go to Starbucks, get some grounds for your garden. Carefully uproot your BOP and find a spot with morning sun, afternoon shade. Mix the grounds into your course/rocky soil and securely plant your BOP. Water it really good just after planting and for the next week. After a few days, it'll show shock, but don't worry. Trim back the gross, withering branches/leaves. It'll take a few weeks, but you'll see some new growth hopefully.

Sound like a good plan? You also need to keep in mind that there are many species that need to be in the same spot for two/three years before producing a bloom. Also, just like how most people get depressed and are pretty low functioning when they live alone and have no friends, Birds of Paradise are the same way. They do best in groups because they'll encourage each other to bloom and to spread. I hope this helps! I can't wait to see what you do. I know that you can turn it around.

If anybody else has questions out there, let me know. If I don't know the answer I am happy to research or check with my other, more experienced garden gnomes!

Attempting urban agriculture

So many people in the Rainier Valley have incredible gardens: flowers, vegetables, Japanese, zen, you name it. I have a rather small garden in comparison to so many of my neighbors, but I attempt to do a lot with it.

I am currently making a solid effort at some fruit, veggies and herbs of my own. I have planted three different types of strawberries. I've got Rainier, Mt. Hood and Northwestern Native varieties. As of today, the Mt. Hood and Rainiers are doing amazingly. They've taken root and are spreading across the rocks. There are some blossoms on about half of them, and you know what that means? There will be berries! I'm still waiting to see what becomes of the Northwesterns; they were a tough transplant.

I've always wanted to have a kitchen garden. With a small yard and minimal garden space, one has to be creative when you want to do a lot. I happen to be blessed with a balcony that has a wide ledge. It's just perfect for some planter boxes. To make the boxes pretty from the street, I've planted some nice, low maintenance primroses, but between them, I'm growing some useful herbs from seed. The chives are fun to watch grow. As they continue to get taller, they still have the husk of their original seeds on their tips. It's like they're wearing little top hats. The basil and oregano aren't have as cute, but just as prolific; the basil, more so.

My final agro attempt as of late is my feisty peas. That's right, they're called feisty peas. I've planted them around an odd little pyramidal bamboo structure. It's pretty intense when you see how tangled their little graspy arms are. My hope is that they'll continue to grow up the tower and be both visually stimulating as well as well as a tasty contribution to this summer's meals.

I'll keep you posted as they all progress.