So much going on and the garden and greenhouse are changing daily.  Here are some pictures of today’s highlights:

Hippeastrum/Sprekelia cross just popped up in the greenhouse.  The pot of bulbs has three spikes this year.

I planted most of the year’s seedlings into patio pots today.  I couldn’t get the phone camera to focus because of this white impatiens–the camera just didn’t like the light reflecting from it.  I only ended up with three seedlings, but that is perfect for the one pot on the back patio for which these were destined.

Strelitzia reginae just opening in the greenhouse.  Watching this intricate, odd flower open is a fun endeavor.

One of the patio pots I planted today with pelargonium, snapdragon, and salvia.

The gorgeous red hippeastrum is still blooming well.   Photos don’t do it justice.

But that won’t stop me from trying to do it justice…

Pelargonium “Grossersorten” blooming all through the greenhouse.  I keep many starts of these favorites growing every year.  The combination of dark, healthy, zoned foliage and the clean coral pink flowers.

The David Austin roses are really putting on a show around the orchard garden.

The form of the flowers, the colors and the scent–it all adds up to an exceptional show.  My only complaint is that the bushes aren’t particularly strong, but I think possibly this is due to a lack of sun and the ravages to the ever-present bindweed.  I am taking time and effort to keep the rampaging vines off the roses, but it is a Herculean task.

Another slightly different view.  This one is Fighting Temeraire.

This bulbous gem is the one remaining Nectarscordum siculum left in the garden.  I probably started with twenty-five of them ten years ago and they slowly died out.  I’ll likely add some more this autumn since they have such interesting blooms held high enough to notice.

The gorgeous rose on the Jeff Tangen arbor started blooming last week.  The fragrance is remarkable when you pass underneath.

Close-up showing how the flowers open a soft apricot yellow and fade to cream and then white.

Styrax japonica blooming over the koi pond.  This graceful tree is a mixed blessing–beautiful, but pretty messy (and a bit poisonous), so not the best choice for over a pond.  In this case, though, what’s done is done–the tree is twenty years old and I’ve yet to come up with a better solution for that particular space.

Every year I intend to plant perennial seeds in May to get strong seedlings to plant out the following spring.  This is the first year I actually did it–all of these seeds I planted for the parking strip garden I’m planning.  And the best thing is that virtually every type of seed has come up.  You can see one tray above, and there is another similarly fertile tray to match.  There will be much transplanting to do in the coming weeks, but I’m happy to do it–hundreds of plants for a bright new garden!

I really love this plant so far–Malabar spinach (Basella rubra).  It is a climbing substitute for spinach.  I just need to find some space for it to climb.  I’ve got so many vines and brambles up now, most of my vertical options are taken.

The raised bed the brother Tim helped me plant a few weeks ago has finally settled in.  The lettuce and escarole are really starting to grow and the tomatoes have finished sulking.  I put some tomatillos out today next to the tomatoes, but not sure how they will do, since they were very small and already getting flowers.  I’m hoping they aren’t stunted.

Hesperis matronalis catching some early evening light.

The violas that I got at Fred Meyer early in the spring are enjoying to bursts of sunshine mixed with the wet spells.

More baby pansies in pots in the front of the house.

I suspect the lack of water in a very crowded pot resulted in the white geranium having these wispy blooms.  You can see the normal flowers at the very left of the photo.

The plum tree has more than a dozen plums this year–up from four last year.  I’m hopeful that some will get ripe and I’ll be able to taste one before the animals find them.

Another rose photo.

And another.

This beauty is “Olivia”–supreme form and strong, sweet fragrance.

The columnar apple trees have apples this year–not sure if my brush-pollination helped, or if some winged critters did the trick, but we’ll have a few dozen apples if all goes well.

The taller tree has even more flowers…

Blackberry flowers.  The domesticated cultivars may be a bit light on berries this year, but I have a “wild” Himalayan blackberry trained in one of the raised beds, and it has dozens of flower buds–it looks like it will provide all the blackberries I need.

Goumi berries developing on the shrub.  There were a LOT of flowers this year, but I think fewer berries than last year–not sure if it was a pollination issue or what.  The shrub is growing quickly this spring.

Aronia berries are also plumping up.

Another rose bud.

More little pansies.

This sad looking clump of sticks is all that’s left of the scorpion senna that had taken over the brick bed near the Jeff Tangen arbor.  I cut it way back today, which looks really drastic.  It should be a mass of new green growth in a month or so, and it will probably bloom again, too.

Just a quick post to put some photos up from Seattle and Honolulu.

Interesting Hibiscus near our friend Dean’s condo building.  The flowers don’t seem to open all the way–and yet they have their own charm and showiness.

Close-up of one flower.

I didn’t get to the beach much on this trip, but here is Diamondhead–always so nice to see.

And interesting Hibiscus bloom near Fort Derussy.  It must have taken eons to breed these delicate pastels in the blue-purple/smoky brown shades.

Upon my return, the iris in my garden were all up and blooming.  The hardy purple clone that always survives and thrives dominate this bed.  They look good and smell great, too.

Huge Hippeastrum flower in the greenhouse.  I was surprised to see this monster open already.  It was just a tight bud eight days before when I flew away.

I hope I don’t miss this orchid cactus when the flower opens.  They only last a day, I think, so it is easy to miss them, especially since I have to work away from home much of this coming weekend.

The Hesperis are blooming in the Doug Fir bed.  More and more lavender ones are creeping in among the white, but the effect is pleasing and the fragrance wonderfully sweet.

Another view with Leon’s Miracle Grow Sculpture rising behind/above.

This Rhododendron is really shining outside our bedroom window.  My plans to rip and shred the current foundation shrubs lose out to these amazing blooms!

More foundation Rhodies–there are two of these along the living room window with a dwarf lilac in-between.  The flowers are maybe a bit more purple/blue than the photo shows.

Geranium phaeum blooming in the driveway bed.  This cranesbill rises above the Big Root Cranesbills surrounding it.  The color is a nice purple, showier than many I’ve seen.

Another view.

A poppy popping open in the driveway bed.  This is one of the Pizzicato strain that I grew from seed probably 20 years ago.  I am growing them again this year and there are at least 50 seedlings, so I should get a nice variety of colors.

The Dianthus that overwintered in the patio pots in front are blooming nicely–an electric pink.

The wild arboretum rose plant grown from seed 15+ years ago is blooming.  It is a pain most of the year, literally and figuratively, due to thorns and robust habit (and stupid placement), but the flowers are some of my favorites.  They are simple, wild-looking, and sweet-smelling.

The shrub roses have open flowers in the orchard bed.  The vindictive bindweeds have taken over again in my absence.  I need to find time to snip them back again this week/weekend.

Another of the Austen roses in the orchard bed.

And another.

Polemonium “Heavenly Blue” grown from seed and blooming nicely in the orchard bed.

Close up of these very blue flowers.  Heavenly is right!

This is Austen’s Ebb Tide blooming in the orchard bed.  A scrumptious purply red.

Another Ebb Tide flower.

Columbines in the driveway/orchard bed.  They are being overwhelmed with raspberries and now bindweed, but they lok pretty good right now.

I didn’t make it out to the garden this weekend, except to look around.  This afternoon it rained like mad, which was fine with me.  I took the opportunity to dip a lot of water out of the rain barrel and thoroughly water the greenhouse plants.  I haven’t had to use the hose yet for any watering…which is great for the plants and the water bill, but tells you how wet the weather has been, as well.  It takes 6 or 7 watering cans full of water to hit all the greenhouse plants and that takes the barrel down pretty low for the three goldfish that live in there.  Today, though, it was raining so hard that the water was filling in as I pulled it out.

On the fence behind the house, this Clematis montana variety rubens blooming smartly.  The flowers smell of vanilla and perfume.

Lit from the front and photographed from behind–these flowers are short-lived, but really welcomed on these wet, gray days.

The display area of the greenhouse showing the two Hippeastrums in bloom.  A third bulb is spiking on the shelves there but it is far from opening.  I suspect it is the white-starred red one that I’ve had for many years.  This little red one is gorgeous!

One of my original Abutilon “Bella Select Mix” seedlings.  This one is probably close to ten years old.  The plant is a bit of a mess, but the flowers are big and showy.

I was happy to see some of the perennial seedlings up in the trays I planted last weekend.  These are yarrow seedlings.  There are three types of yarrow in the tray and all of them are showing growth.

This nasturtium is becoming a monster.  But I can’t get mad at it–it is blooming so brightly already!

If there was a “weed of the year” contest, Freesia laxa might win.  These are flowers on my original pot of them from Edelweiss Perennials maybe five years ago.  Each flower forms a pod filled with gorgeous red-brown shiny seeds that pop out into all the surrounding pots.  I tried moving some of the offspring into the garden, as they are said to be hardy, but I haven’t seen any of them come back up.  Luckily, there are dozens more popping up every minute!  The color here is a bit brash.  The other types I’ve started from seed are either bluer or whiter and would be easier to mix into displays.

This is one of the pitcher plant flowers (there are two this year for the first time).  Very odd and interesting flower structure.

Photo of the Masdevallias still in full flight.  The bonsai wisteria from brother Tim about 25 years ago is twining up the orchids.

Another photo of the air plant blossoms.  The coloring and design are irresistible to me!

This is one of the Pelargonium (geranium) seedlings started indoors earlier this year.  It has a tiny flower spike, despite being only 2″ tall!

 

 

 

My schedule this weekend included moving the Cymbidiums and the Clivias from the greenhouse to the brick circle around the Doug fir bed.  It took the better part of the afternoon yesterday to fertilize, water and move them all.  Most are reasonably sized, but a couple of the Clivia plants are monsters–probably close to 40 pounds for one windowbox-shaped pot with three divisions in it!  I woke up sore this morning, but I also felt accomplished.

Below are some pictures of the goings-on in the garden.

Brother Tim helped me get this chore done–the raised veggie bed with lettuce, endive, and tomatoes.  We also put in some pumpkins in the herb garden behind.

Hippeastrum blooming in the greenhouse.  This is “Green Dragon” and an unknown mini red.  The red pot has three scapes coming up!

Close-up of the red flower.  Very clean red color.

I created a display of the flowering plants left in the greenhouse–still some great color in there.

The potted Daphne from sister Cate pictured in the last blog.

Another sister Cate Daphne–this one is a lovely lavender and smells even stronger than the other one, but is a more hesitant bloomer.

Lots of Clematis blooms on the back fence.

Another Clematis cultivar–might be “Markham’s Pink.”

Nasturtium vine that climbed up the greenhouse wall and is blooming already.

An air plant blooming in the greenhouse–an amazing color combination.

Pitcher plant blooming in the greenhouse.  It has two flower scapes this year.

“Green Dragon” close-up.

Another view of “Green Dragon.”

Another view.

My favorite of all the Clivia seedlings so far–just the right amount of pastel yellow and salmon.

Another view.

I planted the two Sisyrinchium striatum plants out yesterday in the bed in front of the greenhouse.  The flowers were much showier this weekend than last.

Close-up showing more flowers blooming around the stem.

 

I took a paint brush out to the orchard bed and driveway bed today to try to pollinate the fruit trees.  I only saw one bee all weekend!  It is extremely worrisome.

Below are some garden and greenhouse highlights.

Clematis alpina “Willy” blooming on the fence behind the house.  There aren’t as many blooms this year.  I plan to cut this vine way back after blooming, as it has gotten too big for its own good.

Another close-up of these delicate, graceful blooms.

Here is the potted daphne from sister Cate blooming on the patio.  The fragrance is fantastic!

A few species tulips persist in the woodland garden.  I believe these are Tulipa batalinii–such a vivid red.

Choisya ternata blooming along the fence in the woodland garden.

I just read that Choisya is in the rue family, and that makes sense–I’ve never liked the smell of the plants themselves, but the flowers are wonderfully sweet.

Gorgeous rhody blooming in the woodland garden.

The path in the woodland garden is surrounded by blooms–Dicentra, Muscari, Hyacinthoides, and Choisya.

 

Cymbalaria muralis (Kenilworth Ivy) blooming in a pot on the back patio.  I started a bunch of these from seed last year and now they are in many of the seedling pots on the shelves near the greenhouse.  

Interestingly, the “Red Deer Tongue” lettuce that I transplanted last week are now of two distinct colors.  The ones I left outside are now deep red, while the ones in the greenhouse are still green with just a hint of red.  I’m not sure if this is a temperature issue or a sun issue.

Masdevallias are going NUTS in the greenhouse–there must be more than twenty flowers open at once!  Quite a show!

These wispy flowers are from a scented pelargonium.  It sulked for a year, but now it is spreading its cute flowers far and wide on the top shelf.

The mystery irid opened a few flowers today.  I think it might be Sisyrinchium striatum, and it may well be hardy–so out it goes into the garden when the weather warms!

Close-up of flower.

Another photo showing interest way the flowers appear on the stalk.  Online photos show that this plant can be very showy when it is well-grown.  The leaves make a stunning fan, as well.

Pelargonium blooming in the greenhouse.

Rhodohypoxis baurii putting on a wonderful show in the greenhouse.

Clivia clone blooming in the greenhouse.  This reddish shade is a nice contrast to the usual orange/yellow.

Pelargonium papilloniaceum really going crazy in the greenhouse.

Beautiful tillandsia blooming in the greenhouse…

Abutilon hybrid blooming in the greenhouse.  I plan to pull everything out of there next weekend if the weather cooperates, and the flowering maples will go into the ground.  They are not hardy, but I can get cuttings in the fall to keep them going.

Some cutting-grown Abutilon megapotmicum in the greenhouse.  I expect these will be hardy, so they are getting planted outside next weekend.

Another seedling Clivia clone–this one with large flowers with interesting white markings in the throat.

The plants I purchased for brother Tim’s p-patch plant sale are starting to grow.  They are slow due to the cool weather, but I think they’ll be just right when the sale comes around.

 

Polygonatum multiflorum popping up in the Doug fir bed.

Cherry “Morello” in full bloom.  The one bee that I saw was on this productive little tree.

Cherry “Vandalay” blooming  nicely for a small tree.  I tried to pollinate this one with the Morello, but I have no idea if it worked or even was the right thing to try!

There aren’t many tulips left in the garden, but these three are sturdy and stunning.  These might be Arabian Mystery.

Lamium blooming near the Jeff Tangen arbor–very pretty ground cover.

More Lamium maculatum near the arbor.

Lovely violet blooming in the driveway bed.

The scorpion senna is about to be in full bloom.  It is a mess, I admit, but I still love it!

My gardening hasn’t advanced to a point where I feel like there are a lot of beautiful vignettes to be happy about.  However, near the fence of the orchard bed, this welcoming sight makes my heart sing.  These are wallflowers and bleeding hearts, with a nice mix of foliage types in and around them.

The columnar apple trees blooming nicely in the orchard bed.  I worked the flowers over with a paint brush today and will again in another day or two–hoping to fill in for the missing bees!

Goumi berry shrub starting to bloom in the orchard bed.

 

Another part of the visually appealing fence-bed in the orchard garden.  This golden bleeding heart is from sister Cate.

Another view–you can see just a bit of yellow in the richly colored wall flowers that pick up the golden color of the Dicentra.

I transplanted some things this weekend.  The first batch were tomatoes, a variety called Black Vernissage.  They appear very strong and are ahead of the seedlings started sooner, but moved to the cold frame after transplanting.

You can find seeds at http://www.rareseeds.com/black-vernissage-tomato/

I also transplanted a bunch of lettuce seedlings–this one Red Deer Tongue.

The seeds were from Renee’s and can be purchased here:  https://www.reneesgarden.com/products/lettuce-red-deer-tongue.  Almost every seed germinated, but they weren’t showing much red color yet–hopefully, that will come with age.

The last big batch of seedlings were dianthus starts from seeds I harvested from plants Leon had put in the patio pots last year.  There were probably 50 of these seedlings.  I put 36 of them in six-packs, two to a cell, and put the rest in larger pots.  These may not be as brilliant as their hybrid parent, but they are growing very strongly and I can’t wait to see what the flowers look like.  The parents looked like this:

The sages and snapdragons needed to be potted on, as well, so I moved them to larger pots in the greenhouse.  The salvias are a Salvia coccinea mix–I don’t recall which one.  The snapdragons were a dwarf double pot-type, but I don’t specifically remember which one!  It will be fun when they get to blooming size and remind me what I ordered.

Another task accomplished this weekend was to go through all of my seeds and put the direct sow and the ones I’ve given up on into a plastic container.  I mixed in some sand and spread the mix around the garden by the fence in the orchard bed.  There were shirley poppies, bachelor buttons, wallflowers and many others.  I am hopeful that some of them get a foothold.  We certainly had enough rain today for them to get off to a good start!

My plan to turn the parking strip into a gorgeous flower border moved forward yesterday when I ordered a bunch of perennial seeds to get started in May.  I ordered from Swallowtail Garden Seeds, a company I’ve not used before.

Here are the seeds I ordered–photos are from their website.

YARROW SEEDS, NOBLESSA50 ea.
YARROW SEEDS, SUMMER PASTELS50 ea.
YARROW SEEDS, SUMMER BERRIES50 ea.
WALL ROCKCRESS SEEDS, SNOWFIX50 ea.
VERBENA SEEDS, POLARIS50 ea.
VERBENA SEEDS, PURPLE TOP500 ea.
SANTA BARBARA DAISY SEEDS50 ea.
SALVIA SEEDS, BLUE CLOUD25 ea.
ROCK CRESS SEEDS, CASCADE MIX100 ea.
PRUNELLA SEEDS, FREELANDER BLUE25 ea.
POPPY SEEDS, PIZZICATO ORIENTAL100 ea.
PENSTEMON SEEDS, RONDO50 ea.
PENSTEMON SEEDS, SUNBURST COLOURS30 ea.
NEPETA SEEDS, BLUE CARPET50 ea.
NEPETA SEEDS, SELECT BLUE30 ea.
NEPETA SEEDS, GREEK CATNIP250 ea.
LYCHNIS SEEDS, OCCULATA ROSE CAMPION50 ea.
LUPINE SEEDS, MINARETTE DWARF MIX50 ea.
LUPINE SEEDS, TUTTI FRUTTI20 ea.
GOAT’S BEARD, NOBLE SPIRIT DWARF50 ea.
GEUM SEEDS, BLAZING SUNSET10 ea.
DIANTHUS SEEDS, ARCTIC FIRE50 ea.
CORAL BELLS SEEDS, FIREFLY500 ea.
CHAENORHINUM SEEDS, BLUE DREAMS50 ea.
CALAMINTHA SEEDS, MARVELETTE BLUE25 ea.
ECHINACEA SEEDS, CONEFLOWER MIX25 ea.
ECHINACEA SEEDS, PRAIRIE SPLENDOR30 ea.
COLUMBINE SEEDS, DRAGONFLY HYBRIDS DWARF100 ea.
COLUMBINE SEEDS, BIEDERMEIER MIX100 ea.
AGASTACHE SEEDS, BOLERO20 ea.
AGASTACHE SEEDS, APACHE SUNSET ORGANIC20 ea.

 

 

It was a wonderful day to work outside.  First off, I potted up a bunch of seedlings–geraniums, peppers, tomatoes and tomatillos.  I put them all in the cold frame to harden off and grow for the next few weeks before I find homes for them.  Some are destined for our garden and pots around the place.  The rest are for gifting and brother Tim’s p-patch and the patch’s spring plant sale in May.

A full cold frame…the coolness and light make for stocky transplants.

Here is a happy greenhouse surprise.  This is an iris relative I grew from seed two years ago.  It is likely a Moraea or a Dietes.  And it is spiking, so I should be able to tell in the next few weeks!  It sports an amazing fan of healthy-looking leaves.

Another fun surprise–the Restrepia guttulata that I’ve had for close to 20 years (from the old Baker and Chantry Orchids near Woodinville) has two flower buds.  This has been a shy bloomer for me and it is so tiny–maybe 3″ high–that it is easy to miss the flowers.  They are spectacular, though, and a bit silly–I’ll be sure to post some pictures when they open.

Gorgeous and graceful, these Coelogyne cristata flowers are the classiest act in the greenhouse right now.  They are supposed to be fragrant, but being nose blind, I can’t tell if they really do or not!  I’m happy just enjoying how they look, though.

The Plant Delights package landed this week and I planted the treasures directly in the garden.  This is Cestrum parqui, which I planted in front of the greenhouse.

The pineapple flower is still shining brightly in the Doug fir bed.

Close-up of the Fritillary flowers.

The Doug fir bed is full of weeds this year.  I dug some up and planted foxgloves out there today that I started from seed last year.  These are both “Foxy” and “Apricot”

Gorgeous, tasteful flower of Kerria japonica–this is the single cultivar that you hardly ever see.  We had the double pom-pom one growing up and it was fun, too, but this one looks less messed with.

More foxglove–I think I put about a dozen in today.

There aren’t many tulips left around the garden, but these white ones have persisted and I’m so glad they did.  They opened wide in the sun today.

  

The bleeding hearts are really starting to put on a show near the fence in the orchard garden.

I planted out all of the geranium seedlings from last year.  These are mostly “Summer Snow.”

Another great treasure from Plant Delights–this is a tree peony–Paeonia ostii Feng Dan Bai.

Buttercups had invaded this flower bed over the winter.  I dug them all up today–never fun because they find their way inside the crowns of other plants, some of which are fragile.  I added another Plant Delights special plant here, Gladiolus Rosy Cheeks.

The scorpion senna is about to burst forth with bright pea-like blooms.  This shrub has grown over eight feet tall–I will cut it way back after flowering to bring it back under control.

From Plant Delights, this is Nerium oleander Mathilde Ferrier.

Another Plant Delights rarity, Antirrhinum glutinosum White Hot

Geranium macrorrhizum blooming in the driveway bed–and also in the Doug fir bed.  These vigorous ground covers help suppress weeds  and they aren’t difficult to control.

Pristine narcissus in the driveway bed.  This clump has actually expanded in size and is blooming beautifully this year.

Lots of great flowers in this clump of narcissus bulbs.

More hyacinth photos–can’t help myself.   They are particular wonderful this year.

And another…

I’m planning to actually work in the garden tomorrow, but I went out on a break from homework today and found a bunch of flowers and neat surprises.

These fun little pansies from Fred Meyer are starting to show their potential.  The weather has not been super friendly for flowers–really windy and rainy, but these little plants are unphased.

From a distance, the Camellia looks pretty good.  Close-up, though,

One of my favorite surprises–this Kerria japonica (natural form) has been in the Doug fir bed for several years, barely hanging on, but here it is showing its very first buds.  This is the single form and the flowers will really light up the shady space there.

A close-up of the Epimedium in the woodland garden.  The flowers are just starting to open.  Unlike many of its kind, the flowers of this cultivar don’t turn completely inside out.

You can see the contrast between the delicate flowers and the bold, heavy leaves here.

From a distance, you can really see the growth habit.

Another picture of the GIANT Hyacinth flower.  It has held up well, even in the disruptive weather.

Closer-in photo shows some detail.

Great close-up shows the flower detail.

I’m so thrilled with this pastel yellow-salmon Clivia miniata seedling.  The color is wonderfully soft and drastically different from the typical orange/yellow.

I took photos of the Clivia spikes today–there are five or so that still haven’t opened yet.

Another promise for next week…this looks like it may have some pastel coloring.

Pelargoniums open hundreds of flowers–just gorgeous!

Tillandsia buds pushing their way into the open.  I hadn’t noticed these until today.  This plant has two buds coming on.

Another spike coming on.

A few Hippeastrums have spikes.  This is “Green Dragon”–a very strong growing hybrid.

Not sure which cultivar this one is–will be fun to find out when the flowers open.

A newly opening Clivia spike–these flowers are traditional colors, but the plant features a more compact habit.

Another spike–this is an even more compact seedling–squat, even.  And the flowers have a different form, too.

Richly colored flowering maple flowers in the greenhouse.

Veltheimia bloom back against the far wall in the greenhouse.

Seed tray with Dianthus, Tomatoes and Lettuce sprouting.

Pleione formosana clump ended up having eight flowers.  The divisions that I planted last year are growing well, too, although not all of them appear to have come through the winter.

  A bunch of Pleione flowers.

Gorgeous Clivia flowers.

Love this close-up of the pastel Clivia.  The flower form is beautiful.   The only other non-standard colored Clivia I had was a yellow cultivar and the flowers were more spidery–not nearly this nice and the plant was weak, as well.

Another view.

In the pots along the house, the Geranium “Summer Snow” seedlings are looking strong.

These kids are ready to go out to the garden tomorrow.

Little Japanese maple and larch seedlings waiting to be bonsais someday.

Osmanthus in full bloom and full fragrance–just wonderful!

Fritillaria imperealis lutea looking stunning in the spring sunlight.

Anemone blanda blooming in the Doug fir bed.  These plants seem to be fading away over time, but at least one is left to bloom.

Brunnera “Alexander’s Great” in bloom in the Doug fir bed–I noticed this the other day on my way to work.

Close up of the forget-me-not-like flowers.

This rambunctious ivy needs to be cut way back or eradicated altogether.  It is taking over big patches of the Doug fir bed and traipsing up the trunk with abandon.

Virginia bluebells popping up in the Doug fir bed.  I don’t think they will bloom this year, but they seem strong.

The Trillium flower has opened.

Another view.

Another view of the Fritillaria.

Primrose close-up.

Showy pots in front of the house.  Just gorgeous and cheerful!

Camellia flower close-up.  The flowers are spectacular when viewed individually.  I haven’t seen this cultivar anywhere else–or at least I don’t remember seeing it anywhere.  The flowers are HUGE!

I’ve always loved grape hyacinth (Muscari).  They pop up around the garden, helped out by squirrels, I suspect.  This clump is in the raspberry bed.

A great way to propagate berries–this is a blackcap raspberry that stuck in a pot last fall–it is sprouting now and can be cut away from the mother plant now.

So excited to see the Abutilon vitifolium “Suntense” seedling in the orchard bed with a few buds on it.  These seedlings are three years old and I was starting to think they might never bloom!

Bleeding hearts budding up–this one is particularly vigorous, with a dozen or more flower spikes.

Sister Cate’s Hellebore.

Close-up of sister Cate’s Hellebore.

Plum blossoms on “Beauty.”  Not sure there are any pollinators around, but hopeful…

You can see some of the petals got blown away in the storm yesterday.

“Beauty” tree.

This is a one-year-old seedling of Geranium “Summer Snow.”   It is really big and vigorous.

Front view of the patio pots near the porch.

Mixed hyacinths in a porch pot–gorgeous colors!

In the kitchen window, another hyacinth in an interesting lavender.  I might have a hyacinth addiction!

Gorgeous tulips forced in the cold frame and now in the kitchen window.  I’m not sure “forced” is the right word–the tulips outside are blooming now, too!

Love these little species tulips–so graceful!

You can see the color better here with some flash.

Both windowsill pots showing the colors with flash.

We spent almost six full days up at the cabin at Bench Creek Ranch this last week.  Every time we go up there, the experience is different.  This trip we saw winter trying hard to hold on and spring fighting to take over.

Snow remained on the ground around our cabin (3000 ft elevation) and above/below a bit.  The deepest drifts, discovered on long hikes around the ranch, were about 24″ deep.  The roads were snowy, icy or muddy.  I had hoped to take some training runs up there, but that just wasn’t possible!

The skies were not bald, for sure–full of interesting clouds and magnificent beauty.

More amazing sky…

And more….

Here is the view from the front of the cabin–the meadow view we enjoy so much.  The aspens and larches were not even starting to leaf out yet.  This photo was taken the day we left–notice that the snow is reduced to near the trees.

The sun fighting to part the clouds.

This is hilarious.  I wanted to remind myself to look up deer droppings when I got home.  There were some piles of really large deer-like droppings and some tracks that looked much bigger than any deer tracks I’ve ever seen.  I suspect there may be a moose afoot.

Here is a group of sagebrush buttercup blooming on a hillside.  These brave little wildflowers were the only thing I found blooming–almost the only thing that had started to leaf out.  They have small leaves and relatively big flowers, always glistening with water droplets.

One of my hiking buddies–Mona wrapped up from the cold.  It got close to 60 degrees during the days, but down in the 20’s at night. 

Leon brought a bag of stale cashew nuts to feed to the critters.  Steller’s Jays apparently can’t get enough cashews. They are skittish up in the mountains, not like the raucous, confident city Jays.  I had to be really patient to get these pictures on the railing of the cabin porch.

The seasonal stream was running under ice through the meadow.

Another meadow picture–you can see there was more snow earlier in the week.

This week was a bird-fest.  We have a flicker house that Leon built and we set in front of the cabin.  Here, a pair of Williamson’s Sapsuckers approach.  The house is a popular telegraphing station for all the woodpeckers.  Because it is hollow, tapping on it resonates throughout the meadow.

A Red-Breasted Nuthatch that visited the cabin one day with its mate.

Bodhi enjoying the sunshine.

Mona had a grand time exploring and hiking.

Another Bodhi pic…the sun was too bright for his eyes!

Here is another Nuthatch peeking between the cabin logs.

Super cute Bodhi on the porch.  He’s eleven-years-old now, but he hiked with me a like a puppy.

I would call this photo, “Little Dog, Big Sky.”

There weren’t a lot of animals, or even birds out, so it was the sky, trees, and mountains that I enjoyed on my hikes.

Close-ups of the Sagebrush Buttercups.

And another…

This a bad picture of a chipmunk–just had to prove that some of them were awake!

At the 100-plus year-old homestead near our cabin, I could really see how the Douglas fir trees and the Ponderosa pines were more yellow in winter than they are the rest of the year.  You can make out the yellowish green with the wood as a contrast.

Bodhi waiting for me…impatience written all over his face!

This was the ultimate turkey trip.  I heard a tom gobbling near the cabin every morning, the first time I’d ever heard that.  And a hen crossed the meadow one day towards his concert.  The next day, he sauntered past us in the near meadow, as well.  Turkey tracks in the snow above.

Two male Williamson’s Sapsuckers at the flicker house.

We had a funny experience in the little town Republic, east of Tonasket.  As we finished getting gas, I noticed a deer crossing the main street and going down a side street.  We followed in the car and I popped out when we got close.  they seemed very tame.  Leon threw me some carrots and I threw some to them.  The deer in front here was a carrot fan.  Eventually, he ate one out of my hand.  It was surreal.  Deer near there are usually very afraid, since hunting is so common there, but Leon pointed out these were likely “city deer,” used to people and handouts.

The meadow the day we landed–notice how much more snow was on the ground than when we left.

Our first walk…and the dogs were ready.

Off on their own–so many smells to explore!

Hauling wood from the woodshed to the cabin.  It was in the 40s int he cabin when we got there–took about two days and a lot of logs to really warm it up.

Big sky over the meadow when we first landed on Saturday.

 

I brought “The Gardener’s Essential” by Gertrude Jekyll with me to the cabin to get a better feeling for one of the iconic gardeners of all time.  Having read much of it, I can honestly say that Ms. Jekyll is not my favorite writer.  Certainly, she shares one common trait with Christopher Lloyd, who I love—they both have very strong opinions.  Unlike Christopher, however, Gertie doesn’t seem to possess an ounce of humor.  And I find her references to the people who do the labor of her gardening condescending.  I must remember this book was written in another time and place, and that Ms. Jekyll was a completely different kind of gardener than I’ll ever be—she had the luxury, the “leisure”, as she would call it, to focus on the minutia of painting her land with plants.  She helped me realize that, at this point in my busy life, I’m not a garden artist, I’m just a garden minimalist—trying to create a space I enjoy and keep it going.  On top of that challenge with her writing, my slight color blindness also makes it tough for me to care so deeply about color.  When it comes to color, I just know what I like and I can’t suggest you will like it, too, becasuse it is very likely you see it differently than I do!

Rather than focus on the book I didn’t like, I’ll talk about the book I LOVE that I also brought on this trip:

GAIA’S GARDEN by Toby Hemenway, A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture.

This amazing book is written focused on natural gardening, and very specifically growing food in the garden without need for chemicals, neither insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, nor synthetic fertilizers.  The concept obviously appeals to me, not just from a “save the earth” standpoint, but the methods described seem to be much less labor intensive than the standard way of growing things.

The first idea that stretched my mind in this book was in a subchapter titled “The Natives versus Exotics Debate.”  Hemenway asks, “Does exotic mean a species that wasn’t here before you got here, or before the first botanist did, before Columbus, the first human, or what?”  An excellent question.  Hemenway prefers to call plants opportunistic, rather than invasive—and he points out that in the most well-known cases of new plants taking over large areas (Purple loosestrife, European bittersweet, Japanese honeysuckle, Kudzu, and Russian olive), the plants were “invited” by the disturbed land and disrupted ecosystems.  “Humans create perfect conditions for exotics to thrive.”  He goes on to explain that Nature will fill in disturbed places with pioneer plants, and “she doesn’t care if the plant arrived via continental drift or a bulldozer’s treads, as long as it can quickly stitch a functioning ecosystem together.”

These thoughts were meaningful to me because I’ve seen so much effort being put towards eradicating so-called invasive plants, and very little of it seems successful.  It all feels like a case of “too little, too late.”  Certainly, this is a complex issue, and losing native species entirely due to invasive species doesn’t feel right.  Native animals are also affected greatly when native plants are no longer available to them.  What I like most about this book is that it approaches gardening as a healthy mix of natives and exotics…which certainly seems like a more realistic approach.

The second idea that completely spurred my imagination is the concept of plant “guilds”.  This concept started with the Native American’s plantings of corn, beans, and squash in the same hills—called The Three Sisters.  The idea of a guild is that all the plants support and benefit the others.  The beans fix nitrogen in the soil, the corn stocks provide a trellis for the bean vines to climb, and the squash leaves densely cover the ground, keeping out competing weeds.  Grown this way, a plot will produce 20% more food than if just one of these crops was grown.  A fourth “Sister,” is the bee plant, Cleome serrulata, that was also a food plant, but contributes by attracting pollinators for the beans and squash.

Hemenway describes how to plant fruit trees with plants underneath/around them so that they are mostly self-sufficient.  I took this idea and designed a front yard that meets my wants regarding providing food and my likes of having flowers and year-round garden interest.  I’m extremely excited about this plan and hope to implement it in the same timeframe as the parking strip—so that the fruit tree guilds are planted by spring of 2018 and the rest of the garden will be completed by spring 2019.

The dogs need some lawn out front, so I’ll measure off a fair amount devoted to them and then start the orchard beyond that.  I plan to add another semi-dwarf cherry tree, a leaf-curl resistant peach tree, a multi-graft apple tree, along with mini dwarf pollinators for all of them.  There is room for two more trees/guilds in addition to these three; I thought about combining them into one, with an arbor for kiwis and a bench underneath.  I’m not sure of the light in that area, so may have to adapt to the fact that there may be too much shade.  If so, I’ll utilize the sunnier space for one more fruit tree—maybe a pear.  And the final guild may just be an evergreen huckleberry surrounded by ornamental shade-tolerant plants.

There is much work to be done to have the ground ready, the plants ready and the time available to implement all of this, so I really need to plan far in advance.  For example, I’ll need to winter possibly hundreds of seedlings in the greenhouse next winter, so I need to clean up that entire area, especially under the benches, to allow for more “storage”.  This clean-up project has been on the “list” for years now, but if I want to move ahead with the planting strip and the orchard guilds, it will have to be done before November.