FOR GARDENERS ONLY!

Nothing more to say.....

NEW YEAR TREAT!

 I never really appreciated geraniums when I was growing up in California. We had hedgerows of 'em everywhere so I took them for granted, I guess. 
Then I moved to Oregon...

Gardeners here prize their summer blooms, take cuttings in the fall and put them on the kitchen windowsill to await late spring when they can go outside once again. I'm lucky enough to have a small greenhouse and I keep a couple of plants to winter over. Turns out they really like the mild climate in the greenhouse when the nights stay at about 50 degrees (thanks to a heater) and the days may get as warm as 70 inside thanks to solar gain. A perfect climate for them! I do prune them back due to lack of space but now they are blooming away providing a focal point surrounded by succulents. 

NEW GIRL IN THE GARDEN

 I had to have her...even though I told myself, "No more roses!" Meet Love's Promise, a fine addition to any rose garden. A very light fragrance which means it probably will be resistant to black spot. That would be a change! This is a new one from Weeks Roses grown in Bakersfield, I think. 

RAT RACE

 It seemed simple...a small plot of strawberries...just enough for cereal or the occasional shortcake extravaganza. But we soon found out that even the hint of ripe strawberries draws country rats! We have tried traps, as you know, with some success but the berries still keep disappearing. So we had to be "smarter than the average rat" and that meant construction!

We used some leftover 1/2" wire mesh and spent a couple of hours constructing this rat proof cage. A leftover wire cover from something is the top hatch that allows picking and fertilizing without removing the whole cage. Now when I come out in the morning to pick berries for cereal, I actually get some! Take that you pesky rat finks! 

NO BRAINER BASKET OF FLOWERS

Now days even non gardeners can put a welcoming basket by a front door or gate or patio with no fuss. All it takes is one basket (this one is actually vinyl but resembles willow) and a couple of Fiesta pots or color bowls of mixed flowers (petunia, mini belles and verbena). You can get them at most any place that sells seasonal plants...even the grocery store. They are already done by color scheme for you so all you have to do is set them in a basket. If your state still sells small ivy, you might add that in for a nice trailing effect. Of course, you DO have to remember to water them and perhaps move them to a shady location in the heat of summer...
WARNING: SMALL RANT HERE...I think it is too bad when those who are non-gardeners ignore the seasons. They think the outdoors is what they walk through to get from their house to their car or from their car to their work. I've never been able to understand how some can be so clueless and removed from their surroundings. The only thing that tells them when the season has changed is that they might have to wear a jacket or change to shorts. Oye! I have a stepson like that...I swear a bomb could go off in his yard and he wouldn't notice for days, weeks or months if ever. 

GOOD AND NOT SO GOOD GARDEN FAUNA

 Big swan and froggie grace the deck, along with a vintage pot, all filled with succulents. A happy sight.

A nocturnal bit of fauna and marauder of ripe strawberries succumbs to the lure of peanut butter and lives no more. A dead rat is a good rat, in this gardener's opinion. One less interloper. This one is about 12" long (including tail) and looks like a pregnant female. When I went out to pick strawberries for our morning cereal yesterday, all the big juicy ones were missing so we knew what to do. This was the scene at the strawberry patch this morning. We had hoped that our much improved fence would discourage the buggers, but it's back to the traps. You'd think that our neighbors would clean up the brush piles in their yards...not only for the rats, but also for the fire danger! 

IT'S A LONG ROAD TO TOPIARY!

 Because we seem to have Autumn with a vengeance ...cooler temps and a series of rain storms, the good news is that they've declared an end to fire season before October 1st. The bad news is that little Kathy has had to be head down and butt up (not a cute thing) cleaning out the greenhouse and finding room for her succulent addiction...err, I mean collection. That's the good and the bad of a very small greenhouse...you can only keep so much stuff.

One of my summer projects this year was finally growing a rosemary start into a "tree topiary." This isn't as hard as you might think, as long as you don't dwell on having to cut off most of the plant to encourage one branch to become the "trunk" of the tree. And then you have to have the fortitude to pinch off new growth to encourage it to get bushier. That's why I probably haven't had one all these years...that and the fact that I didn't want to fork over $35 for a "finished" one. It's that pinching back that gets to one but it seems to be working. I used a culinary rosemary, which just means it's the stoutest, bushiest and toughest of the rosemary family. Plus it is the most pungent. It will reside in the greenhouse this winter as rosemary can be sensitive to freezing temps, especially when it's in a pot. So, hopefully I'll have a cute, green ball with blue blossoms in the spring. Bon appetite! Did I mention that we've had lots of rosemary chicken this BBQ season?

GOING HERBAL

A basket of herbs on the patio is handy and quick for last minute additions to my culinary delights, rather than trudging out to the garden. This basket contains my favourite ones...Italian parsley (a must for eveything green), thyme (nice on stews and roasting meats), chives (for eggs, potato salad), rosemary (for anything pork or chicken) and some oregano for nice green color on sliced tomatoes. Sonia, the garden fairy, has the place of honor on the converted potting bench (now used for the table top BBQ and the patio supplies.

Eat your snow peas, please!

After the heavy rains of the last week, I finally got out into the garden for more than a quick look. I discovered that the snow peas were encouraged by the cool & damp conditions to set lots of pods.



Enough for dinner? Yeah!


Raw ingredients for a good stir fry tonite.


Luckily, I had some Yakisoba noodles (ginger & soy sauce flavor)


On the stove with some leftover BBQ chicken and some onion & broccoli. Add the pea pods last, cover and let them "steam" for only about a minute. You want them bright green and shiny. "Al dente"...you remember him, good old Al.


Quick and easy! About 15 minutes from garden to table.

Oh Hail! A Wrap Up

Just a few minutes after I uncovered the corn to get some sun, I heard a roaring sound and realized that we were going to get hail. By the time I got out to the garden, it was white all over. Luckily the hail only lasted 2 minutes or so ( just long enough to get all the tarps put up and soak me to the skin) and it was small pea-sized stuff.

Spring gardening in the Rogue Valley involves lots of plastic (not the spending kind) but the draping kind...all over the plants to avoid getting burned by a late frost or cold temps or wind or hail...


My peppers live in a cloche of plastic for protection, wall 'o waters for heat and shade cloth for avoiding sun scald and remay for bug avoidance, special vinyl coated frames from Gardener's Supply...peppers are my prima donas, always needing something from me.


Butts up, looking at the progress of my cucumbers in their little A-frame hotel with wire, plastic, shade cloth and special dried oat grass bedding.