POTATO, POTAHTOH

 Every garden year I say, "I don't think I'll mess with growing potatoes this year." And every year I change my mind when I see the seed potato boxes at the Grange. So this year I used a potato bag from Gardener's Supply. It turned out well and we are enjoying the creamy deliciousness of these Yukon Gold favorites. There is nothing to compare with fresh dug potatoes or in this case, fresh dumped out of the bag spuds.  

AUGUST GARDEN SCENES

 Waiting, waiting, waiting for the tomatoes to ripen. Prepared for a tomato glut at the end of the month!

 Clematis and morning glory make a nice combination of purples.

 A happy ivy geranium by the garden gate...

Echeveria and morganianum decorating the cream separator.

BEST GIFT EVER!

My favorite sign painting under-gardener surprised me this morning with something to take away the winter blahs AND SO TRUE...! And it's made from one of my old cookie sheets. I bet he could sell a million of these to gardeners about now! THANKS, HONEY!

WINDING DOWN IN THE GARDEN

 Here in the Rogue Valley we are experiencing an early autumn this year, it seems. Night temps in the low 40's mean that most veggies just stop doing much. Usually we have rather hot temps until almost the end of the month but not this year. Probably means we'll have a lot of green tomatoes to ripen indoors. But I'm not complaining because the cooler temps are so nice! 

So I'm madly dumping pots, planting some things into the ground and putting some things in bigger pots. Time to "activate" my pot washing sink (a laundry tray that my under gardener installed mainly for just this purpose)...washing up pots before I store them away for winter. I bring out a bucket of hot, sudsy water and turn it into mud, basically, as I scrub out the insides. It usually takes several times changing out the water to get all the pots cleaned. I let them dry out for a couple of days so that if I want to stack them, they won't freeze together in the winter. 

SMOKE GETS IN OUR EYES...

I guess we were getting antsy or something, being stuck indoors during the outdoor season. We've had wall to wall smoke for several weeks now (no surprise with 150,000 plus acres burning up around us), with only an occasional few hours when we could actually see the sky. Sometimes there were even clouds and stars...who knew?
So this morning when we could actually open the windows and enjoy a bit of fresh air, we opted for the lumber yard and a mini project.

 With $90 worth of 2"x 12" cedar planks and some treated 2x4's we designed and built a small platform to hold the birdbath and assorted pots. Here I'm "head down, butt up" (thankfully photographed by the under gardener from the kind position) painting the cedar with Miller Storm in "boxwood" which is really a sage green. 

Here you see the alternating pots of daylilies and dwarf boxwood NOT sinking into the gravel and clay soil beneath! Quite an improvement. And now with the help of additional gravel under the platform we may be able to level the birdbath! 
We got it done just in time as the smoke is drifting back into the hills here. 

IN HOCK...

 My volunteer hollyhock is loving its location in the garden. I figure it free seeded from my neighbor's yard. It is over 8' tall and growing in the gravel and un-amended clay soil next to the raised beds but not in one!  
I've never had any luck growing hollyhocks "on purpose." They always die on me. Obviously they thrive in heavy clay soil with little water! 

ROGUE VALLEY CLIMATE CHANGE?

 When I first moved to the Rogue Valley in 1971, I couldn't buy agapanthas (Lily of the Nile) anywhere. I had to "import" them from California where they enjoyed popularity, even on freeway medians. Here the standard answer to my query about them was, "Oh no, they aren't possible in our zone!" (Sunset zone 7). And they didn't survive the cold winters so I stopped planting them back then.  
HOW TIMES HAVE CHANGED!

Today they are widely available at all nurseries and garden centers in the valley. For the past several years we haven't had the extreme low temps that would kill them! Other formerly tender plants have also become available at local nurseries suggesting that our climate has indeed changed! 

IT'S A SIGN...

 Did I mention that my under-gardener is also an erstwhile sign painter? So he gifted me with an early birthday present since I happened to walk into his workshop whilst he was painting it. It was meant to be a surprise for later in the month. 
The play on words is thanks to long time garden columnist Dulcy Mahar's husband Ted, who had a sign made to put on her much larger potting shed (which was really a nice hideaway at the back of her garden, complete with a sofa for napping and artwork!)  

Mine...not so fancy and A LOT smaller! That means that I can't do as much POUTING AS I'D LIKE! Since I've grown up though, I don't pout as much as I did when I was a teenager and my mom accused me of being a Ubangi! Those are the folks in Africa with the enlarged lower lips thanks to bones placed in them...what we all learned from the National Geographic back in the day! Well, pouting aside, the sign adds a nice touch, don't you think?

Notice too that my potting, er pouting shed is almost empty of plants. Even with shade cloth draped over the roof, it gets up into the 100's quickly on warm days. Who needs a crockpot?...I could just do a pot roast in a casserole dish in there and I'm sure it would be cooked to perfection by dinner time! 

SENSATIONAL MAY!

 A good year for my Viburnum and iris in the driveway bed. The Viburnum "Watanabe" was supposed to be about 5' tall but it likes it here and is now about 7' and growing! 

 Above is "Before The Storm" and below is "Skating Party." These are descendants of my original iris from Cooley Iris Farms in Silverton, Oregon...no longer in business but I have kept these rhizomes going since about 1994.   

 Above, a closer look at my Viburnum, loaded with blossom clusters. Below the iris "Skating Party" enjoying the mild "May gray" weather.

IT TAKES THREE...

 Because the garden is still wet and we keep having snow showers, the only thing to do when you are infected with "gardenitus" is look for pots and plants! The nurseries and garden centers are still mostly deserted because you need a warm jacket, gloves and a nice hot Styrofoam cup of latte to roam around in the chilly days of early spring. It was easy enough to find the three dwarf boxwood (buxus) but finding three pots the same color and the same size...not so much! 

Maybe I was just too early in the season, although there were new pot styles at the garden center. Lots of nice Vietnamese and Malaysian ones (along with the cheapo made in China ones that I ignore). Luckily I found my garden center lady who brought out another pot to match the two that I had picked out (Malaysian). They don't put all of them out at once due to space limitations.
 So my plan is to make a birdbath focal point using pots at the base. Now I only need three more matching pots in a different color from these to place between them. I'm thinking geraniums or daylilies in maybe green or blue pots... 

MY PLANT LUST CONTINUES UNABATED IN 2018

I'm forced to admit it...with Spring comes "PLANT LUST." I went to Southern Oregon Nursery to get a few odds and ends or "fillers" as we call 'em, including some dwarf Japanese garden junipers and a couple of sedums. Harmless enough. But of course, you...well I,... can't go to this wonderful nursery without treating myself to some aimless wandering among the offerings. I had just congratulated myself about not succumbing to anything in "Temptation Alley"...that's the area at the entrance where they put together a display of currently blooming or good looking plants. "Nope," I said to myself, "I'm above all that!" So indeed I wandered for a good half hour, stopping by the koi pond to greet the huge denizens of the deep who always come over to see if I have anything for them. 
It was at the very back end of the nursery next to the lattice house where they keep the bonsai plants that I spied these little bushes. 

I loved their conical shape and the bright yellow/green color of their new growth. The tag said "Chamaecyparis lawsoniana Treasure Island." It was then that PLANT LUST hit me! I HAD TO HAVE THEM! I even knew just where I'd put them. It was just after that I noticed their little price tags...Oye! For plants sooo small (about 10" tall) they commanded  $19.99 EACH. 
So I petted them but passed, making my way back to the sales counter. I purchased my plants and went home to dig away. 
But I couldn't forget these little guys. I did some research in my trusty Sunset Western Garden Guide and found out that since the plant breeders had gotten a more disease resistant chamaecyparis rootstock (developed by OSU...Oregon State Univ) they had breed lots of new varieties. 
The very next day I returned to the nursery for some dwarf boxwood (I told myself). I visited the little chamaecyparis and ran my hand over their soft yellow foliage. I put 2 of them in the cart (it was like a slow motion action, as if I were hypnotized...uh huh).  
When I got to the check out area I asked the plantsman/owner of this family owned business WHY these little gems were so expensive. He said it was because they were very rare yet...a new dwarf variety that would only grow a few inches a year. 
To seal the deal (he knew I was a good customer and he recognized that glazed look in my eyes) he said, "Oh, look at that...those other plants (3 boxwood) are mis-marked...they should be only $7.99, not $9.99." 
So I bought my "babies" because I "needed them"...just like I "need chocolate." 

They mark the entrance to a seating area and offset the heron beautifully, don't you think? I even had the perfect square blue pots for them, which lessens the cost, right, since I didn't have to buy pots! They will get shade in the afternoon which will be much kinder to them in the heat of the summer. Now where did I put that little foil- wrapped piece of chocolate?

GOBS OF GREEN TOMATOES

Here it is mid-August and we're still without ripe tomatoes. We've had onesies, twosies but...
To say it's been a weird weather/gardening year is an understatement. A heat wave in early June with triple digits, 2" of rain and cool temps in July, and an August where night time temps have been in the low 50's up here in the hills. I think the tomatoes are confused! But it looks like we'll finally get some hot weather for a a few days and maybe the yellow will turn to red or pink. Hope so. I have a feeling that we'll have a lot of ripe tomatoes all at once in September! 

MILKWEED MANIA

 Got milkweed? I do! My neighbor in the yard next to me planted milkweed a few years ago in order to attract Monarch butterflies. Evidently it was "plant it and they will come." Then she moved out and left her husband AND the milkweed. For those who don't know (me included) the milkweed multiplies and is very invasive. So now I have milkweed invading my yard. I pull out most of it because it comes up everywhere. I have left a few plants by our common fence.  What you are looking at is the seed pod formed from the flowerhead where the butterfly lays its eggs. They hatch inside and live on the stuff in the big fat 3-4" pods. Then they come out as a big fuzzy worm before they form a chrysalis and turn into a butterfly at some point.   

These plants are over 6' and have several pods. So I'm hoping for a nice "crop" of butterflies , maybe in September. I suppose they will stick around for a short time and then head south to maybe Pacific Grove or Mexico. 

BLOOMING MADNESS!

This is a first for me...after living in the Rogue Valley for 45 years...I have a rose blooming in April. Yeah, no biggie if you live in California but here...it's unheard of. And this isn't a greenhouse trick...this is my regular Julia Child yellow tree rose that lives outside all the time.

  And the clematis that usually bloom in May are bursting out as well. We've already had all time record-breaking warmth this month... up to 91 degrees in the valley. 

HOMEMADE BIRDBATH

 This is my newest birdbath feature...made from an old "strawberry jar," a 12" clay pot and a glazed 16" saucer. I wanted a birdbath in the same area as my big bird feeder. But I didn't want to spend any money, so I came up with this using existing stuff I had. I've never had much luck with a strawberry jar except that I've been able to plant a few succulents and have them survive. So I used it as the base since it is about 24" tall. Then I found a clay pot to sit in the top hole and support the large saucer. The birds seem to like it and I finally have a good use for the jar. It proves that you can never have too many saucers!

MY MARCH MADNESS

 The "apricot" tulips get oranger by the day! Oh well, they are striking against the brown fence. 

 My pink tulips have lived up to their photo on the cover of the bulb packet. I put them in with the snow pea plants.

 Veronica speedwell is a great groundcover that blooms early and sets off the white Iberis (candytuft).

Some Pieris Andromeda (Lily of the Valley), potted up on the patio. 

DOWN AND DIRTY?

 Time to play in the "dirt." Actually I'm screening mulch from the bin. This was all leaves, banana peels, coffee grounds (including the paper filters, egg shells, veggie and fruit peels, etc. 

 This is how it looks fresh from the mulch bin where it has been collecting since last spring. I dig out the bottom half of the bin for this year and leave the top part which will fall down. It has lots of worm eggs that will hatch this spring and work their magic.

 If you look closely you can see some worms. although they are the hardy ones that have managed to stay alive in the warmth of the center of the bin. The decomposing stuff creates heat to keep them alive. 

After processing the mulch through a 1/2" screen, the clumps turn into a fine, sweet smelling stuff that I add to my raised beds. This stuff acts to "recharge" the soil in the beds. Thank you worms!

GARDEN MALAISE

YOU KNOW YOU HAVE IT WHEN...1) The rake in your hands looks like an instrument of torture, 2) Even though you put the leaf blower on low, it's still too damned loud, 3) Your garden gloves don't get dry overnight and are damp and cold when you put them on, 4) A cup of coffee and a sit down by the fire are even more appealing than usual, and 5) You can watch an entire NASCAR race without going outside even once! Yep, I have it big time. It usually stikes in November, just as I am facing the LAST leaf cleanup. So I do only the minimum clean up...getting the leaves blown off the patio...and ignoring them on the lawns or paths or even in the gutters. WHO CARES? I'll wait for that week of warmer weather (or "false spring" as it is called) in February to finish cleaning out the beds. 
Now where did I put my slippers?   

THE FALL GRIND

 It's that time of year that reminds me of that Dr. Seuss verse: "Poor Ali Sard, he has to mow grass in his uncle's back yard. The faster he mows it, the faster he grows it!" 
With us, it's raking, blowing, sweeping leaves from our two big maple trees that just about makes us go nuts! The faster we rake 'em, the faster they fall! 
We grind some of them and dig them into the raised beds. This year I thought maybe I'd just skip the grinding part but my under gardener saved the day! Maple leaves are actually harder to grind because they are so thin and light. They also get soggy in a light rain, unlike oak leaves. So we had to get to the grinding before another storm moves in this weekend. Just the way to spend a nice sunny fall day!

 Jack, my faithful under gardener, grinding away. 

 Most of them make it into the bucket!

The bin is almost full of ground leaves but the trees are no where near done. Me thinks we'll be doing this again next week. Hoping for lots of wind from the northeast to blow the leaves into the neighbor's yard but it will probably come from the northwest! 
Time for a coffee break and a hot shower!