LESSON LEARNED

 In April of 2013 I adopted a new baby...a beautiful lace leaf Japanese maple...perfect for filling the corner of our newly constructed privacy screen/wind break on the back patio. It was love at first sight for this plant besotted gardener. It was in a suspiciously small pot for its size but I was sure I could convince the roots to spread out and be happy in this large redwood tub. All seemed well as it started to leaf out this spring. My gardener's ego was pleased that I had indeed "rescued" this tree from unhappiness in a small pot and the purchase price of $75 (a lot for me!) was vindicated. (I had ignored the warning signs, it seemed, during the previous summer as it seemed to get a lot of tip die back, even with copious amounts of water). 
It never fully leafed...it just stopped and the little leaflets never opened. 
What had I done? I forked the tub in a panic and discovered that the root ball was a solid mass. I couldn't get my big garden fork into it. I still didn't give up and added fertilizer, drenched it with my special compost tea and talked to it. But by May nothing had changed. I wrenched it out of the tub. It was time for a post mortem. Turns out the main root system had continued to wrap itself around the root ball. Some research (an article in Fine Gardening) confirmed that I had made a classic mistake thinking I could change the rooting habit of a tree. According to the article, I never should have fallen for it. I should have popped off the pot right there in the nursery, seen the wadded up root ball and passed. You can't change the mind of a tree root system!     

So a new baby is growing in the big tub. It was in a 2 gallon tub...freshly dug and brought from the tree farm south of Eugene, OR to the new nursery of choice for me. I forked over $47.99 this time. It got the "treatment" of compost tea and fertilizer along with recharged potting soil. So lesson learned...you never stop learning in the gardening game, it seems!   

GILIAN LIKES IT HERE!

 Gilian Blades must have been something to have this beautiful clematis named after her/him!

These blooms are about 7" across at full flower and last several days. 

I TAKE PETS WITH MY COFFEE, THANKS

Just another morning in Paradise (with pets)!

HAPPY MUM'S DAY TO YOU!

Happy Mum's Day from Mother Nature!

MUM'S THE WORD

A fortune teller told me 40 years ago that I'd have a son and that in 40 years he'd send me olive oil for Mum's Day....well, maybe not exactly what she said... 
A really nice surprise arrived today on Big Brown...all my favorite Lucero oils...Meyer Lemon infused, Basil infused and Miller's Blend plus a lemon vinegar. Wonderful stuff. And from my "favorite son!" I wonder how he knew all my favorites? Maybe he had help from the Lucero computer! Thanks, sonny & Susan (my favorite daughter in law)! 

FELINE WATER RIGHTS

 Gosh, every cat know that outside water is better than inside water!

Besides you never know when some extra protein, say a tasty spider, takes its last swim right in your bowl!  

IT'S A SNAP!

 These little green gems are snap peas....the plants I grew "by accident." I went to the Grange without my specs and thought that I had picked out Green Arrow pole peas. Imagine my surprise when I discovered (shortly before planting) that I had grabbed the wrong thing! Since I couldn't be a plant murderer, I planted 'em. I went back to the Grange and got my regular peas, along with snow peas (the edible pod type). But these little morsels of pea-ness (oops, don't say that out loud...) have turned out to be the earliest variety and a nice addition to salads. You can eat the pod and the little peas raw or saute them quickly for about 1 minute and add them to other veggies.  

 May is clematis month here in the Rogue Valley. The garden arbor entrance sports 2 varieties, C. montana wilsonii (the little white ones) and a C. jackmannii (the big dark blue on the left). My garden theme is white, purple, blue and yellow with a few pink accents. One of those is the New Dawn rose growing up the right side post but not blooming just yet. The hanging basket repeats the color scheme. Yes, that's a goose on top of the arbor, though he is at rest this week after lots of wind last week. His wings go clack, clack when the wind picks up.

Here is a long shot of the veggie garden entrance. Bright green is the main color right now, as everything is madly growing. Some nice showers and mild temps have lessened plant stress after our week of record setting high temps in the low 90's in the valley and mid 80's up here in the foothills.