Carving Pumpkins

Chris' pumpkin

After dinner we went down to the garage and carved our pumpkins on the workbench. That would be me, Chris and his son, who is 16. Chris is a holiday die hard and loves all the traditions of the season. 

I love them too, but he makes sure they happen. One of our first dates was carving pumpkins out on his deck by the river.

The pumpkins were store bought since I didn't try to grow them at the garden and the weather turned wet and cold here in time to go to a pumpkin patch.

See if you can guess the theme on the left, that's mine on the right

As we were pulling out the gooey insides I was joking about buying mine next year and plugging it in. But, once we got them outside and lit I'll admit that the old fashioned jack-o-lanterns beat out modern day replacements.

Happy Halloween Everybody, stay safe.

Who's Counting?

Amish blue star

 blog post #200

When I started my blog in January I was focusing on gardening in small spaces, my own 'yard' being the focus. A couple months later I got a plot at the community garden and most of my attention went to that. A lot of my posts over the summer where journal entries on the success and failures of my vegetable garden. I learned a lot and had fun, I can say that I really miss going to the garden and being outside in the sun.

Artichoke at Heritage Farm

I started this blog with the intention of using it as a gardening journal, but not a daily journal / diary. I want this to be a space for exploring gardening alternatives and a way to meet other 'plant people'. This is my space to store and organize photos and info on a variety of topics - rain gardens, universal design, low maintenance, container gardening, etc. Occasionally I toss in finds on gluten free cooking, vintage, and local shops.


One change I have made since I started is to only use my own photos (good lighting or bad).  There's a lot of contention online over copyright (photos and words).  I post links to websites and have a button to my Pinterest pages so that I can share with others, but I have stopped using web photos here. I do intend to investigate sites that allow me to use images without copyright infringement, but for now it's my photos or no photos.  If you see a post with no photo, there is most likely a link or two that will direct you straight to the source.

Kabrina, my garden assistant (supervisor)

So with 200 posts under my belt, I intend to keep on pursuing my plant related interests and sharing them here. As always, feel free to leave me a note in the comments.

Online Garden Offerings

Between Pinterest and Facebook you can discover new blogs, websites, and people. One  that interests me right now is Studio 'g'. This site was started by an editor of Leaf Magazine, Rochelle Greayer. 

I have a stack of Studio 'g' blog posts in my inbox. I've opened all of them, but they have such great photos and interesting topics, I want to take a second look. This is unusual in that I like to purge as many emails as possible. 

Leaf is an online gardening magazine, I like the 'leaflets' page with individual photos of random gardening ideas.

This happens to be post 199, I've had some mediocre ideas for the 200th. Maybe my friends could help me out?

Looking for Blue Skies

An arid landscape

I have been travelling the last few days and have come home with a new perspective. I have lived in the Pacific Northwest for a long time, with a 6 year stint living in desert southern Oregon as a kid. I chose to go to school in Portland, OR because it was urban and literally, green. I've worked in the rain and like most people here go about my life in the rain without an umbrella.

I spent the last few days in New Mexico and Colorado. While they admitted to having unusually warm weather, I walked and ate in the sun, even bought sunscreen and sandals - in October. I noticed the plants that were used a lot, ones that did well in an arid climate. Basically, I saw the beauty of a native landscape that wasn't green, like my own.

We flew back into Portland last night with cloud cover, cool temperatures and the rain. Today it was difficult to adjust to the clouds, rain, dark skies and cold, windy weather.

This summer it rained until June, which can be normal here. But, then we had 3 months of dry, sunny weather extending the growing season at the garden into early October. That was abnormal and I loved it. It got the wheels turning and I now feel like doing a little research on sunnier climates and longer growing seasons.

I'd like to hear from others around the country who live in a great place to garden. Feel free to leave me a note in the comment section.

Murals by Hana

Yesterday I shared a blog post from Monticello Antique Marketplace. They are in my list of "Blogs I like" at the bottom of my blog page.  I'd also like to share my friend Hana's post. She is a multi-talented individual, she paints murals in addition to designing landscapes, and she's my partner in crime at the community garden.

I invite you to visit her blog Murals and Landscapes by Hana. Her recent post has photos of the Winnie the Pooh themed murals she painted for her grandson's bedroom. They are the sweetest pictures, and they show off her talent. If you know anyone who may be interested in having murals done, please pass on the link. Scroll down to her previous posts for murals that she and her painting partner Janet have been doing for Street of Dreams houses.

Remember if you receive my blog by e-mail or read it on a mobile device, there is a link that will take you to the webpage where you can find all of my favorites.

Salvage Garden at Monticello Antiques

If you scroll all the way to the bottom of the webpage, you will find a list of my favorite websites, blogs, and books.(These aren't shown on mobile or e-mail posts, so click on the link that takes you to my page). 

I update these as I find great blogs and websites. When I post something new I usually check these links to to look for new blog posts.

On Sunday Monticello Antiques posted about updates to the Salvage Garden. Since that is one of my all time favorite places here's the link so you can see it: 

http://monticelloantiques.blogspot.com/2012/10/salvage-garden.html

Rain Gardens at Luke Jensen Sports Park

In the "About Me" profile on the sidebar I mention my interest in the use and design of Rain Gardens. Essentially large puddles, Rain Gardens (aka bioswales) are used to filter roadway runoff before it hits the streams. A variety of plants (usually native)  are used that can handle either standing water or drought depending on their location in the swales.

In Washington State (and Oregon) there are benefits to using them rather than the big stormwater ponds surrounded by chain link fencing. We are seeing more of them because the Dept. of Ecology is encouraging their use and developers gain more square footage on their site plans.

Typically laid out by civil engineers, my office is usually asked to design the planting and provide a legend of suitable plants. Most jurisdictions that we work with have specific guidelines for those plantings.

In my own neighborhood, here in Vancouver, WA, Luke Jensen Sports Park was built utilizing Rain Gardens for parking areas. The park opened last spring and a couple of Rain Gardens are located in the parking area.

Rain Garden at Luke Jensen Sports Park, Vancouver, WA
(click on image to enlarge)

This pond includes Ajuga for perimeter ground cover and a variety of sedges and grasses that slope down into the swale. By using a swale this parking area has a much larger amount of landscape area than it would have had without it.

I previously wrote about the Rain Gardens in Port Townsend. The city used a variety of native plantings, heavy on flowering perennials, making the swales that run along downtown streets very attractive gardens. Those Rain Gardens were really well done and I look to them as a template.

Check out more photos and info on my Pinterest board, Rain Garden.
For more information on the work we do in my office, see the button on the sidebar to the right for Planning Solutions, Inc.

Fall Harvest

Sweet meat squash

Previously, I shared some photos of gorgeous fall flowers. They were grown by "K" a friend of my mom's who lives out in the country. We visited her last week on one of the last sunny fall days here before the rain returned. Her vegetable garden included corn, squash, tomatoes along with the flowers. The garden is at the edge of a small orchard sporting a huge beehive in one of the trees. I tried to get close enough for a picture, but I could see bees moving around it.

While I was taking those pictures I came across some squash that were just as pretty, but in their own way. Above is a Sweet Meat, a pretty aqua colored "pumpkin".  K said that they are one of the best tasting winter squash, I haven't tried them myself. They are so pretty I might add them to my garden list for next year.

Sweet meat and another squash, if you know the name feel free to leave a comment.

A Simple Bouquet of Fall Flowers

This year I've had the chance to meet a couple of my mom's friends who are "plant people". They know a lot and are fun to visit. Last week we went back to K's, she lives in a house in the country that her husband built in the 1940's. It's a beautiful area with a nice sized garden.

Each time we visit she has prepared coffee and sweets (most are homemade) and there is always a vase on the table with a few flowers from her garden. This time I got a photo.

A vase full of zinnias

To me this seems very old fashioned, and sweet. We can get so caught up in what's fashionable or trendy, but this small bouquet shows off what's growing in her garden, so simple and pretty.

We drank coffee, ate goodies, then after solving most of the world's problems we headed outside to see her garden. I expected the corn and the squash, but did not expect all of the fall flowers. Zinnia, Dahlia, and striking Hibiscus flowers with such vivid colors. 

Gorgeous Zinnias

Brilliant red Hibiscus in a sea of flowers

I just might have to print and hang these over my desk. It was a beautiful day, one of the last of unusual sunny October weather here. Today is the first rain we've had in months. It will take some getting used to again. I'll share her corn and squash photos in another post.

Gluten Free Zucchini Bread

Something I haven't shared over the summer was my attempt(s) to make gluten free [gf] carrot  muffins and zucchini bread. Those who know me will agree, I am not a cook, I also do not bake. But the abundance of  veggies we had this summer made it clear that I will have to learn.

Last spring I bought a great gf cook book, Simply Sugar and Gluten Free, by Amy Green. Chris and I have tried several of her recipes with success.  Then I made two attempts at the carrot muffins, the second time trying to replace carrots with zucchini - Fail. 

On the first try I realized I was missing an ingredient and actually drove to Lingonberries Market (a local gf grocery store) to pick it up. Then got home only to discover I'd bought the wrong ingredient. On the second try, using zucchini, the bread was so gummy I just threw it out. I was pretty discouraged, not just the failed attempts, but the time and the fact that the gf ingredients aren't cheap.

But I still had zucchini, and I found a recipe on the Bob's Red Mill website for a gf zucchini bread.  Since I was using those products I thought I'd give it a try. It tasted good, but still too "moist" (I figured out the problem once I tried the next recipe).

I finally mentioned this to my sister who has Celiac and eats a strict gluten free diet*. That's when she sent me this recipe from gluten-free goddess. Karina (the goddess) has a great blog, tons of recipes, and you can find her on Facebook or Pinterest. Her website is worth checking out.

I've had the recipe for awhile, I had one last zucchini and then a couple more (back ups) from my other sister. So yesterday I decided to try again. Finally, success!

Here's the link to Karina's zucchini bread recipe: http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2010/08/zucchini-bread.html.
(she recommends pressing the grated zucchini with paper towels, not doing this is what "sunk" two of my previous attempts).

Don't laugh, this loaf is my triumph over baking tragedy
Luckily, it tasted better than it looked

* I eat a gluten free diet due to wheat sensitivity/allergy, I'm not recommending this to anyone who eats a gluten free diet for a medical condition such as Celiac sprue.  If you'd like more info on gluten free foods from a Registered Dietician who has Celiac, see my sister's site Balanced Body Nutrition or go to her link on the right side of the page.

Avoid Getting Blown Away

On my last trip to the community garden I got to see the effect of 40+ mph winds on the site. This is southwest Washington State, we aren't really a windy area. But, Vancouver (WA) is located on the north side of the Columbia River Gorge. When we get "east winds" that is where it's coming from. But, because it is inconsistent it is easy to forget to plan for it.

This windmill was a recent addition to another plot

This probably took some time to construct and very little for the wind to tear it up

I'd just learned about making cloche covers in a class last month and I can sympathize with the people who came back to this one only start over again. I was lucky, the bean teepee on my lot was still upright and I tested it to make sure it would stay put. 

Since this is my first year at the garden, I've planted fall veggies that can last up to the first frost. I'm not ready to try over-wintering, or even extending the season with cloches or cold frames, but I plan to spend some time reading up on it.

Fall Lettuce in Containers

Recently, I found black window box liners at the nursery. I hadn't noticed these before, since my baskets all use coconut husk liners. But I was looking for something small to plant  lettuce in because I didn't have any empty containers available. 

Lettuce planted in a window box liner

When I planted fall veggies at the garden I decided to keep some lettuce here at home so I could easily pick some for salads. The lettuce is growing well, but the black liner tends to get warm in direct sunlight. The leaves start to wilt, so I'm watering a lot, which is never my goal. 

The lettuce and other greens I planted in the community garden are doing great there. It's also easier to pick the greens all at once.

I think if I tried this again I would plant them in a larger planter. Even better would be to have them in a railing planter at waist height. Last spring I considered adding more railing planters for veggies, but that idea was put on hold when I got the lot at the garden. I guess the thing to consider is to either make room in existing planters for fall veggies (fewer flowers) or add more planters dedicated for vegetables.

Autumn Railing Planter

Over the summer I have replanted my two railing planters on the upper deck.
These planters are the most visible from inside and I like to keep them 'updated' as the plants start to fade. In my August 19th post  I showed how I replaced the old planting with all white petunias. At the time it was nice to have a simple, monochromatic planting. 

We had a warm August and they produced a lot of flowers. But, they became a buffet for tiny little ant-like bugs with wings. The flowers basically disappeared over a week. (If you can id those bugs, please let me know in the comment section).

So Long White Petunias

Now that it was October, I decided to change out the planters with a fall theme. I love and support my local nurseries, but one trip to Home Depot (and about $30 later) I had a nice mix of mums, pansies, peppers, and heather.

Hello Fall Colors 

(Click on photos to enlarge)

I kept the planters similar, but because I wanted to try some different plants, they have their own look. I've never tried the mini peppers outside, so I'm interested in how long they'll make it once it gets cold. The heather can transplant to the garden, but I'm interested in seeing how well it does in the container.

Time to Celebrate Fall

A mix of sunflowers from my garden next to Jack

It's October, fall is my favorite season of the year. I really like the temperature, the slant of the sun, leaves turning and a chance to pull out my seasonal decorations. I've got my halloween coffee mugs back in the cupboard and I believe there are several boxes of decorations waiting in the garage. 

In most houses there's just one person who loves the seasonal decorations, but in ours both of us enjoy it. Since we combined households we really have twice as much stuff. Last year we started to purge extras as each season came and went. 

In this case we just got the jack-o-lantern box from Karey's Kreative Interiors. Karey had a shop just down the road and recently moved into 1817 Main Street Vintage downtown. We got the pumkin when we went in to check out her moving sale. So I guess adding another item means I'll have to donate two. It's double-sided and has a flap so you can insert a candle. It's meant to be hung from an "arrow" outside your door, but I think we'll keep him inside this year.

Last of the Summer Veggies, Start of the Fall

I went to the garden this morning thinking I'd pick a few tomatoes, water my fall plants, cut more sunflowers and go home. When I first got there I was pleased to see that all of my lettuces and chard were doing very well. So well that I actually picked a bag full of greens.

chard

pak choi - anyone know how to cook this?

spinach and lettuce

I did pick some tomatoes, not as many as before, and one last zucchini. Still have some onions left and pulled up a few for my parents. Then there's the green beans. I keep assuming after picking them that they are about done. Today I picked more than I did at one time over the summer.

green bean growing like crazy

As you can see the sunflowers draped across my bean teepee are done. I was surprised and a little disappointed because I've enjoyed bringing some cut flowers home. But, I've been leaving the dead heads and the birds are eating the seed. Not quite done yet.

Here's some photos of the produce when I got home. Notice the giant orange bell pepper. My pepper plants would not grow, I even decided not to plant them next year. I discovered this one on a plant about a foot tall. No rhyme or reason for that one.

I'm very excited about having lettuce, spinach and chard for the next month. It has been fun re-working small sections of the garden for fall planting. It is especially exciting after having to eat store bought lettuce the last few weeks.