Dirt Cheap Cold Frame

Our vegetable beds look a little sorry.  Matt and I have been sowing them during the last few weekends, but have been leaving the greens alone until they've bolted.  Right now they're super yummy.

Silly-looking leaning greens.

I have to give a shout-out to my bud, Kittee, for this cold frame idea.  I chose to use this particular raised bed because this area is not being sown right now (actually it's for the tomatoes, which I just started in the cold frame.)  I nestled the starter pots in the soil for extra warmth and room to grow upwards, seeded them, and placed the window on top.  Not a bad cold frame for a $2 old window from the Rebuilding Center.

Grow little bebehs, grow.

I'm kind of over starting seeds indoors.  I don't like having to deal with leggy plants, losing dining room table space, nor doggles that like to knock everything over.  Hopefully this method works. I'll letchya know.

A laundromat in the garden

I don't think there are many that claim washing laundry is fun, but when you can go outside on a breezy, sunny day and hang your clean linens and clothes to dry in your garden, well- that's pretty nice.  Plus it saves money and makes for a happier planet, so you can feel pretty good about yourself too.

The Methley plum and bed sheet make friends.

I decided to install a 40-foot retractable clothesline along my plum orchard and I have to say, it has motivated me to wash laundry more frequently instead of letting it pile up until the hamper is overflowing.

Not in focus, you can see the clothesline attached to the soon-to-be office.

I recommend this type of clothesline, especially for urban spaces.  It's easy to install and definitely easy to set up/retract upon each use.   I also have a stretchable clothesline (similar to this one) with hooks on the end that I string between two posts on the deck when I'm motivated to wash a few loads in an afternoon.

Mr. Dufresne finds soothing the swaying of linens on the clothesline.

Bonus plum shot.  This is our staggering Methley plum harvest.  I don't think the tree liked being transplanted this spring.  We have several more plums coming in on the Brooks plum tree.  And absolutely none on the weeping Santa Rosa plum for the second season since we planted it.

DIY birdbath (and gnome habitat)

It gets hot and very dry in the Pacific Northwest during the summer.   Wanting to help out the local wildlife, I decided setting up a birdbath would be a good thing.   I saw one at a local nursery that I liked, but the $80 price tag motivated me to put something together with materials I had on hand.

The glass "bowl" was a former light fixture from the guest room.  I plugged the hole with a cork I bought from the hardware store, stacked some stone discards from our retaining wall project, and voila!  A birdbath.

 

Around the birdbath I installed native Maianthemum dilatatum (flase lily of the valley) and a log left over from when we had the invasive laurel removed, on which I plan to install a few little ferns.

 

 

 

Wildlife has already taken up residence in this shady spot.

 Now that's gardening on the cheap!

An afternoon of touring gardens

Matt and I participated in the East Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District (EMSWCD) "Naturscaping for Backyard Habitats Yard Tour" yesterday.  As stated by EMSWCD, this tour "...is a wonderful opportunity for you to talk with gardeners who have created landscapes that attract wildlife, are low-maintenance, use minimal water, and have helped them eliminate their use of synthetic fertilizer and pesticides."

Mostly, I just loove being nosy and taking a look at others' outdoor spaces!

Our first stop was located in southeast Portland.  My favorite of the tour, this garden reflects the natural retreat Matt and I aspire to create in our outdoor space.  This garden had about 20% native vegetation and a whole lotta edibles.  Most impressively, it offers a tranquil space to enjoy being outside.

The creative use of glass bottles as garden edging throughout the garden is both beautiful and functional.

We were told one of the homeowners is a carpenter.  Handiwork abounds throughout this garden including this trellis around the firepit, created from rebar.

The homeowners provided notebooks filled with "before and after" and seasonal photos of their garden, as well as a gardening journal, filled with plant tags and notes.  A great idea!

I love the unique sculptural components of this garden like the ceramic bird atop the berry trellis.

My favorite feature of this garden?  The collection of tree stumps-turned planters residing under the rhododendron.  Now I'm on the lookout for stumps!

Garden Number Two is also located in southeast Portland.  A newly constructed house, this garden is under two years old!

Note the newly-planted Douglas Meadowfoam above!

The homeowners carefully planned their sustainable garden, utilizing reclaimed materials, 85% native vegetation, and even leaving a strip of their driveway permeable.

Perhaps the sweetest part of this garden is the whimsy.  The homeowners have placed elements, like the crane in the lavender below, throughout the garden.

Stop Three on the tour also had quite a bit of creative flair, starting with this vibrant garden shed!

I'm a sucker for ferns growing in walls.  This garden hosts about 20% native vegetation.

Garden Number Four didn't disappoint our love for creative outdoor spaces.  Located in northeast Portland, this garden welcomes you with a lovely river rock mosaic under a grape vine trellis.

I just love this stacked rock planter!

The homeowners enjoy watching the wildlife in their back yard, especially birds, and have created a 50% native habitat.

Someday, it would be lovely to have one of these beauties in our outdoor space.

Matt and I didn't have time to stop at all eight gardens.  Our final tour took us through a garden in northeast Portland.  Walking around the side of the house and into the back yard, I immediately traveled from "busy city street" into "woodland habitat."  The homeowner's transformation of the space impressed me even more when  I looked at the provided "before" photos.

Perhaps the most impressive and time-involved feature of the garden is the man-made stream created by the homeowner, of which I haven't provided any photos!

Having created a diverse ecosystem ranging from mature cedars to native groundcovers in this small space, it's no wonder this homeowner has witnessed over 42 species of birds in his back yard.

This garden is composed of 80% native vegetation.

Again, I'm a sucker for ferns growing from rocks.

Well, I'm inspired to "keep at it"!  One day, maybe we'll even make it on the list of stops for the garden tour!

Urbanite in the Garden

Once upon a time (2010) my sloping front yard was just that- a yard.  There were two sad plants among a sea of grass.   Matt and I decide we wanted to put in a retaining wall, minimizing the grass and maximizing our planting capacity, and adding a little curb appeal.

Not wanting to use environmentally-destructive and expensive stone, I began searching for urbanite inspiration on the internets.  "Urbanite" facetiously refers to reused slabs of concrete that usually come from sidewalks or driveways. These are a couple of walls I found and liked.

Photo from http://apld.posterous.com/urbanite-in-the-jungle

Photo from http://hastingsplayground.blogspot.com

My stone mason friend, Wyatt, graciously worked within our budget to create a piece of art that will only improve with age.  Plants like kinnickinnick and coastal strawberries will cascade down the wall, while ferns and other natives will peak out from pockets in the wall, and plants of varying heights will grow above and below the wall.  You may need to don your 5-years-in-the-future glasses to appreciate the planning here.

Some day soon, the space at the base of the wall will be filled with gravel or river rock and native grasses.

Wyatt also created lovely steps and a walkway leading up to the front door, allowing guests to avoid squeezing by the car in the driveway.  Our mailman left a note, thanking us for his new walkway.  Like the wall, the path was created by expertly joining together slabs of concrete and filling the spaces with rocks found throughout our garden.

You'll notice the beginnings of sheet mulching efforts in the front.

To many, this free material may not be as sophisticated as stone, but I love the juxtaposition of the various materials represented in this project, from the moss-covered blocks to the slabs allowing a cross-section view of the concrete ingredients, to the natural river rock.

Here you can see several opportunities for pocket plantings.

I will be seeding the spaces between the pavers with a "stepable" ground cover to achieve a look similar to this:

We have a few more urbanite projects happening in our garden.  And you, lucky readers, will learn all about them in upcoming posts. Have you seen urbanite used in interesting ways?

A cheap way to label plants

Let's face it, sometimes being able to identify every plant in our garden is tricky.  I've found it really helpful to place a label with newly planted material, which can be expensive if you purchase labels specifically for this purpose.

I don't remember where I first heard this tip, but I tucked it away in my brain until I took a trip to the Rebuilding Center, a nonprofit warehouse that houses materials in need of reusing or repurposing.  I was in search of old aluminum blinds and I was in luck!

Nothing fancy here.

All you do is take apart the blinds, cut them to the size you'd like, and write on them with a permanent marker.  Last year I had issues with the writing fading in the sun, so I'd suggest placing the labels facing the direction that gets the least sun in your garden.

I've made a ton of labels.  See the sea of them below, keeping our water-loving plugs company.

Lots of blue and yellow-eyed grass and Oregon iris.

Have you ever been caught in the following dilemma?

"Oops.  I forgot I planted <insert non-evergreen perennial here> in this spot and planted <insert another plant here> too close to it."

Take the dozen or so Western bleeding hearts (Dicentra formosa) I placed around the garden last spring.  I didn't label them and when the foliage disappeared during the winter, I forgot exactly where I'd planted them.  And then I started putting in new plants probably too close to the bleeding hearts.  Now I'm taking advantage of the bleeding hearts' re-emergence to label their locations in the garden to avoid this in the future.

Oh it'll be so exciting when they're in their full, lovely glory!

And I'll remember to expect more Douglas Meadowfoam in this spot next year.