Today's Blooms

It's happening now that several times a day I find myself outside, inspecting the progress of the members of my garden.  I snapped these photos this morning.

My beautiful and fragrant Lindera benzoin is budding.  This winter, we moved it from a too-sunny spot in the front garden to a shadier spot in the back.  I love this plant so much.  It's actually a Northeast U.S. native, but I justified the purchase by the fact that the dried berries can be used in the place of black pepper.  The leaves can also be used as a tea (they're so unbelievably fragrant!) and the bark has medicinal qualities.

My favorite plant in the garden.

We bought this Rhododendron from a neighbor who propagates several plants.

Non-native, garden variety rhodie.

The Berberis aquifolium we planted in the past couple of years are blooming for the first time.

The Berberis flowers have a light, buttery fragrance that I really enjoy, and so do the bees!

We now have probably a dozen or so native flowering currants in our garden.  The flowers vary from white, to light pink (seen below), to a more vibrant pink.  I love the fragrance of these guys.

The fragrance is not too sweet or 'floral', but is more clean and earthy.

Emerson's fig tree has 20+ figs already!

And the last of our three plum trees has FINALLY blossomed.

Hopefully there will be enough cross-pollination.

Andy accompanies me on my garden inspections.

I'm excited to announce that our weeping Santa Rosa Plum, which Matt and I planted in the fall of 2010, began weeping this past year AND this spring finally has blossoms!!  It's covered in them!  I hope this means it will be covered in fruit!

We almost gave up on you, you late bloomer!

Ribes sanguineum, red and white varieties.

This one has more vibrant flowers.

Spring is coming! Spring is coming!

It's true!  The birds have been telling me and so have the flowers.  Take a look at what I have blooming already in the garden.

Indian plum is the first plant to leaf out and bloom in our garden.

Oemleria cerasiformis is native to the Pacific Northwest and will grow to be 5-16 feet tall. Important  as a source of food and medicine to Native Americans in this region, the Indian plum has a small edible fruit that birds, rodents, deer, bear, foxes, and coyotes also relish according to Rainyside Gardeners.   I doubt we'll see those larger mammals in our little urban garden.  We will, however see hummingbirds and bees hovering around the blooms of our two Indian plums.  I plan on taking a flower of each to work tomorrow to have our Taxonomist sex them.  If we don't have a male and female, no fruit!

The flowers will soon emerge on this and the other dozen or so rfcs we have in the garden.

Ribes sanguineum, or Red flowering currant, is a gorgeous native plant, which we have planted in abundance throughout our garden.  Soon, to the delight of hummingbirds and pollinators, these plants will be covered in pink blooms.  Rfcs are especially fast-growing, which makes them all the more exciting.  The fruit is also edible, but not too tasty to humans.

White flowering currant

Ribes sanguineum 'Alba' is a white variety of flowering currant.  Matt and I just purchased two from Echo Valley Natives in Oregon City, which we installed along the foundation in the front of the house.  I look forward to the cascading white blooms covering the shrubs as they mature to their 13 ft height.

How many fruit will you produce this year?

One of our non-native plum trees has begun blooming.  Hopefully it will save some of those blossoms for pollination with the other two plum trees.

While I was busy snapping photos of the blooms around the garden, these two were stealing collard leaves.

Matt and I are getting our vegetable beds in order.  For now we have some delicious kale and collards that are probably the tastiest they've been in a while.  Doggle approved.

Holy Manzanita!

Matt and I have been on a mission to find regionally-local manzanitas to introduce in our garden.  Manzanitas are the taller relatives of kinnickinnick (in fact, they're the same genus).  Bees and hummingbirds love 'em.  Like kinnickinnick, manzanitas are evergreen and have a fairly large range, occurring from southern British Columbia through Mexico.

We were looking for two species, Arctostaphylos columbiana (hairy manzanita) and Arctostaphylos canescens (hoary manzanita).   As it turns out, finding particular species of manzanita can be challenging, as this genus has a tendency toward hybridization, including between "manzanitas" and "kinnickinnick".  Short of wild-harvesting plants, the best we could do was acquire a few manzanitas that do well in our region.

Photo of  mature Manzanita x 'Austin Griffiths' from Las Pilitas Nursery website.

During a recent visit* to Echo Valley Natives in Oregon City, Matt and I picked up a wild-collected manzanita.  Again, due to the wide-variation in the genus related to hybridization, we're not entirely sure what type this is.  It's now living above our retaining wall in the front.

Last weekend we took our first trip to Cistus Nursery on Sauvie Island.  For reasons I don't completely understand it's still the slow season there for retail, so there wasn't much to see.  However, that didn't stop us from spending ages deciding on three manzanitas to bring home.

Our Austin Griffiths is loaded with blooms- hurray!

Manzanita flowers might look familiar to blueberry growers.  Vaccinium (blueberries/huckleberries) and Arctostaphylos are both in the Ericaceae family.

Arctostaphylos x 'Austin Griffiths' is a hybrid described as having "glossy green leaves and dark maroon-brown bark, forming an attractive backdrop for a large cluster of soft pink flowers.  The blooms appear in early winter, providing a valuable nectar source for hummingbirds and bees.  Over time, this upright manzanita can reach a height of up to 10 feet and width of 4-6 ft."

Welcome to your new home, little guy.

And we got two itty bitty Arctostaphylos myrtifolia to flank the steps leading up to the front door.  It's hard to tell from the photo, but they have adorable teardrop flowers and bristly stems.  Upon researching this species, A. myrtifolia appears to be a federally listed "threatened species" and is endemic to the Sierra Nevada foothills (so not quite native- oops.)  We were looking for a manzanita that wouldn't grow more than four feet and this fit the bill according to the folks at the nursery.

Love those little flowers.

*Echo Valley Natives turned out to be the only place I could find Euonymus occidentalis, or Western Wahoo.  For some reason this wonderfully showy native plant is almost impossible to find in nurseries around here.  We brought home two.  They're gorgeous in the fall, especially.  I'll take photos of ours at some point.

The Frosted Garden

It's winter and I, along with the other bees, have been less busy around the garden lately.

Crystalline fruit of the Nootka rose.

Today, however, I looked outside and was instantly inspired to leap out of bed, don my coat, grab my camera, and snap some photos of a rare Portland sight.  A crunchy walk through the crystalline garden offered an almost surreal experience.  Frost is really a neat thing, isn't it?

Foggy view from deck

We've had a few foggy days lately in the Pacific Northwest, and I've been walking around, feeling like I'm part of some fantastical movie, or at least that something fantastical is about to happen.  And I suppose it does.  The vibrant greens of Portland in the winter, including our infamous Douglas firs, paired with glimpses of snow-capped mountains on clear days and views of the city skyline are enough to make me giddy.

Okay enough gushing.  Good Dog; I love this city!

Forgotten spiders' webs reappeared today as icy formations.

Bristly Nootka rose looks especially neat with icicles as thorns.

Snowberry encased in ice.  How fitting.

My friend, Douglas meadowfoam, is preparing for its summer show.

Sword ferns and moss; keeping it green all winter.

The surprising evergreen-iocity of our deciduous Western azaleas.

A wild-collected Oregon grape. Such great color.

Happy bees. Happy gardeners.

I adore bumblebees.  They remind me of dogs, as they happily roll around in the flowers around my garden.  Matt takes his adoration a step further and pets them lightly with his index finger when given the chance.  I'm not sure it's a mutually-enjoyed experience.

A bumble enjoys the Spirea douglasii (western spirea) in the front rain garden.

A few weeks ago we were lucky enough to have a representative from the Portland Audubon Backyard Habitat program visit our garden.  The program has four elements: removal of aggressive weeds, naturescaping with native plants, stormwater management, and wildlife stewardship.  After the rep toured the garden with us, noting the natives we've planted and other efforts we've made to create a more sustainable and wildlife-friendly outdoor space, she made some calculations and gave us the news.  We were immediately Gold Level certified!  And here's the proof.

We also took Metro's "Pesticide Free Pledge"

It's nice to be recognized for the work we've put in, but more importantly, we hope that by displaying the sign in our front garden, we'll promote the idea of creating sustainable habitat in urban spaces.  The Backyard Habitat program is pretty great.  Not only did the Audubon rep send us a report including planting and habitat enhancement suggestions, but we now get discounts on plant material from various nurseries and sales throughout the area.  You know this makes me happy!

Do you have similar programs in your home town?

No bees here.  I'm just loving the pops of sunflowers throughout our garden!

A growing garden= lots of changes

It's true.  It seems each time I step outside, something is noticeably different, whether it's plums, apples, or pears growing larger, something new blooming, or, as is often the case in our garden, a completely new plant (or two or twelve)!

Matt and I took advantage of a "20% off native plants" coupon this past weekend and purchased an oval-leaved viburnum, six checkermallows, one Washington lily, and a gooseberry.

I love the dense shrubby habit of viburnums. Viburnum ellipticum is deciduous with leaves that turn red in the fall.  Its white flowers appear in the late spring.  You can bet I'll be keeping my eye out for them.

Viburnum ellipticum

These Sidalcea hendersonii will likely end up in the front rain garden this weekend.  Their happy pink flowers are really something great.  I would love it if they spread throughout the rain garden and created a sea of pink.

The lily is hidden among the soon-to-bloom checkermallows.

A native with edible berries, Ribes divaricatum will grow six feet tall, and is sure to be a hit with birds.  We planted it along with the other, nonnative gooseberries, around the back rain garden.

Andy inspects the new gooseberry.

Other recent additions to our garden include a Brown Turkey fig tree (a gift from my dad and his girlfriend) and a Meyer lemon tree.

Emerson will be so excited when he gets to eat more figs.

Concerned our Meyer lemon might be lonely, we brought home a friend for him.  My plan is to buy two nice ceramic pots and flank the steps on the deck with the two trees in warm weather.  During the winter, we'll need to bring the citrus indoors.

The vegetable garden continues to grow really well, despite Andy trying to sneak tastes of everything.  The greens have been loving this cool, wet spring.

While the garden changes everyday, there are some things that never change: the doggles still enjoy their sun bathing on the deck.

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!