Snow Covered Smorgasbord

I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds than of cherries, and very frankly give them fruit for their songs.
~Joseph Addison (1672 - 1719), 'The Spectator'

Birds need food and water every day, just like us gardeners.
When your very own personal bird sanctuary looks like this…

…most of their natural food sources may have been covered under a blanket of snow or ice encrusted and inaccessible.

That is when I just start tossing loose seed over the snow.

In the winter months I forgo the seed feeders in favor of suet cakes. We have so much rain in winter that the seed often gets wet and molds before the birds eat it all so I put out a few of these instead. This is a flicker, a cousin of a Woodpecker.

Hummingbirds get assistance too.

The Anna’s hummingbird over winters on this side of the Cascade Mountain Range so they are year round in my garden. When the temps dip below freezing for any length of time I make a thicker sugar syrup (with NO red dye ever) and wrap the feeder with 3 or 4 layers of bubble wrap. For the most part the syrup does not freeze, unless we get prolonged temps, day and night in the teens. If that happens I bring it in for the night and put it back out for the day. For our most recent icy blast it was fine and stayed liquefied. I did notice though that the little yellow ‘bee guards’ filled with snow and iced over so I did remove them. They are really only needed in summer months anyway.

Also, when the night temps start to dip below freezing I always put a heater in the birdbath. It has a thermostat so if the temps go above 40 F degrees (4 C) it shuts off. Other wise it keeps the water thawed so they can drink. There are many styles out there but the best I’ve used is the Nelson Blue Devil 200 watt heater. I’ve had it for many years.

Be sure to watch your water levels, as you don’t want the warm steam evaporation to leave your heater high and dry.

These simple measures keep the birds coming all winter to my garden, where they also eat lots of bugs and grubs year round, helping to keep down the pest population. Most of us know that hummingbirds consume nectar, but did you know insects provide the protein in their diet? That’s IPM folks, one of the many simple things that can be done for Integrated Pest Management that can greatly reduce and even eliminate chemical pesticide use and keep our gardens organic.

In Bloom In My Garden Today: Helleborus, Sarcococca confuse, Heather (Erica carnea ‘springwood white’), winter pansies


Author’s photos

Rutless in 2012

A seed hidden in the heart of an apple is an orchard invisible.
~Welsh proverb

Ruts are easy to fall into.
I don’t mean the kind along the road but the kind that keeps you from trying new things.

Today as I am watching the snow fall on my Tuscan kale and Brussels Sprouts, I am deciding which new and which old favorite varieties of vegetables to grow this year. So far I’ve got 3 new to try.

With our Pacific Northwest growing season, there are many things to consider when selecting what to grow. For one thing, we have a short growing season so varieties needing over 100 days to mature are not necessarily going to make it before the season changes and the plant begins to decline.

Another, being only a mile from the water, the temps in my garden don’t necessarily get hot enough to ripen many vegetables like in those gardens more inland. With both those factors, melons, peppers and many others just will never produce and ripen for me. Some veggies need a certain number of heat units for full maturity. Some summers that isn’t a problem but for the last two it has been.

All that to say we are unpredictable in the weather department so tried and true varieties take much of the frustration out of gardening. Not a bad idea, as a matter of fact I’ve said many times on this blog that learning what works and what doesn’t from the more experienced gardeners around you is a great way to go.

However, experimentation can lead you to find something you’d never have found otherwise. For instance I’ve settled into only growing Stupice tomatoes for several years now. Stupice, with 65 days to maturity, is an heirloom variety that grows and ripens consistently in both sunny, warm conditions as well as in our often wet, cloudy and cool summers. That’s early for a mid size tomato so I’m getting ripe fruit sooner than most. While perusing my Nichols Garden Nursery catalog this year I’ve decided to try Willamette, a hybrid developed by Oregon State University for short season areas like ours. A medium size tomato with a 70 day maturation, it claims “good production in spite of false springs, late chills, damp or dry summers”. How can it fail I wonder, so I’m going to plant it instead of Stupice this year and see what I think of it.

Over this past winter I also have been preparing more squash for our meals. I’ve never been a fan of squash, with the exception of zucchini (courgettes) but Shari’s blog has peaked my interest in cooking with squash since she writes about how healthy it is. I’ve found I like acorn squash more than delicata and butternut, so I thought I’d try growing Sweet Reba, an acorn bush variety with a 90 day maturation.

I’m also going to try cucumber Rocky which I found in Territorial Seed catalog. At 48 days this hybrid is a tad earlier than my old standby Marketmore at 55 days. Rocky is a one bite size seedless variety.

Last but not least…the bees. This year I wrapped the beehive against the coldest of winter temps. The only warming efforts I’ve taken in winters past is to strap on a plywood wind break and plug in 2 strands of Christmas lights (the old style that heat up) under the box for some bottom warmth. It’s not a lot but it can add a few degrees to keep a tender perennial alive so I do it for the bees too. Beware if you try this, you may get laughed at by some beekeepers but I didn’t care when they laughed at me. Mine survived that winter when many of theirs didn’t. Dale, my beekeeping friend down the street convinced me to try a wrap this year. He found 4’ x 8’ (1.21 x 2.43 m) sheet polystyrene at the hardware store that cut down would be perfect to use. I opted for the 1 ½ inch thickness. Hive wrapping is a common practice in the upper Midwest and Northeastern U.S. but not so much here. In our temperate climate with mild winters, depending on who you ask, some beeks will wrap and some adamantly will not, believing a wrap gives the bees a false sense of warmth with detrimental results. I’ve never done it, even told new beekeepers not to do it because of the death stories I’d heard. That said, I have given it much thought over the years. If you consider the natural cavity of a dead, hollow tree is probably inches thick and that is a natural cavity honeybees will use in the wild. The standard Langstroth hive body box is ¾ of an inch (1.78cm) thick. The BeeMax polystyrene hive bodies available from Dadant claim better insulation in both summer and winter, and are thicker than a wood hive box but I can’t find the actual dimension in the catalog. Sooo… I decided to give a wrap a try. I may only leave the wrap on in the most frigid of temps…that is yet to be determined.

It’s a new year. What will you try new in your garden?

In Bloom In My Garden Today: Sarcococca confuse, Heather (Erica carnea ‘springwood white’), winter pansies


Authors photos

Happy New Year 2012

"Another fresh new year is here . . .
Another year to live!
To banish worry, doubt, and fear,
To love and laugh and give!

This bright new year is given me
To live each day with zest . . .
To daily grow and try to be
My highest and my best!

I have the opportunity
Once more to right some wrongs,
To pray for peace, to plant a tree,
And sing more joyful songs!"  ~ William Arthur Ward

New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day were a stellar days here in the Pacific Northwest! They were crisp, cold and gloriously sunny with just a few wispy clouds overhead. The blue skies gave promise of joy in the New Year.

As we started on a long, hilly walk Saturday I noticed a squirrel in my rose bush in the front yard. It was eating the rose hips. I’d noticed some birds doing the same thing last week but I can’t say I’d ever seen a squirrel eating them. It stayed for quite a while before moving on to the seeds of my neighbors lilac tree.

When I started gardening I was told you must keep rose hips from forming or they would take strength from the rose, weakening it year after year. Now I believe quite the opposite. Rose hips are simply the seed pods that form once the flower is finished. For the plant it is one method of survival to form seeds to drop and grow more of itself. In fall when the day length shortens and temperatures drop it is also a signal to the plant that it’s time for it to power down for a dormancy period…like winter. A dormant plant will not succumb to winter’s damaging temperatures, or at least will have a better chance of survival.

The key is to know when to cut the faded flowers off and when to leave them to form hips. Keeping your roses deadheaded does indeed keep the blooms coming. I deadhead my roses all spring and summer, but once fall is well underway I stop deadheading. Let the flower whither on the stem, let the petals fall and in time you’ll see the rose hips forming.

Not all rose varieties have showy hips. Some are very small and not colorful. As you peruse the catalogs and nurseries, look specifically for reference to hips in the plants information tag if you want the lovely winter jewels for your garden. Some are as big as cherry tomatoes as seen in this picture. This is not my rose but I believe it is a Rugosa variety.

These are the less showy hips from my Pat Austin.

These are the hips the squirrel and birds were feasting on. I often tuck stems of these tiny bright red hips into my Christmas decorations.

You may have heard of how high rose hips are in Vitamin C. They are often used as the main source of Vitamin C in commercial supplements. I’ve eaten one once and found it bitter. My friend found it rather tasty. Now I know we picked it too early, as they sweeten after the first frost. Rose hips are used in many recipes of jellies, jams, tea, purees, sauces and syrups. Culinary rose water is made from the flower petals however. Harvest your rose hips after the first frost and prepare them by trimming off the stem and blossom ends, cutting them in half and removing the seeds then washing them well. I must stress how important it is to grow your roses organically whether they are used for your food or allowed as food for wild life. Chemicals are not needed to grow great disease free roses and many pesticide chemicals are systemic, traveling through the plant’s tissues. They cannot be washed off.

Minimal fall garden cleanup such as this gives a bounty of seeds and berries and hips in my garden for the wildlife to feed on during the winter months. And it provides endless hours of entertainment for me. Bird watching aside, I’m also getting ready to start some seeds on the window sill for spring planting. Oh and by the way, thus far the bees are faring well.

As I’ve mentioned before, I am unable to post as often as I had previously or would like to but I plan to keep this blog active and someday hope to pick up the pace again. Sorry for the long lapses in posts, I hope you’ll stick with me. You can receive new posts via email if that’s more convenient for you by using the email button in the right hand column.

Thanks for reading! Looking forward to a new year of gardening with you.

In Bloom In My Garden Today: Heather (Erica carnea ‘springwood white’), Geum, Gaillardia (blanket flower), Daphne caucasica ‘Eternal Fragrance’ and ‘Summer Ice’, winter pansies, Alyssum, Sarcococca confusa

Author’s photos

Tyler Street Bees

“First find your bees a settled sure abode…”
~Virgil, The Georgics, IV

Honey bees swarm. It’s a fact of nature. When their colony gets too big for their space they will raise a new queen to stay with the original colony and the old queen takes off with a portion of the bees to find new digs. It’s an amazing sight to behold and hear as the buzz from that many bees moving in unison is loud.

Sometimes their new home happens to be in your home. I’ve never heard of a case where the homeowner will actually go for that. Hmmm, what to do? Mostly the freaked out homeowner will just get a can of nasty spray poison and be done with them. It is understandable but unnecessary and undesirable from any viewpoint.

Happily this was not the case with a homeowner on Tyler Street. Her’s is an older home, not insulated like they are today. Homes used to be built with just big air cavities between the inner and outer walls. To remedy this holes are drilled into the outside wall and loose insulation is blown in. Then the hole is patched up. Or at least it should be. In this case the hole was not patched, nor was the cavity filled with any insulation which left a nice, protected, warm, perfectly sized space for some bees looking for a new abode. When the bees moved into this house, the homeowner wisely contacted her local beekeeping club to find help. And naturally my challenge-loving-dad answered the call.

We went out to look the situation over. Dad decided to try the cone method of removal, where he formed a cone from aluminum mesh, attached it to the house pointing up (bees naturally move upward), and provided an empty bee hive up close to give them a place to go. The worker bees can leave but they can’t get back in, so they eventually move into the hive close by, which we ‘baited’ with 2 frames of sealed brood (developing pupae) and 4 frames of honey. The queen on the other hand will not leave, which poses some problem which is why the wall must be opened up. You could leave her in there with the handful of bees that won’t leave her, close it up whereby they’d die, or you could take the wall apart after most of the bees are out to capture and transfer her into the baited hive that now contains the rest of the bees. That’s what we did since neither of us liked the idea of leaving the queen with a handful of her loyal attendants to die.

This kind of swarm capture obviously involves some structural tear out and repair to remove the bees. You may have trouble finding a beekeeper that is willing to do that because all kinds of liabilities get in the way but if you have a handyman or handywoman to work with the beekeeper, the bee removal can go quite smoothly. Such was the case with the Tyler Street bees. The homeowner had a handyfriend up for the challenge and he went to work on the wall after most of the bees had now moved into the baited hive.

And that’s what the inside of a natural honeybee colony looks like. Sheets and sheets of overlapping wax comb in which they store their honey and raise their young. Incredible sight isn’t it?

The white arc across the top is capped cells of honey. The tan cells in the center are capped brood which is the term for sealed pupae in stages of development. That is typical of how bees arrange their combs in the wild.

After the wall was opened up the sheets of wax were cut out and dispersed. The wax with brood was put into the bait hive so they could emerge and join their colony, as was some of the wax with honey. The remainder of wax with honey was put in my hive. By laying it out horizontally over the frames of a hive, the bees will clean out the honey and store it in their frames we beekeepers use in our standard hives. Then the cleaned wax was removed and melted down to sell to local entrepreneurs who make lotions and salves with beeswax.

Bees are truly remarkable. Maybe I’m just a bee geek but I never get tired of seeing these kinds of amazing situations when bees and people cross paths. All in all this whole process took over a month to complete. Once we transferred the queen and her handful of remaining bees we moved the entire colony in their new hive to my dad’s apiary. Presumably the handyman patched up the wall and made sure that hole was closed this time.

So if your path crosses with a swarm, please grab the phone and call your local bee club instead of grabbing a can of poisonous spray. You’ll do the world a favor.

In bloom in my garden today: Armeria, Ajuga, Calluna vularis ‘dark beauty’, Canna, Coreopsis ‘moonbeam’, Caryopteris, Cyclamen, Gaillardia (blanket flower), Kniphofia, Agastache foeniculum (anise hyssop), Alyssum, Begonia ‘bonfire’, Borage, Daphne caucasica ‘Eternal Fragrance’ and ‘Summer Ice’, Echinacea, Fuchsia, Lobelia, Kirengeshoma palmata, Nepeta, Phygelius ‘new sensation’ (cape fushia), Russian Sage, Salvia, Schizostylis ‘watermelon’, Star Jasmine (trachelospermum jasminoides), winter pansy, Rose, Eupatorium rugosum ‘chocolate’ (joe pye weed)


Author’s photos

Garden-y Baby Hats

I have never had so many good ideas day after day as when I worked in the garden.
~John Erskine

Not all the love of gardens has to do with digging in the dirt. Being a follower of Cindy’s blog I love reading about her beautiful and creative knitting and this summer she designed the most adorable newborn caps in the style of vegetables! Lucky me, we have a new baby about to enter into our family, so I just had to order two for our new forthcoming nephew.

Aren’t they adorable? One has two actual green peas in a pod and the other is a lovely aubergine color for an eggplant. Both are complete with calyx, stem and leaf. The yarn she used is soooo soft too and the colors vibrant. How she fashioned a leaf complete with vein is beyond me but she did it.

Mom-to-be, an accomplished knitter herself loved them as I knew she would. Who wouldn’t? They are wonderful. I can’t wait to see them on baby. Yay for bringing the garden into more aspects of life!

In bloom in my garden today: Armeria, Ajuga, Calluna vularis ‘dark beauty’, Canna, Coreopsis ‘moonbeam’, Caryopteris, Cyclamen, Gaillardia (blanket flower), Kniphofia, Agastache foeniculum (anise hyssop), Alyssum, Begonia ‘bonfire’, Borage, Daphne caucasica ‘Eternal Fragrance’ and ‘Summer Ice’, Echinacea, Fuchsia, Lobelia, Kirengeshoma palmata, Nepeta, Phygelius ‘new sensation’ (cape fushia), Russian Sage, Salvia, Schizostylis ‘watermelon’, Star Jasmine (trachelospermum jasminoides), winter pansy, Rose, Eupatorium rugosum ‘chocolate’ (joe pye weed),

Authors photos

Harborside Gardens

Human beings find less rest in idleness than in a change of occupation…just try it. Instead of collapsing in an easy chair, try tackling your hobby. Or write that neglected letter, or help Johnny build a radio receiving set. Activity – especially creative activity – is better recreation than loafing.
~Gardner Hunting

Lately our summer weather has been glorious!

So we took the opportunity to get the kayaks out of their dusty moorage from under the front porch and put them afloat. There must be some rule somewhere that says kayaks should never be idle long enough to accumulate dust!

It was a beautiful day, low 80’s F (27 C) a slight breeze and not a cloud in the sky. Wanting to stay somewhat close to home we put them in at a local harbor not 30 minutes away. I took the opportunity to test out my new, way-too-expensive paddle which proved to be worth every penny. As we paddled around a harbor seal actually followed me around for awhile (but proved camera shy)…how cool is that?

Mostly though, as I dodged mindless, dingy (no pun intended) boaters who didn’t seem to see anything without a motor, I perused the local harbor-side homes for their gardens. I must say I was disappointed. You’d think homes facing a peaceful waterside paradise would have oodles of plants and landscaping in which to engage in peaceful tranquility. As far as I’m concerned peaceful tranquility requires gardens. Oh, there was landscaping yes, but mostly of the green shrubby sort. Lots of Nandina (heavenly bamboo), barberry and box, grasses and a hillside of heather that must be beautiful when in bloom, but not much in the way of color or artfulness. And nearly every deck that had flowers had pots of red annual geraniums. What gives? With the plethora of flowering plants available why not focus your perennial landscaping so that it will provide color, fragrance and seasonal changes? But alas out of dozens of waterside garden potential oasis’ there were only a few I felt were photo worthy.

After this disappointing lack of garden creativity I consoled myself as we docked for lunch. I can’t tell you how fun it is to ‘dock for lunch’. That’s the point of my kayak in the lower portion of the photo.

After a delicious rest we paddled again around the rest of the harbor to view gardens on the other side. Many had lounge chairs on their dock…ahhh, nice.

This one had a chiminea on the patio.

All in all a great day, and throw in participation of a group water rescue (I rescued their paddle and a water jug) of some poor tourists who somehow managed to flip over their rented canoe and I’d say the day was “very satisfactory” (as Nero Wolf would say).

In bloom in my garden today: Ajuga, Calluna vularis ‘dark beauty’, Caryopteris ‘longwood blue’ (bluebeard), Coreopsis ‘moonbeam’, Cyclamen, Gaillardia (blanket flower), Kniphofia, Nandina, Agastache foeniculum (anise hyssop), Alpine Strawberries, Alyssum, Begonia ‘bonfire’, Borage, Crocosmia ‘george davidson’, Daphne caucasica ‘Eternal Fragrance’ and ‘Summer Ice’, Echinacea, Fuchsia, Geranium ‘mavis simpson’, Gladiolus callianthus (formerly Acidanthera), Lavender, Lobelia, Mullen chaixii ‘Album’, Nepeta, Oregano, Phygelius ‘new sensation’ (cape fushia), Rose, Salvia, Schizostylis ‘watermelon’, Star Jasmine (trachelospermum jasminoides), Tigridia (Mexican Shell Flower), Tomato, Zucchini

Author’s photos

Corn on the Cob on the Grill

Earth is here so kind, that just tickle her with a hoe and she laughs with a harvest.
~Douglas William Jerrold, about Australia, A Land of Plenty

Have you ever grilled your corn on the cob? I’ve read about it several times but never tried it. Mainly because I’d read you have to soak them beforehand for a few hours and I never managed to be that organized to get it done. But I love grilling in the summer and today’s the day, the corn in the garden is ready.

Every year I grow my own corn from seed. When I decided to try growing it in my own garden I asked a local, long time gardener what variety she recommended. Without hesitation she said “Bodacious, that’s the only corn I’ll grow”. Local, first hand advice just can’t be beat so I figured why inquire further? Off to the store I went to find a seed packet of Bodacious. I’ve been growing it ever since. The corn is sweet, juicy and the skins are not tough.

I start the seeds indoors in April and am sure to plant them outdoors by June 1. Since there’s only two of us to cook for I grow between 6-8 stalks. Each stalk will generally produce 2 ears. Sometimes you’ll only get one ear, sometimes 3 but usually 2 is the standard.

My normal corn on the cob cooking method is no doubt atrocious to the gourmet cook so I decided this year to read up on it in my Joy of Cooking cookbook. They recommend boiling the shucked ear 2-3 minutes only or grilling in the husk. For grilling they say you don’t necessarily have to soak it and you’ll get a different flavor if you don’t. Nor do you have to shuck them or mess with the silks if you grill it. Wow, how easy can that be…just pick it off the stalk and lay it on the grill.

So that’s what I did…picked two off the stalks and after tearing off just the dried silks at the top (I thought they might burn and smoke) I grilled them for 3-4 min on the med setting, turning it on 4 sides. That equates to 12-16 minutes total. I have to say, I think closer to 10-12 minutes rather than 16 minutes would be perfectly done. I have several more ears to experiment timing with so next time I’ll try it on the low setting. Ours isn’t a sophisticated grill, just the small, portable gas type that’s great for camping and tailgate parties. It only has low, medium, and high heat settings so I don’t know any actual temperatures.

This is a brilliant way to cook fresh corn from the garden. Quick with no dishes to clean and no waiting for a big pot of water to boil! Just snap it off the stalk and lay it on the grill for 12 minutes, turning every 3. Yay!

In bloom in my garden today: Ajuga, Calluna vularis ‘dark beauty’, Caryopteris ‘longwood blue’ (bluebeard), Coreopsis ‘moonbeam’, Cyclamen, Gaillardia (blanket flower), Kniphofia, Nandina, Agastache foeniculum (anise hyssop), Alpine Strawberries, Alyssum, Begonia ‘bonfire’, Borage, Crocosmia ‘george davidson’, Daphne caucasica ‘Eternal Fragrance’ and ‘Summer Ice’, Echinacea, Fuchsia, Geranium ‘mavis simpson’, Gladiolus callianthus (formerly Acidanthera), LavenderLobelia, Mullen chaixii ‘Album’, Nepeta, Oregano, Phygelius ‘new sensation’ (cape fushia), Rose, Salvia, Schizostylis ‘watermelon’, Star Jasmine (trachelospermum jasminoides), Tigridia (Mexican Shell Flower), Tomato, Zucchini


Author’s photo

Summer Zucchini Relish

Unemployment is capitalism's way of getting you to plant a garden.
~Orson Scott Card

In the growing of zucchini, there’s ALWAYS one that gets away. I much prefer to pick them no bigger than 4-5 inches (10-12 cm) long and with the wilted flower still attached. That is a perfect size to slice up medallions for pizza or slice in half lengthwise to grill for a few minutes on the gas grill like Debra does.  That small size also has miniscule seeds and a still firm center. Catching them at that size takes daily perusal. I was sure there was one to check on…should be perfect for dinner tonight by now. But when I looked, there it was. The first of the year to quadruple in size overnight! Well over a foot long (30 cm) I contemplated tossing it into the compost but that’s such a waste. I could make it into a casserole, or bread but I didn’t want to use the oven and I didn’t have all the ingredients for Vindaloo or Quesadillas. Nor did I want anything to be that involved. I was taking it easy that day, still feeling the effects of a migraine from the day before.

Hmmm, what to do. My friend Kathy LOVES those big’uns for making her relish for canning but I only had one and she doesn’t live close by. Looking through my recipe card files…no…I neglected to get the recipe from her. Ok, this can’t be that complicated…find one in the cookbooks and try it. As you can see I have saved several pickle recipes in years past. I tried pickling some zucchini spears last year but didn’t really like them. I didn’t find a recipe that was interesting and easy for my lack of energy and patience, but reading through a dozen or so for pickles and relish, I made one up and got started.

Making a relish is perfect for trying out the new shredder attachment my sister gave me at Christmas for the KitchenAid. Without it I wouldn’t have attempted all that grating by hand.

Cool shredder! Lickety split, done in less than 5 minutes! I can see how useful this will be for lots of recipes.

I used the ‘coarse’ shredding cone. It did a pretty good job with only a few chunks left uncut.

To that bowlful I added

• 2 tsp of Celtic Sea Salt (the gray salt but pink Himalayan sea salt would be great too)

and left it to sit for an hour to draw out the water from the zucchini. Give it a stir now and then. It will become frothy. After the hour soak, I let it drain in a colander for an hour. Don’t rinse it; you don’t want to lose those healthy minerals from your sea salt nor do you want to add moisture back in.

Meanwhile make up your ‘sauce’.

In a small bowl I combined:
• ½ c apple cider vinegar (local from Rockridge Orchards, yum)
• ¾ c Sucanat (a healthier form of sugar Shari told me about)
• ¼ tsp tumeric
• 1/8 tsp ground mustard seed (prepared mustard is fine)
• 7 twists of freshly ground fenugreek (no, it’s not in any of my recipes but I love fenugreek and in it goes. It’s wonderful on any veg)

Let all that dissolve and blend while the zucchini is draining. When the zucchini finished draining I spooned it into a wide mouth quart canning jar, poured in enough ‘sauce’ just to cover, gave it a stir, capped it and put it into the refrigerator. The jar was about ¾ full, but I took this picture after we had it for dinner. I had enough sauce for probably 2 jars but didn’t have another zucchini that big. You could save it for another batch or I just poured it into a salad dressing jar, added an equal amount of olive oil for a delish salad dressing.

One recipe for ‘quick cucumber pickles’ said by the next day you can enjoy them. I wanted to spoon this relish over a grilled salmon patty for dinner so it didn’t sit that long, but by next day it should be even better….if it lasts that long. I think the salting and draining of the zucchini leaves it softened and ready to absorb the sauce quickly which is why this doesn’t need weeks to be ready to enjoy.

I must say…this was a wonderful meal. Over a bed of lettuce I layered some brown rice, the grilled salmon patty, the relish and drizzled some sauce over the lettuce and rice. Yum. I’m tempted to let several zucchini ‘get away’ now that I have this recipe. It’s a keeper. I can see this jar won’t last much more than a day or two. It will be good on just about anything.

A relish from garden to table in a matter of hours…how fresh is that!

In bloom in my garden today: Agastache foeniculum (anise hyssop), Alpine Strawberries, Alyssum, Armeria, Astlbe, Begonia ‘bonfire’, Borage, Bletilla pink, Crocosmia ‘george davidson’, Daphne caucasica ‘Eternal Fragrance’ and ‘Summer Ice’, Digitalis grandiflora, Echinacea, Fuchsia, Geranium ‘mavis simpson’, Gladiolus callianthus (formerly Acidanthera), Green Beans, Hosta, Huchera, Lavender, Lily, Lobelia, Mullen chaixii ‘Album’, Nepeta, Oregano, Phygelius ‘new sensation’ (cape fushia), Rose, Salvia, Scheherazade oriental lily, Schizostylis ‘watermelon’, Star Jasmine (trachelospermum jasminoides), Thyme ‘foxley’, Tigridia (Mexican Shell Flower), Tomato, Zucchini

Author’s photos

Abyssinian Glads Are Back!

If you are not killing plants, you are not really stretching yourself as a gardener.
~J. C. Raulston

Perhaps you remember this post featuring Abyssinian glads  I wrote in 2009.

Well here’s an update, if you will, on one bit of information I wrote then. I wrote that my original bulbs purchased were from Old House Gardens , which produced such beautiful and very fragrant flowers that I was hooked on them. So wonderful they are that I am willing to consider them annuals and buy new bulbs every year since they are not hardy enough for my USDA zone 7 garden to come back strong yearly. For the 2 years following I bought bagged bulbs from the garden center at Fred Meyer (Kroger) because it saved me on shipping costs and price per bulb over all. Well the first ‘thrifty’ batch of bulbs never produced any flowers at all. I wondered if it was due the cold fall that came earlier than normal, so I chalked the failure up to the weather in that given year. The following year my newly purchased package of ‘thrifty’ bulbs were planted and grew lots of lovely leaves again but our summer was overall colder than normal and this time I only got a few flowers to enjoy. Out of about 20 bulbs I got 5 that formed blooms. And it was another bad year for weather. Both of these years also gave me fits in the vegetable garden so you can see why I blamed it on the weather. I decided to buy my 2011 stock from Old House Gardens again to see if my thrifty-ness was the problem.

Well duh! The bulbs I received from OHG are far bigger, more than twice the size of the bulbs I was getting at the garden center. Clearly the package bulbs sold to the discounters are not of blooming size. Have you bought packaged bulbs at a hardware store or nursery only to have them fail. Did you blame yourself for doing something wrong to cause the failure? If a bulb is too small it won’t bloom for a year or more till it reaches the proper size, if it grows at all. It may not have been your fault. I have even seen these same packages being sold at a pricey nursery in my area. As you can see in the photo, four bulbs of the proper size nearly fill my hand.

All I can say is I wouldn’t buy them anywhere but Old House Gardens from now on and this isn’t an endorsed plug for them. It’s buyer beware as you know and when I can I like to steer fellow gardeners to the best resources I know of. Their link has been in my sidebar since I set up this blog in 2008 because they have quality stock are nice and personable to deal with by phone or online. Have you ever heard of Garden Watchdog ? It is a site that rates mail-order companies for gardeners. It’s quite handy to know about as it can save you headaches by learning from others experiences. Good to know that Old House Gardens is in their top 30 of most highly rated companies!

Here it is early August and the first flowers are opening. This has been a bad year weatherwise for us again, but the bulbs which I planted in April grew quickly and have lush leaves despite the cold, wet, cloudy spring and early summer we have had.

Thrifty isn’t thrifty if you are getting a lesser quality product for your money and the disappointment of poor performance. It’s simply a waste of money. For two years I missed out on the gorgeous flowers and fabulous fragrance by unknowingly buying under sized bulbs. They were simply not big enough to bloom.

Forgive me OHG for ever doubting your superiority. I’ll be back next year for my bulbs. From now on my gorgeous, fragrant Abyssinian glads (Gladiolus callianthus) will be from OHG!

In bloom in my garden today: Agastache foeniculum (anise hyssop), Alpine Strawberries, Alyssum, Armeria, Astlbe, Begonia ‘bonfire’, Borage, Bletilla pink, Crocosmia ‘george davidson’, Daphne caucasica ‘Eternal Fragrance’ and ‘Summer Ice’, Digitalis grandiflora, Echinacea, Fuchsia, Geranium ‘mavis simpson’, Gladiolus callianthus (formerly Acidanthera),Green Beans, Hosta, Huchera, Lavender, Lily, Lobelia, Mullen chaixii ‘Album’, Nepeta, Oregano, Phygelius ‘new sensation’ (cape fushia), Purple poppies, Rose, Salvia, Scheherazade oriental lily, Star Jasmine (trachelospermum jasminoides), Thalictrum rochebrunianum (meadow rue), Thyme ‘foxley’, Tigridia (Mexican Shell Flower), Tomato, Veronica, Wisteria, Zucchini


Author’s photos

Garden of Memories

In the sliding glass doors of the kitchen, I catch glimpses of an old woman hobbling around in my garden, and I realize in amazement that it’s me.
~Sidney Eddison

I definitely believe my love of gardening was infused in me by my mother decades ago. She started me gardening as a child growing pumpkins in California. In my 20’s she encouraged me to plant flower beds and revive a weak rose at the tiny house I rented. From then on I never stopped gardening. For years we lived, loved and laughed in each other’s gardens, municipal gardens, garden tours and nursery excursions. We shared the love of gardens and shared our love for each other in gardens. As her garden became too difficult for her to manage, I stepped in to help. Eventually we moved most of her garden to pots on her patio, so she could sit in a chair and tend them at a more manageable level. Her beloved rose bushes and a few perennials in a raised bed stayed where they were, still within her reach. I tended the rest.

A lovely, sunny, warm Saturday in July, my mom spent her day in her garden, doing what she loved, tending her pots. The next day she laid down for a nap, never again to regain consciousness. 24 hours later she was in the presence of her Lord Jesus, new, whole and joyful. Such sweet sorrow these days.

In the 3 days before her death, I kept seeing swallowtail butterflies. Always and only swallowtails, one each day. The day before her death, at the time she fell ill in her home, I was unaware what was happening. My husband and I were on a walk and a swallowtail came right up to us and swooped so close to my face that I jerked back so it wouldn’t hit me. On some level I felt there may be some significance to all these butterflies but didn’t understand what. Brushing such weird thoughts aside I decided it was simply a hatch brought on by the sudden burst of warm weather. I just enjoyed them. Every day for 5 days following her last breath I saw a swallowtail flit through her garden or mine. One day I saw two, one in each of our gardens as I had opportunity to be in both that day. Each time I strongly felt her presence and could smile. One landed briefly on her red rose bush, then proceeded away. The day we buried her, as the graveside service concluded, a swallowtail flew in the midst of us, swooped down and up over the casket and disappeared around the side of the grave stone. I smiled as I felt her presence, understanding now how you can feel sorrow and joy at the same time.

We gardened very differently. Hers was more of a formal style with swept grounds and 4 feet between each of her 25 rose bushes “for circulation”. Mine is more closely packed with perennials crowding out weeds. Sage and ajuga grow closely beneath my roses…overall a billowy English style with a perpetual layer of debris mulch covering the soil. “Messy…I like it but can’t seem to do it, I need more neatness” she would say. Some plants she’d describe as ‘leggy’ if she thought they should be fuller. “They are airy” I’d say and we’d laugh. Right now I can’t hear her laugh in my mind. I hope one day it will come back to me.

And as all gardeners do, we shared plants. She loved the pink old fashioned coral bells (huchera) and she kept a pot of the red flowering ones which were her mother’s favorite. I have cuttings of both in my garden. She had this Mullen chaixii ‘Album’ pictured below in a large pot for years. It began to languish and she was ready for me to remove it to the compost. I always loved it and was unsuccessful with its seeds for my own garden so I took it home, planted it in the ground where it thrives and has doubled in size, rewarding the bumblebees with its nectar and pollen.

One day she enjoyed standing next to my blueberry bushes and eating them right off the bush as we talked. So much so that she bought a dwarf blueberry for a pot on her patio. This year her bush is loaded with blueberries though she’ll miss the ripening. I bet the blueberries in heaven are far better.

My Alpine strawberries came from her plants too. Having plants and cuttings from her garden in my own has taken on a new meaning for me. Her potted garden has acquired a few treasures from my garden over the years. Her pots of Geranium ‘Lily Lovell’ and Lily of the Valley came from my holdings, and some of my hardy geraniums are blooming along the front walk to their home.

I feared that joy would leave my garden for a time after her death, but it has not. I find it a peaceful, restful place still, one in which I can smile as I think of her. I don’t think my gardening will ever be the same. I think forevermore I’ll feel mom’s presence in the garden whether I’m working in mine or hers as I maintain it for as long as my dad remains in their home. And I hope every summer the swallowtail butterflies will always come bringing me peace and some of her presence as God sends them my way. He does things of love like that you know.

In bloom in my garden today: Alpine Strawberries, Armeria, Astlbe, Begonia ‘bonfire’, Bletilla pink, Borage, Clematis alpina ‘frankie’, Daphne, Digitalis, Geranium, Green Beans, Hardy Geranium, Hosta, Huchera, Kniphofia, Lavender, Lily, Lobelia, Mullen chaixii ‘Album’, Nepeta, Peas, Phygelius, Purple poppies, Primrose vailii, Rose, Salvia, Sedum, Star Jasmine, Thyme, Tomato, Veronica, Zucchini,


Author’s photos