Friday, June 24, 2011

Front Yard

The front bed is coming along! Here's a view with the most vegetables:




The beans are going a bit slower than I've experienced before. I'm happy with the pumpkins and my nasturtiums:


Planted from seed on the 11th.



The clematis has bloomed! How pretty!


















The roses are also blooming!























The lupine in the front bed is going to seed, but the rose campion has bloomed. The California poppies have reseeded and there are little plants popping up.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Operation Fruits and Veggies Week 3

So... here's an update!

From afar it does not look like anything has changed...




... but it certainly has. I went out this morning to find tomatoes:

Early Girl



Roma


... bell peppers...



... and what's this?

Corn!!!


The potatoes are looking awesome as well:





The pickling cucumbers have their first blooms, just barely opening:


Sunday, June 19, 2011

Corvallis Saturday Farmers' Market


... was much better than the Astoria Sunday Market in some ways.


This exactly about my gardening, but I thought it worthy of documenting my first trip to one of the Corvallis markets as shown below. :) So, Saturday morning I took the "5" down to the station and walked a few blocks from there to the market.

First, I walked up and down the market, which was in a bit of a T-shape. There were several farm, nursery, and flower booths. I took special care looking at the cut flowers. Two flower/vegetable stand were not exactly local, e.g., the Cambodian families from Salem.

It was a nice market with room to walk around and a music "act" every few stands. By "room to walk around" I mean not flooded with tourists. :)

Second, when I got to the end I turned around and went down the other side. I stopped at Bare Mountain, to look at their flowers. They sold bouquets and posy bunches as well as by the stem. I was browsing when my eye caught yellow stock! There were four stems, two of which were long but extremely crooked. I asked the woman if they were for sale as they were in a bucket at the back of the tent. She said yes and warned about the crookedness. I said I didn't care because it was yellow stock. :) She asked who I will assume is her husband about the pricing. He thought about it and said $0.50 per stem. I took them. I really wanted them. 

I also bought a stem of yellow freesia. I will mention that both were grow outdoors, not in a greenhouse. The freesia had some cover from rain. I picked out two stems of dark, dark pink Sweet William as well. They had dahlias but I just wasn't in the mood, I wanted a certain peony instead. I grabbed their card on the way out. When I got home a realized that it was also a punch card: buy eight bouquets, get one free. 

I continued to a stand that I cannot remember the name of, but may have been Greengable Farms, an educated guess using the interactive market map on locallygrown.org. There I purchased a bunch of pink, with a touch of yellow, snapdragons for $3.00. 

I went back to a stand I investigated the first time down the street, Yummy Honey I believe it was. There a woman had many potted plants, mostly lilies and delphinium, some honey, and bouquets. She was making bouquets with everything she could get her hands on it looked like. she had peonies, roses, delphinium, larkspur, irises, grasses, etc. The greenery? Cedar. It was different, that's for sure. But it smelled good. :) She reminded me of my grandmother and I could picture her having a small roadside stand just like my gram. Here she is:

The lady on the far right was some customer but kept rambling on about Penstemon care. 


Although... my gram wouldn't use cedar in June. Despite that, I bought a bouquet for $5.00 with several peonies, irises, one red rose, and some others. The reason I picked the particular bouquet? This:

BAM! It's huge!


So I gathered my flowers in my tote bag and headed back to the bus stop because I had to work at 2:30 and didn't want to be rushed. As soon as I left it began to sprinkle. By the time I got off at my bus stop to walk home it was raining. Perfect timing though!

Here is my trip in one photo: 




 These are the "friends" I inadvertently brought home as well:



 A couple "arrangements" that were really just thrown together before work: :)

The house smelled awesome when I came home!



Friday, June 17, 2011

Strawbs. No. 2

Today's strawberry harvest!

The Patio

... also has flowers.

That's right! Of course it does. :) To continue the tour of the yard:



The box on the left was just sitting around when we moved to this house. The other two I bought at Rite Aid and Fred Meyer. The Califormia "poppies" popped up on their own. The other plants, however, have stories.




The heliotrope in the upper left smells amazing, by the way. :) The hydrangea, "Bailmer", was on the 50% off rack at Fred Meyer when I bought it, I purposefully waited for it to go on sale and purchased even though it looked close to death; and there it is looking beautiful again! 

The stone-colored box in the lower right has (from left to right): 
  • Nandina "firepower" (I believe)
  • Lemon thyme
  • Yellow primula "Double Mix"
  • Cupressus macrocarpa "Wilma Goldcrest"
  • Erysimum "Canaries" 


The nandina was a rescue. I brought it home from a parking lot. The medians within the parking lot had the  dwarf nandinas, but this one was uprooted, laying on the ground, and not near any hole that it could have been growing in. So, of course, I took the poor thing, which looked like death, and brought it home. :) 




Hanging in front of the kitchen window are these babies:



My first hanging baskets! The right one has three trailing fuchsias: one "Pink Marshmallow", and two "Snowy Summit". The left one includes: 
  • Two santivitalia "Tequila"
  • One Calibrachoa "Cabaret" in yellow
  • Ipomoea "Marguerite"
  • White verbena


Thursday, June 16, 2011

Operation Fruits and Veggies

With the great Garden Reformation at an end, I can turn my attention to other areas of the yard. On Sunday the vegetable bed was planted by my boyfriend:



Here's a close up:


From left to right, clockwise:
Roma tomato, red potato (rhyming!) from potatoes my grandfather gave my friend, green bell pepper (already forming!), and pickling cucumbers. There are also two bushes of Early Girl tomatoes.


I am now babysitting this bed for the summer. It got a healthy dose of water today, while I was photographing, in preparation of tomorrow's predicted high of 70 degrees Fahrenheit.


The strawberries are looking great! And they will be joined by cilantro and green onions in their bed. :)






The property also has other opportunities for harvest, such as these three blueberry bushes:

Notice the large lemon verbena in the middle!



Last year's crop was amazing despite the awful growing season. This year I did not think we would have a lot of blueberries and did not notice as many blooms, but they are surprising me. The berries look good.


 On the west side of the house are three apple trees and one pear. 
Don't ask what varieties - I have no clue! :)

 

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Day Three of Garden Reformation

... was actually Friday.


The last part of the front bed was completed!


I bought a 4 pack of vinca vine at Home Depot and a pack of nasturtium seeds from Rite Aid and planted those while I was at it. :)



These were my Weapons of Mass [Weed] Destruction -->

Friday, June 10, 2011

Day Two of Garden Reformation

... was more of a "garden recuperation." 


Here is the result of Day One which I promised:


Looks a bit cleaner! It also looks better up close:


Report: 
I worked today and was not able to get anything done in the bed; giving myself and the bed time to recover from Day One. :) Tomorrow I hope to get another bag of soil amender for the far left side:


You can really see that nasty clay-ish soil in this photo. 

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Strawbs.

I'm very behind on my strawberry update! In fact, this is my first and I've already picked twice.

           Monday's harvest:                                                   Wednesday's harvest:                          














Looking forward to these painting the garden red!



My ever-bearing strawberry plants were runners plucked from my mother's garden 
last spring. Look at'em go!

Day One of Garden Reformation

... if you could call it a garden.

Here is the "flower bed" out in front of the house I rent. As you can see, it is a nice little corner lot.


You can also see that it has been left for dead for I-don't-know-how-many-years.


Hence the "Garden Reformation."


Report:
Let it be known I spent 5 hours working this bed today. I would have a picture of the results but it was dark when I was finally done for the day. I threw out pine cones, pulled on vetch, dug at grass, and cut at the viburnum in the back; among other activities. Then I took out some of the dirt, put in some soil amender and cultivated!

As the sun set, I planted these cute little seedlings on the right third of the bed:


Six pumpkins (rouge vif d'etampes and another variety of which I do not remember the name), two rattlesnake pole beans, and some Lobelia ("Crystal Palace"). The Lobelia is actually more front and center.




I'm sticking with purples and oranges, if you couldn't tell. :)

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Purpose

The purpose of this blog is to chronicle my gardening journey throughout summer 2011! It is also a substitute for a gardening club, as I could not find one that met this time of year. :)