Monthly Archives: March 2016

Tip-toeing through puddles

…rather than tulips.  Perhaps slogging is a better term; definitely rubber boots weather!

Thank goodness for an assortment of blooming tulips and daffodiles to welcome the onset of Spring in western Oregon, which greeted us with more strong rains.

mar-12-16 tulips

Tulips to the rescue to welcome Spring, while puddles prevail!

Three days of no rain let the previous puddles drain away, and provided us with a chance to dash into the garden to do more pruning, throw on some fertilizers, weed, and minor transplanting.  Even a hike into the forest as we felt an energizing rise in temperature.

Equinox today bestows us with more puddles.  It has been a day for inside work, cleaning and refilling the bird feeders, reading, cooking, and contemplating future strategy for garden projects (like re-establishing medicinal plants I used to have).

Kind of a “retro-spring” in my mind; reminiscent of winter/springs a couple of decades ago, before the warmer, drier shifts of the last few years.  In that sense many of us locals don’t mind “global warming”.

mar-12-16 waterlogged

Not even thinking about the CG yet! But weeds are easy to pull!

Welcoming more noticeable light to our northern hemisphere days, while knowing it is harvest-season in the southern hemisphere!  May we/you be bountiful in all areas!

mar-12-2016 blooms

Hyacinths and primroses deal with all four seasons of spring weather!

 

 

 

 

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Incorporating Edibles into Your Landscape

While weeding and wading through the CG and yard with the rubber boots, waiting out the big storms this weekend, here’s a delightful entry from one of our local retail nurseries!

The View From the Barn

Edible_bedGrowing fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs brings the wholesome goodness of these tasty treats right to your table. Many of us don’t have time or space for a full-fledged vegetable garden and orchard but we can still incorporate our favorite edibles into existing gardens or containers on balconies, decks or patios.

Several culinary herbs are as attractive as they are flavorful. Consider the beauty and fragrance of lavender, rosemary and lemon thyme. Also striking in borders is the smoky, filigree foliage of bronze fennel, the pebbly-textured, aromatic foliage of sage in green, purple, tricolor or golden hues and the glossy purple foliage of Red Rubin or Purple Ruffles basil. Parsley and cilantro, so tasty in many Basil.RedRubinrecipes, make lovely clumps of finely-cut green foliage with interesting texture. Chives bearing fluffy purplish-pink flowers above grassy-looking foliage and garlic chives, sporting starbursts of white blooms in late summer, can provide lovely cut…

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