It feels like I dropped into a different universe for the last 4 years, as I realize it’s been that long since a posting. Without a doubt, many of us have been living in different realities bubbles and timelines given various worldly events during this timeframe. Gardening has ever been a sanity saver and focus for stability, allowing mind, body, and soul to be engaged in mental, physical, and inner exercise.
Thinking back for a brief summary:
2019 finished out as relatively steady and uneventful, with a lovely gardening year, and one travel trip.
2020: brought us more than we want to think about. It was a year of maneuvering restrictions, but also having more time to spend with the garden, a bonus. However, it also brought the massive aberrant and rogue wildfires in the local Cascade Range on Labor Day, destroying many of the small communities, and thousands of forest trees. Western Oregon was saturated with ash, smoke, and winds for 1-2 weeks, followed by eerie smoke-filled days without any normal westerly winds to clear the stagnation. We had to mist some of basil and veggies to clear off soot. So grateful that this did not happen earlier while blueberries were still in production. Eventually, in later October, more seasonal weather prevailed again.
2021: Still an odd time, but gardening proceeded as usual. I could start seeds earlier and plant several flowers and veggies out in late April; even tomatoes by mid-May, with some protection, after which it turned a bit chilly again. Shortly after a family reunion in mid-June, temperatures soared to 111°F, and hung out over 100° for nearly a week. During that stint I was nursing a broken collar bone, and with not having the full complement of soaker houses placed outside, watering needs became Randall’s duties, while I did the monitoring. All plants survived (hooray!), but not all birds, sadly. Hopefully the swallows nesting in an old box flew away in time, and possibly there were cooked eggs. That box is nailed tightly shut about 15 feet atop a fence trellis, and not easily accessible. There were a few late summer fires in the western regions, but not of the magnitude of the previous year.
Wineries have been learning to cope with “smoke effects” on grape harvests and eventual wine production, and with research help from Oregon State University, they have been able to be creative with the “flavors”. Also, there is new technology being developed to spray grapes with on a protective polymer should fire/smoke become imminent.
Oh, somewhere in there I managed to retire from the USDA plant disease research career. Finally, to do what I want, when I feel like it! And time slips away faster…
2022: The year that winter and spring weather were reversed. A warm February, which got lots of us into an early gardening mode, reminiscent of 2021. Many flowers ready to be placed out by early April, and then temperatures switched around, so that spring felt more like winter, and this extended into mid-June. So many cold, cloudy/rainy days. Everything except lettuce and kale needed to be covered, and it took several attempts for summer squash to successfully germinate in the soil. Basil was not put out until late June, which isn’t always that unusual. Following the endless winterish spring, essentially all the way till July 4th, came an extended summer, well into late October, longer than any year I remember. The trees weren’t turning colors as early as typical. This was flanked by about 2 weeks of average fall weather cooling, and then a brief heavy snow on November 9th (a rarity). Fall and winter kind of danced around each other for the rest of the year, staying on the milder side.
Which brings us into 2023, again with no observance of predictable normality in weather. Winter was overall mild and rainy, but just wouldn’t quit, come April. Except for once there were no little 1-2 day blips of warmer 60+ degrees; mainly the monotonous low 50’s and rain. Everything has been late-blooming, starting with daffodils, and including blueberries. Strawberries seem to be on schedule, but lavender bushes look especially ratty this spring, and several Spanish types just couldn’t hack the early snow and continual rain.
We lost our beloved manx kitty Mr. Aspen in February (aged 13ish years) to cancer, which wasn’t distinguishable enough in late December when he was having some low level kidney failure, but he just couldn’t eat properly in any consistent manner, and declined rapidly. I miss his physical presence in the garden, as he was typically keeping an eye on me while working outside. I lost incentive to start indoor seedlings until about March 16th, but that still afforded me enough time for later May transplanting.
Speaking of kitties, we do still have Ms. Juniper with us, now 18 years old (born in June)! Over the last couple of years she has slowed her activities and wanderings down immensely, and especially now, she sleeps 23 hours a day, rarely venturing outside, except on a sunny day to briefly cruise the backyard and find a sunny spot to nap. She is nearly deaf now, and rather weak/wobbly in the back legs, so it’s just as well she doesn’t wander much, as she used to. She really misses Aspen, even though he often “harassed” her, wanting me to himself. I believe he served as a stable reference point for Juniper to keep her bearings as she became more hard of hearing. Now, she gets a bit disoriented at times if she doesn’t hear or see one of us around, and starts crying.
As I write this in May, we had a glimpse of summer weather near the end of April, with an 87°F day flanked by a couple of 75ish° days and then a step down into the 60’s again. Talk about “shock” to all sorts of bodies, and by the fourth day of warmth, some plants needed watering, so out came hoses from storage. Of course, some rainy 50° days can’t be escaped either, but that will provide some water for transplants and up-pottings already made.
This year brings some bigger changes too, in terms of preparing to sell my lovely property that inspired the whole blog for creating food spaces in lieu of big lawn spaces. Randall and I decided to dabble our fingers in the crazy housing market to see if we might be able to find the “larger” home we’ve wanted, as we still have rented storage unit of 6.5 years, and the kitchen still has its big lack-of-counterspace issue. In today’s market it requires us to sell both of our homes. On speaking with a lender or three, it became apparent that even with our decent monthly incomes, a bridge loan for a new home was not affordable without my home being sold first.
It’s hard to fathom this change, in a way, but in one sense it’s easier in that I haven’t lived on the property for 6.5 years, so I’m not quite as attached as I might have been. It makes it easier to sell. Although this has been a stable rental situation, thank you to my reliable tenant, I never relished the “emergency” repairs that needed prompt attention. It’s just a weird sensation to look back at the pictures of the property when it was first acquired, and then the evolution made over many years, mainly up to 2012, or 14 years in the making. And now I’ve owned it for 25 years!
Didn’t I just turn that front lawn into a community garden about 6 years ago?! No, it was created in 2009 (!), and disbanded once I left in 2016, and some of the neighbor-participants have since moved away.
I’ll make updates as I prepare the property for sale, just to remind ourselves of what’s possible.
The spirit of “High Vibe Bounty” still exists in every season of production, no matter where I live.
Till next….
High Vibe Bounty 