|
Recent Entries to this Blog
Is It Really.....?
Posted: 16 Mar 2015 Posted: 06 Oct 2014 Posted: 29 Aug 2014 Posted: 28 Aug 2014 Posted: 30 Jul 2014 All Entries |
Jewell's BlogRamblings from the Puget Sound
Stems and Moving
Category: Spring | Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2012 10:40 pm Today I feel like rambling through my mind and garden. Must be spring. March is the harbinger of spring! Yeah! My lazy and untidy ways make my gardening practices work for me. I have slowly begun moving some of the phlox that I bought in a bundle of 10 plants three springs ago. I find them by the dried stems that lead me to the plants poking their leaves through the mulch. 
phlox are sprouting ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) I had thought that none of the phlox had survived their first summer, but then low-and-behold they surfaced with flowers during last summer so that I could witness the variety of colors I would eventually have. I moved several plants to locations that get more sun. Two plants that I had moved traveled a few feet again this spring. The day lilies are taking off in the bed that I had thought would be a good place for them. In the spring I always estimate incorrectly how things will grow. And you just never know how new plants will do. Especially those bought. Now if you are given a plant you can be sure that it will do much better than those purchased. The phlox start that I was given grew into a mass of pink blooms the first summer. The purchased ones will maybe reach that glory this summer like the following did last summer. 
same pink phlox, and some lavender phlox and where is the path???? ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) Now there is also the speedwell and bee balm to move. There stems will show me where they are. I just need to get moving and get out there and get the job started. It would be really nice if I could dublicate this picture again this summer in another part of the yard. 
( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden2011 month06-08 ) I guess I am never finished with anything in the garden. This blog entry has been viewed 1004 times
Maintaining a Garden Through Time
Category: Summer | Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2011 7:20 pm Last week-end we are took out an Alberta Spruce in the front yard. It was one of the first trees we planted on this city lot after we moved in. It had been a little live Christmas tree that had moved from rental to our current home all those years ago. As Alberta Spruce tend to do with age, it repeatedly tried to revert to the big spruce tree that its genes were made up of. It was time for it to be removed. As we deal with the needles and pitch that go with its removal I began thinking of all the changes our front yard has had through the years. 
Alberta Spruce trying to go to its natural form ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) We moved to our little home in 1983. It was basically a bare lot with a lot of blackberry brambles and some very old plantings of rhubarb, horseradish, elephant garlic, autumn crocus. We found a few other gems hiding in places around the yard that hadn't been mowed more or less kept up for a few seasons. Pulling brambles and mowing the yard we discovered several fruit and nut trees. Before long the yard became a grassy oasis perfect for children running around. We had an asphalt drive way laid and wire fences are planted with ivy to become hedges that surround most of the yard. The neighbors plant baby fir trees on the south side of our lot. The front yard had a huge rambling rose that took over half of the front yard and not much else was there. We removed the rose bush by cutting it at the base of a ten inch trunk. Its sprouts are still around. On that side of the yard a four-way cherry is planted shortly after the removal of the rose. 
old rambling rose ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) Fast forward a decade and the back yard has ducks in the orchard, garden beds close to the house for veggies and berries. The front yard had two more semi-dwarf fruit trees: granny smith apple and a four-way sweet cherry tree. Interlaken grapes stretched across the south side of the house. The fir trees block the neighbors and begin shading a portion of the lot. The tree in the front yard provides cherries that are wonderful and a neighborhood gathering place during the first days of summer. The front yard changes from grass to flower beds to grass again as the cherry tree changes the microclimate of the front yard. Plants come and go, but the hellebores have found a home they like and provide starts for beds through out the yard. The apple tree also adds summer shade, but the apples are not quite right for our climate. I've never figured out the right time for picking the apples and they often provide fodder for the birds in the winter and spring. Salal, lilies, Pacific bleeding hearts and deer ferns provide a little oasis beneath its limbs that shade the walkway to the front door. I have had a love affair with heather during the last decades. 
White heather - the honey bees love it ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) I love its seasonal flowers, especial in winter. I've learned it can get shrub high as it starts to cover the kitchen windows. I've learned that heavy trimming can kill it. One heather goes and new varieties are introduced until I have heather blooming throughout the seasons. Path ways between them are wooly thyme, then Irish moss and finally filled in totally with California poppies. Rock borders are placed around brick pavers as they are placed year each year until they wrap around the house. Another few years pass and the cherry tree in the front yard is gone. I am told there is no such thing as a semi-dwarf cherry tree and now I believe it. Maintaining the four graphed cherry varieties and keeping it off the house was too much work. The children who used to pick its sweet cherries are growing up fast too. The cherry tree's twenty-four inch trunk is left. It is about a meter tall and is drilled for mason bees. A shade garden with hellebores, bleeding hearts, a variety of ferns and woodland plants had formed a bed under its branches. The woodland plants had a bit of a shock having their leaves unprotected during the summer months. 
first spring after murdering the cherry tree ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) Two Japanese maples are slowly adding shade back to this part of the yard. A hardy hibiscus and heathers flourished with the added light. 
now with new paths and a few more years added to the Japanese maples ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) Unfortunately so did some weeds. With such a large bed it was time this year to reestablish some sort of paths to get in and maintain the area. That part of the yard has once again had some transformations. With the removal of the Alberta Spruce it is clear how big the heathers on that side of the yard have become. 
Oh, my! The heathers are almost as tall as me! ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) Time to do some weeding, trimming and path laying here too. Volunteer heather plants and gayfeather bulbs need some readjusting to their placement. Ivy hedges need a good trimming. Gardens are ever changing. Once I always felt that I had a hard time getting a plant to grow and prosper. Now I weed plants that I would have loved to have bought or had given to me a few decades ago. Like me once a plant has found a home they are happy and prosper there. 
Bye-bye Alberta Spruce.... new place to plant? ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) This blog entry has been viewed 1327 times
If I didn't garden in the rain then when would I garden?
Category: Spring | Posted: Mon Mar 28, 2011 12:37 am I am getting back into my 15-minutes-at-a-time gardening today. Of course that meant that I was in and out numerous times as my attention waxed and waned. It has been raining all day, sometimes in light mists and sometimes in torrential down pours. It is all in the timing. Got a couple of dozen strawberries pulled from the muddy soil I should have been staying away from and replanted into 3 planters. Pulled a variety of weeds from patio and walkways. Sometimes I can get an entire dandelion root pulled out if I do the pulling in the rainest of days. Trimmed up one big fern that was covering a small rhodie and part of the patio/walkway. Of course none of this was done at one time, but off and on throughout the day. My expectations are low, but every dandelion and weed pulled now will make summer work so much easier. Found several dandelions that had flowered and were waiting for the sun to come out to spread their seeds...ugh! In the fall we had a cold snowy snap that brought winter to our doorstep before the trees had even shed their leaves. That means that there is all of the fall clean up to do as well as spring chores. I am finding that the few raspberry starts planted last summer have multiplied and are trying to encroach into the pathways along with the sweet woodruff. Will have to decide if this will be a problem or an accidental reward. Narrower paths means less bark to order/buy. Am amazed at how last years plantings have taken off, and the phlox starts are coming up rapidly as well as several other perennials and perennial weeds. I guess the days I spend at work without windows may have had some sunshine that I wasn't lucky enough to witness. The heather and heliotropes are at the best right now. Have begun a few small beds by laying down cardboard and the leaves from the fall and a few light and fluffy fir branches to anchor it all. Really need to find a weed free area to get a deer fern, kinnicknick and native ginger out of a planter and into the ground. Decisions, decisions. Isn't spring fun :) This blog entry has been viewed 1477 times
To Buy Local or Mail Order?
Category: Ramblings | Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2011 3:40 am I am too cheap to often buy plants mail order, but last year there were two plants that I felt "I just have to have them!" They were the miniature pampas grass and the double helleborous "peppermint ice". 
( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) I have had wonderful successes with bulbs the last couple of years mail order. I found daffodils that were spectacular to me. Frilly and of colors I had not imagined in daffodils. 
Close-up of Sir Winston C. ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) 
Rosey Cloud double daffodils ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) I got both the pampas grass and the hellebore. It has been a bit disappointing with the pampas grass that will take at least another year to mature sufficiently to be placed where I would like it to go. Even then it will not be very big. The hellebore plant is blooming this year, but is still much smaller than other seedling plants I have moved around the yard. I still find it unique and a great addition to the yard. It's just that the pictures had led me to believe it was much more doubled and the color was pinker than it has turned out to be. 
Helleborus 'Peppermint Ice' ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) 
dwarf pampas grass ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) Maybe next year it will come into its own. The hellebore was pricey. For the same price I was able to get three much bigger plants this spring at the local nursey for the same price. Not the same variety, but more doubled and the varieties of color were perfect for me. 
Helleborus Orientalis "Mardi Gras Double Mix" ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) I realize that there is a lot in a name and I was buying the name, but last year I had a hard time finding doubled hellebores. This year...bingo...there are lots of choices. Of course nothing beats the little old seedlings that turn into nice sized plants with a little time and free of charge. 
Seedling helleborus transplanted last year ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) 
helleborus seedlings transplanted the year before last ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) I am sure I will have another weak moment and buy plants online or from a catalogue, but I am beginning to believe local is better. Still learning after 40 years of puttering in the soil. Still changing my mind seasonally. This blog entry has been viewed 1553 times
Time Slip Sliding Away
Category: Ramblings | Posted: Mon Jan 10, 2011 12:13 am I am sitting here at the computer putting off doing work that I should be doing (doing the weekly budget, correcting papers and school work, housework, and yard work). 
paperwork *sigh* ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) Instead I am looking through those professional and imaculate looking gardens that abound out there on the Net. What a nice way to spend a Sunday morning. Sitting here in my pajamas and worn out cashmere sweater I'm feeling comfy and cozy as I browse the Net for new-to-me blogs. Gardening blogs, of course. I'm feeling a little depressed looking at perfect gardens, and perfect houses with perfect plants and a few that are only slightly not so perfect. But none are on the scale of mess that mine are. The dobies have their toys strewn around the living room. Why did Santa bring them more stuffed squeaker toys? Didn't they have enough? 
Ciara ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) The slip covered upholstery is wrinkled, and covered in pet hair. Then there are the paper products that are stacked in the vicinity of the stove for fire starters. Maybe they should go out to the recycling bin. Oh, that is too far to walk and entails going outdoors. Maybe later. 
Kota ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) If I am going to walk it should be to go get the vacuum and take care of the dust bunnies and garden soil that's made its way inside. Outdoors. (*deep sigh*) There are some piles of leaves that never quite made it to the garden beds. Then again there are some leaves that never quite made it to the piles of leaves. Between work and freezes and torrential rains the yard is a sorry state. Ciara, our digging dobie has probably created new craters out in the orchard area, and hopefully not in the garden beds or paths. The wind storms have knocked fir branches to the ground that have mostly made it onto beds. I still need to pick up plastic starter pots that were strewn around multiple times from storms. Need to solve that persistent problem this spring. One of the shelf units for plants refuses to stand and lays rejected on its side...again. Things that need to be done....sometime later (*another deep sigh*). But then again I must be thinking spring and garden and yard. (*happy thoughts*) Can spring fever start about now? I haven't even made it through fall yet. Emotionally I am still in autumn with clean-up to do and preparations needing to be made for winter. Some how I have manage to emotionally skip a season this year without seeing the passage of time. 
relaxing ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) Instead I think I should go find that good book I had put down and slip off into another world...just for this afternoon. This blog entry has been viewed 2170 times
Weather Patterns
Category: Ramblings | Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2010 6:10 pm At well past nine this AM the temperature is still well below freezing 16F/-9C. Unfortunately it comes with no snow and clear skies. A little more thinning of plant varieties again this winter as predicted. 
old fashioned window with old fashioned ice (in the breeze-way) ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) We are experiencing El Nino and the results of solar activity on our local climates. Here in the Pacific Northwest we have had misty days (normal) and then torrential rains (12-24 inches in 48 hours) not normal with days like today that are sunny, clear and brrrr...cold (not typical either). The best was snow at Thanksgiving that closed business and schools. Living on the borders of a rain forest can spoil one to expect mist and moisture and gray fine days. El Nino changes all that. It is good day to sit and read. 
icy patterns ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) This blog entry has been viewed 531 times
Cold Weather and a Little Breather
Category: Ramblings | Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2010 8:03 am Am doubly busy with the final year of a grant for technology in the classroom. What started out as my perceived desperate need for a document camera has given me a wealth of classroom technology. I didn't even know what a SmartBoard was and am now using one, writing/creating lessons and quizes on one and having a great time. (It's wonderful when it works and a bummer when something goes wrong. But that is a whole other story). The only problem is I don't have enough time to go around. I live at my computer at home and before/after school spend a few more hours in front of the computer than I would like. 
Thanksgiving cactus and work station ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) 
( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) I lurk around the Stew in odd moments at home. It is fun to see what's going on here. We are in the midst of a cold, cold snap with temps into the single digits F. here in the Pacific Northwest. I've gotten a whole week off for Thanksgiving because of weather and am in the process of decompressing a little. David got us 4 books for the 4 days we will be lounging. 
4 books for 4 days ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) The day of the first bit of snow I gathered a few of the last hydrengas. The bushes were big and green with hidden blue gems amongst the abundance of big leaves. 
last of the hydrenga blooms ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) Went out this afternoon and the garden had the faint smell of silage from the slightly defrosted green leaves. Tonight it is a waning full moon with no cloud cover and cold seeping down from Canada bringing those single digit temps. Some are suffering from too much snow and power outages in areas around the Sound. The roads are rather like skating rinks and people are encouraged to stay home during the holiday. 
nothing like a clear moon filled night and Canadian cold ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) 
icy cold with a little snow ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) We haven't yet decided what our plans will be. I want to go up to the cabin for Thanksgiving. It's been a bit of tradition, but don't want to worry about frozen pipes here at home either. While contemplating our holiday I've divided my favorite little fern (there are usually takers for that one) and trimmed up the philodendron (this time someone took the cuttings so I didn't have to start them). The poor little aloe vera needs dividing too. The hanging cactus has gone maddly wild. I'd trim it but I want to see if it will ever have flowers. 
My 3 favorite house plants...hundreds have gone on... ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) 
divided ferns ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) 
cactus gone wild ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) The last bit of blooms to share is my little old orchid Sherry Baby. It really needs to be repotted, but that doesn't keep it from putting a display every fall and most every spring. 
Sherry Baby's double blooms ... November rituals ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) 
reliable Sherry Baby ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) I hope that everyone that celebrates Thanksgiving has a good one. And happy seasons to all. This blog entry has been viewed 493 times
November Snow and Freeze
Category: Ramblings | Posted: Tue Nov 23, 2010 10:04 pm OK, so the way I view myself and the way I am are two totally different entities. As I creep toward my sixtieth year my body has rounded out and drooped in most every part. I've developed an alien's body. I wonder who that thing is in store surveillance monitors or reflected from too large windows. I've been in the midst of a technology grant so sitting at a computer have become a part of my life as I learn new equipment/software and put it into practice. My kid brother (only two years my junior) continues to rock and ice climb, run triathlons and plans a trip to France in March to revisit a climb in the Alps he made in the 70's. I guess we all deal with passing time differently. I wouldn't even have thought about it except this darn Canadian cold and snow entered the region unseasonably and I had to have my studded snow tires put on my car for commuting to work. Roads are covered in ice in an area that seldom gets much real cold at these lower elevations. Guess the 12 degrees F/-11 C will continue for at least one more day. Although the road crews do their best, we simply don't have the road equipment most areas of the country have. It is always a challenge those years where the weather produces snow and cold for that one week or so. The waiting area at the tire center was packed and the wait was three hours down at the LesSwab where I always get my tires rotated. We live only a little over a mile from downtown so I figured what the heck. Walking beats sitting or standing around for 180 minutes or more. At first I thought I'd visit a shop or two, but some how shopping doesn't hold the allure it once did for me. I crept through downtown watching for the slick patches of ice. I waddled my way along the sidewalk past the usual groups of young people. I past coffee shops and restraunts and headed up the hill. Too bad I had had that extra helping of left-over mash potatoes for lunch. Too bad I don't drink lattes in the afternoon. Too bad, so I'll just keep trucking on home. Some how walking just seemed preferable to sitting. The sun was out which is a rarity for me to see since my work room has no outside windows. As I truddled along ice was my excuse for little old lady small steps. It has been a few years since I've made the walk. Maybe even more than a few years. I really should do it more often, but driving is so easy. I probably wouldn't feel so "old" and "teetering" if I made the walk more often. My fake fur 20 pound brown bear coat got mighty hot and the cotton blue scarf was too light weight. Body roasting and ears cold. It felt so good to reach my block and home. Of course I came in and shed my clothes and plopped myself in front of the computer. As I sit here in front of the computer viewing the outdoors (I sit between south and west windows) I see couples walking, parents and children out and trying out sleds, the dog-owners out with their dogs. Yep, it feels good to be in out of the cold and enjoying the sun in the window. It was kind of nice being out for a short while, but unfortuately I know I won't make a habit of it. Gardening is my my main connection with the outdoors and who can garden in the ice and snow? Not me though I see plenty to do out my windows I'll wait until a warmer more rainy time to try. This blog entry has been viewed 387 times
Semps and Sedums: Who Could Ask for Anything More?
Category: Starting and Maintaining the Garden | Posted: Thu Sep 02, 2010 1:17 am Ok, I know that I am a bit compulsive..isn't everyone. Really if you love something then you go for it. Well, the semp and sedum bug struck me last year about this time. It is amazing how much variety there is in these plants. In just one short year.  [/URL]
Semp collection ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) I am totally blown away with the varieties of size and colors as they have grown. 
( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) 
( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) 
( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) 
( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) 
wonton ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) 
( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) 
( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) 
2 different cobwebs ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) 
2 different semps ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) 
( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) They are all that I have used as hanging plants this summer. Unfortuately most I emptied for planters at the school, so only have a few left to winter over. All the more fun to start with some new ones in the spring. 
sedum and semps in coconut fiber hanging basket ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) 
semp and sedum basket ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) This blog entry has been viewed 531 times
July and a Little Warmth
Category: Ramblings | Posted: Sat Jul 10, 2010 12:17 am We are getting some heat...finally. Here it is July 9th and there has been a change in the weather. Naturiums look like this... 
nasturiums in July?? ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) Fern starts have become a real weed.. 
Lots of baby ferns of all kinds...a weed is a plant growing where its not wanted ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) Tomato plants look good, but 
Tomatoe plants with few bloosom...and fruit..forget it ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) we'll forget it or hope for a long mild fall. Even though I have been especially lazy this year (too many weeds to count), some flowers can't help themselves and with a camera in hand I went to find record their grace. 
one of the beds of old fashioned daylilies ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) 
pot of lewisia and sedums ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) 
honeysuckle beginning its summer long blooming for the hummingbirds ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) 
( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) 
( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) 
A little tea rose hiding under the silver leafed heather w/lamb's ears in back ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) 
a very old white rose ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) 
pink hardy water lily ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden ) With a little careful camera placement there seems to be no weeds at all. :D This blog entry has been viewed 454 times
You're reading one of many blogs on GardenStew.com.
Register for free and start your own blog today. |
Entries by Category
All Categories
|
