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What happened to May...and now June???

Category: Spring | Posted: Fri Jun 18, 2010 5:14 am

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I feel like spring has passed me by, but then again we haven't had much if any warm weather. Only one or two days of 70F, and most of the time its been cool and in the 50's with wind and rain.

I have given away most of my sedum and semp starts. Have a few more for give aways at the neighborhood art and garden walk. I love the variety of semps I have been able to multiple from just a few small starts. Here are some of my faves.


Sedum hispanicum ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )


my favorite semp ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )


slightly different cobweb ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )


cobwebs multiplied nicely ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )

The ground cover pink flowering strawberries finally quit sulking and started to bloom. They really didn't appreciate our cold December.


pink flowering strawberries ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )

The wild lupine is still loved by the native bumble bees. It is quickly finishing one cycle and starting another.


lupines toward the end...to tall? ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )


Seeds to help continue the beauty ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )

Well, this last photo is what I'd like to spend the next few days doing...when I'm not getting my fingers dirty. I wonder if Buddy will let me join him. Oh yeh, it's my bed.

A summer break and wind-down is in order. :D


What I really want to do...soon :D ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )

Happy Gardening!





Last edited: Fri Jun 18, 2010 5:15 am

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May Flowers

Category: Spring | Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 5:52 pm

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My fascination with sedums has not diminished as they spread and I keep moving them into different pots. The dollar store provided me with a number of small hanging baskets that are just right for more sedums. The cobweb semp has had such nice pink flowers I can't wait to see what some of the sedums will provide in blooms. I love the foliage whether it is the soft blue gray or the varieties of green from chartreuse to dark, dark green. Here in western Washington they are certainly little care and root from the smallest pieces.


Backyard sitting area for sun or rain - New sedum baskets are thriving ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )


Sedum bowl after lots of cuttings have been taken :) ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )


Cobweb Houseleek and sedums ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )

Planting for the climate and natural predators has been more by accident than fore thought in my garden. This year as the slugs feast on petunias, marigolds and some other annuals I begin to see how natural selection has played a major role in what I have in my garden. I am happy to report that phlox are not bothered by the slugs. Hopefully a new perennial takes its place in my yard. Leaping out of the ground this spring was a native lupine. Unlike the Russell variety it has not been bothered by slugs. I am hoping it will self-sew willingly in my beds.


4 foot lupine plant, must like it here ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )


A promise of flowers to come ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )

I am saddened by the loss of my dahlias. The single digit temps in December did them all in and a few other perennials. Usually we don't have to lift the dahlias and fir boughs are enough protection. Have thought about replacing them, but might browse the garden center first or see what I can divide from other parts of the yard. This is a good sized bed that needs to be filled.


a bed to fill ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )

I've moved a rose to each end of this long bed (about 30-35 feet) and also the perennial sunflowers. Am not sure what will like this area that is totally shaded for three quarters of the year as the fir trees in the neighbors yard get taller. The strawberries at its border are doing well and a few others like the Spotted Deadnettle, Gayfeather and Pacific bleeding hearts. Maybe there will be some lilies I can add to this area and some of the bare root phloxes that I have been waiting to start growing. Definitely have many possibilities for this bed.

Happily last years starter beds have filled in better than I would have hoped for in such a short time.


( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )

The closing are a few perennials that are showing their stuff at the moment. Ain't spring grand! ;D


( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )


( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )


Fragrant daylily ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )


Small French lilac ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )


Pink columbine ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )


This is the type of snowball I like to see in May ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )





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A Year Makes a Difference

Category: Spring | Posted: Sun Apr 11, 2010 5:59 am

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The garden and perennial beds that were new last spring are filling in with woodland plants. Most of the perennials weathered the cold single digit weather we had in December. The holly fern is coming back from the base, but other wise everything looks good.


New bed on north side of garden space and garden 2009 ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )


New bed of day lilies? April 2009 ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )


Clematis and Daylilies have really grown ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )

Fall crocus, sweet woodruff, and hellebores 2010 ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )

I've divided the Shasta Daisies and fall asters. Some went into the vegie garden area. I also planted a bleeding heart plant into a shady corner by the hedge. Bare root phlox found a home along the trellis in the vegie area. I scattered some of the poppy seeds I'd collected last summer over the beds. Deciding where to place the wave petunias hasn't been easy, but they also will probably be placed into the vegie garden area.


Vegie area is going to have a whole lot more flowers ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )

I am not going to forget the vegetables, but there will be fewer. Planted some pretty rainbow chard today. There will be tomatoes, green beans, and sugar snap peas later. A plant or two of summer squash for the barbeque will also have to find a place in the yard some where.

Crazy is the only way to call the weather we have been having. Got our first snow of the year in April. The weather has been cold and rather nice except for the wind. So many things that were farther along and blooming last spring are still sleeping.

I have been collecting more sedums throughout the spring. Have also made a few more wreathes with them. It is fun seeing them and how different each one looks. Am wondering if I might be able to sell them at the Second Annual Art and Garden Walk that the neighborhood association is going to sponsor again this year. Last years was a lot of fun.


Sempervivum Wreath ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )


Sedum and Sempervivum Wreath ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )


Sedum planter ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )










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Driving Hwy 101 part 2

Category: Stomping Grounds | Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2010 5:36 am

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I may not love communting, but the drive is beautiful and usually relaxing. This morning the Olympics were breath taking so I pulled over and tried to get a picture in the early morning light.


Driving to work ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )


Olympic Mts. ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )

Last week-end we went up to the cabin. I was supposed to be getting away from the TV and distractions to get some of my homework started. The evening was overcast, with blue spots in the sky. Guess that is supposed to be normal for most of the world. The Olympic Mts. were standing out crisply that day as I traveled along.


Olympic Mts. ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )

With so much sky, grass showing chartruese green and brown left over from winter I couldn't help myself. A short side trip up the Skokomish Valley was the doctor's order for spring fever. Nothing like seeing fields of green grass. The geese were resting in a field and cattle were spotted about the pastures.


Skokomish Valley ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )


Skokomish Valley ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )

I continued up to the Hood Canal. The water was smooth and the day was winding down nicely. It was comforting to see the woods and feel the quiet of being out of town.


( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )





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Mini Christmas Lights and Starting Plants????

Category: Spring | Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2010 4:37 am

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plant starts and Christmas lights - heating the soil ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )

I divided some different varieties of hens and chicks and sedums for wreathe making. I treated myself to a couple of little shelving units that were just too good a deal to pass up.

I'd been searching the Web for some ideas on adding heat to help encourage root growth. Found lots of ideas, but most seemed a little scary (I kept visualizing electrical shock and fire hazards). The idea of using mini Christmas lights (100 lights to a string) to help heat the soil seemed pretty reasonable though. (I had hit an after Christmas sale a couple of years ago and picked up 100 light strings for only 25 cents a package so have lots).

One person had described using the mini Christmas lights under some kitty litter in the container and setting the pots on a tray on top of the litter. That particular setup wouldn't work for me, but it gave me some ideas. I decided to just lay the lights on the rack and place the plastic under-the-bed-storage containers on top. Although the temperatures had been around freezing outside the the soil for the pots in the covered racks is warm to the touch. The soil temperatures seem to be holding between 60-70 degrees F for the shelves with the lights.

Think I will add a third string of lights to the top shelf also. It is going to be a great starting set-up at minimal costs. Little mini Christmas lights....who would have thought?


light for heat? looks good in the dark also ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )





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Early Spring

Category: Spring | Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2010 10:03 pm

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The TV newcasters have had several articles on how early spring is here. They say that spring is almost a full month early this year and it is feared that the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival will not have any tulips left blooming in their fields if we don't have a return to some cold, cold weather. The daffadils are having to be harvested already.

In the south Sound it isn't quite as early but this is how my daffodils look and I did find one blooming on a jaunt about the neighborhood.


daffodil almost ready to bloom ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )


daffodil blooming on my neighborhood jaunt ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )

My yard is full of leaves from wind storms, a very late and long lasting summer followed by record breaking cold weather. It isn't as cold as we have had in the 27 years we have lived in this home, but it was cold with no snow cover getting into the low teens for several weeks. So far the only thing I have lost was the French lavender. Am curious to see how the orchids weathered, but it is too early to tell.
Plants like my hellebores are a little late, and I had never noticed how early the seedlings pop up. I have several areas that will need to have hellebore seedlings moved or weeded. Nature isn't to be predicted in this region of the country.



white hellebore ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )


hellebores aren't quite in full bloom yet ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )


purple hellebore ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )


100s of hellebore seedlings ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )

Our cold nights (25-27F) have been followed by days in the 50s. We have a low that is pulling weather out of inland Canada into our region rather than off the Pacific Ocean. Most unusual since usually when we have weather pulled out of Canada it is a high weather front and snow comes with it. I'm feeling like I am living east of the Cascade Mts. instead of west of them.

Because of the firs on the south property line the fish pond is holding some ice most days. There was a week of warm weather where I did break down and feed the gold fish twice. They were very active and ate all that I gave them. Will have to think about thinning out their ranks this summer. With no raccoons or possum preying on them there are too many fish in the pond.
Deer have been in the neighbors yard. The deer that we saw last summer and fall have made this neighborhood their permanent home. City deer, strange, but what makes up part of the charm of this old neighborhood.

Here are a few more early bloomers. They weren't in my yard, but like everyone I saw sitting out in front of their homes today they are soaking in some vitamin D and sunshine. Just to let you know the ice age hasn't struck yet.


honeybee and white heather blooms ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )


camilla blooming ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )


( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )



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From the Looks of This You'd Think I Had Lots of Seeds

Category: Starting and Maintaining the Garden | Posted: Thu Jan 28, 2010 5:53 am

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Gardening takes time and timing. Sometimes it doesn't all fall together like you think it will. This winter was one example with the hard freeze and a few lost plants that will make room for new plants (a friend after participating in a cookie exchanged decided to host a plant exchange so I am set...but that is another story...maybe).

Today I saw quite a few dried bean pods hanging on the vines along the fence for the garden. I flashed back to November. I wondered if they will self sow? Nature hasn't provided any warm weather for sprouting yet. Don't think I'll try harvesting them. Best to know when to step back and wait considering all-in-all.

For years I have collected and saved seeds from my rich, robust flavored scarlet runner beans I grow yearly. I thought of it as second nature. Kind of a comforting fall ritual. I was a little late in collecting pods and seeds this last fall.


A nice little harvest of scarlet runner beans ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )

I spent the day picking pods and shelling beans. I had collected over a gallon of beans and they looked great. I would even have enough for a couple of big pots of bean soup. Or at least I thought I would. For the first time ever, I collected beans that were a bit damp. Bringing them into the warm house I learned that beans can sprout in less than 24 hours. Big oops there!


A few Cascade Giant Stringless Beans ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )

Even my hubby's Cascade Giants did the sprouting "thing". Oh well, I figured I could just make soup out of them. They make great soup. Sprouting should just increase the nutritional value right? Best laid plans detoured but still looking promising.

I laid down for a little nap waking up to the aroma of burnt beans filling the air. I couldn't help but giggle (although I worried about wrecking my good soup pot) at the irony of it all. I quickly took them out to the compost and scraped the pot out. Guess this was just not the year to save bean seeds.

Oh well, gardening keeps us humble and helps to keep our sense of humor going. On the bright side my Hooker's corn actually matured for eating and seed saving. These small corn plants and ears are perfect for my small yard and a heirloom variety bred here in Olympia since the 1930's. My second planting in last week of July actually matured into pretty little ears that turn from white (that's the eating time) to purple/black (getting ready to dry). Lots of seeds to plant for this next year for these sweet little ears of corn.


Mature Hooker's Corn ready for drying ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )


White turns blue for Hooker's Corn ( photo / image / picture from Jewell's Garden )

Yeh, it is the plant exchange that got me thinking seeds and reminiscing. At work we were talking of starting vegetable seeds and trading them as well as flowers, perennials and what-not-plants. A May Day celebration with hot drinks and pastries. It's never too early to start planning and dreaming. All because of a cookie exchange.




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Reflections and a Cabin in the Woods

Category: Stomping Grounds | Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 8:06 am

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Last week-end we slept, read, played with our new netbook (with no wi fi) and did a whole lot of nothing. The beginning of each year tends to put some of us into a time of reflections. I haven't had much time this last two years to spend relaxing or reflecting, just too busy. When we do make time for ourselves the Cushman cabin is where we go to sleep, read and fix way too much food from old family recipes for fruit cobblers, crisps, and barbequed lemon chicken. There is no TV reception, cell service or telephone. We have spent most Thanksgiving dinners at the cabin since we became its caretakers. It just feels like the right place to be.


Cabin in the rainforest ( photo / image / picture from Jewell2009's Garden )

It is hard to believe that we have had our cabin for six years. I have always looked at gettinging the cabin as finally having my three bedrooms and two baths with 1500 square feet of living space. Sure, it took the combination of two small houses to accomplish, but for some unknown reason I have never desired to have anything but a very small house (in town house is 800 sq. ft., cabin 700 sq. ft.). It fits us.


My sweetie, David and me ( photo / image / picture from Jewell2009's Garden )

The great recession started impacting us in 2008 which was the worst and we thought we would have to sell the cabin, but the real estate bubble had popped and no one was buying, so we took it off the market. 2009 began to show glimmers of promise, but still had huge uncertainties that were just a "fact of life". There was only one of us with a permanent job. With 2010 we have hope and a renewed respect and understanding for how much we have and how lucky we are. Life doesn't give certainties. Our little cabin in the woods is our little piece of the "good life" to enjoy when time permits.


moss grows so big in the rainforest and I am always amazed ( photo / image / picture from Jewell2009's Garden )


( photo / image / picture from Jewell2009's Garden )


Kota at rest...its the rain on the tin roof, we all relax ( photo / image / picture from Jewell2009's Garden )

Rain on the tin roof makes it impossible to stay tense. The gray-green rainy days with moss "leaves" the size of your thumb, newts, nuthatches, red squirrels, deer and a wide variety of woodpeckers and wildlife enriches our overly busy lives. Even the dogs relax. Sleeping with a warm wood fire and the gentle drumming of moisture falling from the trees and mist is a massage for the soul.


We call them red squirrels, but common names aren't "book names". ( photo / image / picture from Jewell2009's Garden )


lot surrounding the cabin where the deer sleep when we and the dogs aren't here ( photo / image / picture from Jewell2009's Garden )

Our first three winters we heard cougars or bobcats screaming as they chased each other through the early evening mating. The first time I heard the scream I thought someone had dumped a poor kitty. I opened the back door and called, "kitty, kitty". A large cat screamed again. Realization struck. It wasn't under the house but out in the surrounding area and bigger then I first imagined. A hasty retreat to the interior of the cabin with heart pounding I knew that was no ordinary kitty.

Oh well, my days of taking in strays had past and it was time to get back to a book. Yes, life has been kind to us even in the hard times. We get to visit a little piece of tranquility often enough to slow our minds and try for a more reasonable pace of life.


Nurse log with huckberries, lichen and moss ( photo / image / picture from Jewell2009's Garden )





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Pets in the Winter Vegie Garden

Category: Pets | Posted: Sat Dec 19, 2009 6:13 pm

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I was sure our two weeks of low temperatures that dropped into the single digits for multiple days would be the undoing of my brussel sprouts and all-season cauliflower. The kale I expected to survive, but you never know.... The smell of decaying cole crops was heavy in the back yard, but my work schedule has me leaving in the dark and getting home in the dark. Our short 8 hours of daylight days mean I see little, since the backyard lights only hit the edge of the garden. I would have to wait until the week-end to see the damage.


The bench to use for getting into the vegie garden ( photo / image / picture from Jewell2009's Garden )

The dogs, Ciara and Kota had been slipping into the garden area where a hydrangea was just stems. I put up some old fencing to try and keep them out, but they were stepping on an old garden bench and stepping over. All this time I figured they were drawn by the reek of rotting vegies. Today I was surprised that they had been eating good vegies that were not rotten. They were enjoying tasty sprouts and the heads of some of my cole crop vegies.


Yum, yum, good ( photo / image / picture from Jewell2009's Garden )

Well, I was not real enthusiastic about harvesting brussel sprouts, so after munching on a few and gathering a few I pulled four of the dozen plants for the dogs. Ciara and Kota will enjoy them for some time and hopefully stay out of the garden leaving the rest to us. What else was I to do?


Ciara enjoying her brussel sprouts ( photo / image / picture from Jewell2009's Garden )


more, more ( photo / image / picture from Jewell2009's Garden )


Engrossed in finding the tenderest sprouts ( photo / image / picture from Jewell2009's Garden )

Yes the cold did damage, but it was mainly to the tender leaves at the bottom of the plants which rather surprised me. All the cole crops are now really, really sweet and ready for harvesting through the winter. The variety of kale I grew this year was much more susceptible to cold unlike the hardier varieties that I have grown in the past. It is still good, just not as sweet as the sprouts. Over all I am pleased and with luck, come spring I will still get some very early cauliflower....if the dogs don't eat the plants before then.


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Mulch, Mulch, Mulch that Winter Garden

Category: Winter projects | Posted: Sat Dec 05, 2009 8:56 pm

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It feels like winter with temperatures going into the low twenties. I have been slowly through the fall adding back to the soil with the bean and pea vines, cabbage leaves and other garden left-overs. I also have an abundant source of leaves from the filbert trees that almost overhang my garden area(ivy hedge trimmings are another biggy for me to use as mulch). This week-end the leaves are finally all down from the trees, and I will get out the leaf-blower and rake and get the last of the leaves into the flower and garden beds. I don't want my soil exposed to the elements. The hard beating of constant rain will compact the soil's surface and leach nutrients from the soil. I try to get a minimum covering of 3 inches of composting materials (and often twelve inches or more of light leaves - the worms break them down by spring) Where I have my soil covered in composting materials it lays like a warm blanket protecting the soil that is alive with worms and beneficial micro-organisms.


My leaf source for mulch is very close to my vegetable garden ( photo / image / picture from Jewell2009's Garden )

The first fallen leaves are already beginning to be worked into soil by quickly multiplying worms. It also helps protect my winter garden of primarily cole crops. I have a variety of Brussels sprouts, all-season cauliflower and kale as well as spinach, beetberry and broad beans. Next years project should be a portable cold frame to extend the cold hardy varieties of spinaches and lettuces.

I love worms! I don't believe that the benefit of worms and their castings can be over emphasized. They play such an important part in soil fertility. Worms are naturals at aerating the soil with their tunnels. They make minerals available to plants since their castings (poop) contain a diverse microbial population that helps increase soil fertility. It is a fertilizer that is naturally occurring, free (unless you choose to buy it in sacks at a local garden store ) water soluble and immediately available to plants. Worms do it for you so you don't have to do anything. "Yeh! for worms."

In September I planted my over-wintering cover crop of broad beans. I start the cole crops in July. I am not sure how this cold weather will affect them, but it will be fun to see. My cole crops usually hold up well until the temperatures drop into the teens. Snow helps to insulate them, but we have had none so far this fall. I don't harvest unless the daily temperatures get above freezing. The broad beans definitely got big enough to help do some valuable nitrogen fixing to the soil and maybe add a little organic matter. We've enjoyed several meals with brussels sprouts and kale makes the most lovely vegie lasagna. Wish I had taken the time to mulch between the broad bean and beetberry plants, but didn't think we would have such cold weather for such an extended period of time this early (a full week so far).


My vegetable garden as it looks today ( photo / image / picture from Jewell2009's Garden )

I love having a garden full of edibles even in the winter. It gives me such pleasure and comfort knowing I can still go out into the yard and get some fresh produce even when the temperatures dip.





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