It feels normal out there. It scares me. Yes, our springtime has been abnormally normal. No premature heat waves, no scorching of tender foliage, no freak hail storms nor rain nor cold records. Just days of mild sunshine and temperatures mostly in the 70s with a bit of rain thrown in to keep it green. This reminds me of springs of my youth. It all looks so lush and so full of life. Much of the damage caused from the horrid January storms is being swallowed up by all that lushness, and Hooray! for that. However, I cannot help but wonder when the unpleasant weather will arrive. We're so used to ..read more

Road-tripping plus friends plus plants makes for the best kind of adventure. For the bit about the plants, make that one of Oregon's best independent small nurseries, Dancing Oaks Nursery and Gardens in Monmouth. While they do offer mail order, to visit in person is worth the trip out to this bucolic part of the state in the coastal foothills in the central Willamette Valley. It has been over 10 years since my last visit, and that was actually one of my very first blog posts. You may revisit the very clumsy post here.  This trip was about my friends Anna and Gina - the three of us worked ..read more

Enjoying the garden is the theme for us right now. I know so many gardens suffered from the brutal winter we endured, but May seems to be the balm that heals wounds and leads me to love the garden all over again. As I walk around and around and around obsessively looking at everything in the garden, I realize so much of it has fared really well and is thriving. Those plants that suffered at the hands of winter are for the most part rebounding and may not look good now nor for several years, but there is enough surrounding the wounds that they are less noticeable than they would be in a much yo ..read more

This post is all over the place. Apropos, as the garden is, too. Everything is exploding with life and there are so many directions I could go as far as a blog post. Let's catch up with updates on a couple of small projects and look at my plan for the no-till veggie garden, as well as a few observations in late April. First of all, it has been an unusually dry and warm April up until a few days ago when we received an inch or so of rain. I have a feeling we're in for it this summer with a hot one. Just a feeling. Other observations are that certain plants damaged from the winter, although slo ..read more

 The busy season is definitely here! Is it ever! So no in-depth plant dive this week. Rather, a jolly look at all things pretty (at least to me) in the garden. There is plenty happening in the garden, plus a plant sale (more info at the end of this post). Okay, let's roll! The top of the berm garden on a lovely sunny spring morning. Ceanothus 'Blue Jeans' in the background. I notice many pretty native plants right now, so I have compiled images of a bunch of them. Here is Vaccinium ovatum 'Scarlet Ovation', a small vaccinium with especially vibrant red new leaves. Two manzanitas at ..read more

 Early spring is the best season for the shade garden. It's also the season I probably lose friends . . . don't take it personally, people, I'm in the garden. It's busy go-go time for me and I apologize in advance for vanishing and not returning texts until the rains return, so, see you in October. I love you all, really. It's just that there are no days off, no weekends for us around here. Maaaaybe we can squeeze a couple in this summer. When that happens, hit us up for beer and tacos in the garden.   In the meantime, here's a look at a bit of the shade garden looking fresh an ..read more

 My brain declares that nothing is happening in the garden in the cold, wet, dank days of March. Ah, but the brain can lie. After taking a couple hundred photographs this weekend I see that. Buds are swelling, bees are out, birds are collecting nesting materials and it really and truly is spring. The exciting time is nearly here! A spell of unseasonably warm (and very welcome) weather hit us last week and prompted the garden's wake up. OK, let's explore the March garden. Ribes sanguineum 'White Icicle' with a visiting bumble bee. The arctostaphylos have also had a lot of visiting bumble ..read more

Hebes. Shrubby Veronica. Whatever you call them, they are fabulous. In my maritime Pacific Northwest climate we are lucky to grow many of these valuable evergreen shrubs. But, sadly, not all. In my last hebe survey, which you can revisit here, most of the hebes in my garden were featured. Since the incredibly cold January spell this year wreaked havoc on many area gardens, there are updates to my former list. To my pleasant surprise most hebes/veronicas in my garden were completely unaffected by the extreme cold and ice, cementing their position as superstars. Many gardeners had issues with h ..read more

Oh, February, you tease me with fake spring. Then you throw miserable cold, wet weather, even snow showers, my way. Fine. Time to camp out in the greenhouse, my happy place I call my halfway house. Halfway between being inside on a winter's day and outside on a dreamy, warm spring day. At least I can sow seeds and pot up rooted hebe cuttings here, so there's a win for me. Truth be told, late February into March is really just about my least favorite time of the year in the garden because it's so fickle. It should be headed towards spring but it never is and I should know this by now. But hope ..read more

It occurs to me having a singular place to reference blog posts that are more informative in nature might be helpful. I've had several people share that they use a particular post regularly as a reference, so I thought it nice to create a place to easily link to these, something I could also use myself having blogged more than a decade now, or 437 posts, to be exact. That's plenty of photographs and information to muddle through.  I consider this an exercise in not only revisiting older posts (which I had forgotten about) but also using this as a tool, myself. This post does not include ..read more