My favorite houseplant

This anthurium is a great houseplant. Trouble free, and always in bloom.

Japanese Blood Grass

My two pots of Blood Grass in the early morning sun.

Not ready for winter quite yet

It's still summertime, according to my pelargonium "Vancouver Centennial."

Hello, October

An eclectic mix basking on the front steps. Under Bananarama, which has grown by leaps and bounds all summer, Sun Gold tomatoes have woven themselves through the avocado, the begonia and the pelargonium. Strawberries drip down the steps, and a jade plant shares a pot with an amaryllis.

Octoroot

Tomatoes Gone Wild

Birdie

Alien Alien II This one we just call "Pedro"

How tall IS that?!

What is this, a rogue sunflower on steroids?

"Autumn Glory" in August

Sungolds growing up the brick pillar by the front steps.

Now THAT'S an "accent table"

Orange has never been my color for anything, but this table is just the size we wanted, and it was on sale, and it looks nice with sunflowers.

Bang for the Buck

This unnamed Angelwing begonia was a buck fitty impulse buy off the rack in front of Ace Hardware. You know, one of those sale racks right in front of the door stacked with overgrown, yellowing plants tugging at your heartstrings like puppies at the pound. In this case, $1.50 well spent.

Bring on the Butterflies

My garden vision has always included a big butterfly bush in the corner. The first one was ordered from Burpee's catalogue, and I was in denial for weeks that it was DOA. Meanwhile, I kept searching the local nurseries for another one, and finally hit paydirt at the Gray Barn in Redmond. The tag says this color is "Royal Red," but it looks more like a pinkish purple.

Foxy

Here are the new Adirondack chairs posing in front of my volunteer foxglove. A few store bought cosmos are under the foxglove.

Little Green Tomatoes

The first tomatoes have appeared. This is "Beaverlodge Slicer," a new determinate variety from Territorial Seeds that I am trying for the first time. Territorial gives them a big sendup "Truly a great combination of earliness, size, productivity and quality." We shall see.

A Plethora of Peas

This is the best crop of snow peas ever! Planted February 22, so about 15 weeks to harvest.

Late afternoon sun hightlights the "potager" . . . leeks, bok choi, spinach, a tomato, and snow peas in the background.

Finally . . .

. . . it's starting to look like a real garden. So far we have planted: artichokes, two kinds of pole beans, two kinds of beets, carrots, leeks, elephant garlic, four kinds of lettuce, two kinds of mustard greens, bok choi, snow peas, dwarf sweet peas, five varieties of tomatoes, spinach, green onions, petunias, sunflowers and zinnias. Volunteer dill, calendulas and sunflowers are sprouting, and half a dozen Block Island beach roses are thriving in their pots. I need my new Adirondack chairs. And an umbrella for when it gets hot!

May Day Update

Stumpy the Squirrel raiding the bird feeder . . .
Bleeding heart in bloom in the front garden . . .

Potted Roma tomatoes and pansies on the front porch . . .

The spinach is ready and the snow peas are about 10" tall . . .

The red kale and parsley on the front porch are just about done for . . .

Leeks

These are mailordered "Lancelot" leeks, being used to divide the bed into sections which will be planted with lettuces and beets. Never done this before, hope it works out.

Visualize Zig Zagged Peas

Does this look goofy or what. The naughty squirrels are digging holes everywhere (no more peanuts for YOU, Stumpy). Snow peas are planted on both sides of the fencing, which is zigged for more footage and hopefully a decorative effect. Row cover won't go over the bed in a normal way, so it is alligator clipped to the fence.

This is not the "decorative effect" I had originally envisioned.

Tomato babies movin' on up!

These babies were started from seed on February 28, and some of them need to go into bigger pots.
The plastic cups are an inexpensive way to provide plenty of depth for increased root production and to prevent legginess. This year I am trying Beaverlodge Slicer, Siletz, Windowbox Roma, Sun Gold, and Oregon Star.

The tomatoes are all set, but there's no room for anything else! I need one of those big fancy light carts.

Goldfish haiku

The goldfish are gone

Evil raccoon ate them up

Bugger off, raccoon!

March snow

We woke up to a raincrusty snow . . .

Happy New Gardening Year!

I can never resist the 10 for $10 grocery store primroses! Dug out all the sad dead stuff . . . only the parsley and kale are left from the fall.
The fishies made it through the winter, all five of them. They are three years old now.

The garden in late February . . . ready for peas and spinach in the bed on the far left.