We had some epic weather last week (the final week of March) and over Easter weekend. It was 75 and fully sunny. That’s absolutely crazy for Portland in March, and I am not complaining. It gave me a great chance to take some photos of our garden’s progress…
Read moreGarden Tour: Start of April, 2013
Garden Steps
One of the projects I first did when we started this garden was to create some garden steps in the front on the far side of our driveway. There’s a relatively narrow section of garden next to our driveway between us and the neighbors. The main entrance to the back…
Read moreContainer Gardening: New Plants 2013
There are some beautiful new plants for 2013, and the lush combination of purple/black foliage, blue-ish foliage, and golden foliage remains a favorite. This container combo would be especially beautiful if done as a symmetrical pair flanking a patio entrance or garden gate. Here are the plants shown above: Belamcanda…
Read moreDaphne! Daphne!
Early last year I planted a Daphne Odora in the garden, and just recently it has its first bloom. Beyond the joy that comes from signs of prospering plants in a relatively new garden (2 years old), I get an extra kick out of it when they produce an intoxicating…
Read moreWelcome Spring!
Spring: It’s been a long time coming. I’m not going to pretend that the winter we experienced in Portland was anywhere near the winter experienced back East, but I’m craving warm, sunny days as much as anyone. The garden is ready to be worked if only it would stop pouring…
Read moreAnd then it was winter.
Wow, the fact that it’s been raining FOR EVER has kept me from my gardening blog. That’s what I’m telling myself anyway. But it was a good time to take a break because that’s exactly where we left off with the garden! We got our fall planting in the ground…
Read moreRegrading & the terror of morning glory
We last left off with the beginning of the back yard project. It was comprised of a volunteer cherry tree, a large weeping cypress, a buried brick pathway, two mounds of sword ferns and daffodils, and lots and lots of weeds. The weeping cypress wasn’t a bad tree, it just…
Read moreGarden Pathways
When we last left off in the story of this garden, we’d begun planting in the newly walled front garden. Woot! We’d also put in a gravel path at the top of some stone garden steps, setting aside some planting beds on the south-west corner. And we’d begun selecting plants…
Read moreGarden Steps, Mulching and more Mulching
With our fence newly installed, and convenient access limited to the steps up to the front door, it seemed that we would like steps to the south of the sunken driveway, onto the south side of the property. Otherwise we’d either have to climb the berm (not so bad) or…
Read moreDeciding What to Plant
When we last left off the story of the beginnings of this garden, we’d cleared out years of neglect, then built a retaining wall and a fence. It was the end of March, and right about the time to start planting here in my Zone 8 (sometimes Zone 9) garden.…
Read moreBuilding a Retaining Wall and Putting in a Fence
When we last left off in the story of this garden, we had just finished pulling everything out of the front yard except for two apple trees. Once we’d done that and were left with just dirt, we realized there was an erosion problem. We had two solutions we were…
Read moreSeed Starting 2010
It’s a big day today as I got my first seeds started. There are already new things in the garden that I got at Portland Nursery, which I realize is tempting the weather fates just a bit. But these are the seeds I poured over in the store, and am…
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