A Tapestry Garden: The Art of Weaving Plants and Place, by Ernie O’Byrne Marietta O’Byrne. Timber Press, 2018

In one of the best growing areas in the US, the Willamette Valley in Oregon, the O’Byrnes have created a wonderful garden- or, perhaps it should be called “gardenS”.  On one and a half acres they have created a garden with several microclimates in it. They have both used existing microclimates and created some of their own- trees they planted when they first got there have matured and created shade gardens. No matter; they are not averse to moving plants when needed. Or, for that matter, moving tons of soil amendments and rocks.

It amazes me how they have done this garden; when they first arrived, they gardened for other people as a profession. Then they started a nursery. As someone who has done both those things, I have a great deal of respect for anyone who can do those things AND find the energy for doing what they have done!

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The Inviting Garden: Gardening for the Senses, Mind, and Spirit, by Allen Lacy. Henry Hold and Company, 1998

This is a lovely and inspiring book by the late Mr. Lacy, one that made me long for spring so that I can work in the garden. The first part is built around the five senses, one chapter per- tasting herbs and vegetables; listening to fountains, wind chimes and birds; feeling soft lamb’s ears and soft earth; smelling roses, lilies, and mock orange; and of course viewing the many flowers and leaves that the garden offers us. For the mind section he ventures into botanical nomenclature; how much there is to know about even one plant and how it works (especially if you get into the biome in which it grows, including insects and soil critters); the history of plant discoveries; floral legends; and how the American yard turned out like it has- mostly lawn and open to view. Spirit is basically that gardening is not a hobby, but a way of being that absorbs one.

This is not a coffee table book, but it contains a lot of gorgeous photographs. All make you long to step into them and enjoy the garden portrayed. His writing wanders at times; when he describes a plant we are apt to learn about its history and uses as well as how it looks.  It’s rather like being in the garden and talking with a very educated plantsman. Five stars.

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The Green Tapestry, by Beth Chatto. Simon and Schuster, 1989

Beth Chatto is a highly respected plantswoman, as both designer and plant ecologist. This book focuses on her own garden, which has many different zones with differences in soil type, sun/shade exposure, degree of moisture available, etc., and shows us how she has planted the areas. Her philosophy of planting is to observe what conditions your garden has (and, like her, you may have more than one type of area) and select plants that like those conditions. In quest of this information, she has spent time looking up where original species came from. Don’t think because she is planting to suit the site that her plantings are boring; she has used many plants that are less common. The area of England that she lives in is drier and colder than most of Great Britain, so her conditions are more like the USA. Five stars for solid information. 

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The above is an affiliate link. If you click through and buy something- anything- from Amazon, they will give me a few cents. 

This did not influence my review. 

100 Vegetables and Where They Came From, by William Woys Weaver. Algonquin Books, 2000

The title pretty much says it all; the book tells us about 100 vegetables, what they taste like, where they are from, and how they are prepared. What the title doesn’t tell us is that these vegetables are special; they are some of the tastiest plants on the planet. Consider golden corn salad from Italy, whose large leaves make a salad beautiful; or the Petaluma Gold Rush bean, which when used dried keeps a marvelous meaty taste and texture. The Re Umberto tomato is a paste tomato that is incredibly productive and has an unmatched flavor. Some plants are included mainly because they are different and pretty, but most are included because of flavor. Being both gardener and foodie, I found myself looking up seed sources and bookmarking them numerous times while reading.

The prose is chatty and an easy, fast read. Nice line drawings illustrate the veggies. My only problem with the book is that an awful lot of these wonderful plants won’t grow in my short season area!

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The above is an affiliate link. If you click through and buy something- anything- from Amazon, they will give me a few cents.

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Still sunny with no rain. The soil at my jobs has already turned into concrete, which makes it lovely to try and pry weeds out of it. But all the hummingbirds (we get three species of them here) seem to be back already, both males and females. Perhaps they got a discount for all traveling here at once.

The sunflowers and zinnias I seeded a couple of days ago are already germinating. Any day now we should be able to start leaving young plants outside at night- of course there will be at least one surprise late frost, but hopefully not a really bad one. I'm going to risk the young perennials I grew from seed by leaving them out tonight. They are hardy when grown and they look fairly mature.

The bergenia is blooming; I love the sharp, hot, pink of it's blooms. It badly needs renovating but I'll wait until it's done flowering. The miniature iris are also blooming, except for the blue/purple ones under the dappled willow. They are always behind because of the shade.

The peas are up (barely) and Tim just started the corn last night. The greens are suddenly expanding exponentially rather than just sitting there. In a few days they'll be going out into their large containers- must remember to get slug bait and put it in the pots right from the start this year. Heaven only knows how much slug slime we ate last year before I came out at the right time and caught the gross devils on the lettuce!

The artichokes and cardoons have already germinated! They have not lifted their heads up out of the soil, but probably will tomorrow. That is the only interesting thing that happened today.

Sunny but cold today. I did hang the laundry outside, but it only got about half dry. Still, that's a few cents of electricity saved by running the dryer a shorter time afterwards!

Took Banshee for a walk; all the daylilies are coming up, the lilacs have very swollen buds, the rugosa roses are budding up, and crocus are poking their little noses up. All this is at least a month earlier than normal for our yard.

The book I ordered on growing and cooking Oriental vegetables arrived today. Looks pretty good; lots of vegetables I've never heard of before. I'm so eager to get to gardening it's silly. I know it'll still be too cold for over a month, even for the cold season crops. But indoor gardening is starting: the artichoke and cardoon seeds are soaking in warm water and will be planted in little containers tomorrow. They take a long time and they need to go out in the cold and then back to warm to trigger blooming, so they have to be fair sized while we still are in cold weather.

Tim was home yesterday and, after doing the morning alpaca chores, we started doing our seed orders. We meant to only order a few things, and only from one company, but the best laid plans went awry and we ended up with a whole lot of things- mostly vegetables- from two companies (Pine Tree and Johnny's). Then I also did an order of seeds for perennials from Hudson and iris seeds from the Median Iris Society.

While the flowers- mainly perennials- are what excites me the most, I can't seem to look at a vegetable seed catalog with out decided that this is the year I'll gather the energy to take better care of the vegetable garden, that the Oriental greens won't bolt, that I'll make a salad every day in summer and lots of stir fries, that I'll keep everything weeded and use lots of herbs. And keep the slugs from eating things before we can get to them. Those were my worst nemesis last year. I even ordered a book on growing and cooking with Oriental vegetables- used from Amazon. I still want to check out what Angel Grove has this year for tree seeds. Time to get some crab apples & Japanese maples going again.

The whole thing energized me and made me want to do all the things. Sadly, the energy was short lived and the only thing I got done today that was on my list was the seed orders. Got a lot of other things partly done, but that doesn't get them off the list. Tomorrow I'll go to town and that means I won't get much done. *sigh*

It’s been cooler- and stormy- the last couple of days and it’s been lovely to work outside for a change. Especially lovely is that the power didn’t go off for hours like it has the two storms before this one. Last night’s storm, though, was throwing lightning down perilously close to us. There were a couple that were so bright Tim thought they hit in the hay field (I don’t think they were really quite that close) and the thunder was right on top of the light and so loud I levitated off the sofa.

Finally finished the log house kitchen the other day; all lacquered and put back together. I had a reprieve in doing them because the guy who was going to be staying in the house put his visit off. Now he has put it off again. Not sure when he’ll get here to do the work or if we’ll have to find someone else.

A few more plants have followed me home and I’ve still not gotten any of them planted. I am making some progress on the weeding, though and expanding part of a bed to make room. I was going to prune the dappled willow today to unshade some unhappy roses and make room, but when I stepped close to the bush hummingbirds shot out of it and a chorus of panicked finch voices arose. So that project is out until everyone is done nesting. I thought it was late enough that they’d all be done with that.

Staying the course on eating less. Can fit into things I wore last year but not into things I wore a couple of years ago. Damn. I’m hungry. 

 This is daylily 'Ice Palace Pink'- it actually followed Tim home instead of me. Beautiful; it has the glitter effect when the sun hits it. 

 This is a salpiglossis- sorry no common name for it. They're supposed to be tall plants and mine are only about 9" tall but at least they're blooming! I'd been told that the season was too short for them here but I had to try them anyway.

The tall bearded iris, the Siberian iris and the Japanese iris are all blooming now, although today the rain is pushing a lot of the stems down. This year they- like the peonies- are taller than they've ever been before. Some come up my chest! Also, the iris and peonies are both more fragrant than they've ever been before. When I go outside, the air is perfumed; normally I have to walk up to the plants and stick my nose into the flowers!

This is the tall bearded iris 'Gnu'. I love the broken colors; they're like water colors running. This is the only broken color iris I have, although I hope to buy a few more. This one came to me free, because a friend asked me to divide his iris beds. Neither he nor the person he'd bought this from had any idea of the name, but I got lucky and IDed it on the internet.

It's sad when the brightest thing in the garden is the weeds...

The primula auricula opened it's petals today:

It's a wee thing still. The others are even smaller and I'm sure won't bloom this year

New article posted at the Examiner, on annual California poppies: http://www.examiner.com/article/annual-california-poppy

Spring is here finally!

Sunny all day and over 50 degrees F. Spent hours outside today, cleaning up, weeding and planting- of course I've been buying plants already this year. Some great stuff- a Cherry Blossom delphinium (pale, pale pink), doronicum (leopard's bane), Siberian iris crowns (a streaky purple and white one), and these beauties:

Heuchera 'Beaujolais' It's a wonderful combo of copper and purple when the sun hits it.

Heuchera 'Hercules'- variegated leaves and bright flowers!

Polemonium 'Stairway to Heaven'. I already had 'Brise d'Anjou', but it doesn't have the pink in the leaves. I hope this color stays through out the season!

Now I'm exhausted. I think I over did it after being ill for a week. I will sleep early tonight, I think.

Results of tissue culture class

Well, one petri dish filled with mold, but one is still clean and on 11/1/2010 I saw signs of growth. The baby plantlets should be at least an inch tall by now, but it's a time of year with short days so I think (hope) that is what's slowing them down. They stay in the petri dish until they are an inch tall.

New Dark Red Flowers!

Two new dark red flowers in the garden today:

I don't know what the name of this hollyhock is. The only thing I can think of that might be close is the double scarlet from Germania, but I think of 'scarlet' as being a lot lighter and brighter than this. It's beautiful, and I hope it has time to set and ripen seeds before winter hits, because I really want to keep this one around. I don't know how much cross pollination has taken place, but there aren't any other hollyhocks on this side of the house.

Rudbeckia 'Cherry Brandy'. It's been around a few years now, but the seeds have always been too expensive for me. I sprang for a few this spring, and they are just as gorgeous as the catalogs make them out to be - so often not the case! Hopefully they'll make seeds I can capture before the birds get them, and hopefully they haven't crossed with the other kinds of rudbeckia I've got going around the house.