In addition to the Camellias and Daffodils which are still going strong, we've seen a few more blossoms in the last two weeks. Even with a few sunny days, things are still too cool for the garden to really get going.
Red Currant
Five-way Dwarf Asian Pear
Four-way Espalier Pear (below)
Honeyberry
In an effort to make sure we always have something available for pollinators and just to keep the yard interesting, we'll track what's in bloom on our little lot every two weeks. This will help spotlight where and when we have gaps which will slowly but surely be filled in with more berries, herbs, and native shrubs and groundcovers. Ornamental plantings will be kept to a minimum, in favor of more useful plant species.
Spring is certainly on its way, but most days are still wet and gray. It's nice to have so many flowers already as a promise that warmer weather will be here soon.
Golden plum in full bloom
Camellias
Helleborus
Dwarf Peach and Nectarine
Daffodils surrounding Apple tree in front of the cob wall
The Pacific Northwest winter feels far from over, but it is already time to get this year's garden started. In fact, we're a little late. Every year we plan on being on top of garden bed prep, seed starts, planned crop rotation, etc., and so far, every year we have fallen a bit short of our expectations. In an effort to be as organized as possible, I like to use the Maritime Northwest Garden Guide published by Seattle Tilth. It provides to-do lists for each month of the year, and it even has a list of plant varieties that are known to do well in the Pacific Northwest climate. Depending on where you live within that region, you have to adjust suggested planting times, so it has helped to cross reference with Portland Nursery's Veggie Calendar. It is a simple list of what to plant when with ideal times and methods highlighted.
Seattle Tilth's Maritime Northwest Garden Guide, 2nd edition
Month-by-month task and project suggestions
Portland Nursery's Veggie Calendar
So for the month of February, we took on the tasks of pruning our two grapevines, setting up a seed propagation area indoors, and sowing seeds indoors to transplant in Spring. This was my first attempt at pruning the grapevines. As a reference, I used the following publication by Oregon State University's Extension Service (http://smallfarms.oregonstate.edu/sites/default/files/publications/growing_table_grapes_ec1639_may_2011.pdf). Since we didn't use this pruning method since the first year it was planted, it was difficult to be sure if I chose the best leading canes and if the vine can now be trained as suggested. We'll see how the plant grows this summer and hope that the pruning did more help than harm! It's all a learning experiment.
One of our grapevines, pre-pruning
Same vine, post-pruning
Space inside our house is always limited, with few ideal spots for projects. So if the seeds need to start in the living room on the coffee table, that's how we'll do it. We're a couple weeks late starting some of these seeds, but we've been in this position before, and it all worked out. With a warming pad and supplemental light, we have started the following seed varieties: Cherry Buzz cherry tomato, Legend and Oregon Spring tomatoes, Orange Gilboa and Red Yardenne sweet bell peppers, Ancho poblano pepper, Haldor leek, Stuttgarter onion.
Here's hoping for a bountiful growing season! Check in for next month's garden activities.
Our smallest bedroom is currently being used as a music room...and for storing disc golf and running paraphernalia, backpacks, and brewing and fermenting supplies. Can you fit all of that in a 72 square foot space? Of course not, but you do what you've got to do when you don't have a garage or any other reasonable storage space. To maximize space, we decided to hang some of our guitars on the wall. While running errands north of town, I remembered that we needed to buy the wall hangers, and a Guitar Center was nearby. Then I remembered that we have a music store in our neighborhood. Nothing against Guitar Center*, but the fact is, I want to support a different consumer experience. The music store in our neighborhood is fun to patronize. It's small with a quality selection of items, all of which the staff will readily let you try out. (I defy you to check out the second floor percussion section without touching anything.) Most importantly, I WANT a music store in my neighborhood. That option, that experience, is important to me.
We shop at the local grocery store chains and as often as we can, at the local grocer down the block. The record player is always going, there are monthly wine tastings, and dead bodies are buried under the floor (at least there were in an episode of Grimm). What's not to love?
Part of cultivating the community we want is supporting the businesses and institutions that make it a great place. Voting with your dollars is a beautiful thing. It's an important thing. Sometimes it's inconvenient, but it's worth it every time.
Cherry Sprout
* I volunteered for Girls Rock Denver for four years when I lived in Colorado, and every year, Guitar Center made extremely generous donations to the camp. In addition to supporting small, local businesses, it can be just as affirming to know how/if those bigger chain stores are supporting their surrounding communities.
Cob wall collapse
Get this mud wall a roof!
The not yet roofed part of cob wall collapsed this morning after an extended rain storm. Per the warnings in all the cob building books, it had saturated with rain and collapsed. I had initially tried to cover it with a tarp a week or two ago when the rain started in earnest, but the tarp kept blowing off in the wind. I had intended to build a shelter over the top of this part of the wall instead of putting a roof on it like the rest of the wall, but other priorities had continually got in the way. I had spent many days building that part of the wall and putting in green, blue and clear glass bottles to make stain-glass Cascadia flags, and when it had finally come together I was very proud.
Partial collapse opens up view to the street. Yikes.
I am definitely feeling a great sense of loss and disappointment in my lack of initiative to complete this project which opened the door for its partial collapse.
New beginnings
You may be wondering how these sad events lead to a muse about regenerative living. The reminder of how creation and destruction are part of the natural cycle is part of what leads me to the way I want to live the rest of my life.
Sweet Pea had a great chicken life with much abundance: good organic feed, fruit she could jump for, plentiful vegetable scraps often fertilized in part from her own droppings, and semi-frequent forays through the garden. She got to experience much more not just in time, but in her part of the natural order, than many of the poor creatures that are “grown” or “harvested” in factory farms. Their unfortunate lives are much shorter and the gifts they give us are reciprocated with what is convenient rather than what they deserve. Her passing is sad, but her life now feeds other organisms and is not waste, just the foundation of future life.
With the right tint on your glasses, works in progress look like beauty.
The cob wall collapse is a setback in our hardscaping, but since ruins are just clay, sand and straw, we do not need to trash anything. Time was lost and temporary inconvenience created. Other tasks have now been delayed. My appreciation has deepened of why folks, in the name of permanence, have sacrificed consideration about the whole cycle of a structure. However, there are things I might have done better the first time, and now part of the template can be cleared. The space created by nature’s erasing of what was apparently the clay, sand and straw mandala that I thought was my wall, can be filled with something beautiful again. I have learned a good lesson.
Priorities...
Embrace the whole cycle.