Progress Report: Still Alive!

  Strawberry: Sequoia  Herb Pot   Sunflowers: Solar Eclipse and Incredible  Sugar Daddy Snap Pea   Sugar Daddy Snap Pea Sugar Daddy Snap Pea Sugar Daddy Snap Pea Nasturtium: Milkmaid Corn: Martian Jewels (1 of 5 pots) Bean: Blue Lake Bush Bean: Blue Lake Bush Bean: Scarlet Runner Pole Bean: Scarlet Runner...

Without Even a Salad, the Spinach is Bolting, Oh My!

Variety: Tyee F1 Spinach (O) Sown (Direct): 8 MAY 2013 Germinated 17 MAY 2013 This is mid-June in the Pacific Northwest.  No salad! No freezer stock.  Had I gotten this garden started just a bit earlier, this could have been avoided, no doubt. All but 2 plants have bolted and most literally overnight. The seedlings that were sown indoors a...

Garden Gang

Cats who dream of going outside and eating or playing to death with the frog. Normally, they just sleep in the sun.  Hawaiian cats are cold in the PNW! Frog who torments feline beasts and is lucky because they are trapped behind a door.  Keeps me company in the corn and sunflower corner and has proven survivorship skills by skinnying...

Phaseolus coccineus (Scarlet Runner Pole Bean )

This beautiful edible and most ornamental pole bean is a sight to behold. My 3 pots worth have weathered several storms, been near frozen, windwhipped, and brutalized by mother nature. I had actually reseeded the pots assuming certain doom was upon them. While barren of leaves in a few spots, they are thriving despite their abusive welcome to the world as they emerged...

The Lay of the (Pot) Land (Post Stage)

My pebbled patio is replete with 60+ tiny circles, each surrounded by the unavoidable green algae and moss that emerges from yes, even cement during the dreariest of seasons in the pacific Northwest. The excitement that follows those now barren circles is simple delight in watching everything grow and (for the most part), thrive in their nondescript potting containers. Better...

Out Came the Sun and Dried up all the Rain...

  And the (not so) itsy bitsy slugs went up the water spout... Our pots have been inundated with the rain for nearly a month. The first two weeks, there were at least several hours of dry time between the heavy showers and the plants were at least content with the refreshing drink during early growth. The past couple of weeks those same plants have endured an...

As We Make Our Way Out to the Sun

EWWW! Even the baby snails ran for high ground during all those weeks of rain. This is the top of the sliding glass door-disgusting.   I was really just fighting my way out of the door to clean all the glass.  It gets a little mottled after such a lengthy deluge of rain.  They are smashed properly disposed of now. While the slugs were mowing...

Slimy Marauders!

Slugs just mowed my carrots down to the nub somewhere in the rain during the past few days.  Five juveniles caused some malicious mischief in my carrot pot.  What I did notice in respect to the slugs in that pot in my staging area of the patio, is that they only gnoshed on the contents of the shorter containers.  Carrots and thyme (Thymus vulgaris).  Neither the carrots or thyme was an easy germination, but both were thriving...

Like-Minded Gardening Age?

I am not a spring chicken, but I'm also not quite an old (old) hen, just yet.  Not to say I don't appreciate those old hens, but even at my age, I know exactly one  (1)  person who gardens (vegetable/flower).  She is my age.   I've gardened since I bought my first home early in my twenties.  I was always the odd duck out with that activity. ...

Container Colour and Nasties

Container colour seems to have an informal science behind it. Dark is good, dark is bad, light is good (have never read light is bad), and so it goes on about how container colour can impact the productivity of our container plants. My container garden is large. I am also trying to keep it to as close to organically certifiable as possible (which has likely turned me certifiable in moments). I cannot escape the use of nursery trade pots. Budget...

Weather Woes

5/21/2013 19:30:00PM The more days of rain, the more effects I see on my large, fledging pot garden.  The pots are still grouped on the patio for ease of care and monitoring.  I am starting to see yellow leaves.  There are far too many to bring in.  Hoping for longer dry periods to remove the excess moisture that was good in recent days, but beginning to show the potential toll on the seedlings, some of which are growing into...