Tree of Heaven, aka "stinking sumac"

We rediscovered the name of the obnoxious weed tree in our yard. (We'd been told but we'd forgotten.) It's Tree-of-Heaven, ailanthus altissima, and it's also known as stinking sumac, Chinese sumac, or stink tree. We're doing what we can to make it feel extraordinarily unwelcome--involving holes drilled in root balls and concentrated Roundup poured directly into the holes--but it's going to be a long battle, I fear.

Tree of Heaven, aka "stinking sumac"

Landscaping

We have a landscape design company coming in on Wednesday to look at our backyard and discuss what we're interested in doing. I keep thinking that I'd like a greenhouse somewhere--maybe not a big one, but big enough. The Babe is not of the opinion we'll have room and that it may just end up being coldframes. We'll see: I sense negotiation coming.

What I'd like is something that I can start seedlings in really early and also grow some of the things that need hothouse conditions, like peppers and cantaloupes. This year was so disappointing for even growing tomatoes that I'd like to be able to start seedlings very early next year and get a solid leap on the weather. And even keep some things in the greenhouse if I need to.

I'm thinking of something rather like this one, which is 6' x 8':

Landscaping

Summer's hitting all at once

After months of no spring and little summer, we're throwing a party of some kind. It's going to be record highs here for the next few days (in the 90s), continuing hot through the weekend. Well, my tomatoes and squash shall enjoy the hot weather at last. The flowers out front are certainly doing nicely!

And here's a quote for today:

“Like everyone else who makes the mistake of getting older, I begin each day with coffee and obituaries.” --Bill Cosby

Summer's hitting all at once

More sun!

I guess the sacrifices worked, because there's all kinds of sun and blue skies today. There're still lots of clouds and the potential for rain, but sun is making the plants in the garden very happy. 

More sun!

Sun! There's SUN!!!

Well, there was sun, anyway....  Late yesterday afternoon, we had blue skies, which continued until maybe 2:30 this afternoon. It was actually warm, too, which was a pleasant change. The plants are enjoying it very much: some of the marigold seeds have sprouted and I saw at least eight sunflower seeds breaking the surface this morning. I figure there will be more later today.  

Had a lovely time at the First Friday Art Walk last night with Jim & Beth Weldy and their grandniece Caitlyn (who's in town from Tennessee). 

Back to messing with the scanner, trying to get it to install correctly under WinXP SP3. Bleah.

Sun! There's SUN!!!

More gardening

Yesterday, we went out to Jerry's and picked up 4 more faux terra cotta pots, and a couple large bags of potting soil, and some more tomato plants, and a blueberry bush. Turns out the pots were slightly smaller than the ones we already had, so I just put one tomato plant in each one. We had a pair of dill plants that hadn't fit in anything (which is why we'd gone to buy more pots in the first place) and they went into two of the 1-gallon pots left over from the tomato plants. And then I planted nasturtium seeds in a bunch of the barrels and pots (there's always room for more nasturtiums) and created starts with a package of Velvet Queen sunflower seeds and "Sparky" French marigolds.

Jewel nasturtiums

Velvet Queen sunflowers

"Sparky" French marigolds

I looked closely at the plants yesterday and today and everyone seems happy. Most of the plants are showing new leaves, there are additional flower buds on a couple of the big tomatoes, the fuschias have larger flower buds, and the nemesia and dill are spreading out vigorously.

More gardening

A day of gardening

I announced to The Babe this morning that I had a PLAN. (She made a disparaging comment; she's a hard woman.) This plan involved going to Jerry's and picking up bedding plants for the barrels and pots in the backyard, grout cleaner and sealers to deal with a grouting problem in the shower, and concrete to erect three trellis we've been waiting for warm weather to put up.  

This was an acceptable plan, so off we truddled. (Yeah, it's a word; deal with it!) We ended up buying about $200 of bedding plants, flowers and vegies both. Lots more flowers because there is always room for more flowers and vegies for the barrels. Last year's attempt to put the barrels in the back had not been successful because we didn't put drainage holes in them and they turned into aquaculture tubs. We bought a spade bit a few weeks ago and drilled holes in the barrels (which drained prodigiously) and they've been okay since then. So this time for sure (in my best Bullwinkle voice.) I got a lot of tomatoes, including Sweet 100s, the first cherry tomato I grew in 1979, the very first year Patricia and I started gardening, Seattle's best, an heirloom tomato popular in the Puget Sound, and Better Boy VFN. There's also a Sweet Pea clustering cherry tomato that I'm not familiar with, but wotthehell?  I also got two sweet red peppers--Red Knight--and two serrano peppers, a lot of sweet basil, and yellow and patty pan squashes. All of this is My Kinda Garden Produce.  

The Babe and I hadn't communicated about how many barrels were going to be used for what, so she ended up buying a lot of very nice flowers--brachysome, some yummy begonias with coleus-like leaves, nemesia, trailing lobelia, white geraniums, and half a dozen other flowers--that she'd thought were going into the same barrels and pots.  

We managed to get most of the flowers and all the vegies into the barrels and pots that we've got, but I need to buy several more 2-gallon plastic pots tomorrow for some of the oddments.  Things are well-fertilized with a Miracle-Gro slow-release fertilizer, so I think we should be okay.  36" apart?  Pfui! They'll live with 6" or so. The Babe also planted large numbers of flowers out front to fill in spaces that didn't have quite enough flowers. 

I'm feeling a bit creaky, but all the plants are looking good this evening and showing no signs of transplant shock. I'll go downstairs and soak several packets of nasturtium, sunflower, and marigold seeds for planting in starter packs tomorrow.  And I may make a drink.  A drink would be good. 

(BTW, I'm finally making use of post labels. In my copious free time, I hope to slowly work through past posts here and there and add labels to them for easier searching and cross-referencing. If naught else, just remembering to add them to new posts will be a step forward.)

A day of gardening

10 most dangerous plants in the world

This is a cool article from Popular Mechanics on the 10 most dangerous plants in the world.  The pictures are very good, too. 

10 most dangerous plants in the world

Wotta day!

I thought I'd be spending the day starting the process of reformatting a couple computers and adding a pair of 500Gb hard drives, but no, it didn't work out that way. But it has been a very nice day.

I slept in a little, got up, cleaned the kitchen, and made banana bread--I've been wanting to make banana bread for the neighbors and now that I'm done with a lot of little things, it was a perfect day for it. I met someone online in an unusual venue who turned out to be from the Snake River chapter of the STC who's pretty nice. Well, networking does happen in the oddest places.

The Babe and Susan went to see Susan's friends Jeff & Mariah, who're getting married in July and are having the Babe do the service. They did some planning about the ceremony and program. Meanwhile, I did a bunch of cleaning here in the office, so that there is now more floor visible than paper, and most of the remaining tax stuff is ready to be boxed up (yay!).

The Babe came back around 2:00 and asked if I wanted to go get more bedding plants. Yes, I did, and I was interested in using up a coupon for Decker's Nursery out in Junction City (they'd sent us two coupons, one for 3 six-packs of bedding plants and t'other for 20% off of everything we bought).

We drove through some rather pretty rural sections of Lane County and got there. Nice place!! We loaded up a cart in fairly short order with about 250 bedding plants. Sure, sure, it sounds like a lot, but it isn't really. In this case, it means one plant every six inches about 4-1/2 rows deep for maybe 15-18'. We could have gotten a whole lot more plants.

We drove home and the Babe started prepping the ground while I worked on the garage, something that I'd been thinking of. We plugged away for hours, with occasional breaks to talk to the neighbors across the street (Harry & Julia, a gastroenterologist and an ER physician, who're going to have a baby around September 9 we discovered) and on both sides of us (Inger & Brian, lovely people to have for neighbors, with four kids, and Tim & Angela, with two daughters, on the other side).

At the end of the day, we have:

• 250 new plants in the front of the house (marigolds, Mexican marigolds, petunias, impatiens, and something else that's escaping me at the moment)
• pictures of some of this (I finally recharged the digicam's batteries and I'll upload those soon so you can see how pretty it all is)
• a huge empty space where there'd hitherto been boxes in the garage
• a pile of stuff in the back of my car to go to St. Vinnie's for the tax write-off
• things to go upstairs to my office

I made potstickers for the two of us. It hurts to move with all this toting and lifting, so I'm now going to go downstairs, slither into a bathtub, then as bonelessly as possible slither into bed. We sing tomorrow and then vote on accepting the new minister at the Unitarian church, who we like.

Wotta day!

House and garden... well, in reverse order

Every time I post something about how the garden is doing, I have a sense of "And the garden is doing amazingly!" It just keeps getting prettier and I keep thinking that it couldn't be better than this!… whatever "this" is at the moment. I guess I shall have to accept that it's as good as it's gotten so far and that it's going to keep getting better for another month or two. Here's the latest example:

Fir tree and planter

The fir trees in the back deck have 8-sided planters around them, which we've filled with alternating colors of impatiens.

Impatiens

This is a closer shot of one of the fir trees and the planters full of impatiens.

Marigolds

This barrel's full of marigolds... well, and dahlias and lobelia and other things, too, but lots and lots of marigolds!

Another flower barrel

Another of the flower barrels on the back deck. This one has a lot of everything in it. If you look closely, you may spot a flower or two from the fuchsia, which is being buried alive by other flowers. I thought the fuchsias would be taller or that the other flowers wouldn't be so vigorous. Next year, the fuchsias are going to go into baskets where they won't be eaten up by the rest of the plants.

Petunias

The petunias really went to town in this barrel for some reason. The deep purple ones have a high, sweet, clear scent to them.

More petunias

This barrel has lots of pink petunias in it, too, so here's a shot of the other side of the barrel just to show them off.

Hanging planters

The hanging planters are doing well, too! As you can see, there are windchimes everywhere, which make for a pleasant constant chiming.

Lobeilia and verbena

This is the barrel that you can see most easily from the kitchen. The lobelia and verbena are probably going to end up close to the ground by the end of summer. Scrumptious!

All four of the flower barrels have big healthy dahlias that are sending out masses of orange flowers with red splashes and at least half a dozen other flowers as well. The new house is going to have something like this along the front; it's just too pretty to not do something like this.

The new house is looking good, too. When we stopped in Friday evening, the first floor was getting plywood and the second floor was getting decked in.

Stairs

The base of the stairs is now in. You can get up the stairs and see the decking. coming down is actually a bit hard as there is nothing to hold on to and the stairs are very thin. It's like walking down a ladder without hanging on to the sides--not a lot of fun.

Sewing room (née music room)

This shows the music room from the top of the stairs... except it's no longer the music room; it's going to be the sewing room. The piano's going to go into the great room. The upstairs sewing room will still be a sewing room, but it'll allow for things to be spread out a bit and there won't be a lot of walking up and down the stairs (hard on the knees) to get to the sewing room when the mood strikes.

"Top o' the world, Ma!"

With the second floor deck and the stairs in place, I can now look out from the level that my office window will be at. I can see the city and even the mountains in the distance. Hot damn!

House and garden... well, in reverse order

More garden pictures and one of the man-eating clam

Okay, so it occurred to me that I've only got a couple of pictures of the garden posted to show what I've been doing out there, so I went and took a few more snaps today to expand on them.

In addition to the two barrels of flowers, I have two other barrels of flowers (which I wasn't able to get good shots of today because there was too much sun – heckuva deal, I have to say, given how cold and rainy it's been the last couple of weeks). I did, however, get a photo of one of the hanging baskets I did. All three of them are in ripping good health, but this one's exceptional.

One of the hanging baskets

The backyard itself is pretty dazzling. I have just a few photos of it but it is actually over twice the size of what you can see from these. (I'll have more photos at some point, but I have to get them early in the morning because the sun overexposes everything on the leetle cell phone digicam.) You can see part of the deck with the trunk of one of the fir trees (they're about 130' tall and there are four or five in the backyard and another three in the front yard). There are eight beds of impatiens planted around the base of the two fir trees that come through the deck itself.

The impatiens in the fir tree beds

Off to the left of that photo is one edge of the backyard. Some of the dwarf rhodies are still blooming. They're not my favorite flowers, but they're nice enough for low-maintenance shrubs.

Dwarf rhodies and other landscaping

One of the coolest things about the backyard is the seven-trunked maple tree. The maple tree is about 100' tall and the previous owner had very graciously wired the trunks together at the 60' level so they won't split off in high winds.

Seven-trunked maple tree

What identifies this backyard for me is that I have the man-eating clam hiding behind some ferns and at the base of Yet Another Fir Tree. The clam is something I got from my paternal grandmother's garden when she moved to Tucson to live with my father and stepmother. It had been a fixture of her garden for decades and I always had loved it. Dad very graciously snagged it for me (it weighs about 66 pounds) and I've had it in my backyards ever since. When I was married to my first wife and we had it in our backyard, she put a large plastic pearlescent ball from the handle of an old umbrella in the clam like a big pearl. It was perfect. I'll have to find something like that again.

The man-eating clam

And, just because I finally managed to get a good photo, here is a shot of Willow. She's outside and it's light out but you simply would not beLIEVE how much I had to stop the camera down until she was visible in the photo. It almost looks like it's night outside; this is not the case.

Willow, finally visible in a photo

I'm on the road to Portland on Friday for a client visit, so I'm off to bed now.

More garden pictures and one of the man-eating clam

The garden and most of the cats

I've been talking (well, bragging) about the gardening lately and I wanted to show you a few of the results. These are a couple of the flower barrels on the deck, which turned out pretty darned well, I'd say!

One of the flower barrels

Another of the flower barrels

The cats have been really helpful with this process and have conferred on the best layout of the garden during the entire process.

The cats discussing where to plant

Meanwhile, the cats have been enjoying the relatively brief periods of sunny weather (sidenote: I could-a sworn it was almost summer, yuh know) on the deck.

Solar cats

Willow is impossible to photograph in any kind of sunlight; she radiates too much light and overexposes any pictures I take.

Willow being glowish in the sun

BC is moving slower these days, but he's still the same big sweet cat he's always been.

BC standing in uffish thought

BC contemplating an open door

Yang has been a pest lately, largely because he's such a huge cat. When he's not leaping onto the monitor and knocking it askew, he's plopping around and getting in the way of everything.

Yang in a typical pose

Yang in his other typical pose

Bo is getting to be a big guy but he's lost none of his tendency to be full of energy. His tale is huge and it always looks like a Dr. Seuss character's tail. I keep expecting to see a light bulb hanging from the end of it.

Bo, pausing between leaps and dashes

Bo distracted by something in the dirt

The garden and most of the cats

It worked out the way I'd hoped

I peered out the window and saw that it had indeed rained a little last night. Everything got watered, spreading the liquid fertilizer around nicely. I just went outside to see and all the plants are singing. The squashes and melons that I'd planted in containers are showing a lot of growth already. One of them has even thrown out its first true leaf last night, so they're happy with their new homes. The row of tomato plants is all standing up straight and tall without any transplant shock. And the beds of impatiens are showing new blooms and new buds. Hitting everyone with a shot of fertilizer was clearly the way to go. What really makes me feel good is that I hung up the big bass windchime. Hearing the gentle plongs in the morning when it's cool and sweet and green-smelling makes me happy.

I've been looking at podcasting sources and online references to get ready for the new book. The field's starting to explode! Huzzah!

And for those of you who haven't yet gone there in person or online yet, go, go! to the Seattle Teacup. While I was there a week ago, I replenished tea stocks and got half a dozen new flavors that I've been wallowing in since I got home. I'm drinking Pampelmousse Bleu right now, a light French tea with hints of grapefruit (okay, it sounds strange if you're not used to this, but trust me, it's a wonderful breakfast tea!). Yesterday, I had Aristocrat blend, an Empress Hotel knockoff, and an English Breakfast decaf later in the day. The day before, I had looooooots of Lychee Congou, one of my favorites: black tea with lychee juice so that it has body and a rich fragrance. All of these are in my new teapot, which holds three pints of tea at least.

It's all working out the way I'd hoped.

It worked out the way I'd hoped

Ah, sweet domesticity, or something like it

It's Saturday and I'm having a relatively quiet but functional day around the house. I planted a bunch of portulaca (also known as "moss rose") in the front near the lilies. It's a fragile thing to plant, so I had bits and pieces of plants that broke off. I watered everyone and will be giving them some liquid fertizilizer soon.

A trip out to the Johnson Brothers Greenhouses out in Coburg is once again in order. I need still more impatiens to fill up the planter boxes around the trees and I need to get a couple bags of potting soil: the tomatoes are ready to be repotted (I'm doing container planting for the most part for them since we lack much full-sun gardening space. The ranunculi are dying back and so getting a replacement tall plant might be in order for the barrels. I may look at tomato cages, too. Meanwhile, the bush peas are all up and maybe 6" tall, and even the sweet peas are responding, if a bit sluggishly. I'm also very pleased that the crookneck squash starts and the melon starts are all vibrantly healthy, so I need to find places for them. (There will certainly be extra plant starts, so let me know if you're in the neighborhood and want some.)

Susan the Former Demon Child helped me put oil on a wooden deck chair that needed it. It's now drying in the sun. We also re-oiled the surface of the deck table. And I've been clearing out space in the garage by moving boxes that have been sitting in front of the cabinets and putting their contents into the cabinets, leaving me (gasp!) some empty floor space. In two weeks, the professional organizer who helped us move Susan back here and also juggled the bedroom and the sewing room shall be here and we'll rip through the garage and clear it out. We could possibly even park a car in it when we're done--how novel!

Ah, sweet domesticity, or something like it

The plants are doing well :)

In all of the fooferaw going on today, the plants are doing well. The rest of the impatiens I planted yesterday are taking very well to their new homes. And the melon and crookneck squash starts I had in the cold frame (and that I was worried about) are starting to poke their heads up rather vigorously. I figure to have a bunch of extra squash & melon starts soon enough. :)

I'm looking for my new tuxedo vest and my cummerbund. I'd also really like to find my good tuxedo studs. :( The joys of moving, I guess.

My new business cards are scrumptious, though, so things are looking good.

The plants are doing well :)

Sunday night

Lessee: had a 3-hour STC conference call Saturday am from 7-10 (oy). Covered a lot of good info, though. Moved Susan into her bedroom--exhausting. Had to do a choir thing Saturday night--I enjoyed the singing.

Sang again today at church. Still tired from all the toting and lifting from yesterday. Got a bunch of planting done in the backyard: eight planter boxes cleaned out and full of impatiens, the last barrel with six-packs of lobelia, snapdragons, and marigolds, and a bunch of tomato plants. My bush peas are coming up nicely and the sweet peas are showing their heads at last. Huzzah!

And I'm enjoying new episodes of the Simpsons and Family Guy and researching podcasting on the net.

Sunday night

Sunday evening and we're tired

Busy day that started early. We got up very early to make 8:15 rehearsal and sang at both services of church this morning, which took us to 11:30am. We then moseyed out in the direction of Fred Meyer for the purpose of buying some box-sized clear plastic storage containers and a bunch of flats of impatiens for around the trees in the planting boxes. We bumped into a co-worker who aimed us at the Johnson Brothers Greenhouses out in Coburg. The weather was good and a small road trip (very small; it proved to be only 4 miles away) seemed like a good idea, so off we toodled.

And lo! it was well worth it! We picked up lots of impatiens and a big Martha Washington geranium and a bunch of other plants for the last barrel and a half a flat of portulaca for the front in front of the lilies. Total cost was a little less than $50 for most of a backseat full of plant trays.

The hanging fuchsia baskets were the most impressive I'd ever seen. I wasn't quite sure how we'd get one of them home they were so full, but with a car full of other plants and the trunk full of a floor lamp and sodas and things, it wasn't going to be today. But I know we're going to go back; it was far too cool a place to visit the once. Besides which, they gave us a half-off coupon on up to $20 of plants, so we just gotta go back to redeem that.

Sunday evening and we're tired

Done with the gardening for today

And here I was worried that I was going to have too many bedding plants. Haw haw haw haw haw haw!!!

I got one barrel planted and a couple of the hanging baskets, but I saw how I was planting waaaaaaaaaay too far apart. Yes, one is generally supposed to plant things widely spaced and all, but these are floral barrels that I'm going to be feeding with plant fud and all and the plants weren't going to grow together with the spacing (3-4") I'd left so I was able to more than double the number of plants in the barrels... which means that I got three barrels and two hanging baskets done and I am bloody well in need of more plants! What. A. Shame.

I'm really pleased with what I've accomplished today, even though my hands are uncomfortably dry from all the digging in the dirt. The barrels are already pretty (and the alyssum is in full bloom and has that wonderful seductive honey smell whenever you're anywhere near it). There's also the satisfaction of doing something that's going to make the backyard that much more gorgeous in a few months.

My only annoyance (other than needing a bunch more plants) was that I encountered masses of little yellow round things a bit smaller than a BB that I'm fairly sure are snail eggs. Slug eggs, as I've seen in times past, are clear, slightly translucent, things that show up in small masses, but these were a bit hard but they would crunch when pressed. They fit the descriptions of snail eggs that I found on the net, so I think that's what they are. I didn't like the idea of lots of baby snails feasting on all my hard work, so as I worked the soil in the barrels, I'd squeeze handfuls (and hear little popping noises). I'll keep an eye on the soil and the plants for the next couple of weeks to make sure that these things aren't hatching into something that likes baby plants.

And meanwhile, I t'ink I gots t' go to de store again for more plants.

Done with the gardening for today

Typing with dirty fingernails

It's been a day of domesticity so far. I baked a couple loaves of banana bread, which have made the house smell wonderful, and I'm been outside planting some of the bedding plants we bought last night. Like everyone who buys bedding plants, we bought too many for the barrels on the deck, so I'm trying to come up with spaces for some of the extras. We also got a small plastic cold frame with peat pots so I could start the melon and crookneck squash plants. I started all the squash seeds (2 plants/pot) and half the melon seeds (3 plants/pot--don't know how well they'll go; I've never had quite a lot of luck with melons), so I've got 30 squash starts and 20 melon starts. (Yeah, yeah, I know; I'm going to be giving some of these away to the neighbors.)

The biggest problem with planting this stuff is that there are a bunch of dahlias in the barrels already--a varying number. So I'm going to have to mix and match everything--alyssum, lobelias, petunias, geraniums, verbena, marigolds, more dahlias, creeping charlie, licorice plant, ivy, and some really pretty ranunculi--in and around the dahlias in place. A lot of things are going to end up in the ground where I can find spots (the front and backyards are fairly well landscaped already and there's not a lot of direct sun because of all the trees) and in a few hanging baskets that I had lying around. And the barrels are going to be deliciously overflowing with flowers. I got one of two tomatoes planted in a container for now; have to find somewhere for the other tomato plant.

I planted the last of the bush sugar peas the other day. I'm waiting for the sweet peas and the bush sugar peas to come up (I planted late, but it's been cold enough that I think we'll get away with it.)

There are now a bunch of spanish lavenders planted in the ground in the front and the back and a couple of rosemary plants.

Things are going to look mighty pretty. And fairly tasty.

Typing with dirty fingernails