Quick Etiquette Question

I happened to look out the window this evening to see one of our neighbors pick a handful of lavender from one of our bushes. This is a neighbor we haven't officially met, other than waving from the car.

Obviously, we have lavender to spare, and I'm working on trimming it back. But she wasn't picking from the edges, but right in the center. More precisely, it's not the loss of the lavender itself that bothers me, but picking without asking seems a little rude. I'm not getting myself worked up about it, but am I over-reacting? Is this a comming practice that I wasn't aware of?

I don't think that's mold!

Eric D. asked for an update on the strawberries. Truth be told, nothing much has happened in the last few weeks, other than John's reminding me to actually water the darn thing. I'd pretty much given up hope, especially after seeing how easily watering it can push large chunks of dirt and moss out, maybe even ejecting some seeds to their early death among the bushes below. So, it was a surprise to both of us when tonight's watering revealed:
That's right-- that speck of green? An itty bitty sprout. That means that of 10 seeds, one's actually started to grow!!! I only kill 90% of what I plant!

So, we'll see how much confidence this gives me. Apparently I've been assigned the small herb garden and a little tiny plot of land by the lamp post on the south side of the house. Expect future blog posts on those in the near future.

FAQ

1. You are over-educated people. Why don't you just look this stuff up in a book?

If medicine has taught me anything, it's that books are great, but you get the fastest and most practical answers by asking the experts. Or at least people who know more than you. Go to the books for the details. Besides, I don't know most of these plants, so I wouldn't know where to start.
That being said, three books are on hold at the library.

2. John, you seem to have a lot of time to spend worrying about landscaping and playing on the web. Don't you have a job yet?

The search is coming along fine. And the plan was to take the summer off anyway. Next question.

3. I'm so glad to see you are taking home ownership so seriously!

Um, thanks, Mom. We are paying way too much money for this place not to feel like the freaking Taj Majal.

4. Doesn't stuff grow easily in the northwest?

Yes. The dry weather has left me worried about killing the plants I initially cared about (lawn, hydrangeas) which weren't looking so good. Other stuff (phlox, the various purple flowers) seem to survive fine on their own. Even more stuff (who planted all this &%#$@ lavender?!?) is trying to snare passers-by and suck them deep into the soil to reinforce our foundation.

As warned by several people, trimming back biomass has become a daily activity. The explosion of ornamental grass was completely cut down today. That was just fun. The hedges surrounding the front step filled three trash cans with their trimmings, until I started to get a rash. Lavender has been trimmed, and boy does it make the compost bin smell nice.

Lastly, more stuff to ID, including (surprise!) purple flowers:

The Good, the Bad, the Ugly

While trimming that large hedge the other day, I discovered something new:



A few more have popped up along the north side of the house, right outside the basement window. I feel like I should know what these are, but I don't. But they are a nice change from the ferns that otherwise populate the 4-foot wide alley that is north of the house.

More plants, from the south side this time:




As for the bad and the ugly...


Have I mentioned I am not a fan of ornamental grasses? This one looks like the retaining wall is throwing up. Once I have a better ides of what to plant, this will be the first to go. In the meantime, I will try to trim it under control.



This second one I have mixed feelings about. It is also forcing itself onto the backyard walkway, making me want to rip it out. But it looks like it may bloom something soon, so I am curious if I should wait to see what it will look like. Is it really an ornamental grass, or am I mistaken?

Best Dessert Ever!!!

John says it's off topic to write this, but I figure that something has to be offered in return as a means of thanking everyone for their posts and suggestions so far. So here's a cream soda float idea that I tested last night, that was quite tastey if you want to try it for yourself.

1 bottle vanilla cream soda (we used a local brewary's one as it was on sale.)
2 scoops Ben and Jerry's Black and Tan ice cream (stout flavored combined with chocolate ice cream)

Put one scoop in each of two tall glasses and combine with half a bottle of the cream soda (slightly more calorie friendly by splitting between two people.) Let yumminess ensue.

Progress...

vegetable garden ideas

Right now, our vegetable plot is overrun with giant cabbages. Sure, they're pretty, but we'd rather have stuff we can eat.

I'm only mentioning this since Eric mentioned peppers and tomatoes. We've been told that there's too much humidity here to grow tomatoes other than cherry or grape ones. Is that true? I guess that means I'll have to rely on Eric and Matt to make some more Advocate Wong salsa for me. :)

Any ideas what we could plant there? It's in our yard, so that means, west side of the house.

More to be identified

I've chosen to focus on the trellis, as it gives me a place to start.




The plant may be young, as Eric D has said. It's hard to see on the picture, but the trellis is a bit rusty - I'd say a year or two old, although my rust meter isn't as good after living in Utah. The plant doens't seem that healthy right now, but I have no idea what is should look like.

Another purple flower:


But not all the flowers are purple:

Experiments with tools

My first trip to Lowe's (our second day here) was spent in the garden department. I bought the previously discussed mower, but also some basic garden implements: loppers, clippers, and kneepads. While waiting for our stuff to arrive, I attacked the overgrown front hedges with the loppers. It went beautifully, until:



This bush is a little too high for me. Trying to trim the top of a hedge by jumping up and trying to lop off a branch in midair is a dangerous and ineffective process, no matter how good your vertical leap may be. It will amuse the neighbors, though.

Today's Home Depot trip (to use one of our gift cards) included and extension trimmer, the kind that uses a sting to pull a set of blades at the end. It feels like performing laproscopic surgery, but the result looks fine.



Anyway, on to one of the reasons for creating this blog:



This one was a mystery to me until our trip to Oregon and the Fruit Loop by Mt Hood. We visited a lavender farm, and I exclaimed, "So THIS is what we have growing in the garden!" To which Chris replied, "um....duh..."

This is also why we have so many bumblebees hanging around the house.

Ok, one purple flower identified. But what about these, friendly experts?







The trellis, which is right under the kitchen window, seems paticularly underused.

Anyone know what these are? Should I be doing any thing special? And what to do to mak better use of the trellis? And why did the previous owners like purple so much?

A success?

I knew what hydrangeas were, but thanks to art-sweet's post, I now know how to spell the word. And I didn't know that they change color with soil pH, which makes me want to run out and pour lemon juice on the ground to see what happens. Which would not be a wise thing.

On that note, on our moving-in day, Chris's mother made frequent comments that the back yard needed to be watered. At first I thought it she was just referring to the lawn. But, as they were leaving, Julie again said, "Be sure to buy soaker hose for the back. That hydrangea could really use it."

Hydrangea? I noticed to one out front almost immediately when we first saw they house, as they remind me of my grandparent's house in Oregon. But in the back yard? I ran back to check...


Oh, that thing? Yikes...

I couldn't let that wither away. Later that evening, I moved the hose to the backyard to begin the revival. I only watered it a few minutes each day (a new soaking hose is lower on the shopping list right now) for the few days before we left for Oregon, but on returning home...



Could this be? Is the thumb turning green already?

Before I celebrate too much, the front porch hydrangea is looking amazing, without any intervention but the Seattle weather (which has been warm and dry). So maybe this was just the natural course. And I hadn't watered in a week. But I'll take any hint of success I can.

Off topic- Oregon trip

We're back after a week long trip with Doug and Amy.

We started off around the Gorge, doing the various waterfall hikes in very hot and humid weather (oh Utahan visitors-- I miss evaporative cooling.) We then drove over to Mount Hood, and ate delicious cherries picked straight from the tree (the chocolate covered ones we got to sample made me unspeakably happy!) Around Mt. Hood, we camped for two nights near a ski town that is currently being overrun by snowboarding teenagers, apparently abandoned by their parents for the summer as there were hardly any adult figures around. We also hiked to Tom, Dick, and Harry peaks with a stop by Mirror Lake along the way.

We then hit the coast, stopping by beloved Rogue in Newport. Funny how real beer, especially Rogue right from the source has a powerful effect on me (okay, maybe more sad than funny but this ain't no 3.2 beer!) Sorry Eric D.-- they were out of Brutal Bitter at the public house, otherwise, I was going to drink one in your honor.

A very rare picture of the two of us together, courtesy of a total stranger

We also stopped by Tillamook: mmmm.... cheese...

Finally, we ended up at Cannon Beach, staying at my uncle Konrad's beautiful home. John and I got to walk out to Haystack Rock at low tide and spent some time among the tidal pools. We saw a variety of sea anemone, star fish that clung to the rocks making natural tesselations (John's observation, not mine), and barnacle crusted mussels. We also saw nesting puffins via telescopes set up by volunteers and enjoyed the excited outbursts from kids as they either screamed in joy at a new marine discovery or in pain from the icy cold water as it lapped up on the shore. If you look carefully at this picture, you can hopefully see the tiny crab among the mussels.


Finally, our last night consisted of dinner with Konrad and a revisit to Haystack Rock at sunset. Mom-- Konrad said I'm supposed to brag to you that we got to see the sunset-- sorry!

Pretty, no?

Now we're back at home and are pleasantly surprised to see how our backyard hydrangea plant is already reviving with just some regular watering. Back to gardening questions in the next few posts!

Directions (from the directionally challenged)

I lied... at least one more post before we set off this morning. I wanted to test out this new "team blog" function I set up last night so I wouldn't have to find a way to distinguish my posts from John's.

Anyway, there was a question from Eric Davis about light exposure, which yeah, might be helpful to y'all in answering questions. :)

The front porch (where my hanging plant of impending doom sits) faces east, and the yard faces west. The strip of garden that John posted pictures of (hydrangeas, the exception) faces south, so that gets sun exposure all the time.

Hope that helps a little, and thank you to all of you who have posted suggestions so far!

Who needs a gnome?

When you've got Truman, the dog who does not know how to just be in his own yard.



He either stoically sits sentinel looking over the yard or will stand at the door, staring at the door knob waiting for the door to open and let him in again. Perhaps, with your help, we'll make a yard that he'll feel comfortable enough to hang out in.

Don't know if we'll post again (after this active day) for another week as we're off to OR for some campin' and relaxin' for a week. ~C

One plant I messed up (I think)

John's been tackling the yard work, as you can see, so I thought I'd try my first attempt at planting someting:



Perhaps I should have trusted instinct and should not have tried at all.

It's true-- the only thing I grow well is mold. In 7th grade biology, the mold growing experiment was the only one I truly succeeded at-- it popped the lid off the petri dish. But this was a kit, so it couldn't be that bad, right? I followed the directions: soaked a cube of mossy stuff in water, plastered it all over the basket, popped holes in a plastic bag to act as "a saucer" for water for the soil, mositened the soil (ewww-- "moooiiist"). The problem was the seeds-- they're strawberry seeds, and there were supposedly 10 of them in the kit. I don't know if I scattered them well, since I never saw them come out. Then, I had problems getting the hooks on the damn basket, so I might have accidentally kicked them out of their (eww.. here we go again) moist, cozy, dirt home. Guess we'll see if anything starts to sprout, but something tells me I already failed.

Can someone tell me (post deed) what's the right way to scatter seeds in the future?

One plant I can tackle... (I think)

We're finally here. After much wrangling with real estate agents and financial organizations of various types, we have moved into a 1914 Craftsman house on the top of Beacon Hill. Inside, the house was everything we fell in love with when we first saw it. Outside.....



Hmmm. Perhaps taking possession of the house three weeks before we moved to Seattle left us with a yard for which no one was caring. No big deal, right? I've mowed lawns before...well, 12 years ago, save for once or twice when visiting home during the summer. But hey, this is like riding a bicycle, and I just need the right tools. Right?



This, I can call a minor success. This new lawn mower is indeed electric. It's cheaper, cleaner, and quieter that a gas mower. When I was looking at it, I imagined charging up its battery and taking it out on the lawn, smug in its convenience and environmental responsibility. Then I looked closer, and realized there was no battery. (What did I expect for $130? iPod batteries cost more than that) As you can see, it has an extension cord attached, so it's always tethered. For a small lawn, though, this works very well. It just feels like vacuuming more than mowing, what with a cord thrown over my shoulder and occasionally getting in the way of the mower.

The backyard was mowed with ease. Except...



I see a weed whacker in our future.

Any smugness I felt from my environmentally responsible mower was short lived. After conquering the backyard, I brought it around to mow the small patch of grass out front. As I wheeled the mower down the side walk, I saw our kitty-corner neighbor sitting on the porch, and gave a little wave. I could feel his eyes on me as I carried the mower up the front steps into our yard. I still felt his eyes on me as I carried the extension cord up to the front porch and plugged it in. As I walked back down and plugged the mower into the extension cord, I heard laughter erupt from the neighbors' porch.

You see, this particular neighbor is an Experienced Lawncare Professional, and is part of a household that has been on the block for years. In other words, he is not one of the foreign station wagon owning, Banana Republic wearing yuppies that otherwise populate the neighborhood (myself included). For this reason, ELP's laughter had a little sting to it initially. I thought he was making fun of this rinky-dink mower, and I was determined to show it could mow the lawn just fine. And I did, only accidentally unplugging it twice. Only later, after I was down and he had gone inside, did I see the mower sitting in his front yard: a rotary-style push mower, the kind with no engine at all. It was similar to one I hard looked at in the hardware store, and decided it was too much trouble.

At any rate, the mower works great. The grass, though half-dead, is at least a respectable length, and the clipping mulched.

Now for the hard part...






This is where I need your help, master gardeners (or at least those with more horticulture experience than growing spider plants). I will post more details of individual plants in future posts. There is a soaking hose buried in this part of the yard, so I know I can keep things from dying for a little while (I hope).