They're up! (sort of)

I counted 46 Fava bean sprouts -- that's about a 50% yield. This isn't balmy San Francisco so germination has been much slower.


I've found a few casualties. I'm not sure of the predators -- but jays and squirrels "handle" everything in the ground. This was the first sprout. It's been nibbled on for the past week and now it's been cut clean in half.


I planted alternating rows of 3 and 4 seeds. It's rare to find more than 2 sprouts to a row.


I'll broadcast red clover to fill in the gaps. They're very hardy and easy to plant. Here are the sprouts from about 10 days ago.


Now I read that folks are starting the Fava beans indoors and planting the seedlings!!

Meanwhile the colors continue. The Parrotia Perska is the yellow tree in front of the maple with the red burning bush underneath.


The maple is a Red Sunset maple. How appropriate.

Better than TV

Today's project was to enlarge the "circle" under my infamous tree in the front yard -- that everyone admires, but nobody knows what it is.


With a lot of bending and crawling and shoveling I laid down a layer of newspaper, a layer of wood chips and a layer of compose. It's called lasagna gardening. We'll see.


The blue jays thought I did it just for them! After all that work I could hardly move. I took a shower and then brought out my camera, blankets and my La Fuma recliner. I felt like I was in my own personal park.


The last rays of evening sunlight warmed me and lit up the orange-red barberry shrubs while the chickadees flitted in the branches and supped from the bird bath.

Here are two Black-capped Chickadees and an Oregon Dark-eyed Junco:. (this is the better than TV part)

Compost!

A few months ago I got myself a garden chipper/shredder from Craig's List. I'd read that shredded leaves compost a lot faster. (It also greatly reduces their volume!)

Here's my little 5HP MTD "Yard Machine" shredder.


It was quite messy. The shredded material BLASTS out with great force and has to be captured and contained. I used a tarp and a large shipping box. About 60% went where I wanted. I was able to rake up the rest.

Here's my compost pile:


It's just a pile now -- that I cover with a tarp. I may eventually build an actual bin.

Uh, about that garage ...

OK, I always knew this but ... upon closer examination, it's pretty discouraging.

When a hot car motor cools off, those vapors from the engine contain all kinds of carcinogens - most notably benzene. Here in the Pacific Northwest, our gasoline comes from the Alaskan North Slope and "has double the benzene content of gasoline sold in other parts of the country and three times the amount allowed in California". Yikes! Oregon Toxics Alliance ; Wired

An attached garage can be a cesspool of toxic fumes that enter your home and are absorbed by the interior carpets and wood. Nature, March 9, 2000, Grist

Yuck! Looks like my car's gonna be back on the driveway and the door between my house and garage thoroughly weather-stripped and the common walls and outlets thoroughly sealed.

Just Add Wind ...

sunrise: 7:45 AM
sunset: 6:00 PM

My dogwood was the first to go. All the leaves were on the tree in the morning, but by afternoon ... 90% were on the ground. It was a breezy day.

This picture was taken AFTER I'd raked up the gutters and my neighbor's lawn -- both of which were solid red.


When it comes to raking leaves there are no boundaries. The leaves on your lawn may be from the next block.

Frosty Mornings - Toasty Car

This is what greeted me when I came home from my morning walk.


The temps have been dropping down to freezing at night. But there's no frost on my windshield because my car's in my NEW GARAGE!

The painters came back last Monday and had the whole place primed, painted and cleaned up in about 5 hours. (If I'd done it (by myself of course) it would have taken a week!)


Now all I have to do is whittle away at the pile of STUFF in the middle. A few dump runs, Craig's List postings and some shelving should do the trick


Like the parting of the red sea, I've hollowed out a channel for night-time and rainy-day housing of my car.


You get a star if you noticed the WASHINGTON plates! (got a license too -- no test required)

Fall's a-happening

sunrise: 7:39 AM
sunset: 6:10 PM

We lose 92 minutes of daily sunlight between October 1 and October 31. There are great web resources for sun and moon rise/set and all sorts of twilight times.

Too bad smells can't be transmitted over the web. It is intoxicating to be outside this time of year!


It's kind of like spring in reverse. Folks talk about sitings of especially splashy colors.


My dogwood is just beginning to drop its leaves.


I can't resist raking them up ... even though I know there's a whole tree-full yet to drop.


This Witch Hazel Arnold Promise is still in the pot, but putting on quite a show.


The birch are nearly entirely yellow now.


Even the hostas (pronounced like 'hostages' - not 'hostess' as was my inclination) are turning.

I do NOT own a cat!

For all the good it does me! I eschew cats as pets because I want to preserve bird life. I have a bath, feeder and nesting box toward this end. Without any pets of my own to claim their turf, some six neighborhood cats (at last count) have claimed my yard as theirs.

Here's my neighbor's Manx (bobbed tail not seen):


Here's another beauty of unknown origins:


This calico has been particularly possessive:


This is the newbie, who seems young. She is unafraid and came right up to my back slider. She's also very interested in the birds.

Planting Crocus

I love crocus. They were one of the few bulbs I was able to consistently grow when living in an apartment. I ordered a mixed pack of 100.


Let's hope the bluebirds and squirrels don't unearth them. I want to have COLOR next February and March.

Being so small they're pretty easy to put in the ground.

Cute Web Gadget

I came across this on another blog. I always wanted a koi pond! Click on the pond to feed the fish. Try it out. (How DO they do these things?)



To create your own, just place your cursor in the upper left corner and click on the logo. This will open a new window.

Where I Walk

Just 2 miles from my house is access to one of Vancouver's river walks, Burnt Bridge Creek. There's ample parking and lovely views.


Beautiful stonework borders the creek-crossings:


The area by the main boulevard is planted with wild roses:


They produce enormous "hips" about the size of your thumb:


Here's the overall effect:


I usually walk between 7 and 8 AM. I love the smells and the wildness. It's nice not to worry about cars or uneven pavement. Below is the area folks frequently let their dogs off leash.


I came across this oddity - 6.25 miles East of Lake Vancouver, where Burnt Bridge Creek empties. I found another at 5.75 miles. Don't know why the odd mile fractions.

Couldn't help but think of my friend on the Northern California coast who loves geocaching.


My destination before I turn back is the bridge over the creek, where first I look back from where I came (East) and gaze at the fingerlings and submerged grasses undulating in the slow current.


Then I walk over to the other side and study the waters where my friend John Rotsart spied a dozen or so 4" long crayfish. I look and look but can't spot them now. Maybe they hybernate in winter?


It's about 3 miles round trip. So far, no matter what the temperature, I'm warm by the time I return to my car.

Winter Cover Crop

There's only so much I can do. I'm using Fava Beans to nourish the South border ~ some 450 square feet.

Here they are after 24 hours of soaking (to aid germination):


And here's one in the ground. Four packages filled the area perfectly! (Only took 6 hours of back-breaking stoop labor!) The good news is that this soil is chock full of earthworms!

A Word About Soil Cultivation

This blog has been totally neglected these past few months because I've been outdoors attempting to revitalize my garden. The soil is hard clay - a shovel can't pierce it. I've had to use a pick, and sometimes only the pointy end will penetrate.



It's exhausting hard work. I can only do a few hours at a time. Even hired help only scratched the surface (so to speak). I am so dirty afterward that I close the garage door and remove my soil-caked jeans in the garage before I go inside!

It is a kind of treasure hunt though. Besides the pile of roots (below) I've also found buried junk - mostly bottles and a crushed tin can (maybe from the construction site?) and even bits of newsprint with the script still legible.

Except for being so exhausting, it's actually fun in a primal kind of way. Crumbling crusted earth into manageable bits is just a terrific sensation!



And here is the result - a level, (mostly) root free, compost-enriched bed ready for planting. This represents some 25 hours of hard labor.

Landscaping 101

It seemed for months that all I was doing was removing plants (climbing hydrangea, wisteria, camellia - in addition to the dozen or so trees I had removed).

I finally "cultivated" (dug up remaining white pine roots and added LOTS of compost) the ground under the kitchen window and planted a Choisya "Sundance" in the hard shade and this lovely Acer Palmatum (Japanese Maple) "Tiger Rose".



I am just thrilled with it and can't wait to watch it grow. It has turned a luminous salmon pink color this fall.

Summer's Bounty

I wish I could say these were from my garden. But, alas, that has yet to be planted (or even constructed).

At the Vancouver Farmers' Market one of my favorite vendors is Ron Gold who sell hydroponic, organic tomatos (and basil). These looked so pretty, I just had to snap a shot.

A Funny Thing This Summer

August 09 ~ We had some really warm days this summer (something totally new to a former San Franciscan!). I was puzzled one afternoon when I noticed smoke arising from the window sill in my office.

It took a moment for it to register that one of the glass paperweights on the sill had created a prism that was baking the sill. You can see the burned arc just below the glass sphere!

My New Pantry

August 29 ~ My kitchen has a small footprint. With little wall space I'm using the cupboards for pots and pans that used to hang on the wall.

To gain more "pantry" space I just installed wire shelving in my front coat closet. After yet another trip to Home Depot ... Le voila! ... plenty of room for bird food, dry goods, canned food and aprons, recycling bins, picnic coolers, etc., etc.