Particularly Uninspired

That's right, I haven't been posting much this "summer". It's August and we have yet to reach 90 degrees on any day of the year. And there are hints that fall is not far away. The days are beginning to get shorter and there is a cool in the air that I associate with autumn.

And no 90s in the near term forecast.

I know I should be able to find inspiration in a flower or a bud or some other botanical miracle, but I just don't have it this year. It's not a complete washout, there are fruits and vegetables in the garden, tons of beans, squash, but the really warm weather loving plants are just not getting what they need. Oh well.

















I have been enjoying these 2 Nicotiana plants that I got at the 3rd Annual Plant Exchange. They are beautiful and the blooms just keep on coming. And while most of the plants may be yearning for more intense heat I have 2 new favorites that seem to be thriving in these lackluster conditions.

Purple Orach and Soleil bush beans. The Orach is related to spinach and tastes very much like it. It produces big triangular leaves that have a gorgeous shimmery velvety underside. They are big enough to make lettuce rolls with whatever you fancy inside. And of course they are great for dressing up a salad. And it just looks so striking int the garden. Big hit, I will definitely be growing this again.

And the yellow Soleil bush beans are compact, but prolific. They have produced tons of slender, tender, straight beans. This another discovery I will look forward to growing again next year.

Really? Still?

It's the end of May and the temperature may reach 54 degrees today amid showers. And tomorrow maybe as high as 51 with more showers and possibly some hail. Luckily most of the plants don't seem to mind. Here are a couple of super achievers doing their thing.

Lovely Wisteria on my next door neighbors house.









Hops on my porch, rapidly creating a shady haven from the sweltering days that still seem so far off.






Even the tomatoes and peppers, who most crave the heat and sunlight, don't seem to be suffering much. They aren't making a lot of progress, but they look pretty good. Some of them even have tiny blossoms. And the currants have already set their fruit.

The cedar shavings around the plants are my favorite mulching material. It keeps the soil from caking rock hard, helps retain moisture, which isn't currently a problem, but hopefully will be sometime soon. And the cedar smells nice. It is usually sold as animal bedding and is really inexpensive. I got 11 cubic feet for less than $10, and that covers almost all of my planted areas. And it breaks down adding organic matter to the soil.

Scenes From The Fall Garden

Fall sure is doing a good job of making up for the disappointments of summer. We've had many sunny, beautiful days lately.

Here is an example of one of my annual traditions; growing a giant zucchini. I just let one of them go and see how big it gets. Pearl has kindly agreed to stand beside it to lend scale. I may carve this instead of a pumpkin this year. And hopefully I won't graduate up to growing gargantuan pumpkins.







I love to grow peppers, but there is no way I could consume all of them. I like to string them up into ristras and hang them in the kitchen, or a front door ornament.

And speaking of peppers, I found this beautiful produce on a recent visit to Montreal at the fabulous Marche Jean-Talon.











A visitor stops to rest on one of the zinnias.

I Got Paid For Loving My Garden

Last week I entered a writing contest, sponsored by AWAI. Just a short essay on the topic
"My Favorite Summer Pastime".

It was quick and easy, 1000 words or fewer, and I figured it would just be good writing practice. Well I won. It felt great to share my enthusiasm for gardening with a wider audience, and I get $100 for about an hours work. Here's my entry.

AWAI Writing Challenge Winning Entry:
My Favorite Summer Pastime …

That's Easy

Gardening is my favorite summer pastime. I long for my summer garden all winter long. I pore over seed catalogs and dream of the scent of herbs and tomatoes riding on the heat waves of summer.

I know there are millions of people who feel the same way. And although I do some amount of gardening all year round, it's summer when everything speeds up and intensifies. And the summer bounty of flowers, fruits and vegetables is astounding.

The miracle of a seed unfolding into a plant never fails to hold me spellbound. And I derive tremendous satisfaction from being able to grow my own food. Of course you can get terrific produce from farmers markets, but there is nothing more local than a tomato from your own plants.

Even more rewarding is sharing my love of gardening with other people. Lots of folks enjoy their hobbies in the company of those with similar interests. But gardeners have a deeper bond to their hobby than most, almost spiritual, since they are dealing with miracles on a daily basis. And that sense of joy and wonder is very contagious among gardeners.

But even better than hanging out with fellow plant enthusiasts is teaching people to grow some of their own food, especially folks for whom access to healthy, affordable food is sometimes a challenge.

My town has a program that partners garden mentors with low income folks who have expressed interest in growing some of their own food, but who don't know how, or don't have access to the tools they need. Many of the people have never grown anything before and many of them are intimidated or unsure that they will be able to succeed.

Being able to produce some of their own food delivers nourishment for the soul as well as the stomach. The confidence they gain at producing even the smallest harvest is particularly heartwarming. They stand taller in their children's eyes too. And they feel like they have more control over their lives and their diets, and the diets of their kids.

And yes, gardening inspires my writing. Time spent in the garden can be contemplative even when it is hard labor. I spend many hours gardening and writing in my head. Or letting my thoughts meander until I arrive at a solution to a problem or and angle for an assignment.

Gardening also inspires me to write about my experiences in the botanical world. Backyard Farm is my gardening blog where I document my adventures, misadventures, and obsessions.

Last year it was all about a pepper called Rocoto. I read about this exotic plant in Sunset magazine and embarked on a quest to add it to my garden. The pepper captured my interest because it claimed to be cold tolerant, and since I garden in the Pacific Northwest I thought it might fare better than other varieties.

The more blank stares I got in response to my inquiries the more determined I became to find this elusive pepper. I finally did locate seeds for the red variety, and plant starts for the yellow version called Manzano. While the plants didn't survive our winter freezes, they did last much longer than the other peppers, and were so prolific that I still have dried peppers from last years harvest. The plant was a beauty too, with a profusion of purple flowers preceding the peppers.

And this year, who knows what the most fascinating plant in the garden will be. Already I can tell that one of my apple trees and a hardy kiwi will bear fruit for the first time. So I will be monitoring them closely.

So yeah, gardening would have to be my favorite summer pastime, in fact one of my favorite activities any time of year. It's a great way for mere mortals to participate in miracles.

AWAI
Above is the link to the site where my essay appeared.

Best Day of the Year

It has become one of my favorite traditions. My sister in law Rhonda and I make our lists, drain our bank accounts and head south to Canby for the Master Gardeners Spring Garden Fair. It's held on the first Saturday in May and it really makes the beginning of the summer garden season official.

We stock up on tomato and pepper starts, along with anything else that catches our fancy. We eat sausages and pulled pork and sometimes sneak into the volunteer area for a cookie.

But the most fun is observing the assorted conveyances that people use to haul their botanical finds. This year a new pinnacle of ingenuity was achieved. And here's your winner.
No it doesn't belong to Rhonda, but she sure wishes it did. We don't know if that upper bucket was actually able to carry any weight. Seems doubtful. And yes, those are recycling bins.

And here are a we felt deserved honorable mention. Note the creative use of toolbox and coffee holder on the Radio Flyer.


We also like to see what THE Hot plant of the year is. This year it was a Salvia called "Hot Lips", which had sprays of garish red and white flowers. The vendor couldn't haul them out fast enough. And folks weren't just buying 1 or 2, they were filling carts with this curious plant.

Best of all, this year we added a new tradition; taking advantage of the MG parking lot. We flashed our badges and in we went. I'm already looking forward to next year.

Delights From The Garden

I really need to get better at taking pictures of vegetables. But here are a few shots of treats from the garden. Lots of things at peak these days.

Beans in abundance. The packet of seeds claimed purple, green and yellow beans, but there don't seem to be too many yellows. No matter, I have yellow bush beans in another location, an undisclosed location. Now, who's the Bean Queen?

These are my beloved Pimiento de Padron peppers. Some of these were not harvested early enough and may end up blowing somebodies head off. But the small ones are tender and delicious. Saute in a little olive oil, sprinkle with coarse salt, and pop like candy. I planted 2 plants, one is thriving and doing all the heavy lifting of supplying us with peppers. The other one is struggling to produce a few measly peppers. It has labored in the shadow of a zucchini plant and been besieged by chickens TWICE, so I forgive the poor production.

We aren't getting tons of tomatoes, as I lamented in a previous post, but what we are getting is just what you'd imagine; plump, succulent, juicy and oh so flavorful. I have enjoyed them many ways, but my favorite remains crusty bread, a generous slathering of mayonnaise, slabs of ripe tomatoes, coarse salt, black pepper. This is best enjoyed over the sink.

My Dad once described some particularly gorgeous tomatoes as pornographic, and I have to say that when the lewd fruits are plump, juicy, meaty, ripened to perfection and warm from the vine, well, it's tough to find a better word.

And here are the Manzano peppers. They are about as big as a golf ball so far. Both plants are carrying about 10-12 peppers and I think there will be more to come. These peppers will ripen to yellow. The smaller Rocoto pepper plants are coming along fine, but I still don't expect to get any peppers this season.