Archive for the ‘Garden Notes’ Category

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It’s probably not every day that you…

Sunday, May 21st, 2023

…go to the Long Beach Grange, but this coming Wednesday, May 24th,  is a day you can make up for other lost opportunities!  From 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. Maggie Stuckey will be talking about (and selling!) her hot-off-the-press book, The Container Victory Garden.  Story-telling contributors to the book will have an opportunity to read their Victory Garden remembrances.  And, folks from the Grange will be selling plants ideal for container growing!

A few things you should know:
There will be a no-cost raffle for special plants from Maggie’s book.
Autographed copies of Maggie’s book will be for sale.  (Cash or personal checks only, please.)
A portion of the book sales will be donated to the Grange.

Do come to learn all you need to know from best-selling author Maggie Stuckey about how to become successful at vegetable container gardening,  And come, too, to honor the intrepid Victory Gardeners of World War II whose stories are also a part of this information-packed book.

The Long Beach Grange #667 is located at 5715 Sandridge Road, Long Beach. There is parking around the back and the building is wheelchair accessible.  See you there on Wednesday!

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in Books and Reading, Garden Notes | 2 Comments »

“That old lady in Oysterville…”

Tuesday, May 16th, 2023

Along Our Northern Border

In the great scheme of things, or at least in the world of tourism on the Peninsula, I am thankful that seven ayem is pretty early in the day.  There usually isn’t much activity over at the church or in the road in front of our house.  At least, I hope not.

The rhododendrons along most of the south, east and west garden borders are now so large that I am unaware of folks who might be walking along the lane toward the bay or stopping along their way to take pictures.  And so it is that I am often out walking the garden perimeter and having a righteous conversation with my beautiful co-residents, happily under the illusion that no one but the flowers can hear me!

Mother Lilac and Jean Marues by the east Oircg

This morning I apologized profusely to the camellias for neglecting them a few weeks back, somehow forgetting to spray them with Deer and Rabbit Fence, the surest protection I know of against our voracious local ungulates.  Sadly, therefore, from knees to bellies (theirs) they have been chomped and chewed to an unsightly, extremely un-camellia-like display of shorn leaves.  “I’m so sorry!” I said over and over.  “But you’re doing a great job at recovery!  You’ll soon look good as new!”

And then there are the lilacs — back again for the umpty-umpth year and nearby their “babies” that Nyel had dug up and planted hither and thither beginning to bloom for the first time!    “How I wish Nyel could see you,” I said.  “He would be so proud of you!”

Mrs. G.W. Leal! A force to be reckoned with!

Then there are the overwhelming Mrs. G.W. Leaks who must be over thirty feet tall now:  “OMG, Mrs. Leak!  You have outdone yourselves this year!  You are beyond gorgeous!  Thank you so much!”

And on I went… It wasn’t until well after I came indoors that I wondered if there were listeners — perhaps dog-walkers and their four-legged companionswondering who the old nit-wit is that wanders the garden praising and scolding and carrying on, apparently all by herself.  Oh well!  I know the flowers love our morning conversations — they show me their appreciation every single day!  Bless them for making the world seem so simple — at least within my garden fence.

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And “…the rain it raineth every day!”

Sunday, April 2nd, 2023

Ready! Soak! Plant!

Well, at least it’s April and I can console myself that these daily showers will eventually become May flowers.  Although… I’ve been told that I should wait until Mother’s Day to plant my nasturtium seeds and my dahlia plants.  So… wot the hell?

I think the rhythm of the days is probably going to see to it that I’m not out there digging in the muddy soil too soon.  This morning it was sunny and bright and I thought, “Aha! I’ll just go out an plant a few seeds.  Sort of a test.”

But by the time I was really up-and-at-’em, it was raining again.  The seeds are still safe in their packets.  And besides, I think I’ll try soaking them overnight this year  — see if that makes a difference in how soon they germinate.  But wait!  If I plant them and then the rain it raineth in the afternoon and evening… won’t that have the same effect as soaking?

My friend Pat always has a fabulous garden.  I’ll bet she’s already been hard at it.  I think I’ll give her a call and get some good advice.  But, no matter what, I’m not working out there in the rainy parts of the day.  Only the sunny parts.

A Bright Spot, Rain or Shine!

And meanwhile, I sing my dad’s praises every day whether or not it raineth!  There are always (Yes! ALWAYS!) rhododendrons blooming somewhere in the yard.  He  planned it that way back in the 1960s when he and Paul Clark planted those 99 rhododendrons on all four sides of the property.  Thanks, Dad!

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Degree by Degree — Spring is on her way!

Tuesday, March 28th, 2023

I can’t remember when I last looked at the outdoor thermometer but it wasn’t all that long ago.  It said 44º and it felt like 20 below.  I know I shouldn’t complain (and I don’t think I did) but this morning at 6:30 a.m. I looked and it was 50º!!  WOOT!  WOOT!

Not that I went outside and sat in my lounge chair, you understand.  It was, after all, raining.  But, the daffodils were looking daffy and the primroses were acting prim and I could tell they could feel Spring right in their very bones (read: roots and stems.)

On the other hand, the camellias are still totally confused.  It is three months beyond their usual blooming time and still they are bursting forth.  And after forth, they burst all over the ground below!  Colorful, but not quite what our bargain was to begin with.

Right now at 5:15 p.m. the outdoor temperature is 51º — down 4º from when I looked at noon.  So basically, we’ve had a day in the 50s!  Amazing!  And never mind that I won’t really feel like gamboling and cavorting outside until it’s 20º or 25º warmer.  We are on our way!  Though my friend Ardell says we’re in for some colder nights soon.  She knows those things because she’s a cranberry grower and now that the flowers are budding out, everyone in the cranberry biz is on high alert.  It’s easier these days than it was a few generations ago, though.  Those sprinklers are automated and go on when the temps get below a certain point — did she say 46º at this time of year?

Sounds like a great idea to me — but the water would have to be steamy  for this hot-house-flower to be completely happy.  And for once, I can’t blame old age.  I’ve always been cold-blooded.  So come on Springtime!  Crank up those sunbeams and aim them at Oysterville!  I am ready for the Warm Times to arrive!

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Spring Is Coming No Matter What! Or is it?

Sunday, March 5th, 2023

Dafodils Coming Up Around The Old Spruce Stump

I don’t know how things are in your garden, but mine seems to be progressing toward Spring no-matter-what!  There are volunteer daffodils growing all around the old Spruce (or was it a Fir?) stump.  Across the way, three valiant crocuses (croci?) have popped up through the thick covering of winter moss.  And, hither and thither are some primroses that the deer have nibbled but not completely obliterated.  Yet.

But… I don’t think the deer people are comfortable going onto wooden porches.  Not even for the most gorgeous primroses in Oysterville!  They are in a large pot and when they were presented to me for my birthday, I was told to put them on the porch table until I am ready to start spraying Deer Fence again.

Crocuses Through the Winter Moss

Well… it has to get warmer than the current 52° (at 12:45 p.m.) for this goosebumped gardener to get out and do anything beyond a quick picture for this Daybook!  In fact, I just looked at a packet of nasturtiums that has been calling out to me — plant when the temperatures reach 65° it said.  Really?

So then I asked Google when that would be.  Here was the answer:  “The warm season lasts for 3.4 months, from June 20 to October 2, with an average daily high temperature above 63°F. Over the course of the year, the temperature typically varies from 40°F to 66°F and is rarely below 32°F or above 73°F.”

A Bowlful of Primroses for the Porch Table

Well, maybe since our temperatures fell well below that 32°F mark, we will make up for it in June with some temperatures a bit above 73°F.  Hope springs eternal.  (I actually think that this is what happens most years — I wait and wait and wait and then… I forget all about the pesky nasturtiums! )

Where is Piglet when I need him?  And “Oh, Bother!” said Pooh!

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Of course I turned to page 188 first!

Saturday, February 18th, 2023

Plant Green Garlic – by Lee Johnston

Stevens, Nyel, 188.  That’s what the index said and that’s the page I went to right off the bat.  Maggie’s book, The Container Victory Garden, arrived last night, and although it was addressed to me, I knew it was truly Nyel’s.  Maggie had said that all those who had contributed to the book would get theirs about a week prior to its official publication.  And here it was!  Nyel’s copy!

I was born in 1943 in Montpelier, Idaho.  It wasn’t until after World War II that I first became aware of the term Victory Garden, but I well remember my grandparents’ garden from those days, even though I didn’t know the name and they probably didn’t call it that.  To them, it was just the garden.

Painting by Janice Minjin Yang

Straightforward.  Spare.  It sounded so much like Nyel that he could have been inside my head reading it to me.  He went on to tell about his grandfather, a conductor on the Union Pacific Railroad — He grew just about every vegetable you could think of, but my favorites were the carrots, which I was allowed to dig and eat right there in the garden, with the dirt rubbed off on my Levi’s.

And he went on to tell about the Nyel I knew for forty years: Wherever I have lived since then, I always tried to have a garden whenever possible, some large and some not so large.  Today I’m trying to garden in pots, in a very small area off our kitchen.  So far, some things have been very successful, some were a complete bust.  The experiment continues.

And so it will, dear Nyel… with the inspiration of your words and the help from Maggie’s wonderful book.  And so it will!

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Posted in Books and Reading, Garden Notes, Nyel Stevens | 1 Comment »

Maggie’s New Book – COMING SOON!

Wednesday, February 15th, 2023

In less than a week– on February 21st to be precise — Maggie Stuckey’s new book, The Container Victory Garden: A Beginner’s Guide to Growing Your Own Groceries will be in readers’ hands.  Order now (from your local bookstore, from your favorite online source, from wherever) to make sure that you are one  of those readers!

This is a book that is after my own heart.  First and  foremost:  Victory Gardens!  You have to be older than dirt to remember them during World War II, but maybe you can remember your elders talking about them or, if you were lucky, you had a part in the gardening “bug” that took hold during that time of desperate need, and “Victory Gardens” became a part of your life.

By Lee Johnston

Maggie’s book was inspired not by war but by Covid — a time when many of us stayed close to home, sheltering and staying far from grocery stores and produce stands.  Many of us didn’t really have garden space and, anyway, who would think of seriously growing a garden in containers?  Maggie, that’s who!  Once again she brings her expertise and her understanding of the limited spaces and resources of others to offer delicious solutions right to our dinner tables.  And what’s more, she brings our friends right along with her!

Farmer Nyel, 2016

Of the twenty stories Maggie includes about World War II Victory Gardens, six are told by people we know:  Margaret Staudenraus, Clay Nichols, Sandy Stonebreaker, Dobby Wiegardt. Mary Funk and my own beloved Nyel Stevens!  And in addition to the six rich original acrylic illustrations by Oregon City artist Janice Yang, are 25 detailed line-art drawings that illustrate gardening techniques and set-ups especially valuable for container gardens by — drum roll — our own Lee Johnston, one of the gardening team who keep many of our local gardens picture perfect year ’round.

I can hardly wait!  Oh boy!  Oh boy!  Oh boy!

 

 

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Posted in Books and Reading, From the Past, Garden Notes | No Comments »

On being as brave as the daffodils…

Tuesday, February 7th, 2023

They’re a hearty bunch, those daffodils.  Never mind that the weather has kept most of us two-legged folks indoors if given a choice.  Those stalwart harbingers of Spring are right on time, poking up through the soggy soil and winter blow-down everywhere I look! And not even bundled up in winter togs.

The camellias, though… not so much.  We have two camellia bushes — one in her thirties and one in her sixties.  The elder of the two began blooming in December last year; the other one, a month or so later.  December was way early, so I didn’t expect a repeat performance this year.

Evidence of a Visit by the Deer People

But, even though plentiful,  the camellia buds are still small and tight.  Traditionally, my mother gave me a bouquet of “the first camellia blossoms of the year” on my birthday, February 28th, and I “measure” our progress toward Spring by those memories.  This year, I’d say we have quite some time to wait.

But, in my walk-about yesterday, I noticed that the Deer People haven’t been waiting.  When those lovely camellia blossoms do decide to burst forth, they will be surrounded by raggedy-taggedy leaves.  Those pesky deer have made certain of that.  And as for the York Roses which have been stripped bare of any visible life… I’m counting on their usual hardiness to bring them back by summer.

York Roses? We can but hope.

I guess I should have been more diligent with the applications of “Deer Fence” but, somehow, the weather outside plus the coziness inside equalled inertia for Sydney-the-Recalcitrant-Gardener. I console myself that the Deer People had some tasty treats.   And I’m ever-hopeful that those daffodils will inspire me to get outside and do a little bit of Spring Welcome for the other garden denizens — the stationary ones, not the four-legged visitors. (Or the slithery ones, either, for that matter!)

 

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Remembering what Ratty said…

Saturday, September 17th, 2022

“Believe me my young friend, there is nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats,” said Ratty to Mole in Kenneth Grahame’s classic 1908 novel The Wind in the Willows.

Oh how I wish Mole had listened and had spread the word to all his kith and kin years ago.  Then, perhaps, I wouldn’t be traveling, once again, in this Land of Lament that is my otherwise marvelous looking lawn.  Perhaps the Mole People would have messed about right on out to sea.  After all, Mole never did go back underground.  He liked it along the riverbank with Rat and there he stayed.  It could as well have been the banks of Willapa Bay… and beyond.

In Our SE Corner

I’m not sure where, exactly, the Mole People  have been all Spring and Summer.  But now, all of a sudden, I know exactly where they are.  At least some of them.  Right in the southeast corner of our garden.  To be fair, it’s probably the best place they could have chosen — mostly out-of-the-way and not immediately apparent.  But still…   And, I do know that all those mole hills are probably the work of one Mr. Mole.  Only one.  Which gives me a Case of the Dreads.  What will tomorrow bring?  Or more specifically, how many more moles and where?

 

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Uh oh! Silly little tree frog!

Wednesday, September 7th, 2022

There’s an unmistakable and instant “recognition” when you stick your bare foot into a garden boot right on top of a frog — even if you’ve never done it before!  Fortunately, my synapses were firing on all four burners and before I shifted my weight to put on the other boot I absolutely knew: if I do that we’ll have a boot full of mess and we’ll be missing one of the more delightful of our garden creatures.

So, out came my foot and I gently upended Mr. Treefrog from his hiding place.  He hippity-hopped over to the wall where he posed just long for me to take his picture.  He didn’t look very happy about it, though.  When I came back from setting the hoses, he was nowhere in sight and I was glad of that.  I hope he found a safer haven nearby.

So far this year, I’ve not heard the Treefrogs singing to one another.  Perhaps I haven’t been outside at dusk.  I’ll make a point to remedy that now.  I do love to hear them call out to one another — often from our hanging baskets of fuchsias.  Harbingers of Fall for sure, marking the end of yet another Summer.

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