National Garden Week - The 2nd Week in April

You have no idea how happy I am to see this many blooms on the blueberry bush! The weight of winter snow broke off at least half of the plant.

By Angie Quantrell @AngieQuantrell

 

Next week is National Garden Week -

the 2nd week of April.

Fading beauty. I'm so sad to see my tulip season conclude.

I am so onboard for this celebration. It's time to plant my garden!

The strawberries are looking future-tasty.

Actually, I cheated. I've already started to plant seeds, since we are expecting highs in the mid to upper 80's today, it may be past time for new sprouts. But I think that is a freak of too-hot-too-early weather and it should drop back to the 60-70's.

Half planted beds. Waiting for seeds.

Here are some National Garden Week photos from my yard.

Garlic, parsley, and sage - all repeat visitors from last year. Plus a cat tail of one who wanted to be featured.

Oh, each new bud, flower, and sprout is so exciting.

We even planted a tree trunk for the cats to scratch and climb. It won't grow...but it is part of our garden.

I'm already dreaming about tasty blueberries, sweet-tart strawberries, exquisite raspberries, and savory herbs and vegetables.

 

Dabbling to pretty-up a very hot corner of the yard.

 

Join me. Let's celebrate our gardens.

The dogwood is just beginning to burst into bloom.

 

I would love to see photos of your garden.  

 

I Support Trees, But One Can't Plant Them in December in the Northwest

I adore trees. I love trees. I want to have my own personal Hundred Acre Wood.

Our first summer in our new home, we planted 6 new trees. We've since added 2 more very large trees.

Our tree selection and planting usually occurs in early spring or late fall.

It has NEVER taken place in December. When there is several feet of snow on the ground. And said ground is frozen. Shoveled drifts stand all along the perimeter of our yard.

There. Is. No. Access. To. Dirt.

So tell me Tree Experts, aka Arbor Day Foundation, why would you ship my new baby trees to me (in Washington state, in winter, in December, in a very snowy year) right now?

Sure, I would love to plant them. I would have fun heeling them in to grow for a few years before transplanting them to their new location in the yard.

But that is not going to happen right now. In fact, it won't happen for several months. I'm pretty sure the snow will not melt within the 2-3 days of approved wait time to plant. I'm actually confident that even if the snow melts in January, the ground will still stay cold enough to be undiggable. That is also true about February as well.

So here we go. What to do with my lovely little sad baby trees. And such nice varieties, too.

I am fortunate that I never got around to putting away a large clay pot. Dirt is a different matter. Come on honey, bring me those dead poinsettias so I can steal the dirt.

We are all going to be cozy baby trees and snuggle up in the same pot until the ground is actually ready for planting. What, maybe 3-4-5 months?

I hope they like each other.

The Perfect Sunday

The view from my front yard. I am so glad my neighbors have gorgeous trees.

Not only is fall my favorite season, fall Sundays rank right up there at the top of the list.

What comprises a perfect fall Sunday?

coffee with my honey
the Sunday paper, waiting for me to read it after lunch
church, complete with plenty of energy and excitement garnered by the children
an afternoon free of responsibility
a lovely walk being pushed along by autumn bursts of wind and swirling leaves
empty roads
other walkers and joggers, accompanied by their dogs
making it almost home before the rains began
soup
cool weather just begging for cozy sweaters and fires
wet kitties making footprints where ever they roam
football, compliments of the Seahawks

What makes your Sundays perfect?

Looking forward to next Sunday.

Answer: A Kousa Dogwood

After several helpful inquiries, we discovered that our mystery dogwood, which I was even considering to not be a dogwood, is indeed one in this beautiful family of trees. Meet our kousa dogwood.

According to online research, kousa dogwoods are either Chinese, Japanese, or Korean. I still don't know the country of origin from which my kousa dogwood had its beginnings, but it is dogwood.

The interesting orbs dotted with tiny spikes? Multiple sources say they are edible and taste slightly like strawberries.

Experiment: pick a bright red pod

Results: bright red pods are very ripe and mushy. I squished one open to find orange sherbet colored pulp, which looked slimy. While it smelled yummy, I am not convinced I can eat it. Birds are supposed to love them. I think the birds in my neighborhood do not know this. Maybe only birds in Japan or China or Korea have the inside track on kousa dogwood fruit.

All in all, it was a good day learning more about my tree.

Fast growing, check. Most dogwoods grow very slowly, but this is easily nearing 10 feet in height and we've had it for about 5 years, beginning with a less than 1-foot tall stick. STICK in the truest sense of the word. Red fruit pods, check. White 4-petal flowers, check. Blooms later than other dogwoods, check.

"Cornus kousa," or Japanese strawberry tree, produces edible tree fruit, grows to 20-30 feet in height, and is an ornamental garden tree. Not only that, this variety has few illnesses or pests that invade its trunk, leaves, or fruit.

Friends, I think we have a winner. I'm happy to know that my kousa dogwood is doing just fine and will for years to come.

Fruit anyone?

What is This?

We thought it was just a dogwood tree, though it acted nothing like the real dogwood trees I have planted elsewhere in the yard.

The leaves look right, the shape is right for a wild dogwood (that's what I'm calling it, as I don't know), it blooms differently from the other dogwoods, and it is a fast grower. This tree arrived at our home in a packet of other similarly scrawny and less-than-a-foot long sticks.

Now? It is covered on the south side by beautiful, orange red fruit balls. Nothing like dogwood fruit.

Perhaps it is not a dogwood after all, though it was labeled as such.

Any ideas?

The hiatus required for our household switchover for internet carriers was indeed a very long time. It's amazing how much one can depend on something that is totally invisible. Oh, we have plenty of cords, boxes, and a huge bill, but the actual internet is floating around like lint in a gnats' eye, unable to be seen by the naked eye.

You might be surprised, maybe alarmed, at what else has been going on since the pause in action.

I sliced the side tip from my left pointer finger. Perfect little scoop going into the second layer of skin, whoosh, and there it was, staring at me on the cutting board. Blood. Oh, the blood. Typing became an acrobatic and quite edit-intensive endeavor, first with a bandage-fat finger that tapped every key but the one I wanted, and then with more accuracy when using a smaller bandage, but less feeling in the remaining fingertip. Now I am finally down to a slowly closing gap and maybe permanently misshapen finger.

My handsome, though quite sick, grandson shared a strong nasty cold with me. He seems all better while Nana is still fighting a sinus infection.

Deadlines abound. This was one reason having no internet was quite helpful. I couldn't easily communicate with friends and co-workers, but I also wasn't distracted by every little message notification or opportunity to 'just for a quick minute' check my social media.

Fall-ish weather was much appreciated, though it is only September. The change is coming. Cool nights, shorter days, the beginnings of color. Autumn is a feast for this writer's soul. After our intensely hot and on-fire northwest summer with plenty of smoke-filled days and falling ash, I am completely ready for a cold, wet, and long winter.

The season of squash is upon us. It's time for some of my favorite recipes. I have indeed already visited a produce stand and filled a basket with spaghetti, butternut, and delicate squash. A few pumpkin varieties were ready, but I just can't quite get those yet. That would be kind of like seeing Christmas decorations in September. Oh, wait. I've seen them. Pumpkin time is coming, but not quite yet.

Have a wonderful day after Labor Day! Happy back-to-school!

Evocative of Pine

evocative of pine


familiar

sharp

tangy

restful and invigorating

rendolent of season past


bracing

sharp

brusque

rough and solid

sticky with life presence


landmark

harbor

shelter

home and base

majesty glued to purpose


fragrant

spicy

bitter

evocative and pregnant

patience bearing solitude

A Month of Thanks - November 25 - Trees

Baby trees for the front yard

Today, November 25, I am thankful for trees.

Not just any tree. ALL trees. I love their beauty, shade, function, colors, and fragrance. Well, maybe not the fragrance of the ginko tree and its' fruit. Ewww. But on the whole, mmmmm. How refreshing it is to smell and wander beneath trees. Did you know, there is a study that tells how healthy it is to smell pine trees? Really.

Gotta love those trees.

French trees

Trees from friends

Free trees won in a raffle

fake trees
live trees
pine trees
river trees
park trees
tree pictures
tree art
tree paintings

Trees.

Nut Dropping

I heard them before I saw them. Crows. Lots of crows. Up to something.

American Crow: corvus brachyrhynchos = common, loud, hoarse, cawing, crafty, flocking, congregating, problem solving, learning, clever, aggressive, mischievous = a murder of crows (many crows flocking together)

As I turned the corner and headed down the hill, I saw multiple crows, all flopping up high, swooping over the road, pausing on a perch (power line, tree, fence, you name it, they were on it), cawing, then diving for the road. I also noticed a proliferation of nuts all over the place.

Nut dropping.

I've seen this before. Crows really are clever birds. A crow grabs a walnut or hard shelled nut in its' beak, then flies up high to drop it down on the pavement. Those crows have it all figured out. They know that asphalt and cement are hard enough to help break open nuts. I've also seen them purposely drop nuts on roads...waiting for a vehicle to crunch them open. After breakage - the feast or squabbles begins. Sometimes the waiting crow has to fight off others to claim the nut prize. If that fails, a big chase takes place, usually with several crows after one nut grasping bird. Cracks me up.

There has been a murder of crows spotted around our neighborhood. The neighbors across the street have an enormous, perfect, leafless tree that often hosts the noisy, black feathered tree decorations. Makes me suspicious. Where is my cat?

They missed me that day while I was out walking. But they cleaned up on nuts. Today, the nuts were almost totally gone. A few spots of crushed shells, one or two forgotten nuts.

Murder - 1. Nuts - 0.

BTW: Did a little online crow research. Seems many people are interested in crows and counting crows. However, www.countingcrows.com is not for black birds and tally marks. Seems to be a pretty well known band. Who knew?