On Halloween we moved to our “new to
us” home. The house was built in 1950 of concrete blocks and sits
on a 10
th acre in a peaceful neighborhood.
We were smitten with the house on the
first viewing, totally sucked in by the coved ceiling, fireplace and
built in bookcase, not to mention a large eat in kitchen with ceramic
tile counter tops and plenty of storage. The attached garage and
fenced yard were added blessings and we immediately said “yes!”.
In the passing days we observed the
neighborhood and saw raised beds, espaliered fruit trees, and patios
in front yards so we felt we would fit in.
Spring has finally come to the
northwest with rain, wind, sun, landslides and flowers. Now the time
has come to get all the plants that have lived in pots for four years
into the ground.
We have watched the pattern of sun and
shadow to try to access the best location for sun hungry plants and
have begun the planting out process.
When we left our former home, a 1950's
duplex we brought with us: four blueberry plants, five currant
plants, two hazelnut trees, one dwarf cherry tree, three dwarf apple
trees, one bay tree, thirteen lavender plants, one comfrey plant, one
grape vine, three culinary sage plants,one hydrangea, two rosemary
plants,one oregano plant and two thyme plants – all in pots of
various sizes. Happily, most of them made it through the winter and
we are now hurrying to get them into the ground.
During an unusually dry and chilly
winter there was some time for inspirational reading. I thoroughly
enjoyed “The Quarter Acre Farm” by Spring Warren, “Gaia's
Garden A guide to home-scale permaculture” by Toby Hemenway, and
“How to Pick a Peach” By Russ Parsons and many others; keeping
the public library and Amazon busy. Then, of course there are the
seed catalogs. Page upon page of lovely veggies and fruits. My
favorites are: Territorial Seed at
http://www.territorialseed.com,
Botanical Interests at
https://botanicalinterests.com,
and Raintree Nursery at
http://www.raintreenursery.com,
all of which offer free catalogs, newsletters, blogs and advice and
are at least some what local to us.
One challenge is that our home was
previously a rental for many years. Different people put things in
the ground and left them. Some of this ground is needed for the
previously mentioned “sun hungry”plants so we are removing and
re-homing them as much as possible.
For some unknown reason we have begun
with the front yard and will then move around to the back.
Rhododendrons, and unidentified roses have moved to make way for
blooming blueberries in a sunny area, with another “Rhody” moved
from a shady bed that is home to a green, fuzzy carpet of baby
lettuces. The western fence line houses the currant bushes, while on
the east the bay tree, thyme and lavender cozy up to the front gate,
with an unknown “table grape” in the corner and the hydrangea to
the south. We are prepping a tomato bed by the front walk and in the
attached, giant flower box tulips are blooming where we intend to
plant peppers in the full sun.
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| Tomato bed |
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| Currants |
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| Front gate, Bay tree, lavender and thyme |
Thanks to craigslist, and our Facebook
friends we have acquired quite a bit of hardscaping – concrete
edgers, and stepping stones, which we are placing as we go along.
Luckily we have a small pickup truck and I have a patient and willing
husband to help with all this.
Today we are expecting “showers”
and we have two more large plants to remove, two more blueberries and
nine or ten lavender plants to get into the ground. We now have
enough edgers to finish lining the tomato bed and our usual workdays
to contend with: teaching music, hosting open mics, managing a
farmers market, completing a photo assignment, and final preparations
for a concert at the “Historic Old Church” this Saturday. Busy
week? Yes and it is all good.
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| The Historic Old Church Portland, Oregon |
