This week – yellow is the predominant color in the garden. Lots of different shapes and textures in bloom.
Phlomis fruticosa
Phlomis chrysophylla
Cytisus battandieri
Aconitum vulparia
Abutilon ‘Canary Bird’
Zinnia
And a little deviation – yellow bee
The weather continues to be mostly gray and overcast. It has been frustrating this year because we’ll have a gorgeous warm day and then the next day will be back to gray and rain. We have had a couple of nights down into the 40’s but it has started to stay above 50 degrees at night. And it has done the trick. The Stupice tomatoes have already set fruit!
The lettuce and chard are doing very well and the peas are finally coming along. Surprisingly the beans are already starting to twine up. We may actually have a compressed season with a few summer items at the same time as early cool spring vegetables.
Beans starting to climb
Peas getting tall but no pods yet
Apples have set
Stupice tomatoes
Tomatoes are coming along fine
The vegetables may not like the cool damp weather but leafy perennials sure do. I was amazed at the shapes and colors of the various green perennials on my walk around the garden this week.
From the dry shade garden:
Hosta Patriot – I love how the white edges brighten the shade
Hosta Sum and Substance – this one is huge. I’d hate to see how big it would get if we fertilized it. Hosta love fertilizer
Here is the whole plant
Salomon Seal – It doesn’t run much in our dry garden but it can be invasive
Ligularia dentata ‘Desdemona’ – I love the leaves of this plant although it does like a bit more water than the hostas
Bloodroot – Sanguinaria canadensis – the white flowers come up in the spring before the leaves but I find the shape of the leaves just as interesting as the blooms
From the sunny dry front garden
Golden Spirit Smoke Tree – it would probably appreciate a bit more shade
Gunnera tinctoria – sometimes called Dinosaur food or Giant Rhubarb. A native of Chile that is a favorite of the tropical garden look. We finally figured how to mulch it to make it through the winter. It does prefer lots of water also.
I feel like I’m in a time warp. Or maybe like the movie “Groundhog Day”. You know.. the one where you wake up and it is the same as the previous day. It has been like that all Spring. You wake up and it is still gray, cold and drizzly. You know it is bad when it is mid June and you can count the days that have gotten over 70 on one hand.
I didn’t realize how bad it was until I’ve started comparing garden pictures from the previous years. We are 4 weeks behind 2009 and 2010. Take a look at these pictures:
Vegetable Garden 2010 #2 – May 16, 2010
Vegetable Garden 2009 #2 – May 18, 2009
I think we’re just about the same stage as we were mid-May the previous years. Here is where the garden should be.
Vegetable Garden 2010 #3 – June 9, 2010
Vegetable Garden 2009 #3 – June 5, 2009
G did plant the beans out this week and we may be able to harvest some lettuce soon. But if we continue this cold, it will be a poor year for a tomato harvest.
Here’s where we are this week.
Continuing with photos of springtime at Bloedel Reserve. My favorite area was just off the main estate house. Following down the waterfall, the path leads us to the Birch Garden and Rhododendron glen. It was a wonderland of wood land plants. Later in the spring the Rhododendrons and hydrangea bloom with woodland orchids.
Birch Glen
Beesia deltophylla – I love these leaves
Podophyllum pleianthum – Mayapple
Local Pink fawn lily – Erthyronium revolutum
Not our west coast trillium – Trillium sissile from the east coast
I don’t know why it took us so long to visit Bloedel Reserve. Maybe because it is on Bainbridge Island and a ferry ride away. Maybe we did not like you previously had to reserve a visit. We known of the garden for many years but just never made the time to visit.
We finally made a point to visit this year during their open garden and plant sale in late April. Of course, the day was cold and dark but it did not stop of from enjoying the garden. The garden is the estate of Prentice and Virginia Bloedel. Prentice was the head of the Canadian timber company McMillan Bloedel. They were the British Columbia equivalent of Weyerhaeuser until they were bought out by Weyerhaeuser in 1999. Prentice retired in 1952 and moved to the property that they had purchased on Bainbridge Island where they spent over 30 years creating the reserve.
It is quite amazing. It is over 150 acres which are broken into several different section or gardens. One of the main gardens is the Japanese Garden which includes a lovely guest house, zen garden and pond. The Japanese garden was created by Fujitaro Kubota who also created Kubota Gardens. There is also a moss garden. Who knew moss could be so beautiful. It feels wild but controlled. The path through the moss garden leads to the lovely reflection pond. It was cold and dreary but you could imagine a summery garden party within the walls of yew. The paths intertwine and meander to the house or out to the wild bogs and ponds on the edge.
Here are some pictures of these sections of the garden. I will do another post showing the waterfall and birch gardens. We hope to enjoy it again in another season.
Moss and stones and trees and snags give the garden a wild NW feel
Skunk cabbage along the creek
Reflecting Pool
Entrance to Zen and Japanese Garden
Zen Garden and Guest House
Pool and garden below guest house
Looking back to guest house
One of the magnificent pink Magnolia in bloom
The Estate House
Boardwalk across the marsh
Along the path lined with Skunk Cabbage to the bird watching area
Edges of the reserve
I love the minus tides that happen every year in May and June. If I am lucky, they will happen on a day when I am off work and the weather is good. You never know – especially this year. But everything aligned and this week was warm and sunny. And it was minus tide time.
I happened to have to work late on Thursday. Part of my job is to cover Asia-Pacific. So when my co-worker in Sydney takes a day off, I work a late shift – 3:30pm to 12:00am. It can be tough especially switching between my normal 10-6pm shift and the late shift. I had to cover for him on Thursday so I decided to make the most of it.
First I headed to the Edmonds Marina to have lunch at Anthony’s . I has seating outside along my walk path. I got there about 11:45 and got a nice table overlooking the Marina. It was a little cool but not bad. I had the Blue Plate special which was scampi and a nice cold Weise beer from Pike Brewery.
I decided to walk a bit after lunch and headed towards Marina Park. The Olympic Mountains were visible in the distance and still dappled in snow. As I crossed over the bridge to the park, I saw how far out the tide was and remembered it was Minus tide week. WooHooo.
I headed out to the tide flats. There is a dog off-leash area next to the park and all the dog owners were taking advantage of the extra beach area. The dogs were having so much fun running, splashing, sniffing and digging in the sand. There were also several groups of young children – probably part of a pre-school splashing through the tide pools in brightly covered rubber boots.
I walked and walked – slipping and sliding over the eel grass and ribbon seaweek. The sun was warm, the air salty – the day perfect! I still had to go to work but it was so much easier after having spent the day at the beach.
Moon Snail
Starfish and seaweed
A moon snail egg casing (looks like a tire) and seaweed
God this has been a terrible April. It has been cold with several days of snow and hail. We did not even have one day above 60 degrees until almost the end of April. But it was a tease. It turned around and went back to the rain and col. We even broke a record for the coldest April. May isn’t turning out to be any better. We had a nice day on Sunday but like before Monday was windy cold and rainy. I am craving heat and sun.
Everything is behind about 3 weeks this year. The tulips are still in bloom in the Skagit Valley. They are usually finishing up by the end of April. The cherries are still in bloom and many of the trees have not yet leafed out. And our vegetable garden is behind by almost three weeks.
We created a new bed for our peas this year hoping to avoid the problems we have had the past two years. We planted the peas mid-March but they didn’t even germinate for three weeks. They were tiny two inch plants until just this week and a few of them are starting to grow.
We got brave and put the lettuce out this week. The tomatoes are coming along fine in the greenhouse but we don’t expect to put them out for at least three more weeks. Sigh… who knows if anything will even ripen.
There has been lots of talk about how our springs are getting colder. It turns out that it is actually a cycle and we are going back into a pattern of cold Springs similar to 1960-1970s. Bah…. I can’t believe I’m actually wishing it was like the ’80s!
The one bright surprise was the lovely blue mecenopsis poppy that is blooming behind the greenhouse. We got it last year at Lakewold Garden. Unfortunately it is a biennial so it will probably bloom and die. But such a beauty.
Lettuce and Rainbow Chard
Tomatoes moving up to 4″ pots
Peas waiting for the heat
Garden Beds and plants – May 7th
Lettuce planted
Peas finally starting to grow now that the nights are above 40 degrees
Tomatoes coming along in the greenhouse
Everything else waiting
Blue Poppy
Lovely sky blue in color
It really is that color!
Previous Year Gardening posts:
Vegetable Garden 2009 – #1 May 7, 2009 (look at those tomatoes!)
Vegetable Garden 2010 – #1 April 17, 2010 (Even ahead of this year!)
Dusty animals on the move at Etosha Namibia
This week’s Photohunt theme is Dusty. Photohunt is brought to you by TnChick – home of the original photohunt.
Dust – fine white dust that sifts into everything. That is one of my memories of eight days driving the dusty dirt roads of Namibia. Over 65% of the roads are dirt and you can’t avoid them unless you just want to see one or two places.
Our favorite place in Namibia was Etosha. It is a large lake pan that dries up before the rainy season. The animals move from waterhole to waterhole. We would drive around watching for dust clouds on the horizon – a sure sign of a group of animals. Zebras were one of the easiest to spot and the dustiest. But it was also a good way to find elephants since they would often snort dirt up while moving between the waterholes.
Here are a few of the dusty guys we met. I’m also including a road shot since I missed last week. These were all taken in Etosha.
Have a great weekend and hope you are having a lovely spring holiday – Easter or Passover.
Dusty Elephant
Long Dusty Road across the Etosha Pan
Loved the Zebras!
Cherry Trees in bloom at the University of Washington Quad
This week’s Photohunt theme is Trees. Photohunt is brought to you by TnChick – home of the original photohunt.
Here are some pictures of a glorious spring day in the University of Washington Quad. It is lined with beautiful cherry trees that bloom in spring. I have not been there yet this year but they should be in bloom this week. A fleeting but wonderful pleasure. Everyone loves to come out and enjoy it on a sunny day as seen below.
