My Oregon Garden

Lupine Update

2009-01-25T15:57:00.001-08:00

Well, they have arrived.

Or at least I think it's them. I'm exhausted from a long weekend. More during the week about my adventures. Lots of seeds planted now.

Lupines and my big plans

2009-01-20T17:45:00.000-08:00

Ok, I've planted flowers. Lupines to be exact. I'm starting them in the house, ready to transplant them to the beds in February in the hope that they flower in the summer.

I soaked the seeds overnight Sunday by putting them on a wet paper towel and putting them in a ziplock bag. Here's a photo.

Then on Monday I planted the soaked seeds in little Jiffy pots - the ones you soak in water and place in a warm area until the seeds start to show, then gradually bring them out and in until the danger of sever frost has passed. Please, someone define severe for Lupines for me.

I noticed that a couple of the seeds were big and fat and almost bursting from their pods by the time I planted them. Some were puny little dried up looking things. Only time will tell if they grow or not, but I'm hoping they will.

So, back to Mom and my childhood - which, dear reader, was as idyllic as any ever encountered. Another of her favorite plants was called Night Scented Stock. I remember lying in bed as a child in the summer and the whole bedroom smelling of these wonderful flowers. To this day the smell takes me back 30 years and makes my heart skip a beat. To me, these are the smell of summer. So I bought some seeds online and they are awaiting planting in late spring. Can anyone advise when this is exactly in Oregon? April? May? June?

My daughter is coming over from Ireland for the whole summer and it will be nice to sit out in the garden having a beer on long summer nights smelling the garden, so I bought a few other seeds whose plants will smell in the evening, the same way as the stock.

I bought the following seeds - in no particular order.

OENOTHERA SPECIOSA ROSEA
MIRABILIS BROKEN COLORS (FOUR-O-CLOCK)
NICOTIANA (FLOWERING TOBACCO) AVALON MIX

If what I've read is correct, these should all smell at night, be safe for the dog, and be nice and colorful to boot.

As for other plants, I've decided to grow Sweet Pea, another maternal favorite, on the east facing side of the West facing fence. They are going in the weekend if the weather holds but by all accounts it's to turn wet again.

Alongside (well, in front of) the Lupines will be California Poppy and Coneflower with a few pansies for early color. I'll plant others too but at this stage I'm just planning - which is fun.

We are also planning on growing a herb and salsa garden along with a Casper Pumpkin and some giant Sunflowers. I plan on putting some hops in along the North facing fence - so I can brew some beer come fall - and a few other vines to brighten up the corners.

Well, roll on planting weather and please, advice would be great. Stay tuned for news of Lupine growth and Sweet Pea planting.

Digging beds for flowers

2009-01-20T17:34:00.000-08:00

We had the most beautiful week in the valley. Brilliant sunshine and great drying. I decided that I'd get the flower beds underway in preparation for the spring.

I want to grow a few flowers under the west facing living room window so when the hot weather comes and the windows are flung open the smell would permeate the whole house. Well, that's the dream. Plus, a few flowers would hide the horrid looking gas meter.

The first plant I'm putting in is some Lupines. my mother grew these faithfully each year in Ireland. She was a great gardener and I'll never forget spending frosty winter evenings after school helping her break up the soil in the beds so that the air could get into the soil and so that all the old growth from the previous year could rot into the garden more readily.

Anyway, my wife and I spent Sunday up at Silver Falls so I got up really early and dug the bed, fertilized it with the aforementioned Bi-Mart organic stuff and it's about ready for some plants - although I think I'll buy some soil to lay over the top before I plant.

Here's a photo of the afterward. You can see last weeks garlic in the distance.

Victim 1 - The Garlic

2009-01-13T15:04:00.000-08:00

OK, so victim numero uno is buried in my garden. Relax, it's not as sinister as you might believe - unless you are a clove of garlic that is.

On Saturday January 10th I planted the first of my summer crop in the garden. I planted 24 cloves of garlic in a spot in the NorthEast of the garden in the vain hope that come July I'll have 24 beautiful tasty organic bulbs of garlic for me and the Mrs to feast upon.

So, according to my friend and former gardener Theodore, garlic should be planted on the shortest day and harvested on the longest day. OK, I'm a little late but given we had about 6 inches of snow on December 21st I guess it was a wise choice to wait it out.

So Friday I bought some seed garlic at the Co-Op on SW 3rd in Corvallis. $5 for the lot - and by lot I mean 'a lot'!!!

So I selected my spot and with (t)rusty spade in hand, I tilled the soil ... about 2 square meters of it ... in my selected spot. God, the digging nearly killed me ... no wonder Theodore is a former gardener. An hour later and with tres muddy boots I had dug my spot, mixed in some organic Bi-mart fecal matter and planted my bulbs - 2 inches down with the pointy end (scientific or what) sticking up. I covered the entire bed with more of the organic matter and hey presto, Bob's your aunt's live-in lover.

While I didn't take any photos (this blog was created post-Saturday) of the event, the photo above shows the final resting spot of the poor little blighters. I wonder when and if we will see the first green shoots of garlic appear?

Stay tuned for more photos/horror tales from the garden.

Welcome to my gardening adventure

2009-01-12T15:13:00.000-08:00

First of all, I'd like to apologize in advance to any plants/plant lovers out there. What follows may well be deeply disturbing to you all. I wish I could say no plants were hurt in the making of this blog but I'm afraid that that might well turn out to be completely unfounded. For I, gentle reader, am a novice gardener.

What little experience I do have is bad - very bad. But at the age of 37 I have decided to embrace my pastoral side and give gardening another go.

I just moved to Oregon from Ireland last summer and jealously watched my wife's father pull fat tomatoes, peppers, blueberries and corn from his garden. None of which grow in dear old Ireland. We have rented a house with a sizable back yard and I have pledged - with myself - to commit to tending to the gardens needs.

You can see a photo of the garden as it stands right here. Pretty bare, right? Well not for long I hope.

So this blog will relate to you the fun I shall have trying to get my lawn to grow - the landlord didn't plant any grass seed until November - and sowing vegetables, fruit and flowers.

And maybe you can all offer words of advice as I go along. How do I stop cats crapping in my garden, when is the best time to plant the different varieties I'd like to grow and what fertilizers to use and where.

But hey, enough of my yacking. What do you say? let's garden.