My favorite gardeners in Portland are ones that can just shove plants in the ground without worry and turn random objects into garden art. My Aunt Teri seems to have that knack. She’s not slaving away outside, yet her backyard has this English cottage feel where everything thrives in this simply elegant way. She also has a knack for finding little treasures at estate sales
Highs and Lows
The budding urban food forest has a recent success: the fig tree is alive! In case you missed the earlier post, we transplanted a 15+ foot fig tree into our backyard in early June. Not a great time to transplant a fruit tree, and the fig was none too pleased with us. However, we kept at it by burying a thick layer of mulch on
Mulch Matters
I recently had a reader share with me some of the important benefits of incorporating mulch into permaculture gardens, to which I readily agreed. Then I realized, although I have been doing so in my garden, it’s something I haven’t really talked a lot about here. With Portland’s summer finally on it’s way, and reading the news about the longest drought in 100+ years in
Inspiration from South Korea
As you may know, I was lucky enough to travel through South Korea for a couple weeks in June. I took some lovely pictures that are either garden-related or livestock-related and I thought I would share. I am trying to keep the descriptions breif since there are lots of pictures! Click on the actual photo for a larger picture. This is a lovely ceramics idea
Post Vacation Freak Out
I had a wonderful trip to South Korea for two weeks and I am looking forward to sharing some interesting gardening-related photos soon. I got in late Saturday night and woke up bright and early to squawking chickens at around 7:00am. Not exactly the ideal situation for a jet-lagged traveler returning home. Upon bursting into the yard to throw scratch at them in an attempt
The Fig Tree That Could
It all started at the Horse Brass⦠Jay and I were sitting around a table of friends the other night when his buddy, Blair, offered up his fig tree to us. He was even willing to throw in some bamboo he had thinned out recently as well. The fig tree was great, but he had other plans for that part of the yard and there
In Loving Memory of Mabel
My sister, Anne, moved into her new house recently and decided it was finally time to get her own backyard chicken flock. Not knowing what I was getting myself into, I decided to go with her to pick out the chicks at a local feed store. Who could turn down a trip to see such adorable fuzzy animals? I watched her pick her different breeds
NW Vegetable Planting Chart
As I’ve probably mentioned before, I spent my winter months pouring over seed catalogs and various books on growing veggies in the NW. I wanted to maximize our space and grow as much as possible. Two resources were especially helpful in my planning: Portland Nursery’s Planting Calendar and Maritime Northwest Garden Guide which is produced by the Seattle Tilth. At work I use Excel a
Portland Permaculture Workshops
This is just a quick post for those living in the Portland metro area. Portland City Repair will be coordinating a lot of really interesting workshops, many of which appear to be free, that range in topics but include permaculture subjects. Click HERE for their list of workshops. I wish I could attend some, especially the rain barrel one, but my weekend is looking pretty