Little Garden Birds

Though I often work in the presence/periphery of avid birders, I haven't yet caught the bug.  Thus far, my enjoyment of non-plant life has been ambient and generally inclusive.  My mom recently reminded me that while growing up I had strange pets:  hermit crabs, tadpoles, turtles, and rats.  That's what happens when you have 3 older brothers, who themselves had a strange menagerie of "pets".  Specifically, that's what happens when you have 3 older brothers, your backyard is woods, and your parents encourage outdoors discovery.

I'm pretty sure the tadpoles only lasted until they had legs.  They lived in a yellow notecard box, the type you own in elemetary school for word memorization.  At a slightly larger than 3 x 5 size, holding approximately 2 cups of water, I thought I'd provided them an adequate pool for their happiness.  But something larger than that little pool of public drinking water was calling them.  I watched their growth with fascination until one morning they were gone.  Though I searched all over for them, I never did find a trace.

Well, it's been years since I last had the responsibilities of a pet.  These days, in order to make my connection with the rest of life, I garden.  And the garden brings them in.  One by one, the neighborhood cats, dogs, chickens, ducks, birds, squirrels, mice, raccoons, bees, and more come calling.  They come for various reasons.  The chickens and ducks (our neighbors just brought home Runner Ducks) come to grub through the newly laid mulch.  Raccoons come stalking the chickens.  Flying birds come to bathe in the fountain and eat our dandelion seeds, vegetables, and greens.  Cats slink around, stalking the birds.  The squirrels come to plant walnuts and nest in the trees.  And mice live in the wood pile.

Females in the background / photo courtesy of nps.gov

Lately, I've been making some very amateur observations of our avian friends.  Yesterday, I saw Lesser Goldfinches eating our Giant Winter Spinach, which surprised me for two reasons.  First, I had no idea little birds ate greens.  The second is that of course they eat greens.  So I read up on them a little and learned that they eat more than available seed when opportunity presents, preferring mashed boiled eggs, dried fruits, veggies, herbs / greens and even superfoods, such as bee pollen.

Lesser Goldfinches are found in much of North America, from Texas heading West.  Here's what the male looks like, the Willamette Valley species having a back more green than black.  They frequently forage urban and suburban gardens, so take a look outside today and you may meet one.

Photo courtesy of Squaw Creek

Epiphyllum's Ephemeral Bloom

Saturday is the perfect day for Tiamat, our new Epiphyllum, to show off.  We're sitting over breakfast together for the first morning of the week, and there she is leaning towards us with a shocking fuchsia bloom called 'Dragon Heart'.  The bloom itself stretches 6 inches across by 6 inches high.  The weight of it bends her, but not to breaking.  We're both amazed at our little one.  The promise of the bloom was no exaggeration.

Tiamat is the all-birthing sea, the unconscious mind, ever-changing in form, the saltwater of blood and tears: elemental, both creative and destructive, neither evil nor good.  And certainly beautiful.  

If you've never owned an Epiphyllum, they're an easy and rewarding companion plant.  (By companion, I mean that the interaction with Epiphyllums is more personal than with many other plants.  Some you bring home, and they quietly hold up a corner of dappled light, but this one will always look like a guest.)  They are the "Orchid Cactus" or "Christmas Cactus" that used to be more commonly exchanged as household gifts.  Their short list of preferred conditions they easily adapt out of.  Discovered living in treetop debris in moderately warm, wet environments, they're considered tropical plants, but I've even had success growing them in the dry climate of central Utah, and feel confident these are a good houseplant for beginners and experts alike.

I've found a lot of easily read care information at the following website.  Don't be discouraged by the particulars.  Just find a tray of them in the houseplant section next time you're at Portland Nursery and pick the one that picks you.  If you missed the shipment, scour other nurseries for them, or order one online.  Keep it in a window with morning light, provide regular humidity, and do not overwater.  You won't regret it!

http://www.orchid-cactus.com/cultivation.asp

Tiamat in Bloom, May 2011

Giant Winter Spinach

It's early May, but it feels like March.  The temperatures have remained cool enough to keep my Giant Winter Spinach first in the running for most successful overwintering leafy green in my planter boxes.  Yes, we have Rhubarb, Strawberries, Blueberries, Raspberries, Orange Mint, Yerba Buena, Oregon Grape, Sorrel, Romaine, Radicchio, Violets, Pineapple Guava, Apples, Poppies and more mixed in the ornamental beds, but our 2 little planter boxes are reserved for Peas, Spinach, Chard, Basil and Tomatoes.  All could be easily mixed in the remaining landscape, but the planter boxes came first, before we had time to devote to ornamental cultivation and conscious expansion.  (Are you familiar with the saying "The cobbler's son wears no shoes"?)  And we enjoy the quasi-structured feel of keeping the short-season crops in a devoted space (even though the boxes are small, we still practice rotation).

We like tomatoes as much as you, but are exercising patience this year and holding off on planting.  Last year the late-season rains drowned so many of our seedlings (if only we'd had a little cold-frame set-up then - a gardener's umbrella to weather the wet), the size of our plant graveyard nearly doubled.  Boo hoo, right?  You sort of get used to it.  Still, we like to honor our little friends...

Photo Courtesy of Watchful Creatures

Well, in looking back to see where I got this Giant Winter Spinach seed from, I found the excellent website http://www.kitchengardenseeds.com/index.html, full of easy explanations for edible gardening.  In their words, "Spinach prefers the cool, sunny weather of late spring and early fall. If you simply must have summer spinach, provide partial shade, plant the seed deeper and water copiously. Spinach adores rich soil: amend the spinach bed well with compost and/or manure, dolomite lime and complete organic fertilizer. Keep the bed evenly moist and weeded. Early thinnings are wonderful for spring salads. For the kitchen gardener, it is practical to harvest by using the outer leaves from each plant or by cutting the whole plant, leaving 1” for possible regrowth. Or, broadcast seed and grow as a ‘cut and come again’ crop of tender leaves."  Here's what ours looks like today!

P.S.  It tastes great too.  Happy Mother's Day!

A Violet Cocktail, For the Modern Victorian

Violet Fizz (The Bubbly Bar)


4 oz Prosecco 
1/2 oz Homemade Violet Syrup (see April post for recipe)
1 oz Delicate Gin
Juice of 1/2 Lemon
1/2 oz Pasteurized Egg White
* optional garnish, 2 Pieces of Candied Violet


Pour the prosecco into a cocktail glass
Combine other ingredients in a shaker
Shake with ice until well chilled
Strain into cocktail glass
* garnish with candied violet


Perfect for an old-skool ladies luncheon, a bridal tea party, or any breezy afternoon suited for no more than bloomers outdoors.  It sounds afternoon daydreamy, sweetly ladylike and completely unnecessary, which is enough to appeal to me.

Photo courtesy of Old Prints

Viola Hearththrob

I'm often keeping my eyes peeled on Terra Nova Nursery's new plant introductions.  They paint with a bold palette, bringing eye-candy goodness to life, animating lovely and envious new things.

Now, my feet are firmly rooted on our soggy terra firma, but my head is sometimes off in the clouds.  It's not always the "novelty" plant, the hoop-jumping lion of the green world, that will seduce and literally bust my pocketbook (the zipper of which has long since been looted by trespass), but it's often a good old-fashioned charmer, an ornamental staple that I end up gently hauling home, for I have a rational side as well.

I have kept a nursery tag for 1 of every plant species I own or once owned that was more of a novelty for me, if only when I bought it.  Every gardener starts at the beginning, right?  I look through the stack each new year, and honestly remember many lost plants - some went back to the earth by way of the compost bin, some went home with friends, some are still thriving at a previous address or two.  And by this process, I'm able to better resist the newbies of each successive year.

Well, last fall after a brief introduction, I brought home another circus lion, a younger version of an old favorite, a variegated Viola called "Heartthrob".  It's just waking up from winter, and we're fighting the slugs together.  So I have yet to see how it will perform in our little space, but it's already showing signs of longevity, having survived two transplants, our cold winter, and a spring onslaught of slug armies.

This is what it looked like when I brought it home!

Photo courtesy of Terra Nova Nursery

Terrariums No. 2

Terrariums & Assorted Glass Gardens

It's Saturday night, and I'm feeling sort of social.  Probably will go out and mingle with the rest of sun-dazed Portland, but it's only 9.  While the lights come on around town, I want to share with you my 2 minutes of t.v. fame.  

When I've watched this clip and heard my voice, I've heard my sister Becca.  We sound almost identical on tape, and I'd like to say we're equals, but she trumps me in many ways.  She's a professional illustrator who, when not tied-up with project deadlines, busks at the warm-weather markets for practice and social interaction.  She's been getting into edible home gardening, which is a treat to watch.  

Our Dad has always had a fruitful garden, and put us to work as kids, planting rows, weeding, picking and cleaning the harvest for canning.  We were kids in North Carolina, my own blue ribbon of the south, the heart of my youth, helping our Dad grow us potatoes, grapes, fruit trees, spinach, tomatoes, peas, and beans.  Our Mom has always been the cook and the canner, which work I was late to pick up on.  And even though our parents have long been at home with no children, they keep at it.  It's in their blood.  It's in our blood, and we admire them, so we follow in their path....

Back in 2007, while doing Black Swan designs, I was also working a second season at Portland Nursery, and was recruited for a job at Urban Flora.  The indoor gardening specialty shop was looking to expand into the world of cut flowers, houseplants, and other botanicals.  So we embarked on a journey called Urban Flora Plant Oasis, which, sadly, was short-lived.  It was a remarkable adventure for me, and it was hard to watch the owners fold on it when it was still so new.  We were selling lots of unusual cacti, Hawaiian-grown orchids, bonsai trees, terrariums, and terrarium kits.  

  

Terrariums are everywhere.  That is, if you believe that everything that has happened and everything that is ever going to happen is occurring simultaneously in the present.  Then, they really are everywhere.  Twin Peaks's Agent Cooper is both in and out of the Black Lodge, the 1970's are happening in the 1930's, hurricanes are also calm seas, black is the new black is the new black, the garden is the first seed, and the collision of all our peaks and valleys in the same "everymoment" fills us to the brim, so that all the empty moments are no longer empty, and our lives are lived in every second.

If the garden is the first seed, then terrariums are a botanical oasis of an infinite scale.  Wanting to fill our home with the infinite garden, I put together some terrariums this week, making use of some empty bottles from (our neighbors') last year's parties, to help the local salvage stores move some merchandise, and to give a long-ago gifted "Junk Girl" a home.  Sitting in the upstairs dormer, they're absorbing fractal light.  

All Dressed Up....

Next weekend, there will be a good opportunity to see an amazing terrarium display in person at the 2011 Oregon Orchid Show & Sale.  It may look something like this...For two dollars off the admission price, pick up a show flier at Portland Nursery and other retail garden locations.

I would love for my office to have one of these, courtesy of http://www.anchoraquariumservice.com/?page_id=210.  They're located in Brooklyn, NY.  So I'll probably have to make my own.  A project I wouldn't shy away from.  For now, I'm putting it in my mind's list of rad botanical projects I'm going to work on, right next to the polytunnel and others remaining secret, time and money and more time permitting.  One day.....

If you're interested in having one built for you in Portland, call me up.  

Last but not least, an easy how-to link for the Hands-on to make their own:  

http://www.thenester.com/2010/03/terrarium-101-a-guest-post.html/comment-page-1#comment-42548

  

Have a great week!