A Saturday Visit to the Puyallup Farmer's Market

We spent a couple of hours at the farmer's market in Puyallup today, and since I've never posted about it before, I brought along the camera and took some pictures, so that I could put up a blog post.

 

This is actually a fairly large market, the largest in Pierce county, I believe, which takes place every Saturday and Sunday from 9 to 2 at Pioneer Park in Puyallup, WA.

Since it's still early in the growing season, many of the vegetable vendors have slim pickings -- onions, garlic, salad greens, asparagus, a few snow peas. But what they have is beautiful and fresh. And local. Many are organic.

There were also lots of cut flower vendors, as well as small nurseries with growing plants in clever containers.

 

There are always plenty of produce vendors (and way too many craft-sellers), but I wish there was a wider selection of local meat, fish and chicken vendors. There are only two fish vendors, one beef vendor, one cheese vendor and one booth selling fresh eggs. No fresh chicken, lamb or other meats. Plenty of baked goods and sweets.

There's a bandstand in the middle of Pioneer Park with the day's entertainment, usually playing country-ish music.

There are only a handful of craft vendors that interest me. I love these blown glass ornaments.

 

 Love this nest, but not out in my garden

Last year I bought a cast leaf from this vendor.

Love the simplicity of this birdhouse...

...and the juxtaposition of simple and ornate in this chair

This birdbath flower with frogs dancing on sticks around it made me smile

Also this kitty silhouette with a fish inside it

There are no pictures of the booth selling mass market signs with clever sayings on them like "Come to the Dark Side, We Have Cookies," "I'm just a Raggedy Ann in a Barbie Doll World," and "Don't Make Me Get My Flying Monkeys." As I raised my camera to take a picture, a stern voice admonished me "No Pictures Please!" I guess they didn't want free publicity. Interestingly there was not a word from any of the vendors shown above, selling handmade items.

And my favorite food vendor is this guilty pleasure: mini donuts cooked fresh.

Nigel wants one of these for our home. Actually, I do too!

Hot, fresh pillows of yumminess!

Can I get a refill please?

Leggy Seedlings, Frustration and Hope

One of my plans for my garden this year was to create an area where annual California/West Coast wildflowers would grow and self-sow and renew themselves each year. I was originally going to sow them under milk bottle cloches, like the coneflowers, liatris, lupines, coreopsis and fleabane that I sowed early in the spring/late winter. I started out one day over a month ago, sowing some Nemophila seeds under cloches, but ran into problems with my rocky soil. It looks like good soil, but that is because there is about 2 or 3 inches of compost covering a much thicker layer of rocky, sandy soil. In order to hold the cloches to the ground I need to put earth staples in each side to keep them from blowing away in the wind. But I ran into problems trying to get them in deep enough to hold, with all those rocks underneath.

So...I decided, after doing several packets of Nemophila,  to sow the rest of the seeds in cups and put them into my little portable greenhouses. That works really well for my perennials, which often start out as little more than a bit of foliage their first year. But the annuals just got leggier and leggier, till they started to look like they were trying to climb right out of the greenhouse. They reminded me of the sprouts that you eat, long and white and unhealthy.

This past weekend we finally had some nice dry sunny weather, so I thought it was time to try planting them.

Sad leggy Phacelia seedlings

Sad leggy Tidytips seedlings

I was so frustrated by the prospects of success from these sickly seedlings, for a plan that I had such high hopes for back in the winter when I first thought of it. I got halfway through planting these out, and decided to jack it in. The rest of the seedlings ended up in the yard waste bin.

Partially planted wildflower bed

Nemophila that sprouted under the cloches (thick and lush and not leggy)

Pitiful Nemophila from the greenhouse

Not to mention the fact that I planted tall plants in front of shorter ones. Tidytips gets 1 to 1 1/2 feet tall. Meadow foam only gets about 6 to 12 inches tall. And because I wasn't really paying attention, I planted the tidytips in front of the meadow foam. They're also both flowers with yellow centers and white outer edges. Planted right next to each other. Did you ever want to rip something out of the ground the same day you planted it?

Anyway....I had lots of seeds left over. So in a last-ditch effort to save my vision of California wildflowers, I sprinkled the rest of the seed packets in all the areas where I had planned to plant the cups of leggy seedlings.

What epitomizes hope more than a seed?

We'll see in a month or so whether my last-ditch effort was a success. If not, there's always next year. My husband keeps telling me I don't have to plant the entire garden at once.

And, even though I'm late to the party, I'm going to link this post to the Hope Grows meme, hosted by the blog Sweet Bean Gardening. Hope Grows is a recurring meme posted on the 5th of each month, to show off what you are hoping to see/accomplish in your garden over the next month.

What's Blooming on a Sunny June Day in My Garden

It's *almost* too hot out there in the sun to work on digging holes and planting the new plants. But I managed to get quite a bit of the new purchases in the ground. It's just right for wandering around with camera in hand.

So, here's what's blooming in my garden today.

 

Euphorbia 'Ruby Glow'

Geranium 'Vision Light Pink' (grown from seed last year)

Geranium phaeum 'Samobor'

 

 Aquilegia formosa

Lithodora

Saponaria ocymoides/Soapwort (grown from seed last year)

Collinsia heterophylla (from Annie's Annuals)

Weigela florida

Thalictrum 'Black Stockings'

Trillium luteum

Aquilegia 'Leprechaun Gold'

Aquilegia 'Leprechaun Gold' and Dicentra 'Gold Heart'

Scabiosa (supposed to be 'Butterfly Blue', but much more lavender than last year)

Chives

Fava Beans

I know I uploaded photos to Facebook a few days ago, but I don't think I've posted these pictures here on my blog. If there are duplicates, well, they're just as good the second time.

Pacific Coast Iris on a Blustery Spring Day

The last couple of days have been rather typical spring days in the Pacific Northwest. Cool, alternating heavy showers and sun, or sometimes just a sprinkle and sun, and windy. Although, perhaps still a little cooler than a normal PNW spring day. When I woke up this morning I peeked out the window in our bedroom that looks out onto the back garden -- my peeking-out window (a morning ritual). I've been waiting for a few days now for the Pacific Coast iris to start opening. They've had fat buds for a couple of weeks now, but no flowers.

Till this morning when I peered out (without my glasses yet of course), and could see blobs of color dancing above the foliage! So despite the squishy state of the garden, and the coolth, and the wind, I went out with the camera to get some photos.

 

My Pacific Coast Iris are named hybrids that I got from a plant swap last year, and the tags have unfortunately been lost.

Sorry if some of the pictures are a bit blurry, it was windy, and for a couple of these I actually had to hold the stem to try to keep it from swaying uncontrollably.

I think the bees must have a peeking out window too!

To learn more about these beautiful irises which are native to the Pacific Northwest, check out this link.