New Potting Bench and Fence

We've had a contractor here for the last few days, installing a fence and building an absolutely beautiful potting bench. I am so excited about finally having a potting bench, I have wanted one for a long time! And this one is the culmination of my potting bench dreams.

Isn't it beautiful?

There is so much space for storage and for working, and the one feature that is essential here in the Pacific Northwest -- it has a roof! So I can work there when it's raining (and it rains a lot here). In fact, it rained like a monsoon the whole time Chris Gilliam was here, working on the fence and building the potting bench. There were a couple of days when Chris and his assistant looked like they had been wallowing up to their waists in mud in our back yard, but they kept working.

Oh yeah, the new fence. (I got caught up in gazing in wonder at my potting bench.)

The fence is beautiful too.

 

Chris Gilliam is the same contractor who helped me last year with the design and build of my back garden. We were so happy with his work and his work ethic that we enthusiastically asked him back to do more work for us.

What I love about Chris is that he's always thinking about ways to improve on his customer's ideas. I brought him the original plans for the potting bench, and he immediately improved on them by adding backs to the shelves, attaching casters to the bottom so that if I want to move it around the garden I can do so easily, and making the workspace even larger.

And he came up with an ingenious way to lock the potting bench onto the side of the house, to keep it from getting blown and battered by the fierce winds we get up here on the ridge south of Seattle.

This baby ain't moving!

If you need a contractor in the Seattle/Tacoma area, or in fact, on the western side of the Sound, on the Kitsap Peninsula, this is the guy to go to -- Gilliam Construction. To reach him call 253-880-2178.

Now I can move all this paraphernalia off my covered porch.

 And this stuff too.

And turn the porch into a restful haven for contemplating life and the meaning of the universe.

Or maybe just my next plant purchases.

It's Alive!

My one weakness at the nursery, the one kind of plant that will invariably draw my attention, is the one with big, dramatic leaves. I planted several last year, without a clue as to whether they would survive the winter here. Jut kept my fingers crossed.

There are signs that some of them made it.

Mukdenia rossii 'Crimson Fans'

I planted this very late last Fall, not long before the hard frost and heavy snow we had just before Thanksgiving. It promptly lost all its leaves and died right back to the ground.

Ornamental rhubarb/Rheum palmatum

Darmera peltata

Gunnera

I didn't do anything special to any of them, didn't even cover them with mulch. I'm really hoping the fact that there is green in there means that "It's Alive!"

Poppy Seeds Sprouting Under Milk Bottle Cloches

I'm doing a happy little sprout dance, care to join me?

I direct sowed these in the bed about three weeks ago, under cloches made out of recycled plastic milk bottles, and berry containers. They're annuals, so I should have flowers this year. It won't be long now.

Bought Plants Today at the Northwest Horticultural Society Plant Sale

I went to the Northwest Horticultural Society's Spring Plant Sale today at the Center for Urban Horticulture in the university district in Seattle. What a great sale! Tables and tables and tables full of luscious, healthy plants, many of them early Spring bloomers!

I bought one cardboard tray full.

Then I went back and bought more (What can I say? I still had money in my purse...) This plant sale benefits the Elisabeth C. Miller Horticultural Library, and brings together in one place (two rooms) many small specialty plant providers and nurseries, some of which only open to customers by appointment.

I bought Corydalis flexuosa 'Purple Leaf'

 

Angelica taiwaniana 'Vicar's Mead' -- 2 of these, actually.

Look at that lovely dark leaf!

Two Cryptotaenia japonica f. atropurpurea -- another dark-leaved plant.

Two Arum italicum 'Jack Sprat' -- an Arum with dark blotches on its already marbled leaves.

I also came away with two Delphinium trolliifolium, two Delphinium menziesii, two white Dodecatheon meadia, one Anemone nemorosa 'Virescens' (an interesting anemone with green flowers), and one Corydalis 'Berry Exciting'. The Delphiniums are PNW natives that I read about recently, I don't remember where. I was so excited to find them! The Dodecatheon, aka Shooting Star, is also a native. The Corydalis 'Berry Exciting' has chartreuse foliage and purple flowers, and grows in shade, so it should really brighten up the shade garden. Maybe I'll try inter-planting it with the purple-leaved one.

I can't recommend this yearly plant sale more highly! If you are gardening in the Seattle area and are looking for rare or unusual plants, don't miss this plant sale next year. It was very crowded, despite the heavy rain today, and was indoors. I would have bought more, but I was spent up.

Also, Dan Hinkley was there, giving a couple of free lectures. His first was on Hellebores in the early Spring garden (I missed that one), and the second was about interesting plants for the early Spring garden, which I attended. It was both fun and interesting. He's an entertaining speaker, and showed slides and videos of some wonderful plants. Too bad it was too dark in the lecture hall to take notes.

Now -- have you had enough of new plants?

Me neither.

On Thursday I received an order from Annie's Annuals.

I got a gift certificate from my husband for Christmas, and went to the website and made a wish list. Many of my wish list items became available soon after, so I ordered. I had never ordered from them before, so had no experience of them. The order arrived quickly, and in great shape. Well-packaged. I highly recommend them if you live on the West Coast. They have a lot of California/West Coast native annuals, but also plenty of perennials, as well as vines, shrubs, trees and grasses.

What did I buy?

Mimulus lewisii x cardinalis

Look! Another interesting leaf!

Also in the boxes -- Mimulus aurantiacus 'Apricot', Sidalcea hendersonii "Henderson's Checkermallow", Verbascum 'Southern Charm', Lewisia cotyledon 'White Splendor', Claytonia sibirica -- and that's just the perennials.

Annuals -- Platystemon californicus "Cream Cups", Cerinthe retorta, Clarkia concinna 'Pink Ribbons', Collinsia 'Purple'

And Phacelia viscida

Now I just need some dry weather, so I can spend some time on my knees, planting.

Poking Their Wee Heads Out

Over the weekend I took some pictures of the plants that have just started putting in an appearance. Some I've been waiting and watching expectantly for a while, to see how they did over the winter.

Indian plum/Oemleria cerasiformis, planted last spring, is showing not only new leaves, but also flowers, which thrills me no end. I had never heard of this Pacific Northwest native tree until a local landscape designer suggested it to me. It is one of the earliest blooming trees here in the Pacific Northwest.

 It will only produce fruit if both a male and female are planted nearby. I do have another one elsewhere in the garden, but it is much smaller, and I don't see any sign of flowers on it.

Then again, I may have two females, or I may have two males. We'll see. Maybe I'll get lucky.

According to the website Rainy Side Gardeners, this tree produces small bittersweet fruit that animals love. It doesn't produce fruit for human consumption, although native Americans did eat it. They also used the twigs and bark for medicinal purposes. Because it flowers so early, it is an early nectar source for bees and other insects.

There is no sign of flowers on any of my red flowering currants. In fact, they all seem to be in a different stage of leafing out. One is almost completely leafed out.

 Another is only showing the tips of leaves.

 

And a third has no sign of leaves yet, just buds. It seems to be alive, but is not yet willing to come out and play. And a fourth has no sign of leaves, but is producing suckers.

Last Fall I planted several trout lily/Erythronium bulbs, and I'm so excited to see them above the soil. One -- Erythronium dens-canis -- has a flower bud.

The others all look like this. So cute!

I also planted two Erythronium tuolumnense, but only one is above ground. And it looks like something has been chewing on it.

Another native that I planted last Fall is Dicentra formosa, western bleeding heart. It's on its way!

I'm also excited to see my peas have started to show themselves at last!

 

Peas are worth growing in the garden, for eating fresh.  There is just no comparison between fresh peas and frozen.

I also have cute little baby lettuces. This one is called Mottistone.

 

 

And look! Brussels sprouts!

And Swiss chard!

It's so exciting to see everything waking up!

My Tomato Trick

Actually, I can't claim credit for this as my tomato trick, I learned it from Fran on the winter sowing forum at GardenWeb. I used to live one town away from Fran when I lived in Massachusetts, and sometimes we would coordinate our winter sowing efforts. She would sow tomatoes and if I had seeds she liked, I would sow extra of those for her. Anyway, this is what I do with my tiny tomato seedlings, and I learned it from Fran.

Often tomatoes grow very leggy, no matter how much light you put them under, or how close you set it. This is how I deal with that legginess.

First, I start them in only one inch of moist soil. Once they've sprouted, and are starting to show their first true leaves, instead of potting them up, I just add soil to the cup that I started them in. The tomato stalk will root in the new soil all along its length.

I hold it very gently by its seed leaves, and then very carefully spoon loose soil all around the stalk. It's important to be gentle, because if the stalk breaks it's a goner. Then I spray it with water on top to clean some of the soil off the leaves, and set it in a few inches of water, until the new soil has drawn water up into the cup.

About a week later, I give them all a nice drink of fish emulsion (actually, Fran doesn't use fish emulsion, I added that part because I prefer keeping the seedlings organic). I keep an eye on them to make sure the soil doesn't dry out.

The ones in these photos were topped up with soil on February 18. Today they look like this:

I plan to leave them in these cups until I set them out at the beginning of April. I'll give them another couple of drinks of fish emulsion, and probably some seaweed extract too.

And when I set them out in the garden, I will dig an extra deep hole, strip off some of the leaves, and set as much of the stalk as possible into the hole, so it can continue to root.

This trick works really well for me. Now, if the weather here would only cooperate and give us some heat this summer, I will be happy.

Vignettes From The Northwest Flower and Garden Show 2011

I went on Friday. I was originally planning to go on Thursday, and then I thought I'd wait till Saturday. But I got up yesterday morning and thought -- what a great day to attend the Flower Show. A lot of other people had the same thought. It was soooo crowded!

It was very hard to get good overall pictures of the display gardens, with all the people jostling for position, and walking in front of the camera just as I was about to take pictures.

So I decided to focus on vignettes. Small scenes. Tight little groupings. I'm not sure I can remember where they all came from, but I'll try.

Paradise (to be) Regained

 

Little patio with "tiles" made of stepables, interspersed with old rusty heat registers

Garden entrance, gabions weighted at the bottom with bricks, and filled with plastic bottles, with fencing made of heat radiators.

Life's Journey in a Garden (Expect Great Things)

I loved how this garden progressed from darkness (dark leaves, dark flowers, dark accents) on the left to light (white and off-white flowers, light-colored accents) on the right -- the way we in the West read

Nice contrast here between the dark leaves and the rusty edging, which I think is old window wells

A Day Well Spent

Loved this mysterious, overgrown brick footpath (might have to steal ideas from here for the path I'm putting in my shade garden)

English daisies and moss overflowing from the nooks and crannies of a step

Inside the potting shed

From one of the garden junk exhibits put together by a local high school

Wind in the Willows: A River Odyssey

The Frog Prince

One Upon a Thyme (I think)

From the Container Garden Displays

(Now my husband wants me to look for that street Italian book)

Finally, reminders of a couple of plant combos that I liked

I was there for 6 hours, and walked my dang patootie off! By the end of it all my legs were aching. The day culminated in dinner with my husband at the nearby Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. Came home tired but happy!