Category Archives: Oregon garden
front garden fills out
The front garden is developing the low-growing, evergreen shrubby chops capable of withstanding the windy rainstorms of winter. We had a fine example of such a storm just a few days ago. Planted much later than the back garden, even … Continue reading
first frost October 15, 2025
The morning of October 15 the roofs were frosted, the grass crunchy underfoot. First frost. Near a small park where I take Hannah and Billie for their “running game,” a neighbor grows assorted dahlias and zinnias, and I always check … Continue reading
into October
The morning routine in October is now two-fisted, coffee in one hand, fly swatter in the other to dispatch the spider webs that proliferate overnight. I appreciate their predatory contributions and only knock down webs directly across paths, which seems … Continue reading
the littles
This longer east view of sunrise-haloed Chionochloa rubra was not available two days ago. Stipa gigantea spilled onto the rock at the west end making the path impassable, comprising overall about 5′ in circumference with half of that path obstruction. … Continue reading
town and garden
Sometimes I get the sense from an offhand comment that gardens are considered escapist entertainment. My experience has been the opposite, and maybe this is what comes with small gardens in crowded neighborhoods. Because I’m constantly outside, I know to … Continue reading
give it up for Lobelia tupa
Any description of Lobelia tupa is bound to contain words like “huge,” “robust,” “monumental,” and it’s all true. Which would seemingly indicate it’s not a perennial for a small garden like mine. Except this mega-perennial here at the Oregon Coast … Continue reading
first week of September
The garden’s third September of its fourth year. The biggest change September brings is this mid level fizzy layer provided mostly by deschampsia, sesleria and Scabiosa ochroleuca that envelopes the plantings in a gauzy champagne scrim. The scabiosa is an … Continue reading
sometimes you just gotta rip it out
Feathertop Grass, known as the least robust of the fountain grasses, is everything I want in a medium-sized fluffy grass. Admired daily, I watched how the circumference of the clump expanded and stretched into the gravel and grew more and … Continue reading
topping the fence
It’s mid-August, when the south fence disappears under a tsunami of summer growth when viewed from the back porch. (We had the best kind of tsunami-warning experience recently after the record-making 8.8 earthquake near the Kamchatka Peninsula. We packed a … Continue reading
tweaking August
I can easily reach all of my back garden with two hose lengths fastened together, so that’s something to be said for a small garden. (But if I had the money, I’d buy up any adjacent property that comes up … Continue reading