Category Archives: journal

glistening September views

This morning’s mist was heavy enough that the downspouts gurgled. The garden embraced the moisture with its leaves and petals, in a heart-melting effect that can best be described in one word: glistening. A full rainy day is predicted for … Continue reading

Posted in journal, Oregon garden | 14 Comments

coastal PNW gardens late July

Driving north on Highway 101 now is a very different experience than just a few weeks ago. The roadside attractions are no longer mauve foxgloves, which seemed to go on forever, but now mauve fireweed, Chamerion angustifolium (formerly Epilobium angustifolium), … Continue reading

Posted in garden visit, journal, Oregon garden, Plant Portraits, pots and containers | 6 Comments

the summer I planted pale yellow snapdragons

A farm stand was selling six-packs for $3 of these pale snapdragons, bordering on chartreuse. All wonky and swaying, not ramrod straight. Never having grown snaps before, I’m unclear if a lack of basal growth is normal or just a … Continue reading

Posted in journal, Oregon garden, Plant Portraits, pots and containers | 7 Comments

bloom day 7/22; dierama drama

I admit that there’s a bit of a grudge match component to plant trials in the Oregon coastal garden. There are countless plants I foolishly trialed in my dry zone 10 garden that hated the lack of winter dormancy, and … Continue reading

Posted in Bloom Day, journal, Oregon garden, Plant Portraits | 8 Comments

herbaceous stuff

I admit I’m enthralled by the range of herbaceous plants that can be grown here on the Oregon coast, zone 8b. I should be putting my energies into building up evergreen and woody structure, but for the moment, aside from … Continue reading

Posted in journal, Oregon garden, Plant Portraits | 9 Comments

full sun near the coast

Democracy is a garden that must be carefully tended, said one of our 21st century presidents. (Care to guess which one? Hint: his spouse famously broke with protocol and planted a vegetable garden near the White House. Ah, what innocent … Continue reading

Posted in climate, journal, Oregon garden, pots and containers | 6 Comments

a rainy spring/early summer

In this notoriously rainy slice of the Oregon coast, 2022 rainfall has exceeded all expectations and delivered above average inches fall, winter, and spring. And how! And like a starving person led to a banquet, I’m probably the only one … Continue reading

Posted in climate, journal, Oregon garden | 8 Comments

a multiverse of springs

Thanks for the comments regarding successfully flying commercially with plants. I do feel even more emboldened! With my two little gardens, one in frost-free zone 10 and the other in zone 8b, I feel like I’m tumbling in and out … Continue reading

Posted in journal, pots and containers | Tagged | 5 Comments

scenes around the bay

Mitch visited a couple weekends ago and took this photo of the daffs on our table. I indulged in armloads of them for the house when I chanced upon a grower a few miles south of Tillamook off highway 101. … Continue reading

Posted in journal, MB Maher | 7 Comments

garden miscellany 2/28/22

A quick garden report then we can all get back to doomscrolling. (Here’s a list of solid, experienced relief organizations that can help.) Another atmospheric river is hitting the Oregon coast, but here in coastal Long Beach we’re climbing into … Continue reading

Posted in clippings, journal, pots and containers | 6 Comments