Greenhouse Chronicles

 I seem to have forgotten I had a blog.  Spring and summer came without warning and I'm still working my day job too much.  However, I have gotten plants started in the greenhouse!  My first season, so don't laugh.  I have chili peppers, bell peppers, strawberries, one eggplant, tomatoes and carrots inside.  Squashes and beans were started here and then moved out to the patio.

I had to get a tarp for the top as it was just too hot early on and it has saved the plants!  I adjust it so it can pulled up or down.  Recently we had 101 temps here which is highly unusual and I pulled it all the way over.  It still hit 112 inside with the door open but they all survived.

I have a fat, happy alligator lizard living inside who keeps the bug population down.  I put in a fan at one point, but it seemed overkill so I removed it, no one noticed, they continued to thrive.

So here's the line up as of today, July 3rd.

 I think next year I shall only use it to start plants in and then move them out.  I feel I'm on a never ending loop of watering, tarp adjusting and opening and closing the door.

Nature Wakes

At last sweet nature is waking up!
This lilac tree is one of my first to show her buds.

The day lilies began popping up weeks ago.  I always worry it will snow again and crush them, but they're pretty hardy and usually recover.

These daffodils are about eight inches tall and have only begun blooming just last year after years of only coming to this stage.  Odd.  But it could be my elevation, dafs have just never done very well here.

I'm not big on domestic flowers, as you can tell by my very modest surroundings.  I mostly enjoy the natural and wild things.

This year I decided to clear out behind the wood shed, open up that area and use the back for garden tool storage.

I also bought a new garden cart without air type wheels or too much metal!  They always rust and the tires go first.  So back to basics with this Smart Cart from Ace Hardware.

I also purchased a shelf type portable greenhouse and a contained composter!!

These are temporarily in the back of the house.
This composting unit has allowed me to finally do what I've wanted for years, eliminate the open compost in the yard.  It was always just too inviting to uninvited wildlife!  This unit is small, about 30 gallons, so it will take a little more work but worth it.  It easily turns in place for faster breakdown.

I am working on an enclosed area out front for a small vegetable garden.  It's already fenced and the containers are picked out for the plants.  Photos as it progresses.

What are you working on this month?

August 2017

It was a long hot summer here in my part of the Pacific Northwest, but I still managed to get some yard work done.  Everything was flourishing!  It was hard to keep up.

One of my projects this year was to divide up the last two bamboo and get them into 4 new pots.  I should have taken before and during photos, but forgot, as I was in the (literally) heat of the moment. 

Once you tip them out of their pots, you saw them in half (takes forever) and then they can be placed in new pots and add dirt.

They line the fence beautifully!  

In this last photo you can see how well the scarlet runner beans did on the old arbor and the lilies and ornamental grasses did very well also.

With yet another long dry season I had an idea to redo the landscaping in front so that next year I can lay in soaker hoses in the beds.  Also by leveling out the beds they will hold the water better too.

I also began moving some of the plants to a new bed along the driveway. 

The patio area became very scary as the season wore on, plants were tall and wide and it looked much like a jungle in there!

This is me with my big lily.  I'm 5'2", so you do the math.

 And the biggest cherry tomato I have ever grown!

Two of my brothers helped me purchase a large BBQ this summer, I confess, it's my first!  Primarily a simple cook and consuming few meats I was hesitant, but I am having so much fun with this!  I'm actually looking forward to my first "cookout" during a power outage.  My main dishes are BBQ stir-fry veggies and portabello burgers.

This is my local squirrel sitting on the wood shed looking in my window, waiting for a chance to intercept a small offering of seeds to the chipmunks - which she's figured out happens when they come to the door.  Is that the stink eye or what?

Another big project that had to happen this year was the removal of the back awning and porch.  It's been falling apart for years and now has dry rot and is dangerous.  Here are two "before" pictures.

My friend and handyman, Harry, helped me take it apart from the roof down.  Not too difficult and was all done in about three hours.

My next chore was to repair the siding underneath and repaint.  So here it is dismantled, at least.

And now repaired and painted.

So it's the doorway to nowhere right now.  I have two options.  I can put in a window or another door with steps.  This part of the mobile doesn't really need another door, there is one on the other side, for a fire exit on this end.  What this room doesn't have is an opening window, so that would be my preferred plan of action.  Now to find the person who can do it.

So that wraps up summer!  Thanks for following along.

Summer 2015

It's been a long - dry - hot summer here in the Pacific Northwest.  I think I am not alone when I say how wearing and downright depressing it has been.  We're just not used to this!
It has lead me to rethink my gardening plans for next year.

In an effort to conserve on future water I am working on consolidating my plants to a smaller area, in the front yard.  I'm calling it the Cottage Garden.
When I'm not working or hiding out from the heat I am moving the plants that don't have to wait to be dormant, others will have to wait.  I'm also fencing it back in to keep the now ravenous deer out.  The bears however, have already broken in once, but it was repairable.

My front gate, recycled from another area.  Driftwood courtesy of Mother Natures beach.  :)  More images as things progress.

Other happenings around the Hollow have been documented as follows.

New Garden First Year

It's been two years since I took out the make-shift fencing I had up around the place.  I just hadn't planned on gardening again to the degree I had before.  But, I missed my vegetables, and there is no keeping the deer away from young tender greens.

I planned a small space to start with, about 15 by 8 feet, fenced.  I had to dig up part of my yard to get rid of weeds and grass, as well as leveling it out and terracing it up on one end.

But it didn't take long before I had a sturdy enough fence enclosure with a gate.

The sun exposure is good here too, gets almost all day sun at this time of year.

Looking in the front section I have mostly pots this first year, for easy veggies like spinach and herbs and cherry tomatoes.

At the back I have utilized the base of my pear tree for squash and broccoli.  There are also other plants in here protected against the deer, like iris, lupine and columbine.

This is a small, easy care garden space for the first year.  I can keep up with the watering and weeding.

Perhaps I'll expand it next year, meanwhile it is the perfect space for one.

The Great Wall

My house addition is built right up against an embankment - in a hillside.  When they first brought in the old mobile they cut out the hillside for a level spot.  The next owner then dug it out some more and added the 25 x 9 foot addition.  So basically I look out my living room window at the ground, which isn't such a bad thing as there is a lot of wildlife activity out there!  It's kind of like having your own terrarium.

A couple years after I bought the place I decided to figure out a way to utilize the small space between the mobile and hill - which is probably about 12 feet wide.  

That went very well, creating a lovely private space with a small deck.  This was of course after I cleaned out the area, leveled the ground, painted the house and built the deck.

 Later I installed a bamboo fence along that embankment just to the addition.

I've had such good luck with plants back there with the afternoon sun exposure, or shade at the base of the hill - not to mention that the deer can't get in here.  So I decided to remove the bamboo and see how much I could utilize that wall of dirt.  

I started by moving out three of the landscape timbers about two feet away from the wall, and filled it in with dirt.  I'll need to add some nice topsoil by Fall as I plan to transplant my hosta's there next to the fern.

I broke up the bamboo screen and it now lines the wall behind the planter, and further down it hides another unsightly area where stump roots are sticking out.

Now looking the other direction.  You can see a small rock planter on the left, that's where the purple star flower will go (currently in the small pot).  It's very sun sensitive and does well in the shade.

The pot of hosta's will spread well in the planter next year.  I am also considering planting the clematis in there if I can figure out a clever trellis for it.

So the projects continue!  Next week it's the new fenced garden.

Fern Frenzy

The Spring and Summer are really heating up around Huck Hollow, and I don't mean the weather!  It has been a slow warming trend in my part of the Pacific Northwest, a teaser sunny day here and there in the low to mid 70's, nothing like our unusually hot May where we were hitting mid 80's.

Such is life here though, and we just have to roll with it.  The lush plant life is hardy here, toughing out all kinds of weather.  Gardening is tricky though.

I have five (yes 5!) blog posts to get out to you over the coming weeks.  I have been crazy busy around here with outdoor projects.  To start off the show, I have been studying ferns.  I know, a little late for this northwest native, and I have been taking them for granted all these years.

I have several types of interesting ferns here at my Huck Hollow, and I work with several more at a clients vacation home nearby.

This is the Ostrich fern, the tall one in the back. (In the front is a deer fern). It has the most unusual way of coming out in Spring.  This one is taken in my yard, but the following images are taken from the cabin.  

These are early, early Spring, probably March actually.  They have the most uncanny way of uncurling out and up.  They continue to do this throughout the summer!

These are Harte's Tongue.  Apparently there are several sub species of these, but I'm going to generalize here as I am not a botanist.  These are deciduous as well, to some degree, as I have to cut back the old ones each year.

These freaky little guys are my favorite.  The book has several sub species with long names, but I think the general term is a Cristata.  They remind me of a caterpillar or a centipede, as they uncurl outward, looking like a million tiny legs.

So this is my contribution to the fern world.  I never knew there were so many ferns!!!  Many of whom live right here in my neck of the woods. 

Stay tuned, next week I have a project post for a bamboo screen privacy fence.