Odds n Ends

A few things kept me from the writing I intended, but I hope to do some catching up this weekend. Here's what kept me busy...

First of all, my sweetie and I took a 3-day, 2-night trip to Eastern Oregon.  Photos are here...more details to come. We packed a lot into those 3 days.  Then there was sifting through nearly 500 photos and editing the ones I chose.  I never would have taken that many photos in the days of film.  Now, rather than stand for 5 minutes and read a placard, I can take a photo and read it later. 

Some people scoff at the constant taking of photos, but I find it doesn't necessarily separate me from what I am experiencing because a view screen allows me to put the camera anywhere, as opposed to the view-finder forcing me to put the camera right in front of my face. The photos even allow me to see details I might not have otherwise.  This allows me to experience a place, preserve it for memories and future learning without getting all worn and bedraggled because I stood around reading all those signs.  There will be more posts to come on our trip, and more updating of those photos.

Yesterday I finally drank some mint tea brewed from leaves harvested from my front yard, sharing it with my best friend.  I spent several evenings on that harvest...that'll teach me to procrastinate in the future.  The Julep Spearmint was most fecund, and if anything needed to be cut back just to stop it from encroaching on the path to our door.  Next to it, the Chocolate Mint, also quite healthy but not quite as weedish, also had bolted.  Last thing I want is for those flowers' seeds to jump the concrete and asphalt and start growing everywhere.

I cut back those belly-high stalks of mint, and laid them out on a sheet to dry in the yard. We were having warm, dry weather, so I figured it would take 1-2 days to dry, which it did.  Then I stripped the leaves, and avoided the flowers.  This made it a much longer task.  Next year I'll be better about harvesting earlier and more often, especially the chocolate mint, as it smelled more chocolaty earlier in the season.  Still, the brew was better than I expected, so what was I waiting for?

Meanwhile, my baby roses are thriving, and some rose hips are ripe...certainly riper than my tomatoes.  I'm still getting new flowers, too.  The nursery where I bought them has some recipes for jam, puree, and tea.  Here's a forum where someone posted even more recipes.

Some tomatoes are finally turning color.  It looks like I will have at least 2 kinds.  A friend gave me several starts from her heirloom seeds...what I get is the luck of the draw.  I'm glad, because I like both the green stripey ones and the red or orange ones

Landscaping progress

The plans I had for the front yard edible landscaping are fulfilled.

The bird bath, acquired from Amazon for less than 20 bucks completed the plan.  There may be new additions in the future, but those will be refinements.  Now it is a matter of waiting for plants to grow to their full potential.

Stan, the builder of the wall, is looking out for me.  He found some great assorted rocks and fossils at a yard sale, and brought them back for me.  Next to the birdbath is a large piece of obsidian.  He also planted this oregano now crazy with purple blooms.  He "had plenty."

I ordered my roses from a Wisconsin nursery, as I was looking for Rugosas, and Spring Valley Roses made it very easy for me to find the type and the expected bush size I was looking for. They arrived in April. These smell nice and produce large, and tastier, rose hips. I could make rose hip tea, or even jelly.  I didn't expect much the first year, but I got several blooms on each baby bush, though not all at the same time. Here they are at the beginning of July.

From left to right:

• Charles Albanel
• Snow Pavement
• Foxi
• Fru Dagmar Hastrup
• Purple Pavement
• Fru Dagmar....and the rest a mirror image of the left

I decided the order based on size and alternating lighter and darker colors. You can find more photos here, including a ladybug on the new green rose leaves.  Look for the rhubarb...yes...I got rhubarb!  A facebook (and co-worker) friend announced she was giving some away this spring.  Next year I will likely be able to harvest.

Garden just about done

Many things have been keeping me busy and away from the computer. While I didn't do most of the labor, some of this garden project kept me busy. I hired friend Koken for some of it, and friend Stan for most of it. While I chose to dot the wall with different colored bricks, like a brick wall, Stan deserves the credit for the layout and curved design. He also shaped the remaining slope of the yard. I wanted to have pretty much all edible landscaping. I got advice from my wise groundskeeper friend, and I went to a program on edible landscaping at the library. It turned out to be presented by a facebook Buddhist friend of mine.

I planted the veggies in the front, and some of the mint areas, that's all. I plan to have a garden party, maybe in July or August. Maybe some of the tomatoes will be ready. We've had so much rain, some people lost their tomatoes to lack of sun and heat and too much rain, and I actually come out ahead, having planted late.

Here's what the juniper bushes looked like (all I had was a winter scene, because otherwise, why did I want to take a photo of these runaway bushes?):

And here's when they were taken out:

Objects the guys found in the dirt under the bushes:

My neighbor two doors down said she probably was the one who lost the baseball. Now she has a couple of kids who will be the ones losing baseballs. When I planted the veggies, I found another toy, a 4-in. orange frisbee from Trix.

Plants ready:

Blueberries already!

See the full front yard with plants labeled here. Note I plan to put roses in this winter, where the veggies are. Even roses are edible. Vitamin C! As far as I know, the Red-veined Sorrel is not edible. Somehow that ended up in my box at Farmington Gardens, though I don't remember picking it out. Speaking of Farmington Gardens, that was a fun outing with my sweet friend from work.

See all the photos in this slideshow.