Underwhelming but with potential

I put my new plants into Manzanita Point and they are underwhelming to say the least. There is still feather grass to plant after I dig it up from the back yard. Sedum and yarrow are possibilities, too, or maybe just an excuse to make a nursery run.

See the tiny plants within the rocks in pictures below.

In first picture there are two agaves on the left. Agaves? Yes, I've seen huge agaves in Sequim but I'm not sure they will do as well here so close to the coast. But it's worth a try. They're in a dry spot warmed by heat reflected from the driveway blacktop, and I've planted them on an angle so winter rains can drain off rather than collect in their crowns and cause rot. The dwarf Spaan's Shore Pine is center, and far right at the point of the smaller rock is a prostrate Leptospermum. Eventually it will form a large mat and bloom with tiny white flowers. I have a larger variety of Leptospermum that I like a lot so am hoping this one is equally nice.

And here are three more manzanitas on the other side of the rocks. Sunset, a mid-sized shrub (eventually) and two of a prostrate form, Pacific Mist. Pretty name. The other manzanita are doing well so I'm hoping these will too. It all looks so fresh and neat with the new mulch and rock border.

This is the newly planted corner of the yard we just fenced in. Again, a lot of underwhelming plantings. It would be so much nicer if these were available in gallon size pots. The sticks that look like rosemary are actually Grevillea plants. And just to fill in space until they grow I've planted a few yarrows.

In case you are unfamiliar with them, here are links to photos of the Grevillea at Desert Northwest where I bought all the manzanita, Grevillea, Leptospermum and agaves.

Picture of Grevillea Poorinda Leane

Picture of Grevillea Audrey

Arizona's Ancient Super Volcano

Fantastic video. Our Oatman home is near the caldera of an ancient super volcano. The size of the eruption was so huge it's difficult to imagine, but now I have a better idea how all the volcanic material around there was distributed.

More projects around the house

Our new yard is really taking shape. We moved the cement bench from the veggie garden to a spot under the trees. This is a well traveled bench. It's been moved from Portland down to Arizona and back up to Sequim.

Then Bob built this great stand for the swing. I love it.

Here it is after staining this morning. And the girls are enjoying their spot in some deep shade.

We planted some Grevillea (Audrey and Poorinda Leane) to form a loose hedge at one corner of the yard. Pictures later on that. It will be a few years before anything comes of this effort of course. I can't find these drought tolerant plants in a large size.

And here are the boys hanging in the shade watching us work.

The big project that we hired out started yesterday. It's my manzanita bed at the entry of our circular driveway. We had all the weeds and junk scraped away all around the plants. More soil and boulders are being added where Hattie is standing to create a mound.

A dwarf shore pine will be planted near the top of the mound. You can see it peeking out from behind a boulder near the center of the picture. I have some low growing manzanita and leptopspermum to plant around the rocks. And I'll probably put in some feather grass and yarrow. 

Then rock will go all around the edge of the bed, matching the beds that were done last year right in front of the house. It will be a unique entry to the property. The pink cistus and blue ceanothus are blooming now and the resident white crowned sparrows aren't too happy about the disturbance, but it will be worth the effort. 

The irrigation is being improved to make sure any new plants get water during the summer, but our soil is so sandy everything that goes here has to be really tough. Work continues tomorrow so I'll update with pictures as the project progresses.

Some things

Some things like the heat but I'm not one of them. It was 91 yesterday here where the ocean usually moderates the heat. The animals spent the day resting in the shade. The cistus below has been holding onto its buds for the longest time. I guess it was too cold to open. But this morning I found a very happy shrub in full bloom. Lucky for the rest of us a cool breeze picked up today and we can carry on as usual.

Heat wave begins

I've become a mole. Today's brilliant sunlight is blinding me. Temperatures are going to soar this week. It's time to start watering regularly again.

Tag's blue ceanothus and iris

This is my new yard. It feels quite private. I dislike being so exposed everywhere else. Someday the trees and shrubs we've planted will grow enough to provide privacy in other areas but this is a nice place to relax now. Tux has already found her special place under the trees behind the bench. It's very nice to have this open to the rest of the yard.

New Fence

The fence is finished! Hattie is wondering how to get in. The ducks will be delighted to have free range in the trees. Yesterday one of the girls laid her egg under a pile of brush that is composting so I won't be surprised if she tries sneaking off into the trees next time.

The boys will have a temporary pen in the front yard. I'd like to put up stakes with electric ribbon eventually. The lower end is a different soil profile than the rest of the property and maintains green grass longer into the summer. You can see what is already dried out despite all the rain we've been getting.

The girls napping in a tiny spot of shade, pretty well camouflaged.

Look mom, I have a ball.

Blue sea holly to go with the blue irises for Tag.

A new peony finally starting to look like the Bowl of Beauty I expected as the outer petals darken with age. This one is going to be a beauty in a few years.

Another big one.

My climbing rose is finally happy enough to put on a flower show. It's taken a few years.

A New Peony

A peony planted last fall gave me a single bloom. It isn't much more than a stem with a few leaves and this flower. I think the label says Bowl of Beauty but doesn't have the dark pink outer petals. Maybe the first flowers are odd and they become true to type after a few years. First year plants need to put their energy into root growth, not flowers.

One of the other red peonies is catching my eye now. The flowers are very large when fully open. 

Yard changes

The fence posts for the new yard addition are in the ground. It took two days with a post hole digger and pouring concrete by hand. Lucky we were able to hire help for this part of the job or Bob would be laid up now. The supporting pieces will come off as the concrete dries, then the fencing will go up. Bob is working on his own from this point so it's going to take a while before we open up the yard.

The boys were happy to see me this morning but I was a disappointment having no treats. Boots has little horn buds, I think they are called scurs, that bleed badly when he butts heads. One of them popped entirely off and made a mess on his face. Bob found it when he was cleaning the pen and brought me what he thought was a mysterious piece of poop. I'm hoping the troublesome thing won't grow back.

This is the madrone I planted two years ago. It was just a stick with a few leaves then. They don't transplant easily so this is a victory so far.

A new iris opened yesterday and it's a beauty! 

The Siletz tomato is loaded with fruit. I've seen comments that they aren't great tasting so I'm hoping for the best. My other varieties are flowering but they are slower growing and have no fruit yet.

My garden fetish continues

Time to look around the garden for anything new. Here is Love-in-a-mist. I thought it was blue last year, but white is pretty too.

I think the Memorial Garden grows best of all my gardens. 

Two more red peonies are blooming, neither as big as the first one that produced massive flowers.

Veggies for dinner. The kohlrabi and fennel in the greenhouse grow fast. I picked a couple of ugly beets, some early onions and garlic scapes. I'm giving away heads of red romaine to open up space for the rest. We can't keep up with what just six heads produce. 

Waiting for something exciting to happen.

Walking the Sheep

I've been avoiding working with the sheep because of my knee. Hattie's patience has been wearing thin though, and the boys looked desperate for some fun. So yesterday evening we ventured out to the front yard for a test run. The boys chowed down on weeds and Hattie showed off bossing them around.  

Playing with new camera

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX10 

There is so much to learn on this little camera but so far I'm very happy with the quality of the images and impressed with the various features. Was playing around with zoom, focus, contrast and low light capabilities today. The camera is smaller than I'm used to and my fingers covered part of the lens so that will explain the vignetting in the first pictures. Reminder to self, keep your fingers out of the way!

The black irises are opening and look at the velvety black falls and shades of purple in the standards and beards. Just gorgeous.

I'm very excited about the detail in this picture, even after reducing the size from original. 

A cropped zoom of my girl Hattie. 

Veggies for dinner tonight.

More Garden Time

New camera arrived today but battery is charging and I need to bone up on the operation manual. It's a little point and shoot that does tons of things. My current camera is just too big to put in my pocket and I wanted something easy to carry everywhere. Anyway, these pictures are taken with the old camera. 

Top pic shows the fenceline that is being removed. The new fence will take off from the first post to the right of the fence going out to the flags I hope you can see if you enlarge the picture, and will turn to enclose the trees on the right so the ducks and everyone can putz around in there.

This little nest lined with sheep's wool fell out of a tree during a wind storm. The crows' nests must be really cushy because they collected almost all of the wool the sheep shed, and there was a lot.

The greenhouse plants are super charged. We're already harvesting kohlrabi and fennel. The Siletz tomato is forming fruit while the other types are flowering.

Outside in the cold things are growing much more slowly. Here are carrots, beets, onions and a squash.

I've been picking red lettuce for a couple of weeks, and chard, behind it, is starting to grow now that the days are warmer. Garlic is in the bed in the far background and just starting to put up scapes.

I didn't think the artichokes would come back, the way I butchered them last fall, but here they are putting up some nice looking chokes.

Back to irises. This pretty pink one opened today.

And the second variety chosen for Hooper with flashy orange standards and deep purple falls joined the party. 

So these are all bearded iris. The beards are the fuzzy strips (orange in the flower below) reaching out onto the falls, but the iris below has an interesting variation. I've tried focusing on it differently in the three pictures below. It's a flouncy little appendage at the end of the beard and it's appropriately called a flounce.

Focus on the beard...

Focus on the flounce...

Side shot of beard and flounce...

Knee News

Had my three month post-op visit with the surgeon today and knee passed inspection. Doctor says walk, walk, walk. Get lots of exercise. So I came home and did the long walk around the neighborhood concentrating on lifting my left foot to eliminate the limping that has been causing so much back trouble. I did good. Leaned up against things every now and then and made it home in good shape. Hurray!