In June 2015, April and I purchased our first home in Central Oregon. The house was built on land once occupied by a farmer but had now been developed into a suburban neighborhood offering the American Dream to over 51 families. Like so many new housing developments, our vacant-lot-of-a-backyard was…
Normally on March 17th, I don my kilt and am out pub crawling with the pipe band playing Irish and Scottish tunes for crowds of Irish-enthusiasts and/or inebriates. It’s the one day each year when a bagpipe band are real rock stars. However, this year with the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic,…
After a long grey winter, English primroses (Primula Vulgaris hybrids) of yellow, pink, red, purple or white flowers are such a cheerful and welcomed sight! Don’t let their delicate flowers fool you though. Plants are extremely cold-hardy as the species hail from woodlands. In fact, their common name derives from…
Recently, I sat quietly on my back porch sipping a cup of tea, delighted by the amount of wildlife that frequents my backyard. A hermit thrush pecked through the leaf litter mulch searching for seeds and insects. A pair of mourning doves cooed softly as they perched in my old…
Pruning a young or mature apple tree can seem daunting especially if you spend any time reading the countless books on the subject. As with all garden tasks, there are lots of nuances to fruit tree pruning that can be learned and mastered in time as you become a more…
The wonderful thing about the starkness of the winter garden is how subtle beauty really comes into focus. Oftentimes, these moments evade our attention if we don’t slow down, observe quietly, and be present in our gardens. Here we have a dried hydrangea flower that I left for winter interest.…
December 21st marks the winter solstice or the shortest day of the year. The word solstice means “standstill”. For every year, around this time, the sun appears to rise and set low on the horizon in the same place for a few days. It is the time of the longest…
Every year growing up my grandfather would plant amaryllis bulbs for the holidays. I loved as a kid watching the long stem emerge from the bulb. It seemed to grow inches a day. Soon one-by-one 3 to 4 flower buds would emerge from the center of the foot and half…
There’s something charming about kinnikinnick (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi) also known as bear-berry. In spring, the shiny green leaves conceal urn-shaped pink flowers. These give way in fall to edible (but bland tasting) dark red berries. The reddish brown branchlets have an attractive peeling bark while the whole plant takes on a…
Are you looking for a fun and inexpensive way to spruce up your empty outdoor winter planters? Do you not want to fuss with watering containers of live plants through the holidays? Then try collecting evergreen boughs to make your own arrangements this year. As the hard frosts set in…
I absolutely love going to the pumpkin patch. Even at 40 years old, I still can’t wait to go every October. There is something about the sound of corn stalks rustling in the wind thick with the smell of fresh cut hay. Overdosing on sugar from caramel apples, candy corn…