Category Archives: garden

Bulbs Are Taking Over The World

Posted on November 23, 2013 by Pamela

Remember last time I dug dahlias? It was 2005, you might have not even known me then.

It was a terrible, terrible job and I vowed to never do it again.

But I lost my mind today. I have a few major bulb mounds out there and we’ve had a freeze. It’s been dry and a balmy 50 degrees. Come on, how bad could it be?

Urgh. What was I thinking “dry?” Sure, water is not falling from the sky but the dirt is a robust mud. I don’t know how they do it at the dahlia farm but I fought a giant mass out of the ground and then tried to break it apart. I tried to shake the dirt off.

I got them in smaller pieces and then put the hose on them.

By the end I was wet, cold, my hands muddy little icicles. My pretty shop that I busted ass to tidy this summer/fall had dirt and mud everywhere.

I only dug two plants. The pink.

And the white. If they make it through, and last time I lost a lot due to my terrible care, I will have about 100 to share. Of each. If you live near me I’ll give you some.

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The Garden is Finished

Posted on November 6, 2013 by Pamela

I thought I had a photo of the garden now which is almost all dirt except for some beets that are hanging in there. Apparently I didn’t take that photo or else I put it somewhere and can’t find it.

Note to self: next year fewer beets! It’s not that I like them any less but they seem to make my digestion unhappy so I can’t eat very many.

What the hell with the aging body and all these foods that I like but that no longer like me?

This was in the middle of clean-up stage one. I leave the sunflowers up as long as possible because the birds like them. I think this was the stage where I dug trenches and mixed all the gunk from the compost bin into the soil.

This is the moment when I think: wow, amazing look at all the compost we made from our kitchen scraps. I also think: wow, what an amazing smell. If only it were possible to skip inhaling.

This was stage 2. That stuff piled in the middle I trenched later with the last of the apples. I also dug up a woody thyme plant and some phlox that was infested with annoying grass. More room for vegetables next summer.

That box has all the green tomatoes I picked when I tore the plants out. I was being optimistic. Almost all of them ended up being rotten from the heavy rain we had at the end of September. I would have had a great late crop if not for that.

Pumpkin crop is in. I’ll get a photo this weekend.

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Too Many Squashy Things Coming From The Garden?

Posted on October 22, 2013 by Pamela

[Endless long rant about how technology has failed me and everyone is doing everything wrong, omitted.]

I am going to give you a terrific recipe for an overabundance of summer vegetables.

Yes, in late October when no one needs it. Save for later!

This is in a recipe book that my Mom has but I’m going to give you my variation because the recipe was a tad precious and even told you what shape dish to put it in.

Main ingredients are:

1-2 onions, thinly sliced
Tons of zucchini and/or squash that you’re trying to get rid of, thinly sliced. Toss with olive oil and thyme.
Tons of tomatoes that you’re trying to get rid, thinly sliced of OR 14 oz. can of fire-roasted tomatoes
7 oz. can of fire roasted green chiles
Half a loaf of cotija cheese or any cheese that turns your crank, grated or cubed or crumbled.

Cook in large lasagna type pan unless you’re making a small version. Then use small lasagna type pan.

First, saute onions in oil until limp and a little bit brown. Spread in the bottom of your dish.

Next, spread your squash product over the onions.

Next, layer your fresh tomatoes over the top. If you’re using the canned: combine with the green chiles, drain a little bit, and spread over the squash.

Finally, spread the cheese over the top. Bake at 375 for an hour to 75 minutes and let cool for a bit before you serve. I was worried because the cheese got pretty brown but it tasted amazing. Great as leftovers, too. Once you look at the recipe you can think of other variations – the original doesn’t use the green chiles and uses Parmesan. Probably a tough sell on hardcore vegetable haters, but everyone else will at least give it a try.

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Harvest

Posted on September 15, 2013 by Pamela

Yummy fruit fly salad dressing

Have you ever seen those tips for getting rid of fruit flies? Apple cider vinegar with a drop of dish soap. Totally works. When I got home yesterday there were tons of flies. 24 hours later, dead flies.

I spend most of this week visiting Kira in Atlanta.

In May, Alaska Airlines announced a direct flight to ATL and if you bought your ticket right then for certain dates, it was only $330 including all the taxes and extras. We went for it. All flights should be direct.

This is today’s haul – my biggest harvest to date. Hard not to think it might be the best harvest of the season. This week the forecast is all mild drizzly weather.

Our ideal time together involves some combination of writing, cooking, baking, eating, and watching girly movies. We were successful at all these things. Also, for some reason, I can sleep at Kira’s house better than any other place I know. I sleep through the night. I sleep in. It’s magical.

Here you can see the tomato split. About a week ago we had a deluge. I think it was about 1.5 inches of rain in 2 days. Tomatoes don’t like that.

Alaska Airlines is a sponsor of the Timbers. If you wear your jersey to the airport you get priority boarding.

When the gate agent started calling for early seating I stood near the podium to make sure she saw me.

It also had this butt rot. I had to compost about 1/3 of today’s harvest due to butt rot.

She called out all the gold people and platinum people and 1000 star people and preferred high flying people. And Timbers fans. I got to get on the plane first!

This is sort-of a joke because I think wanting to get on the plane first is stupid. Especially first class where you sit there with everyone’s butt in your face for a half hour.

But I enjoyed it this time.

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First Tomato!

Posted on August 15, 2013 by Pamela

Someone needs major tutorial action on the latest version of Photoshop. It took me about an hour to do this. In my defense I am a tad run down and my brain isn’t on full strength.

This was waiting for me when I returned home. It’s now on its velvet pillow in the kitchen awaiting a major life change. There’s one more close and I’m guessing I’m about two weeks away from inundation. I can’t wait.

I had a wonderful vacation in Orleans and the day we arrived home I had just enough time to clean up and then drive to the airport to get on a plane to go to a work trip. I arrived home from that last night and I put in most of a day at the office today and now I’m looking forward to some couch time.

Lots of great photos and possibly a few stories to come.

Posted in garden, Orleans, pamily | 1 Comment

Make it Rain But Not Too Much

Posted on July 30, 2013 by Pamela

There are only about 3 months out of the year when we have to worry about watering. And we don’t water our lawn, only the flowers and vegetables.

For the first half of the summer I enjoy it. It’s nice to be outside and wandering around looking at all the plants, checking out corners of the yard I don’t normally look at. And I always think: how could I ever get tired of doing this?

Then there’s the inevitable moment when I switch over to hating it. It always seems to happen in an instant and it happened last night.

Mostly it wears me down on the weeknights. Even to do a crappy job, it takes at least an hour and the traffic is worse in the summer so I get home later than usual. Then I’m rushing around and if anything looks even a tiny bit droopy I feel bad. I just transplanted my cucumber sprouts out there and they are all wilted in the dirt. Wimps.

I only water every other day unless it’s gruesomely hot. But I get all worried when I’m going to be home late and how to arrange my schedule to make sure I have time to do it.

The way the plumbing is outside, there is no way to set up an automatic system unless we open our wallets and get a few guys in here. Plus I think we’d have to tear the deck out in the back because the spigot is half under it. We just deal. It’s not that bad but last night it made me grumpy.

Meanwhile, my weather gadget says possibility of rain later this week and I felt bad being really excited about that.

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Wander in the Garden

Posted on July 4, 2013 by Pamela

They’re facing the wrong way!

The tomato cages are wrapped in plastic to keep the plants from shivering at night.

First pumpkin.

I was wrong about no applegeddon this year. The tree is loaded.

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Garden Update

Posted on June 17, 2013 by Pamela

Big pink dahlias. These are massive and droopy. Even staking doesn’t seem to help.

I think I’m going to have someone help me make a better trellis. I can’t find a sample photo right now but I want them to be able to grow up more.

Smaller dahlia.

Peas, detail shot.

Half of the tomato plants. When I was buying plants they had this one variety that was grown specially to be healthy. What a relief after all the unhealthy tomatoes we’ve got in the world. It made me mad. I didn’t buy that kind.

Beets! I love beets and didn’t get any last year. Not a problem now.

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It’s Everything I Wish I Didn’t Know

Posted on May 31, 2013 by Pamela

Hey, check out these little watermelon sproutlets, surging toward the window.

I keep promising myself that I’m not going to write about being busy because, d’oh! Everybody’s busy.

But holy avalanche of documents and activities, this week has been another crazy one. Lots of stuff going on and an unusual blip at the office that has resulted in a bunch of stuff needing to be happen at the same time. On separate occasions, both colleague and I stood in front of our desks and stared down at the piles and said: I have no idea what I’m supposed to be doing right now.

But, I think we’ve got it under control. (Unless by writing that I just jinxed myself.) I still have plenty to do but all the pieces are in place.

Rainbow of Piquionne (name of our player who scored 4 goals in 45 minutes at this game. Yes, it was awesome to watch.)

On Wednesday my team played the first round of the U.S. Open Cup which is a competition among all the teams in the US Soccer Federation. Last year’s game was an abomination and a forbidden topic.

This year’s game was not. I have never seen my team score 5 goals in one game and I liked it very much. This is separate from Major League Soccer. I’m telling you, soccer is a part time job. The boys have the weekend off for the international break (That’s for competitions among national teams, so above and beyond the league and the US federation. There’s also a regional federation. No, I’m not messing with you.) so we only have a lady team match to go to this weekend.

Here are a couple other updates:

I still don’t have a shower door. I’d tell you all the missteps but it’s too exhausting. The latest snafu is that the glass was the wrong size.

Now they’re saying they can install next Wednesday. Everybody think good thoughts.

Our house is apparently a portal for giant hairy flies. There is always 1 giant hairy fly in the house. It lurks in the kitchen when I’m cooking, the bedroom when I’m trying to sleep or nap, my room when I’m on the computer or on the TV when I’m watching a show. If I follow it around with a fly swatter until I kill it, the next time I go into the kitchen there will be a giant hairy fly. Is there a way to monetize this?

Yesterday I participated in a rally for the Klamath salmon. Coverage here and here.

The power company has agreed to take down the dams but Congress needs to take action to make it happen. An Oregon senator is committed to the cause so the rally was to reiterate that there are still people who want this to happen.

A whole bunch of my family was up from California so it was fun to be with everybody and show our support.

Update on the windowsill sprouts. Look at these pumpkins growing like crazy. it’s warm and dry this weekend so everybody is going to be planted outside. I have a spot out front where historically, the pumpkins have done really well. I also am going to put some in back where I’ve had mixed results. I need to get out there and see what’s going on. It looks like there’s already some stuff bolting and the volunteer sunflowers are still coming on strong.

That’s the update for now.

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The Pumpkins Start Here

Posted on May 22, 2013 by Pamela

I’ve got the viney plants started on the window sill. These are the watermelon. See anything? Neither do I. I don’t have high hopes for the watermelon but I’m going to try again.

Also, I downloaded an app that’s supposed to make my photos prettier. What do you think?

Yeah, this one is definitely blurry, but I only took one because I am in a hurry. Things have kicked back up into insanely busy while simultaneously throwing new and surprising problems my way.

These are the Cinderella pumpkins. They look pretty good.

I had a low tire so I swung by Les Schwab on my way home from work. How long has it been since I sung the praises of Les Schwab? It was 30 minutes before closing. They were fairly busy and the phone ringing. Unfailingly polite – like they it was the highlight of their day looking at my tire. I love that place.

I had a screw in my tire and it’s fixed and I was on my way by 6pm. And one problem, easily solved.

The little tiny sprouts are basil. They get to stay inside. The next one is the single cantaloupe sprout and then more pumpkins.

I still don’t have a shower door. Boo! I haven’t had a decent shower in over a month. I remember writing about the front door knob but can’t find the post. Whatever I did to fix it was only temporary so we need to deal with that. I still don’t have any tomatoes. It goes on and on. I always feel like I’m one day off from getting caught up.

I’m taking off for the weekend. Hopefully it will be blissful sitting around. Also a hotel shower. Yay.

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