Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Testing the limits - Palms in Pacific Northwest


This beautiful palm is about a mile from our house. Only a couple of varieties of palm will survive here; this is a Windmill Palm (Trachycarpus fortunei). We have a smaller specimen of the same species - so far it's survived 4 winters, including 2 ice storms and a couple of snow storms.

If the world really is getting warmer, maybe we should be experimenting more with plants that need warmer and probably drier conditions. At any rate, it's fun finding out what will grow and testing the limit. Posted by Picasa

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Puttering. Garlic for next year.


Garlic is fun because it is planted in the fall, grows in late fall, becomes somewhat dormant during the winter then resumes growth in Spring for an early Summer harvest. Since we average a couple of cloves daily in the kitchen, we use all of the garlic that this small garden nproduces. It is easily planted among roses and perennials as well, and is reputed to be a good companion plant, repelling insects (I dont know if that is really true.)

This year I planted saved cloves from the last harvest of "German Red" garlic, which produced large clove bulbs of fairly strong tasting garlic. The wrappers of this variety have purplish-red stripes, adn the variety is said to have been brought to the US by German immigrants several generations ago. This is the '3rd generation' of this garlic in my garden. As I have read, each year I save the largest bulbs and plant the largest cloves from those bulbs. They do seem to be adapting to this yard, and this year's crop had the largest bulbs so far.

I also bouught a couple of bulbs of Inchelium Red garlic, which Rodale Institute rated as the best tasting. I wonder if these were mislabeled in the bins, however - they didn't look red and the cloves were not as big as photos on the internet. Still, they would be an interesting variety to try, since they have a good story (originating from Washington State tribal reservation gardens) and a good reputation.

I did not replant the garlic that I had grown from grocery store left-overs. These also turned out great, with larger bulbs than I had bought originally. However, since they are easily purchased, I wanted something 'more special' in the yard. Posted by Picasa

Friday, September 22, 2006

"Vancouver" found variety of fig. Main Crop. Yum.


The net is there to discourage feathered and furry friends. These are big juicy figs. AFter a month of wondering, they are starting to ripen.
These are very juicy and sweet. Worth the wait and effort. Looks like there will be a nice crop this year. So far only one fig has split from the rains. Posted by Picasa

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

An hour at Portland Nursery

 

This trip resulted in the impulse buy on the previous page, and some of the sedums. Not a bad time to find a few perrenials - they are grown to a nice size, and on sale. This is a good tree and shrub planting time too. Posted by Picasa

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Anigozanthos flavidus (Kangaroo paw) impulse purchase



This one may be a mistake - apparentlly this Australian native is difficult to grow almost anywhere in the US. They seem to do OK in California, but the climate here is wetter and cooler in the Winter. Still, if it does survive the winter, it will be a lot of fun. I think I will overwinter it inside, somewhat dry, and move it outdoors in the Spring. Posted by Picasa