08/08 Garden Day 84
The garden is growing but there is still nothing to eat yet! Well, I take that back, I did eat some lettuce. For some reason it always grows really tall, so this year I cut off the top and am hoping that more leaves will grow out the side. I ate the leaves I cut off on a tuna sandwich this week. Yum!

I set up a soaker hose, but not on the garden. This helps because it is still less time I have to spend outside holding the hose. I did finally receive my rebate from Lowe's, but haven't made a trip out there just yet.

The cayenne pepper I bought at Freddies has a little pepper on it, but it's still green. My other pepper plant has flowered so now it's just a matter of time until a pepper grows. There are plenty of tomatoes but none are ripe yet. There are ears of corn but not ready to eat yet. The eggplant is getting bigger and so are the pumpkin and squash! The additional lettuce and carrot seeds have sprouted now and look good.

I made some herb cubes with the mint and basil. But there is still so much mint!

See Photo from Day 84

And for comparison:
See Photo from Day 61
See Photo from Day 45

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Ahh the beer festival. It came and went so fast this year. It is surprising, considering that I spent 7 hours at the waterfront on Friday and another 5 or 6 hours on Sunday. There was definitely some good beers and so getting there at noon on Friday was definitely required to be able to try them before it got crowded.

There were 8 beers that were 8% ABV or higher, including one that was almost 10% - the Full Nelson IPA made by Widmer. I learned that Widmer makes a special one-off brew for the Oregon Brewer’s Festival every year. So the Full Nelson was one of my first stops. There were several Imperial IPAs and Double IPAs – so definitely no lack of hops this year. The hoppiest beer (113 IBUs) was brought by McMenamins – the Madman Jack. Brewed by the Hillsdale McMenamins and was the winner at their own McMenamins competition/beer fest earlier in the year (can’t remember if I voted for this one or not). Second hoppiest was a beer that I was introduced to at the KLCC beer fest in Eugene this year, Hop Stoopid by Lagunitas. This one has 110 IBUs and is de-lic-ious! We voted for this one at the KLCC beer fest and it won the taster’s choice first place spot. I was glad to see it again this summer.

For our Sunday volunteer gig, we sandwiched ourselves around the Hop Stoopid (with Day as the tapster). I poured Stone Brewing’s Levitation Ale (a dark amber). My favorite thing about this beer was that more people pronounced “Levitation” wrong than they did right. It must have been the beer talking. :)

Michelle poured the Great White by Lost Coast (somewhat of a regular) and her friend poured a pale ale by MacTarnahan’s. That beer really did not move at all.

I tried many, many beers – but it’s hard to really pick a favorite. There was a coffee-flavored beer that was really good. And of course I loved everything with lots of hops. I guess I’d have to go with the Full Nelson. But I’ll probably never get to have it again. :(

All in all, it was super fun and we strategized well with the early tasting on Friday and the shorter shift of volunteering on Sunday. I think I’ll do it again next year! Who’s with me?


See pictures here!

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The first camping of the season occurred a couple weeks and it was awesome! We tried to go out to Molalla but all the sites were full (not that unusual) so instead we drove out past Estacada, to the "End Camping Restriction" area. Our spot was really good and we were basically sleeping on the river. We spent all day Saturday hanging out in the sun with our chairs in the river (but not our feet - the water was soooooooo cold!). We ate some dinner and played some games at night. It was fun!

See pictures here!

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I was looking at the last posted photos of my garden and realized that there has definitely been some growth in the last week! Since the last post, I have done the following:

07/06 Garden Day 51
Planted an additional tomato start (still growing from original batch of seeds)
Sowed pumpkin seeds and butternut squash seeds (saved from the fruit last year)
Sowed additional carrot and lettuce seeds (still had some sitting around)
Placed tomato cages in preparation for lots of growth
Thinned corn and onions

07/11 Garden Day 56
Planted a cayenne pepper start (I purchased an additional because only one pepper actually survived from seed)
Planted petunias around the edges for color accents (and for fun!)

07/16 Garden Day 61
I still haven't set up a soaker hose, which is starting to get annoying. I've been waiting for this gift card rebate in the mail from Lowe's that we received from our lawnmower purchase. I'm afraid that as soon as I go to Lowe's to buy garden supplies, it will show up in the mail.

The eggplant is growing but I don't know how big it will get and if I will actually get fruit. The pumpkin and squash seeds all came up, no problems! I am very excited about having pumpkins to carve for Halloween. The additional carrot and lettuce seeds did not sprout, but I'm not that surprised. The extra seeds were just sitting around so I figured I'd throw them out there.

The most exciting thing is the two tomato plants that are growing in my row of corn. These somehow sprouted from tomatoes that were left on the ground all winter, left over from last year's garden! I noticed these plants growing and they didn't look like weeds that normally grow in my yard, so I just left them. As they got bigger, I realized they were tomato plants! Now I will have a million tomatoes and have been thinking about doing some canning. My coworker told me that canning tomatoes was the easiest of all canning. I had sowed some additional tomato seeds (just because I had extra) and those are all doing really good too (still pretty small though).

The herbs are all doing really well. The mint is huge, basil looks good, dill is taller than the arborvitae, and the cilantro is still going considering how much I've trimmed off it (yum!).

I'm feeling much better now - I just wish I could eat something out there!

See Photo from Day 61

And for comparison:
See Photo from Day 45

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Last year I posted some photos showing the difference in the back yard from when we purchased the house (Summer 2008) to then (Spring 2007). I now have an update on that and the results are pretty good. Sean and I were convinced that the arborvitae was not growing, but the pictures definitely disprove that. I'm thinking about taking photos every summer to get the comparison of how the yard has evolved.

Since last summer, many things have really grown. By far, the peanut butter tree has increased in size the most. Last year when it was planted, it was just a twig, and now it's almost as tall as me! You can't even see it in the "before" photos.

This year, I bought some plants at the Canby Spring Garden Fair including an azalea, a raspberry plant, salmonberry, oregon oxalis, and inside-out flower. I also purchased some plants back in early spring from the East Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District. These were really small when I bought them so it will be a couple years until they really take off.

See pictures here!

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Yo! Have you checked out my "Links" section lately? I have added some new links to some sites that I actually use on a regular basis and some fun ones too.



Check it out sometime!

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06/30 Garden Day 45
What a disappointing garden it has been so far. After all the initial excitement of actually getting things in the ground, it really has been a series of ups and downs for me. Most of the seeds started within a week of being planted, as per the instructions on the seed packet. What never ended up sprouting were the catnip and the mint.

Everything else was looking good, and so I started thinning, at what I thought was the proper time - when the lettuce & broccoli were 2 inches tall and had at least 3 leaves. The broccoli is still doing ok but I only have one lettuce plant that survived. Apparently, I thinned out all of the good ones. The basil had sprouted but wasn't really growing any taller. I thought that maybe they were overcrowded, so I did some mild thinning. I lost the rest.

Then it turned rainy. Oh boy did my plants dislike that. Fortunately, the tomatoes, corn, and sunflower were hardy enough that they just didn't grow. But I lost both of my eggplants and all of one pepper and most of the other. Then I bought a basil plant at Fred Meyer and Day gave me some of her dill.

Then it turned hot. The tomatoes, corn, and sunflower started thriving. The mint took off and the cilantro started making a decent effort. The dill looks much happier now. The one pepper plant is still hanging on and a potential twig of an eggplant may come back. Broccoli is still doing ok. Onions are looking good (haven't attempted to thin those out yet). The carrot sprouted about 3 plants but now I can't find them anymore. Lost the chives. The one lettuce plant is still alive for now.

So what happens next? I am trying to keep up with the watering with all this hot weather amongst us. I'm also trying to keep up with the weeds. It looks like I will end up with more tomato plants than I planned on, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, is it?


Lessons learned:
Wait until it gets hot for good to plant peppers and eggplant in the ground
Plant less basil seeds so they don't overcrowd each other and less thinning is required - also would be good to wait until it really is hot
Plant lettuce and carrots earlier before it gets really hot
Buy starts instead of stressing over seeds

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A couple weeks ago (when Sean was still 29 and I was still 27), I went on my first official hike of the season. Dad, Michelle, Sean, and I headed up the gorge for a hike in an area that was originally planned to be a subdivision but has since been bought by various public agencies. The hike has spectacular views of the Columbia Gorge, with Beacon Rock and Hamilton Mountain in sight. We also came upon an upturned tree which is still growing (as has been for the last several years since it was upturned). We had lunch on a small rock outcropping that was the perfect size for the 4 of us.

Our favorite part was probably the waterfall that the trail passed behind. It was a nice place to cool off towards the end of the hike. We passed lots of wildflowers (this hike was recommended in the Oregonian as a good hike for late May), and I got some ideas for natives I'd like to plant in my yard.

See pictures here!

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Okay, here we go again! I've decided to start Day 1 as the day the seeds/starts go in the ground. Although there is quite a bit of up front work that really should be accounted for.

Here's what I've done so far:
Planted seeds indoors in peat pots (See Lessons Learned below)
Pulled up winter cover plants by hand
Sowed herb seeds into pots (mint, basil, cilantro, chives, catnip)

05/17 Garden Day 1
Tilled 3 rows by hand
Added 1/4 lb fast acting lime per row
Added 1/3 bag steer manure per row
Tilled in lime & steer manure
Sowed seeds of broccoli, lettuce, onion, and carrots (Row 1)
Planted starts of tomato, pepper, and eggplant (Row 2)
Spread seeds of sunflower & corn (Row 3)

05/26 Garden Day 10
Planted additional starts of eggplant & pepper
Planted dill start (Thanks, Day!)
Broccoli, lettuce, & sunflower have all sprouted & showing first leaves
Looking closely, the onion, carrot, & corn have all sprouted
Basil is showing first leaves
Cilantro & chives have sprouted (again, looking very closely)


My strategy this year is a little different from last. Last year, my garden was very overcrowded so I have scaled back to 3 rows instead of 5. I have also scaled back on tomato plants (from 5 down to 2). The biggest difference is that everything has been planted from seed. The warm weather plants were started inside, but everything else was sowed directly into the earth. I was very nervous about this and afraid that nothing would grow. But despite all the rain and lack of sun this past week, I am very excited to see all of the seeds taking off. I am being patient with the starts of tomato, pepper, and eggplant because I know when it gets hot, they will really start growing.

I am thinking about doing some succession planting with the lettuce and corn, but we'll see if there's enough space (and time) to do that.


Lessons learned:
Take more time up front to decide what needs to be planted in peat pots and what can go directly into the ground. This year, I started everything in peat pots and most died off because it could not get enough sun or I wasn't providing enough moisture to keep it going. The only plants I saved were the warm weather plants (tomato, eggplant, pepper) and the basil. By "saving" them, I planted the peat pots into a large pot and kept indoors at night and outside during the day for about a week, until the garden was ready.

Till a row in spring to plant cool weather crops

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Sean and I bought a lawn mower this weekend. I know this may not sound very exciting, but it is. Two years ago, we were psyched when we moved out of our rental house and our landlord gave us a bunch of yard & garden tools. One of these was a push reel mower. We had used it quite a bit on the rental lawn and commented how it wasn't necessary to have a big mower (citing having a small yard, getting good exercise, not polluting the environment, low maintenance costs, quiet, etc). That was the end of the summer of 2006.

Fast forward to the summer of 2007. In the first full summer at our new home, weeds grow en masse and out of control. Seeds spread to the neighbor's yards. Shame falls upon our house. We tried our hardest to mow the lawn with our earth friendly lawn mower. But our efforts were no match for the weeds! Eventually we stopped trying. Our lawn looked so bad that a high school kid stopped by offering to mow our lawn for us (it was worth the $10 too). But weeks later it was back to its wild and untamed self.

We do have plans to reduce the lawn from basically 400 sq ft down to about 100 sq ft and add shrubs, perennials, and other things that don't need to be mowed. However, that is a slow, careful process because I am not the most talented when it comes to plants.

So we finally bit the bullet and bought an electric lawn mower. Definitely cheaper, quieter, less polluting, and less maintenance than its gas counterpart. The only problem is the 100 ft extension cord, but I try to remind myself it's just like vacuuming.

The grass/weed mix that is attempting to grow in front of our house has now been cut to basically the minimum. My hope is that everything will die, making it easier to replant new things in the future.

Summer 2008 - we're ready for you now!

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